QUIN DYNASTY

September 9^th210[i]

A cloud descended over the hills and valleys east of Xi’an[ii], choking it in a sheet of fine rain. The mist hung low and manifested like dew on the twisted bark of the Chinese Jupiter[iii]and the red leaves of the wild Nandina, pregnant with red berries. Inextricably, the sun’s rays filtered through the thick canopy and settled on spider webs in the bark and between the leaves of the trees.

But the ecstasy was over in a few moments, only a dollop of sunshine fell upon the bright green moss that covered the ground up to the steps of Qin Shi Huang’s[iv]grand palace in the mountains, far away from the strife and the continuous political onslaught bidden by his enemies.

He strolled through the forest every morning to collect his thoughts and breathe in the clean air of the mountains; to experience the crisp bite of morning, and to wallow in the completeness of his life . The powders and creams on his face gave him an almost figurine countenance. Long fingernails curved and twisted like ornamental ballet dancers and he refused to be touched by any mortal being that was prepared to cut them.

After his walk, he returned to the palace, where he was met by his medical staff and offered a glass vial from which he drank. They wiped his mouth with an embroidered, silk handkerchief.

‘Leave me.’ He instructed in a dry, audible bite. The doctor and his two nurses stepped backwards, not daring to look into the emperor’s eyes for fear of being whipped. The moment they had gone, Qin instructed his guards that he was not be disturbed at all, by anyone, the entire day. The guards bowed and backed out, closing the gold edged panel doors behind them.

Qin touched a panel and the wall of the room opened into a long tunnel. No doors. No corners. Just a long tunnel lit up by a stretch of candles.

And a solid wall at the end of it.

Manmade.

A giant panel of mortar and dagga.

He gently touched the wall with his fingers.

For a brief moment the wall remained unchanged. Seconds later, slithers of light shot across its surface in all directions.

Then it disappeared into thin air.

Qin walked across the threshold where once had stood a thick wall of rock and the moment he crossed over, it reappeared in thin streaks of light exactly as it had vanished.

Overlapping layers of a dormant world unfolded before his very eyes.

A vast cave spread out before him with stalactite formations hanging like icicles from its roof and, in the background, a foreboding black lake that resembled a thick tar with top-hat islands dotting the surface. He strolled through tall and narrow chambers and finally reached a large cavern with twisted rocks, tall stalagmites, and a strong sulphuric smell. Millions of white insect looking fungi resembling milk drops grew on the ceiling, but the most astounding image in this cavern was the leviathan orrery, slapped right in the middle.

The raging sun was carved out of pure gold. The humble onyx was Venus; Mars, an angry barren carbuncle, and Mercury, a smouldering red ruby. The grey moon was a platinum ball and the Earth was represented by a rare blue saphire. A large topaz conceived the beautiful Venus, and majestic Saturn was bathed in the brownish yellow depths of a chrysolite ball surrounded by a ring of diamonds like pebbles circling in water. Caustic Uranus was a huge ball of chalcedony, Neptune’s bravado a perfect jacinth, while topaz morphed into Jupiter.

This orrery had cranked and turned and spun and whirred over the years, day in and day out. As the solar system turned, a pattern emerged, and he began to decipher it.

It referred to a very specific date.

23^rdFebruary 2013

He touched the sun.

The planets stopped turning.

Wheels, cogs, platforms and cylinders morphed out of them and acquired the status of a mechanised candle making machine. Pouring the wax and summoning the messengers could take many hours. He knew the machine would do it, but he was running out of time. There were twelve cylinders in all. Each one created in the shape of the twelve signs of the zodiac, suspended from beneath arms that functioned as a trough waiting for the wax to fill them.

A hum filled the cavern.

The orrery hissed as it came to a standstill. The sun opened into two halves. Boiling steam rose into the air and heated up the cavern, a process that released the glowing white Chinese wax scale[v]to fall into the boiling water of the sun. The one half closed over the other and the ball pulsated a bright yellow before tilting its liquid contents into the troughs that lined the twelve arms of the machine. The outer flesh of the insect dropped to the bottom of the orb and was sifted out to later feed the massive army he controlled. The white wax ran down into the cylinders and in four hours he removed them. After several hours, the candles had solidified and it took a further several hours more to remove them from the moulds and place them in special titanium and lithium containers.

Hours later, he stepped back and examined his work. He was satisfied.

Smiling, he reached for a rectangular lead container and placed the first candle, Aries, gently into its casing, then sealed it by running a finger along the rim of the lid. A wave of electricity followed his finger around the canister and then he took his index finger which produced a sharp electrical current, and he began to write:

始皇帝

I dreamed of finding immortality.

And found it west of this base,..

When he had finished, he contemplated this magnificent machine, and all of his achievements, from bringing together all the tribes of China and eradicating the nobility, to giving the country one alphabet, and a copper coin with a hole in the middle, to the Great wall[vi], precursor to the Great Wall of China. He also built a terracotta army[vii]to guard his burial palace, but walls and stone statues and alphabets are pushed aside when compared to this challenge, for by all means, by all fool proof means, he could not allow mankind to know the revelations these containers held.

He had only a few hours to complete the task and he had no idea that these were his last hours, that his obsession will be the cause of his death, that tomorrow will be a different day with a fatal challenge. They say drink to life, tomorrow he will drink life. Tomorrow the elixir of life will be his and immortality will forever be bound to his divine, but selfish genius. And then he will be unstoppable. People far across the oceans will worship him. The fish in the rivers will know him.

Even the stars in the sky.

His eyes turned red. He waved his hands below his belt. Stars shot out from his fingers into the darkness around him, like a slow motion laser show. Some smashed into each other causing small explosions of light; some sank to the floor and only then exploded.

It was one of these that produced Ratti Pi.

• Qin. Pi exclaimed.
• It is finished. Qin opened his arms wide.

Pi’s voice was like lightning against sandpaper. His ears pointed to the sky and his nose resembled a golf ball. His eyes were large, squint and tapering. His fingers, long and sinewy.

• So it is. It is. I have waited a long time, Qin. Now that you have achieved the nigh impossible, are you ready for the next step?

Qin rested his chin on the palm of his hand and whispered, - yes.

• Then it is time. You must leave now, for what I must do can never be seen by human eyes. It will kill you.

Qin understood. He turned on his heels and walked away, touched the wall, and disappeared onto the other side.

Pi was alone in a dark chamber, somewhere beneath the palace, with 12 candles. Each containing a clue as to a secret. Each inexorably linked to the next, for any one of them could hold the secret knowledge of Qin Shi Huang.

He approached the water’s edge and descended into the thick black liquid that covered his body like rubber. This was a necessary protection. The rubber would solidify and protect him from the energy he was about to unleash. The only part of his anatomy that wasn’t covered was his eyes.

The arrows were tipped with pear-shaped diamond studs and the cross-bow was made of lithium and titanium[viii], two of the lightest metals known to man, coated with a fine layer of chromate.

If he failed the task, he would be at Qin’s mercy.

His hands clutched the bow and the golden thread stretched. He took aim at the first recipient of the leaden containers.

Aries.[ix]