The Sacred Vault

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.