The Sacred Vault_ A Novel - Andy McDermott [106]
‘I understand,’ he said. ‘Every organisation has its secrets - I should know!’
‘How does that help us, then?’ Eddie asked. He indicated an area above and to the left of Mount Kailash. ‘This is where the Golden Peak is, more or less.’
‘To the northwest of the sacred mountain,’ Nina pointed out. ‘Talonor said he continued northeast.’
‘There couldn’t have been a translation error?’ suggested Mac.
‘No, not for something that basic. That means the Vault of Shiva can’t be at Mount Kailash.’ She checked the map’s scale. ‘The Golden Peak is almost a hundred miles northwest of there. Talonor was the greatest explorer of his time - he couldn’t possibly have made such a huge navigational error. But Khoil doesn’t know that. He’s working from all the information Qexia has trawled from the internet - but nothing about the Golden Peak has ever been publicly released.’ A triumphant smile. ‘Guess computers can’t do all the work for you after all.’
‘So if it’s not there, where is it?’ Eddie moved his finger diagonally over the map. ‘If he went northeast to reach the Golden Peak, the Vault’s got to be somewhere southwest of it.’
‘Yeah . . . but the Codex specifically said that he met the priests at a temple on a holy mountain. Kit, are there any other—’
‘Kedarnath,’ Kit cut in, his expression suggesting he was chastising himself for not having thought of it earlier. ‘Kedarnath, of course! Here.’ He indicated a particular peak on the Indian side of the disputed border. ‘Lord Shiva lived on Mount Kailash, yes - but he had a second home on Mount Kedarnath.’
‘So he had a holiday cottage?’ said Eddie. ‘I’d pick somewhere a bit nearer the sea myself. But then, I’m not a god.’
Nina grinned. ‘You just think you are. So what’s the story of Kedarnath?’
‘There are three, actually,’ said Kit. ‘The great Hindu texts have many different ways of telling the same stories. One of them is that two of Shiva’s followers, Nar and Narayan, performed great penance before a lingam of Shiva - a symbol of the god,’ he clarified for Eddie and Mac. ‘Shiva was pleased and granted them a boon - a wish. They asked if he could make a home closer to his followers than Mount Kailash, and he agreed. In another, five brothers followed Shiva there to beg forgiveness for having killed their cousins in a war. He gave it, and told them he would live there to watch over them.’
‘And the third version?’
‘Shiva’s wife, Parvati, thought Mount Kailash was too far from India - she wanted to be nearer the people she loved. So she asked Shiva for another home that was closer to them.’
Eddie laughed. ‘That sounds familiar. The bloke has to move house because his wife wants to be somewhere she thinks is nicer.’
‘Are you telling me you liked living in Blissville?’ said Nina, of their move out of Queens back into her native Manhattan five months earlier.
‘It was a lot cheaper, I’ll give it that.’
She huffed, then turned back to Kit. ‘What else can you tell me about Kedarnath?’
‘Not much. I’ve never been there. But there is a temple there - one of the oldest and holiest in India. It’s dedicated to Shiva.’
‘How old?’ Eddie asked.
‘I don’t know, but very.’
‘Old enough to have been there when Talonor visited,’ Nina said thoughtfully. ‘Everything fits: Talonor thinking that Shiva, with his trident, was the same god as Poseidon; the temple being southwest of the Golden Peak; the entire site being considered a sacred mountain, the home of a god.’ Her expression brightened. ‘And Khoil’s looking in the wrong place. He’s started from a false premise - that the sacred mountain mentioned in the Codex is Mount Kailash. And since he doesn’t know about the Golden Peak, he’s got no way of realising that!’
‘So the Vault is somewhere on Mount Kedarnath?’ Kit asked.
‘Seems like it.’
‘Then I can’t see how it hasn’t been found already. Kedarnath is not like Mount Kailash - lots of people have climbed it. And the temple is a major tourist attraction, as