How long was the pass? He lowered his arm, the cold biting at his eyes. Nothing visible except wind-driven snow streaming past.
He squeezed Nina’s hand, hoping to feel her do the same in return, but got no response. Another look ahead as he staggered on. Still nothing visible but the disorienting hyperspace tunnel of rushing snowflakes. He could feel ice forming on his eyelashes, freezing them together.
He used his elbow to find the wall. There might be some nook, a fallen boulder, a tiny cave that could provide just enough shelter for them all to huddle inside until the storm passed. But he felt nothing except solid rock . . .
The wind suddenly changed, blowing at him not from behind, but from the side. A tornado of snowflakes whipped round him. Forcing his ice-crusted eyes open, he looked round. The rock walls seemed no different from the rest of the pass.
Why had the wind shifted? Something was diverting it - maybe even blocking it. Shelter. But he still couldn’t see anything—
He looked up - and found it.
About seven feet above in the eastern cliff was a fissure, a horizontal slash in the rock. Roughly five feet high, and deep enough that nothing but shadow was visible within. If they could all squeeze inside . . .
He turned, taking the icy blast directly into his face as he shouted to Nina and Kit. ‘Cave . . . up there! Nina, climb up!’
She pushed her hood against his. Even that close, he could barely hear her over the wind. ‘Can’t feel . . . hands.’
‘It’s our only chance! Come on!’ He shoved her to the wall. ‘Kit, help her up!’
The two men took hold of Nina and lifted her. ‘Reach up!’ Eddie shouted. ‘Get into the hole!’ She stiffly raised her hands, groping numbly for the gap. Finding it. Eddie and Kit pushed her higher, and she all but fell inside. Realising that the wind had dropped, she crawled deeper into the fissure.
‘You next!’ Eddie told Kit. The Indian said something, but it was lost in the wind. Eddie bent to give him a leg up, taking hold of Kit’s boot with his freezing fingers. Legs flailing, Kit wormed into the tight opening.
Eddie jumped up after him, but the edge of the little cave was slick with ice. His hands, useless lumps of meat, couldn’t get a grip. The storm was sapping his strength by the second - if he didn’t get into shelter very soon, he never would . . .
Kit reappeared in the cave mouth. He knelt and held out his hands. Eddie reached up. Kit grabbed his wrists and pulled. With the last of his strength, Eddie scrambled up the wall, boots rasping on the rock.
He slumped into the fissure, almost knocking Kit over as he landed on him. The cave was deeper than he had thought; they moved into the darkness, flurries of snow still clawing at them in a last-ditch attempt to stop their escape before the ferocious wind finally dropped.
‘Thanks,’ Eddie gasped, getting a weak grunt of affirmation in return. He saw Nina in the shadows ahead and dragged himself to her. ‘Help me . . . with the heater.’
She pulled off his backpack and opened it. A minute later, the paraffin heater was lit. They piled their packs up behind them to block the wind. Eddie massaged Nina’s hands through her gloves as the trio hunched tightly round the heater. ‘Don’t try to warm up too fast,’ he warned. ‘Get the circulation back first.’
‘Will we have frostbite?’ she asked, worried.
‘I don’t think we’ll have to saw off any fingers, but no point taking chances. Can you feel anything?’
‘Yeah. Pins and needles.’
‘Believe it or not, that’s good. How about you, Kit?’
Kit flexed his fingers. ‘Feeling better. And I think all my toes are still attached . . .’
‘Great. Let’s see where we are, then.’ He fumbled in his pack for a torch.
Nina blinked in annoyance as she was momentarily dazzled, then followed the beam as it slid over the rocks around them, moving deeper and deeper. ‘How far back does it go?’ The passage twisted out of sight about thirty feet away.
‘Dunno. Think we’ve found a good place to sit out the storm, though.’
She looked at the cave floor, which was coated with grit and small stones. ‘Looks alluvial. It must carry meltwater during the spring thaw.’
‘I didn’t know you were a geologist,’ said Kit.
‘It’s useful stuff for archaeologists - helps us figure out how deep things might be buried.’ She took the flashlight from Eddie and scanned the walls. ‘Where does the water come from, though? It must open out somewhere.’
She made as if to crawl down the passage to investigate, but Eddie pulled her back. ‘Oi! Get properly warmed up first. Might as well have something to eat while we’re at it.’
‘Well, if we must . . .’ They smiled at each other, then Eddie poked through the packs for supplies.
After half an hour, they were more or less recovered and ready to move. Nina had already taken the lead. ‘It carries on round this corner,’ she reported, shining the light ahead.
‘How far?’ Kit asked.
‘I don’t know - I still can’t see the end. But it gets wider.’ She continued on.
‘Jesus, slow down,’ Eddie complained. ‘It’s not like we’ve found the Vault of Shiva . . .’ He tailed off.
‘Do you think . . .’ said Kit, eyes widening.
‘With her luck, I wouldn’t be bloody surprised. Come on!’ He shuffled down the confined passage after his wife, Kit behind him.
They caught up with Nina. The tunnel was indeed getting wider - and higher. ‘I can see daylight,’ she said. A faint grey cast over the rock walls was discernible ahead.
Eddie tugged down his hood. ‘There’s no wind.’ That wasn’t entirely true - he could feel a breeze on his cold-reddened cheeks - but it was nothing compared to the gale blowing at the other end of the tunnel. There was another bend to traverse, but the gloomy daylight was now clearly visible beyond it. ‘It opens out,’ Nina said, Eddie and Kit flanking her as they rounded the corner.
And stopped, frozen in surprise.
‘Well, bloody hell,’ said Eddie as he took in the incredible sight. ‘I think we found it.’
23
The cave emerged at one end of a narrow canyon sliced into the ridge. Snow was falling, but wafting gently down, not blasted by the blizzard. The top of the rift high above them acted as a windbreak, diverting the storm’s fury over it. All that was visible of the sky was a ragged line of grey.
But the onlookers had lost all interest in the weather.
The almost sheer sides of the valley had been carved into tiers decorated by ornate sculptures and columns and niches, dozens of arched entrances into chambers within the mountain between them. The elaborate architecture was unmistakably Hindu, gods in many forms gazing out from the walls, but it appeared incredibly ancient. The erosive effect of time had taken its toll, most of the carvings weathered and missing sections, and great chunks of the tiers themselves had collapsed, smashing the floors beneath them and littering the valley floor with broken rubble.
‘My God,’ said Nina, walking out into the falling snow. The valley’s far end was obscured by haze and shadow, but she could see enough to be awed by the sheer scale of their discovery. She counted seven tiers on each side, rising about seventy feet up the rocky walls. ‘It must be thousands of years old. Over eleven thousand, if it’s the same place Talonor mentioned.’
Kit was equally amazed. ‘How can it never have been found? We’re only a few kilometres from one of the holiest sites in India - someone must have seen it!’
‘Nothing to see from up there,’ Eddie realised, pointing skywards. ‘We’re on the north side of the ridge, so it’ll never get any direct sunlight.’ He peered at the topmost tier. ‘The cliffs overhang it at the top. You probably won’t know there’s anything down here even if you’re looking right over the edge.’