Chapter 1: Geflüster im Knochen

The apprentice was named Joseph, fourteen or fifteen, thin as a scrap of reinforcing steel. He slumped outside the mine shaft, covered in dust, his hands still shaking. He stared at Kwabena, his lips moving several times before he squeezed out a sentence: "How... how did you know to take that road?"

Kwabena did not answer. He clutched the dinosaur tooth fossil, his fingertips still holding the tremor left by the bone speech. It was hard to describe: not a sound, more like a wind rising from underground and pouring straight into his skull. A great beast was fleeing, gravel flying under its claws, dust from a hundred million years rising behind it in a straight line. The line pointed west, into the depths of the mine.

He looked down at Joseph. "Is there anyone else inside?"

Joseph shook his head. "Just me. I went down this morning. The boss said a truck would come in the afternoon to haul material, and told me to strip the old supports inside first." He paused, his voice lower. "I should have been at the bottom of the shaft. But yesterday I picked up a bone. It looked nice, so I put it in my pocket. This morning I was distracted and took a wrong turn... and that saved me."

He pulled a gray-white fragment from his pocket and handed it to Kwabena.

Kwabena took it, and the moment his fingertips touched its rough surface, the wind inside his skull rose again. This time it was clearer: the great beast was running wildly, and behind it something heavier was pursuing it. The pursuer's steps were dull, with the sound of metal scraping the ground. He jerked his head up and looked into the depths of the mine.

Seeing his expression change, Joseph followed his gaze. "Do you hear... is there movement inside?"

The two held their breath. From deep in the mine came an extremely faint knocking, as if someone were chiseling stone with an iron bar. Once, then again, evenly spaced, with a calm, unhurried rhythm.

Joseph turned pale. "Impossible. No one is in there. I was the only one who went down this morning."

The knocking went on. Kwabena tightened his grip on the fossil, and the Cretaceous tooth grew slightly warm in his palm. He suddenly realized that the frequency of the sound was exactly the same as the frequency of the pursuer's footsteps in the bone speech.

He stood up and pushed Joseph back. "You wait outside. Do not come in."

Joseph tried to stop him, but Kwabena had already bent down and slipped through the opening. The tunnel was narrow, with damp rock walls on both sides and a few rusted steel beams overhead. After about thirty steps, the knocking grew closer. At a bend, he stopped.

In a pile of rubble in the corner lay a section of black metal pipe. Its body was rusted, but its broken end was clean, as if cut by a sharp blade. He crouched down, and just as his hand touched the pipe wall, the knocking suddenly stopped.

Immediately after, from deep in the rubble came a dull thud, as if something were answering his touch.

Kwabena pressed his hand to the metal pipe and concentrated. The bone speech surged again, but this time it was no longer the great beast. He saw a pitch-black sea, and at the bottom of the sea some enormous thing moving slowly, making heavy, regular knocking sounds. Its body was covered with scale-like metal plates, and each time a plate fell, it struck out a thud.

That thing had lain at the bottom of the sea for a hundred million years. It had not died. It was only... waiting.

Kwabena jerked his hand back, cold sweat running down his spine. He stood up and backed out of the mine. Joseph saw his deathly pale face at the entrance and hurried to support him. "Sir? Are you all right?"

Kwabena said nothing. He looked down at the dinosaur tooth fossil in his hand, then at the depths of the mine. The knocking had stopped at some point, but its rhythm was still stamped on his ears. It was not knocking. It was a heartbeat. The slow, regular heartbeat of some colossal thing deep underground.

He pressed the fossil back into Joseph's hand. "Where did you pick up this bone?"

Joseph froze. "Just... at the bottom of the shaft. By the innermost wall, there was a crack, and the bone fell out of the crack."

Kwabena was silent for a few seconds. He suddenly remembered what his grandfather had said on his deathbed: some bones in this world are not meant for the living to see. They have lain underground too long, and they will wake things that should not wake.

He turned to look into the depths of the mine. It was pitch black there, and nothing could be seen. But he knew that the knocking just now had remembered his touch.

"Let's go," he said. "Do not tell anyone about tonight."

Joseph nodded, holding the bone, and hurried away behind him. The lights of the scrapyard grew farther and farther behind them, and the mine entrance shrank to a black dot.

And not long after they left, deep in the mine, that regular knocking sounded again.

Once, then again. Unhurried, as if counting something.

As if counting how much longer remained.