“Yes, yes! I promise!” she cried. I’ll promise you anything, but I don’t know what you mean.
Raul and his men stormed into the tent.
Chapter 23
THE MAP
Raul took in the scene. “Well, well, what do we have here? A little Buddhist tea party?” His gun trained on them, he stared at Kelsey and Desmond. His eyes widened. Those blue eyes. That hair. He took a look at Desmond, understanding flooding through him and he turned back to Kelsey. “You!” he spit out. “You were the couple from Garters. Get up. Now!”
Kelsey stood slowly, facing Raul. She glared at him in fury. “You’ve come to a place of worship. Put away your gun. These men are unarmed.”
Marcus moved to Raul and whispered in his ear and Raul’s eyes widened again, quickly becoming angry slits. “Are you sure it was her?” He took a menacing step towards Kelsey, swallowing hard, then spit on the floor. “You were the one who killed Ricardo. You were the one who killed all of them, weren’t you, you little bitch?”
That’s right, you disgusting pile of filth. She smiled at him and it was as if a light had been turned on for Raul. He nodded in understanding as a sigh escaped his throat. “You were the imp in Tibet whose parents we killed? Ahh, it all makes sense now. The killings, the robberies. It was you all along, wasn’t it? You obviously lived through our time together. I thought we might have killed you.”
Kelsey could see Desmond staring at her out of the corner of her eye, confused. Raul noticed it.
“Did she ever tell you what we did to her?” he teased. How we murdered her parents and then me and my men took turns on her? I remember your screams when we broke your arms and legs. Like little twigs they were. I remember shoving your face in the dirt when we played with you. I thought we killed you, but I guess I was wrong. We should have done a better job. It’s a mistake I won’t make again. I promise this time you’ll enjoy it even more and now we have an audience who can watch as well.” He sneered at Desmond.
Kelsey shook her head. “You’re the one who’s going to be killed, you worthless piece of shit.” In a flash, she pulled her gun and fired. Marcus propelled himself in front of Raul, taking the bullet to his chest. He fell to the ground, his foot hitting the fire and scattering the wood, the embers flying into one of the gher’s tent walls and erupting into flames.
Kelsey dove forward as gunshots erupted. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shojuharu and Shingen both fall to the floor in a shower of bullets. “No!” she screamed, turning to run to them, but Desmond’s cry stopped her.
“Kelsey, the box!”
She twisted her neck, noticing Pedro with the map’s box in his hands as he tried to escape the tent. Kelsey fired at him, hitting him in the leg. He collapsed, the box crashing to the ground and bouncing away from him.
Desmond fell on it, tackling it like a fumbled football and propelled himself backwards, while more gunfire and flames erupted around him.
Kelsey fired again, hitting another of Raul’s guards in the chest. Raul backed out of the tent and she stumbled after him, firing constantly.
“Kelsey, let him go. We have the map.”
From the floor, Pedro reached out and grabbed her leg. She fell and he climbed atop her and brandished a knife. The air shimmered around them and Kelsey noticed Takechiyo, his bloody face lying on the dirt floor, fluttering his fingers ceaselessly. His eyes met hers, boring into her and she understood. The sound of multiple long horns riddled the air and the tent disappeared. For the briefest of moments, they were in Tedanalee, and then the real world flooded back.
It was enough. For a mere second, Pedro didn’t know where he was, and with a terrified shriek, released his grip. Kelsey took the opportunity to land a hard punch to his face and pushed herself away from him. He tried to rise, but she put her gun to his temple and fired.
Without giving him a second glance, she crawled back to the monks, trying to lift them and save them from the flames consuming the tent, but she couldn’t. Shingen and Shojuharu were already dead, so she crawled to Takechiyo. She sobbed and he grasped her hand.
“My path is done here. Go to Tibet. That’s your destiny now.” He gripped her harder. “And take your companion with you. He’s been sent to help you and you’ll need him. The choices and temptations you’ll be faced with will be great. Do everything in your power to fight them.”
Why does he keep talking in riddles? Please just tell me what I need to know. “Please, I don’t understand what you’re saying!”
The monk’s gaze bore into hers and he whispered one word. Kelsey leaned down to hear it and then gasped. With a satisfied smile, Takechiyo slumped to the floor, the light in his eyes gone.
“No!” Kelsey shook his shoulders. “You can’t die on me. What does that mean? Why did you say that?”
Desmond stepped to her side. The flames and smoke were intense and it was hard to see. “Kelsey, they’re dead. We have to get out of here.” He started hacking.
“No, he tried to tell me something. I have to understand.” A coughing fit doubled her over as well. The flames surrounded the tent and they were trapped in a wall of orange fire. One tent wall collapsed, raining embers on them.
“There’s nothing more they can tell you. Now, come on!” Desmond grabbed her around her waist, pulled her away, and shoved her out of the burning gher.
They fell to the ground. Desmond drew his gun, but Raul and his jeep were gone. A bloody trail followed him from the tent to where his tire tracks remained.
As Kelsey and Desmond lay dazed on the forest floor, they watched the small monastery burn to the ground with the three elder monks and Raul’s men inside.
Kelsey crawled over to the burning flames, angry tears streaking her ashen cheeks. Desmond inched over to her and placed a tentative, comforting hand on her shoulder and she turned to him, laying her head on his chest and cried.
After another minute, she pulled away and swiped at her eyes. “At least they saw the Clear Light before they died.” She crawled onto her knees and began to recite the Sadhana Heartfelt prayers for the deceased monks. She thought back to all her teachings. It was the least she could do for them. They sacrificed themselves to give her a message and to bring her the truth, and they had died because of it.
With a strength and purity of intention, she spoke the invocations, remembering their mind of compassion to their philosophy, the understanding of the knowledge that they were going to die on their final path of their life. She remembered their devotion to the Buddha. She finished with a dedication prayer and then sat there quietly, watching the last of the flames burn themselves out.
Desmond stayed with her. After everything that had just happened--Tedanalee, Raul, some knowledge of what had been done to her in Tibet--he said nothing. Just leaned over and took her hand.
He comforts me somehow. Even now, without even saying a word. “They’ve achieved Dukkha,” she said quietly. “Great inner peace and contentment. I just hope their ultimate sacrifice brings them enlightenment.”
Desmond nodded. “Maybe they’ve reached Nirvana.” He leaned over and picked up the box, turning to Kelsey. “We have it. Their deaths weren’t for nothing. I don’t know how, but they brought you to this spot, to this moment and they knew this was going to happen to them. It was possibly all a divine path and one you now follow as well. It sounds like you’ve actually been following it all along.”
Like a damned puppet. She nodded, her eyes still filled with tears. Taking a deep, choked breath, she removed the chain from her neck and holding the key, leaned over and put it in the box’s lock. It turned easily in her hands and she lifted the lid. An overwhelming sadness filled her and chills ran down her spine.
The map was there. The map her father had died for.
She ran her fingers across the yellowed scroll, knowing once her dad had held this very map in his hands. She picked it up and unfurled it. “It’s time to avenge both our families.”
Desmond touched her arm hesitant
ly. “Kelsey, what did Takechiyo say that made you so upset?”
She pursed her lips. “He said the word, ‘Tanha.”
He crinkled his brow. “Tanha? What is that?”
“It’s not a what, but a who. She’s a person from Hindu lore.”
Desmond squinted, apparently trying to remember. “Wait, isn’t Tanha the name of one of Mara’s daughters?”
Kelsey nodded. “Yes. She was one of the demons who were sent to tempt Siddhartha while he meditated under the bohdi tree.”
Desmond squinted. “Why would he say that?”
“I have no idea.”
Then why was she shaking so badly?
* * * * *
They retrieved the jeep and drove all morning to a town on the outskirts of Bogota, where they abandoned the vehicle behind a local restaurant. They then caught a civilian bus that took them on a meandering journey to the city, booked a room at one of the larger hotel chains and after showering and grabbing a quick lunch, were in their room studying the map. They remained there all afternoon and straight until dinnertime as they tried to decipher its strange codes. After that it was another quick bite in the downstairs restaurant and then back to the map, where they memorized every aspect of it, trying to unlock its secrets.
Kelsey discovered she could read all the words inscribed on the margins. Words written in a language which seemingly no one else on earth, save for Ari, knew.
Kelsey pointed towards the northern end of the map, to a point at the peak of Mount Abora. “It says here, “We hide from the world. Only those of pure consciousness may come forth.” And another spot on this side says, “Here is the place where you choose your path, where judgment is made.”
“Do you know what any of this means?” Desmond asked.
Kelsey shook her head. She started typing again on her computer, as she had been all afternoon, in constant touch with Ari, Julia and Seung via Skype. She had taken a photo of the map and digitally sent it to them and now translated all the words inscribed on it. They were nearly done.
Ari’s voice came through her computer speaker. “Kelsey, the words on this map are all centered in Buddhist doctrine and I don’t believe they’re random messages. There’s an underlying theme about choices and karma, the force which drives samsara.”
“The cycle of suffering and rebirth?” Desmond asked. “How do you see that?”
There was a pause on the line and they could see Ari’s brows crease as he glanced at Desmond. Easy brother. Ari still hadn’t made peace with the fact that Desmond was with Kelsey. His voice was tight as he spoke. “Because many of these written words are actually Vajrayaha’s mantras to ward off negative karma. The monks at the Bodhidharma Monastery have combined various different theologies of Buddhism together, as if they are practicing under all one tenant. Possibly these very mantras have a direct link to Xanadu.”
“Like what happened in the gher,” Kelsey said. She had told them about the monks’ prayers, the meditation and how she and Desmond had both traveled to her mystical land of Tedanalee.
Ari and the others had been stunned.
Ari had asked her to try to recreate the vision. She had sat on the floor, in the lotus position and started fluttering her hands, but nothing had happened. Desmond had tried to help her, too. They couldn’t recreate the scene and bring her back to Tedanalee.
Seung spoke up. “I want to take this from another perspective. Have you ever thought that maybe Tedanalee is really Xanadu?”
Is he serious? “You think my world of Tedanalee is a symbol of Xanadu?” Kelsey asked.
“No,” Seung said. “What if it actually IS Xanadu?”
Kelsey scoffed. “How can it be? That’s a real place on this earth we’re trying to find. Not a dream world.” She knew once she said it, Seung would latch onto that idea with zeal.
She was right. His passion for philosophy was just heating up. “Kelsey, think about it. What if your dream world was always Xanadu, but you called it Tedanalee to protect it? What if Tedanalee is not a dream world at all and you actually travel there? What if you’ve been traveling there ever since you were a child?”
“So you’re saying I can travel to a land, a fantasy land at that, without my physical body? That I’ve been going to the very world my parents had been seeking all along? Come on, Seung.”
“Listen, the Buddhists believe the celestial body, the physical body, and the soul don’t necessarily have to be connected. What if you’re able to take your soul there whenever you want, leaving your physical body in this plane of existence? You did go somewhere for those six weeks when you were catatonic with the Goldmans.”
“Catatonic?” Desmond stared at her questioningly and Kelsey stayed him with her hand.
“Yes, after my attack I obviously retreated deep into my mind to protect myself. What you’re suggesting now is magic and I’m no magician.”
Seung’s face filled the screen. “Well, maybe you are, Kelsey.”
Ari pushed him aside. “Whether magic was employed or not, or you simply had a shared meditative experience, according to this map, Tedanalee, or Xanadu is obviously centered around Mount Abora, the Bodhidharma Monastery, and right near where your parents had their hut. You have to go there.”
Julia piped up. “I have you both booked on a flight tomorrow morning to China. You’ll be meeting up with a tour group going to the Kungri Nako Monastery. It’s one of the only monasteries still accepting visitors after the most recent shutdown by the Chinese militia, but it’s only a day’s walk to the Bodhidharma Monastery. Which is where you’ll eventually need to go.”
“Those monks obviously know more than anyone and I’ll bet they know where Xanadu is and are protecting it somehow,” Ari said. “Maybe from Mara himself. Maybe he’s the blackness you keep seeing in your dreams. At the very least, you should be able to learn why they sent three monks to Colombia to meet up with you, knowing they would probably die there.”
“Ari, one of them uttered the word, Tanha, to me before he died. He told me I was going to have to make some choices. What does that mean?”
There was silence over the line for a few moments. “Maybe she’s the darkness that’s coming,” he said. “Maybe you need to protect this world from her. She was Mara’s daughter, the Princess of Desire, right?”
“Yes,” Kelsey said. “I felt so strange when he said her name. It gave me chills.”
Desmond had been quiet, but couldn’t hold back anymore. “You’re all talking and acting as if Tedanalee is a real place. It can’t be. Kelsey dreams about it. Dreams just aren’t real. Even if it felt real when I was there.” He rubbed his brow in confusion.
Seung piped up again. “Dreams can be real, Desmond. There are spiritualists who believe we all share a human consciousness and if you’re capable of astral projecting, you can share your experiences with someone. It’s like a combined astral projector and lucid dreamer in one consciousness. Humor me, Kelsey. What was Desmond doing in Tedanalee when you saw him?”
“Standing on the edge of the forest, looking around, and then he moved over to me and met his steed. He was right there with me, as if he belonged, right down to his clothing.”
“It sounds like the monks were able to tap into your consciousness, brought you to your dream world and for some reason helped Desmond along via meditation,” Ari said. “There’s no question in my mind anymore that you need to get yourselves to Tibet and to the Bodhidharma Monastery. I’m certain they know exactly what’s going on. And, you better get there before Raul does. I’m sure he won’t have any problems buying entrance to the country if he’s still alive.” He let that comment hang out there.
She felt, deep in her gut, that he was already on his way. People like Raul seemed to have evil guardian angels watching out for them. She couldn’t be so lucky to think he died in the attack at the gher. “He’s not dead and I’m sure he’s going to Tibet. I have his map. He’s going to try to intercept us or he’s going to make those monks tell him what
he needs to know. With the map gone, he has nothing more to lose. What about our guns? We can’t get them into the country,” Kelsey said.
“Mail them back here,” Ari said. “Then you’ll have to find a way to get some there. I may be able to make some calls to some contacts I have. You’re going to need protection.”
Seung chimed in. “You know, more important than the monks needing protection are the Emperor and Empress in Tedanalee, or if I’m correct, Xanadu. The monks believe they’re in danger, from a blackness, from Mara himself, from his daughter. Who knows? I’ll bet they’re more than just royalty in that world and I’ll bet you feel it, too, Kelsey. In your dreams you’re always trying to protect them. This darkness that comes to you has been a constant threat for the past few years. Your visions of the blackness invading the sky sound like you’re possibly even lucid dreaming while you’re in your own world.” He sucked in his breath, as if he realized something of great importance. His excitement came across the miles. “Let’s take this a step further. What if you really travel to this land, and there are times you’re there on your own, but other times the monks are astral projecting themselves into your dreams, teaching and educating you on the danger coming to the land?”
Kelsey almost laughed in disbelief. “Astral projecting while I’m dreaming and in Xanadu? So now they’re also experts in mind control? All the way from Tibet, right to my bedroom in New York City? Come on. I’ve never heard of any type of shared dreaming like this. And to then add this other reality on top of it? And bringing Desmond along? It just isn’t done, Seung. You’re insinuating fantasy worlds and real magic actually exist.”
“Well,” Seung said, smugly. “This type of thing is obviously not done in our world, but who’s to say our world is the only one? There are things you don’t know, Kelsey, no matter how brilliant you are.”
The Hunt for Xanadu Page 16
