The Man-Scorpion opened his mouth and said, speaking to Gilgamesh, 'No man born of woman has done what you have asked, no mortal man has gone into the mountain; the length of it is twelve leagues of darkness; in it there is no light, but the heart is oppressed with darkness. From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun there is no light.' Gilgamesh said, 'Although I should go in sorrow and in pain, with sighing and with weeping, still I must go. Open the gate of the mountain.' And the Man-Scorpion said, 'Go, Gilgamesh, I permit you to pass through the mountain of Mashu and through the high ranges; may your feet carry you safely home. The gate of the mountain is open.'
-The Epic of GIlgamesh
Adam
"Amon…"
Adrianna trembled as she spoke, and the device she was holding fell from her hand to clatter on the floor.
"Amon is dead."
Adam closed his eyes, as though he could shut out what he had heard.
No, he thought. No. I saved him.
In front of him, Adrianna sank to her knees and howled, a terrible, inhuman sound, like a wounded animal. Adam remembered the feeling, the pain like the core of him was being gouged out. So he gave Adrianna what he would have wanted. He knelt beside her, and held her tight as she screamed into his chest. Karul shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, and Adam ignored him so thoroughly he didn't even notice when the other man left.
After a time, Adrianna's screams softened into silent weeping, and Adam was able to half-guide, half-lift her onto the couch, where she curled up around herself, shaking. He sat beside her, one hand on her back, anchoring her. Eventually she fell into exhausted unconsciousness. Her sleep was fitful. When she twitched or cried out, Adam would soothe her with soft words until she stilled. But he did not sleep.
In that still, quiet night, Adam remembered. He had watched as Siduri was cut down before him. He'd held his son in his arms as the life left his body, unable to stop it. Seeing that vision of them in the afterlife had blunted the pain of it, but he knew it would never leave him. Now, hearing Amon had died, it all came back. That quick boy - always laughing, teasing, talking, running, rolling on that strange, wheeled platform of his. Gone.
Is this the lot of man? Amon raged silently at the gods. To suffer, and suffer, and suffer?
He no longer feared invoking Shamash. If the god appeared before him, Adam would spit in his face.
Finally, dawn came, thin and cold. Adrianna cleaned her teeth and brushed her hair with single minded ferocity as Adam watched silently. After his family had died, after the grief had hollowed him out like a gourd, a terrible anger had rushed in to take its place, merging with his power until they were one and the same. He'd used them to destroy Akh-Ton, and much of Shiruta with him. If Adam could have, he would have destroyed himself with them in one, perfect conflagration. But he'd had no one, and Adrianna, for good or ill, had him.
Apparently, Karul had not slept well either - his eyes were shadowed, face unshaven, hair askew. He was skittish around Adrianna in her grief, trying to speak to her, then backing away. When he managed to say something, she responded with a glare so fierce he blanched. As Karul scurried off to make ready, Adam put a hand on Adrianna's shoulder.
"You can leave," he said, softly. "Go home. Be with your brother."
Adrianna laughed bitterly.
"That's what Dr. Karul said." She tugged free of Adam's grip. "No offense, but in the state you're in I think you'd fall out of the sky. No." She closed her eyes. Clenched her fists. "We need to do this. We came to fix a problem and by God, I will fix it. I will stay in that cave until I do, no matter how long it takes."
Adam nodded. "Alright."
They drove in silence, Karul darting nervous glances at Adrianna every few minutes. For her part, she stared straight ahead, fists clenched on her knees as the truck bounced over the rutted path.
You have no right to feel her grief, Adam chastised himself as he watched her. Who was her son to you? Who is she to you and who are you to them? You lost your family and immediately tried to replace them, playing pretend like a child.
He'd like to believe there was more to it than that. That the vision of Siduri and Hurut had been permission of a sort. Permission from them and from the gods to make a new life in this new time. But maybe he had been deluding himself. Certainly he'd been a fool to trust the gods for anything. What had they ever done but abandon their people again and again? Beside him, Adrianna wiped fiercely at her eyes.
This is not my grief.
Adam shook off his ruminations. He could not save Siduri, or Hurut, or Amon. What else could he do but keep moving? The lesson of pain again. Take one step, then another.
All that was within his power, even just his human power, he would do. He would help Adrianna.
Adrianna climbed the bluff with what Adam could only call fury, gasping with effort but never slowing down, sometimes falling to her knees, sometimes scrabbling at the slope with her hands, rejecting every offer to help her. Even he and Karul had trouble matching her punishing pace. Adam had taken his shirt off before they began and left it in the car, but his back still ran with sweat. Karul was still fully dressed, panting his way up the slope. Did these modern people not feel the heat anymore? When they got to the cave they stood for a long minute, bent over and gasping, their breath echoing eerily in the heavy, stone silence.
When they had caught their breath, Karul lit the lantern without a word. He led the way through the passage to the second chamber. And there, in that rough and eerie cavern, a man was waiting for them, a tall, lean shadow in the harsh lamplight.
Suddenly, everyone was speaking at once. Thanks to Adrianna's lesson, Adam was even able to understand some of it:
Adrianna, to the man - "Who are you?"
The man, to Karul - "Thank you."
Karul, to Adrianna - "I'm sorry."
The rest was a jumble of overlapping, indistinguishable voices, but Adam didn't need to know the language to know what had happened. This was a betrayal. He lunged toward Karul, but was shoved back by a pair of burly guardsmen who herded him and Adrianna further into the cavern, as Karul left with a last, despairing look. Three other men stood to block the entrance behind him as he went. Adam considered saying the name, destroying these men - but Adrianna had been right. The last time he had barely kept conscious long enough to change back. What if the pain of his wounds incapacitated him, and the guards shot Adrianna before he could do anything? Unacceptable. He would wait. And watch.
Adam scanned the chamber. There were three guardsmen at the entrance, where Karul had left, and two herding him and Adrianna. They had guns in their belts, smaller than the kind Intergang carried, but probably no less dangerous. One of the passages that led further under the mountain was behind Adam and to the side - he could feel its clammy breath on his back. Karul's lantern sat on the rough, earthen floor in front of them, illuminating the stranger. His black hair was slicked back from a pale face, shining as if oiled. He had a beard, cut so short it almost defeated the purpose of having one. His clothes were those stiff, constraining things that modern people wore, more like armor than cloth. He turned toward Adam.
"Now we can really talk," he said, in flawless, unaccented Khandaqi.
Adam saw his surprise mirrored in Adrianna's face. This stranger wasn't someone she had taught. So where had he learned the language?
The man walked toward them as the lamplight cast his face into skull-like planes.
"First of all, Dr. Tomasz - my condolences for the loss of your son."
Adam felt Adrianna tense beside him, saw her eyes widen. The man continued.
"My daughter was supposed to recruit him, but, you know," he smiled ruefully. "Teenagers."
Adrianna was shaking. With anger, Adam realized. She spoke.
"You're the magician," she said, hands tightening on the strap of her bag. "You made the knife."
The stranger chuckled, a rich, warm sound. "Yes! Ah, it's such a relief to speak to an intelligent person from time to time."
"Dr. Karul didn't teach you the signs, did he?" Adrianna asked.
"No," the stranger smiled, eyes twinkling. "Can you guess why?"
"You already knew them," Adrianna said. "They've been passed down to you, a legacy twelve thousand years in the making."
The stranger was clearly riveted by Adrianna, so Adam used the opportunity afforded him to look around the cavern more obviously. The picks were still there in the chamber, leaning up against the cavern wall, not far away. If he took just two steps, Adam could reach them. With a pick in his hands, he could kill at least one guard, he was sure. If they were distracted, even for a moment.
"Close," the man answered Adrianna. He leaned in, spoke softly. "I made this cave. I painted these signs with my own hands. I cut the stones for the first ring, there, down the hill."
Adrianna took a sharp intake of breath. Adam knew what she was thinking. Forty-nine skulls. This man was some kind of sorcerer, a witch, a shaman of great and evil power. Whatever he wanted with them, it couldn't be good. They had to get out. His eyes darted to Adrianna's, then the picks where they leaned against the wall. He hoped she understood what he was trying to tell her.
"That's impossible," Adrianna said. "That would make you…"
"Twelve thousand years old," the man cut in. "Give or take."
"You were the one who initiated Göbekli Tepe?" Adrianna was being very smart, Adam thought. Men like this one loved to brag and preen. Especially for beautiful women.
"We didn't call it by that name," he said. "It was named for me. I who stole fire from the gods to become its first king. Your colleagues have been speculating for generations on how civilization began. I could tell you. I was there."
"You used magic?"
"The gods don't give fire to mortals. It must be taken."
"And you're Prometheus?"
He laughed again. "Vandal Savage."
"What do you want, Mr. Savage?"
"I think you know."
"The knife."
Adrianna tightened her hands on her bag again. All of the men, Savage's people and Savage himself, were watching the bag. Where the knife was. Adam watched Adrianna. She would pick the moment. He would be ready. His hands prickled with anticipation and he opened his fists.
Adrianna nodded. "Alright," she said. "Then take it!"
She threw the bag across the cavern with all her strength. Savage and his men turned to watch it fly. In that second, Adam lunged forward and seized the two picks. Like a striking adder, he hit the closest guard in the head, burying the pick in his skull with a thwock. WIth the second pick, Adam smashed the lantern, plunging the chamber into absolute darkness.
As the men cried out, Adam took Adrianna's hand. He had memorized the cavern's layout, and knew exactly where the tunnel mouth was, following the cold draft that came from it. He dragged Adrianna into it, pick in front of him to keep them from colliding with a wall. They stumbled around a corner and Adrianna pulled something from her pocket that lit up like a star. There were shouts behind them. Adam and Adrianna ran, hands clutched, not knowing whether the tunnel would lead out or simply end there under the mountain. Adam knew he would fight to the end rather than be taken by that wizard.
There was a turn, and then another. The tunnel slanted down and down, and the light in Adrianna's hand turned everything to black and white. Heavy footsteps behind them, growing closer. And then, the tunnel ended.
"No," Adrianna whispered, looking back, eyes wide with fear.
"Look." Adam pointed. Up near the ceiling, a crack in the stone, just wide enough for someone as slender as Adrianna. Behind them, Adam heard a guard call out. "I'll lift you," he said.
"Adam." Adrianna's voice faltered. She knew as much as he did. Both of them couldn't make it in time.
"Your brother needs you," Adam said. "Your people need you." He cupped her cheek. "Go. I will guard the way."
She closed her eyes, placed her hand over his, and nodded. He lifted her, and she scrambled into the cleft in the rock as nimbly as a cat.
As Adrianna's light disappeared into the rock, the light of the guards' lanterns grew brighter. Adam hefted the pick in his hand. He would make them bleed for every step they took. They would not have Adrianna.
The first man came in ready, swinging high with a slender black club. Adam ducked low and caught him in the knee with the pick, ripping through the side of his leg. The guard went down screaming and Adam hit him in the head with the pick's flat side, carving a chunk off of his face. His screams turned to gurgles, and Adam stood to strike at the second man as he stepped forward. The pick's point glanced off his strange, black breastplate, and the man brought his club down on Adam's back, leaving a bright flare of pain. Adam grunted but did not falter. His backswing caught the guard below the arm, where his armor did not reach.
The man fell and the pick, stuck between his ribs, ripped from Adam's hand. He turned to face the third man with his fists and feet - and felt something sting him. The man was holding a gun - blocky and clumsy-looking compared to the others Adam had seen. Apparently it had fired two silver darts into Adam's chest. He reached to touch them -
All Adam's muscles clenched at once. Without realizing he was falling, he was suddenly on the ground, twitching and thrashing. He felt scorpions of fire crawling over him, and couldn't tell if he was screaming or not. Through streaming eyes, he saw the guardsman approach, lifting his club. He brought it down, and everything went black.
Adam woke to a slap in the face, the sting in his cheek telling him this wasn't the first time.
"Ah, there you are."
It was the stranger's voice, the man who spoke Khandaqi, Savage. He said something and the guard who had been hitting Adam stepped away. Adam realized he was back in the cavern, suspended by his wrists from the stone ceiling, feet just able to touch the floor. His shoulders were burning, his hands numb. The glyphs on the wall seemed to dance in the lamplight at the corners of his eyes, like shadows cast by a campfire.
"You killed three of my men," Savage said as he stepped into view. "And you didn't even use the power. Not bad."
Adam held the man's cold, cold gaze. He knew this man's type - the kind of man who enjoyed having power over others. Who would draw that power out, gloat, make Adam feel his helplessness so he could savor his own strength. Savage had made the knife. He wanted Adam - what? Not dead, for his guards could have shot Adam in the tunnel. Powerless? For what purpose?
"I expect you're wondering what I want with you," Savage continued.
Adam remained silent and expressionless. Refusing to react was the easiest way to anger a proud man. And an angry man would make mistakes, let things slip.
"Should I have my man beat you to loosen your tongue?"
Savage walked in a circle around Adam, passing behind him. Adam's skin crawled as the thought of that man behind him, where he couldn't see. Show nothing. Feel nothing. Savage chuckled.
"What a waste of time that would be." He touched Adam's back, his scars. Adam clenched his teeth to keep from flinching. Savage walked back around to face him.
"I hate having to rush," he said. "But time is running short. Let's make a deal. You say the name. I let your woman go, unharmed."
Adam felt a jolt of fear at the thought of Adrianna in this man's clutches…but then he thought again. There had been five guardsmen, and he struck three down. One was here, leaning up against the wall until Savage should command him. So there was one unaccounted for. Chasing Adrianna still.
This time, Adam was the one who laughed. "You don't have her," he said. "You would have brought her out already. And…" he took a guess, "you don't have the blade either, do you?" Savage's jaw clenched, which was enough of a reaction for Adam to know he'd been right. He laughed louder. "She tricked you!"
The man struck him across the face so hard he rocked backward, painfully jolting his burning shoulders.
"I gave the world civilization," Savage hissed. "I saw empires rise and fall - I made them rise and fall. You don't mock me, slave."
Adam spat blood onto the floor. Again, he followed his intuition.
"But I have the gods' power, and you do not," he said. "Doesn't it gall you? That you have to beg for power from a slave?"
"You will be begging soon." As if by magic, Savage produced a gleaming knife, which he pressed to Adam's face. Adam could feel it bite his cheek, just a little. "You only need your tongue to say the name. I could take your skin off in strips."
Adam was under no illusions about his own character. He was wrathful, vengeful, selfish, and impetuous. Definitely unworthy of the gifts he'd been given. But this man was an ancient evil, a dark shaman hungry for power. That kind of man should never be allowed to have it. Adam looked him in the eyes.
"Do it, then," he said. Savage had tipped his hand. He was 'rushing'. That meant all Adam had to do was endure. He knew how to do that. "You don't have the woman. And you don't have the blade. All you have is me. So do it."
Adam saw the rage in Savage's eyes. He pressed the knife against Adam's face before wrestling it back down and turning brusquely away. Adam felt blood trickle down his cheek, heart racing despite his efforts to stay emotionless, not to let Savage see his fear.
The other man said something to his guard, who moved out of Adam's line of sight.
"There are other ways to get what I need," Savage said, removing his shirt to bare a pale chest, leanly muscled. As Adam watched in apprehension, Savage used the knife to cut his thumb, then used the blood to trace symbols on his own chest. He stepped close to Adam and wrote more bloody signs on his chest and forehead. It may have been his imagination, but Adam felt those magic signs writhing on his flesh like worms. He barely kept himself from shuddering.
The guard had returned, handing Savage a clay bowl full of cloudy liquid. Savage held the bowl to Adam's chin and allowed the blood that still flowed from the cut on his cheek to drip into it.
Dark magic. Adam could feel its power building in the air like the pressure before a storm. He swallowed. Adam knew he could withstand pain, but sorcery was another matter. He forced down his fear. This man must not become a god. I will not give the power to him.
Savage took the bowl with Adam's blood and drank it, then smashed it on the ground beside him.
"Do you know what I was, there at the dawn of everything?"
Savage took a little black box from his trouser pocket and pulled something from it that gleamed silver in the lamplight. A long, thin needle.
"I was a hunter. Nothing, man or beast, could evade me."
He brought the needle to Adam's neck and stuck it deep into his flesh. At once, Adam's veins burned as if full of snake venom.
What did you do? Adam tried to say, but his tongue was heavy, and he only produced a slurred groan. The cavern was blurring and wavering, like it had been plunged into deep water. Savage sat down before him on the cave's earthen floor. He had a wolf's head, Adam saw with garbled panic, the mouth red with blood.
"We go into the spirit world, slave," he said, with his terrible, fanged mouth. "Where I will be the hunter, and you will give me everything."
No, Adam thought, as he tipped backward and fell through the floor into a darkness as vast as the sea.
Here he is - Vandal Savage! Because who better to fight a 5,000 year old man than a 10,000 year old man. Did you guess that it was him? Let me know in the comments!