The Tiger Warrior by Gibbins David

Author:Gibbins, David [Gibbins, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Historical Adventure, Mystery & Suspense
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 2009-06-23T07:00:00+00:00

HERE LIES

LICINIUS, OPTIO OF THE 15TH APOLLINARIS LEGION

GUARDIAN OF THE CELESTIAL JEWEL

IN THE DARK SAPPHEIROS MINES

THE OTHER IS WITH FABIUS, BROTHER, ACROSS THE

LAKE TOWARD THE RISING SUN

“Sappheiros,” Costas exclaimed. “I remember that from the Periplus. Doesn’t that mean lapis lazuli?”

A voice bellowed down the passageway from outside. “Time to go!”

Costas swung the flashlight around the chamber one last time. There was another dark fissure at the back, where they had heard the sound of water trickling. He hesitated, then stumbled forward, holding the wall with one hand, and leaned through. For a few moments he was stock-still, the beam shining into the darkness. “Jack, it’s my worst nightmare. I think I can smell it. Get me out of here.”

There was another noise outside, the drumming of gunfire. Jack quickly joined Costas. He stared into the pool of light. At first it seemed like another sculpture, white, an extrusion of the rock. But this was different. He realized with horror what he was looking at. A human body. It was stretched out in the waterfall, the arms behind the back, the head tilted forward at a garish angle. The neck was reduced to bone and sinew. The face was grotesquely adiposed, unrecognizable. Costas swayed slightly, and Jack held him by the shoulder. He forced himself to look again. The head was held up by a noose, tied around a rock above the waterfall. It looked as if the man had died by slow hanging, left with just enough rope to stay alive as long as his feet could find some purchase on the rock. He could have survived like that for hours, even days. A scurry of black shapes left the legs, and Jack saw that the calves had been stripped almost to the bone. The man’s shirt had been eaten away, revealing the skin of his left shoulder. Then Jack saw it. He felt a cold certainty. It was a tiger tattoo. It was distinct from the ones they had seen on the bodies outside, more elaborate. He remembered what Katya had told him about her uncle’s tattoo. Then he realized. She had known they might find him like this.

“It’s Hai Chen,” he said hoarsely. “Katya’s uncle.” He swallowed hard. He had seen enough. There was another burst of automatic fire outside. He turned Costas around and pushed him back toward the chamber entrance. Jack glanced one last time at the sculpture on the wall. His mind was racing. Romans. Raumanas. Rama. A shrine of Rama. He saw the tall one, the legionary in the middle. Was that Fabius? He flashed his torch across the breastplate, the sword belt, the garlands. There was something he needed to see again. He had seen it before, but had dismissed it, some Roman Republican military decoration, lost to history. But now he knew what it was. A round shape, like a sun, with beams extending from it, carried inside a pouch on the legionary’s belt. A shape like a jewel. There was another bellow outside, another burst of gunfire.

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