Jake Atlas and the Quest for the Crystal Mountain by Rob Lloyd Jones

Author:Rob Lloyd Jones [Jones, Rob Lloyd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781406389890
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2019-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

23

We scrabbled around the mountainside until the sun began to rise over the valley. We hauled rocks, called out names, and shone my smart-goggles’ torch between gaps, making sure no one else was trapped in the avalanche. Tenzin kept insisting that everyone escaped, but I had to be sure.

Exhausted, we sat watching morning tease its way over the ridges. A Himalayan vulture swept silent circles over our heads.

We’d been working so hard that I hadn’t felt the chill. Now it stung my fingers and crept up my arms, which began to shake. Maybe it was shock too, but soon my whole body was shuddering.

Tenzin didn’t seem to notice the cold at all. He’d gone silent since we stopped searching for survivors, and sat staring across the debris of the avalanche. He kept shifting so I couldn’t see his face, and wiping his eyes and nose with torn ends of his robe. I found a flask of water amid the rubble and offered him some, but he shook his head and turned away.

“What’s up?” I asked.

He looked at me, his eyes watering as he struggled to find an answer.

“What’s up?” he said, finally. “Many monks spend whole lives here at Yerpa Gompa. It is big tragedy.”

Oh! He was upset about that. But no one had died, and they were just small buildings. “Can’t you join another monastery?” I asked.

“They are not this one. I feel like my heart is gone.”

That seemed over the top, but he was obviously upset, so I didn’t reply. His eyes rippled, dawn reflecting in tears as he stared across the valley.

“Why did you do this?” he said.

“It wasn’t me, Tenzin. It was one of the hunters.”

I felt bad for him, but I needed to focus on my family. I had to assume they’d been caught. That meant I had to reach Mount Kailas more than ever. If I could find the Hall of Records, if that’s where the Drak Terma led, I could use it as a bargaining chip to free my parents and sister. Without it, I had nothing. There was no time to rest or worry about the cold. I had to get to the Crystal Mountain, even if it meant hobbling there on battered legs.

I grabbed a blanket from the ruins, tied it into a sack and stuffed it with whatever seemed useful – a shawl, a broken lantern, a woollen hat.

“We need equipment,” I muttered. “Tenzin, did you have a satellite radio, GPS positioning or anything like that?”

He stared at me, baffled, then picked something up from the rubble.

“Yak butter candle?”

I smiled, realizing I was being silly. Of course the monks didn’t have that high-tech kit. I was so keen to get moving, I wasn’t thinking properly.

“Tenzin, I need your help.”

“Yes. I will guide you back to Lhasa.”

“No, not Lhasa. I have to reach Mount Kailas.”

Something like a smile creased the corners of his mouth, but he didn’t look happy. He gazed back to the valley as the wide-winged griffon continued its slow sweep across the dawn.

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