“Is all this natural or man-made?” Remi asked, gesturing to the walls and ceiling.
“A bit of both, actually. At the time these caves were constructed—about nine hundred years ago—the Loba in this area believed that sacred caves were revealed by nature in their embryonic stage. Once the caves were found, the Loba could excavate them according to their spiritual will.”
Following Pushpa, the group continued down the corridor, walking stooped over until they reached another arched entrance, this one a few inches taller than Sam.
Over his shoulder Karna said with a smile, “We’re here.”
At first glance, the main chamber seemed to be a perfect dome, ten paces in diameter and eight feet high, with the ceiling tapering to a rounded point. The wall opposite the entrance was dominated by a mural that stretched around the chamber and from the floor to the domed ceiling. Unlike on the mural in the corridor, the symbols, text, and drawings here were painted in vibrant shades of red and yellow. The contrast against the mocha-colored walls was startling.
“It’s magnificent,” Sam said.
Remi, nodding, stared at the mural. “The detail . . . Jack, why is the color so different here?”
“Pushpa and his people have been restoring it. The pigment they use is a long-held secret. They won’t even share it with me, but Pushpa assures me it’s the same recipe that was used nine centuries ago.”
Standing at the center of the chamber, Pushpa was gesturing toward them. Karna said to Sam and Remi, “Let’s make our circuit. No talking. Head bowed.”
Karna led them clockwise around the space, stopping again at the archway. Pushpa nodded to them and smiled, then knelt by his pack. He pulled out a pair of kerosene lanterns and hung one from a peg in each side wall. Soon the chamber was filled with an amber glow.
“What can we do to help?” Remi asked.
“I’ll need the disks and some quiet. The rest I must do myself.”
Sam dug the Lexan case containing the Theurang disks from his pack and handed it to Karna. Armed with the disks, a spool of string, a tape measure, a parallel rule, an architect’s compass, and a directional compass, Karna stepped up to the mural. Pushpa hurried forward carrying a rough-hewn wooden step stool, which he placed beside Karna.
Sam, Remi, and Ajay took off their packs and sat down, their backs against the entrance wall.
For almost an hour, Karna worked without pause, silently measuring symbols on the mural and jotting in his notebook. Occasionally he would step back, stare at the wall while muttering to himself, and pace back and forth.
Finally he said something to Pushpa, who had been standing to one side, hands clasped before him. Pushpa and Karna knelt down, opened the Lexan case, and spent a few minutes examining the Theurang disks, fitting them together with the flanged outer ring in various patterns before finding an apparently satisfactory configuration.
Next, Pushpa and Karna placed the disks over certain symbols, measured distances with the tape measure, and murmured to each other.
Finally Karna stepped back, hands on hips, and gave the mural a final once-over. He turned to Sam and Remi.
“Selma tells me you two are fond of good news/bad news scenarios.”
Sam and Remi smiled at each other. Sam replied, “Selma’s having a little fun at your expense. She enjoys those; us, not so much.”
“Go ahead anyway, Jack,” said Remi.
“The good news is, we need go no further. My hunch was correct: this is the cave we needed.”
“Fantastic,” said Sam. “And . . . ?”
“Actually it’s good/good/bad news. The second bit of good news is we now have a description of Shangri-La—or at least some signs that will tell us if we’re close.”
“Now the bad news,” Remi prompted.
“The bad news is, the map offers only the path that the Sentinel Dhakal would have taken with the Theurang. As I suspected, it leads east through the Himalayas, but in all there are twenty-seven points marking the path.”
“Translation, please,” said Sam.
“Shangri-La could be at any one of twenty-seven locations stretching from here all the way to eastern Myanmar.”
30
KATHMANDU, NEPAL