The Sacred Vault

Shankarpa ran over. ‘What did you do?’

‘I believed that Kali would protect me,’ Nina replied. ‘And she did. Stand back, let me show you.’

She pushed the spear down again. The sword lunged - and this time she jerked the wood away. The blade continued to the limit of its travel, hacking another piece off the wooden shaft.

‘If you’re afraid, that’s what you do when Kali attacks you,’ she explained. ‘You jump back - and get hit anyway. But if you’re not afraid, if you stand your ground . . .’ She lowered the spear once more, keeping it pressed firmly to the stone. Another bang echoed through the passage as the sword stopped abruptly before impact. ‘If you stay in place, there’s something in the machinery that keeps it from hitting you. The symbols in her other two hands are the clue for how to get through. It’s like the key - you have to know the meaning of the stories about Shiva and the goddesses to get inside.’

Eddie waved an arm at the array of lethal weapons. ‘You want to take a stroll through that lot to see if you’re right?’

‘Well, uh . . . not particularly. But if it’s the only way we can get through, then someone’s got to do it.’

‘It’s not bloody going to be you, that’s for sure.’ He stepped up to the passage. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘What?’ Nina cried. ‘Oh, no you won’t! If you’re not going to let me go, I’m sure as hell not going to let you. One of these guys can do it.’ She jabbed a thumb at the guardians.

Shankarpa was not pleased by the suggestion. ‘You want us to risk our lives to test your . . . theory?’

‘You want to find the Shiva-Vedas as much as we do.’

‘Our lives do not depend on it.’

‘They might if the Khoils turn up.’ Between the excitement of opening the Vault and the danger posed by the statue, she had forgotten there was another threat hanging over them. ‘Damn it! They could be on their way already. We have to get inside!’ She faced Shankarpa. ‘Look, I’m sure that if you’re not afraid and just walk down the passage, you won’t get hit and you’ll be able to get to the inner chamber. But we’re running out of time to do it.’

‘Then we’ll have to stop pissing about and get on with it, won’t we?’ Eddie said . . . as he stepped into the narrow tunnel.

‘Eddie, no!’ Nina screamed, but the blades were already descending—

The longest sword jerked to a stop with its tip barely an inch from his groin.

‘Gah!’ he yelped as it withdrew, feeling certain parts of his body doing some withdrawal of their own. ‘I’m bloody glad that stopped when it did.’

‘Are you out of your mind?’ Nina shouted. ‘You could have been killed!’

‘Or worse! Look, someone’s got to go down here - and actually doing it’s better than arguing about it. Okay, next step.’ Suppressing a shudder, he advanced down the passage.

The long sword remained stationary as the other blades shot forward, a scimitar swooshing across at neck height only to stop as if hitting an invisible wall. The weapons retracted. Another step. This time nothing happened. Not all the slabs were connected to the trap. Warily, he moved on.

The vajra dropped like a wrecking ball, stopping so close to his head the displaced air ruffled his hair. Next was another sword, almost cleaving diagonally across his chest. Four arms had made their attack: halfway.

Another step—

The chakram sliced at him - and its circular edge bit through his sleeve into his arm.

Nina gasped, about to run to help him. ‘No!’ he growled through the pain. ‘Stay back! It’s stopped!’ The arm holding the chakram had been stopped by the mechanism restricting its movement - but Eddie had been just far enough out of position for it to catch him.

He leaned away, grunting as the metal pulled clear of his flesh. The chakram clunked back to its original position, a thin line of blood glistening on it. He peeled back the torn fabric of his sleeve to examine the injury. He had been much luckier than Kit; the cut would only need one or two stitches.

But that would have to wait. Forcing back his fear, Eddie slowly walked the rest of the way down the passage. Three more weapons struck at him - and each stopped just before impact. Kali was indeed protecting him.

But there was still one more obstacle. ‘Okay, now what?’ he called as he reached the raised foot. The gap beneath it was a little higher than the duct he had crawled through at the United Nations; he would fit, but it would be a tight squeeze.

‘Any ideas?’ Nina asked the men around her.

‘He must be like Shiva on the battlefield,’ said Girilal. ‘He must pretend to be dead and shame Kali into ending her rampage.’

Considering the legend, it seemed to fit, but she still wasn’t keen on the idea - and nor was Eddie when she relayed it to him. ‘I won’t be pretending to be dead if you’re wrong. Can’t I just wedge it with something?’

‘I’m sure whoever built it thought of that,’ she said. The floor beneath the foot was a mosaic of smaller tiles; she guessed that they were intended to give way if too much pressure was put on them, pressing any props into the ground as the foot descended. ‘But I think Girilal’s right. You have to slide under it and play dead - if you try to get out while it’s coming down, it’ll drop and finish you off. The whole trap is about trusting Kali not to kill you, however scary it looks.’

‘I’m not scared,’ he said, starting to wriggle under the statue. ‘I just don’t want my obituary to say that I died by being squashed by a giant foot like something out of Monty bloody Python. It’d be embarrassing.’

Despite her tension, the joke made Nina smile. ‘Your obituary isn’t going to be written for a long, long time, Eddie. Nobody would dare.’

‘Well, let’s hope you’re right.’ He was now fully beneath the foot—

A tile gave slightly, his weight tripping another trigger. With a nerve-scraping grinding, the foot started to descend.

His instinctual response was to get clear - but he suppressed it, summoning every ounce of self-control to hold still as the foot pressed down on him. He tried to stay calm as the pressure increased, controlling his breathing - but the weight began to force the air from his lungs. ‘Shit!’ he tried to say, but the word was choked short in his throat.

The rasp of stone continued, flesh and bone not slowing the statue’s relentless descent in the slightest. Pain coursed through Eddie’s ribcage as it was squashed against the floor. He struggled to writhe free - but was pinned in place.

Kali was going to crush him!

He turned his head to give Nina a last anguished look, seeing her staring back at him in horror, realising too late that she had been wrong—

The noise stopped.

The pressure suddenly eased, the foot rising slowly back to its original position. Gasping, he drew in several long breaths of cold, dusty air before crawling through the hole. ‘I’m in,’ he croaked.

‘Thank God,’ Nina said. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I feel like toothpaste, but I’ll be all right.’

‘What can you see?’

He glanced round; the new chamber was almost completely dark. ‘Nowt - a torch’d be handy. Roll one down to me.’

Nina drew back her arm as if throwing a bowling bowl and sent her torch skittering down the passage. Eddie caught it and switched it on. The new room was small, the walls engraved with images of Shiva, the paint on the ancient carvings still surprisingly colourful, and line upon line of Vedic Sanskrit. But the object that caught his attention was against one wall.

It was an ornate chest, standing upon gilded legs shaped like an elephant’s and decorated with pearls and small gemstones. Like the walls, it was painted: Shiva, seated in the lotus position, gazed serenely back at him.

‘Can you see anything?’ Nina called.

‘Yeah, there’s a fancy box, and . . .’ He panned the light round. Part of the statue’s mechanism was revealed: