The Mountain Shadow

He hugged me close to him, whispering into my ear for the sake of his men, but speaking to her.

‘My commiserations, on the loss of your husband. You must leave this place, now. There will be war tonight.’

He pulled away, but I held his arm.

‘You knew about this, and you didn’t warn us?’

‘You are warned now, Lin, and you should take that as a blessing. You must leave. My men are nervous. Let’s not have any accidents.’

‘Allah hafiz, Khaled,’ Karla said, dragging me away.

‘Tell Abdullah . . . tell him we’re here, on the mountain, if he needs us,’ I said.

‘I’ll tell him, but I can only speak to him when the fighting begins,’ Khaled answered sadly. ‘Peace be with you both tonight.’

He waved, because we were at the end of the path, and it was too far away for him to speak his mind. We waved back, and we jogged to the start of the long climb up the mountain.

I stopped her. It was dark, but reflections glittered in her eyes.

‘Can I tell you something?’

‘Again?’ She laughed.

‘It might get bad tonight,’ I said. ‘If you want to get far away, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.’

‘Let’s go warn Idriss first,’ she smiled, starting on the path.

I chased her all the way up the slope, and we were puffing hard when we rushed onto the mesa, bright with students, talking late by the fire.

We found Silvano, and pushed him to a meeting with Idriss, in the big cave.

‘Killers,’ Idriss said, when the story told itself.

‘And pretty good at it,’ I said. ‘We’ve gotta get away from here, Idriss. At least for tonight.’

‘Of course. We must take the students to safety. I’ll give the instruction at once.’

‘I will stay and protect this place,’ Silvano said.

‘You must not,’ Idriss said. ‘You must come with us.’

‘I must disobey,’ Silvano replied.

‘You must come with us,’ Idriss repeated.

‘It’s just good sense, Silvano,’ I agreed. ‘If someone from down there tries to escape up here, and others start chasing him, nobody will be safe.’

‘I must stay, master-ji,’ Silvano said. ‘And you must go.’

‘It is possible to be too brave, Silvano,’ Idriss said. ‘Just as it is possible to be too loyal.’

‘All of your writings are here, master-ji,’ Silvano said. ‘More than fifty boxes of them, most of them unpacked for study. We cannot gather them together in the time we have. I will stay, and guard your work.’

I admired his dedication, but it seemed like too big a risk, to me: too high a price for the written word. Then Karla spoke.

‘We’ll stay with you, Silvano,’ she said.

‘Karla,’ I began, but she smiled true love at me, and, well, what can you do?

‘Looks like you’ve got company, Silvano,’ I sighed.

‘It is settled, then,’ Idriss said. ‘Come with me, now, and gather the students together with their valuables, as quickly as possible. We will walk the slow path to the Kali temple, where the highway begins. Send a message to us there, when all is quiet again in our sanctuary.’

‘Idriss,’ I said. ‘I feel bad that this has found its way up here. I’m sorry.’

‘Taking responsibility for the decisions and actions of others is a sin against Karma,’ Idriss said. ‘Equal, in gravity, to avoiding responsibility for your own decisions and actions. You did not cause this. It is not your karmic burden. Be safe tonight. You are blessed, all of you.’

He placed his hand on our heads, one by one, chanting mantras of protection.

The students tipped their personal belongings into shawls, tied them into bundles, and assembled at the entrance to the slow path downhill, the torches and lanterns in their hands whirling like fireflies.

Idriss joined them, turning to wave to us, and led the way, the long staff in his right hand.

Another student, named Vijay, had decided to stay with us. He was thin, tall, and dressed in white pyjama-style cotton shirt and pants. He was barefoot, and carrying a bamboo pole that reached to his shoulder.

His young face was expressionless, as he watched his teacher depart. He turned his fine features on me, eyes lit with India.

‘Are you fine?’ he asked.

I looked at his bamboo stick, remembering the men I’d fought in the last year, from Scorpions to Concannon, and thinking that it might be a good idea to tie a knife to the end of that stick.

‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a spare knife, if you want to tie it to that stick.’

He stood back, began to whirl the stick around, jumped while he whirled, and brought the stick down a toe away from my boot.

‘Or . . . maybe not,’ I said.

‘Shall we split up, and take different vantage points?’ Silvano asked.

‘No!’ Karla and I said, together.

‘Anyone who comes up here, comes onto our ground,’ I said. ‘We find a position with cover, with an escape route, where we can see the top of the climbing path. If anyone comes into the open space, we can scare them away with gunfire, and noise.’

‘And if it becomes a fight?’

‘We kill them,’ Karla said, ‘before they kill us. You’re a dead shot, Silvano, and I’m not bad. We’re okay.’