The Sacred Vault_ A Novel - Andy McDermott [140]
‘Our lives do not depend on it.’
‘They might if the Khoils turn up.’ Between the excitement of opening the Vault and the danger posed by the statue, she had forgotten there was another threat hanging over them. ‘Damn it! They could be on their way already. We have to get inside!’ She faced Shankarpa. ‘Look, I’m sure that if you’re not afraid and just walk down the passage, you won’t get hit and you’ll be able to get to the inner chamber. But we’re running out of time to do it.’
‘Then we’ll have to stop pissing about and get on with it, won’t we?’ Eddie said . . . as he stepped into the narrow tunnel.
‘Eddie, no!’ Nina screamed, but the blades were already descending—
The longest sword jerked to a stop with its tip barely an inch from his groin.
‘Gah!’ he yelped as it withdrew, feeling certain parts of his body doing some withdrawal of their own. ‘I’m bloody glad that stopped when it did.’
‘Are you out of your mind?’ Nina shouted. ‘You could have been killed!’
‘Or worse! Look, someone’s got to go down here - and actually doing it’s better than arguing about it. Okay, next step.’ Suppressing a shudder, he advanced down the passage.
The long sword remained stationary as the other blades shot forward, a scimitar swooshing across at neck height only to stop as if hitting an invisible wall. The weapons retracted. Another step. This time nothing happened. Not all the slabs were connected to the trap. Warily, he moved on.
The vajra dropped like a wrecking ball, stopping so close to his head the displaced air ruffled his hair. Next was another sword, almost cleaving diagonally across his chest. Four arms had made their attack: halfway.
Another step—
The chakram sliced at him - and its circular edge bit through his sleeve into his arm.
Nina gasped, about to run to help him. ‘No!’ he growled through the pain. ‘Stay back! It’s stopped!’ The arm holding the chakram had been stopped by the mechanism restricting its movement - but Eddie had been just far enough out of position for it to catch him.
He leaned away, grunting as the metal pulled clear of his flesh. The chakram clunked back to its original position, a thin line of blood glistening on it. He peeled back the torn fabric of his sleeve to examine the injury. He had been much luckier than Kit; the cut would only need one or two stitches.
But that would have to wait. Forcing back his fear, Eddie slowly walked the rest of the way down the passage. Three more weapons struck at him - and each stopped just before impact. Kali was indeed protecting him.
But there was still one more obstacle. ‘Okay, now what?’ he called as he reached the raised foot. The gap beneath it was a little higher than the duct he had crawled through at the United Nations; he would fit, but it would be a tight squeeze.
‘Any ideas?’ Nina asked the men around her.
‘He must be like Shiva on the battlefield,’ said Girilal. ‘He must pretend to be dead and shame Kali into ending her rampage.’
Considering the legend, it seemed to fit, but she still wasn’t keen on the idea - and nor was Eddie when she relayed it to him. ‘I won’t be pretending to be dead if you’re wrong. Can’t I just wedge it with something?’
‘I’m sure whoever built it thought of that,’ she said. The floor beneath the foot was a mosaic of smaller tiles; she guessed that they were intended to give way if too much pressure was put on them, pressing any props into the ground as the foot descended. ‘But I think Girilal’s right. You have to slide under it and play dead - if you try to get out while it’s coming down, it’ll drop and finish you off. The whole trap is about trusting Kali not to kill you, however scary it looks.’
‘I’m not scared,’ he said, starting to wriggle under the statue. ‘I just don’t want my obituary to say that I died by being squashed by a giant foot like something out of Monty bloody Python. It’d be embarrassing.’
Despite her tension, the joke made Nina smile. ‘Your obituary isn’t going to be written for a long, long time, Eddie. Nobody would dare.’
‘Well, let’s hope you’re right.’ He was now fully