Quedipai walked over to a bedroll, adjusted it so that he could sit and lean against it as it covered the lower section of a wall, and gingerly lowered himself to the floor. Scorpio lay down on a similar bedroll at the far end of the room.
Merlin walked to the doorway. I’ll be back later.
You’re really going to eat an Earthman?
The Venusian wrinkled his nose. Have you ever tried to clean one of those things? I’m off to dine on uncooked Titanian.
And then Merlin was gone, the other two fell asleep, and when they awoke, it was morning and Merlin was sleeping by the doorway.
“Shall we have some breakfast before we begin?” suggested Scorpio.
“I’m too excited to eat!” responded Quedipai. “I’m finally here!”
“You’re going to be a little less excited and a little hungrier after we traipse across the floor of the Crater,” said Scorpio.
“I’ll bring food with me.”
How about you?
I’m dying. My eyes were bigger than my stomach.
Given the size of that bloated section of your body, your eyes must be larger than basketballs.
Whatever they are.
Merlin got painfully to his feet. Scorpio stared at him and smiled.
You ate both of them? Didn’t your parents ever teach you moderation?
Go ahead, make fun of me. I’ll remember this the next time someone’s trying to kill you.
“Shall we begin?” asked Quedipai, walking to the door.
“If we can,” agreed Scorpio, still grinning at his partner.
The three of them walked outside to the landcar and climbed in.
They followed the street, which curved back into itself, took another route that soon ended at a building with no discernible entrance, and after two more false starts, finally found a route to the edge of the city. Scorpio kept melting edges of buildings with his burner so that they could find their way back at the end of the day, and made a mental note to be sure to return before it was totally dark and he couldn’t see the marks he was making.
In another fifteen minutes, they had left the ancient city of Melafona—it had many names, but Scorpio liked the oldest of them—and had taken their first steps on the flat, reddish sand that covered the floor of the Crater.
A comet, do you think? suggested Merlin.
Too big and too fast; not enough damage here. Probably an asteroid, or more likely just part of one. Back then Mars had a little more atmosphere; it would have burned up a good part of it before it hit.
“So,” said Scorpio aloud, “where are these landmarks?”
“You are looking at one of them,” replied Quedipai, indicating a jagged red peak at the far side of the Crater.
“That thing was here eons before your Krang,” remarked Scorpio.
“Of course,” answered the Martian. “It couldn’t have been in the ancient writings if it was not itself ancient.”
“Point taken.” Scorpio looked around. “What else?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“What other landmarks are we looking for?”
“We shall find one of them at the north end of the Crater.”
Scorpio pulled out his positioning device. “Okay, we’re about three-quarters of a mile away from it,” he said, angling off to his left.
They stopped after ten minutes, and Quedipai began walking around the area, examining the ground ahead of them. Finally his entire body tensed.
“I think …” he began. “Yes! Yes, it is!”
“What do you see?” asked Scorpio.
“My second landmark,” said Quedipai, pointing just ahead of them. “Study it and you will see it too!”
“Son of a bitch!” said Scorpio. “I do see it.”
They approached a totally flat, perfectly circular rock some eight feet in diameter. It was mostly covered by the shifting Martian sand, but once Scorpio realized what it was, it seemed to jump out at him.
“I was right!” said Quedipai with obvious satisfaction. “I was right.”
“Okay, what next?” asked Scorpio.
“We proceed eighty-three paces due west from the westernmost part of the circumference.”
Scorpio began measuring off the steps.
“No,” said Quedipai.
“What’s the matter?”
“It was measured by a Martian. My steps are shorter than yours.”
“All right,” said Scorpio, moving aside while Quedipai walked the eighty-three paces.
Scorpio and Merlin joined him and looked around.
“I don’t see any tombs,” said the Earthman.
“You won’t,” answered Quedipai. “They are buried beneath the surface of the Crater.”
Scorpio stared at him. “Do you see an entrance?”
“Not yet.”
“Not yet?” repeated Scorpio, frowning.
“That is correct,” said Quedipai. He pulled some foodstuffs out of his shoulder bag. “I might as well have some nourishment, since we cannot leave this spot.”
“Before you eat anything, I think an explanation is in order.”
“When the sun is ten degrees past its peak, all will be revealed,” said the Martian, then added softly, “I hope.”
“And that’s all you plan to tell us?” said Scorpio.
“I could be wrong.”
“We’re being paid whether you’re right or wrong, so it makes very little difference to us.”
“It means everything to me,” responded Quedipai.
Scorpio decided that further questioning would be fruitless and sat down cross-legged on the Crater floor.
Do I have to watch him eat? complained Merlin.
No, you can crawl off and die in splendid isolation if you prefer.
I hate you.
I didn’t eat two entire citizens of Titan.
If I’m still alive, wake me at noon. Merlin closed his eyes.
Scorpio wished he’d brought a book along, though he didn’t know why since he hadn’t read one in years. Finally, he settled for just staring at the peak and fondly remembering a seemingly endless series of women, some human, some not, all of whom he was sure at one time or another that he loved, none of whom he loved enough to settle down and remain in one place.
He checked the sky now and then, and when the sun was directly overhead he got to his feet.
“Can you confide in me yet?” he said.
“Soon,” whispered the Martian.
Merlin was on his feet too, and his bloated belly was back to its normal size. Scorpio marveled once again at how much the Venusian could eat, and how quickly he could digest it.
The three of them stood, waiting, for twenty, thirty, forty minutes, then—
“Now!” cried Quedipai, pointing—and suddenly a shadow appeared, stretching from his feet to a previously unseen crevice in the wall of the Crater. “There is where the entrance will be!”
He actually knew, thought Merlin. Who’d have guessed it?
They approached the crevice, and, as they did so, the sun glinted off something that clearly wasn’t part of the Crater wall.
“Looks like metal,” said Scorpio.
“The top of a railing,” confirmed the Martian.
Scorpio approached it and found himself looking down a long, spiral staircase, the bottom of which was lost in shadows.
“I have found it!” said Quedipai, more to himself than his companions. “They scoffed, and they laughed, and they disbelieved, but I have found it!”
“What you’ve found in the entrance to something,” said Scorpio, shining a light down the stairs. “Let’s go find out what it is.”
“I will lead,” announced the Martian, beginning to descend the stairs.
Anything alive down there?
Nothing sentient. I think I sense some animals, but I can’t tell what kind.