Ty passed in and out of consciousness. He became aware he was being carried on a makeshift stretcher up a steep incline. He trained his eyes on a pair of legs, hiking boots, and khaki shorts, moving steadily uphill and he recognized them as belonging to Therese.
“I’m okay, Dad,” he mumbled through his fever. He was shocked when Therese turned toward him, her face wet with tears, sobbing uncontrollably as she climbed. He passed out again.
The next time he awoke he looked over the heads and shoulders of the stretcher-bearers, over the fog and for a moment it cleared, revealing a magnificent building, still another thousand feet straight up. The expansive dzong was perched onto a sheer cliff face. As Ty’s stretcher bobbed up and down he kept his eyes trained on the fog, hoping to catch more glimpses of the aerie. He wondered if he was hallucinating. They had passed through the clearing three times and there was no sign of human life in this rugged area. There was no record of any dzong in the vicinity on any of the maps of Bhutan. Ty thought this eastern, faraway land was nearly uninhabitable. I must be dreaming, he thought and passed out again.
He regained consciousness a third time when they laid his stretcher on a low bed. They laid another stretcher on the bed next to him. His father was looking up at the ceiling, his hand dangling to the floor. Ty watched him and realized as people moved around the room, that his father’s eyes never turned to look at him. A wave of heat passed over him. He panicked when he noticed Vincent’s shirt was soaked with blood. Oh God! He was shot!
A girl, wearing the maroon kira of a nun, approached and looked down at Vincent. The stretcher-bearers shook their heads at her, indicating that it was hopeless. One of them took a blanket to cover Vincent. As he was pulling the blanket over Vincent's face, the beautiful girl touched the stretcher-bearer's arm, stopping him. She knelt next to the low bed and pulled the blanket back. She stared into Vincent’s unseeing eyes for a minute, then took his hands in hers and whispered to him. The girl whispered for long minutes as Ty watched, wondering what was happening. He tried to sit up but gentle hands pushed him back down. The whispering continued and Ty noticed everyone in the room lowered their heads, averting their eyes. Vincent’s eyes fluttered and he looked at the girl. She smiled at him and Ty fell into a deep sleep again.
It could have been hours or days that Ty spent in this unknowing state, with intermittent breaks, when the beautiful girl introduced herself as Ashi and gave him medicine. Finally, when Ashi held her hand over his forehead, he felt energy course through his body, so much power that he didn't know if he could hold it all, feeling his body trembling on the inside and the outside. He could feel his body shaking against his shirt, against his jeans. He felt as if he could levitate off the floor.
When Ashi helped him sit up, the dross that had been making him miserable left his body, draining out his nasal passages. Ty knew he had been healed. There was no fever, no headache. There was only energy, creative as well as physical energy. Not only did he feel as if he could run a 5K race, but also as if he could make a movie, paint a fresco, or write a play.
He could smell the incense and burning embers in the stove. Ashi sat close to him and her scent traveled to Ty, a nameless kind of spicy smell, a combination of cinnamon and vanilla.
“Thank you,” he said simply.
Ashi sat back on her heels. “You are welcome. Sleep now?”
“I feel great. I don't want to sleep. Can I see my father?”
Ashi rose and beckoned for Ty to follow. They passed through a large sitting area, where most of the team was morosely looking at the floor or at Ty, anywhere except looking at each other. They entered a room where Vincent sat cross-legged on a low bed, wearing a gho and eating a bowl of rice and chilis.
“Ty! How do you feel?” Vincent asked as he put his bowl aside.
“Fine, Dad. I'm not sick anymore. Are you okay?”
Vincent stood and hugged him. “I'm okay,” he said, nodding at Ashi.
The elation on Vincent's face disappeared and deep sadness took its place. “Now that you're here and feeling better, we need to call a meeting. Can you find the others and have them come here?”
“They're right outside the room, Dad.”
When Ty called them together, Ashi moved toward the door.
“Please, Ashi, can you stay? This concerns you too,” Vincent said, sitting back on his bed. He eyed the group intently for a moment. “Now that we're all together let's remember our friend and colleague...,” He paused for a long minute, “...who did not make it.”
Ty remembered Oliver, lying on the ground in the clearing, his eyes open and staring. He knew it before, but now he actually had to face the fact that Oliver was no longer with them. Therese and Cheryl stood with their arms around each other. Cheryl was stoically holding back her tears but Therese's eyes were red and swollen. A sob escaped from Therese. Preston looked stricken. Richard and Tullio's heads were bowed.
Vincent appeared to be searching for words. “What should have been an extraordinary adventure...what started as an exciting journey has become a great, terrible...” Vincent rubbed his forehead with his hand, shielding his eyes, “...tragedy. I am so sorry, so, so sorry.” He stopped again and then seemed to be talking to himself. “This wasn't supposed to happen.” Vincent sat down abruptly and didn't look at the group.
“Will we be leaving soon?” Richard asked.
Ashi stepped forward and offered her hospitality. “You stay long as like. Leave when you want.”
“Thank you,” Vincent said, “but we'll be leaving soon.”
“But we're right in the area the map shows we should be,” Preston said, distressed. “At least we should find out if there are any records of knights passing through this area.”
Ty thought that for how much Oliver admired the professor, Preston was cold and cavalier about his death. Oliver was murdered and Preston was still thinking about treasure.
“Yes, yes, I agree. That thought crossed my mind,” Vincent said. “I just got off track a bit.” He turned to Ashi. “Will you help us? We are searching for evidence of something that happened in this part of Bhutan a very long time ago.”
Ashi nodded. “Yes, we will all help you.” She called two monks into the room. They appeared as if they were just waiting on the other side of the door. She conferred with them in Bhutanese for a few minutes, waving her arm in the direction of the team.
Ashi announced to the group, “This is Dengshop and Bikash. They will take you any place you want to go. They help you. We have big...” Her brow furrowed as she searched her memory, at a loss for the correct word. “...many, many books. Maybe you look in books, find what you look for.”
“A library? Yes, maybe we will find something there,” Vincent said.
“What about our attackers?” Richard questioned, a flicker of fear passing over his face.
“Yes, what about them?” Preston echoed. “They don't care who they hurt to get the treasure.”
“I don't know. It seems as if we surprised them when they came upon us in the clearing,” Vincent said.
“I agree,” Cheryl said. “We rode around in circles for hours. If they were following us and we stopped for a rest, then of course they would have come upon us.”
“They did have surprised looks on their faces,” Vincent said.
“What's to stop them from climbing right up here and completing their business?” Richard asked. “I, for one, would not like to run into them again.”
There were worried looks all around the room.
“We can't risk another team member getting hurt,” Vincent said.
Ashi followed the conversation, looking from one person to another as they spoke. “You fear two men?”
“Yes,” they murmured and nodded.
“Two men not come here,” Ashi said.
“Yes, you are very well defended. You have many archers here...,” Preston began.
“No, two men not see this place.”
“How can they not see it?” Ty asked. “This place is huge.”
“Do you see it when you ride around and around?”
Ty felt confused as he remembered how the archers and the dzong appeared out of the mist.
“The two men not see it,” Ashi said with a smile.
“Well that settles it. Let's begin searching.” Vincent began to rise to his feet.
“Better you rest now,” Ashi said.
Vincent nodded. “I’ll just have a little nap.”
“I'm going to hang out here, Dad,” Ty said, not wanting to leave his father's side. He wondered many things about Ashi but he felt that he might be taking up too much of her time. She appeared to be an important person in the monastery.
She seemed to be reading his mind when she smiled at him and said, “I not busy now. Come, I show you here,” she said, gesturing broadly.
“Go, Ty. I’ll see you at dinnertime. You don’t want to sit and watch me sleep, do you?”
“Okay.” Ty spotted his backpack leaning against Vincent's bed. He unzipped it and removed a camera. “Is it okay if I take pictures?” Ty asked Ashi. He knew that in many dzongs in Bhutan, picture taking was not permitted.
“It all right.”
They left Vincent, who was already lying on his side, with one hand under his head. They strolled through high-ceilinged corridors, with huge windows, framed in dark, ornately-carved and painted wood. They paused at the entrance of a room, full of monks, who were sitting on their heels, chanting, with their backs to the door.
“How many people live here?” Ty whispered.
“Three hundred.” She gestured with her hand to make him understand it was give or take a few.
They continued to the outdoors, over expansive, walled, stone terraces. The air was cool and dry at this altitude.
“This place seems to be from another world,” Ty said. “The Sharshops in Trashigang say they were the original people in the area, but you say your people were here first.”
“My people here for a very, very long time,” Ashi said, nodding her head.
“How come nobody knows you're here. Your monastery...this place is not even on a map.”
“We here,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “We live where they can see us. They no see us.”
“You seem to be in charge here,” Ty said.
“In charge?”
“You are the top person.” Ty smiled when he realized he was doing a pantomime that was not related at all to what he was saying. “You tell others what to do.”
“I tell others what to do. I am leader here. That is surprise for you?”
“You seem so young. How old are you?”
“Sixteen.” She giggled as she noticed how Ty was struggling to formulate his next question, how someone so young could be a leader. “I am sixteen in this life but I here many times before. My friends find me.”
“You are a tulka!”
“Yes, a tulka!” Her eyes lit up.
Ty had learned from Decki that when a great lama dies, the monks watch for signs of his return to earth. They consult astrologers who look for omens in the sky and with oracles who study the signs on the earth. They search for him. When a child is discovered and believed to be a reincarnated leader of great stature, he is called a tulka. The monks have objects that the great teacher owned before, that the child must recognize first.
“How old were you when they discovered you?”
“I four years.”
“Aren’t tulkas usually men?”
“Yes, men. But they find me and I a girl. They take me here.”
“And you have no parents?”
“No.”
“Who took care of you when you were four?”
“Oh, I have my Rinpoche. He take care of me. I love Rinpoche. He love me. We good friends in many lives.”
Ty nodded, recognizing that rinpoche is a title meaning “precious one,” usually reserved for a high-ranking lama. He thought for a moment. “Do you remember being friends with him in other lives?”
“Yes, I remember other lives. Then when I eight my teacher come. He teach me many things and English. Do he teach me good?” She laughed with the knowledge that her English was terrible.
“He taught you okay,” Ty said, laughing too.
“When you leave here, I go with you?” Ashi asked, with a note of seriousness.
“You want to go with us? Our home is very, very far away.”
“Yes, very far. It is time I leave here.”
“I’ll tell my father,” Ty said, wondering what Vincent would say to such a difficult and outlandish request. Ashi certainly had no passport and probably, not even a birth certificate. Most likely she had not been off this mountainside since she was four. It would not be an easy thing to take her to another country.
“It will be very hard. You don’t have the papers you need to travel.”
“It okay. I can go.”
Ty sighed, sensing her determination.
“Okay, I’ll tell my father,” Ty repeated.
****
The team assembled in the dining room as the last rays of sunlight beamed through the windows. They spoke in quiet tones and seemed dejected as one after another, they concurred that nothing of interest could be unearthed at the strange, dzong-like aerie. Rishi slouched back in his chair and Vincent had to chide him when he absentmindedly attempted to put his feet up on a table. Therese slumped forward, supporting her chin in her hand, staring, with an uncaring look on her face.
Preston announced that the libraries were fascinating receptacles of ancient wisdom and he wished he had time to look at each scroll and book.
Cheryl shot him a disgusted look but remained silent.
“It would be nice, Preston, but our time is running out,” Vincent said. He ran his hand through his hair, exasperated. “We have very few days left on our visa.”
Decki looked concerned. “You must leave when the visa expires.”
“Yes, I know,” Vincent sighed.
Ashi entered, sat next to Vincent and spoke quietly to him.
“Ashi arranged for Oliver's body to be taken to Trashigang. Her people will transport it today,” Vincent announced. “All the more reason to leave very soon. I have to contact Oliver's family. Anybody close to him? Anybody know about his family?”
Therese opened her mouth to speak but Preston's voice rang out. “I know his parents quite well. Interesting couple. College professors. Good people. They are very...very...well, Oliver is, was, an only child. His parents will take the news hard.” His voice cracked with emotion and every eye turned to look at him.
Ty realized with incredulity that he had never heard an iota of emotion from Preston before. Therese clamped her hand over her mouth in an attempt to suppress her own emotions.
“He was brave in the clearing,” Preston added.
After a moment of silence, Vincent announced, “Well, then, if we're all agreed, I'd like to give the search one more day and then return to civilization.” He turned, realizing Ashi was still sitting next to him. “Sorry, Ashi. I meant our civilization.”
She smiled amiably at him.
“One more thing, Dad. Ashi wants to go home with us.”
There was a chorus of “whats” from the team. Preston's face wrinkled with disgust. Rishi leaned forward, enraged. The others merely looked dumbfounded.
Ashi was still smiling as Vincent shook his head, trying to comprehend what Ty just said.
“I don't get it. She wants to go with us?” Vincent asked.
“She says it is time for her to leave.”
“But we're not even going home. I decided I want to see Garrett again. I have to know if he deliberately gave us misinformation--information that got one of us killed,” he added angrily.
Ty turned to Ashi. “Did you understand? We will be going to the United Kingdom next.”
She nodded.
“The logistics...it seems they'd be insurmountable. I'm sure she doesn't have a passport. I wonder if she even has any papers that would allow her to leave and re-enter the country,” Vincent said.
“No way. This cannot happen,” Preston said.
“I agree with Preston,” Rishi nearly yelled. “Who does she think she is? So she's queen of the cow pasture. She thinks she can just order us to take her to another country?”
“Why are you getting so mad, Rishi? She's just a girl and doesn't even know what a trip like that would entail,” Cheryl said.
Vincent contemplated Ashi's smiling face. “I owe you one, Ashi. I'll have to think about it.”
****
The next morning the group was finishing breakfast in the huge dining room when Ashi found Ty and pulled him up by the hand. “You come.” She was dressed in beautifully embroidered robes, accompanied by several lamas. He quickly slung a camera over his shoulder and followed.
As they walked down a long stone-lined hallway she said, “No English here. When you not like it you leave.”
Ty understood that she didn’t want him to be bored. When they reached a large hall Ashi went directly to the throne-like chair at one end and sat cross-legged on it, with the lamas arranging her robes. She smiled like a child getting caught being naughty and indicated to Ty he should sit on a chair next to her. The throne was made of massive carved and ornately-painted columns. There was a huge red, tasseled and gold-embroidered cushion for Ashi to sit on. Although there were no paintings of deities like in other dzongs there were enormous maroon and yellow hangings around the columns that were painted with what looked liked the Bhutanese language. Ty guessed they were quotes from their sacred writings. There was no light in the hall except for the hundreds and hundreds of yak butter lamps giving off dim, yellow glows. There were many lamps burning incense and the hall was filled with the pungent smell.
For the next two hours the lamas brought different people forward, presumably people who lived in the dzong. It seemed as if they were petitioning Ashi for help. Ashi would ask some to sit on the steps at her feet. She would indicate to others to approach her and she would lay her hands on their bowed heads. She talked to others in a kindly way and even got up and hugged several of them.
Ty stayed, taking pictures, and by the end of the morning, watching all the people who venerated Ashi, he also felt reverent toward her. When they sat down to lunch he was quiet, almost shy. She sensed his awe and chattered and laughed. Soon he felt comfortable with her again.
“I leave with you. All the people be sad.”
“Are you sure they'll be sad?” Ty teased.
She laughed loudly.
“And, are you sure you are leaving with us?”
“Oh, Ty, I very sure. I see it.” Ashi pointed to her temple.
“I can daydream too.”
“Daydream?”
“You know, think up pictures in my head that are not real,” Ty explained.
“You will see, Tyler Ty.”
“Maybe you are a prisoner here, someone who can't leave. Maybe that's why you think you are leaving with us.” Ty's eyes crinkled as he gave her a smug grin.
“I can leave,” Ashi insisted. “Come, I show you.”
She led him through the heavy wooden doors that brought them outside the dzong's walls. At first glance the dzong seemed to be built onto the side of a cliff, inaccessible except for the massive main gates. However, there was a small area of terraced farmland behind the dzong, before the cliff continued upward. They strolled through an uncultivated field, seeing farmers in the distance, bent over in the green areas. Ashi stopped and sat on a gray slab of rock.
Ty sat on the grass in front of the rock. “It's very nice here. Very peaceful.”
Ashi nodded. “I like to come here.”
She turned her face to the sun and closed her eyes, her shiny black hair falling back from her face. Ty took a picture.
“But that rock looks like a gravestone. You could be sitting on somebody right now,” he said with a smile, thinking he could scare her. He continued to take pictures.
“No, nobody here. Someone dies and we do Bhutan tradition.”
Ty shivered as he thought about how in that area of the world, a dead body was laid out in a high place for the vultures to pick apart until the bones were clean.
“You don't like Bhutan tradition,” Ashi said.
Ty felt he could say anything to her without her taking offense. “I think it is...” He made a disgusted face.
“You put dead people in ground.” Ashi imitated his disgusted face. “What is different? Vulture or worm?”
Ty laughed. “You have a good point there.”
Ashi's face turned serious. “I go with you tomorrow.”
“You are not afraid?” Ty asked, daring to believe that what she was insisting was going to take place.
“No, not afraid.”
“Then you'll have a good time. We'll have fun together.”
“Yes, fun.”
When Ashi stood to return to the dzong, Ty got a good look at the slab she was sitting on. “Is this where they put dead bodies for the vultures?”
“No, it is way up.” Ashi appeared puzzled as she gestured to the top of the mountain.
“It's just that I see...” Ty did not know how to explain to her. “These holes in the rock. They look like something.” Maybe it was a trick of his imagination and it was only a natural rock formation. He pointed.
“Yes, I see,” Ashi said.
As he stared at it, trying to discern the picture in the formation, he began to laugh. “I am seeing things.”
As they walked back Ty attempted to explain what they were seeking. “A man or maybe a group of men came here a very long time ago and maybe they left something very important. We are looking for that important thing.”
“You know what important thing is?” Ashi asked, her face a portrait of concentration.
“No, some sort of treasure. My father has been looking for this treasure all his life. Oh, treasure...it means, something precious, something...”
“Oh, Ty, I know word, treasure.” She smiled. “You are not first person to look for treasure here,” she added cryptically.