He broke through the surface gasping for air, filling his lungs with air that had never tasted so good. Alice was heavy but he pulled her toward the shore of what was, inexplicably, a lake. It didn’t take him long to get close enough to the side that he was able to walk and he scooped Alice’s cold, wet body into his arms to carry her the rest of the way.
When he got her to the shore, he laid her on the ground and looked her over. To his immense relief, when he pulled up her shirt to check her abdomen he found that she wasn’t bleeding.
She also wasn’t breathing.
Twenty
The sound of running footsteps jerked George’s head up and he saw Phillip and Nadir running to him from the bottom of a set of stairs. Oddly enough, there was a length of rope looped around Phillip’s shoulder but the only thing he cared about was that the boy was also carrying Alice’s messenger bag.
“Is she all right?” Phillip knelt beside Alice and George took the bag from him. “Why isn’t she moving?”
“Be quiet,” George snapped, pulling his stethoscope out of the bag and putting it in his ears. He unbuttoned two of Alice’s buttons and pressed the bell to her chest, holding his breath and listening for even the faintest beat, praying to a god he no longer believed in for just one beat. He moved the bell to her lungs, hoping that he’d hear a whisper of breath and found nothing in either place. You can’t die, George thought desperately. I have to apologize to you too.
“Is she dead?” Nadir’s voice was nearly lost in the sound of running water that made no sense to George. He pressed his lips shut, not wanting to say it. If he said it, it would be true. Wanting to do some small thing to make her comfortable, George shrugged off his jacket and covered Alice up to her shoulders with it.
She can’t sleep if she’s not covered, George thought. It could be a hundred degrees out and she’d still need a blanket. He looked down at her, fully aware that the others were waiting to hear what he had to say and he was just about to shatter his sanity by pronouncing the woman who could have been his wife dead when he saw the ring finger of her left hand twitch for a fraction of a second. George pressed his fingers to the side of her neck and found the slowest, weakest pulse he’d ever felt.
His heart racing, George rolled her onto her side and water poured out of her mouth and nose onto the ground. He pounded her on the back hoping it would encourage her to breathe, but nothing happened. Undeterred, George laid her flat on her back again and started artificial respiration. He’d done it before at the hospital and knew that it worked less than half of the time but he refused to give up. He would never give up on Alice, not now and not ever again. He alternated breaths with chest compressions in an attempt to get her heart moving faster and as his movements became more frantic he became aware that Phillip was crying.
“Maybe it’s time to stop,” Nadir said quietly.
“It won’t be time to stop until she’s sitting up and yelling at me,” George said, out of breath. Nadir was right, though. He had been working on her longer than he had the patients at the hospital but he had to try. “Come on, Alice,” he said between breaths. “Come on.”
Then, miraculously, Alice convulsed and began coughing up more water. George turned her onto her side again so she could clear her lungs, thumping her on the back to help. When she had gotten as much up as she could, Alice looked up at George, then at the others. George grabbed his stethoscope and listened to her chest, relieved beyond words to hear that with the exception of a slight arrhythmia her heart was strong again. Alice raised an eyebrow at him.
“You know,” she said weakly, “If you wanted to grope me all you had to do was ask.”
“Now there’s Our Alice,” George said. “Are you able to breathe?” She nodded and he tucked his stethoscope back into her bag. “There’s a decent chance you’re going to catch pneumonia,” he said matter-of-factly. “We’ll have to keep an eye on you for a bit.”
“I’m so glad you’re all right,” Phillip said, putting his arms around her in a way George wished he could. In spite of everything, in spite of their shared dream, he still didn’t think he would be able to show that kind of affection to her. It was stupid, really. He’d told her he loved her at the bottom of the lake, he didn’t know why it should be any different now.
Looking around the cave that they’d found themselves in, he saw what he assumed were the stairs Phillip and Nadir had used to get down to them. They were carved directly into the wall and looked fairly sturdy. It seemed that Alice had just happened to find the weak spot in the path.
When he’d seen her fall he had barely been able to register what he was seeing. Nadir’s lantern was the only light he’d had but when she fell through the floor he knew what had happened. He had only been able to kneel by the hole and shout after her, a cold sick feeling in his stomach as he imagined Alice hitting the ground who knew how far down. Then he’d heard a distant splash and, knowing that there was a possibility she would still be alive, dove after her. The water had been cold and he supposed he’d lost consciousness because he couldn’t think of any other way that he would have been able to share her dream.
He looked over at the lake and saw that its surface was covered with hundreds of blue lotuses, then realized that it was doubtlessly their roots that she had been tangled in. It hit him then that even though they were deep underground there was a soft light in the cave whose source was unknown, and a white marble building was sitting at the back of the cave.
“I think we’ve found what we’re looking for,” George said quietly, and the others followed his gaze to the temple.
“You’re right,” Alice said. She struggled to her feet with Phillip’s help and George saw how badly the back of her shirt was ripped. She was also shivering and, even though it was just as wet as she was, George put his jacket around her shoulders. At least she would be covered. Alice looked back at him, then smiled. “Thank you.” Phillip and Nadir were already on their way to the temple and Alice nodded to the temple. “Are you still behind me?”
“All the way.” He reached down and brushed some of her hair out of her face. It had fallen down at some point after she was in the lake and even hanging wet around her face, it was beautiful. As much as he wanted to kiss her at that moment, he knew it was the least appropriate place and time to do it so he settled for squeezing her shoulder.
“We should go then,” Alice said. “We don’t want to miss the fun.” Something caught her eye and she leaned down a little unsteadily to pick it up from the edge of the lake. “You shouldn’t leave these lying around, they’ll get broken,” she said, handing George his glasses.
“I didn’t,” he said, turning them over before unfolding them and putting them on. “They fell off in the lake.” Both he and Alice looked at the lake as one and she started to shiver violently. “Come on,” he said gently. “Let’s go see this temple that you died for.”
“All right,” Alice said. They walked a few steps before she looked back up at George. “Did I really die?”
“You came closer than I’m comfortable with,” he replied. “If you were a cat I’d say that you’d be down at least three lives.”
“Are you guys coming?” Phillip called to them from further back in the cave and Alice waved at him, then walked toward him with George.
When they got closer to the building George was amazed at the beauty of it. It was exactly the reason he hadn’t been able to think of the cave as a temple, and even though it was small and comparatively plain, he could feel power radiating from it. He looked down and saw that there were flat, square stones leading toward the temple and that they were surrounded by water that was carried over from the lake in small streams through grooves in the stone of the ground. More blue lotuses floated around the temple and it gave the impression that the temple was sitting in the middle of another, smaller lake and Alice looked up at the building.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “Do you think it’s really in there? The trishula?”
/> “What else could it be?” Nadir pointed to a white stone door. “There’s nothing blocking our path. We should be able to find out what’s inside without too much interference. I have a feeling that we’ve already made it past all the major obstacles.”
“What about your notebook?” Phillip glanced down at Alice’s bag. “Was it in there?”
“No,” Alice said. “It must have gotten lost when I fell. It doesn’t matter, though. Apart from getting us past the wall, it wasn’t much use. I did hope to write about what we found once we got down here but I guess I’ll just have to do it from memory when I get back.”
“Something tells me it won’t be hard to remember,” Nadir said. He led the way this time, stepping carefully across the stones so he wouldn’t slip into the water. Alice followed him with a mix of eagerness and caution and George stayed as close to her as he could. Nearly losing her was so fresh in his mind that he didn’t want to take a chance that she would slip or fall without him there to catch her. He kept his attention on her back as she walked and became aware as they crossed over the last of the stones to the steps of the temple that Phillip was trying to get close as well.
Sorry, George thought as he put a hand on Alice’s back to guide her up the steps of the temple. She protected me, now I’m going to be the one to protect her. No matter what the cost. Alice looked back at him and smiled, and George knew he was doing the right thing as they entered the temple at last.
Whatever they found, they could survive it because they’d found it together.
Twenty-One
There were torches lit inside the temple that filled it with soft light and a warmth that Alice found welcome and comforting. She was grateful to George for giving her his jacket but it was just as wet as she was so it didn’t do much but keep her back covered. Neither of the other men were wearing jackets to help with the problem, and even if they were she doubted she would have traded George’s for anything.
The strange dream that they had shared was still fresh in Alice’s mind and she fought to keep herself from looking at George. He had said he loved her but she didn’t know if it was true or just something he’d said in the moment. When they’d been together in Surat he had been so careful using the words that every time he told her was like a special occasion. It wasn’t that she hadn’t known that he loved her, he just didn’t say it much.
He saved my life, though, Alice thought. That has to mean something.
“This is incredible,” Nadir said, looking around. “Though I expected something a little grander somehow.”
“I don’t think this is it,” Alice said. She pointed to a dark spot along the back wall where the torchlight didn’t seem to reach. “I think we’re supposed to go there.” She walked in front of them, her strength returning little by little as she moved. Her body still felt strange and heavy but walking was getting easier. She wondered if George had been telling the truth when he said she died.
“I’ll be damned,” George said when they reached the back wall. There was a staircase that led further down but they hadn’t been able to see it until they were almost on top of it. Alice touched the wall of the temple and closed her eyes. A soft chorus sang words she couldn’t quite make out but the sound of their voices was comforting, as if they were coming from within her and from everything around her.
“Alice?” Phillip’s voice snapped her out of her reverie and she opened her eyes to find that everyone was looking at her.
“It’s here,” she said softly. “It’s down here.”
They let her lead again and Alice thought it was funny that she had become the leader of the expedition just because she had once thought it would be interesting to learn Gujarati. Everything since then had brought her to the place whose stairs she was walking down and though there were plenty of things she would have done differently she was glad she was there. She looked over her shoulder to see George, Phillip, and Nadir following her as if she knew what she was doing and smiled.
My boys.
At the bottom of the stairs was another door, this one with four grooves surrounding a sun. Alice didn’t need her notebook to know what they were supposed to do and she took the lead by putting her finger in one of them. It fit perfectly and the others joined her one by one.
“It’s perfect,” Phillip said quietly. “It feels like it was made for my finger.” A moment later he cried out in surprise as something sharp stabbed into the pad of his finger. “Ow! Hey!”
“Blood again?” George sighed and Alice couldn’t help but be a little impressed by the fact that he hadn’t even flinched when the spike in the wall had stabbed him. “I suppose I should be glad we didn’t have to use the scalpel again.”
“It makes sense,” Alice said, pulling her finger away and putting it to her mouth. The taste of blood lasted only a second and she wasn’t surprised to see the cut had healed when she looked down at her finger. “I’m glad they’re healing so quickly. I need my right hand.”
“Not as much as I do,” George said. “If I lost it I’d either have to learn to do surgery with my left or retire.” As he spoke the door parted and slid into the wall just like the first one had and Alice could hear the singing again. Suddenly her feet were rooted to the spot. She wanted to move forward, wanted to see what she no doubt had been meant to see all her life, but for some reason she couldn’t. “Go on, Alice,” George said, giving her a light push forward. “You should see it first.”
It was harder for her to move into the inner sanctum than it had been to get up at the edge of the lake but with George behind her, just as he said he would be, she found the strength. She closed her eyes as she stepped through the door, then opened them as soon as she felt warmth on her skin.
Alice had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. The walls were lit with the same sort of torches the main temple had been, but the walls themselves were what she couldn’t stop staring at. They were painted in detail so rich it made her eyes hurt and she ran her eyes over them as if she was sifting through sand for gemstones. If she lived a thousand years she would never have time to look at everything on them and she heard George exhale slowly beside her.
“Incredible,” he said. “Simply incredible.”
“How are these alive?” Phillip’s words drew Alice’s attention to the vases of flowers that were lining the walls. In contrast to the walls, the vases were pure white but the flowers that were spilling out of them were explosions of every color she had ever seen. She couldn’t recognize any of them, though, and the scent that they gave off was one she couldn’t place. Between the warmth from the torches and the flowers, Alice felt like she was in a garden in early summer. She didn’t have an answer for Phillip. In fact, the only answer she could even think of was magic.
“There she is,” Nadir said. “The Goddess.”
At the very far end of the room, a white pedestal held a statue that seemed like it had both been there for thousands of years and carved just the day before. The woman was jet black with eyes of glittering red jewels. Her carved hair was wild and her mouth was open just enough so that Alice could see a pair of ivory fangs standing out against her stone teeth. Each of her four hands was carrying something; a severed head, a bowl, a curved sword and, in the highest of the four, a pure white trishula.
“That’s it,” Alice whispered. “It really is here.”
“Strange,” George said as they moved slowly to the statue. “In all the pictures I’ve seen, Kali is usually performing at least one mudra with her hands.”
“Maybe they did it on purpose,” Nadir said. “No one was meant to come down here so there would likely be no need for a blessing.” He looked up. The trishula was out of his reach and he looked at George. “Can you reach it?”
“I think so.” George walked up to the statue and stretched as high as he could, rising onto his tiptoes in a way that Alice couldn’t help finding charming in spite of the reverence she knew she should be feeling in this place. It wasn’t quite far enough
so he pulled himself up onto the pedestal, then looked back at the others. “Are we sure this is what we want to do?”
“We’ve come this far,” Alice said, surprising herself. “And I have a feeling we’re the only ones who can do it.” George nodded at her and pulled the trishula out of the statue’s hand.
For a brief, terrifying moment Alice was certain it was going to come to life and snatch the trident back. She held her breath until George had climbed back down and came toward them with his hands outstretched.
“Here it is,” he said in a hushed voice. “The trishula of Kali.”
“I expected it to be a little fancier,” Phillip said. George was holding it out for them to touch but no one seemed in a hurry to do so. “Maybe some carvings on the handle or something.”
“It doesn’t need to be fancy,” George said with a hint of rebuke. “Humans are the ones who need things to be decorated and carved. It doesn’t matter to a goddess what something looks like so long as its powers are intact.”
“Powers?” Phillip looked fascinated. “What sort of powers? It looks like a regular weapon to me.” He looked to George and Alice thought George was doing quite well with him. Whenever she had been asking him questions he had always had time for her but seemed to have very little patience for other people’s. She wondered if that had changed since he became a doctor.
“We don’t know,” Alice said. “That’s why we came to get it, so we could study it.” She looked over at Nadir, who was transfixed by the sight of the relic he hadn’t even been sure existed until that moment. “Right?”
“Absolutely,” Nadir said, snapping out of his trance. “It’s so perfect. Not a single crack or mark on it.” He reached out his hand to touch it. “I’ve never felt anything so smooth in my life.”
“What do you think it’s made of?” Phillip was showing no desire to touch the trishula himself but like the others, he couldn’t stop looking at it.
Drowned History Page 13