Path of the Tiger, стр. 10
Finally, they came to the edge of what appeared to be a deep rift in the earth; the ground dropped abruptly and unexpectedly away here, with sheer rocky cliffs plunging at least a mile, possibly even a mile and a half down to the distant valley floor below, which was dense with huge trees and lush vegetation. Owing to the sudden lack of a tightly woven forest canopy above them, sunlight illuminated this space and brought an abrupt end to the false night through which they had just trekked, and once again the open, cloudless sky was visible in a rich hue of azure. At the far end of the ravine, opposite the men, perhaps two miles distant in a straight line, a tall waterfall churned its narrow but voluminous stream of white water over a sharp cliff face, and its dull roar echoed like rumbling thunder. Other, smaller waterfalls also poured their issue into the valley from all sides, while flocks of birds swooped and soared in asymmetrical flight patterns through the air of this surreal place, some of them seeming as proportionately gigantic as the trees. An eagle of some sort – by far the largest bird of prey any of these men had ever seen – let out a piercing cry as it circled in a majestic gyre high above the tops of the trees but below the soldiers, who stared in wonder at the unusual spectacle of beholding from above an eagle in flight. One soldier raised his rifle to his shoulder, lining the bird up in his sights, his finger eager on the trigger, but Higgins quickly stepped over and pushed the firearm down.
‘You can shoot as many of them as you wish after we have captured the creature,’ he said sternly, ‘but for now, stealth is our most potent ally.’ He then turned to the rest of the troops. ‘Ropes out!’ he ordered. ‘We rappel down into the beast’s lair … we are almost there, gentlemen, we are almost there!’
As the men uncoiled their ropes and sought out suitable anchor points, Higgins marched over to the prisoner.
‘Tie her up,’ he said to the man guarding her. ‘We’re not taking any chances at all with this thing now. We’ll lower her down into the valley like a sack of grain.’ Without waiting for a response from either the soldier or the prisoner, Higgins strode briskly back to the edge of the cliff. ‘We stand on the brink of our destiny, Vasilevsky,’ he said to his compatriot, with a subtle smile of triumph brightening his craggy features. ‘We are on the very cusp of success, a mere step away from winning one of the greatest Huntsmen victories against the beastwalkers in all of recorded history.’
‘Don’t celebrate yet, Englishman, don’t celebrate just yet,’ Vasilevsky muttered. ‘We still have to take the creature alive – or kill it if we can’t … and that will be no easy task, even with the firepower we have at hand.’
Higgins clapped his hand on Vasilevsky’s shoulder and gave this muscular protuberance a cheerful, reassuring squeeze.
‘We have science and technology on our side, and the most wondrously advanced weaponry in all of human history, my good man. I am quite confident that success will be ours, yes, quite confident indeed.’
Rappelling down the sheer cliffs took the best part of an hour, and the sun was high in the rich blue sky by the time everyone had made it safely to the valley floor, including the scientists and the prisoner, who had all been lowered down like baggage. The men noticed that the vegetation here was a little different; there seemed to be a greater range of species of trees and plants populating this valley than were to be seen elsewhere across the vast Siberian taiga. Indeed, it was as if this ravine had its own microclimate. The air was humid, owing to the mist generated by the thundering waterfall, the droning roar of which boomed with muted ceaselessness through the valley, providing a deep baritone rumble, over which the trills and whistles of thousands of birds soared. Insects too shrieked and buzzed and screeched in their millions here, the sound waves woven together like an array of multicoloured thread, creating a rich aural tapestry that spanned the entirety of the valley.
Higgins and Vasilevsky led the men into the forest, using their sabres to hack a path through the dense foliage. A steady backdrop to the near-deafening symphony of bird and insect song, the constant thrum of some sort of incomprehensibly immense energy source was at its most potent here, and even the steel blades of the officers’ swords seemed to be vibrating with it now. A buzzing of collective unease rippled through the ranks as the realisation of just how vastly powerful a being they were approaching began to dawn on them.
‘Steady, gentlemen, steady,’ Higgins said, sensing the mood of apprehension. ‘We carry the mighty torch of technology with us; its bright, blazing light will burn away all of this primordial darkness and crude superstition, and the denizens of shadow will shrink in helpless terror and confusion before its unrelenting illumination! Do not fear them, men, do not fear what lies ahead! We are the standard-bearers of civilisation itself, and we will not fail!’
They crossed a knee-deep stream that spanned a mere five or six yards across. The icy, gurgling water was as clear as the finest crystalware, and was filled with darting fish that zipped and drifted alternately in shimmering, silvery schools, their sides flashing in dazzling flares as they turned and spun in haphazard patterns.
After crossing the stream, the men trekked uphill for a while, and then headed down a slope, the gradient of which grew increasingly steep. Here a cool mist thickened steadily between the trees, its density