Dead Roses for a Blue Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

screamed, jerking his pistol away from Ghilardi's head and firing at his own foot. Multoon whirled about, dropping the lantern, and fired blindly at the shape that had appeared behind him. Gupta fell to the floor, clutching his calf with both hands.
    Ghilardi saw the unmistakable outline of a king cobra, its upper body raised to strike, lined against the canvas wall of the tent. Multoon must have seen it, too, for he cursed and fired again. The cobra silhouette snapped forward like a whip. Multoon screamed even louder than Gupta and then dropped heavily to the ground, clutching his cheek, his florid face already growning black and swollen from the venomous bite.
    Ghilardi remained on the cot, watching his would-be murderers die before his eyes. Still possessed of his eerie calm, he watched as the head of a cobra, its hood flared, rose at the foot of the cot. The deadly serpent swayed like a reed in a gentle breeze as it balanced itself on its tail, fixing Ghilardi with unblinking eyes. Then the outline of the cobra blurred and grew indistinct, to be replaced by the figure of a man.
    Ghilardi recognized the shaved head, black robes and shiny black eyes immediately.
    "Naga? What are you doing here?"
    "I may have fallen from grace, but even a depraved addict would not sell his god for the price of a year's supply of chandu. After you left with the map I drew for you, I could no longer find paradise in the smoke. My pipe dreams were replaced by nightmares. Where once there was peace, all that remained was torment. I cannot rest until I have paid for my transgressions—just as Multoon has now paid for his."
    "Naga—please—you must believe me, I had no idea what Multoon was up to."
    "Indeed," Naga said, the greenish-gray scales covering his naked arms and upper torso glittering like armor. " Your motives, of course, were pure. All you were interested in was stealing a solitary item, not looting an entire temple and then wiping it off the face of the earth as if it was no more than an anthill. Tell me, thief, when you saw your good friend Multoon gouge the eyes from the Holy Monster, did you stay his hand, or did you merely stand and watch?" The priest opened his mouth, revealing a pair of short, sharp fangs, and, hissing like a fakir's basket, lunged at the prone Ghilardi.
    The silver blade of the Demon Knife flashed like a meteor in the dim light, slicing through the serpent-priest's neck. Ghilardi flinched in disgust as a gout of blood, far darker and nowhere near warm enough to be that of a human, splashed across his face.
    As he staggered to his feet, the calm that had kept his mind clear and his hand steady receded. His heart felt like a captive bird battering itself against the bars of its cage.

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) Ghilardi peeked out the hole Multoon's bullet had made in the tent and saw shadowy figures dressed in robes similar to Naga's, flitting in and out of the bearers' tents. Clearly the Black Shrine had another exit beside the one Gupta sealed. Naga's brothers were looking for something they had yet to find, their agitated hissing as loud as that of a steam engine sitting at the station.
    Ghilardi tore open the back of the tent and fled headlong into the night, too frightened to think of anything but escape.

    When Ghilardi awoke all he could see was white. After his eyes focused, he saw that he was staring at a whitewashed wall. He attempted to lift his head and look about, only to have a gentle yet firm hand place itself on his shoulder.
    "Lie still, my son," said a man's voice. "You are safe here."
    As Ghilardi relaxed and dropped back, he realized that the voice had spoken in German.
    "Wo bin ich?" he croaked.
    "You are at the Lutheran Mission of the Lower Himalayas," replied his benefactor, a tall, raw-boned man with a salt-and-pepper beard and piercing blue eyes. "I am Brother Heinrich."
    "How long have I been here?"
    "You have been