“Enough riddles,” said Rhun. “Where are these mountains?”
Hugh ignored him. “You have proven yourself adept enough, Woman of Learning. Those mountains surround a place known as the Holy Hidden Valley of Happiness.”
Erin closed her eyes and gave an amused shake of her head.
“Do you know this place?” Sophia asked.
“Only by reputation. I wish I could say that such knowledge came to me from study and research, but it actually came from reading an article in a travel magazine. A pure coincidence.”
“No,” Hugh said. “There are no such coincidences.”
“So what then?” Erin asked disdainfully. “My coming upon this article was fate?”
“No. There is no such thing as fate. We are masters of our own destinies.” Hugh waved to encompass the shadowy audience, stirring the raven still perched on his shoulder to an irritated ruffle. “It was your awareness and inquisitive nature that made you see and read that article, when others might have skipped it. It was your mindfulness that made you remember it. You have always been that way, Erin Granger. I suspect that was what drove you to abandon your family, to take a path away from one of blind obedience to the father’s faith, to discover your own road to knowledge and wisdom. Fate, luck, coincidence… none of these matter. You are simply a Woman of Learning. That is your true nature. That is what brought you to me.”
Erin had shifted closer to Jordan during this revelation, plainly shaken not only by this man’s knowledge of her past, but also by how quickly he exposed the essential core of her being.
Jordan pulled her closer, feeling her tremble, beginning to understand how even monsters and beasts could bow down to this guy.
“Where is this valley?” Rhun pressed.
Erin answered, “Tsum Valley in Nepal. It was only recently opened to tourists due to its sacred history. It is said to be the home of Shambhala, a legendary Buddhist kingdom. Or as it is more commonly called in Western culture: Shangri La.”
Jordan knew that story, but only from movies. “That’s supposed to be a place lost in time, where no one ages or dies.”
This made him wonder: were these strigoi monks the basis for that legend?
“But there’s a more important story about Shambhala that bears more directly on our situation,” Erin said. “I read that the second Buddha, Padmasambhava, blessed the valley as a place that would be rediscovered when the earth was nearing it destruction, when the world grew too corrupted to survive.”
“That pretty much sounds like right now,” Jordan said.
“And this valley truly exists?” Rhun asked.
“It does,” Erin said. “The valley has long been a sacred Buddhist place. Monks and nuns still live there, and all killing is forbidden on its slopes.”
“Like here,” Jordan added, wondering if Hugh had set up this hermitage as his own personal Tsum Valley.
“The monks who taught me,” Hugh explained. “They lived in a monastery in that valley, built between two great trees, trees as eternal as the monks themselves. Under one bower the monks sat to meditate. That tree was called the Tree of Enlightenment. Under the other, the monks drank their wine. That tree was called the Tree of Eternal Life.”
Erin stepped free of his arm. “In other words, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. From the biblical story of the Garden of Eden.”
Even Elizabeth looked aghast. “Are you claiming this place — Tsum Valley — is the actual location of the Garden of Eden?”
Sophia scowled. “How could the Garden of Eden be in the Himalayas?”
“There is a school of thought that places it there,” Erin told her. “Some scholars think that the legends of Shambhala are similar enough to the stories of Eden that they might be the same place. Like Eden, Shambhala was said to be a garden where there was no death and only the pure could remain.”
“The Nazis sent an expedition to Tibet in the 1930s,” Jordan added, drawing upon his knowledge of World War II. “To look for the origin of the Aryan race, a race of supermen. Those immortal Buddhist strigoi would definitely fit that bill, too.”
All eyes turned to Hugh for confirmation.
He shrugged one shoulder. “I am merely saying that the valley has two trees. I cannot presume to know where the Garden of Eden was, or if it ever existed.”
“Still,” Jordan said, drawing them back to the more pressing issue, “from Edward Kelly’s mural, that valley is also where all Hell is supposed to break free.”
He pictured that lake and the dark shadows boiling out of it.
Hugh gave him a small nod. “The monks told me that this garden was at an intersection between good and evil. That they were guardians of that gateway.”
“And what about the three stones?” Erin asked.
“According to my teachers, that trio of gems hold the power to open and close that portal between worlds. But as modern man began to encroach farther and farther into their territory, threatening to expose them, the monks feared that they might not be strong enough to guard those stones. So they gave me two of the gems, to disperse them apart in the wider world.”
“In other words,” Jordan said, “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.”
“Timeless wisdom,” Hugh concurred.
“But why did you hand such a powerful artifact to John Dee?” Elizabeth asked.
“A foolish conceit in hindsight,” Hugh said with a sigh. “As the world of scientific inquiry rose out of the ashes of the Dark Ages — as alchemy became chemistry and physics — I thought I could discover more about the stones myself.”
Jordan knew Cardinal Bernard had fallen into the same trap just recently, dabbling with those drops of Lucifer’s blood. It was no wonder these two characters had once been best buds. They shared a similar nature.
“John Dee was a wise man and a good one,” Hugh continued. “I thought that he was using the stone to contain evil, imprisoning it drop by drop. I could not fathom where that might lead. After he died, I tried to recover the gem, but the greed of Edward Kelly drove the man to sell it. From there, I lost track of the stone.”
“So our goal must be to take your stone and the one in Jordan’s pocket and bring them back to that valley,” Erin said. “Where the monks are still safeguarding the third one. But why?”
“I only know what I have told you,” Hugh said. “Perhaps the monks will know more.”
“And don’t forget,” Jordan reminded everyone, glancing to the windows, happy to see the sunlight still shining through the waterfall, “we’re not the only ones looking for those stones.”
Legion was still out there.
“But why does that demon care?” asked Sophia. “What is his role?”
Rhun looked dour. “With those stones, he could possibly open the portal in that valley and unleash Hell’s forces upon the world, freeing Lucifer in the process.”
Erin nodded. “And apparently it’ll be up to us to use those same stones to find a way to secure that demonic horde in its place, to bottle Hell back up.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Jordan said with exaggerated bravado. “Of course, first we’ll need that gem you hid here, Hugh.”
The man opened his arms wide. “You are free to seek the stone in my church.”
“If Erin passed the test,” Elizabeth asked, her eyes flashing angrily, “why not simply give her the stone?”
“She must find it on her own.”
Jordan stared at Erin. “Sorry, babe, looks like it’s time for part two of your test. So take out a Number Two pencil and begin.” He looked to the shine of the lowering sun, knowing they had about an hour of daylight left.