Chapter 29 - Into the Depths
The faint orange glow from the RLS bathed the hard stone walls a haunting shade. Lara ducked low to keep from smacking her head against the sagging ceiling of the passageway. She could see a small filter of light ahead, maybe twenty yards.
"I see some light. It must be the other end of the passageway," she called back to Alex, who was making his way through the opening they had just found in the wall of the Hypostyle Hall. "The Roman birth houses are on this side of the temple. We must be passing right under them."
"Keep an eye out," Alex called back as he checked his gear. "I don't want to accidentally set something off." Lara nodded to herself, continuing forward at a cautious speed.
They passed through the tunnel, double checking as they went along to make sure they didn't activate any other traps. Alex moved slowly behind Lara as she hunched her way through the small openings every few feet or so. Eventually, they emerged on the far end of the passageway, a small shaft of light flittering down from a hole in the ceiling high above them. Lara made a motion for Alex to be quiet, and she ventured out first into the blackness beyond the small portal they had entered through. He heard her take out another tube, snap it on, and shake it to life. He heard her gasp as the pathway in front of him turned a soft orange.
"Alex... you've got to see this," she murmured, and Alex hitched himself up and pulled himself through the small entrance. He stopped dead in his tracks, whistling slowly. The sound of it reverberated off the ancient stone walls, bouncing back like the cry of a lost spirit.
"Damn..." he nearly whispered. Lara only nodded.
The Great Hall of the temple opened up before them, like an ancient cathedral long forgotten. The ceiling was high and slightly arched, beautiful hieroglyphic art painted along its edges. The paintings continued down the sides of the stone walls, a continuous pictograph describing the birth of Horus through the great mother, Hathor. The sorceress' namesake. The floors were sandstone, soft and smooth and cool. The air was musty and sand drifted down through invisible cracks in the ceiling. At the far end of the room sat a grand statue of Hathor, the sorceress who accidentally created the Amulet of Immortality. She was propped on a great pedestal, and posed sitting on a grand throne. Beneath her large feet stood twelve statues depicting mortal men, clothed in strange garments, and golden half-rings around their shaved heads. They were the twelve Lords of the Shankai, the first ever to be inducted into that secret society. They were the first to be trusted, and the fathers of many more who would become guardians of a terrible treasure.
"She's beautiful..." Alex stammered as he stared unbelievingly at the huge statue of the sorceress.
"Yes, she is." Lara replied. The statue showed a woman with a soft face and round cheekbones, lips small and full. Her eyes were deep, Egyptian eyes, slanted and without lashes. Her face was depicted as being painted with the ritualistic dyes reserved for women of great stature in ancient times. From her right ear hung a long, dangling earing decorated with what looked like beads and small stones. She had a majestic look about her, and her eyes seemed to radiate wisdom, though the statue was only made of stone. She wore a beautiful gown draped with a small wrap, and her feet were bare and covered in rings. Around her neck was a medallion shaped like a perfectly round disk, depressing in the middle where a larger sphere rose up. The Amulet of Immortality, immortalized in stone.
"Incredible detail," Alex muttered, stepping closer to the statue." Lara put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Don't go any farther. We don't know what traps might be in this room." Alex nodded, still staring at the great statue of Hathor.
"What should we do?"
"I'm going to take some thermal readings. See if anything strange is brewing in here. Keep an eye out." Lara pulled off her pack, opening it and taking out a thermal scan unit from the bottom. She flipped it on, listening to it chirp as it warmed up. She punched some buttons, giving it random commands to sweep the area for thermal anomalies. When the scans returned negative, she sighed and tossed it back into her pack.
"What's the word?" Alex asked, taking a swig from his dusty canteen.
"Everything looks okay, but that's not fooling me. It can't be that easy. It's never that easy," Lara replied, hands on her hips.
"What's never that easy?"
"Raiding tombs."
"Oh. Right."
Lara hoisted her pack onto her shoulders once more, and started walking carefully towards the statues. She watched her step, keeping an eye on all three frontal walls and the floor below. The stones groaned under her weight, and she realized there must be a hollow room beneath the Great Hall. She signaled for Alex to follow her, and he fell in behind her, watching his step just as carefully as she was.
They reached the base of the great statue, and Alex busied himself with gazing over the twelve statues of the Shankai priests. Lara checked to make sure nothing was amiss, and began scaling the feet of the statue of Hathor, making her way towards the top.
"So, where should we start looking for the second key, Lara?" Alex called up to her as he watched her swing nimbly from foothold to foothold.
"That's what I'm doing now. Ancient Egyptian custom is to seal important artifacts in or behind large statues or memorials like this. Supposedly it keeps the treasures 'cleansed' of certain evils if they are kept with stone guardians like this statue of Hathor," she replied, grabbing a handful of dust from a corner of the statue and spreading it on her hands to use as tack. She continued to loop around the statue, heading towards the back where it joined the stone wall. She used the dust on her hands to keep from slipping, and ground the steel toes of her boots into the soft stone to keep her footing. She jumped like an expert tree frog from hollow to hollow, keeping her pace quick so as not to lose arm strength. Alex only stared up at her in amusement.
"Is there anything you can't do, Lara?" he asked with a smirk. Lara gazed down and stuck her tongue out at him in a playful gesture, continuing her grapple towards the rear of the statue. He continued to busy himself with the study of the Shankai statues.
"Alex!" Lara screamed, her voice echoing in the Great Hall. Alex nearly dropped the magnifying glass he had taken out of his pack to inspect the Shankai statues with.
"Lara? What the hell, what's wrong?" he yelled up to her, his hands hand shaking slightly from the sound of her scream. Lara's head popped out from behind the great statue, her hair covered in a fine layer of dust.
"I found something! She yelled again, her face breaking into almost child-like excitement. She was all smiles, and Alex couldn't help but smile back.
"You think we've found it?" he called up.
"Don't know. There's a depression in the stones back here about the size of a safe deposit box. Looks like it could be something. I'm not sure if it's what we're looking for or not."
"Well shit woman! Hurry up and find out!" he yelled back jokingly, his face alive with the thrill of discovery.
Lara pulled back behind the statue again, reaching into her pack for her trusty chisel and a petite hammer. She pulled a utility knife from its sheath against her right calf, and began slowly cutting into the rotting mortar surrounding the stone depression. She continued to chip away at it, drifts of dust and old stone falling in small piles as she did so. Eventually, the edges were cleared away, and she had just enough room to slip the miniature chisel underneath the bottom edge. She began to hammer slowly and methodically, careful not to crack the stone. She made her way around the entire depression in a matter of minutes, and she took a deep breath as she started to pull the block out of place.
"Lara? Anything yet?" came Alex's exhausted voice from below. "I'm going to die of either boredom or hunger down here!"
"Patience, Alex! I've almost got the stone out!" Lara replied, her voice brimming with excitement. She pulled out the stone, which was much heavier than it looked on the outside, placing it on the dais next to her that served as Hathor's left shoulder. She peered inside, her breath catching in her throat.
"Lara? Lara, are you all right?" Alex asked. She couldn't answer. She reached her hands inside the small, shallow alcove, her fingers wrapping around something hard and cool and slick to the touch. She had to remind herself to breathe as she pulled the object out into the open, her hands trembling as she saw what it was.
It was a large, thin disk, made of pure gold, about a foot in diameter. The edges had been slightly worn, and the gold barely shimmered underneath the many layers of dust and stone debris. But Lara had no doubts. This was the second key to the Serpent's Gate.
"Alex! Alex, I've found it!" she shouted, almost laughing as she heard Alex give a rambunctious hoot from below her. He started cheering as she ran her right hand carefully and lovingly over its ancient surface, her heart in her mouth. She paused when she felt something strange beneath her fingertips. She brushed the dust away, gazing at the hieroglyphs that had been chiseled onto the disk after it came into the possession of the Shankai. Her eyes darted about, deciphering the ancient language. She gasped, and nearly dropped the disk as she came across something she had only heard of, but never seen mentioned in any Egyptian text.
"Shit..." she murmured, and she immediately raced around to the front of the statue. "Alex! Quick, grab the key!" she yelled, throwing it down to him. Luckily he was paying enough attention, and he managed to grab it as it hurtled toward the ground.
"Holy shit, Lara! I could have dropped it!"
"Quick! Get the hell out of here, now!" she screamed, already turning around and descending the statue at lightening speed.
"What the hell's going on, Lara?" Alex asked, amazed at how fast she was tumbling down the face of the statue.
"No questions! Get the fuck out of here, now! I mean it! We're in serious shit!" Alex looked at her questioningly, half believing she was joking.
"What's the matter, Lara? What's going on?" he asked as she landed at the foot of the statue with a thump, her face a burning red.
"Alex, we're going to die if you keep standing around here. We've got to get out now before the damn thing wakes up!"
"What damn thing? What the hell are you talking about?" he stammered, trying to make sense of what she was saying.
But at that moment a deep, guttural roar sounded from somewhere beneath them, and they both froze in their tracks. The floor beneath them began to shake, and the reverberations moved throughout the entirety of the Great Hall. Alex could feel the tingling in his legs. Lara looked around, and looked at him.
"Shit..." she muttered again, this time not bothering to urge him towards the exit. She pulled out the .45's, checking the clips and slamming them home as another terrible roar sounded again from beneath them. This time, it was closer to them.
"L-Lara..." Alex stammered, hugging the key to his chest. "What is that?" Lara continued prepping her firearms, stuffing a handful of clips into each side pocket. She looked at the floor, which had begun shaking violently.
"It's a Hitu," she replied nonchalantly, clicking off the safety on each of her pistols. Alex only gaped at her with wide eyes, his face drained of color.
"What the hell is a Hitu?" he asked, his voice almost drowned in the roar coming from beneath the floor.
"The Hitu is an ancient Egyptian monster. It's said they never existed. They are guardians of the sacred. And we just pulled a real no-no by removing the second key to the Serpent's Gate."
"What?" Alex shrieked in disbeliefs. "You've got to be kidding! There are no such things as monsters!"
"Yeah, and there was no such thing as a Leviathan, either," she replied sarcastically, cocking her weapons and aiming them at the floor where a great booming had begun. The stones that made up the floor had begun to rattle and move slightly in their pockets. Alex was trembling, unable to utter a sound.
"If you want to live another day, I suggest you get the hell out of here right now," Lara said, nodding towards the hole in the wall where they'd come in.
"H-how do you know what's happening here?" he demanded, his knees beginning to knock.
"The inscriptions on the disk. They warned that whoever disturbed the sleeping key to the Serpent's Gate, would also disturb the sleeping Hitu trapped beneath the floor of the Great Hall. Shit on toast..."
"What the hell! Can't we do something? I mean it's trapped, right?" Alex whined.
"Don't count on it. The Hitu is a beast of mighty strength. The only way to stop one is to defeat it in battle."
"What? You're crazy! There's gotta be something we can do!"
"Alex, it's a mythical beast that's never before been unleashed into human history! I don't know the fucking rules, alright! Just get the hell out of here now, and don't you dare lose that key!"
Alex took off towards the hole in the wall where they had entered not two hours before, the entire hall shaking like an earthquake. He glanced back at Lara, who still had her eyes and both 45.'s trained on the moving stones in front of her.
"And just what the hell are you going to do?" he asked frantically, his heart racing in his chest. Lara looked at him, her stare icy and determined. Alex realized she was pissed as hell.
"I'm going to introduce it to the 21st Century."
Alex only shook his head, not sure which one of them was crazier. He tightened his grip on the key, hunching down and running with all his might down the tunnel, back to the Hypostyle Hall, where a quick getaway was waiting.