The Place of Dead Kings (31 page)

‘Can you keep going?’ Rao shouted.

Jack thought about it. His legs seemed able to support him. Pain forked across his chest, but it wasn’t bad enough to stop him walking. Too tired to speak, he nodded and pressed on up the scarp.

They passed out of the sattva stream, but the pain still throbbed between Jack’s ribs. At least now they were almost near the summit. The icy gale seared Jack’s face and nose, but that wasn’t going to stop him. He just had to reach the crest of the hill and then he would see shelter somewhere nearby. He was sure of it.

Just keep going. One step after the other.

A great slab of pain thumped him in the chest. He lost his breath completely. He slipped, held out his arms in an attempt to steady himself, slid again and fell forward into the snow.

A blanket of darkness spread over him. He tried to stay conscious, but he was slipping away.

The last thing he remembered was the snow pressing against his face.

He felt so cold it was as if he were encased in ice. It was pitch black, but that was because his eyes were closed. He was sure of that.

He was alive. He flexed his fingers and although they felt frozen, they moved. Yes, he was still alive.

‘Jack.’ Rao’s voice came from far away and was garbled, as if he were speaking underwater.

Jack tried to open his eyes but the effort seemed impossible.

‘Jack,’ Rao called again.

Jack tried once more and this time managed to prise his eyelids apart.

Rao was squatting in front of him, dusted with snow, his eyebrows and moustache caked in ice. His face was grim, but a half-smile slid across his lips when he saw Jack stir. ‘Shiva. I thought you were gone.’

Jack looked around and saw stone to either side and above him. He was lying in a shallow cave formed by an overhang in a rock face. But the recess was so small his feet stuck out of the entrance. The wild wind screamed and dashed snow in every direction outside.

He was wrapped in a blanket, but this did little to keep him warm. He looked at his hands and saw they were a translucent white.

‘What happened?’ he asked.

‘You passed out. I dragged you here.’

‘Where are we?’

‘Near where you fell. I couldn’t get you far. This was the best place I could find.’

Jack tried to sit up, but the sattva-fire flared in his chest, the force of it so strong it knocked him back against the rock. He grimaced, gritted his teeth and tried again, fighting through the pain. But his arms were weak and he couldn’t move more than a few inches.

‘You rest.’ Rao put his hand on Jack’s shoulder.

‘It’s too cold.’ Jack’s voice was no more than a whisper. His misty breath coiled up from his mouth, as if his spirit were already leaving his body.

‘I’ll get firewood. You stay here.’

Jack struggled once more to move. He didn’t want to stay where he was. He had to get up. He couldn’t let Saleem down.

But it was hopeless. He couldn’t move.

Darkness rushed over him again. He fell down and down into a black pit.

He heard the wind moaning. The sound ebbed and flowed, sometimes deafening, sometimes soft.

Someone was shaking him. Someone was shouting.

It took him a great effort to slide open his eyes. Rao was crouching in front of him again and gesturing at a small fire.

‘Sorry I took so long,’ Rao said. ‘I had to go a long way for wood. Right down into the next valley.’

The flames licked along the branches and the smoke hovered in the small space. Jack tried to crawl towards the fire but managed to move only a few inches. Seeing the problem, Rao used two branches to shift the half-burnt wood and embers closer.

A subtle patch of warmth spread across the lower part of Jack’s leg. He raised his hands and felt the barest trace of heat on his palms.

Was the fire going to be enough to keep them warm? It was growing dark outside, and with night setting in the temperature would drop further.

‘We can’t stay here.’ Jack’s voice was hoarse.

‘Can you walk?’

Jack tried to wriggle his legs but they seemed virtually paralysed. A wave of pain swept over him and he shut his eyes until it passed.

‘Looks like we’ll have to stay where we are,’ Rao said. ‘I don’t think I can drag you down this mountain. You’d probably die of cold if I tried.’

The wind howled.

Rao was right. Jack could see that, despite his dizziness and confusion. His only hope was to warm up and recover enough to be able to move again. But how long would that take? All night? And would he even survive the night stuck up on the mountain?

‘I have to get more wood.’ Rao upturned the knapsack and emptied the contents. ‘I’ll take this so I can carry more.’

‘Wait.’ Jack reached up weakly with his hand. ‘The cold out there could kill you.’

‘I’m all right.’ Rao edged backwards to the cave entrance. ‘I owe you this.’

Jack went to say that Rao owed him nothing, but the Captain had already slipped out into the blizzard.

Jack sighed as another bolt of pain shot through him.

Would he still be alive when Rao came back?

Would Rao even make it back?

He tried to get Katelin’s necklace out from under his tunic, but couldn’t find the strength and instead clutched it through his clothing. As he slipped away, he saw Elizabeth back in Shropshire. And the thought that at least, for the moment, she was safe spread warmth through his frozen limbs.

Rao shook him awake. He opened his eyes and stared at the Captain as though through a film of gauze. The pain in his chest was fierce, but he didn’t feel cold at all now. He imagined he was blissfully warm for a moment, but then realised he was just numb.

Rao was panting and his eyes were wild. ‘I saw people out there.’ He swallowed and tried to catch his breath. ‘Savages.’

Savages? Jack remembered them. But he didn’t care. They were irrelevant. What did it matter if they were creeping about nearby? What did it matter if they killed him and Rao?

He stopped this train of thought, blinked a few times and managed to concentrate.

‘I saw wolves.’ Rao grasped Jack’s sleeve. ‘I fired to scare them off but they kept coming. I had to use up all the bullets. Then, as I was coming back, I saw figures. Savages. Out in this weather. Can you imagine?’

Jack felt tiredness swamp him. He wanted to plan what their next move should be. What should they do if the savages approached? But he didn’t have the strength. He couldn’t think straight.

‘I don’t know if they saw me,’ Rao said. ‘I ran back here. At least I got this.’ He patted the knapsack, which had a few branches poking out of it.

Jack shut his eyes and felt himself drifting away again. Everything seemed so difficult and tiring. So impossible to deal with.

It was strange to think that he was now incapacitated and probably dying, with Rao trying to save him, when last night the opposite had been the case. God’s will was unfathomable sometimes.

He forced his eyes open again. He’d made a decision and had to tell Rao. But was he strong enough to speak?

Rao was busy trying to relight the fire, which had died while he’d been away. The matches kept blowing out and he was cursing in Rajthani.

‘Listen.’ Jack’s voice was a thick whisper.

Rao leant across. ‘What is it?’

Jack raised his hand and tried feebly to grasp Rao’s coat. ‘You go on.’

‘Go on?’

‘Leave me here. I’m done for.’

Rao sat back. His icy moustache straightened. ‘I will not leave you.’

Jack shut his eyes, tried to summon the strength to continue. He had to make Rao see sense. He opened his eyes again and his vision was even more cloudy now. ‘You’ll die if you stay here. Too cold. You won’t last the night.’

‘There are savages out there. And wolves.’

‘You have to take a chance.’

Rao’s eyes moistened and he touched Jack’s shoulder gently. ‘Now you close your eyes and sleep. I’m going nowhere. I won’t leave a comrade here to die.’

Jack’s eyelids slid down. It was too hard to continue. Rao was an idiot if he stayed. But there was nothing Jack could do about it.

Jack woke and the cold on his face and hands burnt. His chest throbbed and there was a sour taste in the back of his throat. He glanced across and saw Rao huddled beside him under a blanket. The Captain’s face was pale, his lips were tinged blue and his eyes had a slightly glazed look.

Even in his confused state, Jack could tell it was bad.

He looked towards the entrance of the cave. The fire had gone out, leaving just grey coals. The storm still raged outside.

‘The fire,’ he managed to say.

‘What?’ Rao leant in closer.

Jack took a deep breath and tried to speak more loudly. ‘The fire.’

Rao eased himself back and shut his eyes for a moment. ‘Ran out of wood.’

‘Go.’

‘I won’t go.’

‘Get wood, then. We’ll freeze.’

‘No more bullets . . . No more strength either . . . Don’t know if I can walk even.’

Christ. They were both going to die of cold. Unless the wolves or savages got them first. ‘I’m sorry. You should have gone.’

‘I wouldn’t do that.’ Rao put his gloved hand on a folded piece of paper, which looked as though it had been torn from Atri’s notebook. ‘I wrote a final letter. In case anyone finds us.’

Jack closed his eyes. It seemed beyond improbable that anyone who could read would ever find their frozen bodies up on the mountainside, but he didn’t want to say that. What was the point? Rao was probably well aware his note was unlikely ever to be discovered anyway.

Jack thought he might have drifted asleep but he wasn’t sure. At any rate, when he opened his eyes Rao was still sitting beside him, fingering his letter.

‘Who did you write to?’ Jack asked. ‘Your sweetheart?’

Rao nodded.

‘You due to get married?’

Rao shut his eyes and winced. ‘No.’

‘Why not?’

Rao opened his eyes and his bottom lip trembled. ‘My father forbade it.’

‘Ah.’ Jack didn’t have enough strength to say anything further.

‘She’s from a lower jati, you see. Unclean. Our . . . friendship was bringing shame on the family. Pollution. When she got pregnant my father told me I had to leave her or be expelled from the jati. I couldn’t bear it, so I agreed.’ Rao’s eyes brimmed with tears. ‘I left her.’