sides of his thigh – the arrow had penetrated right through his leg, and was still lodged in the wound.
Je-tsun looked at the pain-racked face of the man he’d known for decades and shook his head. He knew that the injury was life-threatening simply because of the blood loss, but there was more to it than that. The bandits were known to smear the tips of their arrows with poison or excrement and, even if the wound wasn’t fatal in itself, there was a good chance that infection would follow in the days to come, killing the victim more slowly but just as surely.
Akar stared at Je-tsun, knowledge of the reality of his situation written on his face. He nodded slowly, lifted his right hand and seized the other man’s arm. ‘Make it quick, my friend,’ he said. Then he leaned back on the rocky ground and closed his eyes.
Je-tsun nodded in his turn, drew a short dagger from the scabbard at his belt and swiftly drove it into Akar’s chest, straight through his heart. The man on the ground shuddered once, then lay still, his features growing slack as the pain ebbed away for the last time.
About half an hour later, the small caravan, now three men down, moved off again. For the rest of the journey the remaining men neither saw nor met anyone else, and finally they reached their destination, high up the valley, just after sunset.
Je-tsun ordered torches lit, then sent two of his men inside to check the structure thoroughly, and to ensure that nobody else had taken refuge there, though at that altitude it was unlikely. They emerged a few minutes later, to report that the place was exactly as it had been the previous year, when they’d found it for the first time, and when they’d spent almost six months preparing it, a task that had proved to be physically demanding and had also required considerable ingenuity.
Je-tsun nodded in satisfaction. He ordered the yaks to be unhitched from the cart and had them turned loose, together with the remaining donkeys. They wouldn’t need those animals again. But the two camels were tethered securely on a patch of level ground nearby, where scrubby bushes would provide them with something to eat.
The men removed all the furs and other goods from the cart to expose the heavy wooden crate, lifted it between them and carried it into the entrance, where they laid it on the ground. Then they lit more torches to provide enough light to start their work. Baulks of timber had been piled against the opposite wall, and it took over an hour to remove them all, and to reveal the inner chamber.
Before they entered, Je-tsun walked in and inspected it. The small room was almost square, and for obvious reasons devoid of windows or any other openings. At one end was what looked almost like an altar, an oblong shape made from hewn chunks of solid stone, the gaps between them filled with some kind of mortar, and the top covered with half a dozen slabs of stone.
The men picked up the heavy box again, carried it into the chamber and set it down beside the stone structure. Je-tsun issued another order, and his men began removing the slabs, leaning the heavy pieces of stone against the wall. Their actions revealed that the structure was completely empty, just an oblong cavity formed from shaped rocks. When they’d removed the last slab, Je-tsun peered inside, ran the tips of his fingers along the inner surfaces and nodded in satisfaction.
Building this cavity of stone had been one of the tasks he and his men had carried out the previous year, and his only concern had been the possibility of damp inside it, because their treasure was very fragile. But he could detect no signs of moisture on the cold stones that formed the cavity, the structure that would be the last resting place of the wooden box and its precious contents.
Getting the box inside the stone cavity was not going to be easy, just because of its size and weight, but they had foreseen the problem and Je-tsun had come up with a simple and effective solution.
One of his men laid three short lengths of wood in the base of the stone structure, to provide a platform on which the box could rest. Then, together, the six men lifted the box up to waist height, and then lowered it on to the top of the stone structure so that it lay across the opening. They slung heavy ropes underneath it, looped the ropes around their shoulders and, when Je-tsun gave the order, lifted the box again just using the ropes. They shuffled awkwardly around, manoeuvring the wooden box until it lined up exactly with the opening, then lowered it carefully into the structure.
Once it was resting on the floor, they pulled out the ropes from underneath it. Then they carefully replaced each stone slab on the top of the stone structure, sealing the cavity again.
Once he was satisfied that it was properly sealed, Je-tsun took a hammer and chisel and, in the middle of the central slab, carved two symbols that, in the Tibetan dialect, equated to the letters ‘YA’. Each of the men touched the carving once, then all but one filed slowly out of the chamber – that man had a single final task to perform. Then they closed the door for the last time.
It was too late to complete their task that night, so they ate some of their provisions and drank a little wine before wrapping themselves in the furs and sleeping as best they could on the cold and rocky floor.
The following morning they rose to finish their work. Concealing the entrance to the inner chamber took a couple of hours, but when they’d finished the result was impressive. Without knowledge of what was hidden there, nobody would have any idea that it even existed.
Je-tsun inspected the result and expressed his satisfaction.
‘We have done well,’ he told the men who’d followed him on this, their final mission. ‘Now it is time.’
The men filed outside and followed Je-tsun up the valley floor to the edge of a cliff, where a deep gully split the rock.
As they approached the edge, the man known as Sonam moved a little to one side, his expression troubled.
‘Is this necessary, Je-tsun?’ he asked. ‘You have all been loyal to me and to our master. Such loyalty should not have to be rewarded in this way.’
The older man shook his head. ‘We would not speak out willingly, my lord, but we know not what the future holds, and this is the only way we can be certain the secret will be preserved.’
Sonam shook his head. ‘I cannot witness this,’ he muttered. ‘I will leave you now.’
He stepped forward and clasped Je-tsun around the shoulders, then turned and walked away without a backward glance, down the slope to where the two camels were grazing contentedly.
Behind him, he heard the first cry of pain as Je-tsun began the willing slaughter of his faithful and trusting companions.
England
1
Present day
2 a.m. Total darkness. Oliver Wendell-Carfax was wide awake. An unusual noise had echoed through the house – Carfax Hall was old and creaked at the seams – but for the moment he couldn’t identify it. Maybe a window catch had sprung, or perhaps he hadn’t closed one of the doors properly and a draught had moved it?
He lay completely still in the ancient four-poster bed he’d slept in since he’d reached adulthood, eyes wide open and staring up at the ceiling – the bed’s canopy had vanished long ago.
Then he heard it again. A scraping, rattling sound that he knew instantly wasn’t caused by a door or window
