The sound of singing began as a barely noticeable sound pulse traveling through the granite roots of the mountain.
Qiao Ming and Yan Zhiqiu stood upon the lowest reading terrace of the Grand Scroll hall, looking northward across the boundless expanse of the underground lake. The water was as smooth as an expanse of dark green silk, reflecting the thousands of living-glow jade lanterns that hung from the marble rows of stone pillars.
At first, the shaking seemed to rise from the floor itself. A deep, rhythmic sub-bass hum pitched at thirty-two cycles per second, so low that the human ear registered it as a tingling sensation in the chest rather than a heard tone.
Then, the ringing frequencies arrived.
Through the mouth of the South Aqueduct, forty leagues to the north, the singing of the Ten Thousand Statues in the Grand Round hall was echoing down the granite throat. Amplified by the curved curve of the dogleg drain tubes, the sound poured out across the underground lake like a majestic choral psalm sung by an army of stone giants.
The sound hymn that rang down the water chute was an ancient melody known as the Liturgy of the Submerged Pillars. Composed in the pentatonic scale of the First Dynasty, the music had been encoded directly into the physical dimensions of the underwater statues in the Grand Round hall. As the water drained through the stone flutes, sound chambers, and sounding sky-slits carved into the ten thousand effigies, each statue…
