Race passed the alcove that he'd seen the last time he had been inside the temple, saw the mangled skeleton with the cracked skull lying in it. The skeleton that he had assumed was Renco but which he now knew to be the wily old conquistador who had stolen Renco's emerald pendant.
He came to the bottom of the spiralling passageway and saw a long straight tunnel stretching ahead of him. It was the tunnel in which von Dirksen and his men had met their grisly end.
The rapas emerged from the ramp behind him—silent, looming, ominous—barely even making a sound as they slunk along on their soft padded paws.
At the end of the long straight tunnel, Race came across an enormous hole in the floor. It was roughly square in shape and at least fifteen feet wide, taking up the entire tunnel before him.
Out of it came one of the most repulsive odours he had smelled in a long, long time.
He winced at the smell as he evaluated the wide hole in the floor in front of him.
On the far side of it he saw nothing but wall—solid, stone wall—and inside the hole itself he saw nothing but inky blackness.
Just then, however, he saw a series of hand and footholds that had been cut into the hole's right-hand wall. They'd been carved in such a fashion—one on top of the other— that they created a ladder-like mechanism which a person could use to climb down into the hole.
After dousing the idol once again with his bladder full of water, Race put his flaming torch in his mouth and then, using the hand and footholds cut into the wall, slowly began to climb down into the dark stinking hole.
The rapas followed him, but they didn't bother using the footholds. They just used their scythe-like claws to climb down the walls of the hole after him.
About fifty feet later, Race's feet touched solid ground again.
The foul stench was stronger here, to the point of being overwhelming. It smelled like rotting meat.
Race grabbed the flaming torch from his mouth and turned away from the wall he had just scaled.
What he saw took his breath away.
He was standing inside an enormous hall of some kind, a gigantic stone-walled cavern that had been carved out of the belly of the rock tower.
It was absolutely spectacular.
An enormous, rock-walled cathedral.
Its high vaulted ceiling soared into the air at least fifty feet above the floor, disappearing into darkness. It was supported by a set of stone columns that had been fashioned out of the rock. A flat stone floor stretched away from Race. It also disappeared into shadow.
The walls of the cathedral, however, were its most stunning feature.
They were covered with primitive carvings—pictographs similar to those that adorned the portal up on the surface.
There were pictures of rapas, pictures of people, pictures of rapas killing people. Tearing their limbs off, ripping their heads off. In some of the carvings, the screaming humans being mauled by the cats clutched piles of loot in their hands, even as they were being killed.
Wanton greed, even at the moment of death.
Interspersed among the carvings on the walls were a series of stone alcoves that had all been carved in the shape of rapas' heads.
Thick cobwebs covered each alcove, so that it looked as if see-through grey curtains had been lowered over the carved rapas' jaws.
Race went over to one of the alcoves, sliced through the cobweb across the rapa's mouth.
His eyes widened.
A small shelf-like podium had been carved into the wall inside the rapa's bared jaws, On it sat a lustrous golden statue that had been fashioned in the shape of a fat man with an enormous erection.
'Good God…' he breathed as he stared at the statue.
He scanned the hall around him. There must have been forty such alcoves scattered around its walls. And if there was an artefact in each one, then it would be a treasure that was worth…
It was Solon's treasure.
Race looked at the ornate alcove in front of him, looked at the carved rapa's head, snarling viciously at him.
It was as if the builder of this temple were daring the greedy adventurer to reach inside the cat's mouth to grab its treasure.
But Race didn't want any treasure.
He wanted to go home.
He stepped away from the fearsome-looking alcove, out into the centre of the enormous stone cathedral, holding his torch aloft.
And then he saw the source of the foul odour that had assaulted his nose.
'Oh, Christ,' he breathed.
It lay on the far side of the cathedral, and it was huge.
