Rogue Angel - The Spirit Banner Part 36

Mummified Mongol warriors were scattered everywhere around the room, thanks to the force of the now-drained floodwaters. They were all dressed in Mongol battle armor, and many still held the swords and shields they had been posed with so many centuries before.

Annja shone her light into the face of one of the mummies and bent over to take a closer look. The wide gash across his throat had been st.i.tched shut, the haphazard way it had been done removing even the smallest doubt that the repair had been anything but postmortem.

By letting her light play over the other figures nearby, Annja could see the same wounds on each. She suspected they had gone to their deaths knowingly, ready to follow their Khan into whatever world came next, and that only made it all the more unnerving.

Annja had excavated quite a few ancient burial sites in her career. She'd even had the pleasure of seeing the Terra Cotta Army while visiting China and marveling at how the figures had appeared so lifelike. Every single soldier had differing facial features, as if they had been modeled after living individuals. Here, deep in this mountain pa.s.sage in the heart of the Great Taboo, there had been no need for models at all. These soldiers were real. Here, the honor guard that had probably stood in orderly rank and file had once lived and breathed. It brought a strange and eerie presence to the place, as if the dead had come to life and now walked about the place on silent feet.

Shining their lights down the length of the pa.s.sage showed another set of wooden doors at the very end, opened by the force of the water that had pa.s.sed through them.

Without a word Annja and Mason stepped over the tangled ranks of the dead piled up near the doors and crossed the threshold.

The final set of doors opened into a ma.s.sive, natural cavern. If Annja hadn't been so mesmerized by its contents, she might have amused herself for hours looking at the way nature had carved its own little hideaway from the bare rock.

As it was, she could barely take her eyes from the rows upon rows of warriors organized in regular columns of ten, three to a side.

Like the warriors in the entry hall, these were mummified, as well. So, too, were the steeds on which they rode.

She had found the fabled "sixty," the warriors who had accompanied Genghis Khan's body on its long journey back to the homeland and who had given their lives in order to keep the location of his tomb a secret.

The silent ranks stared back at her and for a moment she could almost feel the challenge in their dead eyes, could almost hear the snort of the horses and the clank of the armor as the warriors moved slightly in their saddles, could feel the antic.i.p.ation they held as they prepared to ride forth for their Khan.

"Hey!" Mason's hand on her arm brought her back to herself.

"You okay?" he asked. "You looked a little woozy there for a moment."

She smiled what she hoped was a rea.s.suring smile. "I'm fine. Just still catching my breath, I guess."

And as she turned away from him to glance at the soldiers once more, she saw it.

An enormous tent stood all on its own just beyond the squads of mountain warriors. It was easily ten times the size of the gers gers Annja had seen being used outside the city limits and must have required half a dozen carts or more to transport its materials. Annja had seen being used outside the city limits and must have required half a dozen carts or more to transport its materials.

Those who'd lived in such a place must have lived like kings.

Or queens.

She knew she was right the minute the thought occurred to her. After all, they had found the sixty members of the missing honor guard, those who supposedly stood watch over the sixty brides, if the message was still to be believed. That meant the ma.s.sive ger ger had probably been erected to fulfill another element of the prophecy. had probably been erected to fulfill another element of the prophecy.

It was to be the living quarters for the harem that had followed Genghis into eternity.

Of course, there was only one way to find out.

Taking a deep breath, Annja crossed through the ranks of the dead, mounted the steps leading to the entrance of the ger ger and, pulling back the heavy felt doors, she stepped inside. and, pulling back the heavy felt doors, she stepped inside.

36.

Raised sleeping pallets lined the interior of the ger, ger, each one covered by its own draped canopy of silks. A dark shape occupied the center of each platform. each one covered by its own draped canopy of silks. A dark shape occupied the center of each platform.

Annja stepped up to the nearest one and drew back the silk curtains, shining her light inside.

The mummy of a young woman stared back at her from the center of the bed, its wrinkled face and hardened eyeb.a.l.l.s framed by a long, luscious swath of black hair. The mouth was partially open, which, when combined with the protruding eyeb.a.l.l.s, gave the corpse the appearance that she was about to speak.

Annja wondered what the girl would say if she could.

A quick count of the sleeping platforms told Annja her suspicions were correct.

They had found the sixty virgins.

This one was dressed in the remains of a traditional faded blue del del, blue being the Mongol color of eternity, and on her feet were a pair of brocade slippers that Annja suspected were part of the plunder Genghis Khan had taken from somewhere in China. She looked peaceful, as peaceful as an eight-hundred-year-old mummy could look, she thought.

Mason and Annja went around the room, drawing back the silk curtains one by one, looking for anything that might possibly contain the final directions they needed to locate the Khan's grave site. In each bed they found the same thing, a lovingly dressed mummy of a young Mongolian woman, that was all.

No clues.

No map.

No hidden verses.

They were running out of options.

The final section of the ger ger was sectioned off by intricately designed was sectioned off by intricately designed tangkas tangkas that looked as if they had been made by the same craftsman who had crafted the one in which the black that looked as if they had been made by the same craftsman who had crafted the one in which the black sulde sulde had been stored. They had the same recurring patterns, the same symbols scattered throughout, the same colored fabric. had been stored. They had the same recurring patterns, the same symbols scattered throughout, the same colored fabric.

With nowhere else left to look, Annja pulled back one side of the thick fabric and looked into the inner sanctum just beyond, as Mason peeked over her shoulder.

A platform about the size and height of a pool table rose out of the floor, as if it had been hewn from the living rock. Even that couldn't hold their attention, though, for their eyes were drawn immediately to the object it supported.

A figure lay atop the platform and even from where they stood they could see that it was dressed in armor that hadn't seen the light of day in hundreds of years. A thick coating of dust coated it, but Annja could still make out the vibrant colors that had been painted on the leather plates, the sheen of the silver rings that made up the mail coat beneath, the snarling wolf's face that had been painted on the shield that was hung on the wall behind the body, along with a sword and a bow. Both arms were crossed over something resting on the corpse's chest, but from where she was she couldn't make out what it might be.

Rising up behind the platform like a ceremonial flag was a sulde, sulde, identical to the spirit banner they had found at Shankh except for one respect-this one was white. identical to the spirit banner they had found at Shankh except for one respect-this one was white.

It was the sulde sulde the Khan had used in times of peace. the Khan had used in times of peace.

Annja heard Mason's shocked gasp from behind her.

"Is that...?"

She didn't know.

But she had to find out.

Slowly, almost reverentially, she stepped closer to the funeral bier.

A helmet rested atop the head and she recognized it immediately as the kind worn by Mongol warriors after the unification of the empire. It had a headpiece made of iron and flaps of leather that came down over the ears and the back of the neck to protect them from attack.

A square piece of silk covered the front of the helmet and, as a result, the face it rested on, as well.

Annja's professionalism warred with her curiosity. She wanted to know what was under that cloth but at the same time didn't want to disturb the scene until it had been properly doc.u.mented. In the end, given all the time and hardships she'd endured to get there, her curiosity won out.