Ash Mistry and the City of Death. Sarwat Chadda

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СКАЧАТЬ tired. Never get ill, not even a cold. There was a super-flu going around a month ago and half the school was off.”

      “I heard about that,” said Parvati. “Made the news back in India.”

      Ash slapped his chest. “Not even a sniffle.” He sat down and picked up an apple.

      “It will fade, over time,” said Parvati. “You’ll return to being… more human. But never quite all the way.”

      “It’s kinda cool being a superhero.”

      Parvati arched her eyebrow. “Just don’t start wearing your underpants outside your trousers. It’s not a good look for you.”

      “Thanks for the fashion tip.”

      “So you’re managing?” She toyed with her sunglasses. “Restraining yourself? Not letting people see exactly who you are? What you are, I should say.”

      “Is that why you’re here? To make sure I haven’t fallen to the Dark Side of the Force?”

      “Probably too late for that.” Parvati laughed, and Ash’s heart quickened. He’d forgotten how her laughter was like the chiming of silver bells. “But no, that’s not why I’m here. I need your help.” She looked towards Elaine. “My friend had best explain.”

      Elaine rummaged around in her pocket and put a postcard on the table. The card was a cheap one that you could get in any tourist shop in London. It showed two bejewelled crowns, a sceptre and a golden orb, each one sitting regally on a red cushion.

      “The Crown Jewels?” said Ash. He’d visited the Tower of London loads of times on school trips. Every school kid in Britain recognised them.

      “You’ve heard of the Koh-i-noor?” asked Parvati.

      “Of course I have.” He looked at the humongous diamond sparkling in the centre of one of the crowns. “The Mountain of Light.”

      “Stolen by the British in the mid-nineteenth century from the maharajah of Lahore,” Parvati said. “It was given to Queen Victoria. The original stone was much bigger than what it is now. The British cut it in half and put the largest piece in here.” She tapped the central image. “The Queen Mother’s Crown.”

      “Not any more,” said Elaine. “It was stolen five days ago.”

      “Impossible. It would have been in the news,” said Ash.

      Elaine shook her head. “No. This sort of news is kept very quiet. Why would the government want to admit a national heirloom has been stolen? You can count on the prime minister’s office to cover this sort of thing up to avoid a scandal.”

      Ash sat down. “Why was it nicked? To sell it?”

      “It is up for sale, that’s for certain,” said Elaine. “It’s the buyer we’re interested in.”

      “It is an aastra, Ash,” Parvati replied.

      “Ah,” said Ash.

      An aastra was anything made by a god – usually weapons. Ash had found one, a golden arrowhead, in an underground chamber in Varanasi, where a splinter of the aastra had entered his thumb. That minute piece of god-forged metal was the source of all his power and all the trouble that had followed: the death of his uncle and aunt, Lucky’s kidnapping and his own demise and return.

      “Will it work? The British cut it in half, didn’t they?” he asked.

      “You only have a fraction of the Kali-aastra, far less than a half, and it’s served you well,” replied Parvati.

      She had a point. Ash peered at his thumb, at the scar marking where the splinter had entered. The sliver of metal was long gone, bound to every atom of his body.

      “Whose aastra is it?” he asked. Each aastra was different, depending on which god had forged it. The aastra of Agni, the fire god, gained power from heat and fire. Could the Koh-i-noor be another Kali-aastra like his? That didn’t bear thinking about.

      Elaine looked down at her boots as she lit another cigarette and gave a slight shrug. “That we don’t know.”

      Ash frowned. “Parvati? Any idea?”

      “No,” she declared. “The Koh-i-noor is exceedingly ancient, but I’ve never known anyone to successfully awaken it.”

      “Awakened or not, we can’t risk letting it fall into the wrong hands,” said Elaine.

      “And by the wrong hands, you mean Savage, don’t you?”

      Elaine nodded. “Savage has been a thorn in our side for a few hundred years.”

      “What do you mean, ‘our side’?”

      Elaine smiled. “I represent certain… interested parties. It’s our job to know what’s going on.”

      Ash leaned back in his chair. The Koh-i-noor was perhaps the most famous diamond in the world, and the most cursed. Every Indian knew the story of how it had been passed down through the ages, how many of its owners had come to hideous deaths.

      “How did it get nicked?” asked Ash. The security around the Crown Jewels would be intense.

      “Swapped, somehow, while the jewels were being given their monthly polish.” Parvati inspected the fruit bowl and picked out an apple. Ash couldn’t help but notice how her canines, slightly longer than normal, sank into the flesh and two thin beads of juice ran off the punctures. “The jeweller turned round for a moment, and when he turned back, the Koh-i-noor was gone and a piece of glass was there instead.”

      “No one else came in, was hiding behind the cupboard? Under the sink?”

      “No.”

      “So we’re not talking about a normal thief, are we?” said Ash. The stakes were getting higher every passing second.

      “No, we’re not.”

      “Any ideas who?”

      “Name of Monty. He specialises in stealing such esoteric items. Word has got around that he’s putting it on the market.”

      “We going to make him an offer?” said Ash.

      Parvati smiled. It wasn’t nice. “One he can’t refuse.”

      Elaine picked up the card and tucked it away. “I’ve got feelers out and should have his address any time now.”

      Parvati spoke. “Such artefacts don’t turn up every day. Savage will be after it.”

      “You think he might know how to use it?” asked Ash. Aastras were the Englishman’s speciality. He’d spent years searching for the Kali-aastra before Ash found it accidentally, so it made sense that he’d be looking for others too.

      “I really don’t want to give him the opportunity. This is our chance to end this once and for all.”

      A tremor of excitement ran through СКАЧАТЬ