Chapter 26
A rain of knives and machetes lodged themselves in the loose pile of rock behind the bolting trespasser as the monks moved forward and filled the chamber. There were about fifty armed men, all in pursuit of Calisto. She took refuge on top of a ledge behind a cluster of cave formations and waited. When they all climbed up the wall below her, their faces distorted in sadistic delight at what they had planned for her.
These were not the men from the village the Purdue party had passed through. She reckoned that they were men of faith and creed guarding the secrets of the shrine, but they were certainly not blessed with the grace and humility of the Eastern dogmas they served. Perhaps they were like the Templar Knights, warriors of God employed specifically for the dispatch of thieving heretics. They must have known about the rule of silence. Their guns remained quiet and their voices low as they leered at her with vindictive lust and she knew that they would afford her a most exquisitely painful death.
Calisto shifted her feet sideways as she moved toward a hidden chasm she discovered while surveying the walls earlier. Sam swinging from the ceiling was hardly her idea of engaging interest and while the others stared at his efforts on the drawing, she had slipped away to assess the probability of alternative escape routes. As the rest of the group concentrated on finding the relic, Calisto did what she was there to do — she covered their asses. Spending her time assessing the security risks and preparing for any eventuality that might arise should they be discovered, she constantly returned to the entrance to establish the progress of their advancement.
It did not surprise her when she reviewed the surroundings and beheld the spies navigating the rocks and river, drawing ever nearer while Purdue and his colleagues were blissfully unaware that they were being stalked. She elected not to share this information with them, as it would only cause discord and paranoia among them and without a doubt get them killed. When she was not determining the position of their hunters, she was devising a security measure. There was not much to work with, but being grossly outnumbered she utilized what she could.
Now she was about to find out if she was going home or going down.
Calisto detached her belt buckle as her agile pursuers started up the rock face with consummate ease, cutting her expected time for flight considerably. Nervously she fumbled to get the stainless steel plate off, her sweaty fingers slipping awkwardly in her haste. A strong grip restrained her from an unexpected direction, throttling her from behind as another monk leapt onto the ledge from the opposite side. Their silent determination gave her the creeps, as if they were puppets of a willful and dark entity, unable to direct themselves.
Calisto could not employ any combat with only a few inches of rock to set her feet on, but she did her best to rid herself of her attacker. Gnashing her teeth in rage she used her substantial force and weight to fling herself against the wall. The lean monk at her back went with her and with a swift pivot found himself between a rock and a vicious bitch. A devastating crack traveled through his torso as the woman crushed him against the impervious wet wall, disabling him for good. She shed him from her and finally pulled the buckle free. Now they gained on her from all sides at an alarming speed.
Calisto turned and found the crevice she had marked for the occasion a few hours earlier, thrusting the steel item between two dripping curtains of ancient granite and mineral. With that she bolted from the ledge, landing hard on the uneven surface of the cavern floor.
"Shit!" she panted as her legs gave way under her clumsy landing and skinned her palms and knees. With lack of light in the early evening she could not judge the distance below properly before she leapt. A short distance from her was the opening she showed to the others in her expedition and gathering herself and ignoring the stinging in her ankles, she made for the crevice.
The knife-wielding monks changed direction to arrest her while those with guns exited the shape-shifting mouth of the shrine to secure the exterior and look for the other intruders. Dark, monstrous shapes played on the vast walls as the monks lit their fire torches in the tunnel above while the others were charging toward her. Calisto drew her weapon and locked her eye on the glint of her belt buckle. Before the mob realized, the kneeling woman pulled the trigger, just hitting the plate on its edge.
But it was good enough. Alarmed at the noise and its consequences, the men turned to look at Calisto's target. Not only did the clap of her gun resonate through the rock, but her bullet grazed the steel with a damning cling, the ricochet of which conducted its tremor through the rock. She provided four more thunderous shots for good measure, making the grotto reverberate with an unholy clamor. Stumped, the monks stared to see what would ensue while Calisto wasted no time in escaping while they were occupied by their imminent doom.
She had positioned the old copper and steel bowls from the pile Sam had shown her, in strategic places throughout the cavern to escalate the efficacy of the sound waves. The last piece, the metal gong she had lowered from the peak of the shrine into the sun-drenched chimney, would collapse the roof onto the murderous mob should they be lured inside. And that was what she was gazing up at under the blessing of the sunray when her colleagues discovered its significance to the map.
Deep from the bowels of the Godwomb came the low shudder of thunder, emanating through every crack and crater, every fissure and pointed formation that adorned the hall. Racing to reach the tunnel above, they scuttled up the wall to get to the corridor that held their salvation. From above the rumbling became deafening and from the disassembled crack where the sun used to find its way in, a shower of loose debris rained down and crashed to the floor below and all those who could not flee on time. Thus the blade in the depiction on the ceiling was removed from its hilt, much as the true item, before the rest of that roof caved in on the cowering monks who could not climb to the tunnel in time. Even those who made it into the tunnel perished under the falling picks of dislodged formations that plummeted onto them, piercing their flesh and bones.
But the entrance stood firm. The face of the deity prevailed as was expected from a god and from the outside the shrine was perfectly intact, still. However, it was now left in the state it was, unable to close up once more without the necessary acoustics to activate its shift. In silent devastation the remaining armed monks stood, regarding the doorway above which two glaring eyes leered down on them, caught forever in this form. A grotesque ambience came from it and filled them with dread. A broken god was an angry god, so they had to reconstruct the face of Mañjuśrī without delay.
From a distance well away the Purdue expedition listened to the crumbling of the Godwomb with confounded faces and respectful silence. Nina, especially, was shaken to tears for the destruction of the shrine and the end of a holy structure worshipped for centuries. Sam placed his arm around her as she sobbed to the fearsome din of the earthquake under their feet. In the dark of the new night they could not see anything and making a fire for light to still their nerves would be detrimental to their successful exodus.
After an eternity of tense guilt in the shelter of the mountain they had come to defile, the group sat down on by one. In the last few minutes of the shuddering of the earth they could hear a mad cacophony of shouting and gunshots echoing through the valley. Assault rifles rattled out in the darkness of the woodland as the monks chased after the thieves who ruined and dishonored their shrine. Now that it was dark they branded flaming torches and spread out in the trees, but they were well aware that not only was the fleeing woman armed and dangerous, but she and her consorts would be very hard to track in the dark.