Chapter 8

The following new character appears in this and other chapters:

Ratana

Also called Noi, house girl, 5'-0'' tall, 98 pounds, 15 years old, 28A-20-25, long black hair, brown eyes, a thin quiet girl

We found a small open air restaurant not far from our hotel and had a light lunch. During the meal Chanthra insisted that we change clothes before going to Wat Sala Loy.

"Our clothing is wet from sweating and would not be appropriate for a visit to the Wat. It would also be best if we ride our horses there, or we will be as hot and sweaty as we are now when we arrive and would not make a good impression," she insisted. On the way to the hotel, we stopped to purchase garlands, joss sticks (incense sticks), candles, and gold leaf to take with us to the Wat. I alerted the stable hands that we would need our horses shortly for a trip before we went up to the room to change clothes.

"Can you not leave the guns here? It isn't appropriate to take them to the Wat to pray," Chanthra asked when we were nearly finished changing clothes. I would be wearing my sandals as I had been all day today and not my boots.

"Where could I leave them that they would be safe?" I asked not knowing anywhere that they could be left.

"I will ask the Amulets," she replied and tilted her head as if listening to something for a time. Shortly she straightened up and smiled.

"Set all of our things on the bed, but make sure that you have some money with you. The Amulets will watch the backpack and all of our other things," she told me still smiling. I set the backpack on the bed along with our other things and removed some coins to carry with me. We had no more than finished and stepped back from the bed when everything on it vanished. My backpack, boots, uniforms, and all of Chanthra's clothing simply disappeared. I stood there for a number of seconds in shock before turning back to Chanthra. She still had a large smile on her face.

"The Amulets said that they would watch our things, but they didn't say that it would be here," she told me.

"But ... but... !!" I stammered, still in shock.

"The Amulets can do many things that men cannot," she told me with an amused smile. "They will return our things when we return for the evening," she finished.

"I hope you know what they are doing. All of our things except what we are wearing have disappeared," I reminded her in a worried voice.

"Yes, my love, all will be well," she assured me before we left the now empty room taking the garlands and other things with us for our visit to the Wat.

Our horses were waiting for us out front when we reached the street. After helping her mount her horse and then mounting mine, Chanthra led the way through the city to the Pratu Phon San, or the North Gate of the city. On exiting Korat, we moved east and passed Rop Maeang Road. We continued east from the road for about 500 meters before coming to a path leading to Wat Sala Loy.

"It is nearly the same as it was when I was growing up," she told me as we approached the Wat. I could see that it was surrounded by a masonry wall which had been white washed. There was an area outside of this wall where we could leave our horses.

On passing through the entry gate, I could see that the main hall, the Ubosot, was quite fancy and sat on a terrace and had a three tier roof. There was a roofed portico that led to the main entrance doors, and on each of the exterior sides of the building there was a small open-roofed side chapel that held various Buddha images and other statues. Both the portico and the two small chapels were much shorter than the tall Ubosot. All were of masonry construction and painted white with gold colored trim. The remaining structures in the Wat were mainly built of wood, and some were even painted in various colors. The exception to this was the bell shaped Chedi which was built of stucco over brick. It was about thirty feet in diameter and about fifty feet to the top of its spire. It was painted a bright yellow color resembling gold.

We moved directly to the Chedi bypassing the other buildings in the Wat. Chanthra stopped some five feet from it, then bowed and waied before approaching the structure more closely. She placed our garlands in the area where others had left theirs previously. Next she held up the joss sticks for me to light with my lighter and when they were burning well she placed them in the sand-filled brass urn provided for them. I also lit the small candles for her, which she placed in a candelabrum shaped like the royal barge. It was long and slender with a tall dragon's head and tail. It too was made of cast brass and would hold a dozen of the small candles.

Following this, she selected a spot on the Chedi not covered by gold leaf and applied our two squares of it to the Chedi. Having accomplished all of this, she moved back from the structure and went to her knees where she assumed a position to pray with her hands raised as to wai. She remained in that position for quite some time praying. I had followed and copied her movements as well as one not knowledgeable of the intricacies of the Buddhist religion was able to. It was very difficult for me to remain in the prayer position as she did for the twenty minutes or so before she leaned forward and touched her forehead to the ground in a bow before rising to her feet. I was more than a few seconds getting to mine from the kneeling position.

"Thao Suranaree was a very pious woman," Chanthra told me as we moved back away from the Chedi. "Though she was not consecrated to the Amulets, still it is rumored that they helped her defeat their Lao captors and return many of those abducted to Korat.

"Later that year after the fighting had moved away from Korat and the Lao were in retreat, she and her husband, the Deputy Governor, started the construction of this Wat. It was an expensive undertaking and required many years to complete," she told me in a quiet voice, as we walked toward the entrance of the Wat.

We were approached by an older monk as we neared the Ubosot who identified himself as the abbot of the Wat after the necessary greetings had been completed.

"You are the new teacher that the rumors are all about," he said, and it wasn't a question.

"Yes, Reverend Abbot, I am a teacher of the Amulets," Chanthra told him.

"Have you selected the Wat where you will be teaching, and would you consider our Wat?" he inquired.

"No, I have not chosen a place to teach yet. We only arrived last evening and spent the morning looking for a house," she told him. "I will begin looking for an appropriate Wat to hold classes in once we are settled."

"There are a large number of Wats in and around Korat for you to choose from. Your choice will be watched by many as all would be glad to host you and participate in your work," he replied with a smile.

We made our exit then and reclaimed our horses to ride back to the hotel. It was mid-afternoon by now and the hottest part of the day, but there was a bit of a breeze since it was still April. On arriving at our hotel, we were surprised to see the Sergeant who had been in Sonsri's guard detail there waiting for us.

"Where have you been? I have been looking all over for you. The Governor sent me to find you, he wants to see you immediately. He appeared very disturbed when he dismissed me to look for you," the Sergeant told us in very rapid Thai.

"Exactly what did he say?" Chanthra asked him in her quiet voice and much more slowly.

"He said 'find that Amulet woman and her large Fa-rung bodyguard and bring them here immediately'," he told us in a more quiet and slower voice.

"Where is the Governor presently?" Chanthra asked him. "Is he at home or elsewhere?"

"He is in his office, here in the city," the Sergeant informed us.

"We will go to see him as soon as our horses are seen to," Chanthra told him. One of the hotel's employees appeared then to take charge of our horses, and we followed the Sergeant right after that.

It turned out that the Governor's office was in an administrative building just off of Chakri Road and just south of Mahat Thai Road, and it only required a few minutes to walk there even in the afternoon heat. The Sergeant led us into the building and past a number of government employees who would have stopped us otherwise to inquire about our business there. We wound up on the second floor of the building in front of a pair of large closed doors.

When the Sergeant knocked, one door opened a few inches and an individual inside demanded to know what he wanted.

"I have brought the people who the Governor sent me to find," he told him, and we were told to wait. It was only a few minutes before both doors opened all of the way, and we were told to enter.

"What took you so long to arrive?" the Governor demanded in a grumpy voice standing in front of his large throne-like chair without so much as a Sawat Dee.

"Sawah Dee Ka, " Chanthra said with a wai and a bow before answering him. "We were unaware of your desire to see us, and had things to do today. We rented a house for our stay here this morning and paid our respects to Thao Suranaree at Wat Sala Loy this afternoon," she finished in her quiet voice.

"You must tell me what you know of my daughter's return trip. I could get very little from her except comments about the quality of the restaurants where they had eaten and the hotels they had stayed in. She just barely mentioned that they were attacked by bandits and that the Captain of her guard was killed," he told us in a disgruntled voice.

"The explanation will require some little time. Can you spare the time now?" Chanthra inquired.

"Yes, other things can wait for now," he told us in an annoyed voice before turning to his assistants. "Bring cushions for my guests to sit on," he told them. They hurriedly brought out pillows for us, and we sat down after the Governor had seated himself.

"We were traveling from Bangkok to Korat, but hadn't encountered your daughter or her party until three days ago," was how Chanthra began her explanation.

"We had stopped at a hotel in Muak Lek for the night but made a late start leaving because we needed to have some of the horses' shoes replaced.

"It was mid-afternoon when we heard the shots and my Guardian, Mike, quickly rode ahead to see what was happening and if he could help. On seeing the bandits attacking your daughter's coach and her party, he drew both of his pistols and charged down the hill firing at the bandits and driving them off.

"I arrived shortly after him and treated your daughter's wounds while Mike saw to the wounded guards," Chanthra told him and would have continued, but the Governor interrupted her with a question.

"What pistols? Where are these pistols now?" he demanded in a loud voice.

"Are you sure that you want to know?" Chanthra asked without raising her voice.

"Yes, I want them brought here immediately?" he shouted at us and slammed his hand down on the arm of his large chair for emphases.

"Very well!" Chanthra agreed and tilted her head to the left for a few seconds. Both pistols magically appeared in my hands pointing at the Governor within seconds of that causing a gasp of surprise and shock from the Governor and his assistants as well as surprising me.

"Where did those come from? You didn't have them when you entered," a still surprised Governor asked after a few more seconds.

"The Amulets were watching them for us while we visited Wat Sala Loy, as it didn't seem appropriate to take them there, and there was no one who we could safely leave them with," Chanthra told him. "And you did say that you wanted to see them immediately," she added with a smile.

"How do you have such weapons here? There are few even in Bangkok who have such fine expensive modern weapons. Even I don't possess such fine weapons," the Governor demanded having recovered at least partially and taken a good look at the weapons that had been pointed at him.

I had noticed Chanthra's adjustments of the facts as she explained things and made my own adjustments in my explanation. I had also quickly lowered the pistols to my sides.

"I have the King's permission to have these weapons. I am an instructor to the Siamese Army and was coming here to organize and train a special unit to deal with things that the regular Army has trouble with. It was the necessity to await that permission that kept us from leaving Bangkok earlier. This turned out to be a good thing, as I was able to stop and chase off the bandits attacking your daughter's party," I explained.