by D. H. Dunn
Peering into the low light, she located Pasang’s orange jacket, Merin’s dark hair. Kad was slumped against his spouse’s larger form, Perol had collapsed next to her shield not far from the pair. Everyone in their group was lying exhausted and drained on the ground. All accounted for but one.
“Nima.”
A voice to her right, a grating gasp that was somehow both cracked with age and smooth with energy.
Kater.
She sat up just as his hand touched her shoulder. She jerked away as if she had been bitten.
“What do you want?” she said. Normally she’d be embarrassed to sound so harsh, but it was all right to be rude to Kater. She sat up, though even that simple act drained her of energy. Kater was next to her, pulling his cloaked hood off his head.
In this moment Kater looked older than ever. His thin, gray hair fluttered around in the wind, and she could see the pinkness of his skin underneath. His elongated ears reminded Nima of her father.
“I want to thank you,” he said, his voice still stronger than she thought it should sound. “I could not have done this without you. Your friends as well, of course. You have brought me to my sister, she is waiting for me at the bottom of this crater.”
He pointed into the depths, the glow of red and orange light pushing through the thin layer of snow several yards below. The walls of the crater were cracked, the stone ripped and cut like paper. Mercifully, it would make for an easy climb.
She watched him edge away from her, swinging his legs over the side of the crater.
She pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the complaints coming from her muscles. If he was going down there, there was no way he was doing it alone.
Kater glanced up and smiled at her, finding handholds to work his way down. Nima caught up to him quickly, a fear growing inside her that she should wake the others. But she pushed the thought away, she did not want Kater unattended.
Moving side by side now, Kater began to descend more swiftly. She could see the excitement in his eyes, hear the quickness of his breath. She reminded herself that Kater had attacked his sister to start this whole affair. Would he do so again once he reached her?
After a few minutes climbing down, they were on the snow-covered surface of the crater. A small pebble bounced its way down, landing next to them. Nima looked up, smiling when she saw Kad descending. She felt some of her anxiety lessen, it would be good to have him with her.
Kater was on his hands and knees, digging through the soft layer of red and orange snow. The light grew as he pushed away more and more snow, his hands flying frantically.
Nima crawled into the small snow burrow he had created, pushing more snow away herself. It took her mind a moment to put together what she was seeing. She and Kater knelt upon a clear, red surface, through which she could see a cobblestone floor about six feet down.
She felt a brief flash of fear, as she thought she would fall through. Taking her glove off, she touched the window-like surface with her hand. The red glass depressed slightly as she pushed against it.
“Shani rasan,” Kater said, running his own hand over it. “A shield of sorts, I was certain my sister had raised one before imprisoning herself in the asan rashi. As you can see, it does not block light.”
Nima brushed more of the snow away, allowing her to see chairs, tables, and many books knocked over and strewn about. The library showed no sign of life, though she could make out a source of a deeper red light to one side.
“Why didn’t she use it against your forces when you attacked?” Nima asked.
“She did,” Kater replied, as he began rummaging through the pockets in his cloak.
Perhaps he had a crystal that would bring down the shield?
“My sister’s shield is not impenetrable, dear girl. You must simply impact it with enough force. More force than we’ve brought here today, I’m afraid.”
Nima looked back at Kater, confusion growing in her mind. “If you knew this shield would be here, and you knew we didn’t have enough force to bring it down, what was the point of all this?”
“This was the point,” Kater said with a smile, pulling the blink tube out of his pocket, a lone crystal rattling around in its interior. “Making sure I saved this until now. Light can pass through after all.” He began shining the target light of the tube inside the library.
“You said the blink tubes don’t work here,” Nima said just as Kad landed beside them.
“Nima, dear girl,” Kater said with a smile. “I’ve said lots of things.” He pressed the gem on the tube and vanished, instantly reappearing on the other side of the shield in his sister’s library.
Anger ran through Nima like fire, rage at herself as well as Kater. He’d tricked them again. They had been waiting for him to do it all along and he’d still managed it.
“Kater!” Nima yelled, pounding the red glass. The surface bounced slightly against the impact but showed no other effect.
Kad jumped into the burrow with her, pushing the snow farther away from the glass. Nima gasped at the sight of a towering crystal in the center of the room below, at least six feet tall with the shadowed shape of a woman inside. Kater knelt on the floor, his mouth open as he clutched his chest.
She watched as the still-trembling Kater struggled to his feet, then walked over to the crystal where his sister was entombed.
“Kad!” Nima pounded on the glass again. “We’ve got to do something!” Frantically she looked around, but the small crater contained only snow.
“My children, my home,” Kaditula cried. “He must not prevent our access to them.”
There was a moment where the small man’s face was more serious than Nima had ever seen it, his jaw set and his eyes steely.
Then he let out a soft sigh, a quiet smile returning to his lips. “Nima, my wife was Upala’s attendant. She may know a counter to this shield. Please, you are a faster climber than I. I will trade you, you fetch my mate and I will watch him.”
“Yes,” Nima said, already running to the wall.
She scrambled up quickly, barely taking notice of Kad pulling out his pack and removing mushrooms from its interior. He’d given her a job, something she could do. Action she could take. The handholds and footholds presented themselves quickly as she scrambled up the crater’s side.
“Nima!” Drew’s voice. “I heard you yell. Where’s Kater?”
She looked up, seeing Drew peering over the edge of the crater. His mouth was open, his expression one of horror as he looked past her. Down at the glass, or at Kad.
She looked over her shoulder to see Kad gazing back up at her. In each hand he held a batch of mushrooms, red in one hand and green in the other. He smiled up at her, the same big grin she had seen on his face the first time they had met.
“My trade to you, Scout Nima,” Kad said. “Tell Merin of this. She will tell my tales to our children.”
“No!” Nima yelled. The panic in Drew’s eyes told her all she needed of Kad’s plan. Something terrible was about to happen.
Kad brought his hands together, the mushrooms combining with a soft squish. Nima did not see any effect, but the odor released was immediate and powerful. She felt Drew’s hands on her own, pulling her up as the crater began to shake.
She had scarcely cleared the side of the crater when the worms crashed through the ceiling above them. Nima rolled to the side, her eyes having only a moment to glimpse the rain of yellow- and red-scaled creatures, falling directly into the hole in which both Kad and the shield waited for them.
The trembling of the ground increased as they continued to pour in. Merin’s cries mixed with the thunderous sound as Kad’s mate realized what he had done.
Of Kad himself, Nima could hear nothing. Drew pulled her farther away from the chaos, but Nima on her feet again and struggling to get back to the crater.
A new impact rumbled through the ground underneath them, a crimson burst of light emerging from the mass of worms accompanied by a sound that reminded Nima
of ice shattering. She and Drew tumbled to the ground, the collection of creatures inside the crater falling through to the chamber below.
Merin screamed over the edge of the crater, “Kad! Kad!”
As suddenly as it had started, the commotion stopped. Pasang and Wanda came running over to the pair on the ground, followed by Perol. Merin stayed at the edge of the crater, looking over the edge, still calling her husband’s name. Each cry from the woman a fresh blow to Nima’s heart.
Wanda reached them first, her eyes questioning. Nima could only muster a nod as Pasang helped her to her feet. She rushed past them; she didn’t have time for questions. She needed to get back to the hole. She needed to see.
Nima knelt at the edge, next to Merin who was now sobbing softly. She put one gloved hand on Merin’s, some part of her heart already knowing the answers to what she would see. Merin’s tear-stained face told her all she needed to know.
She peered into the hole, past the settling dust and snow. In the center of the crater the red glass had shattered from the impacts of the worms. Beneath it, there was a pile of crimson and yellow bodies on a carved stone floor, most of the worms were still, though a few still wriggled feebly. More wooden tables and chairs had been knocked over, a bookcase lay on its side.
A single hand poked out of the pile of bodies, unmoving.
Kater was down there, looking to prevent them from going home. He was willing make the sacrifices of so many meaningless. He intended to trap all of them in the Under forever.
She would not allow that to happen. For her brother’s safety, for Wanda’s goals, and Drew’s future. For Ham and Kad, and even Jang. And for Merin’s children.
“Hand me the rope so we can get down there,” Nima said, accepting the cord from Pasang. “Let’s end this.”
26
“Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves.”
—George Mallory
The moment Nima felt her boots touch the floor inside the ruins of Upala’s library she began to look for Kater. It was a struggle. Her heart wanted to rush immediately to the pile of worm corpses and pull out Kad, hope against logic that he might still be alive.
Yet she had no time for that, no time to pause for mourning. Kater had gone to great lengths to keep the rest of them out while he reached his sister. She did not know why, but whatever Kater’s plan was, she needed to stop it.
Except Kater was not there.
They were clearly in Upala’s library judging from the number of books and bookcases strewn about the room. But this room looked to be only one of many.
There were no portals here, a sight that surprised Nima. She had grown accustomed to the multi-colored ovals being everywhere they went.
Here there were just books, tables, and chairs, everything knocked over, smashed, and strewn about. Some of the damage likely occurred during the complex’s descent into the mountain, but Nima also saw signs of the battle that had taken place before that. Signs of weapon marks on the furniture, odd scorch patterns, and lots of blood, much of it old and dried.
The room had only one exit, leading Nima to suspect this is where Upala and her forces had made their last stand against Kater.
Dominating the room was Upala herself, her shadowed form was locked inside a crimson crystal at least twice as tall as Nima. The large, red shape sat upon a raised dais, about half the distance between where Nima had dropped in and the door to the next room. Even from several feet away she could feel an energy radiating from the construct, a vibration that felt like it was barely held in check.
“Where is he?”
It was Perol’s voice, directly behind Nima. She turned.
Merin was kneeling next to the pile of worms, holding her husband’s hands, weeping. Nima had heard Perol pushing the others aside above her. The woman looked around the room as if she were possessed.
“Steady, Perol,” Wanda said, taking the last jump down from the wall of the crater and landing deftly on the floor. Nima was glad to see Wanda take charge. She was unsure of how to handle Kater’s newly-betrayed attendant. “Let us take stock of things here first.”
“Why bother?” Perol scoffed, striding past Nima and heading for the door to the next room. “He is an old man, and an old fool if he thinks he can turn his back on his own troops. He may be long lived, but his magic does not work here in the Under. He can be cut.” She unsheathed her blade, her teeth showing as she did so. “I can see him bleed.”
Drew and Pasang landed as a unit, Drew immediately moving to Merin’s side while Pasang rushed over to Nima, taking up a position right behind her. She wanted Drew with her, but she respected his instincts to run to someone who needed help first, even if it was with grieving. Pasang’s actions were a bit more annoying. Despite what he’d been through she wished her brother would do something more productive, rather than just cower behind her.
Nima quickly began walking toward the room’s exit, unsure if she would cut off Perol or join her. She did want to know where Kater was, but it felt unwise to proceed without everyone. She was pleased to see Wanda doing the same.
Looking ahead, past the doorway, Nima could see more of the same debris in the next room, books and furniture smashed and strewn about. Though there were no visible portals, she could see the telltale mix of pulsing colors that suggested the gateways were just out of sight.
“Perol!” Nima shouted. “Wait!”
Perol whirled on the pair of them, her blade pointed at the pair of them. The woman’s chest heaved with exertion, her usually tightly-bound, dark hair now a mess of tangles and stray fronds.
The weapon shook in Perol’s hands as she spoke. “I have no ill against you, other-worlders, but do not think me part of your group. Do not think to stop me.”
“We do not wish to stop you, we simply wish for you to pause,” Wanda said. “Tactically, there is a strength in numbers, yes? Kater is here somewhere, will we not do better against him as a unit?”
“He hasn’t freed his sister either,” Nima said. “So, what is he doing? It doesn’t make sense. I want to run after him much as you, but just wait a moment and let’s think about this together.”
Perol lowered her weapon, but the scowl on her face remained. “I go to find him. His power over me lay in his vow to get my soldiers home. I will see him honor that promise, or I will exact recompense.”
She turned away from them and headed for the door, Nima saw her and Wanda’s faces reflected on the polished shield on Perol’s back.
“Stay here and be fools,” the woman said. “Study and wait and talk while I act.”
“There’s no need to look for me,” Kater said, walking through the doorway from the room beyond. Underneath one arm he held two large books, his other hand brushing through his gray hair. “I suppose I should have known you’d find a way to make it down here.”
Perol broke into a run toward Kater, her battle cry fierce enough to send shivers across Nima’s skin. Wanda reached out to try to hold the woman back, but she was too slow. A new worry flashed through Nima’s mind: If Perol succeeded in killing Kater, how would they free Upala? Only Kater knew how.
Perol’s attack was a blur, seeming to catch Kater off guard. Raising his left arm to ward off her weapon, he was rewarded with a slice across his hand. Nima was ashamed to feel satisfaction at his cry of pain. Perol followed this with a bash to Kater’s head with her shield, dropping the old man to one knee.
Grunting, Kater shook his head, then casually waved his uninjured hand. The air in front of him became tinted, as if a wall of crimson dust had sprung from his hand. With another wave the red wall flew rapidly toward them, slamming into Perol and then Nima.
Nima was knocked off her feet, flying backward slightly as Perol’s body streaked passed her. Pasang managed to catch Nima and cushion her blow, her brother having silently followed her to the door. She could see Wanda sitting awkwardly several feet away, seemingly having dodged and avoided most of the force.
In the wreckage b
ehind Nima, she could hear no sound from Perol. The woman had been directly in front of Kater’s attack, absorbing its full force. But Nima could not look back to see how Kater’s attendant had fared, she was too focused on the old man himself, still smiling in the doorway with his books under one arm.
“A lucky strike, but I’m not as powerless as you expected, eh, Perol?” he asked. “Not a lie this time, just a positive happenstance. My abilities seem less muted here. Perhaps that is because my sister’s library is from our world, rather than this wretched Under. Unexpected, but not unwelcome.”
“Kater, why?” Nima got back to her feet, shrugging off Pasang’s attempt to hold her back. She marched forward, getting close enough to look up into his eyes. “Why leave us behind? Why lie to us? We all want the same things!”
Kater smiled, his right hand clutching the books more tightly under his arm. Nima took a quick glance back to see that the rest of the group had stepped forward, Perol leaning on Drew for support. Merin alone stayed behind, still back with her husband’s body.
Kater waved her back with a motion of his free hand, but Nima refused to budge. “I could move you if I wanted to, dear girl, but very well. We do not, in fact, all want the same things.”
Kater’s brow furrowed and the red translucent sphere expanded, the field of energy pushing her back. The experience was not painful, it felt more like her face had fallen asleep, much like her feet often did in the morning.
“I need to return to my world, so I may finish what I started,” Kater continued. “I wish Upala and I could prepare for the dragon’s return together, but, alas, my sister and I have become unforgivingly splintered on this. I would also like to see the consolidation of the rakhum people my sister and I claim to represent.”
“You mean overthrowing your sister’s people,” Drew said, stepping forward. “Call it whatever you want, according to Merin, you attacked them.”