The Wheel of Darkness

by Douglas Preston

  “The monks taught me some of the tulpa-creation techniques, but they warned me of the danger.”

  “It’s extremely dangerous. The phenomenon was first described to the West by the French explorer Alexandra David-Néel. She learned the secrets of creating a tulpa not far from here, near Lake Manosawar. As a lark she tried it out and, it seems, began visualizing a plump, jolly little monk named Friar Tuck. At first, the monk existed only in her mind, but in time he began to take on a life of his own, and she glimpsed him at odd moments, flitting about her camp and frightening her fellow travelers. Things went downhill; she lost control of the monk and it began to morph into something bigger, leaner, and far more sinister. It took on a life of its own—just like our smoke ghost. She tried to destroy it by reabsorbing it into her mind, but the tulpa strenuously resisted and the end result was a psychic battle that almost killed David-Néel. The tulpa on board the Britannia was the creation of our friend Blackburn—and it did kill him.”

  “So he was an adept.”

  “Yes. He traveled and studied in Sikkim as a young man. He realized immediately what the Agozyen was, and how it could be used—much to Jordan Ambrose’s misfortune. It was no concidence it ended up with Blackburn; there was nothing at all random in its movements through the world. You might say the Agozyen sought Blackburn out, using Ambrose as a medium. Blackburn, with his billions and his dot-com savvy, was in a perfect position to spread the image of the Agozyen across the globe.”

  They traveled a moment in silence. “You know,” Constance said, “you never did explain to me how you sent the tulpa after Captain Mason.”

  Pendergast did not answer immediately. Clearly, the memory was still extremely painful. At last, he spoke. “When I freed myself from its grasp, I allowed a single image to form in my mind: the Agozyen. In essence, I implanted that image in the tulpa. I gave it a new desire.”

  “You changed its prey.”

  “Exactly. When the tulpa left us, it sought out the other living beings who had gazed on the Agozyen—and, in the case of Mason, somebody who was, indirectly at least, bent on its destruction. And the tulpa annihilated them both.”

  “And then?”

  “I have no idea where it went. Things having come full circle, as it were, perhaps it returned to whatever plane it was summoned from. That, or it simply vanished with the death of its creator. It would be interesting to hear the views of the monks on this question.”

  “So it was an agent for good in the end.”

  “One could say that—although I doubt goodness is a concept that it would either understand or care about.”

  “Nevertheless, you used it to save the Britannia.”

  “True. And as a result I feel a little less mortified at having been wrong.”

  “Wrong? How?”

  “Assuming all the killings were the work of one person—a passenger. In point of fact, Blackburn only killed one person—and he did that on dry land.”

  “In the most bizarre of ways. It seems that the Agozyen lifts the lid, as it were, unleashing the most buried of a person’s violent and atavistic impulses.”

  “Yes. And that’s what confused me—the similar M.O. I assumed the murders had all been committed by the same person, when I should have understood that there were two different killers under the influence of the same malevolent effect—the effect of the Agozyen.”

  They had reached the base of the trail going up the cliff. Pendergast dismounted and, in a gesture of prayer, placed his hand upon the huge mani stone at the base. Constance followed, and they proceeded up the trail, leading their horses by the reins. At last, they reached the top, passed through the ruined village, and finally came around the shoulder of the mountain, spying the pinnacled roofs, towers, and sloping ramparts of the Gsalrig Chongg monastery. They passed the scree slope covered with weathered bones—the vultures had departed—and arrived at the monastery.

  The gate in the outer stone wall opened almost before they had reached it. Two monks met them; one led off the two riding horses while Pendergast unpacked the cargo from the pony. He tucked the box under his arm, and he and Constance followed the monk through the ironbound doors into the monastery’s dark interior, fragrant with sandalwood and smoke. Another monk appeared with a brass candleholder and led them deeper into the monastery.

  They came to the room with the golden statue of Padmasambhava, the Tantric Buddha. The monks had already gathered on the stone benches, presided over by the ancient abbot.

  Pendergast placed the box on the floor and seated himself on one of the benches. Constance sat next to him.

  Tsering rose. “Friend Pendergast and Friend Greene,” he said, “we welcome you back to monastery of Gsalrig Chongg. Please take tea with us.”

  Cups of sweet buttered tea were brought out and enjoyed in silence. Then Tsering spoke again.

  “What have you brought us?”

  “The Agozyen.”

  “This is not its box.”

  “The original box did not survive.”

  “And the Agozyen?”

  “Inside—in original condition.”

  A silence. The ancient abbot spoke, and then Tsering translated. “The abbot would like to know: did anyone look upon it?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many?”

  “Five.”

  “And where are they now?”

  “Four are dead.”

  “And the fifth?”

  “I was the fifth.”

  When this was translated the abbot rose abruptly and stared. He then walked over to Pendergast, grasped him with a bony hand, and pulled him to his feet with astonishing force. He stared into his eyes. Minutes passed in the silent room—and then the abbot finally spoke.

  “The abbot say this extraordinary,” Tsering translated. “You burn off the demon. But you remain damaged, because once you experience ecstasy of the pure freedom of evil, you can never forget that joy. We will help you, but we can never make you whole.”

  “I’m already aware of that.”

  The abbot bowed. He bent down and picked up the box, handing it to another monk, who carried it off.

  “You have our eternal thanks, Friend Pendergast,” said Tsering. “You have accomplished great feat—at great cost.”

  Pendergast remained standing. “I’m afraid it isn’t quite over yet,” he replied. “You have a thief in your midst. It seems that one of your monks thought the world was ripe for cleansing and arranged for the theft of the Agozyen. We still must find that monk and stop him from doing it again—or the Agozyen will never be safe.”

  Once this was translated, the abbot turned and looked at him, his eyebrows slightly raised. There was a hesitation. Then the abbot began to speak. Tsering turned to translate. “The abbot say you are correct, it is not over. It is not the end, but the beginning. He ask me to tell you certain important things. Please, sit down.”

  Pendergast seated himself, as did the abbot.

  “After you left, we discovered who released Agozyen into world, and why.”

  “Who?”

  “It was the holy lama in the wall. The ancient one.”

  “The immured anchorite?”

  “Yes. Jordan Ambrose fascinated by this man and speak to him. The lama let Ambrose into inner monastery, talk him into stealing Agozyen. But not to cleanse the world. Lama have other reason.”

  “Which was?”

  “It is difficult to explain. Before you arrive in spring, his holiness the Ralang Rinpoche die. He is eighteenth incarnation of the Rinpoche who founded this monastery long time ago. We cannot continue as a monastery without our incarnated teacher. And so, when a Rinpoche dies, we must go out into world to find his reincarnation. When we do, we bring child back to the monastery and raise it as next Rinpoche. This has always been our way. When the seventeenth Rinpoche died in 1919 Tibet was free country, and it was still possible to go out and find his reincarnation. But now the eighteenth Rinpoche is dead, and Tibet occupied. Free travel f
or Tibetan monks is very difficult and dangerous. Chinese arrest Tibetan monks on missions like this, beat them, sometimes kill them. The holy man in wall knows many deep things. He knew of prophecy that say: when we cannot go out and find new Rinpoche, then new Rinpoche will come to Gsalrig Chongg instead. We will know this Rinpoche, because he will fulfill the prophecy written in our founding holy text of the monastery. It say:

  When the Agozyen walks the Western Sea,

  And darkness upon darkness wheel,

  The waters shall rise up in fury,

  And batter the great palace of the deep,

  And ye shall know the Rinpoche by his guardian,

  Who shall return with the Green Tara,

  Dancing across the waters of the Western Sea,

  From the ruined palace of the deep.

  “So to test prophecy, holy man release Agozyen into the world to see who will bring it back. Because man who bring it back is the guardian of the nineteenth Rinpoche.”

  Pendergast felt an emotion rare to him: utter surprise.

  “Yes, friend Pendergast, you have brought the nineteenth Rinpoche to us.” Tsering looked at Pendergast with a slightly amused expression. And then he focused a pointed gaze on Constance.

  She rose. “The guardian of the . . . excuse me, are you saying I’m the reincarnation of the Rinpoche? But that’s absurd—I was born long before he died.”

  The monk’s smile deepened. “I do not speak of you. I speak of the child you carry.”

  Pendergast’s surprise redoubled. He turned toward Constance, who was looking at the monk, an unreadable expression on her face.

  “Child?” Pendergast said. “But you went to the Feversham Clinic. I thought—I assumed . . .”

  “Yes,” Constance replied. “I went to the clinic. But once there, I found I couldn’t go through with it. Not even . . . knowing it was his.”

  It was Tsering who broke the silence that followed. “There is an ancient prayer. It say: Lead me into all misfortune. Only by that path can I transform the negative into the positive.”

  Constance nodded, one hand drifting unconsciously across the slight swell of her waist. And then she smiled: a smile that seemed half secretive, and half shy.

  A Word from the Authors

  The Preston-Child Novels

  We are very frequently asked in what order, if any, our books should be read.

  The question is most applicable to the novels that feature Special Agent Pendergast. Although most of our novels are written to be stand-alone stories, very few have turned out to be set in discrete worlds. Quite the opposite: it seems the more novels we write together, the more “bleed-through” occurs between the characters and events that comprise them all. Characters from one book will appear in a later one, for example, or events in one novel could spill into a subsequent one. In short, we have slowly been building up a universe in which all the characters in our novels, and the experiences they have, take place and overlap.

  Reading the novels in a particular order, however, is rarely necessary. We have worked hard to make almost all of our books into stories that can be enjoyed without reading any of the others, with a few exceptions.

  Here, then, is our own breakdown of our books.

  The Pendergast Novels

  Relic was our first novel, and the first to feature Agent Pendergast, and as such has no antecedents.

  Reliquary is the sequel to Relic.

  The Cabinet of Curiosities is our next Pendergast novel, and it stands completely on its own.

  Still Life with Crows is next. It is also a self-contained story (although people curious about Constance Greene will find a little more information here, as well as in The Cabinet of Curiosities).

  Brimstone is next, and it is the first novel in what we informally call the Diogenes trilogy. Although it is also self-contained, it does pick up some threads begun in The Cabinet of Curiosities.

  Dance of Death is the middle novel of the Diogenes trilogy. While it can be read as a stand-alone book, readers may wish to read Brimstone before Dance of Death.

  The Book of the Dead is the culminating novel in the Diogenes trilogy. For greatest enjoyment, the reader should read at least Dance of Death first.

  The Wheel of Darkness, which you presently hold in your hands, is a stand-alone novel that continues to follow Pendergast and takes place after the events in The Book of the Dead.

  The Non-Pendergast Novels

  We have also written a number of self-contained tales of adventure that do not feature Special Agent Pendergast. They are, by date of publication, Mount Dragon, Riptide, Thunderhead, and The Ice Limit.

  Thunderhead introduces the archaeologist Nora Kelly, who appears in most of the later Pendergast novels. The Ice Limit introduces Eli Glinn, who appears in Dance of Death and The Book of the Dead.

  In closing, we want to assure our readers that this note is not intended as some kind of onerous syllabus, but rather as an answer to the question In what order should I read your novels? We feel extraordinarily fortunate that there are people like you who enjoy reading our novels as much as we enjoy writing them.

  With our best wishes,