Part 36 (1/2)

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 s.h.i.+elds 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.

s.h.i.+ning 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, s.h.i.+ning her light inside.