Kingdom of the Golden Dragon Read Free

he could paralyze it; he sat motionless, however, trying to breathe calmly so the beast would not pick up the scent of fear. The huge feline slowly advanced toward the monks. Despite the imminent danger in which he found himself, theprince could not help but admire the animal’s extraordinary beauty. Its fur was a pale ivory with dark markings, and its blue eyes were the color of some of the glaciers in the Himalayas. It was an adult male, enormous, powerful, a perfect specimen.
    Sitting in the lotus position with legs crossed and hands upon their knees, Tensing and Dil Bahadur watched the tiger move toward them. They both knew that if it was hungry, there was little possibility of stopping it. Their hope was that the animal had eaten, although it was not very likely that game was abundant in these barren solitudes. Tensing possessed uncommon psychic powers because he was a tulku , the reincarnation of a High Lama of antiquity. He concentrated that power like a beam to penetrate the beast’s mind.
    They felt the breath of the great cat on their faces, an exhalation of warm, fetid air escaping from its jaws. Another terrible roar shook the air. The beast approached to within a few inches of the two, so close that they could feel the prick of its stiff whiskers. For several seconds, which seemed eternal, it circled around them, sniffing them and feinting with one enormous paw, but not menacing them. The master and his disciple sat absolutely motionless, leaving themselves open to warmth and compassion, displaying no fear or aggression, only empathy. Once the tiger’s curiosity had been satisfied, it left with the same solemn dignity with which it had come.
    “You see, Dil Bahadur, how sometimes calm is effective,” was the lama’s only comment. The prince was unable to answer because his voice had frozen in his breast.
    Despite that unexpected visit, master and student decided to stay and spend the night in Chenthan Dzong, but they took the precaution of sleeping near a bonfire, and of keeping within reach a couple of lances they found among theweapons abandoned by the Tao-shu monks. The tiger did not return, but the next morning, when they continued their march, they saw its paw marks on the gleaming snow, and far away they heard its roars echoing among the peaks.

CHAPTER TWO
    The Valley of the Yetis
    A FEW DAYS LATER , T ENSING shouted jubilantly and pointed to a narrow canyon between two vertical faces of the mountain: two black walls polished by millions of years of ice and erosion. They entered the canyon with great caution, scrambling over loose rocks and avoiding deep holes. With each step they had to test the firmness of the terrain with their poles.
    Tensing threw a stone into one of the openings, and it was so deep that they never heard it hit bottom. Overhead, the sky was barely visible as a blue ribbon stretching between gleaming walls of rock. They were surprised to hear a chorus of horrifying moans.
    “It is fortunate, is it not, that we do not believe in ghosts or demons,” commented the lama.
    “Then maybe it is my imagination that is making me hear those wails?” the prince asked, his skin prickling with fright.
    “Possibly the wind is blowing through here like air blowing through a trumpet.”
    They had progressed a good way when they were assaulted by the stench of rotten eggs.
    “Sulfur,” the master explained.
    “I can’t breathe,” said Dil Bahadur, pinching his nostrils.
    “Perhaps it is best to imagine you are smelling the perfume of flowers,” Tensing suggested.
    “‘Of all fragrances,’” the prince recited, smiling, “‘the sweetest is that of virtue.’”
    “Imagine, then, that this is the sweet scent of virtue,” the lama replied, laughing.
    The pass was approximately a mile in length, but it took them two hours to travel that distance. In some places the passage was so narrow that they had to scoot sideways between the rocks, dizzied by the thin air, but they did not