"A good hiding place," decided Chandra, "if the monkeys have been using it as their home."
"Then we can lie low here," Biff said, "until after the thugs have gone."
They were entering through a fancifully tiled archway as Biff spoke. Chandra extended a restraining hand as Biff turned toward an inner corner, where a battered stone railing marked a stairway leading to a floor below.
"Be careful where you lie low," warned Chandra. "These old places are alive with deadly cobras."
"But how can the monkeys live with the snakes?"
"They don't. Monkeys stay up there"—Chandra pointed to a balcony where tiny faces and quick little eyes were peering through what was left of a once ornamental railing—"and the cobras live in the pits below."
Biff saw that the stairway was blocked by broken chunks from the floor, but he eased away on the chance that a poisonous snake might be lurking in the rubble. Kamuka, meanwhile, had crossed the floor to a small domed platform that was reached by steps leading up from three sides. Kamuka called:
"Biff," he called. "Come look! See who is here!"
Biff joined Kamuka and stared up at the most hideous idol he had ever seen. It was carved from a dark wood and had white, glaring eyes formed of tiny pearls with a jet-black stone in the center. Larger pearls formed the teeth of an open mouth, from which a carved, red-painted tongue extended.
The ferocious image had four arms extended from its body. One hand held an actual knife with jeweled handle and long curved blade, as though ready for a downward stroke. Another hand was raised in a warning gesture. The third dangled a carved human head. The fourth hand was thrust slightly forward and was cupped, but empty.