Mark Hodder - Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon

“I'd prefer it if you didn't.”

“A little farther, gentlemen. We're almost there.”

Moments later, the three men wormed their way out of the tunnel and got to their feet. They stood paralysed, with hearts hammering and eyes popping.

What confronted them was virtually incomprehensible.

They were standing on a ledge, hundreds of feet above the floor of a vast cavern, which was ablaze with the strange azure radiance; and if the previous vault had seemed magical, then this one appeared miraculous!

A megalithic temple rose from the centre of the massive space. Its soaring walls, spires, and columns were decorated with complex geometrical designs and friezes. The men gazed in awe at its sweeping arches and curving arcades; at the many gargoyles and representations of lions and oxen and other, extinct, animals; and at the thick round central tower that rose to the distant ceiling and merged with it.

The entire temple complex-for there were many outbuildings squatting around the base of the edifice-was hewn from solid rock, and for many minutes, Burton, Trounce, and Speke stood silent and confounded, wondering what manner of tools had been employed to achieve this eighth-and foremost! — wonder of the world.

As the brass man scraped out of the tunnel behind them, Speke whispered, “I never knew! I never got this far! Both times, when I reached the grotto, the things came and dragged me out of it.”

“Then when did you see the Eye?” Burton asked.

“I didn't. Not physically. But I had a clear vision of it.”

“What? All this we've been through began with nothing but a vision?”

“I planted it in Mr. Speke's mind,” K'k'thyima said.

“Things?” Trounce interrupted. “You said things dragged you out, Speke?”

“Yes. They were-they were-”

“They were the Batembuzi,” the brass figure interjected. “Long ago, they served the Naga and had an empire that covered all of the Lake Regions, but now this-” he swept out his arm to indicate the temple, “-is their home.” He gestured to their right with his revolver. “The ledge goes down here and slopes around the wall to the floor. Follow it, please.”

They walked slowly, as necessitated by the condition of the clockwork man's left leg.

The ledge narrowed for a stretch, and they had to press themselves against the cavern wall to navigate along it.

“Allow me to tell you a little of the Naga,” K'k'thyima said. “Long, long ago, we lived where the three Eyes had fallen: here, and in South America, and on the continent of Kumari Kandam-and though our colonies were separated, we bonded in a Great Fusion through means of the diamonds.”

“Until Brahmin Kaundinya came along,” Burton murmured.

“Ah, of course, you have studied the legend. Yes, your spy Kaundinya broke the Kumari Kandam Eye into seven fragments, causing the physical death of all the Naga on that continent. Their essence lived on in the stones, of course, but now they were isolated, for the other two Eyes were whole, whereas theirs was shattered.”

“Your Great Fusion requires the three Eyes to be in the same state?”

“It does.”

The group was now about halfway down the path. Speke led the way, self-absorbed and tormented; Trounce followed, listening to what he considered a fairy tale; Burton was third in the line; and the clockwork man hauled himself along behind, holding his pistol aimed steadily at the back of the explorer's head.

K'k'thyima continued: “When a Naga completes its lifespan, the Great Fusion offers the choice of true death-which many prefer-or a transcendence. Kaundinya's act of betrayal denied us all these options, and condemned us to eternity and eventual madness. Obviously, this is a situation that has to be corrected.”

“Only equivalence can lead to destruction or a final transcendence,” Burton said. “You can't put a broken diamond together again, so you have to shatter the other two stones to achieve equivalence.”

“And restore the Great Fusion, yes. Incidentally, your friend Spencer is a very determined man. He is not happy that I borrowed his personality. He tried to leave a clue for the unfortunate Mr. Swinburne in his First Principles of Philosophy. It was all I could do to stop the poet from telling you about it.”

“How did you do that?”

“I've been radiating a mesmeric influence to make you all consider me harmless and friendly.”

They reached the cavern floor, and K'k'thyima directed them along a well-worn path toward the buildings at the foot of the temple.

“So we were at an impasse. We couldn't shatter the other two Eyes while our South American and African colonies still lived, for it would have physically killed them. Nor could we stand to exist in a state of disconnection. We thus lost the will to survive in the material realm, and allowed you soft skins to hunt us to extinction.”

“But the essence of you continued to dwell in the Eyes?” Burton asked.

“Yes, and now we had to wait for your species to discover the diamonds.”

“Why?”

“So that we might use you to bring equivalence. As high priest, I was the only one of my people whose essence spanned all of the stones, and I was able to channel the mesmeric abilities of my species through any of them. I was thus able to manipulate you soft skins. Ah, look! Here come the Batembuzi!”

Up ahead, figures were slouching out of doorways and sliding out of glassless windows. A large crowd of them gathered and loped forward to meet the approaching party. They were small and ape-like, with skin of a dull-white hue, and their eyes were strange and large and greyish-red. Shaggy flaxen hair descended to their shoulders and grew down their backs, and they moved with their arms held low, sometimes resorting to all fours. Thoroughly nightmarish in aspect, they proved too much for Speke. With a wail of terror, he threw himself backward.

“Hold him!” K'k'thyima ordered.

Burton and Trounce grabbed the lieutenant. He fought them, emitting animalistic whines of fear.

“They aren't going to harm you!” the priest said. “They'll just escort us into the temple,”

Speke finally quietened down when the hideous troglodytes, rather than attacking, simply fell into position beside the group.

As they entered among the squat buildings, the brass man instructed the Britishers to walk straight ahead to the central thoroughfare, then turn right and proceed along it. They followed his instructions and saw, some way ahead, the tall double doors of the temple entrance.

“Everything!” Burton suddenly exclaimed. “Bismillah! You orchestrated everything! You planted in Edward Oxford an irrational obsession about his ancestor so he'd travel back in time and cause all of the Eyes to be discovered! You manipulated Rasputin so you could occupy that clockwork body, commandeer Herbert Spencer's mind, and shatter the South American Eye! And you caused that damned babbage to be grafted onto Speke's brain so he'd lead me here!”

“That has been my song,” K'k'thyima confessed. “And now we shall shatter the last of the Eyes and the Naga will be free.”

Passing blocky, unadorned buildings, they came to the foot of a broad set of steps leading up to the temple's imposing arched entrance. They ascended, and a group of Batembuzi put their shoulders to the doors and pushed. As the portals swung slowly inward, Burton asked, “But what of the fragments Oxford cut from the South American Eye for his time suit? Surely they unbalance the equivalence you seek?”

“Soon, Sir Richard, you will discover the beauty and elegance of paradox. Those shards were cut in a future where the stone was complete. I changed that future when, earlier in the same diamond's history, I broke it into seven. Thus the pieces could not be cut from it.”