The Sacred Vault_ A Novel - Andy McDermott [134]
‘Way to make me look competent to the impatient guys with swords, Eddie,’ Nina muttered.
Other guardians threatened Kit with their weapons. At Shankarpa’s command, they forced the three visitors towards the edge of the ledge. Girilal protested, but his son angrily dismissed him.
‘If you kill us, you’ll be fucked when Khoil’s people turn up,’ growled Eddie.
‘We will deal with them as we will deal with you,’ Shankarpa promised. ‘Shiva will protect us.’
‘Shiva,’ Nina whispered. That was the clue! Something about Shiva had been literally staring her in the face the whole time she worked on the lock. ‘It’s Shiva! I know how to open the door!’
Shankarpa’s condescension was clear. ‘And perhaps you also know how to fly off this ledge. It is the only thing that will save you now.’
‘No, no, look!’ She pointed at the statue towering over them. ‘Look at Shiva! Look at his head!’
The certainty in her voice made him hesitate. Holding up a hand to signal the others to stop, he glanced at the colossal stone figure. ‘What about it?’
‘Don’t you see?’ Nina said desperately. ‘It’s tilted to one side!’
‘So?’
‘So the key’s in the wrong position! I put it in with Shiva’s head aligned vertically because . . . because that’s what you automatically do. But you’re meant to line it up with the statue.’ She demonstrated, turning an imaginary object in her hands. ‘The words are in the right order, but the wrong places. If you turn the key so Shiva’s head matches the statue, then all the goddesses move round by one position. That’s what we have to line them up with!’
Shankarpa looked between her and the statue. ‘Do you really believe this? Or are you just trying to save your life?’
‘Well, both! But I do think I’m right - I know I’m right. If I’m wrong, then you can throw us off the ledge.’
Eddie raised a finger. ‘Nina, love? Remember how now we’re married, we’re supposed to make big decisions together?’
‘I would also like to distance myself from that remark,’ Kit said hurriedly.
‘I’m right,’ she insisted. ‘Shankarpa, at least let me try. You might have to wait five minutes longer to kill us - but on the other hand, five minutes from now you could be walking into the Vault of Shiva!’
‘You should let her,’ added Girilal. ‘It is the right thing to do.’
Shankarpa shot his father an irritated glare, but acquiesced. ‘Do not fail,’ he told Nina curtly.
‘Yeah, really,’ Eddie added as the guardians, swords still raised, escorted them back to the door.
‘I won’t,’ Nina assured him. She removed the replica key from the central hole, then re-inserted it . . . rotated by one-fifth of a turn. She looked up at the statue. Shiva’s blank stone eyes gazed back at her, the faint smile on the tilted head encouraging her to continue.
Turning the wheels to match the new positions of the goddesses was now a purely mechanical task, taking just a few minutes. She rotated each smaller disc to what she thought - prayed - was the correct alignment. Love, motherhood, invincibility, femininity . . .
Death.
The last word was in place. Silence . . .
Click.
Something moved behind the wheels, a restraint finally released after countless centuries. More clicking, louder, then the rattling clank of chains—
With a swirl of escaping dust, the doors swung inwards.
The guardians let out exclamations of awe, some dropping to their knees to offer thanks to Shiva. Shankarpa was wide-eyed with surprise. Fully opened, the doors stopped with a crunch of stone.
‘So, my son,’ said Girilal quietly, ‘are you going to apologise to Dr Wilde?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘We will see what is inside first - what we are sworn to protect.’ He hesitated before reluctantly saying, ‘Come with me, Dr Wilde.’
Awestruck, Nina followed him into the darkness of the Vault of Shiva.
25
The space behind the doors was huge, on a scale to match the statue guarding it. The echo of Nina’s and Shankarpa’s footsteps as they