Chapter 27 25

Saul, the Consul, Father Douhey, and the unconscious Height.Mustin was in the first mound when he heard gunshots.The Consul walked out alone, slowly and carefully, fearful of the tidal storm driving them deep into the valley. No problem, he called back.Thor's lantern cast a pale light on the back end of the cavern, revealing three pale faces and the robed templar.The tide is low.cried the Consul. Sol stood up.His daughter's small face showed a white oval under his face.Are you sure the shot came from Brown's gun? The Consul pointed to the darkness outside.None of the rest of us were armed.I'll check it out.

Wait, Sol said: I'll go with you. Father Duhey has been kneeling before Heite.Mastin's side.Go, I'm here to guard him. One of us will be back in a few minutes.said the consul. The valley was dimly filled with the white light from Tokizuka.The wind howled from the south.But tonight the draft was high, above the cliffs, so the dunes at the bottom of the valley were undisturbed.Sol followed the consul, finding his way through the difficult path to the bottom of the valley, and then turned to the mouth of the valley.A slight sense of déjà vu reminded Thor of the raging tide an hour earlier.But now even the remaining tailwinds of the storm are fading away.

After the path widened and reached the bottom of the valley, Sol and the consul walked together through the battlefield where the crystal monolith was ravaged. .They went up slightly, passed the light green phosphorescent jade mound, and then turned again, walking along the Z-shaped road all the way to the Sphinx. God, Thor uttered a soft cry, rushing forward, trying not to shake the sleeping baby in his arms, kneeling next to a black figure at the top of the steps. Brown?asked the Consul, who stopped two paces away, panting after a sudden flight of stairs. Yes, Saul started to lift her head up, but jerked his hand back as he felt something sticky and cold protruding from the back of her skull.

is she dead Sol held his daughter's head closer to his chest, reaching for the woman's neck to feel for a pulse.No, he said, taking a deep breath.She was alive but unconscious.Give me your flashlight. Saul took the flashlight and shone it on Brown.Lamia's crouching figure, along with a silver thread, might be better called tentacles, because that thing looks like flesh and blood, reminiscent of organic matter protruding from the nerve shunt in her skull, all the way across The great sphinx topped the broad staircase and entered the open door.The light of the Sphinx itself is the strongest of all the time tombs, but the entrance is still very dark.

The consul stepped forward.What's this?He reached out to touch the silver cable, and withdrew his hand as quickly as Thor had just done.God, it was lukewarm. Felt alive, Saul agreed.He had been rubbing Buao's hands, and now he was patting her cheek to wake her up.She didn't move.He turned and shone the light of his flashlight along the cable, which snaked and disappeared into the entrance walkway, and I figured it wasn't something she'd voluntarily pulled on. It's the Jing Demon God, the Consul said.He leaned over and activated the biosensor readout on Brown's wrist comm.Other than her brainwaves, everything's fine, Saul.

What do those readings say? Said she was dead.Brain dead at least.There is no function. Saul sighed and straightened up on his knees.We'll have to see where this cable leads. Can't we just unhook the cable from the splitter? You see, Saul said, shining the flashlight on the back of Brown's head, brushing up a bunch of black curls, the original nerve shunt was just a small disc a few millimeters wide and a ten-micron box, and now it seems to melt. The red meat bulges were tightly connected with the filaments at the front end of the metal cable. Surgery is required to remove it.the Consul said in a low voice.He touched what seemed to be red and inflamed flesh, but Brown didn't respond.The Consul brought back the flashlight and straightened up.You accompany her, I will go in and check.

Use communication channels.Saul said.He knew in his heart that those channels were useless in the ebb and flow of time. The Consul nodded and stepped forward quickly lest fear should make him hesitate. The cable snaked its way along the main aisle, turning out of sight behind the room where the pilgrims had spent the night before.The Consul glanced into the room, and the flashlight revealed that the blankets and backpacks were just as they had been left behind in their haste. He followed the cable and bent into the passage: through the middle door, the passage inside divided into three narrow passages; came up a tunnel, and immediately descended into what they had called the King Tut Highway in their earlier explorations. Narrow passage; then down a slope; along a tunnel so low that he had to crawl, he landed carefully on his hands and knees, trying not to touch the metal tentacles as warm as flesh; The slope, so steep it made him climb a chimney; then a wide corridor he didn't remember, with stones on either side jutting in toward the ceiling, dripping; then a steep descent that grazed his palms. It was the skin of his knees that slowed his slide.Finally crawl through a tunnel that is longer than the apparent width of the Sphinx.The Consul was completely lost and could only trust that the time had come and that the cable would take him back.

Thor, he called at last, not at all convinced that his voice could pass through stone and tide. Now, the scholar's small voice came. I'm so fucking deep, the Consul whispered into his comm, passing a hallway I don't remember ever seeing before.Feel so deep. Did you find where the cable ended up? found it!The Consul replied softly, and sat down, wiping the sweat from his face with a handkerchief. Meet up?Saul asked, referring to one of the myriad connections through which the people of Tenstarnet could connect to the Datasphere. No, the stuff seems to have flowed straight into the stony ground here.There is no corridor here.I tried to pull it out, but the connection was the same as the nerve shunt fused into her skull, it looked like it was part of a stone.

Come out, Thor's voice comes through the static, and we try to cut it out of her. In the dank, dark tunnel, the Consul felt truly claustrophobic for the first time in his life.He found himself unable to breathe, convinced that something was hiding in the shadows behind him, cutting off his air and his only way of retreat.In that narrow tunnel, his heartbeat was almost audible. He breathed slowly, wiped his face again, and suppressed his fear.That would kill her, he said between slow breaths. When there was no response, the consul called again, but the tenuous connection between them was severed.

I `m coming out.He spoke to the silent instrument, then turned and shone the flashlight down the low tunnel. (Is that cable tentacles twitching? Is it an optical illusion?) The Consul began to crawl back the way he had come. They found Heite at sunset.Mastine, just a few minutes before the tidal storm hit.The Templar was staggering when the Consul, Saul, and Doohey first saw him, but by the time they got to where he had fallen, Mustine was unconscious. Take him to the Sphinx, Thor said. At that moment, as if choreographed by the setting sun, the tide overwhelmed them like a wave of nausea and déjà vu.All three big men fell to their knees.Rachel woke up, crying with the strength of a newborn and frightened baby.

Walking towards Taniguchi, the Consul panted, and took Haite.Mustin stood up with his back on his shoulders.Must get out of this valley. The three men made their way toward the Taniguchi, past the first time mound, the Sphinx, but the tide was stronger and hit them like a dizzying gust of wind.After walking thirty meters, they could no longer move forward.They fell on their knees, put their hands on the ground, and Hatt.Mastine rolled over to the other side of the path, and Rachel stopped whimpering and writhed uncomfortably. Go back, Paul.Du Hei gasped and said: It's better to go back to the bottom of the valley. They walked back, staggering down the path like three drunks each with a valuable that could not be dropped.They rested a little under the sphinx, with their backs against a large boulder, allowing space-time to swirl around them like a cloth.It's as if the whole world is a flag and someone is waving it wildly in anger.Reality seemed to toss and fold, then unfurl all over again, and fold back again, like waves crashing over them.The Consul made the Templar lie on the edge of the rock, on his hands and knees, panting, his fingers gripping the ground in panic. Mobius Cube, said the templar, moving his body, his eyes still closed.We must have the Moebius cube. Damn it, the Consul said reluctantly.He shook Hatt roughly.Mastine.Why do we need that thing?Mustin, why do we need it?The templar's head rocked limply back and forth.He lost consciousness again. I'll get it, Du Hei said.The priest looked old and sickly, with a pale face and lips. The Consul nodded and turned Hett.With Mastine on his shoulders, he helped Sol stand up and staggered towards the valley, feeling that the farther away he was from the Sphinx, the less the tide of the anti-entropy force field would decrease. Father Duhet climbed the path, climbed the long staircase, staggered to the entrance of the Sphinx, and clung to the stones there like a sailor clinging to a rope in a stormy sea.The sphinx seemed to be rocking above him, tilting first thirty degrees to one side, then fifty degrees to the other.Du Hei knew that it was just the power of the tide affecting his feelings, but it was enough to make him kneel on the rock and vomit. The tide of time paused for a moment, like a gigantic wave paused in a wave of terrifying impact, Du Hei stood up, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and stumbled into the dark time tomb. He didn't have a flashlight, so he could only stagger along the corridor and feel his way. He was afraid of two things: one was to touch something slippery and cold in the dark, and the other was to crash into the room where he was resurrected and see The corpse he had just brought out of the grave.Du Hei screamed, but the cry was lost in his own heartbeat like a whistling tornado and the tide of time coming again. The room they slept in was very dark, and there was really no light in the terrible darkness, but Du Hei's eyes adapted, and he found that the Moebius cube itself was shimmering, obviously flickering. He staggered across the messy room, grabbed the cube, and lifted the heavy thing with all his might.The Consul's excerpt tape mentions the mysterious luggage Mastine took with him on the pilgrimage to this artifact and also talks about the belief that there is an earg in it, one of those alien force field creatures that act as a sanctuary The power of the Samurai tree ship.Du Hei didn't understand why the earpiece was so important now, but he held the cube tightly in his arms, staggered back, passed the corridor, went outside, went down the stairs, and walked into the depths of the valley. Here!The Consul shouted in the first cave below the cliff: "It's better here." Doo Hey staggered up the path, nearly dropping the cube in his haste and sudden loss of strength; the Consul helped him the last thirty steps into the mound. Things are much better inside.Doohey could feel the ebb and flow of the tide right at the entrance of the cave, but at the back end of the cave, there was a ball of light illuminating the intricate carvings with a cold light, which seemed almost normal, and the priest slumped to Saul.Beside Wen Chaobo, put the Mobius cube on the silent but wide-eyed Heite.Mastin's side. He was just waking up when you came over.Saul whispered, the baby's eyes wide and dark in the dim light. The Consul sat down beside the Templar.Why do we need this block?Mustine, why do we need this thing? Hite.Mustine's staring eyes did not move, nor did he blink.Our ally, he said softly: our only ally against the Lord of Pain.Each of his voices was clearly accented with the dialect of the Templar world. How can this be our ally?Thor pressed, grasping the man's robe with both hands, what are we going to do with it?When will it be used? The templar's eyes were fixed on something in the infinite distance.We're fighting for honor, he said softly, his voice hoarse.The first to touch the Keats reborn mods was the Evergreen Sequoia Truthsayer but I am the one honored by the light of the Prophet Muir.It is the tree of the world, my tree of the world, used to redeem our sins against the prophet Muir.The templar closed his eyes, and put on an incongruous smile on his stern face. The Consul looked at Dohet and Saul.These words sound like the words of the Jing Demon God Sect, not like the teachings of the Templars. Perhaps both, Douhet said softly, and there have been stranger combinations in the history of theology. Thor put his palm to the Templar's forehead.The tall man was running a high fever.Thor rummaged through their only medicine kit for pain relievers or fever patches.After finding it, he hesitated again. I don't know if the Templars can use common medicines. I don't want to kill him because of allergies. The consul took the fever-reducing patch and applied it to the templar's weakened arm.They are just like us.He came closer, Mastine, what happened to the sailboat? The Templar's eyes opened, but were still out of focus.Sailboat? I don't know what's going on.Father Du Hei said softly. Saul pulled him aside, and on the pilgrimage, Mustin never talked about him, he whispered: On the first night we set out, he disappeared on the sailboat.A lot of blood was left there, as well as his luggage and the Mobius cube.But Mastine was gone. What happened to the sailboat?The Consul spoke again softly.He shook the templar slightly to get his attention.Think about it, Heid the Tree Speaker.Mastine! The expression on the tall man's face changed, his eyes were no longer out of focus, and his facial features with a touch of Asian taste returned to the serious lines that everyone is familiar with. I released the power inside. He said Ergo.Saul said softly to the bewildered priest. Use the heart rhythm I learned from Takae to restrain him.But then, without warning, the Lord of Pain came to us. Thorn God, Thor whispered, as if speaking to himself rather than to the priest. Was it your blood that was spilled there?the Consul asked the Templar. Blood?Mastermind pulled his hood forward over his perplexed face.No, that's not my blood.The master of ceremonies is caught in the hand of the king of pain, and the man struggles to escape from the blade of atonement ⑩ priest of ceremonies (celebrant): the priest who presides over the mass. What about Ergo?the consul pressed.that power.What did you think it would do for you?Protect you against the Thorn Demon God? The templar frowned, raising a trembling hand to his forehead.It's not ready yet.I'm not ready yet.I turned it back off.The Lord of Pain touched my shoulder.I was so happy because my atonement was at the same time as the treeboat sacrifice. Thor moves closer to Doohe.The Yggdrasil treeship was destroyed that same night.he said softly. Hite.Mustin closed his eyes, tired, he said softly, his voice getting weaker and weaker. The Consul shook him again.How did you get here?Musting, how did you come here from Caohai? When I woke up, between these time tombs, the templar did not open his eyes, and said softly: Wake up between the time tombs, I am so tired, I must sleep. Let him rest, said Father Douhet. The Consul nodded and told the robed man to lie down to sleep. Everything is going nowhere.Saul said softly as the three men and a baby sat in the dim light, feeling the tide ebb and flow outside. We lost a saint and found another.The consul murmured, "It's like playing some weird game." An hour later, they heard gunfire echoing in the valley. Saul and the Consul squatted in the silent Brown.Lamia's side. We'll need lasers to cut this thing out, Thor said: With Kassad gone, our weapons are gone. The Consul touched the young woman's wrist, cutting off the thing would have killed her. According to the life controller, she was already dead. The consul shook his head, no, there are other questions.That thing might be connected to Keats's dummy personality that she's been carrying around.Maybe when this is over, we'll get Braun back. Sol held his three-day-old daughter on his shoulders and looked out into the dimly lit valley.It's like a madhouse.Everything is different from what we thought.If only your goddamn spaceship was here with cutting tools in it, in case we had to get Braun out of this thing and she and Mastine might have a chance of surviving this operation. The Consul remained on his knees, staring blankly.After a while, he said: Please stay here with her.Then stood up and disappeared into the dark mouth of the Sphinx.Five minutes later he came back with his own big travel bag.He took out a rolled blanket from the bottom of the bag, placed it on the stone of the top step of the Sphinx, and opened it. It was a very old blanket, nearly two meters long and a little over a meter wide.It was intricately woven, and though faded over the centuries, the monofilament flying threads still shone golden in the twilight.The thin wire was connected from the blanket to a battery, and the Consul untied it. God.Saul said in a low voice.He remembered what the Consul had said about his grandmother, Celie, and the spaceship captain, Merlin.Esbeck's love tragedy.It was because of this love that the rebellion of the Anti-Hegemony Alliance arose, and Maui︱Covenant Star fell into war for many years.Mai Lin.Esbeck flew to the first stop city on a friend's falcon magic carpet. The Consul nodded.This was originally a friend of my grandfather Merlin named Mike.Oshow's.Celie left the magic carpet in her tomb for Merlin to discover.He gave it to me when I was a kid and then came the island wars and he and his dreams of freedom were all gone.Thor reached out and touched the centuries-old artifact.Too bad it's not available here. The Consul looked up at him.Why can't it be used? Hyperion's magnetic field is lower than the minimum required for an electromagnetic vehicle ship, Saul said: that's why the spaceship and floater are used here instead of the electromagnetic vehicle, so the Benaris is no longer a flying barge.He paused, feeling stupid for explaining this to a man who had served as Consul of the Confederate Alliance in Hyperion for eleven years local time.Or, am I mistaken? The Consul smiled.You're right, the standard electromagnetic car is the problem here.The lift-to-weight ratio is too high.But the Falcon Magic Carpet is all-purpose and has almost no weight. I tried it once when I lived in the capital. It was not so smooth to fly, but it was still possible to carry only one person. Thor glanced back into the valley, past the shimmering cenotaphs, obelisks, and crystal monoliths, to where the shadow of the cliffs obscured the entrance to the tomb.He didn't know Father Dooher and Hatt.Is Mastine still alive there.Do you want to ask for help? One of us goes to call for help, bring the spaceship back, or at least leave the ship free, come back empty, and we'll draw lots to see who goes. This time it was Saul's turn to smile.Come to think of it, my friend, Douhei can't travel long distances at all, and he doesn't know the way anyway.As for me, Saul brought Rachel to Hong and put her head against his face. This journey will probably take several days.I don't have that many days.If she can be saved, we must stay here and gamble our luck.So only you must go. The Consul sighed, but did not argue. Besides, Saul said: That is your ship, and only you can release it from Greystone's control, and you know the Governor well. The Consul looked west, and I wondered if Theo was still in office. Let's go back first and tell Father Dohey our plan, and Saul said, "Besides, I left the baby kit in the cave, Rachel is hungry now." The Consul rolled up the blanket, put it back in his duffel bag, and looked down at Brown.Lamia, watch that disgusting cable wind its way into the darkness.is she okay? I'll have Paul come back with a blanket to keep her company while you and I bring the other immobile back here.you go tonight?Or wait until the sun comes out tomorrow morning? The Consul rubbed his cheeks wearily. I don't like crossing the mountain in the middle of the night, but we don't have that much time.I packed my things and left. Sol nodded and looked towards Taniguchi.I wish Brown could tell us where Cylenus went. I'll look for him when I fly out.said the consul.He looked up at the stars. It would take thirty-six to forty hours to fly back to Keats.It might take an hour or two to get the boat free.In two days par time, I'll be back here. Thor nodded, rocking the crying child.His weary and kindly face did not hide the expression of doubt.He put his hand on the consul's shoulder.We were right to give it a try.my friend.Come on, let's go talk to Father Douhet, see if our other companion wakes up, and have dinner together.It appears Brown has brought back enough supplies to give us a final meal.