"The Weeping Masks"

by James Lowder
originally published Shadows Over Baker Street, Ballantine, 2003

Doctor Watson remembers his experiences of the Battle of Maiwand.  A wounded Watson is led away by his orderly, Murray, a devout Catholic.  

Murray attempts to nurse the badly wounded Watson, while encouraging him to keep faith.  They find refuge in a small, isolated village, resting in a house with a large number of sick or wounded Afghans.

During the night, a pair of mysterious monks, bearing strange, expressionless porcelian masks, enter the home.  They stand over certain of the sick, causing great fear.  One approaches Watson, and he notices liquid pooling in the eyes of the mask.  Certain that if the "tears" touch him, he will die, Watson and Murray drive the monk off.

 The next day, Watson finds that Murray has gone.  He goes looking for him, and finds his way to a cave where he witnesses the monks, who appear to be reanimated dead, and to be in the process of animating more dead, perform an elaborate ritual.  The ceiling of the cave opens to a night sky that is utterly different than the night sky above this Afghani cave - showing clear, alien stars - and Watson has a glimpse of a gigantic, horrible creature moving across that sky, before Murray and other British soldiers arrive and burn out the monks.

This is a strong, evocative story, and the masked priests are quite eerie.  There's some gruesome violence which is well-handled, and the whole thing reminds me of some of Robert E. Howard's Lovecraftian adventure-horror stories.