The Sacred Vault_ A Novel - Andy McDermott [125]
There was an arched entrance to another chamber just a few feet back. She darted inside. Some of the rooms went deeper into the mountain than others - maybe they were linked, by passages she could use to escape . . .
Not this one. She could see the back wall. Another storage area, objects piled at random.
The guardian was a deadly silhouette framed in the arched doorway.
Kit pounded along the sixth level, following Nina’s tracks. He passed a taut rope, one of the guardians halfway across. A glance down told him that Eddie had made it over the bridge—
Something dropped from the broken tier above.
It was a statue, pushed by a man on the next level. It blew apart like a bomb as it hit the ledge in front of him. Kit tried to hurdle it, but his foot clipped the heavy stone core and he tripped. He landed hard, sliding on the snow . . .
And going over the edge.
Running down the fifth tier, Eddie heard someone scream behind him. He looked back and saw Kit fall from the ledge above, plunging towards the ground—
He slammed to a stop as his leg caught in a bunch of tangled ropes, leaving him painfully hanging upside down forty feet in the air. More guardians were crossing the bridge.
Eddie hesitated, then ran back. ‘Kit! I’m coming!’
Nina retreated into the small room. The items within seemed to be the former property of previous adventurers unlucky enough to encounter the lost valley’s defenders. Mildewed clothing, rotten leather bags, wood and metal boxes, but nothing helpful.
The guardian entered the chamber. He didn’t seem angry, or triumphant - the only aura he gave off was that he was simply doing his job. He raised his sword.
An old rifle amongst the detritus. Nina snatched it up, spun, pulled the trigger—
A dry metal click. The gun was empty, and even if it had been loaded the barrel was scabbed with rust.
But it had still shocked the guardian into freezing, the corroded muzzle just inches from his throat. A relieved smile turned sardonic as his hand tightened round the sword’s hilt—
Nina jabbed the rifle at his neck with all her strength. The man’s eyes bulged in pain as he reeled back, choking. She whipped the gun round and swung it at his head. The vintage weapon’s wooden stock shattered with a very satisfying crack, pitching her erstwhile attacker into the piled garbage.
She raced back out. The guardian who had pushed the statue over the edge saw her and shouted commands to his comrades.
No sign of Eddie or Kit. Nina ran for the end of the tier. The top of the ruined stairway was across the gap. At the back of the ledge, she saw large stone doors between the statue’s feet, circular markings upon them. A lock?
She had a key.
The guardian was in pursuit. She pushed harder, angling at the tier’s corner to narrow the gap as much as possible. If she misjudged it, she would die.
Jump—
The valley floor rolled past seventy feet below . . .
Nina caught the very bottom step with her leading foot and threw herself forward. Her boot slipped on the snow. She fell, her cry abruptly cut off as she hit the unforgiving stone.
She slid down the ancient stairway, feet sweeping a miniature avalanche over the edge—
She clawed at the steps, finding snow, stone beneath - and a crack where a slab had been dislodged in the collapse. Nina stabbed her fingers into it. Her death-slide stopped, legs hanging over the void. She found a hold with her other hand and pulled herself up.
The guardian was still running along the uppermost tier. He would make his own jump in seconds. Nina staggered up to the deep, broad ledge and headed for the doors. There was a circular indentation at the centre of the carvings.
The same size as the replica key.
She pulled it from her coat. Behind her came a thump as the guardian cleared the gap and landed on the stairs, bounding up them after her.
Eddie reached Kit and grabbed the ropes. ‘Hang on!’
‘I’m hanging!’ Kit shouted back. ‘Eddie, they’re almost across the bridge!’
The first of the guardians was only a few