The Amber Trail (21 page)

“
Badami
sir.”

Dig glanced down at Jules. She
lay back against the seat with her eyes closed, mouth slightly ajar
and head resting against his shoulder. A small smattering of
freckles covered her nose.

He bumped her with an elbow and
she stirred, then opened her eyes and stretched. “We’re
here?”

Dig nodded.

Jules turned to the driver. “Is
this a hotel?”

“
Yes. Badami
Hotel.”

Jules paid him, and they climbed
stiffly out of the rickshaw.

As they entered their room, Jules
dropped her bag to the bed and headed for the shower. Dig rubbed at
his eyes and walked out to a balcony.

The hotel sat on the edge of a
wide lake framed by cliffs on both sides. A full moon reflected in
the water’s mirrored surface. At the far side of the lake the
outline of a temple bordered the shore, and below him water lapped
against a stepped sandstone ghat. The air was warm and still, and
Dig took a long breath in through his nose.

After a while, Dig glanced back
inside to see Jules rummaging through her bag. Her hair was wet,
and she was wrapped only in a towel. She looked up and caught Dig’s
gaze, then raised an eyebrow. “You want a shower?”

“
Oh, yeah...I do.” He
found a towel and a bar of soap, and headed into the bathroom. The
hot water drummed into his head. It was a relief to be able to
scrub away the grime of the last two days.

When he returned to the room
Jules
was sitting
on the balcony. She
leaned back and the smoke from her cigarette wafted up around
her.

“
Great view
huh?”

Jules nodded, then took another
drag on her cigarette. The smoke smelled sweet and musky. Dig sat
beside her and leaned back with his feet on the balcony
railing.

“
When do we get my
brother?” Jules said.

Dig fiddled with the seam of his
shirt. “Tomorrow,” he said, and sighed. “Know any armies for
hire?”

Jules’ expression was
blank.

“
That was a
joke.”

“
Oh.”

Dig shrugged. “Seriously though,
we need to come up with something better than just walking in
there.”

Jules blew out another cloud of
smoke. “Nuclear bomb,” she said, then mimicked the sound of an
explosion. “Boom! Everything gone.” She stared vacantly out over
the balcony.

Dig offered a strained smile, and
glanced at the cigarette in her hand. “You okay?”

Jules rested the cigarette on an
ashtray and pushed herself shakily to her feet. “Toilet.” She
walked back into the room.

Dig nodded, and watched her go.
Her shoulder glanced off the door frame as she passed through, and
she threw her arms out for balance. “Oops.”

Dig studied the cigarette
smouldering in the tray, then leaned over and picked it up gingerly
with thumb and forefinger, and brought it to his nose. It smelled
sweet and musky, yet pungent, and his temples tingled for a moment.
He returned the cigarette to the ashtray, then leaned back with his
hands behind his head, staring blankly out into the
night.

He waited that way until the
cigarette burnt three quarters down its length and extinguished
itself. Dig frowned and looked back toward the bathroom. The door
was open, but Jules was nowhere to be seen.

He found her lying on the bed.
She was on her back, with her head tilted to one side and her eyes
closed, wearing a white singlet top and brown cotton track pants. A
fan revolved slowly above her head and blew her hair against the
pillow. As he approached, he could hear her breathing in a
slow
,
regular pattern.

“
Jules?”

She remained on her back,
unmoved, breathing deeply.

Dig frowned and walked back to
the balcony. He returned to his seat and looked back out at the
view, chewing at his lip.

Eventually the moon faded from
the sky and the sun rose over the top of the cliffs. Dig watched it
climb, unable to sleep. The streets came to life with dogs barking,
motorbikes puttering through the streets and honking horns. His
stomach grumbled.

He shuffled back into the room
and stood beside the bed. Jules was now on her side, and tucked
under the sheets.

“
Jules? You
awake?”

She stirred, rubbed at her eyes
and gave a grunt. “What?”

“
I’m going to grab
some food. You want a coffee or something?”

She sat up in her bed and looked
around the room with puffy eyes and a furrowed brow. “Yeah. Coffee
is good,” she croaked, and tucked her hair behind her ears as she
stepped down to the floor. She walked out to the balcony with one
arm wrapped across her ribs; goose bumps covered her
arms.

Dig watched her go, then after a
moment he followed her out. She stood staring at the view, holding
the remains of last night’s cigarette in a shaky hand. She lifted
it to her lips and took a long drag before exhaling a cloud of
smoke with the same sweet, musky odour from the night before,
then
gave a warped smile.

“
Another day in
paradise!” she giggled,
and
reached for
the balcony railing before dropping heavily into the
seat.

Dig scratched at the back of his
neck. “You brought some gear with you then?”

“
Just a few
leftovers.”  

“
Today? Is that a
good idea?”

“
Don’t see why not.”
She arched an eyebrow. “It’s probably my
last
day, so I may
as well try to smooth it out a bit.”

“
Feels to me like
you’re giving up.”

She glared at him. “Feels to me
like giving up is the best way. We should just walk in there with
our hands up and plead for forgiveness.”

“
No.”

“
Well what’s your
plan?”

Dig’s body tensed and he put a
hand to his hip. “Well maybe if you actually tried to help me,
instead of spending your time in a drug-induced stupor, I might
have one!”

“
You do it your way.
I’ll do it mine.”

Dig face flushed and he clenched
his teeth. “I’m going for a walk. We’ll leave at lunchtime.” He
paused. “And you should know, when I travelled into Hampi a few
days ago they had roadblocks set up on the street, searching for
drugs. So if you haven’t ditched all your
leftovers
by then
we’ll both end up in jail and your brother will be sent to the
bottom of the river.”

Jules’ brow creased and she
turned away.

Dig left the building and
followed the stepped concrete ghats around the side of the lake.
Women sat on the water’s edge, washing clothes and spreading them
to dry on the concrete.
Dirty
pigs rooted
through trash
. The
chirp of small birds
flitted through the open air above him.

He purchased a bread roll and a
banana at a small bakery. He pocketed the roll and bit into the
banana as he moved down the street.

The street was lined with
shopfronts, and vendors stood in the doorways. A woman from a
souvenir store stepped out with a wooden elephant in her hand,
nodding; a man with a long-haired moustache and turban tried to
entice him into his tailor shop to get measured for a new suit; a
small boy accosted him, determined to place a string bracelet on
his wrist in exchange for money. But Dig refused them all. His mind
churned
. H
e needed space to think. He
looked across to the empty cliffs that hugged the lake, and headed
toward them.

By keeping the cliffs in view, he
managed to navigate his way through a maze of tight alleyways
behind the ghats, and reach the base of the mountain. As the road
ended, a stone archway framed a set of stairs that zigzagged their
way up the side of the hill. Dig began to climb.

The cobbled path snaked through
large boulders, bushes and patches of orange dirt. Dig climbed the
steps in a slow rhythm, his breath in time with his footfalls.
Sweat matted the hairs on his forearms together and ran down his
backbone.

After some time, the stairs
levelled out to reveal the top of the hill. Here, an ancient
rectangular building sat on the cliff edge, constructed from blocks
of weathered red sandstone. A stone spire climbed to the sky at one
end of the building, and a bird with green and blue feathers
preened itself on the peak. A small metal sign at the front of the
temple announced the structure was called the
Malegitti
Shivalaya
temple.

A flat stone courtyard ran out to
the edge of the cliff, ringed by a waist-high wall. The ground
dropped away steeply on the other side, down to the lake
below.

Dig hoisted himself onto the wall
and dangled his legs over the drop. The sandstone was hot on the
back of his thighs. A dry, dusty breeze blew past him and cooled
the sweat on his arms and legs. He looked out at the
view.

To his left, a waterfall cascaded
over the top of the mountain and dropped down into the lake with a
trickling whisper. On the opposite side of the lake, the dark
shadows of caves cut into the red sandstone of the mountain. To the
right, the concrete ghats dammed the lake and formed the edge of
the town. Dig spotted their hotel, and an image of Jules came into
his mind, sitting on the balcony, smoking. He clenched his
teeth.

He took in a deep breath, and
tried to think clearly. By the end of the day he needed to confront
Maxine again, yet if they just walked straight in
to the brewery
they were doomed. He was scared. But
did he have any choice?

Could he just return home and
hope for the best? He thought not. Now he understood the full
workings of the Banyan Brewery, they weren't going to let him
escape. He sighed and
shifted in his
seat
, then reached into his pocket and retrieved the bread
roll. He bit into it with a crunch.

A flapping approached from behind
him, and Dig turned to see the multicoloured bird cruise down from
the top of the temple and land beside him on the wall. It cocked
its head.

Dig tucked the bread roll under
his armpit and waved at the bird. “Shoo,” he said, and the bird
squawked, fell away over the cliff, then circled back around to
perch on top of the temple spire.

Dig bit back into the bread roll,
when from behind his right ear someone spoke.

“
Don’t push it
away.”

Dig flinched, and turned to an
elderly man standing behind him. He had a bushy white beard and
long grey hair that surrounded a wrinkled, weather-beaten face. A
yellow circle of paint
was positioned
between his eyebrows. He wore a white robe and a
length of
yellow fabric draped around his shoulders.
 

He pointed at the wall beside
Dig. “Mind if I sit?”

Dig looked him up and down, then
shook his head. “No,” he said, then after a pause, added: “But I’ll
just let you know upfront that I’m not interested in buying any
type of blessing or statues or tours or photo opportunities or
anything like that.”

The man laughed. “No problem.” He
sat down. “I've nothing to sell.”

Dig dipped his chin. “Sorry. They
were a bit pushy down in the shops.”

“
Understandable.” The
man glanced back at the temple.  

“
This is a beautiful
place,” Dig offered.

“
Shh,” the man
whispered. “Please, be quiet.”

Dig followed the man’s gaze back
toward the temple. “Are you the priest here? In this
temple?”

“
Yes. Now do you want
to see something amazing?”

Dig blinked. “Maybe.”

“
Then sit up
straight. And still. Like me.”

Dig took a glance behind him,
expecting to see a boy hiding somewhere, ready to steal his wallet.
But the courtyard was empty.

“
Now wait, be still,
and listen.”

Dig frowned and scratched at his
arm.

“
Here it comes,” the
man said. “Do you hear it?”

Dig listened. He heard a distant
rustle of the wind in the trees, and nothing else but the echo of
the large, open space before him. “I don’t think so.”

“
It’s
coming.”

Then, Dig did hear something. The
sound of wings pushing through the air.

“
Don’t
move.”

The flapping finished with a
click of talons on stone. Again, the multicoloured bird sat beside
him on the wall.

Dig frowned and tucked his bread
roll back under his armpit.

“
I said don’t
move.”

“
He wants my
breakfast.”

“
He doesn’t eat
bread,” the priest said, his eyes wide. “Can’t you see?”

Dig shrugged. “See
what?”

“
This is a Rainbow
Bee Eater.”

Dig looked between the bird and
the priest. He felt more confused than ever.