He tapped Watts, Russell, and Lang on the shoulders and pointed below. "Give him a hand."
The three men slid down the rope in rapid succession. Each made a personal inspection of the jewels. Westphalen watched their long shadows interweaving in the lamplight as they scurried around below. It was all he could do to keep from screaming at them to send up the jewels. He could not appear too eager. No, that wouldn't do at all. He had to be calm.
Finally they dragged an urn over to the side and tied the rope around its neck. Westphalen and Malleson hauled it up, lifted it over the rim and set it on the floor.
Malleson dipped both hands into the jewels and brought up two fistfuls. Westphalen restrained himself from doing the same. He picked up a single emerald and studied it, outwardly casual, inwardly wanting to crush it against his lips and cry for joy.
"C'mon, up there!" said Tooke from below. "Let's 'ave the rope, what. There be plenty more to come up and it stinks down 'ere. Let's 'urry it up."
Westphalen gestured to Malleson, who untied the rope from the urn and tossed the end over the edge. He continued to study the emerald, thinking it the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, until he heard one of the men say:
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"A noise. I thought I 'eard a noise in the tunnel there."
"Yer daft, mate. Nothing in that black 'ole but stink."
"I 'eard something, I tell you."
Westphalen stepped up to the edge and looked down at the four men. He was about to tell them to stop talking and keep working when the priest and the woman broke into song. Westphalen whirled at the sound. It was like no music he had ever heard, the woman's voice a keening wail, grating against the man's baritone. No words, only disconnected notes, none of which seemed to belong together. No harmony, only discord. It set his teeth on edge.
They stopped abruptly.
And then came another sound. It rose from below, seeping from the mouth of the tunnel that terminated in the pit, growing in volume. A grumbled cacophony of moans and grunts and snarls that made each hair on the nape of his neck stand up one by one.
The sounds from the tunnel ceased, replaced by the dissonant singing of the priest and priestess. They stopped and the inhuman sounds from the tunnel answered, louder still, in a litany from hell.
Suddenly the singing was joined by a scream of pain and terror from below.
Westphalen looked over the edge and saw one of the men—Watts, he thought—being dragged by his legs into the black maw of the tunnel, shrieking. "It's got me! It's got me!"
But what had him? The tunnel mouth was a darker shadow within the shadows. What was pulling him?
Tooke and Russell had him by the arms and were trying to hold him back, but the force drawing him into the dark was as inexorable as the tide. It seemed Watts's arms would be pulled from their sockets when a dark shape leaped from the tunnel and grabbed Tooke around the neck. It had a lean body and towered over the man. Westphalen could make out no details in the poor light and dancing shadows of the pandemonium below. But what little he saw was enough to make his skin tighten and shrink against his insides, and set his heart to beating madly.
The priest and the woman sang again. He knew he should stop them, but he couldn't speak, couldn't move.
Russell let go of Watts, who was quickly swallowed by the tunnel, and rushed to Tooke's aid. But as soon as he moved, another dark figure leaped from the shadows and pulled him into the tunnel. With a final convulsive heave, Tooke too was dragged off.
Westphalen had never heard grown men scream in such fear. The sound sickened him. Yet he could not react.
And still the priest and the woman sang, no longer stopping for an answering phrase from the tunnel.
Only Lang remained below. He had the rope in his fists and was halfway up the wall, his face a white mask of fear, when two dark shapes darted out of the darkness and leaped upon him, pulling him down. He screamed for help, his eyes wild as he was dragged twisting and kicking into the blackness below. Westphalen managed to break the paralysis that had gripped him since his first glimpse of the denizens of the tunnel. He pulled his pistol from its holster. Beside him, Malleson had already moved into action—he aimed his Enfield and fired at one of the creatures. Westphalen was sure he saw it take the hit, but it didn’t seem to notice. He fired three shots into the two creatures before they disappeared from sight, taking the howling Lang with them.
Behind him the ghastly song went on, playing counterpoint to the agonized screams from the tunnel below, and all around him the stench...
Westphalen felt himself teetering on the edge of madness. He charged up to the dais.
"Stop it!" he screeched. "Stop it or I'll have you shot!"
But they only smiled and continued their hellish song.
He gestured to Hunter, who didn't hesitate. He raised his Enfield to his shoulder and fired.
The shot rang like an explosion through the temple. A red splatter bloomed upon the priest's chest as he was thrown back against his chair. Slowly he slid to the floor. His mouth worked, his glazing eyes blinked twice, and then he lay still. The woman cried out and knelt beside him.
The song had stopped. So had the screams from below.
Once again silence ruled the temple. Westphalen drew a tremulous breath. If he could just have a moment to think, he could—
“Captain! They're coming up!" Malleson cried, an edge of hysteria to his voice as he backed away from the pit. "They're coming up!"
Panic clutching at him, Westphalen ran to the opening. Shadowy forms filled the chamber below. No growls or barks or hissing noises from down there, only the slither of moist skin against moist skin, and the rasp of talon against stone. The lamp had been extinguished and all he could see were dark milling bodies crowded against the walls—
—and climbing the rope!
He saw a pair of yellow eyes rising toward him. One of the things was almost to the top!
Westphalen holstered his pistol and drew his sword. With shaking hands he raised it above his head and chopped down with all his strength. The heavy rope parted cleanly and the distal end whipped away into the darkness below.
Pleased with his swordplay, he peered over the edge to see what the creatures would do now. Before his disbelieving eyes they began to climb the wall. But that was impossible. Those walls were as smooth as—
Now he saw what they were doing: the things were scrambling over and upon each other, reaching higher and higher, like a wave of black, foul water filling a cistern from below. He dropped his sword and turned to run, then forced himself to hold his position. If those things got out, there would be no escape for him. And he couldn't die here. Not now. Not with a fortune sitting in the urn at his feet.
Westphalen mustered all his courage and stepped over to where Tooke's Enfield propped up the grate. With teeth clenched and sweat springing out along the length of his body, he gingerly extended a foot and kicked the rifle into the pit. The grate slammed down with a resounding clang as Westphalen stumbled back against a pillar, sagging with relief. He was safe now.
The grate rattled; it shook, it began to rise.
Moaning with terror and frustration, Westphalen edged back toward the grate.
The bolts had to be fastened!
As he drew nearer, Westphalen witnessed a scene of relentless, incalculable ferocity. He saw dark bodies massed beneath the grate, saw talons gripping, raking, scoring the bars, saw teeth sharp and white gnash at the iron, saw flashes of utterly feral yellow eyes, devoid of fear, of any hint of mercy, consumed by a bloodthirst beyond reason and sanity. And the stench...it was almost overpowering.
Now he understood why the grate had been fastened as it had.
Westphalen sank to his knees, then to his belly. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to run, but he would not. He had come too far! He would not be robbed of his salvation! He could order his two remaining men toward the grate, but he knew Malleson and Hunter woul
d rebel. That would waste time and he had none to waste. He had to do it!
He began to crawl forward, inching his way toward the nearest bolt where it lay chained to the steel eye driven into the floor. He would have to wait until the corresponding ring on the shuddering, convulsing grate became aligned with the floor ring, and then shove the bolt home through both of them. Then and only then would he feel it safe to run.
Stretching his arm to the limit, he grasped the bolt and waited. The blows against the underside of the grate were coming with greater frequency and greater force. The ring on the grate rarely touched the floor, and when it did clank down next to the floor ring, it was there for but an instant. Twice he shoved the bolt through the first and missed the second. In desperation, he rose and placed his left hand atop the corner of the grate and threw all his weight against it. He had to lock this down!
It worked. The grate slammed against the floor and the bolt slid home, locking one corner down. But as he leaned against the grate, something snaked out between the bars and clamped on his wrist like a vise. It was a hand of sorts, three-fingered, each finger tapering to a long yellow talon; the skin was blue-black, its touch cold and wet against his skin.
Westphalen screamed in terror and loathing as his arm was pulled toward the seething mass of shadows below. He reared up and placed both boots against the edge of the grate, trying with all his strength to pull himself free.
But the hand only tightened its grip. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of his saber on the floor where he had dropped it, not two feet away. With a desperate lunge, he grabbed it by the hilt and started hacking at the arm that held him. Blood as dark as the skin that covered it spouted from the arm. Westphalen's tenth swing severed the arm and he fell back onto the floor. He was free—
Yet the taloned hand still gripped his wrist with a life of its own!
Westphalen dropped the sword and pried at the fingers. Malleson rushed over and helped. Together they pulled the fingers far enough apart to allow Westphalen to extricate his arm. Malleson hurled it onto the grate where it clung to one of the bars until pulled loose by one of the fiends below.
As Westphalen lay gasping on the ground trying to massage life back into the crushed and bruised tissues of his wrist, the woman's voice rose over the clatter of the shaking grate.
"Pray to your god, Captain Westphalen. The rakoshi will not let you leave the temple alive!"
She was right. Those things—What had she called them? Rakoshi? Whatever they were they would rip the lone securing eye from the stone floor and have that grate up in a minute if he didn't find some means to weight it down. His eyes ranged the small area of the temple visible to him. There had to be a way!
His gaze came to rest on the urns of lamp oil. They looked heavy enough. If he, Malleson and Hunter could set enough of them on the grate.
No...wait...
Fire! Nothing could withstand burning oil! He leapt to his feet and ran to the urn Tooke had opened with his knife.
"Malleson! Here! We'll pour it through the grate!" He turned to Hunter and pointed to one of the lamps around the dais. "Bring that over here!"
Groaning under the weight, Westphalen and Malleson dragged the urn across the floor and upended it on the shuddering grate, pouring its contents onto the things below. Directly behind them came Hunter who didn't have to be told what to do with the lamp. He gave it a gentle underhand toss onto the grate.
The oil on the iron bars caught first, the flames licking along the upper surfaces to form a meshwork of fire, then dropping in a fine rain onto the creatures directly beneath. As dark, oil-splashed bodies burst into flame, a caterwauling howl arose from the pit. The thrashing below became more violent. And still the flames spread. Black, acrid smoke began to rise toward the ceiling of the temple.
"More!" Westphalen shouted above the shrieking din. He used his saber to slice open the tops, then watched as Malleson and Hunter poured the contents of a second urn, and then a third into the pit. The howls of the creatures began to fade away as the flames leapt higher and higher.
He bent his own back to the task, pouring urn after urn through the grate, flooding the pit and sending a river of fire into the tunnel, creating an inferno that even Shadrach and his two friends would have shied from.
"Curse you, Captain Westphalen!"
The woman had risen from beside the priest's corpse and was pointing a long, red-nailed finger at a spot between Westphalen's eyes. "Curse you and all who spring from you!"
Westphalen took a step toward her, his sword raised. "Shut up!"
"Your line shall die in blood and pain, cursing you and the day you set your hand against this temple!"
The woman sounded as if she meant it, really believed she was laying a curse upon Westphalen and his progeny. That shook him. He gestured to Hunter.
"Stop her!"
Hunter unslung his Enfield and aimed it at her. "You ’eard what ’e said."
But the woman ignored the certain death pointed her way and kept ranting.
"You've slain my husband, desecrated the temple of Kali! There will be no peace for you, Captain Albert Westphalen! Nor for you"—she pointed to Hunter—"or you!" then to Malleson. "The rakoshi shall find you all!"
Hunter looked at Westphalen, who nodded. For the second time that day, a rifle shot rang out in the Temple-in-the-Hills. The woman's face exploded as the bullet tore into her head. She fell to the floor beside her husband.
Westphalen glanced at her inert form for a moment, then turned away toward the jewel-filled urn. He was forming a plan on how to arrange a three-way split that would give him the largest share, when a shrill screech of rage and an agonized grunt swung him around again.
Hunter stood stiff and straight at the edge of the dais, his face the color of soured whey, his shoulders thrown back, eyes wide, mouth working soundlessly. His rifle clattered to the floor as blood began to trickle from a comer of his mouth. He seemed to lose substance. Slowly, like a giant festival balloon leaking hot air from all its seams, he crumbled, his knees folding beneath him as he pitched forward onto his face.
Westphalen felt a faint sense of relief when he saw the bloody hole in the center of Hunter's back—he had died by physical means, not from a heathen woman's curse. He was further relieved to see the dark-eyed, barefoot boy, no more than twelve years old, standing behind Hunter, staring down at the fallen British soldier. In his hand was a sword, the distal third of its blade smeared red with blood.
The boy lifted his gaze from Hunter and saw Westphalen. With a high-pitched cry, he raised his sword and charged forward. Westphalen had no time to reach for his pistol, no choice but to defend himself with the oil-soaked saber he still clutched.
No cunning, no strategy; no skill to the boy's swordplay, only a ceaseless, driving barrage of slashing strokes, high and low, powered by blind, mindless rage. Westphalen gave way, as much from the ferocity of the attack as from the maniacal look on the boy's tear-streaked face: his eyes were twin slits of fury, spittle flecked his lips and dribbled onto his chin as he grunted with each thrust of his blade.
Westphalen spotted Malleson standing off to the side with his rifle raised.
"For God's sake, shoot him!"
"Waiting for a clear shot!"
Westphalen backpedaled faster, increasing the distance between himself and the boy. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Malleson fired,
And missed!
But the boom of the rifle shot startled the boy. He dropped his guard and looked around. Westphalen struck then, a fierce, downward cut aimed at the neck. The boy saw it coming and tried to dodge, but too late. Westphalen felt the blade slide through flesh and bone, saw the boy go down in a spray of crimson.
That did it. He jerked his saber free and turned away in the same motion. He felt sick. He found he much preferred to let others do the actual killing. Malleson had dropped his rifle and was scooping handfuls of gems into his pockets.
He looked up at his
commanding officer. "It's all right, i'nit, sir?" He gestured toward the priest and his wife. "I mean, they won't be needing 'em."
Westphalen knew he'd have to be very careful now. He and Malleson were the only survivors, accomplices in what would surely be described as mass murder should the facts ever come to light. If neither of them spoke a word of what had happened here today, if they were both extremely careful as to how they turned the jewels into cash over the next few years, if neither got drunk enough for guilt or boastfulness to cause the story to spill out, they could both live out their lives as rich, free men.
Westphalen was quite sure he could trust himself; he was equally sure that trusting Malleson would be a catastrophic mistake.
He put on what he hoped was a sly grin. "Don't waste your time with pockets," he told the soldier. "Get a couple of saddle bags."
Malleson laughed and jumped up. "Right, sir!"
He ran out the entry arch. Westphalen waited uneasily. He was alone in the temple—at least he prayed he was. He hoped all those things, those monsters, were dead. They had to be. Nothing could have survived that conflagration in the pit. He glanced over to the dead bodies of the priest and priestess, remembering her curse. Empty words of a crazed heathen woman. Nothing more. But those things in the pit...
Malleson finally returned with two sets of saddlebags. Westphalen helped him fill the four large pouches, then each slung a pair over a shoulder.
"Looks like we're rich, sir," Malleson said with a smile that faded when he saw the pistol Westphalen was pointing at his middle.
Westphalen didn't let him begin to plead. It would only delay matters without changing the outcome. He simply couldn't let the future of his name and his line depend on the discretion of a commoner who would doubtlessly get himself sotted at the first opportunity upon his return to Bharangpur.
He aimed at where he assumed Malleson's heart would be, and fired. The soldier reeled back with outflung arms and fell flat on his back. He gasped once or twice as a red stain raced through the fabric of his tunic, then lay still.
The Tomb (Repairman Jack) Page 20