Dominic’s Hourglass
9004 Minutes
Dominic didn’t want to open his eyes again. If he could have shut his ears he would have done that too. Deora’s lilting voice drifted on and on in front of him as they climbed, hand over hand, up the wet, slippery rocks. There was no point in opening his eyes anyway, it was too dark to see anything except the faintest fizzle of the torch Deora had managed to light. It hissed and glowed with only the most begrudging of rays, enough for Deora to have the vague feeling she had ‘been here before’ and setting her off up the goat track beside the pounding waterfall that had brought him here.
Where was Eva? He slipped again, his hands grasping at the sharp rocks to stop himself from plummeting. His bag was soaking wet and only the one torch was anything less than doused. He was unable to see, but it felt as though everything else was just as wet: the food, the rope which had doubled in weight, and Eva’s notebook which felt swollen and unpromising. Deora never seemed to slip. Or be quiet. Her feet stepped lightly up the rocks, which were near vertical, and she recounted her first trip through the Maze, which was apparently horrific. Dominic couldn’t forget that she had recently tried to kill him, but he decided that mentioning it to the woman with the only light source was not wise, so he kept silent. The water dulled her voice to muffled background noise, so Dom was able to gather his thoughts. Eva had to be here somewhere. He bit his lip and berated himself for taking so long. He had to be almost thirty minutes behind her. He shouldn’t have let her go first.
Perhaps she was waiting at the top of the interminable cliff, somewhere dry and well-lit. The water was ice cold, but the air was dank and his body heat was turning the damp into an uncomfortable steamy cloud. He hadn’t liked rock climbing back in life – mostly because of the gung-ho, knife-toting wilderness boys who favoured it. Of course, it would have to turn up in his death! Scrambling onto the rock in front of him, he was surprised to find it was a right angle. They were at the top. Not far away was a light source, dim, diffuse and not particularly welcoming, but he’d take anything right now. Deora stood nearby smoothing her dress, which was wet, clinging to her substantial curves and strangely, even in the murk, seemed to still be white. He grunted and huffed his legs over the edge, trying not to let the heavy backpack twist him backwards down the cliff. She watched without helping and said something he couldn’t hear. He flopped onto the ground and peered around at the small space, an open flat area a few feet across with the cliff behind them. The land dropped off around them on three sides, leaving only one direction to go. One option. A small doorway, narrow, low and perfectly rectangular, through which a yellowish light was shining. Eva wasn’t here, but if she had come this way before him, there was only one way she could have gone.
He checked the contents of his bag. The bread was soggy and almost inedible, but he was ravenous so he broke off a piece and held it out towards Deora. She shook her head in disgust and Dom shrugged before shoving it into his mouth. It tasted like bag and rope and the paper of the notebook. Not worth more than a few chews, but it was food and it helped. His head cleared a little.
‘I guess that’s the way then?’
She smiled. ‘Obviously. The tunnels will begin through there. The Maze is mostly a series of tunnels. We have to find our way through them to the centre. It is a labyrinth.’
She led the way again, though he noticed she was more tentative, walking slowly and looking back a couple of times to check he was close. Her nervousness made him uneasy. The doorway led to a corridor, long enough for the dim light to fade into darkness, with a ceiling low enough that Deora had to bend and Dom’s head skimmed the smooth surface. It felt like stone, but was warmer than he expected, as though there was some heat source deep inside. There were markings on the wall, but they had faded to faint scratchings; cave paintings. He studied them as he walked, trying to find some sense of picture in them, but all he could recognise was a strong resemblance to the Egyptian hieroglyphs he had seen in school and then again in Eva’s notebook. The symbols seemed to become sharper the further into the tunnel they walked, first with clearer edges and soon with vibrant colours. A bird. Maybe an eagle. A snake. A king. A jackal-headed man. Dom fixed his eyes on that one, remembering. Anubis. Focused on the paintings, he didn’t notice Deora stop and he walked right into her.
She was standing at an intersection, where the tunnel offered a simple choice. Left or right. Dom moved to stand beside her. Across from them, in a recess in the wall, was an exquisitely wrought golden urn. It wasn’t large, only the length of his arm, but it had a bird etched on the front of it and the detail and colour were so vivid both of them paused to admire it.
‘Strange.’ Deora frowned slightly.
‘Why strange?’
‘It’s watching us.’ She gestured. ‘These pictures are always in profile, but this hawk is looking directly at us. It isn’t telling us which direction to turn.’
‘Perhaps it is telling us to get the hell back where we came from.’ He peered down both corridors, but they were identical and trailed into blackness. The light source for the tunnels seemed to be following them, and he knew it couldn’t be the lick of flame on the torch Deora was carrying. It must be part of the Maze. The only welcome part so far. He glanced back at the bird. He was sure he knew what kind of bird it was. If only he could remember. From Eva, or school. Its blue eyes stared straight into his as he concentrated, trying to will the memory into his conscious mind. It always seemed easier to grab memories when he wasn’t trying to. Like a butterfly that landed on your shoulder when you weren’t watching.
‘Horus!’ he exclaimed triumphantly. ‘It’s Horus. The hawk. Woah!’
The bird moved suddenly. Dom grabbed at Deora’s arm and she reached for his. She smiled. The hawk’s head and right wing were now pointing firmly to Dom’s left.
‘See? I told you.’ She gestured for him to go ahead.
Walking confidently down the left-hand corridor, Dom spoke over his shoulder. ‘Well that wasn’t too challenging. If everything is that simple to figure out, we might make it after all.’ He took another step and fell into nothingness. Swinging around grasping for anything, he felt a branch whip through his fingers, but he couldn’t hold it. All it did was flip him so that he could see Deora’s face above him as he landed hard on the ground. The backpack cushioned his fall slightly, but his head snapped and hit the ground with a crack that dissolved his vision into darkness.