“I Don’t Know, you guys are always sprinkling your drinks in the air,” said Molly. “Will that help?”
“Can’t hurt.” Addison unscrewed his canteen and spritzed water in the air by flicking his fingers. Everyone else did as well, except for Raj, who found it prudent to always conserve water when in the wilderness. They sprinkled water for a few more seconds, and again, nothing special seemed to happen.
“Wait a minute. Keep doing that!” Addison noticed a drop of water running down the cave wall, carrying away a few centuries of dust. Molly splashed water on the faded designs of the shrine. The dirt melted away, revealing a carving of a whip.
Addison rubbed water over the etching, reviving the faded paint. “A golden whip.” He traced it with his finger. The tip of the whip pointed directly to a door on the eastern side of the wall. “I know what to do.”
He crossed to the center of the room, plucked the white rock from its pedestal, and placed it on the pedestal by the eastern door. With a grinding of stone, the ancient portal swung open.
Addison’s team coughed and waved away a few centuries of cobwebs and a billowing cloud of dust. When the air cleared, they saw a row of steps leading into the mountain.
Chapter Forty
The Tomb
ADDISON’S FLASHLIGHT WAS TAPPED, so Molly scrounged in her survival kit and found a magnesium flare. She struck it and held it aloft, showering red sparks in all directions. They crept into the tunnel under its crackling red glow.
Stairs carved into the rock eased their descent. The passage was wide enough to send echoes up and down the corridor. Carved stone demons leered from the walls of the cave. Skeletons of warriors flanked the tunnel, cloaked in dusty shrouds. Cobwebs had settled on the helms and dulled the blades of the axes. Addison saw the heaped bones of the butchered laborers who once carved this hidden tunnel.
The passage opened into a massive gaping cavern with a rough dirt floor. In the center was a large stone tomb. Addison removed his ivy cap and wiped the hair from his brow. “This is it. The tomb of the Khan.”
“Death,” said Raj. “The dark shroud that shields our mortal gaze from the light of destiny.” Everyone turned to stare at him.
“Raj,” said Addison, “someday you are going to be a big hit at dinner parties.”
Nobody used Molly’s flare to light the ancient torches anchored on the cavern walls.
The group crossed the chamber to stand reverently by the stone tomb.
Molly broke the silence. “So . . . where’s the treasure? And where’s the golden whip?”
Addison quoted Sir Frederick’s clue. “‘Know the Khan to open the tomb; know thyself to escape.’ We have to try opening the tomb. The whip must be inside.”
Nobody shook his head. “We cannot open the Khan’s coffin. It’s sacred.”
Addison saw his point. He had a hard time picturing Sir Frederick rooting around inside a coffin as well. “His clue says we have to open the tomb. I don’t see what our options are.” He tried lifting the stone lid. Everyone pitched in to help. They strained until their faces boiled red. Nothing budged. The tomb appeared to be made of solid rock.
They scoured the stone sarcophagus for secret buttons or levers. Addison pushed and prodded like a Swedish masseuse.
“Are you sure this is the right coffin?” asked Molly at last. She was completely frustrated and completely covered in sweat. “Maybe we’re on the wrong mountain.”
“If you think this is a mistaken grave, you are gravely mistaken.” Addison crossed his arms and pondered. The stone tomb was completely uninteresting in every possible way. There were no ornaments or impressive designs. It did not seem a proper resting place for one of the most powerful people in history. “Okay, I’ll admit, this doesn’t seem like the tomb of a world conqueror. I’ve seen coffee tables that are nicer than this.”
Nobody shrugged. “The Khan grew up poor. He was once a slave. Maybe he wanted something humble?”
Addison wasn’t buying it. “What about the ten thousand horsemen who trampled his grave? What about diverting a river to cover it? What about murdering all the laborers? Why go through all that trouble and just have this boring lump of rock? This can’t be the tomb—it’s too easy.”
Eddie was appalled. “You think this was easy? We crossed the entire Gobi Desert for this!”
Addison began pacing. Moving his feet helped jostle the neurons around in his brain, like shaking a snow globe. He left zigzagging tracks on the dirt floor. “The Khan’s signature move on the battlefield was the false retreat. He was an expert at hiding his strength. This,” Addison declared, pointing at the tomb, “is a decoy.” He was now feeling quite sure of himself.
“All right, so where’s the real tomb?” Molly gestured around the empty cavern.
Addison scratched his chin. He knew Madame Feng’s team would arrive soon. He would hate to have come all this way just to see his hopes buried by a coffin. He kicked at the dirt. He kicked at the dirt a second time. He was about to kick at the dirt a third time when an idea struck him. “You know what’s always bothered me? Why have ten thousand horses trample your grave and then divert a river over it? You don’t need one if you have the other—it’s overkill.”
Molly frowned. “What’s your point?”
“Mo, stick to me like a straitjacket. What if they’re two separate things? We already diverted a river to reach the necropolis. What if this is where the horses trampled the earth to flatten it?”
“You’re assuming they could even get horses up this mountain.”
“They were the Mongol army—they could do anything.”
Molly looked down at the cavern floor. “You’re saying the Khan’s tomb is underneath us?”
Addison nodded emphatically. “Why else is a cave floor, inside a mountain, perfectly flat and covered in dirt?”
Molly raised her eyebrows. She studied the vast cave. “So the Mongols carted dirt inside this cavern, buried the Khan’s tomb, and trampled the dirt flat to hide it.”
“Precisely. Molly, you are easily in my top five favorite Cookes.” Addison crossed to the stone sarcophagus. “‘Know the Khan to open the tomb; know thyself to escape.’” He presented his case like a trial lawyer, making his summation before the jury. “Someone who truly knows the Khan would know this was not his coffin. And they would not dare defile a Khan by opening up his casket. We, my friends, are not supposed to open the sarcophagus at all.”
“What are we supposed to do, then?”
Addison had a hunch he had a hunch. He hunched over. “We move the decoy.” He pushed hard against the heavy stone. His team threw their shoulders in with him. It slid a few feet across the dirt, revealing a staircase burrowed into the earth.
• • • • • •
Addison’s group grabbed torches from the wall and descended the stone steps. Raj took the lead, scouring for booby traps. After fifty paces, the hallway opened into the largest cave Addison had ever seen or imagined. They held their torches high, peering into the gloom.
The cavernous chamber was piled with endless heaps of rubble, covered in a thick blanket of dust, as far as the eye could see. Addison could not mask his disappointment.
Eddie was outraged. “Sir Frederick left us all these clues just to lead us to a dust heap? Was he just playing a practical joke?”
Even Nobody and I Don’t Know looked upset.
Addison couldn’t decide his next move. He felt like giving up. Maybe, he thought, he should just wait for Madame Feng to arrive, and turn himself in.
Molly scanned the mountains of dust and surprised absolutely no one by breaking into a sneezing fit. The more she sneezed, the more dust she scattered in the air. It was a vicious cycle. When she regained control of herself, she did something that was surprising. She laughed.
Addison found this in poor taste. They had just been on a six-tho
usand-mile wild goose chase, and the last thing anyone needed was Molly to laugh about it.
Molly laughed harder. She moved to the nearby pile of rubble where her sneezing had scattered some dust. She took a deep breath and blew away more dust. She held her nose to keep from sneezing again. She plucked something out of the heap, blew on it, and polished it with her shirtsleeve. She held it up for the group to see.
It was a gold coin.
Addison’s eyes communicated this information to his brain. His brain shook his head and ordered his eyes to double-check. He looked again. It was definitely a gold coin.
Addison’s feet carried him to the nearest hill of gray rubble. He took a diver’s breath and blew away a cloud of dust. The hill was a heap of gold. “Guys . . . I think we’re in the right mountain.”
The group fanned out across the giant cavern. Everywhere their footprints ran, they turned the gray dust to shining gold. Everywhere they breathed revealed more hilltops of glittering gold. Every object they touched turned gray dust to shimmering treasure.
Eddie’s brain couldn’t think of anything better to do, so it hung his mouth open and aired it out for a while. They were standing in an entire underground world of gold. Treasure from China filled the main atrium. The wealth of Persia was piled high in the next cavern. There were mountains of loot from Kazakhstan to Khwarezmia, from Kashgar to Kiev. The treasures of all the fallen empires sacked by the Mongol Horde.
Addison wandered in a daze. He admired the intricate silverwork of the Dariganga people. He hefted a scimitar gilded with the Sword Verse of the Qur’an, the sheath inlaid with rubies. He found a sultan’s ivory chess set, the dark pieces carved with sapphires and the light pieces with emeralds.
In the center of the chamber was a high stone platform that rose twenty feet in the air. It was decorated with jewels, weapons, and the bones of horses, slaves, and warriors.
Addison climbed the marbled steps to the Khan’s tomb, sealed forever in a casket of ivory: the final resting place of the man who had conquered the world. Next to the tomb was a golden throne, and on the throne, a golden whip.
• • • • • •
Nobody and I Don’t Know dropped to their knees and bowed, pressing their foreheads to the ground.
Addison opened his messenger bag and found his father’s copy of The Secret History of the Mongols. He read his father’s signature on the inside cover and then rested the book on the golden throne of the Khan. “We did it, Dad.”
His team mounted the steps and joined him at his side.
“You know,” said Molly, “if you still want to be a stockbroker, all you need to get started is a few handfuls of this gold.”
Addison realized what Molly had known all along: he could never give up archaeology. “This gold doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to history.”
Eddie stared at the mountains of treasure surrounding them. “Do you think the gold is booby-trapped if we try to take it? Like in the Incan treasure vault?”
“It might be. Sir Frederick didn’t take any treasure, and he made it out. Maybe that’s what the clue meant by ‘know thyself to escape.’ We didn’t come here for the treasure.”
“Addison, what is the point of treasure hunting if we don’t get any treasure?”
“The treasure is not the true reward, Eddie.”
“Well, what is?”
“The adventure,” said Raj.
“Knowledge,” said Molly.
“This is,” said Addison. He held up the golden whip.
Chapter Forty-One
The Golden Whip
ADDISON LIKED THE WEIGHT of the whip in his grip. The handle was braided with silver, and the eight feet of coiled, looping thong was constructed of interlocking golden links hinged together by a cunning design. He wondered what ingenious goldsmith had crafted it. Was it true the Khan had simply discovered the whip by a river as a boy and taken it as a sign he would one day rule the world? The truth was buried in the centuries.
Nobody watched him impatiently. “We’re going to hide it in the forest, right?”
Addison’s mind was racing like a gerbil on an exercise wheel. He thought about Sir Frederick’s words: “know thyself.” He could either save the whip or use it to save his aunt and uncle. Or maybe there was a way to do both.
“I have a plan. As soon as we get out of here, you alert the Darkhad. I trade the whip to Madame Feng for my aunt and uncle. Once they are safely free from her, the Darkhad ambush Madame Feng and retrieve the whip.”
“It’s too risky,” Nobody said. “Madame Feng isn’t going to go down without a fight. You blew up her palace, Addison.”
“Technically, that was Raj, but I take your point.”
“It was an honest mistake,” said Raj. “It could have happened to anyone.”
Addison stepped closer to the two Darkhad. “You said yesterday you’d choose protecting the Khan’s relics over saving someone’s life. But what would you do if it was your family?”
Nobody weighed it in his mind. He glanced at his sister.
I Don’t Know nodded. “Addison’s plan could work. The Darkhad outnumber the triads.”
Nobody took a deep breath and looked at Addison solemnly. “You may take the golden whip. But touch nothing else.”
Addison held the whip to his chest and nodded. Then he was on the move, descending the Khan’s staircase. “We have to go quickly if this is going to work.”
Eddie watched the team leaving. “Wait, just so I’m clear . . . no gold?”
• • • • • •
The group raced out of the mountain tomb, crossed the hidden necropolis, and climbed down the slippery chute into the secret mountain passage. They emerged from the rocky hollow in the dry riverbed and dashed across the alpine meadow. Reaching the eagle cliff, they sprinted along the edge, searching for the spur that stretched across the gorge.
Molly scanned the line of the cliff wall and cried out.
The Darkhad chieftain was standing on the far side of the chasm, pointing angrily at the golden whip. “What have you done? Put it back!”
I Don’t Know shouted back across the gorge. “It’s all real, Uncle! Everything we’ve guarded for all these years!”
The chieftain drew his dagger and held it over his head. “I’ll kill all of you!”
“If you kill us,” said Addison, “who will know how to return the whip to Genghis’s tomb?”
The chieftain hesitated. “What do you want?”
“I trade the whip for my aunt and uncle. Then you ambush the triads and retrieve the whip.”
“I cannot gamble with the whip, and I cannot help you.” He pointed to the river churning in the gorge a thousand feet below. “A Mongol may cross this river only to bury a Khan. And there has not been a Khan for five hundred years.”
“You knew about the necropolis?” asked I Don’t Know.
“I know many things. I know I will never break my vows. I know I will not help you play games with the triads. Return the whip to the tomb!”
Addison brandished the whip in both hands for the chieftain to see. “I’m handing the golden whip to Madame Feng. You can either help us or lose the whip forever.”
The chieftain glowered at Addison. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
“You may still get that chance. But first, help me. We can save my aunt and uncle and save the treasure!”
I Don’t Know called to her uncle. “The triads are coming! Cross the river and help us!”
The chieftain brooded silently, then cocked his ear to the call of an ibex horn sounding an alarm. He stepped back among the pine trees and vanished from view.
“He’ll help us, I know he will,” said I Don’t Know.
Nobody shook his head. “Stubborn man. He’d rather lose the whip than break the rules.”
“We ha
ve to cross the river. Then your uncle can help us.” Addison turned and raced toward the spur to make the leap back across the gorge. But by the time he reached the cliff’s edge, the triads were already lining up on the opposite side, blocking his escape.
• • • • • •
One after another, Madame Feng’s crew leapt across the gorge. Even Aunt Delia and Uncle Nigel.
Addison counted nearly a dozen triads working their way up the side of the cliff. “I can’t do this alone. We’re outnumbered.” He turned to Nobody. “Alert the Darkhad. Quickly!”
Nobody climbed up on a high rock and furiously blew a panic call on his ibex horn.
Molly surveyed the plateau for another route down the mountain. She saw they were surrounded by thousand-foot drops. “The triads are blocking our only escape. We’re trapped up here.”
Madame Feng inched along the cliff wall and stepped into view.
Addison turned to I Don’t Know and gestured to the sword hilt strapped to her back. “How are you guys with those swords?”
“Not so great against guns.”
Addison grimaced. He realized his best move now was to stall for time and hope the Darkhad would arrive. “Madame Feng, what a lovely surprise! We were just admiring the view. How did you find us?”
Madame Feng sidestepped her way along the cliff, edging closer to Addison. She called over the roar of the water that echoed in the vast ravine. “Your aunt and uncle finally became cooperative. I told them I still had you locked up and that if they didn’t find the tomb, I would kill you.”
“How clever!”
“It worked. Your uncle suddenly told me about the Great Taboo. He even seems to know clues to the treasure.”
Addison shot a look at Uncle Nigel. There were fresh bruises on his stubbled jaw, and blood was crusted around his nose and lip. He looked wrung out like a sponge.
“Are the Feng casinos traded on the stock market?” asked Addison.
Addison Cooke and the Tomb of the Khan Page 27