Dragon Mage

  Told you, she thought. We should he looking over there.

  Shilo pointed to the west, where from their higher vantage point it was easier to see the bucket and pulley mechanism that brought water up the man-made mountain and sent it down irrigation ditches and streams that fed all the plants. Kim saw her gesture and yanked on Sigmund's robe. The two boys headed toward the machine.

  She and Nidintulugal sighed in unison and hurried to catch up. There were two men near the mechanism, but they moved on by the time the boys reached it. More people were interested in the trees and flowers than the device that watered them. The view from up here, the very top of the Hanging Gardens, caught Shilo's breath.

  It was dizzying, looking down the slope at what was essentially a small rain forest. Babylon spread out below that, the city looking clean and impressive in the early-morning sun. The temples she could see, including the Temple of Shamash, shone in places where gold had been applied to cornices and columns. South of the Gardens, down a street Shilo had not walked, a statue of a rearing lion looked as if it were catching a beam of sunlight in its outstretched claws.

  Everything she'd thought bad about this place and her predicament vanished in that instant. This magical journey that had made her feet and head ache and made her long for Wisconsin was suddenly all worth it. To see something so splendid as ancient Babylon, when the city was at its height, was worth everything she'd been through.

  "Wow." Sigmund was taking it all in, too. "Double wow." She heard the boy suck in a breath and hold it.

  She wanted to hold this moment in her heart forever, treasuring it and thanking God for this opportunity. This was Heaven, not Hades, and there was nothing more beautiful in the world than the panorama she couldn't pull her eyes from.

  "Triple wow," she mouthed.

  Shilo wasn't sure how long she stood there, Sigmund at her side and neither blinking, scarcely breathing. Nidintulugal had been saying something to her, but the words were like the buzz of a cloud of gnats, an annoyance. Finally, he clamped a hand on*her shoulder.

  "Shilo—"

  He broke the trance and she sadly turned toward him.

  "What?"

  "Kim has disappeared. I looked away from him for just an instant."

  "He does that,' Sigmund said. "I suppose we'd better start looking for him." His shoulders slumped, sad that he couldn't stare out at, the city anymore. "Can't find the eggs until we find Kim." He brightened slightly. "Hey, Niddy, which came first, the Kimmy or the egg?''

  24 Under the Gardens

  NIDINTULUGAL FOUND THE WAY BELOW. THERE WAS A GAP between buckets that were affixed to a primitive conveyor belt of leather and metal links. He saw that Shilo and Sigmund were watching him, and that there appeared to be cover. Without a word, he clambered onto the belt and disappeared into the mountain, grateful no guards had been posted next to the machine.

  Sigmund was quick to follow him, grinning broadly as if this was all a big adventure.

  Shilo hesitated. She was worried someone was watching them and would alert the city's guards. There could be laws against this, she thought. Too, she was afraid Kim hadn't taken this route and that he had wandered off elsewhere. Ii they guessed wrong about Kim's path, they might never see him again.

  "But, I can't spend all of my time chasing him," she said. "There's a world to save." After another quick glance to see if anyone was nearby or paying attention to her, she grabbed the chain between buckets with a hand, held her breath, and jumped into the hole.

  It felt like her arm was pulling out of the socket, but she held tight with aching fingers and gritted her teeth so she wouldn't whimper. Her side banged against the chain and a bucket, and she set all the buckets nearby to clanking and thunking, and spilling the water out of some of the ones coming up the other side. Her feet dangled free, and she flailed about with them, trying to find a bucket lip to stand on or a way to hook her knees around the chain. She couldn't manage either, as her robe was too long and kept tangling around her legs.

  How had the others done this without making so much noise? Was she that clumsy? Just last week Meemaw had suggested dance lessons, and now Shilo wondered if she should have agreed.

  She reached up with her free hand and grabbed on to the chain. The extra feeling of security helped, and though her right arm still throbbed, it no longer felt like it was going to pull out.

  She looked up while she continued her ride down. The only light came from the hole above her, streaming around the buckets and chain, bright in her eyes and making her blink.

  She couldn't hear herself, though she knew she was breathing raggedly. The groaning of the chain moving along whatever mechanism drove it, and the clunking of the buckets, echoed in the shaft. Too, there was the gurgle of water. From somewhere below she heard the plash of bucket after bucket striking the water supply, and the slosh of the water as it was drawn up on the other side of the belt, passing her by on its trip to the top.

  Shilo hadn't thought ancient people capable of such an engineering feat, but then they had managed the magnificent Ishtar Gate and the towering temples she'd walked by, the glazed bricks displaying bulls, lions, and the Ishtar dragon, and no doubt many other marvels she'd not yet seen. The Hanging Gardens themselves were perhaps the most amazing. Were the circumstances different, she thought she might like to hang around in Babylon a while longer, and see more of the city and all its wonders and discover what other fascinating things these people had crafted.

  But as she descended farther into the mountain, she discovered that the only thing she really wanted to do was find her way back out and get home. She worried that if Kim hadn't gone down this conveyor belt, he'd be on his own and would have to find his own way home, which she doubted was possible without the dragon's help.

  Suddenly hands clamped around her waist, and she squealed in surprise, released her grip, and found herself pulled away from the belt. A hand pressed firmly over her mouth.

  "Hush, Shilo, there are men below and they might hear us."

  It was Nidintulugal.

  He released her, and she sagged back against him, blinking furiously and trying to see her surroundings in the dim light.

  "Shhhhh." This came from Kim.

  So he had come down here! She wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him, tell him not to run off ever again. Instead, she just stood there, her vision adjusting and separating the shadows. Sigmund was next to Kim, shaking a stern finger at him. Great minds think alike, Shilo mused. It must run in the family.

  They stood on a wide ledge that ringed the shaft. She got a better look at the conveyor mechanism by watching the buckets pass by at eye level. The chain was big, the links thick, like those she'd seen attached to drawbridges in pictures of castles. She didn't know the people of ancient Babylon had forges, but they had knives and spears, and she'd seen metal plates in the guards' armor, so there had to Be blacksmiths or something like them. . . . But the links looked more complicated than fashioning something flat like weapons. They all looked so uniform, like they had been poured in molds.

  The buckets were wood, held together with metal bands and things that looked like rivets, the handles thick leather straps, and lined in either leather or cloth—she wasn't certain which.-They were affixed to the chain with a link extending from a metal bar, which kept the buckets from spilling until they got to the top and were tipped by another mechanism, causing them to spill their contents into a trough. From there the water would flow down the mountain and into various parts of the Gardens.

  "Pretty amazing, huh?" Sigmund whispered. "I hadn't thought people this long ago were capable of something like this. It seems way too modern. I gotta get me some history books when I get home."

  Shilo didn't see the curious look Nidintulugal gave Sigmund.

  "Look down there." Sigmund stabbed a finger over the edge.

  Shilo steadied herself against Nidintulugal and peered over the ledge. The shaft continued down into darkness. "I don't see anything." She k
ept her voice low.

  "Just keep watching."

  She did, and a moment later she saw a light flicker below, moving in a circle, then passing out of sight. She caught a glimpse of a bare arm and a head, then nothing.

  "See, there's someone down there," Sigmund continued. "Niddy heard 'em first." His whispers echoed off the shaft wall across from them. "Wonder what they're doing? Think they're making all these buckets move? I bet they operate this whole contraption."

  Shilo shrugged. "No, don't you dare." She grabbed at Kim. He was reaching for the chain, obviously intending to go down farther. "Don't be an idiot.''

  The boy looked hurt and confused. "I thought we were—"

  "Hush," Nidintulugal said. "All of you hush." He edged away from Shilo, circling the shaft with his back to the wall. He made an exaggerated beckoning motion so they could see him in the dim light. There was a slash in the wall behind him, and he ducked inside.

  Shilo kept a hold of Kim. "Listen, you." She kept herself from being too nasty as she whispered, "This mission we're on ... it's more important than you. This isn't just about you. If you paid attention to Nidin last night, you'd know it's about our future, about a whole lot of people's futures. We need your help, your hands and strength. We don't need you running off again."

  She felt him tremble under her grip.

  "Sorry," he said.

  She couldn't see his expression, his face tipped down, but she was pretty sure he'd stay in line now.

  "I really am sorry," he said. "I guess I just got ... I dunno . . . excited."

  Shilo couldn't stay mad at him; he was only eleven years old and filled with a youthful fascination for what was essentially an unknown world. She doubted that he knew to be afraid. He hadn't been pursued by guards and wanted by a rich man who knew about Georgia, or at least about the United States. He hadn't come face-to-face with a dragon. Or had he? He'd traveled because of the puzzle before. But his dragon couldn't have been as big as Ulbanu.

  Nothing living was as big as Ulbanu.

  "We should catch up with them, Shilo. They're gonna get too far ahead." Kim whispered softly, and he cast his gaze even farther down so he wouldn't have to look her in the eyes. "Don't want to lose them, do we?"

  "No running off," she repeated, raising her voice ever so slightly. Then she nudged Kim toward the slash in the shaft, wishing she had a leash to put around his neck, just to be certain he didn't stray again.

  "Can't see where I'm going." Kim had stopped in front of her.

  She squeezed by him. "Hold on to my robe,'' she told him. "And don't ..."

  "I know, don't let go."

  Shilo cursed herself for not immediately following Nidintu-lugal. Maybe a priest of the sun god had better vision, and so could find his way in the dark. She raised her hands and found the wall on each side of her, making this tunnel, she guessed, about a yard or so wide. She ran her fingertips along it, discovering a mix of earth and bricks that had straw baked in them. A man-made tunnel then, she knew. She went slow, too slow for Kim she could tell, as he bumped into her a couple of times.

  She couldn't see anything, and was afraid to move faster. It was like being in a cave. She'd done that before with her father in Georgia, went in one of those caves on a tour with a bunch of elderly folks who were from out of state. They'd followed a path that had a rope along one side to keep people from wandering off. At one point in the tour the guide flipped the light switch, plunging the cave into blackest black. The guide was demonstrating what it was like to be caught in a cave without a lantern.

  Shilo hadn't enjoyed that part of the tour, just like she certainly wasn't enjoying this. Here she was in a cave again, and with her father again—but he was somewhere ahead of her. And he was younger than her and oblivious to the fact that they were related.

  This wasn't the way they had planned to get under the Hanging Gardens. In fact, she thought that the point of this morning's exercise was to find a way into the mountain— which they had—but by the Euphrates, by backtracking the water and finding a way in via the river. They were supposed to come back at night when it was dark.

  Well, it was plenty dark here.

  This should have been planned better, she thought, maybe with diagrams and certainly more discussion. Certainly with candles or a lantern—they would have brought those at night. Maybe if she'd been older, if all of them were older, they would have approached this differently, certainly not so unprepared.

  There was a scraping sound ahead, regular and soft, and Shilo guessed it was Nidintulugal's sandals hitting the floor. She reached behind, her hand closing on Kim's arm.

  "Wait," she told him, squatting, and feeling that he squatted with her. She placed her free hand flat against the floor, feeling straw-laced bricks. "All of this is man-made," she whispered.

  "I don't like this," the boy admitted.

  "I don't either."

  She stood and moved forward again, a little iaster now that she realized the floor was even and not likely to trip her up.

  Shilo kept her right hand against the wall and her left arm thrust out in front of her, hoping she would feel Sigmund's or Nidintulugal's back. The wall was wet, and she slowed her pace slightly, fingers dancing over the mud and bricks. She guessed one of the troughs or basins in the Hanging Gardens was leaking.

  "Shilo . . ."

  "Nidin!"

  "Hush," he told her.

  A heartbeat later, Shilo's fingers brushed Sigmund's back, and she came to an abrupt stop, Kim bumping soundly into her.

  "Listen," Nidintulugal said. The priest was directly in front of Sigmund. "Do you hear it?"

  Shilo heard voices, two of them, and by concentrating she turned their tongue into words she could understand. They were speaking a language similar to Nidintulugal's, but there were differences.

  "Water comes down this wall," one man said.

  "It is a leak that we must trace to its source." This voice was deeper and had a rasp to it. "Climb the east tunnel and see if the problem is there. We repaired the east pipe a few days ago. It is likely the source of the problem again."

  "Are we in the east tunnel?' Sigmund asked.

  Shilo could tell Sigmund was trembling. At least he well understood the danger in what they were doing.

  "I don't know," Nidintulugal said. "I really don't know where we are."

  Then Shilo felt Sigmund move away and heard the priest's soft footfalls.

  "We're moving again," she whispered to Kim. Again she kept her right hand on the wall and her left reaching out, trying to touch Sigmund's back. After a few moments, she heard the voice with the rasp, the unseen man complaining about being forced to look for the leak. At the same time, her right hand lost contact with the wall, indicating a turn in the passage. She located the corner and took the turn, Kim following her.

  A few moments after that she saw a glow in front of her, growing brighter with each heartbeat. She likened herself to a deer frozen in the.headlights of a car. For an instant she didn't know what to do.

  A man held out a lantern, spotted Shilo, and stopped.

  "Who?" he asked.

  Shilo could hardly see him, the light coming forward and revealing everything in front of him, while keeping him in shadows. However, she could tell he was short and broad-shouldered, almost stocky—she could tell nothing beyond that. The lantern illuminated the walls. The dirt was hard-packed, serving as mortar between the baked clay bricks. Many of the bricks were etched or glazed with images of lions and bulls. The brickwork curved up to make an arch of the ceiling, and all of the bricks there were glazed and shiny-looking, as if they were wet.

  Shilo didn't have time to figure out if they really were wet, as the man held the lantern higher and closer so he could better see her.

  "I'm lost," she said. "I-I-I fell down some hole and—"

  The man growled. "One more thing to worry over today.'

  He sighed and lowered the lantern, giving Shilo a better look at him.

  He wo
re a skirt that came to about his knees. The fabric probably had been close to white at one time, but there were gray and black streaks in it, like the soiled shirt an auto mechanic might wear. His legs, arms, and chest gleamed with sweat, and his face was unlined and smudged with dirt, his hair oiled and pulled back into a ponytail.

  Nidintulugal had not come this way, and had probably kept going straight. This side passage had been a bad mistake. Great, she thought. Great, great, great.

  "I'm lost," Shilo repeated. "I don't know where I am." The truth. "I am so hopelessly lost." The truth again. She relaxed when she saw him offer her a faint smile, the tightness of his face easing. 'Tm glad you found us, really. It was so dark, we couldn't see anything. I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come by."

  "I will take you outside." He held out his free hand. "Come, let us be away from here."

  So they would be able to get out of here without hitching a ride on the water conveyor! But Shilo didn't want to leave just yet. There was her father to consider, and Nidintulugal and the eggs. Now what was she going to do?

  Suddenly he pulled his hand back, his eyes widening and mouth opening. "Who are you?"

  Not how did you get down here. That would've been the question Shilo would have asked. She followed his gaze. He was looking at her right hand. She'd been running it along the wall, and where the wall had been wet—it had smeared the dye. Her fingers and palm were pale, and the skin from the back of her hand to a few inches past her wrist was horribly streaked.

  "Skin condition," she said, thinking quickly. "A terrible rash." She might have been able to convince him of that. But as she watched, the dye ran in a brown blob down her arm. "Ooops."