Scorpion Hill

Chapter 1: Thievery

Marrakesh, Morocco. Wednesday, January 7, 1976.

"Cut to the chase, Peter. How many and how deadly?" Neal crossed his arms in front of his chest, ignoring the shoppers crowding the stalls of the market in the historic medina of Marrakesh.

Peter placed his hands on his hips. "Just because it's called Scorpion Hill, don't assume the site's overrun with them."

"That's not what I read," Elizabeth countered. "Scorpions are common throughout the region, and I remember the hair-raising account of a certain archaeologist I know and love from a previous expedition. Don't tell me you invented those stories just to keep me from wishing I'd been able to go with you."

"Of course not." Despite his denial, the tips of Peter's ears reddened, leading Neal to suspect El's suspicions were perilously close to being accurate. "It's just that after facing hordes of rampaging ghasts and zoogs, scorpions no longer seem as threatening," Peter said in an apparent effort to salvage the situation.

"What about the legend of the giant scorpion inhabiting the Atlas Mountains?" Neal challenged. "Scorpion Hill is part of that mountain range. Isn't that where the scorpion's home is supposed to be?"

Peter groaned. "Mozzie told you about that, didn't he?"

"And me, as well," El added. "It sounds like a reasonable surmise."

Peter raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Fine. If you want to believe mythological creatures are real, I won't stop you. The Atlas Mountains were named after the Greek god who holds up the celestial heavens. It's no stretch at all to think that Atlas brought the constellation Scorpius down to Earth and transformed it into a giant arachnid whose nest is in Scorpion Hill."

Peter raised a brow, but if he expected Neal to laugh, he was out of luck. Neal would never be skeptical of anything again, not after he discovered the monsters written about by Abdul Alhazred in the Necronomicon were not mere nightmarish creations, but alien creatures from other worlds. In comparison, an immense scorpion lurking in the foothills didn't sound that outlandish.

Mozzie claimed that he hadn't accompanied them to Marrakesh so he could continue his work with Pagna Sastri and Milly, a Celaenian android residing within the armillary sphere. In a week Pagna was due to return to the Meropian home base, leaving Mozzie in charge of her lab. Ample justification to stay at home. The fact that he would also avoid any encounters with gigantic arachnids was purely coincidental.

Neal picked up the bottle of scorpion repellant which the vendor assured him would offer protection from all species. "This doesn't cost much. I'm getting it."

"I wonder if he has anything to repel zoogs," El asked. "That's what we really need."

If the reports Sara had obtained from her Interpol contact were accurate, zoogs had been spotted in the ancient Moroccan city. The presence of animals from the planet Tirelia would indicate an active wormhole and, along with it, the likelihood of an active branch of the Starry Wisdom cult.

A couple of years ago, Peter had worked on a dig near Scorpion Hill which was in the foothills south of Marrakesh. He'd uncovered Neolithic drawings of starfish reminiscent of images they'd learned to associate with the Elnath, an ancient alien species who colonized Earth in its prehistory. Peter had wanted to return to the excavation site in any case, but Sara's report made the need more urgent. Funding and all travel arrangements had been provided by their Meropian adviser Gideon Talmadge.

If zoogs were present, were ghasts as well? Humans could spot zoogs but ghasts were invisible to anyone who didn't carry algolnium in their spinal fluid. As far as Neal knew, the only humans capable of seeing ghasts were the members of his group. He hoped they'd be able to discover the wormhole, seal it, and then explore the dig at their leisure. They'd only just arrived in Marrakesh. Absolutely no reason to be a pessimist.