The Sacred Vault (29 page)

‘Go
where
?’

‘There’s only one place we can - up!’ She started to scale the carved wall to the fifth level, Kit doing the same.

Eddie looked across the valley. The robed men emerged from cover, and began to climb the walls. The man who had thrown the
vajra
ran along the ledge towards him, sword raised.

He snatched up the Indian weapon and hurled it at the running man. The
vajra
hit him hard in the face with a dull clang. He collapsed, face bloodied.

Eddie was about to run to the fallen figure and get his sword when a fusillade of missiles from the other side of the canyon deterred him. He ducked to avoid another
chakram
and several fist-sized stones, then scrambled up the wall.

Nina was already hurrying along the next tier. ‘Eddie, this way!’ she shouted, reaching one of the rope bridges. Its widely spaced planks were coated with snow, icicles hanging from them.

‘Are you bloody mad?’ he gasped as Kit helped him up.

‘There isn’t a way up from here!’ This section of ledge was truncated by a gap far too wide to jump, and any carvings they could have used to shimmy across had also been scoured away by whatever had fallen from above.

‘Shit!’ He looked down. The guardians had the home advantage, knowing the fastest routes up through the different levels, and were quickly gaining. Across the valley, though, he spotted an intact stairway connecting the level opposite to the sixth tier. If they could find a way to the top level, they might be able to get across to the giant statue of Shiva . . . ‘Nina! That key - will it get us into the Vault?’

‘What?’ she asked, surprised. ‘I don’t know. Why?’ He pointed up at the enormous figure, frozen in its dance. ‘If we can get inside, we might be able to shut them out.’

‘But they’ll have a key too!’

‘Maybe we can jam the door. Go on, get across!’

She hesitantly took hold of one of the bridge’s guide ropes. ‘I don’t think this is safe . . .’

‘If they can use it, so can we!’ More stones hurtled across the gap, smacking against the wall. Eddie threw one back. It hit a climbing man; he screamed and fell to the ledge below. ‘Go!’

Nina put one foot on the first plank. It creaked, but held. Both hands clutching the ropes, she took another step, and another. Icicles cracked and fell away as she moved across.

‘You go next,’ Eddie told Kit, picking up another stone. The guardians seemed reluctant to attack Nina, concentrating their missiles on the two men. Maybe they were worried about damaging the bridge. He ducked another lump of rock, then looked back down. Some of the guardians were only two tiers below, running along the ledge to reach more ropes where they could continue their ascent.

Nina was over halfway across, taking the bridge step by frightening step. The planks were not regularly spaced, requiring her to look down to be sure of finding a foothold - which gave her a horrible swaying view of the ground fifty feet below. But she pressed on. Only fifteen feet to go . . .

Movement through the wafting snow. Guardians were scaling the ropes to the fourth tier, only one level below.

She quickened her pace, gasping ‘Shit, shit,
shit
!’ in time with each step. Two planks left, one,
there
! She looked back, seeing the progress of the guardians on the other side of the valley - and to her horror finding that they were not only more numerous, but closer. ‘Eddie!’ she yelled, jabbing a hand at the robed men rapidly picking their way up the wall. ‘They’re right behind you!’

‘Go!’ Eddie ordered Kit, waiting for him to traverse a couple of planks before following. The bridge juddered violently with the extra weight, more ice breaking free and exploding into shards on the hard ground below. ‘Nina, get up to the top!’ She was about to protest when the first guardian reached the ledge on the other side - and sent a
chakram
spinning at her like a lethal Frisbee. She shrieked and ducked, the disc whistling overhead to clang off the wall. She hopped up and hurried towards the stairs, jumping over the dogtoothed gaps in the stone.

Kit picked his way across the bridge, Eddie right behind him. A plank cracked alarmingly as the Indian stepped on it. He gasped, transferring his weight to the support ropes.

The bridge wobbled. Eddie clutched the ropes as one foot slipped off a plank, the wood painfully scraping the back of his calf. Kit looked back in alarm. ‘Keep going!’ Eddie told him, levering himself back up.

He waited for Kit to reach the second to last plank, then started after him. The bridge’s guitar-string vibration eased as they got closer to the end—

A plank snapped under his weight.

Eddie dropped before catching himself on the ropes, legs flailing helplessly in empty space. The bridge lurched violently, a whipcrack ripple running along its length - jolting his left hand from the ice-crusted rope.

Kit stopped on the final plank, looked back - then turned round. ‘No, keep going!’ Eddie shouted, but the Interpol agent was already returning.

 

Nina reached the stairs, a series of stone blocks jutting a foot out from the wall, and was about to climb them when she saw Eddie dangling from the bridge. She was on the verge of running back to help when she caught movement in her peripheral vision.

Above
her. A man hung from one of the ropes between the uppermost tiers, legs wrapped over it as he pulled himself along. More guardians were starting across on other lines.

If any reached the top level before her, the explorers were doomed.

She ran up to the sixth tier, her eyes searching frantically for the next flight of steps.

 

Kit reached Eddie. He wound one of the support ropes round his arm, stretching out his other hand. The Englishman strained to lift himself up, his right fist clenching the quivering rope.

The bridge swayed. Another crack from under Kit’s feet. The plank was breaking—

Eddie lunged - and caught Kit’s hand.

The Indian pulled him up, the board moaning and splintering. Eddie brought up his foot and found support - not on the wood, but on one of the ropes supporting the planks. ‘Okay, get across, go!’ he shouted. Kit turned to complete his crossing.

Eddie looked for Nina. She was almost at the stairs to the top level—

What the hell?
He saw a man seemingly hanging in mid-air, before realising he was traversing a rope to the top tier.

And would reach the ledge in front of Nina.

Kit reached the far side and stopped to wait for him. ‘No, go and help Nina!’ Eddie shouted as he continued across the bridge. ‘They’re gonna catch her!’ Kit saw the men on the ropes, then ran for the stairs.

 

Nina arrived on the highest tier. The top of the broken stairway leading to the statue was beyond its far end. She would have to jump the gap to reach it, but it looked an achievable distance.

If she could get there. The man on the rope was making alarming progress. She started to run. He was only ten feet from the ledge, effortlessly pulling himself closer. She ran faster, feet slithering in the snow. He would be at the ledge in moments. She had to get past him—

His hands reached the stone.

The guardian swung himself on to the ledge, revealing a sheathed sword across his back. Nina was still a few yards short. She tried to swerve past him before he could get to his feet - but he drew his sword and swung it to block her path.

She skidded to a stop. Another robed man had crossed the valley behind her. Trapped—

There was an arched entrance to another chamber just a few feet back. She darted inside. Some of the rooms went deeper into the mountain than others - maybe they were linked, by passages she could use to escape . . .

Not this one. She could see the back wall. Another storage area, objects piled at random.

The guardian was a deadly silhouette framed in the arched doorway.

 

Kit pounded along the sixth level, following Nina’s tracks. He passed a taut rope, one of the guardians halfway across. A glance down told him that Eddie had made it over the bridge—

Something dropped from the broken tier above.

It was a statue, pushed by a man on the next level. It blew apart like a bomb as it hit the ledge in front of him. Kit tried to hurdle it, but his foot clipped the heavy stone core and he tripped. He landed hard, sliding on the snow . . .

And going over the edge.

 

Running down the fifth tier, Eddie heard someone scream behind him. He looked back and saw Kit fall from the ledge above, plunging towards the ground—

He slammed to a stop as his leg caught in a bunch of tangled ropes, leaving him painfully hanging upside down forty feet in the air. More guardians were crossing the bridge.

Eddie hesitated, then ran back. ‘Kit! I’m coming!’

 

Nina retreated into the small room. The items within seemed to be the former property of previous adventurers unlucky enough to encounter the lost valley’s defenders. Mildewed clothing, rotten leather bags, wood and metal boxes, but nothing helpful.

The guardian entered the chamber. He didn’t seem angry, or triumphant - the only aura he gave off was that he was simply doing his job. He raised his sword.

An old rifle amongst the detritus. Nina snatched it up, spun, pulled the trigger—

A dry metal click. The gun was empty, and even if it had been loaded the barrel was scabbed with rust.

But it had still shocked the guardian into freezing, the corroded muzzle just inches from his throat. A relieved smile turned sardonic as his hand tightened round the sword’s hilt—

Nina jabbed the rifle at his neck with all her strength. The man’s eyes bulged in pain as he reeled back, choking. She whipped the gun round and swung it at his head. The vintage weapon’s wooden stock shattered with a very satisfying crack, pitching her erstwhile attacker into the piled garbage.

She raced back out. The guardian who had pushed the statue over the edge saw her and shouted commands to his comrades.

No sign of Eddie or Kit. Nina ran for the end of the tier. The top of the ruined stairway was across the gap. At the back of the ledge, she saw large stone doors between the statue’s feet, circular markings upon them. A lock?

She had a key.

The guardian was in pursuit. She pushed harder, angling at the tier’s corner to narrow the gap as much as possible. If she misjudged it, she would die.

Jump
—

The valley floor rolled past seventy feet below . . .

Nina caught the very bottom step with her leading foot and threw herself forward. Her boot slipped on the snow. She fell, her cry abruptly cut off as she hit the unforgiving stone.

She slid down the ancient stairway, feet sweeping a miniature avalanche over the edge—

She clawed at the steps, finding snow, stone beneath - and a crack where a slab had been dislodged in the collapse. Nina stabbed her fingers into it. Her death-slide stopped, legs hanging over the void. She found a hold with her other hand and pulled herself up.

The guardian was still running along the uppermost tier. He would make his own jump in seconds. Nina staggered up to the deep, broad ledge and headed for the doors. There was a circular indentation at the centre of the carvings.

The same size as the replica key.

She pulled it from her coat. Behind her came a thump as the guardian cleared the gap and landed on the stairs, bounding up them after her.

 

Eddie reached Kit and grabbed the ropes. ‘Hang on!’

‘I’m hanging!’ Kit shouted back. ‘Eddie, they’re almost across the bridge!’

The first of the guardians was only a few steps short of the ledge. Looking up, he spotted Nina running for the statue - with a robed man chasing her. ‘Shit!’ He pulled harder—

One of the ropes, weakened by age and weather, snapped. Kit screamed, but jerked to a stop once more after falling only a foot, other lines entangling his ankle.

The first guardian was off the bridge, drawing a savage-looking knife. The man behind him had a sword. More men ran down the stairs towards the two intruders. The only possible escape route was down the ropes to the tier below - but Eddie couldn’t do that until Kit was free. He kept lifting. ‘Grab the ledge!’ he said. Kit bent at the waist, struggling to reach the icy stone. ‘Come on, you’ve almost got it!’

The other man’s fingers closed round a carved outcropping. Eddie let go of the ropes and grabbed his wrist, pulling him on to the ledge. He was safe.

But Kit didn’t even have time to say thanks. The first guardian reached them, lunging with his dagger—

Eddie jerked sideways, the blade slashing his padded sleeve. He whipped up one arm to knock the man’s hand away from him - and slammed his other fist into his face. The robed man fell on his back with a starburst of bright blood around his mouth.

Kit freed his leg, raising his own fists as he faced the group running in from the other direction. ‘What do we do?’

‘Climb down the rope,’ said Eddie.

‘We’ll never make it in time!’

‘Not if you keep yakking - go on! I’ll hold ’em off.’ He snatched up the downed man’s knife as Kit took hold of the rope and hopped over the edge, quickly shimmying down—

And scrambling back up again, even faster. ‘Eddie, there’s a man with a sword underneath me!’

Eddie held up the dagger - and another guardian mirrored his move, only with a blade about three times longer. More men approached from behind. ‘Well . . . arse.’

 

Nina reached the doors. What she had thought to be carvings were actually separate objects set into the stone: five large wheels arranged in a circle around the ‘keyhole’, smaller wheels set around their edges with dozens of words in Sanskrit written upon each one. What it meant, she had no time to wonder - all she could do was jam the replica key into the lock and hope something happened.