by Pepe O'Neill
Chamly looked up at the beautiful face and said more bravely than he felt, ‘How could I refuse to help you? If I don’t, my own future is bleak!’
Kuan Yin smiled and said gently, ‘Don’t worry; I’m sure you will succeed. One day we will meet again whether here in the Present or in the Beyond. Farewell and good luck. I must return to the other side of the lake now.’
Giving him a little wave, Kuan Yin turned and made her way back across the water.
As she did so, the Stone of Peace started to dim and shrink. Chamly was so engrossed in watching it that by the time he looked up again, Kuan Yin and all the other Celestial Gods had vanished.
‘Thank god that’s over.’ Muchilinda croaked and made his way over to the waters edge. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
Before Chamly could ask him any more questions, he had flopped down into the water and sunk beneath it.
Monkey rubbed his stomach and said, ‘Time for another barbeque I think.’
That evening, they settled down to sleep in a cave close by.
In the blackest part of the night, a deep quiet descended over the lake as four glowing figures made their way towards the Bô Tree. Underneath its branches, each placed a bag of provisions on top of the rock before vanishing into the night.
Chapter 42
THE WISDOM OF VAIROCANA
‘Hello,’ Muchilinda bellowed cheerfully into the cave the following morning.
Scrambling to their feet, the travellers went outside to find Muchilinda flopped down in front of the cave.
On hearing them, he heaved himself up, ‘Lovely morning. It’s time to go to the Cave of the Submission of Yang, Chamly. Monkey and Jade must stay here. Please follow me.’
Without further conversation, Muchilinda led Chamly into a dimly lit cave where a gigantic Buddha was sitting cross-legged on a lotus throne, surrounded by attendants of the same height. They were all chiselled out of the limestone and carved so intricately that you could see every facial expression and every fold and decoration on their robes. On the cave walls, faded and peeling with age were thousands of relief sculptures of Bodhisattvas and Buddha followers, all highlighted in colours of red, green, ochre and blue.
As Chamly tried to take in the awesome scene, he was interrupted by Muchilinda’s voice. ‘This is no time for sightseeing. It is time to pass on the wisdom of Vairocana, who is regarded as the origin of all things. Before you sits the Buddha Sakyamüni, and beside him are his attendants Kasyapa and Ananda and several other Bodhisattvas. You must climb the Buddha and place your left palm flat against his left palm. Can you manage to do that without falling off?’
Chamly looked up at the Buddha, ‘I’m not afraid of heights, but I don’t think I should climb all over the Buddha. It’s sacrilege.’
‘Not in your case,’ ’Muchilinda croaked impatiently. ‘It’s the only reason we’re here. Now get on with it. I don’t want to be hanging around all day.’
Shrugging, Chamly started to climb and it was not long before he was palm to palm with the Buddha.
Instantly, Chamly went into a trance and remained in that position for seven days.
At the end of the seventh day, Monkey woke him by shaking him vigorously.
‘Are you alright?’ Monkey asked. ‘You’ve been sitting up here for so long the spiders have made you part of their home. Let me brush them off. How do you feel?’
Chamly stretched his cramped limbs. ‘How long have I been sitting up here?’
‘Seven days.’
‘Seven days!’ Chamly exclaimed.
‘Come on. I’ll help you down. I’ve got breakfast waiting below.’
Feeling stiff, Chamly clambered down after Monkey.
On reaching the bottom of the Buddha, Jade was there to greet him. He nuzzled his nose into Chamly’s shoulder. ‘I’m so glad you’ve come out of that trance. I was getting really worried about you.’
Chamly gave him a rub and looked around. ‘Where’s Muchilinda?’
‘He went home as soon as you went into a trance,’ Monkey replied. ‘Apparently he has bad arthritis and rheumatism and needed to get back to his cave for treatment. He sends his regards and wishes you every success in your quest. How do you feel? Any different?’
‘How does it feel?’ Chamly asked himself. He pondered on an answer. ‘No different from when we last had a conversation seven days ago. You’d think I would be glowing or something wouldn’t you? Maybe it didn’t work?’
‘Oh it worked. By the third day I was so worried about you, I sneaked into the cave. Both you and the Buddha were honeycombed in light. It didn’t seem to be harming you, so I left you to it. Good news, Sandy has been ordered by Celeste to give us a lift back up river. He’s waiting for us.’
Monkey picked up a bag of provisions from the oblong rock. ‘Breakfast! Muchilinda said these were left for us to use on our journey. I was tempted to see what there was to eat, but Muchilinda banned me from touching them until you had come out of your trance. I’m sick and tired of eating fish!’
After eating a fine meal of fruit, biscuits and rice cakes, Chamly put the three bags into the saddlebag and slung it across Jade’s back.
Chamly noticed that Monkey was not carrying his iron bar. ‘Where’s your iron bar Monkey?’
Monkey grinned and pointed to a pin in his red hat. ‘Handy don’t you think?’
Before long, they were standing at the riverbank being enthusiastically greeted by Sandy.
Chapter 43
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
Several hours later they came to a waterfall that plummeted from a great height. Sandy swam to the edge of the riverbank, ‘This is where you get off and climb.’
While they scrambled up the side of the waterfall, Sandy jumped up like a salmon returning home and reached the top before them.
Exhausted from the climb, Chamly said admiringly, ‘I wish I could have done it that way.’
‘I don’t think so!’ Sandy snapped. ‘It’s physically exhausting jumping up a waterfall. If I could have flown I would have, but you never know who might be around here with a shotgun! It’s very populated. Hop on. It’s only a short distance to the next waterfall where Celeste said she would meet us. She’s going to guide you overland while I continue to swim up river. You see, the river loops around a long finger of land and, without your weight on top of me, I’ll swim a lot faster. I’ll meet you on the other side of the loop.’
At the next waterfall, Celeste was indeed waiting for them. ‘Well done, Sandy,’ she called out as the trio clambered off his back.
‘No problem Celeste! I love their company. Now, I’ll carry on and see you later.’ he called as he swam away.
Celeste turned to Chamly and Monkey. ‘The Great Wall is not that far from here. It’s the best highway we could have to get across this area. There’s a road running all the way along the top with high walls either side of it. It will screen you from prying eyes.’
After helping themselves to food from the second food parcel, Jade fly-galloped to the base of a mountain range where the Great Wall could be seen running along its top most ridges. Chamly looked up in awe at the wall perched high above them. ‘How on earth did they manage to build that?’
‘A lot of hard graft, Chamly!’ Monkey said over his shoulder. ‘Thousands died building it.’
When Jade stepped on to the ramparts of the wall, Chamly surveyed the scene before him. As far as the eye could see both east and west, the wall stretched like a fossilized dragon.
‘Isn’t it amazing!’ Chamly exclaimed. ‘I’ve heard about this wall in my lessons at school. It’s almost six and half thousand kilometres long!’
‘Enough facts for one day, we haven’t the time,’ Celeste said with irritation.
During the night, Jade galloped along the top of the wall, down an avenue the width of three horses, his hooves only occasionally clattering on the red tiles. As dawn etched across the sky, he came to an abrupt halt where a river had sliced through the wa
ll. As he had promised, Sandy was waiting for them.
‘Do I really have to do this again?’ complained Jade. ‘I know I agreed when I was clothed in that revolting donkey skin but now that I’m my old self again, my dignity seems worth preserving don’t you think?
‘No! ’ yelled Monkey and Celeste simultaneously.
‘Alright, alright! I was just asking. Give me some room there.’
They quickly climbed on to Sandy’s back and he began to swim across the river.
When they were only half way across, two teenagers appeared without warning and skittered over Sandy’s tail on an inflated sheepskin raft. They almost knocked Jade off. As they were carried away with the current, one of the teenagers yelled, ‘Did you see that Jasmine? ’ Their screams could still be heard as they disappeared around a bend.
‘I didn’t think I was that ugly!’ Sandy wailed swimming quickly to the other side of the river.
Sandy wished his friends a safe journey before swimming home to give the pearl necklace to White Turtle.
Celeste fluttered down and perched on Jade’s rump. ‘You’d think those teenagers had seen a monster. They’re still screaming. We better get away from this area! There are some trees not far from here where you can sleep and not be seen.’
After they had indulged in the contents of the third provision bag, they relaxed under the shade of the trees and slept through the heat of the day.
Chapter 44
TARA, PRINCESS MOON OF WISDOM
‘Time to get up!’ Celeste called down from a branch above them. ‘The moon will be rising soon, in fact it’s a bit odd that it hasn’t already, but anyway it’s time to travel on.’
On once again reaching the top of the continuing Great Wall, they found a young girl sitting on some fallen bricks as if waiting for them. As she looked up at Chamly and smiled, her face became haloed by moonlight as her long hair floated in the wind and wrapped itself around her arms like a shawl.
Chamly’s heart missed a beat. It was the same girl he’d seen in the orchard, the tomb and now here.
Monkey peered closer. ‘Tara? What on earth are you doing here?’ he asked in surprise. ‘Shouldn’t you be sitting on the moon directing your light over the universe?’
‘I might ask the same question of you, but I know the answer already,’ the girl answered.
‘Why should she be sitting on the moon, Monkey?’ Chamly asked.
‘She’s Tara, Princess Moon of Wisdom that’s why!’
‘May I just mention that if it hadn’t been for me, the Chosen One would have been killed by those arrows back at the tomb,’ Tara retorted.
‘Well, lets hope the Jade Emperor doesn’t hear about your unofficial holidays. He might think you like it better down on earth and turn you into a mortal again.’
Celeste flew down and perched on the wall. ‘Who’s this?’ she asked.
‘It’s Tara, Princess Moon of Wisdom, Celeste. She’s just paying us a flying visit. I’ll turn a blind eye to it. If the Jade Emperor ever found out, he’d fire her.’
‘Oh don’t exaggerate Monkey!’ Tara said angrily as she stood up.
‘You’re a goddess, Tara, not a backpacker! Everything on this planet relies on you shining your moonbeams down on them at night. Don’t you feel a tiny bit guilty standing here?’
Tara looked up at Chamly and winked. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘I don’t feel guilty at all.’
‘Enough of this chit chat,’ Celeste ordered impatiently. Obviously she was not jealous of this other female who seemed to be taking so much of Chamly’s attention, she was simply thinking of his safety. ‘We need to get to the end of this wall by sunrise assuming of course that the Princess of the Sun hasn’t decided to do a around the world cruise,’ she added sarcastically.
Now Tara could only look at Chamly sadly. ‘She’s right. I am holding you up. You have a very important mission to complete. I’ll be a good girl and go back to my post. Monkey’s right, the Jade Emperor would give me the sack if he ever found out; but then I don’t think I’d be that bothered. You can get pretty bored with a place that is all white and has no one else on it to talk to.’
‘Well, whose fault is that?’ Monkey retorted sarcastically. ‘It was you who refused to come back as a man after your first death. You believed that you could do just as well, if not better, as a woman, earning you the right to be called Mother Goddess, Princess Moon of Wisdom. So what if you’re bored! Just think of all those women that worship you because of it and count yourself lucky!’
Tara shrugged despondently and with a last glance at Chamly, stepped into a shaft of moonlight and vanished.
Chamly and Monkey climbed back on to Jade and he fly-galloped along the now moonlit avenue. Eventually the wall disintegrated and they were once again in a vast desert. Before them dawn brushed the sand with a pink glow, and on the horizon, jagged mountaintops loomed.
In the middle of this vast desert a solitary fort stood with massive walls and ramparts protecting tall watchtowers and the courtyards within. Wisps of smoke could be seen coming from the top of one of the towers but, on entering the inner courtyard, they found the place deserted.
‘I know this place,’ Monkey exclaimed. ‘See those gates over there, they are known as the “Gates of Hell”. Banished criminals and disgraced court officials stumbled through them to face the wilderness of the desert. Not many of them survived. I don’t think we should join them do you?’
With no reason to stay, they left the fort behind them and headed towards the mountains.
Chamly was the first to glance behind and notice the men on horseback; their forms silhouetted black against the dunes. They were brandishing weapons and galloping towards them at speed. He yelled to Jade that men who didn’t look as if they just wanted a chat were following them. Pricking back his ears, Jade sped forward.
When Chamly looked over his shoulder again, he saw that the leading horseman had jumped off his horse and was taking the time to light a fire.
‘What on earth is he doing, Monkey?’ he asked curiously.
‘My guess is that he’s signalling to someone up ahead of us. Remember the tower at the fort with the smoke still spiralling? Well I think that was a signal to the men back there. Now they seem to be signalling to someone else up ahead. Go down into the valleys of the dunes Jade and turn to the north. Keep below the horizon so they can’t see us.’
Not far away the she demon had her ear to the sand. She was listening to the sounds being transmitted through the grains.
Beside her stood Chiyou, her friend and comrade.
Unfortunately, after Chiyou had been sentenced to death, the executioner had forgotten to make sure that he was immortally dead.
Standing a little apart from Chiyou, were his seventy-two brothers. They had joined him on earth as soon as they had learnt he was still alive. They were huge in stature and looked exactly like him with the same hideous head of copper and iron. Four repulsive eyeballs protruded from the head; three across a mottled forehead and one at the back of the neck. Their chest and arms were human and muscular but, under their clothes, long black hair covered a torso tapering down into legs with cloven hooves. These they were tapping impatiently as they waited for the order to attack. The brothers had all seen the smoke and they muttered amongst themselves at the delay.
With nothing to do, an argument quickly broke out between Chiyou and one of his siblings. The she demon had to shriek at them to be quiet. ‘Shut up! I’m trying to listen. I can hear the hooves of the horses from my men coming from the east, but it seems our prey has turned off to the north. They must know they are being followed. Order your brothers to mount up. We must get ahead of them.’
As the brothers mounted their horses, the she demon shrank to the size of a worm. Chiyou delicately picked her up and put her in his pocket. Almost immediately, the she demon stuck her head out and started issuing her orders.
After galloping hard for some time, she ordered Chiyou to stop and return her t
o the ground. Demanding silence, she listened to the sand grains. ‘They’re close and my army is not far behind. Quick Chiyou, its time to set the ambush!’
Growing again to her full size and towering over the brothers, the she demon shouted, ‘Split up and hide behind the dunes on the right and left of this valley. Brush your footprints away as you go. Once our enemy has entered the valley, take them. Now hurry!’
Once satisfied that the brothers had done a good job of hiding themselves, she took a pouch from a pocket hidden in her scaly skin. The pouch contained a mixture of Saltpetre, Sulphur and ground Charcoal, which she dribbled across the valley floor in two thick parallel lines. Then, trailing the mixture behind her, she hid behind a dune. Putting her ear to the sand, she heard Chamly talking as he approached the valley and, in the distance, she heard the rumbling echo of the barbarian horses. She cackled to herself as she took a flint and a stone from another pouch and waited.
Chapter 45
THE AMBUSH
Chamly was chatting quite happily to the others as they came around a large sand dune. He was just saying, ‘It seems we have outwitted her, Monk…!’ when a huge yell from the top of the dunes shattered the peace.
As they turned to look, the sand dunes erupted into a mass of spraying, falling sand on both sides as the horses carrying Chiyou and his brothers scrambled over the top of the dunes and thundered down towards them, their lethal weapons drawn.
Monkey yelled, ‘Run, Jade. Run!’
Jade charged forward.
The steepness of the dunes made it impossible for the brothers to stop when they arrived just a little too late at the spot left empty by Jade’s escape and they came together in a heap of bodies, weapons and horses.