The Place of Dead Kings (25 page)

Rao looked at Jack sideways, pursed his lips and finally said, ‘I see. Shouldn’t you at least clean that blade?’

‘No time. We have to go now.’

Rao searched Jack’s face for a moment. Then he relaxed his shoulders and slid his pistol into its holster. ‘Very well. Let’s go.’

They ran up the gully, leaving the pool, the dead and the dying behind. The knapsack bounced on Jack’s back but he barely noticed it – in the army he’d marched for days and even fought with a knapsack on his back. The scimitar swung at his side and the knife was still tucked into his belt.

He glanced at Rao. The Captain ran stiffly, as if he were trying to maintain some level of decorum. His overcoat was unbuttoned and flapped open at times to reveal his blue uniform beneath.

The savages’ footprints were easy to make out in the black soil and their rough hide shoes left distinctive markings. Their tracks were spread out across the ground – they hadn’t been running in any kind of formation.

After half an hour, Jack and Rao reached the head of the gully and scrambled up a bare slope. The mist began to clear and the surrounding hills came into focus.

Rao fell behind and Jack paused beside a rock to wait for him. The Captain was sweating and panting heavily by the time he caught up. He slung off Atri’s satchel, slipped off his coat and bent double, trying to catch his breath.

Jack pulled out the water canteen, took a swig and offered it to Rao. ‘Here.’

Rao raised his head and frowned, his chest still heaving.

Jack waggled the canteen. ‘Go on.’

Rao swallowed and licked his lips, but still didn’t reach for the canteen.

Then Jack understood. Of course. He’d been away from Rajthanans for so long he’d forgotten. ‘I see. Don’t want to share water with me.’

Rao’s eyes flickered. ‘You’re an insolent native.’

Jack snorted, looked away and took another gulp of water. ‘Up to you.’

Rao hesitated, then grasped the canteen out of Jack’s hand, wiped the opening with his sleeve and drank by pouring the water through the air to purify it. He didn’t let his lips touch the container. He drank for several seconds, taking large gulps so that his Adam’s apple rolled in his neck.

‘Calm down,’ Jack said. ‘Don’t drink it all.’

Rao handed back the canteen. He glared at Jack but didn’t say anything further.

They pressed on up the incline. When he reached the summit, Jack stopped again to let Rao catch up. He peered down the far side of the hill and saw a slope descending to a wide valley. Shreds of mist still floated about the valley floor, but he could see patches of the ground beyond.

Suddenly he drew his breath in sharply. He could make out the black specks of the savages charging up the valley. There looked to be four hundred of them at least.

He shrank behind a knoll. Rao was still toiling up the slope and Jack waved for him to keep his head down. Rao stooped, ran up the last few feet and flopped down beside Jack. He panted, winced and pressed his hand to his side.

Jack pointed over the knoll. ‘They’re in the next valley. If we go down now they’ll see us.’

Rao nodded, still struggling to get his breath back.

Jack grinned. ‘You need to do a bit more training, sir.’

Rao scowled at him, swallowed and pulled out his handkerchief, which he breathed through, as if the perfume could somehow revive him. After a few seconds, he put the cloth away, felt about in his satchel and drew out a spyglass. He rolled over and eased his head around the side of the knoll.

‘Careful,’ Jack said.

‘I know what I’m doing.’ Rao raised the glass to his eye. ‘Yes. I see them.’

Rao handed over the glass and Jack peered down. The floor of the valley reared up before him in vivid detail. He searched until he found the savages – they were running and leaping over rocks and gorse bushes, their cloaks billowing behind them. He hunted for Saleem and the other captives, but it was difficult to see clearly with the mist partially obscuring the valley. Eventually he gave up and handed the glass back to Rao.

‘Still too risky to go down there.’ Jack looked to his right to where a fir forest swept down a mountain all the way to the valley floor. ‘We could go through that. We won’t be spotted in there.’

Rao stared at the trees through his spyglass. ‘It’ll slow us down.’

‘It’ll slow us down waiting around here too.’

Rao nodded, and they struck off across the scarp, keeping below the line of the summit. Once they reached the woods, they jogged down in an angle towards the bottom of the valley. The sharp scent of the fir trees wafted around them and they skidded on drifts of fallen needles.

From time to time, Jack stopped, climbed a tree and checked the valley through the spyglass. The mist had cleared completely now and the running natives stood out clearly against the yellow grassland. Each time he looked, they were further away, and finally, after an hour, he could no longer see them at all.

He shinned down the tree trunk and jumped the last few feet. ‘The savages are out of sight. We’ll go straight down from here. I have to find the trail again.’ He looked up and saw that the pale sun was hanging low in the sky. ‘It’s about three o’clock. It’ll be dark in an hour.’

Rao drew a watch from his pocket and flicked open the silver lid. ‘Remarkable. You’re right. Quarter past three by European reckoning.’

‘Wouldn’t be much of a tracker if I couldn’t tell the time by the sun.’ Jack started down the slope.

‘Tracker?’ Rao slipped a little as he followed.

‘Aye. That’s what I used to do.’

‘Before you were a porter?’

‘That’s right.’ Jack realised he would have to be careful what he said. He had to keep his story straight, otherwise Rao might start to get suspicious.

There was no reason for him to talk much to Rao anyway. The two of them had been thrown together temporarily, but the Captain was the enemy. In another situation they could be shooting at each other.

Within half an hour, they reached the base of the valley and Jack scanned ahead with the spyglass. The savages remained out of sight and the shadows were thickening fast.

Jack ran towards the middle of the valley, determined to find the trail before nightfall. Rao puffed and wheezed, and soon fell behind. But Jack didn’t stop until he spied footprints in the earth before him. He crouched, parted a clump of heather and saw the unmistakeable tracks left by the savages’ shoes. He stepped forward a few paces and saw further prints, and then more still. These were definitely the right tracks.

Rao had slowed to a walk.

‘Hurry,’ Jack shouted. ‘They’re well ahead of us.’

Reluctantly, Rao started running again and was weak and drenched in sweat by the time he reached Jack. But Jack didn’t let him rest for a moment and instead led the way on along the trail.

Dusk soon settled over the valley and the air grew colder. Jack could still just make out the savages’ tracks, but it would be impossible to see them once the light faded completely. The only way he could follow the trail in the dark was to use the Europa yantra, his tracking power.

How would using the power affect him? Without Kanvar’s cure, the effort would have killed him. But what about now, when the cure was still effective? If nothing else, using the power would tire him out and he was already weary. Further, he would have to reveal to Rao that he was a siddha. That was going to take some explaining.

He would wait until it was absolutely necessary before risking going into the trance.

Darkness swamped the countryside. The moon was a thin streak behind the clouds and the ground turned pitch black.

Finally, he stopped, crouched and studied the earth.

Rao halted and lay on his back, gasping for breath.

Jack stared hard at the ground, but even with his uncannily good eyesight he couldn’t make out the trail.

He rubbed his forehead. He would have to use Europa now. There was no other way . . .

Then he noticed a glint out of the corner of his eye. He lowered his hand and peered into the darkness. Straight ahead, further up the valley, he spied twinkling lights.

Fires.

‘Get up.’ He stood and retied his ponytail.

Rao groaned and pulled himself upright. ‘What?’

‘Over there.’ Jack nodded at the glimmering lights.

‘Oh, yes. What is it?’

‘Could be the savages’ camp. Or a village. Come on.’

They set off towards the lights and half an hour later they were close enough for Jack to make out at least forty campfires spread out across the valley floor.

He halted. ‘We need to be careful. There could be sentries about.’

Rao nodded. ‘You think it’s our savages?’

‘Could be.’

‘Who else could it be?’

Jack shrugged. ‘Maybe there are other tribes around.’

‘Other tribes? Those savages have been following us for days. It must be them.’

‘I’m not so sure about that. Those savages we fought a few days ago – they weren’t wearing the white skull, were they?’

‘Weren’t they?’

‘No. I saw one of them.’

‘So, they were a different tribe, you think?’

‘Maybe. Tribes usually stick to their own areas. I reckon we’ve left the lands of one group and then come across this next lot.’

Rao stared into the dark, his eyes reflecting the distant firelight. ‘Just our luck.’

‘We need some cover if we’re going to get closer. I reckon we’ll still find woods over there.’ He pointed to the mountainside on the right side of the valley. It was impossible to make out the slope clearly, but from what he’d seen earlier he was certain the forest extended this far.

They ran across the grass and the black presence of the mountain loomed ahead, traces of snow illuminating its peak. As they drew closer, Jack spotted the dark, jagged lines of fir trees.

He led the way into the woods and followed a rough animal track as it wound along the base of the mountain. The forest was silent save for the distant hooting of an owl and the rattle of dry branches in the wind.

After twenty minutes, he clambered up a tree and saw that the campfires were now only three hundred yards away. He slid back to the ground and led Rao to a nearby ridge that was free of trees. They crouched behind a mass of tangled brambles and stared across the valley. The campfires were clearly visible and Jack could make out dim figures moving about the flames.

Rao peered through the glass. ‘It’s them. I can see a white skull.’

Jack took the glass and bright flames immediately leapt up in front of him. He moved the glass around until he saw savages sitting warming themselves before a fire, their faces tinted yellow and their eyes dark beads in their bearded faces. He searched further, discovering more fires and more savages. He spied the tall man in the mail shirt strutting across the camp. And finally he found what he was looking for.

Saleem, Parihar and the two Saxons.

They all sat together near the centre of the camp. Jack couldn’t see their faces clearly, but Saleem’s ginger hair and Parihar’s scarlet turban were unmistakeable.

‘Found them.’ Jack handed the glass back to Rao. ‘In the middle of the camp.’

Rao stared through the glass. ‘I see them.’ He looked at Jack, a tight smile on his lips and moisture in his eyes. ‘Alive. Poor Parihar.’

As far as Jack was concerned Parihar was an idiot. But he understood how the Captain must be feeling. ‘You know him well?’

‘Parihar?’ Rao cleared his throat and his voice shook slightly. ‘Yes. Since we were children.’

‘Ah. I didn’t realise. Don’t worry. We’ll get them back—’ Jack froze mid-sentence. His heart quivered. He stared into the trees off to the left.

‘What is it?’ Rao asked.

Jack put his finger to his lips and pointed to where a dark figure was slipping slowly between two wizened birches. As the shape left the shadow beneath one tree, Jack could see it was draped in a large cloak and carried a spear.

A savage was moving stealthily through the undergrowth not more than ten yards away.

‘S
hiva,’ Rao whispered. ‘You think he’s seen us?’

Jack stared at the dim figure. ‘Not sure. Stay still.’

The savage slid behind a fir tree and paused for around a minute. Then he sneaked forward towards a clump of bushes.