08 The Tomb

Chapter 08 The Tomb Jack and Annie stood frozen. The silent soldiers did, too. Finally, Annie spoke. “ They’re fake, ” she said. “ Fake?” whispered Jack. “ They’re not real, ” she said. “ They look real, ” said Jack. Annie walked straight toward the front row of soldiers.

Jack held his breath. Annie pulled the soldier’s nose. “ Fake! ” she said. “ Oh, brother, ” said Jack. He walked over to the soldier and touched his painted face. It was as hard as stone. “ It’s amazing, ” Jack said. Annie nodded. “ It’s like a museum. ” She walked down a row between two lines of soldiers. “ Wait. This is spooky, ” said Jack. “ What is this place?” He put down his sack and pulled out the China book. He found a picture of the frozen army and read aloud: The Dragon King had 7, 000 life-size clay figures made for his burial tomb. The clay was baked and painted. The Dragon King hoped that the clay army would protect him after he died.

“ It’s like the pyramid in ancient Egypt, ” said Jack. “ Remember? The queen was buried with a boat and lots of things to take to the afterlife. ” He looked around. “ Annie?” “ I’m here, ” she called. She was far down another row. “ Come back here, ” yelled Jack. “ No, you come here, ” said Annie. “ It’s so cool. All their faces are different. ” Jack threw the book into his sack. Then he hurried down the row to Annie. “ Look, ” she said. “ Just look. ”

In the flickering lamplight, they wandered down the rows of soldiers. No two soldiers had the same nose, the same eyes, or the same mouth. “ Oh, man. No wonder so many people had to work on this tomb, ” said Jack. “ They really did a good job, ” said Annie. “ Yeah, ” said Jack. There were kneeling archers and foot soldiers dressed in red and black armor. There were real bronze swords, daggers, axes, spears, bows, and arrows. There were even life-size wooden chariots with horses. The horses looked completely real. They were different colors with white teeth and red tongues. “ I have to take some notes about all this, ” said Jack.

He pulled out his notebook and pencil. Then, kneeling on the brick floor, he wrote: no two faces the same not even the horses “ Ja-ack, ” said Annie. “ You know what?” “ What?” “ I think we’re lost, ” she said. “ Lost?” Jack stood up. “ We’re not lost. ” “ Yeah? Then which way is out?” said Annie. Jack looked around. All he could see were rows of soldiers. In front of them, to the right, to the left, behind them—nothing but clay soldiers.