"If Dr. Conrad's interpretation of those ancient texts had been accurate," Anastasia began, "this would still have been a wonderful bit of archaeology, and an important opportunity to study ancient Tibet. But Mark, along with my employers at the British Museum and the Chinese government, arrived at their interpretations by first discounting the folklore involved."
Conrad laughed and shook his head. "Stacie, what are you talking about? Are you trying to imply the Dragon King--"
Hellboy held his breath when Anastasia looked at him.
"Was a dragon," she said, casting a quick glance at Conrad. "Yes. That's precisely what I'm saying." Her gaze returned to Hellboy and Professor Bruttenholm. "Oh, call it whatever you like--whatever fits your narrow imagination. Monster. Giant Gila monster. Miraculous survivor of Paleolithic times. All of that would be utter shite, of course, but if it makes it easier for you to accept..."
Professor Bruttenholm stroked his goatee, studying her. "Obviously, Hellboy and I have no difficulty--"
"Dragons!" Dr. Conrad said, too loudly. When he realized the volume of his voice, he hushed himself and looked around incredulously. At last he set his sights on the man from Beijing, thinking perhaps that Lao was the sole voice of reason remaining in the room. "Are you truly listening to this? This isn't science, it's childish nonsense. Dragons and princesses. Next she's going to tell me she believes in vampires."
Lao smoothed the lapels of his black jacket and fixed Dr. Conrad with a dark stare. "Of course she does, doctor," the man from Beijing said, in perfect, crisp English. "And with good reason."
Conrad spun, nose wrinkled in revulsion, and turned to Professor Bruttenholm. "This is absurd!"
"Not at all, Dr. Conrad. Vampires are, I assure you, quite real. Seventy-seven different breeds have been cataloged by the BPRD, and I can only presume there are others. Fortunately, they do not seem to be the problem here. Now, if you'll be so kind as to allow Dr. Bransfield to speak, perhaps we can return to my original question."
The man fumed, but he crossed his arms and said nothing further. Hellboy almost wished he would. At some point, his father would have told him to remove Conrad from the tent if he continued to impede their investigation. Would've been fun.
"Go on, Dr. Bransfield," Professor Bruttenholm said.
Hellboy couldn't have missed the cold professionalism in his father's tone, the distance there. The way Anastasia blinked, it was clear that she heard it as well. But she was used to being clinical and meticulous.
"Thank you, Professor," she replied, glancing from Bruttenholm to Hellboy and back. "Han Kyichu is the only member of my team who was aware of my beliefs regarding our discovery. He concurred with them. The legends about the Dragon Pool and the temple of the Dragon King are fairly straightforward. In fact, just before Kora was reported missing, he'd found writing within one of the excavated structures that indicated it was the actual temple of the Dragon King."
Conrad waved a dismissive hand. "Which it wasn't."
Anastasia nodded. "On that, I'm afraid Mark is correct. What we'd thought was the temple turned out to be something else entirely."
Hellboy ran a hand over his stubbly pate. "You've lost me, Stasia. There's some stuff about the legend in the case file. But gimme the short version. What are we dealing with here, and when do I get to hit it?"
She smiled wanly and went across the tent to a table upon which lay stacks of journals and thick sheaves of bound documents. Anastasia pushed a couple of them out of the way, picked up a phone-book-sized report, and flipped it open. She made as if to bring it to Hellboy, then raised an eyebrow at her folly and handed it to Professor Bruttenholm instead. She knew Hellboy wasn't good with the homework.
"In the morning, you can see the room itself. The preparatory chamber, according to Dr. Conrad, and I concur."
Hellboy threw up his hands. "Preparing for what? And whose chamber was it? Lay it out for us."
"The Dragon King Pool is an ancient legend that describes a large, turbulent lake, beneath which resided an evil dragon who caused devastation, fire, and floods, and brought misery to all those who would not serve him...and often those he had already conquered and forced into his service."
"Swell guy," Hellboy muttered.
"He was a king," Anastasia said, as if that explained it all. And, in a way, it did. "The Dragon King's subjects were forced to build a temple to worship him. He considered himself a god. Not exactly unusual back then. Every silly bugger with a bit of power fancied himself a deity. Same thing happens nowadays, they just don't let on that they've promoted themselves to godhood. Anyway, point is, the Dragon King was supposed to be huge. Many other, lesser dragons served him. And then there were the conquered people, the slaves.
"His subjects built a temple, and some kind of city around it, where they lived. We are one hundred percent certain that what we've found is the city of the Dragon King, and that Lake Tashi is the legendary Dragon Pool. But the temple is still a mystery to us. The geography doesn't suggest any buildings of the size that would be required for such a temple."
Professor Bruttenholm looked troubled. He also looked tired. Hellboy wished Anastasia would offer him a chair. Not that his father would take it.
"And this preparatory chamber?" the professor said.
"The legend states that the only way for the locals, even those who were his subjects, to placate the Dragon King was to offer him a child in sacrifice. Once a year, a child was chosen and thrown into the lake, which would churn and steam with the fire of the Dragon King. The child would never be seen again. The figures and characters on the door to the preparatory chamber referred to the sacrifice and to the temple, which made Professor Kyichu think that it was the temple itself. The saboteur caved in the entrance to the chamber, focused there, as though it was of far more importance than anything else we're excavating. And I suppose it is. Once we dug it out, Dr. Conrad discerned the true nature of the place."
Hellboy took a few steps toward his father, but Professor Bruttenholm waved him off, a stern expression on his face. He didn't like to be fussed over. Stubborn old goat, Hellboy thought.
He looked at Anastasia, Lao, and Conrad, each in turn. Nothing that had been said seemed to have fazed Lao, but Conrad kept rolling his eyes and sighing in obvious dismay that they were all speaking with such credulity about dragons and their human worshippers.
"Let's talk about this saboteur," Hellboy said. "Mr. Lao?"
The man from Beijing regarded him coolly, without speaking.
Professor Bruttenholm cleared his throat again, a reminder that he was leading the investigation. "Mr. Lao, does the Bureau have your assurance that your government is in no way involved in the sabotage of this expedition?"
Lao revealed no emotion at all. "You insult us, Professor."
"And you have my apologies. That wasn't my intention. But the question had to be asked, and answered. I take it your official answer is 'no.'"
The man from Beijing flinched, almost imperceptibly. He did not like to be pushed. "That is correct."
"Thank you," Professor Bruttenholm said.
"Okay," Hellboy began, turning the focus back to Anastasia. "What, then? You shot the guy, you said. He dived into the lake--"
"Several miles to the northwest there is a village. Nakchu. I took a small party to the village this morning to ask about Kora. I was as diplomatic as possible. Only the elder spoke, and he didn't offer his name. No one in Nakchu had seen Kora, or so he told our guide, Tenzin. But when I was there, I saw a fellow with a bright red spot on his shirt, right where I'd shot the...intruder, the night before."
"Blood."
"Probably."
"So you think he was your guy? That he took a bullet, dived into the lake, and hiked back to his village before daybreak?"
Anastasia nodded. "Yes. I do."
"Bollocks!" Dr. Conrad said. "And I suppose he was wearing some sort of monster mask every time he came into camp? The man you and Danovich and the others spotted was disfigured, Stacie, you said so yourself."
"Hideous," she replied, and Hellboy was troubled by the disquiet in her voice. "He had fire burning in his eyes."
"You mean they glowed?" Professor Bruttenholm asked.
"No," Anastasia said, shaking her head. "I mean they were on fire. Flames flickered from his eyes like...have you ever seen a building on fire, the way the blaze shoots up from the burned out windows? Like that."
Hellboy stared at her. "So, when you said you had reason to believe he was a shape-shifter?"
"What I saw wasn't a mask. Danovich will tell you the same. This thing wasn't human. But the young man I saw--handsome lad. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, except that bloodstain on his shirt."
"He could have gotten that a thousand ways. You don't even know it was blood!" Conrad protested.
"It was blood," Lao said, and from the way Anastasia and Conrad glanced at him, Hellboy had the impression the man from Beijing was being downright verbose with them tonight in comparison to his usual MO.
Professor Bruttenholm crossed his arms. This time when Hellboy went to him, he allowed himself to be escorted to a chair and slid down into it gratefully, deep in thought.
"Tell me, Dr. Bransfield," the professor said, stiffly formal. "How does this legend end? Such bits of folklore always have a colorful ending."
"This one is no different. An order of monks refused to serve the Dragon King. He burned many of them and threatened to destroy them all if they would not worship him. But among them was a monk who was a warrior and sorcerer, though small in stature. A dwarf."
"A dwarf," Hellboy repeated.
"Yes," Anastasia said, glaring admonishment at him.
Hellboy shrugged. "Just saying."
"His name was Dwenjue. He posed as a child and was thrown into the lake by the subjects of the Dragon King. Dwenjue battled the dragon for seven days and seven nights, and slew the dragon...or at least wounded it mortally and trapped it forevermore. From that day on, the area became prosperous, and the people were happy. At least...that's the legend."
Professor Bruttenholm mumbled something that might have been "interesting." Mr. Lao only watched the interplay with cool, distant eyes. Dr. Conrad shook his head in disbelief. Hellboy and Anastasia found they could not hold one another's gaze for very long without looking away.
"Okay, let's see what we've got," Hellboy said at last, just to be saying something. "Sabotage guy, who might be a shape-shifter, fire coming out of his eyes kinda suggesting dragon-boy. Village protecting him, or maybe actually clueless. Either way, that's a problem. Missing girl, in a place where they used to drown kids sacrificially to appease the local bully."
Alarm flared in Anastasia's eyes. "Please don't say that out loud again. Professor Kyichu is holding out every hope. I'm sure he's thought of it himself, but until we know for sure--"
Hellboy held up his left hand. He almost told her not to get her knickers in a twist. Any other English-woman, he might have. But this was Anastasia.
"Relax. Not another word. Besides, I've got a feeling the kid's still alive."
Anastasia frowned. "I hope you're right, but what makes you say that?"
"Hey, nobody's used that preparatory chamber in how many centuries? Could be why they've been trying so hard to keep you from opening it up. Maybe that's all part of the deal."
Professor Bruttenholm twisted around in his seat and stared at Hellboy. Anastasia covered her mouth in horror.
"What'd I say?" Hellboy asked.
"Something logical."
He shrugged. "Give enough monkeys enough typewriters, you get Shakespeare, or something like that. I'm just saying if somebody wants to worship the Dragon King the old way, they'd have to use that chamber, right?"
"It does make sense," Dr. Conrad said, though it was obvious the words pained him.
"So if no one's been in there with the kid yet, then she's probably still breathin'."
Anastasia started to swear under her breath, then shot him a hard look. "Are you suggesting that the saboteur was trying to stop us so that...you're saying by opening the chamber, we may have somehow set those old rituals in motion again, that we've woken something--"
She was interrupted by a flap of canvas, then Abe Sapien walked into the tent, dripping with water from the lake.
"Abe," Professor Bruttenholm said, staring at the amphibious man intently. "Did you discover anything?"
All eyes were on him, and Abe looked at Conrad and Lao warily. Hellboy gestured for him to speak.
"Nothing. It's very dark, Professor, but I don't think the morning will show me anything either. No sign of ruins. No creatures other than fish. No bodies. Nothing but loose soil and a few plants. I've never seen a lake bottom so bare."
"Another puzzle," Professor Bruttenholm said.
"There is one odd thing," Abe added.
Hellboy didn't like the way he said it.
"What're you talking about, Abe?" he asked.
"The lake...it's cold at first, what you would expect. But as I went deeper, the water felt warm. There's heat coming from somewhere down there, as though there might be a volcanic fissure beneath the lake. I saw no sign of--"
"No," Anastasia said. "There's no volcanic activity on this plateau."
Hellboy saw the idea illuminate her features. Even Lao reacted, eyes narrowing with dark worry. Conrad only looked confused.
"Well," Professor Bruttenholm said, "obviously, something must be providing that heat."
Hellboy stared at Anastasia.
"I think we need a plan."
The Island of Crete, 6 April, 1980
"Nice place. Kind of a change of pace."
Anastasia turned and smiled at him from the balcony. Hellboy stood in the airy living room of the villa that the British Museum had provided for them on the outskirts of Anoyeia. White curtains billowed in the breeze like some kind of princess's dream or a bad coffee commercial. Any minute, Hellboy expected to see unicorns--or a Colombian guy in a bad hat with a burro.
