The Emerald Casket (30 page)

Gerald reached Sam and their first words were the same: ‘Where's Ruby?'

‘She's not a very good swimmer,' Sam said, his chin barely above the surface.

‘There!' Alisha pointed. Gerald turned his head and saw her clinging to the statues on a wall. But the rising water kept buffeting her away. She was struggling.

Gerald ploughed towards her. Shutters continued to snap closed, casting the temple insides in an eerie pink glow. Ruby's hands slapped at the surface and her head lolled as water splashed into her mouth. Gerald was only metres away when she disappeared under the surface.

He duck dived. In the ghostly silence that embraced him, he saw Ruby suspended like an out of favour marionette. Her limbs were splayed awkwardly and her hair wafted up like floating silk. Her eyes were closed and tiny bubbles escaped from her lips. Gerald kicked as hard as he could, surging down. He wrapped an arm around Ruby's chest and strove for the top. They breached together. Sam and Alisha took hold of her. Ruby coughed and water spewed from her mouth. And she breathed.

Gerald fell back, spent. The water was rising faster the higher up the temple they floated. The interior had darkened to a blood red, lit solely now by the beams shining through the jewelled ceiling.

Gerald's strength was flagging. His backpack and his boots were dragging him down. They had to come off. He shrugged his pack clear and it fell away. Then he filled his lungs and again ducked beneath the water. His fingers fought with the sodden, tangled laces and he finally wrestled one boot off. He dropped it and watched as it sank in a graceful arc, laces trailing.

Then he saw it. He was so shocked he almost forgot he was underwater. He dashed for the top and took a breath, then dived again. Under the red light that now suffused the temple, the pattern in the floor mosaic changed. The white fell away and the red disappeared altogether, leaving the dark blue tiles dominant. And there, near the statue of Ganesha far below, an emblem in the blue pattern emerged as plain as day: a triangle of three forearms with a blazing sun at its centre.

Gerald surfaced. ‘I've found it!' he shouted. ‘I know where the casket is.'

He swam to the others. Ruby was floating on her back with Sam supporting her head. They looked exhausted.

‘That's great, Gerald,' Alisha said. ‘But we've got other problems.'

Gerald looked up. The ceiling was much closer than he expected.

‘We might run out of air,' Alisha said.

The space was getting tighter as they neared the narrow top of the pyramid. Gerald took over helping Ruby. She looked at him with apologetic eyes. Gerald couldn't think of anything to say. He kept treading water, kept holding her up.

The water level surged as they neared the temple ceiling—the walls pressed them close together. There was no room for Ruby to float on her back. Gerald flipped her in front of him and held her close.

‘We're running out of air,' Alisha panted.

The water lapped their chins. The top of Gerald's head banged up against the red jewels. He had to kick doubly hard to keep his mouth clear and to keep Ruby afloat. He grasped at the ceiling, desperate for a handhold. The four heads now crammed together with just centimetres of space between the water and the top of the temple.

Then the flood paused, seemed to hold steady.

‘Air pocket,' Sam gasped. His voice was thin in the confined space. The four of them breathed heavily, pumping their legs. Pins of light sparked inside Gerald's eyes. He was close to passing out.

Sam's fingers darted about the jewel-studded ceiling, searching for any openings. There was a large red gem in the very centre; a gem the same size as the
Noor Jehan
diamond and the emerald that Kali stole from the thin man.

Alisha saw it too. She reached for it.

Sam grabbed her wrist, holding her back. ‘If we pull this out, won't the water rise up?'

‘Or we can run out of air and drown,' Alisha said. ‘Your choice.'

Gerald's eyes grew wide. His vision went to black and white. He was going under.

His face dipped below the surface, but he held Ruby aloft. His head rolled back. His lungs were flattened and useless. Time suspended. The world was on mute. He gazed up as if in a dream, as if looking through a web of cottonwool. Sam's fingers were on the gem. Alisha pounded on the ceiling. Suddenly a shaft of white light burst into the temple. Sam had the stone in his hand. The water rushed upwards. There was a pop as the last of the air shot out the top of the structure. The temple was inundated.

The four bodies hung suspended as if preserved in amber.

Silence.

Then the water dropped. Air flooded in from the hole in the ceiling, filling the gap left by the receding water. And four heads popped above the surface. There was coughing and hacking, spitting and wheezing. And, finally, relief. The water was pouring out of the temple now. Shutters snapped open as the water slid down the walls, past the lines of statues, and the temple was again filled with light. Gerald still held Ruby. He spun her around to face him.

She smiled, her eyes bright again. Gerald grinned back. His feet touched the floor and within seconds the temple was flushed clear. The four of them sank to the tiles and looked at the gem in Sam's hand.

‘I bet this opens the third casket,' Sam said.

‘Has to, doesn't it?' Ruby said.

Gerald gazed up to the temple ceiling. ‘Marcus hid it up there,' he said. ‘He was a stonemason. He must have helped build this temple. And this is where he hid the emerald casket.' Gerald stumbled across to an open space near the Ganesha statue. His pack hung by its strap from the elephant's outstretched hand.

‘Here,' he said. ‘Can you see it? Concentrate on the blue tiles.'

Sam, Ruby and Alisha looked to where Gerald was pointing.

‘Looks like a bunch of swirls to me,' Sam said.

Gerald retrieved his bandit sling from his pack. ‘That's the genius of it,' he said. ‘You can only see it under a red light, and even then only from above. Marcus set the ruby up there so one day somebody could find the casket.'

‘But only if they were trapped inside while the temple was flooding?' Alisha said. ‘How could he know that the city would one day be lost under the sea?'

‘Don't know,' Sam said. ‘Don't care. Let's get the casket.'

Gerald tapped the tiles at the centre of his family seal—of the crest of the fraternity—with the one boot he still had on. It sounded solid enough…but in one place there was a hollow knock.

‘It's here,' Gerald said. He swung the sling above his head and drove it with all his strength into the floor. The stones disappeared through the mosaic, leaving a crater of broken tiles. Gerald dropped to his knees and tore at the hole in the ground. Ruby joined him, sending ceramic shards in all directions. Their heads met over the centre of the hole and they peered down.

‘Hello…'

Gerald reached both hands in and heaved out a rectangular chest. It was about a metre long and covered in tiny jewels. On top of the lid was a carving of an archer with his bow at full draw. And in the archer's chest was an indentation the same shape and size as the emerald.

‘Will you look at that?' Gerald said. He ran his fingertips across the carved detail of the lid. It was truly magnificent. He pulled out the drawstring pouch from his pocket.

Gerald tipped the emerald into his palm. It felt warm on his skin. He placed it into the recess on the lid; it fitted perfectly. With a deep breath, he gripped the emerald and turned. The archer emblem swivelled and the lid opened. Gerald lifted it off.

The box contained a single golden rod, about half a metre long and decorated with elaborate filigree. Ruby reached in and took it out.

‘Oh,' she said with surprise. ‘This is heavy.'

She held it out in two hands towards Gerald.

He looked at the rod as if it was about to lash out and bite him. ‘It's the same as the one from Beacons-field,' he said.

‘So no zombie curse then?' Sam asked.

‘You sound disappointed,' Alisha said. ‘But look at this.' She held up the underside of the casket lid. It was covered in ancient writing.

‘Zombies?' Sam asked, a little too eagerly.

Alisha shook her head. ‘It looks Latin,' she said. ‘Hold on. I know this!'

‘You're telling me you can read something carved inside a box fifteen hundred years ago?' Sam said.

‘Possibly even older than that,' Alisha said. ‘I can't read it all but I recognise bits of it. It's Horace. From one of his odes. Number eleven, I think.'

‘Who's Horace?' Sam said.

Alisha looked at him with pity. ‘Only one of the greatest Latin poets ever. How does this one go?
Don't ask what final fate the gods have given to me and you
…
How much better it is to accept whatever shall be…
Um, oh yes.
Carpe diem!
Seize the day.
While we are speaking, envious time has fled. Seize the day. Put as little trust as possible in the future
.'

Sam shrugged. ‘No worse than Shakespeare.'

Ruby still held the sceptre out towards Gerald. ‘Are you going to take it?'

The last thing Gerald wanted was the pain he'd experienced when he touched the golden rod under Beaconsfield. But it was compelling. He felt his arm move. He reached out a hand. He couldn't resist.

The moment the staff touched his palm his fingers clamped around it. His brain was instantly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of images that seemed to flow out of the rod and into his body. His mind was alight with a time-lapse of every moment of his life: a baby in a cot, his parents—so young—beaming down at him, a toddler stumbling along a beach, his first football team, the day he met his mate Ox in grade one at school. Then more recent events: Ruby freeing him from the thin man at the British Museum, the romp through the Rattigan Club, Sam facing down Sir Mason Green at Beaconsfield, Gerald's dash through the markets chasing after Alisha. Then the barrage of visions moved into unfamiliar territory. He was in a cave. He was suspended in mid-air. Water surrounded him. And all the time a scream of unspeakable pain pierced his ears.

Through the visual bombardment, Gerald could somehow sense his fingers being prised open and finally a punch to the chest sent him backwards across the floor.

He shook his head and looked up at the startled faces of Ruby, Sam and Alisha.

‘What happened?' he asked, still stunned by the vision.

The others stared open-mouthed at him. Sam was nursing the knuckles of his right hand. ‘Gerald,' Ruby said finally. ‘Where did you go?'

Gerald went to stand up but flopped onto the floor. He was still woozy and his eyes weaved in and out of focus. Otherwise he might have moved sooner when he saw the thin man grab Ruby.

Chapter 24

G
erald must have blacked out for a full minute. He was struggling to take everything in. The thin man had Ruby by the elbow and a dagger at her throat. Sam was by the base of the Ganesha statue holding the golden rod like a baseball bat.

‘Let her go or I'll bend this thing in half!' Sam cried.

The thin man betrayed no emotion at all. ‘And I will slice your sister from ear to ear. She will be dead before she hits the floor.'

Sir Mason Green stood with his pistol by his side. ‘Mr Valentine, I could shoot you and end this quickly. But I'd rather not damage the artefact you have in your hands. Pass it over and I give you my word as an English gentleman that your sister will not be harmed.'

Alisha laughed. ‘My country has seen too many promises from English gentlemen.'

Green flashed Alisha a smile. ‘Don't be mired in the past, Miss Gupta. There's no future in it.'

Then, from behind Green and the thin man, a figure walked into the temple. He moved silently, covering the distance between them in seconds. In his hand was a knife. The blade was at the old man's throat in a blur and, with no struggle or protest, Special Agent Leclerc disarmed Sir Mason Green. Ruby wrestled free from the thin man and ran to her brother.

‘How did you get here?' Sam said to Leclerc, the golden sceptre still poised on his shoulder.

The Frenchman crossed to him and snapped his fingers. ‘The relic, if you please, Monsieur Valentine?' Sam looked surprised but handed it to him.

‘Thank you,' said Leclerc, carefully holding the rod. ‘A pigeon arrived in Delhi in the early hours of this morning. I believe the message was from you.'

‘The bird got through!' Gerald said. ‘Fantastic.'

‘Yes. The pigeon was an unexpected bonus,' Leclerc said. ‘It let us know that you were still on track. So we could prepare.'

Gerald was confused. ‘What do you mean, prepare?'

‘For your arrival here, Gerald,' Sir Mason replied. ‘So you could lead us to the casket, of course. Thank you, Remy. I'll take that now.' The Frenchman passed the golden rod to Green whose face glowed with delight. ‘Two now,' he smiled. ‘One to go.'

‘What?' Sam said. ‘You mean Leclerc's not with Interpol?'

‘Like a steel trap, isn't he?' Green said, taking his handgun back from Leclerc. ‘No, Mr Valentine. Monsieur Leclerc is not with Interpol. I doubt very much if Leclerc is even his name. I have paid him a lot of money to follow you over the past week. He set up a GPS tracker on Miss Gupta's mobile phone so it would automatically send us updates on your location. It was only when the phone failed to get reception on your train journey that I had to'—he glanced at the thin man—‘deploy less subtle means. Which, unfortunately, didn't go quite as planned.'

Alisha turned to Leclerc. ‘You saved me from the bandit girl in the market just so we could be free to find the casket?'

‘It certainly wasn't due to any concerns about your health,' Green replied. ‘When the pigeon turned up, with map co-ordinates no less, we knew to expect you soon.'