The Golden Apple of Shangri-La Read Online Free Page B

a thick-set man with blood-soaked trousers and a worried look on his face.
    "Calm yourself, I’m here," said Von Karloff. "And good news; you have one less passenger to worry about."
    *   *   *
    Von Karloff submitted himself to their control and Rowena had him and his remaining thug securely tied with ropes while Reed relieved him of the Golden Apple of Shangri-La. It truly was beautiful to behold, reflecting the dulling sunshine and gathering clouds above them. But with each step back towards the village centre the winter seemed to relinquish its tightening grip on the valley, the wind grew warmer, the dying flowers began to bloom again.
    Reverently, Reed held the apple in both hands and walked towards the open door of the temple. He emerged from the shadowy depths a moment later, bathed in sunshine, a small yellow bird fluttering about his head. "It is done."
    Kella took his hands as he approached and searched his eyes with her own. "Stay," she murmured. "At least for a while. Let me thank you, and leave something of yourself to behold. Your daughters would be something to behold."
    Reed smiled sadly. "Would that I could. England needs me."
    Rowena suppressed a smile of her own, at the thought of Dr John Reed siring children with Kella or any other woman. They said that men wanted to be him and women wanted to be possessed by him, but that was just another lie. Kella turned to Rowena. "Shangri-La could use a woman of your bravery."
    Rowena shook her head. "It is paradise here, but it is not my home. It may not be perfect out there, but it could be."
    Kella took her hands. "I was not born in Shangri-La, and though it is many of your lifetimes since I came here, I can imagine the outside has not changed much. Men fancy they rule the world, but only because women let them think that."
    "It is changing, slowly. Why not come to see it? I would gamble that the world would change quicker, and for the better, with you in it."
    Kella smiled sadly. "Shangri-La is my life now. I have a job to do. Good luck with changing your world, Rowena Fanshawe, and remember this: Women who try to succeed in a man’s world often make the mistake of trying to be more like men. This is wrong. You must be more like a woman , for there is where your power lies."
    *   *   *
    With Von Karloff and his injured henchman bound in the hold, and Rowena, Reed, Professor Halifax and Jamyang in the cramped cockpit, the Skylady lifted free from its moorings in the village and turned to the south-west, where the mountainous wall was at its lowest. Rowena leaned from the cockpit to watch Kella waving, until she became a dot obscured by a sudden flurry of snow that caused the ’stat to lurch alarmingly. They scraped over the mountains and began to descend towards the distant warmer air.
    Reed remained stubbornly quiet all the way to Shanghai, where he declared he had business. Jamyang said he was of a mind to explore also, and Professor Halifax was happy to return to where Von Karloff had kidnapped him. To Rowena’s amazement, when they landed at Pudong Airship Ground, Reed turned the Prussian and his sole remaining thug loose.
    â€œI thought you would be taking them back to London to answer for their crimes,” she said later, over a rum in the noisy Brethren Union Hall near the aerodrome.
    Reed stared morosely into his chipped glass, picking at a plate of fried grasshoppers on the bar. “And what would be the point? You heard what Von Karloff said. He was in the employ of Walsingham the whole time. I have been made a fool.”
    She laid a hand on his arm. “That’s not true.”
    He shrugged her off. “I’m afraid it is, Rowena. I have been given the appellation the Hero of the Empire, Britannia’s champion, the great adventurer. I have circumnavigated the globe in Queen Victoria’s name, crossed swords with villains such as Von Karloff in forsaken foreign fields. But we are all