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At that I felt a sharp blow to the back of my head. I spun around and shone my flashlight on nothing. The light from the cave entrance hurt my eyes.
Something pushed my left side and then my right shoulder. It was the spirits coming at me again. I saw that Merrick was jerking and moving to the side, as if something were striking her also.
I uttered a prayer to Oxal¨¢ again, and heard Merrick issuing her own refusals to back down.
"This is as
far as we got last time," said Merrick, turning to look at me, her face dark above her flashlight, which she politely directed to the ground. "We took everything we found here. Now I'm going on. "
I was right with her, but the assault of the spirits grew stronger. I saw her pushed to one side. But quickly she steadied herself. I heard the crunch of pottery beneath her feet.
"You've made us angry," I said to the spirits. "Maybe we don't have any right here. And maybe we do!"
At this I received a heavy silent blow to the stomach, but it was not sufficient to cause pain. I felt a sharp increase in my exhilaration suddenly.
"Go on, do your damndest," I said. "Oxal¨¢, who is buried here? Would he or she have it remain secret forever? Why did Oncle Vervain send us to this place?"
Merrick, who was several yards ahead of me, let out a gasp.
I caught up with her at once. The tunnel had opened into a great hollow round chamber where the mosaics ascended the low dome. Much had fallen away from age or dampness, I knew not which, but it was a glorious room nevertheless. Round both walls the figures proceeded, until there stood one individual whose facial features had long ago been broken away.
On the floor of the room, in its very center, surrounded by clear circles of pottery offerings and fine jade statues, lay a beautiful arrangement of ornaments in a nest of dust.
"Look, the mask, the mask in which he was buried," Merrick said, her light falling upon the most glorious polished green jade image, which lay as it had been placed perhaps thousands of years before, the body of the wearer having long since melted away.
Neither of us dared take a step. The precious articles surrounding the burial were too beautifully arranged. We could see the ear ornaments now, glinting, as the soft moldering earth nearly swallowed them, and across the would be chest of the being we saw a long richly carved scepter, which perhaps he had held in his hand.
"Look at all the debris," she said. "No doubt he was wrapped in fabric full of precious amulets and sacrifices. Now the fabric's gone and only the stone objects remain. "
There was a loud noise behind us. I could hear pottery smashing. Merrick gave a short cry, as though something had struck her.
Then willfully, indeed, as if driven, she plunged forward, dropped to her knees, and picked up the brilliant green mask. She darted back with it, away from the remains of the corpse.
A flying stone struck me on the forehead. Something shoved at my back.
"Come on, let's leave the rest for the archaeologists," she said. "I have what I came for. It's what Oncle Vervain told me to get. "
"The mask? You mean you knew all the time there was a mask in this tunnel, and that's what you wanted?"
She was already on her way to the outside air.
Scarcely had I caught up with her when she was pushed backwards.
"I'm taking it, I have to have it," she declared.
As we both tried to continue, something unseen blocked our path. I reached out. I could touch it. It was like a soft silent wall of energy.
Merrick suddenly gave over her flashlight to me and in both hands she held the mask.
At any other time of my life, I would have been admiring it, for it had an immense amount of expression and detail. Though there were holes for eyes and a gash for the mouth, all features were deeply contoured and the gloss of the thing was beautiful in itself.
As it was, I moved with all my strength against this force that sought to block me, lifting both flashlights as if they were clubs.
Merrick again startled me with a gasp. She held the mask to her face, and as she turned to took at me it appeared brilliant and faintly ghastly in the light. It seemed suspended in the darkness, for I could scarce make out her hands or her body at all.
She turned it away from me, still holding it to her face. And again there came a gasp from her.
The air in the cave fell silent and still.
