Lhakpa laughed. “She is the human one, though I warn her often that she gets dangerously close to transmigration these days.”

“As when she flies kites over bulldozers.”

Jaya cocked her head at him. “It was you who followed me on the ridge that day.”

“I thought it silly when she first suggested it,” Lhakpa said. “But it makes them hesitate when they find prayers mysteriously draped over equipment. I especially like the night flights. The director came out of his quarters one morning and prayer flags were all over the trees by his door. He was furious, cursed his security team for allowing it, but they said they were certain no one came close in the night. So they installed security cameras. They were even more disturbed when it happened again, and the cameras proved no one had set foot in his compound. Tibetan ghosts!”

Shan chewed on Lhakpa’s words. Was the snow monk revealing that they had helpers secretly working in the valley below? “They have a drone now,” Shan warned. “One of those used by the army for battlefield reconnaissance. You won’t be able to hide in the outcroppings when they watch from above.”

Lhakpa cast a worried glance toward the sky, no doubt realizing that their camp would be conspicuous from the sky.

“Maybe the gods would send an eagle,” Jaya suggested. “Eagles don’t like drones.”

“You have a relative who’s an eagle perhaps?” Shan asked. “I’ve always wondered, is that a lower- or a higher-level reincarnation?”

Jaya gave him a dangerous smile, then began moving the blankets under the lean-to of black cloth, which would look like just another shadow from above.

“You’re not really a snow monk,” Shan said to Lhakpa.

Lhakpa shrugged. “I think I have the heart of a snow monk, and I was looking forward to a few months wandering the remote peaks. But I was needed for the valley.”

“For the valley or for its cavern?” Shan asked. “I saw heavily loaded yaks coming out of the mountains when I was climbing up.”

As Lhakpa motioned Shan toward the lean-to, Jaya uttered an angry protest and stubbornly planted herself, arms akimbo, in front of it. “Uncle, no! We don’t know him well enough.”

Lhakpa raised a palm to quiet her. “If he meant to do us harm, he would not have come as a pilgrim. He stopped to pray at each of the cairns. He had no idea anyone was watching, niece.”