The Adventures Of Indiana Jones (71 page)

“For this, you fool,” Elsa answered. She clutched the Grail Cup to her chest and bolted for the entrance of the temple.

Indy was about to give chase, when she stopped and turned. She was a few feet from the entrance of the temple, silhouetted in the late afternoon light. She must have realized, he thought, that she wouldn’t go far in the desert on her own.

“We’ve got it. Come on. Let’s go.”

“No!” the knight yelled. “The Grail can never leave this place! Never!”

He looked over at Indy and Henry. “Remaining here is the price of immortality.”

Henry glanced from the knight to Elsa. “Listen to him. He knows. The Grail will be nothing but an old cup if you take it from the temple.”

“I don’t believe him.”

“You must not cross the seal,” the knight warned, pointing past her.

Elsa turned and took several defiant steps toward the entrance.

“She will pay dearly,” the knight said quietly.

“Wait,” Indy shouted, running after her. The images of what happened to Donovan were still fresh in his mind. “Wait, Elsa. Don’t move.”

She neared a large metal seal on the floor but paid no attention to it. She was not only captivated but overwhelmed by the Grail Cup, and her eyes were glued to it.

“Elsa!” He reached her just in time and grabbed her arm.

She peered up at him with those incredibly blue eyes of hers, and he felt something shift and slide in his chest. “It’s ours now, Indy,” she said softly. “Ours. Don’t you understand? Yours and mine. No one else matters. Donovan is dead; we’ll keep it from the Führer.”

He shook his head. “It’s staying here.”

With sudden and unexpected strength she pulled her arm free of his grasp. She cuddled the Grail, like a child with a stuffed animal, and stepped defiantly onto the seal. Then she backed across it out of the temple.

A moment or two passed, then a deep rumbling sound that was felt as much as heard erupted beneath the temple. The canyon walls started to shake. Dust flew as debris began to tumble from the shaking walls. Elsa spun around, terrified, and ran a few steps into the temple. Indy backed away from her as the floor shifted under his feet. He turned and saw one of the massive carved knights shuddering. The pillars rocked. He leapt aside as a stone cap shook loose and tumbled toward him, pulverizing at his feet.

Henry was holding his arms above his head, trying to protect himself from falling rocks. As the floor kept shaking, Brody lost his balance and fell to one knee. Sallah grabbed both men by the arms and jerked them away just as one of the pillars crashed where they had stood. The knight, meanwhile, fled up the steps toward the passageway and his inner sanctum.

Indy signaled the others to hurry toward the entrance. He turned and saw Elsa. She was looking up at one of the swaying columns of stone, her eyes wide with fear. The earth suddenly shifted again, and she lost her balance. She pitched forward, and the Grail Cup slipped from her hands.

As the cup rolled away from her, a jagged crack seared through the center of the seal and across the temple floor. Elsa struggled to her feet. Her legs straddled the gap, which was slowly widening.

The crack split apart the inner steps leading to the passageway and knocked the knight from his feet. He fell back, rolling down the steps. Another crack ruptured the floor of the temple, perpendicular to the first one. Henry toppled like one of the pillars, and Brody wobbled like a drunk next to him. Sallah and Indy both froze, uncertain which way to turn. Behind them the knight crawled laboriously up the steps.

The Nazis made a run for the entrance and leapt across the crack that Elsa straddled. At the same instant, she pushed off with one foot, but as she did, the ground bulged on the side she had chosen. She desperately clawed and scratched, searching for a handhold.

The Nazis were in the same predicament. They had almost reached the top of the incline when they slid back and fell into the abyss. Their screams echoed long after they were smashed to their deaths below.

Elsa clung to a boulder protruding from the side of the crevice. Below her she could see the Grail Cup lying on a rock jutting over the edge of the crack. Instead of climbing up and away from the abyss, she lowered herself on one side of it and reached for the cup.

Indy realized the danger she was in and dashed over to her. He stretched out on his stomach and extended his arms, shouting to her to grab his hands. Their fingers brushed; then he inched forward and clasped both of her gloved hands. He pulled with every bit of strength he had, but it wasn’t enough; he started to slide forward.

“Junior, Junior,” Henry shouted.

“Indy,” Sallah bellowed.

As Indy pulled, Elsa wrenched one of her hands free. She reached down toward the Grail Cup, which rocked back and forth, inches from the chasm. Her fingertips grazed the edge of it, but she couldn’t quite grasp it.

“Elsa!” Indy yelled. With his free hand, he grabbed hold of a rock.

“I can reach it,” she gasped. “I can.”

Indy’s hold on her was slipping. She stretched toward the cup and was about to grasp it when her glove slipped off her fingers. They each clung to the glove, their hands no longer touching. The glove stretched. It started to rip.

“Indy!” Alarm riddled her voice. “Don’t let go. Please.”

The glove ripped more.

“Elsa!”

He let go of the rock and lunged for her wrist, but it was too late. Her fingers slipped, and she fell backward into the chasm, her screams ringing out in the temple.

Indy slid forward, plowing his hands into the earth in a desperate attempt to stop himself from hurtling after her. He was about to slide into the blackness when hands squeezed around his ankles like a vise.

“Indy!” Sallah yelled. “I’ve got you. I’m going to pull you out.”

“Wait.” He reached out for the Grail Cup, but his fingers fell several inches short of it. “Lower me a little more.”

“Don’t be crazy, Indy,” Sallah grunted, struggling to hold on to his friend. His feet were inching forward, and it wasn’t because he was trying to lower Indy toward the chalice.

“A little more,” Indy gasped.

“No, Indy. Please.”

“Junior, get back up here,” Henry barked from behind Sallah.

“I can get it. I can reach it.”

“Indiana.”

“Dad?” It was the first time his father had ever called him by name.

“Let it go,” Henry said calmly.

Indy abandoned the Grail and clawed his way backward as Sallah pulled at his ankles. The dirt he loosened tumbled down onto the Grail Cup. He looked up once just in time to see the cup slide off its perch and into the abyss with Elsa.

Sallah gave one final yank, grunting loudly as he pulled Indy over the lip of the crevice. Indy sprawled on his stomach, staring into the black chasm that had swallowed Elsa and the cup. The horrified expression on her face as she slipped away had burned a path through his brain. If he had done what his father had, if he had told her just to forget the cup, he could have saved her.

Henry’s hand was tight on his shoulder. His voice was urgent. “Come. Now. We’ve got to get out.”

Indy nodded, picked up his hat, took one more glance over the side, and stood up.

Sallah guided them forward. “Where’s Marcus?” Henry called out in alarm.

“I’m here,” he said from somewhere nearby.

More and more debris was falling around them. Indy tried to clear his mind of guilt, of the nagging certainty that he could have saved Elsa if he had tried a little harder, if he had acted differently. After all, he owed her. She had saved him. And he had failed her.

But he knew she was partly responsible for her own death. She wasn’t leaving without the Grail. There was nothing more to do but let go of his guilt and save his own life. Somehow, he knew, she would want it that way.

He followed after the others, then noticed that his father had stopped and was staring toward the steps. Indy followed his gaze and saw the Grail knight standing impassively at the top of the steps a few feet from the jagged crack. Rocks and dust were tumbling around him, but he seemed completely oblivious.

The knight raised his right hand, a farewell. It was as if he were saying the Last Crusade was finally over, and the Grail was safe. To Indy it made sense. He now realized the Holy Grail was more than an ancient and sacred cup. It was more than a means of attaining immortality, more than a way of miraculously healing.

He had sipped the ambrosial waters from the cup, and had understood. It was the essence of a higher awareness that was in him and in everyone who bothered to look for it. Now, he vowed, he would do the best he could with the understanding and knowledge he had gained.

Henry smiled back at the knight and nodded.

“Dad.”

Indy pulled on his father’s arm and hurried him away as massive rocks thundered down around them and pillars collapsed. The walls were crumbling, and jets of steam hissed up through the crevices. But Indy knew they would survive. They had made it this far—they would make the final steps.

A moment later they reached the top of the outer stairs. Indy took one more look inside the temple and thought he saw the Grail knight still standing at the top of the steps.

“Henry, Indy. Come on,” Brody yelled from the saddle of a horse outside the temple. “I know the way. Grab a horse and follow me.”

Brody spurred the horse, which bolted ahead, then circled and careened around them, nearly running over Sallah. He floundered in the saddle, but finally took control and galloped into the narrow canyon.

Henry shook his head and swung his leg over the back of a horse. “We better catch up with him. He got lost in his own museum.”

“I know.”

Henry gestured to Indy. “After you, Junior.”

“Yes, sir,” Indy said with a smile. It didn’t matter any more what his father called him. The quest had been fulfilled.

For Henry, and especially for Indy.

He slapped his horse with the reins and galloped after Brody.

C
AMPBELL
B
LACK
was born in Glasgow in 1944 and educated at Sussex University. His first novel was published in 1968, and three years later he moved to the United States, where he taught creative writing. He lived there for twenty years with his wife and children and produced twenty novels before moving to Ireland in 1991. Following the international success of
Jig
(1987), many of his books, including
Brainfire, Asterisk,
and
The Bad Fire
are once again available in the United Kingdom.

J
AMES
K
AHN
is a recovering emergency-room doctor who has published a science fiction trilogy, as well as a couple of murder mysteries and a handful of novelizations, including the novelization of
Return of the Jedi.

R
OB
M
AC
G
REGOR
enrolled at the University of Minnesota in the late 1960s, planning to study archaeology. He never gave up his interest in ancient civilizations, and between jobs and on vacations he explored archaeological sites in Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, and North Africa. Those experiences would later come in handy when he wrote the novelization of the blockbuster movie
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,
and then went on to write six original Indiana Jones novels for Lucasfilm Ltd. and Bantam Books. In addition to writing, Rob teaches yoga, based on his own system called Astro-Yoga.