Russell Blake - The Goddess Legacy

Allie powered on her tablet and brought up the mosaic image. She zoomed in on the eyes and took a seat by the small table. Drake joined her, and Spencer reluctantly threw the sheets off and eyed the tablet over their shoulders as he donned his shirt.

“I don’t see squat,” Spencer said.

“Neither do I,” Allie agreed.

Drake nodded. “It was just a theory.”

“Here’s another one that’s not so fun to consider,” Allie said. “What if, in the original temple, there was some kind of solar guide, where when the sun shined through an aperture at a certain time of day, it then traced to other elements in the design that acted as a map? I’ve read about that sort of thing, but never seen it in person.”

“Wasn’t that one of the Indiana Jones movies — the one with the snake pit?” Drake asked. “That always gave me the creeps as a kid.”

She gave him a dirty look. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t used in real life.”

They sat in silence, considering the ramifications of Allie’s speculation. Drake cleared his throat. “Problem being that temple was destroyed. So if you’re right, we’re beyond screwed.”

“I’m just thinking out loud,” Allie said. “But absent anything obvious about the mosaic, we’re still back at square one. Or one and a half.”

“It has a lot of detail,” Drake said. “Maybe we’re missing something. Zoom out. Could be that the eyes are looking at something? See how the pupils look a little down and to the right?”

Allie manipulated the image until the entire mosaic was displayed. “Do you see anything?”

“Not really,” Drake admitted.

“Neither do I,” Spencer said. “I’m going to the bathroom. Maybe I’ll have a breakthrough of some sort.”

Spencer left them to their inspection. Allie let her eyes rove over every inch of the image, trying to discern a pattern to any of the elements. Drake ran his fingers through his hair and then felt his two days of growth — a reminder of the inexorable passage of time since they’d been issued the ultimatum by Reynolds.

“Maybe we should go to this Shiv Khori and see if we can spot anything? We seem to have exhausted our leads here,” he suggested.

“It’s unlikely we’re going to stumble across a clue in the cave. Half a million people go every year, remember? Don’t you think one of them would have seen something by now if it was obvious?”

Drake stared at the fan circling overhead, an idea fighting its way to the surface of his consciousness, and then snapped his fingers and stared at Allie with a slightly manic look. “What if it’s not talking about the mosaic at all?”

“Of course it is, Drake. ‘In the temple devoted to the destroyer, the sacred mosaic shows the way.’ What else could it be referring to?”

Spencer emerged from the bathroom and caught the last of Allie’s question. He looked to Drake, who grinned. “The idol. It’s Kali too, isn’t it? Think about the script, taken as a whole. What if there was a bit before the area you photographed that identified a switch from the mosaic to the idol? Then it would mean something completely different. It would mean that, viewed through the eyes of the idol, the mosaic shows the way.”

Realization spread across Allie’s face. “That’s not bad. Not bad at all, Ramsey,” she said softly.

“But the idol’s back at your swami’s place, under heavy guard,” Spencer reminded them. “You mentioned that they had guns — if you’re right, how do we get the statue and look at the mosaic through its eyes, assuming it’s possible to do, which seems unlikely since you said it was made out of gold…?”

“Bring up the picture of the statue, Allie,” Drake said, his voice quiet. She switched to the dark image of the dancing goddess and zoomed in on Kali’s head.

“See anything?” she asked.

“What kind of jewels are those?” Drake asked.

Allie zoomed in closer and increased the brightness. “They look like… rubies.”

Drake sat back, thinking. Neither Allie nor Spencer spoke, allowing him to cogitate in silence. He tried to imagine the statue being used as some sort of beacon, per Allie’s theory, and then opened them and shook his head.

“What if the idol was in the temple that was destroyed? Positioned in some way so the sun shined through its jeweled eyes and hit the mosaic in strategic spots?”

Allie gasped and tapped the tablet to open her imaging software. She waited as it cycled, and her gaze drifted to Drake’s.

“No. That’s not it at all, or at least I don’t think so. It’s much easier. The rubies would make anyone looking through them see the world through a red filter.” She hesitated and tapped the photo of the idol. “What if there are tiles in the mosaic that are only distinctive when viewed through a red lens? Red glass, jewels, it wouldn’t matter.”

“Can you simulate that?” Spencer asked. “With your computer?”

“Give me a second and we’ll find out.”

After half an hour of fiddling with her imaging software, Allie had created a semi-opaque ruby red overlay and positioned it upon the image of the mosaic. The dancing goddess instantly morphed into what looked suspiciously like a tree of lightning streaking up from the prone figure of Shiva to her lowest arm, which was clutching a severed head.

Drake edged closer to her and traced his finger along the main body of the bolt. “This looks like a map, doesn’t it? It starts at Shiva’s forehead and finishes there.”

“Yes,” Allie agreed. “If the part that begins at Shiva is the Shiv Khori, it’s probably a guide through the various passages of the underground maze. If we assume that each of these branches here, here, and here, represent caverns that dead end, then that leaves only two — the one that finishes at her mouth, and the one that ends at the arm with the severed head.”

“Which is the holiest of holies?” Spencer asked.

“Actually, it signifies evil. The depiction represents Kali’s triumph over evil,” Allie said.

“How is evil holy?” Drake asked.

“Could be confusion in the translation,” Allie ventured. “Or it could be that whoever crafted this map was one of the occult offshoots that worshiped Kali as the goddess of death rather than the goddess of destruction.”

“Death, destruction… what’s the difference?” Spencer said with a snort.

“To these cults, which used their worship of her as an excuse to murder, considerable,” Allie said. “They all believe they were created by her, but their purpose is the sticking point. Anyhow, that doesn’t matter to us. What does is that this seems to be a map through the cave system.”

“Where do you think this other branch, which leads all the way up to her head, goes?”

“There’s a legend the Shiv Khori has a passage that terminates at another sacred cave in Kashmir: the Amarnath cave. Could be that’s what this is mapping out,” Spencer said. Allie looked at him strangely, and he shrugged. “You told me to research all this, remember? I had a lot of time on my hands.”

“For our purposes, we only care about the branch leading to the severed head,” Drake said, and using a pen from Allie’s purse, began making a drawing of the map on the back of a hotel brochure.

“I don’t get it,” Spencer said. “What does a missing DOD agent and Carson’s murder have to do with some legendary treasure? I mean, this is all fine, but does anyone have any ideas?”

“Could be that Carson had competition, and they’ll kill anyone who gets in their way,” Allie said quietly. “Look around — tell me you can’t see that as a viable possibility.”

“I don’t know. That doesn’t feel right,” Spencer said. “We’re missing something here.”