At her words, Maddie and Erik glanced at one another and chuckled.
“My dears, don’t you think your reaction is a bit inappropriate?” Faye’s tone was mildly disapproving. “After all, Cassie and Griffin just suffered a very narrow escape.”
The old woman’s comment only seemed to fuel the humor. Both Erik and Maddie burst out laughing much to the surprise of the other three.
Finally, the paladin asked the chatelaine, “Do you want to tell them?”
“Nope. You go ahead.”
Erik got control of his facial muscles and let out a deep breath. “OK, brace yourselves. You were never in any danger.”
“Are you delusional?” Cassie challenged.
Griffin squinted at Erik as if he’d lost his mind.
“How on earth is that possible?” Faye asked.
“I was in the office when Maddie got your report from Nepal that you’d been snatched by a pack of thieves on the mountain. She asked me to do some digging to find out if we had any new competition for the Sage Stone. After a few phone calls to the right people in Darchen, I was able to piece the story together.”
“We’re listening.” Griffin’s tone was frosty again. “Please do enlighten us.”
“Turns out you weren’t the only witnesses when Hunt and Daniel swiped the relic. There was a guy camping not too far from the cave. He saw the lights and snuck up to find out what was going on. He caught the part of the show where Hunt took the relic out of the case, and Daniel hid it in his backpack. Of course, it was too dark for the camper to see their faces. All he knew for sure was that two thieves were looting the sacred shrine, so he ran down the trail to get help. By the time he pulled a posse together, the Nephilim had left town, and you two were ambling down Kailash. It was a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The camper and his buddies figured you stole the artifact.”
“That would be the reason they ransacked our belongings,” Griffin observed.
“Correct. And when they didn’t find it, they figured they’d better check out the shrine for themselves.”
“So that’s why they left and headed back up the trail,” the pythia said.
“They were halfway to the cave before it occurred to them that leaving you two alone might not be the best idea.”
“And that’s why there was no guard initially,” the scrivener said.
“Also correct. So they sent somebody back down to keep an eye on you.” Erik couldn’t help chuckling again. “From what I hear, you really did a number on him.”
“When I get tied up and thrown in a tent, I take that sort of thing personally,” Cassie retorted. “Who were those guys anyway?”
“That’s the funny part.” The paladin grinned. “They were pilgrims.”
“Oh no!” Griffin gasped.
The pythia couldn’t believe her ears. “Let me get this straight. The guy who sounded the alarm was just some random religioso who was camping out under the stars near the shrine. When he saw what happened, he got a bunch of other pilgrims to help him save their relic?”
“Yup. That’s about the size of it.”
“So, we mugged an innocent codger.” Cassie cringed inwardly. “Granted, he was a sinister-looking old dude, but in real life he’s probably a monk or a yogi or even somebody’s grandpa.”
“If it’s any consolation, I’m sure his efforts to preserve Shiva’s relic will erase at least five lifetimes of bad karma. Much better than simply walking the parikrama,” Griffin joked.
“Your great escape was the water cooler topic for days,” Maddie chimed in.
“We’ll never live this down.” The pythia sank her head into her hands.
“But seriously,” Erik spoke up. “You made the right call.”
His former teammates stared at him vacantly.
“Trust me on this. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the scenario would have played out exactly the way you thought. Kailash is an anomaly because it’s a pilgrimage site. Ordinarily, you don’t meet nice people on artifact retrievals—mostly it’s gangs of thieves who want a pricey relic and don’t mind slitting a few throats to get it. If you’d been ambushed any place but Darchen, the night would have ended bloody for both of you.”
The chatelaine nodded in agreement. “You should listen to him. Over the years, I’ve had teams who didn’t make it back from field missions because they couldn’t react fast enough in a crisis. Better safe than sorry.”
“Consider it a test run,” Erik suggested. “So, you beat up a defenseless passerby. That was good practice for beating up a thief next time.”
“Thanks for the pep talk,” the pythia said half-heartedly. “Has anybody inspected the artifact that’s in the shrine now?”
Erik shook his head. “Nobody suspects a switch was made. The fake is safe, and generations of pilgrims will believe it’s the real deal.” He shrugged. “Of course, the guy who spread the word about the theft got kicked out of town. Everybody is saying he was either drunk or lying and nobody is admitting to having helped him kidnap two Western tourists who mysteriously disappeared that same night. Those facts got buried pretty fast. I think you two are safe from any blowback about attacking a pilgrim.”
Faye diplomatically changed the subject and ended their embarrassment. “I’m sure Cassie and Griffin would like us to turn our attention to that intriguing object on the table, and I don’t mean my silver tea service. I confess I’m quite curious to know a bit more about our latest acquisition.”
Chapter 53—A Hard River to Find
Five pairs of eyes converged simultaneously on the relic which had been forgotten during the preceding conversation. It was a remarkable sight. The artifact stood nearly a foot high—a golden serpent rising on three coils from its base. With bared fangs, it seemed poised to strike.
