There were two small mountain men standing by the side of the Eurocopter. Both appeared much older than Sam had expected for climbing guides. The younger one appeared maybe forty, while the older one was at least sixty.
“Sam. Tom. May I introduce your guides, Lakpa and Pemba? Two of the most capable climbers in all the Himalayas. Legend has it their family have been living in these mountains for thousands of years.”
Sam and Tom both shook their hands.
“Do you speak English?” Sam asked.
“I do, but my father does not,” Lakpa replied.
Sam examined the two men. There was nothing special about them. They wore expensive western climbing clothes, and appeared smaller than he’d expect for people who were capable of climbing to great heights while carrying huge weights. One appeared too old for climbing — at least sixty. The other, too young. For a moment, he wondered if he was being duped. He’d paid top money for his guides, and he’d been explicit that he wanted the very best. For where he was going, they would earn every penny.
He shook the worry from his mind. It didn’t matter. They would be better than either he or Tom, and what they really needed wasn’t an expert climber, they needed a guide to help them interpret the directions of the Arcane Stone.
Dmitri looked at him, a curious expression on his face. “Tell me, Sam. Where would you like to go?”
“Do you know where Tiger Hill is?”
“Deerjing? Of course. It’s said to have the most exquisite view of the Five Treasures of Snow of anywhere in the Himalayas.”
“Good. Take us there.”
“It’s in Sikkim, though.” Dmitri looked up from walking around the helicopter and performing his preflight checks. “I can arrange the… ah… visas, but it will cost more money.”
“We’ll pay.”
“Then climb aboard. We’re off to see the Five Treasures of Snow in all their majestic beauty.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sam stared at the Five Treasures of Snow from Tiger Hill. More than a dozen tourists looked up at the great mountains. In the morning, the place would be overrun with hundreds of them, all searching for the perfect shot of the golden peaks at sunrise. He took out his tablet and checked some notes that Billie had made. This was the spot. That much was certain, but where was the rock?
He looked at Lakpa, the younger of the two Sherpas. “Have you ever been here before?”
“Yes, many years ago. We came to pray to the Five Treasures of Snow.”
“Have you ever seen a rock like this?”
Lakpa examined the old drawings of the rock. “Yes. The locals say that it is a holy rock. It is made from granite, which is not found for hundreds of miles from here. They say that it was a gift from their gods.”
“Then why don’t the crowds of people form there?” Sam asked, with genuine curiosity.
“Because the original people of these mountains, the Kusunda people, have forbidden it. They say that only the true ancients of the region are allowed to go there and pray.” Lakpa looked up at Sam and asked, “Why do you ask?”
“Because that’s where I need to be tomorrow when the sun first strikes the Five Treasures of Snow.”
Lakpa frowned. “I’m afraid it’s forbidden.”
“We have to be there for tomorrow’s sunrise. If we aren’t, then we have wasted our time with this entire expedition.”
Lakpa spoke to his father in his native language in rapid succession. And then looked back at Sam and Tom. “My father says, if it is that important to you, he will show you where it is. But that we can’t go with you. The Gods will be angry, and he strongly advises you not to climb the mountains afterwards.”
“I understand the risk. But I need to do so.”
Lakpa nodded. “I understand.”
They reached the granite boulder approximately two hours later. It was west of Tiger Hill by a further two miles. Their guides refused to climb it, or even walk to its base. Lapka advised them that he and his father would be resting near the helicopter after sunrise tomorrow. Sam and Tom both thanked him and began climbing the boulder.
It was roughly the size of a small house, and appeared as though God himself had placed it there. The hills of Sikkim and specifically Tiger Hill consist of half-schistose rocks, producing a shallow brown clay soil, highly susceptible to erosion. By contrast, the hard and massive granite boulder had survived thousands of years of erosion from the environment, with little to no change in its appearance.
Sam reached the top of the ancient boulder first. He looked north toward the Five Treasures of Snow. The main peak and its immediate satellites take the form of a giant cross straddling the borders of three countries — Nepal, Tibet, and the once independent kingdom but now Indian state of Sikkim. From what he’d read, the great cluster of peaks was highly glaciated and cradled five major glacial systems. Three of these, the Zemu, Talung, and Rathong, lie to the east of the massif and flow into Sikkim, eventually feeding the mighty Tista River. In Nepal, to the west, the Kangchenjunga and Yalung glaciers form the major sources of the Tamur River. The region is called Five Treasures of Snow after its five high peaks, and has always been worshipped by the people of Darjeeling and Sikkim.
“This is it,” Sam said, reverently.
Tom stared up at the mountains in the distance, his face pensive.
“It’s going to be somewhere up there, isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so. Anywhere else, someone would have found it by now.”
The two men made camp on the rock, and that night the two of them ate a dinner of hot stew before going to bed early in preparation for the next day. The sky was clear, and from their vantage point the millions of stars blended into the horizon, so that it was hard for your imagination not to run wild, and your spirit dream.
“Do you think she’s all right?” Tom asked.
“Billie? Are you kidding me? That woman’s tougher than rusty nails and smarter than either of us. She’ll have a plan. They won’t kill her. Certainly not until they’ve found Atlantis. And while she holds that card above them, she will have all the time in the world to find a solution.”
“And that solution is that we reach Atlantis first.”
“And we will,” Sam said and then went to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Four
At 4 a.m., Sam woke up and prepared for sunrise.
Tom drank from a warm thermos of tea.
“Based on the translations of the ancient texts that Billie discovered on the walls of Atlantis, when placed at the center of this rock Arcane Stone would allow the viewer to redirect the sunlight of the first light to the precise location of the secret opening. Impossible to visualize from the ground, it allows a climber to descend into its heart.”
“But if the sun changes based on the time of the year, surely it must now be inaccurate?”
“That’s true. But the ancient Atlantean people were smarter than you give them credit for. If you look closely at our new toy, you will see that it rotates around an axis, in which twelve different settings may be selected.”
“The months of the year?”
“Precisely.”
Sam handed Tom the device to examine again.
He rotated its base with the sound of a small click and said, “Twelve settings. The first being highlighted by a snowflake, presumably winter solstice and a sun for summer solstice?”
“It’s the start of July, so shall we set it to the next setting after Summer?”
“No, if the Sun reflects summer solstice, then we need to rotate one setting backwards, for the month before the hottest day of the year.”
“Good point.”
Sam cleared away some of the petals of the giant rhododendron flowers, which had built up on the large boulder.