by D. H. Dunn
“I suppose that is true, from her perspective. Though my sister is no paragon of goodness, herself. Her own people would tell you so if they were here. I’d suggest we ask her attendant, but now might not be the best time.”
Nima looked back at Merin, still collapsed next to the pile of worms. If she heard Kater’s comment, the woman gave no sign. Nima strode forward, her fists balled, and pounded on the red shield, her blows bouncing off as if the air were elastic.
“A little space, if you don’t mind,” Kater said, stepping farther into the room. His bubble pushed the others aside as it made contact with them. “As I was saying, I certainly couldn’t have guessed I’d be restored here, my abilities returned. I should have suspected it in retrospect, but such is age, I’m afraid. Not restored completely mind you, but certainly enough to remove any threat each of you possesses. As you can see.”
Kater began to walk slowly toward the dais upon which his sister’s crystal rested. In turn, Drew and Wanda slammed into the circular crimson field around Kater with no more success than Nima. Kater smiled at the attempts, as Nima scanned the room, looking for something else to attack the old man with.
“In truth, I suspect time is a bit of an issue,” Kater continued. “Even for me.”
Nima gritted her teeth at the prospect of having to continue listening to him, yet his commanding tone was difficult to block out.
“There are a few variables that are hard to account for. None of you, of course. In truth, while I needed you before, you are just ants now. Or ants again, in your case, Perol. Don’t look so hurt, dear. Do you feel for the beetles you pick from your crops, or the fowl you slaughter for food? More aptly, do you weep for the loyal steed once her legs have given out?”
With a scream, Perol charged at Kater, slamming her metal shield into his magical barrier. The crimson shimmer indented slightly before bouncing back, again knocking her to the ground.
“Maybe the first time. At first you develop attachments,” Kater said, walking slowly forward. Pasang threw a rock at Kater’s head, forcing Nima to duck when it was deflected toward her. “For me, though, so many steeds, so many pack animals.”
Grabbing a blue crystal from one of the tables, Nima hurled it toward Kater, hoping the shard might react to his magic the way the crystals seemed to affect the portals. Whatever magic was powering his shield, it seemed to be just another projectile, no more effective than Pasang’s rock.
“So many insects,” Kater said, giving Nima a smile. He ascended the dais, his sister’s red, crystalline tomb before him. Nima could see his hands shaking, his mouth beginning to twitch into a smile as he beheld her.
“Only one equal,” he said. “At least, until now.”
Kater shifted the book to his left hand, placing his right on the red crystal encasing his sister.
“The best part, dear Upala, is that I know you can hear me. I know how the asan rashi works just as well as you. I’ve loved having you in my head, helping me even though you didn’t want to. Needing me to free you, yet not wanting to deal with me once I did.”
Only Perol continued to try to affect Kater, launching herself at him again. Drew and Pasang had retreated to Merin’s side and were trying to help the grieving woman back to her feet. Wanda stood next to Nima, transfixed by the sight of Kater confronting his sister.
“I felt the same way, Upala,” Kater said. “I really didn’t want to bring you back into this, dear sister. There is the matter of opening the asan rashi itself. That much energy, encased for this long. . . . Very dangerous, very explosive. In truth, I have concerns I might bring the mountain down on top of us, to say nothing of my own survival.
“Sadly, we’ve never really worked well together, have we? I know there is always the chance you might refuse to help me, leave us all stranded here. You are stubborn that way. Fortunately, I have another option now. A final gift from you, dear Upala. You can let that fact keep you company as you sit here and rot for all eternity.”
“Another option?” Wanda asked. She took a step closer to Kater, placing one foot on the dais holding the asan rashi. Nima put a hand on her shoulder to pull the woman back, shocked to feel Wanda resist her effort.
Kater laughed, taking his hand off the crimson crystal and holding up the large tome over his head with both hands.
“Oh, the humor of it all,” he boomed. “In the end, Upala was doomed for a trait she shares with you. So much like you, Miss Dobrowolski, my sister loved to take notes! I had hoped this would be here, that maybe there would be a way out of this Under without rousing her, and here it is. Everything she knew about portals, everything I need to know. All written down.”
Kater began to flip through the pages, his left hand still leaving traces of his blood as he thumbed through the tome, laughing again.
“It’s so simple! Like a fool, she wrote it all down! It will take some time to absorb but as I’ve said before time is . . .”
Kater’s words died out as the ground began to tremble. The shaking increased violently, knocking both Wanda and Nima off their feet on the steps of the dais. Nima watched Kater reach out to his sister’s massive red crystal with his left hand, only to pull it back and hang on with his right. The tome toppled to the ground from his arms.
The smile drained from his face. “Hmm. I suspect that variable I was concerned about is arriving. It’s sooner than I’d hoped.”
Nima struggled to her feet just as the ceiling above them erupted. Rubble and debris rained upon them. Pulling Wanda off the dais, as a pair, they dropped to the ground and huddled next to it. Nima hoped Kater’s shield might help protect them.
Behind them, she watched Drew shove Merin and Pasang out of the way just as Vihrut crashed through the stone above them, landing atop the pile of worm carcasses with a sound like a thunderclap.
The creature was immense, far larger than when Nima had last seen it. The arms were more muscular, the wings more expansive, Vihrut’s great, translucent belly was even broader. Nima saw a collection of bodies, mushrooms, and crystals sloshing around inside the beast.
Vihrut’s great wings closed upon itself as the long neck scanned the room. Fierce eyes narrowed as they found their target standing alone upon the dais.
“Kater!” the creature roared, the sound of its voice enough to shake Nima back to her knees. “I smelled the stench of you!” With one scrape of a claw upon the floor, Vihrut launched itself at Kater, jaws wide and wings spread.
Kater cried out and threw more energy into his defenses, the red sphere that encompassed him becoming even brighter. Nima threw a hand over her face to protect her vision from the brilliance.
Vihrut shredded through Kater’s shield like it was paper. The old man let out a cry, diving to the left and off the dais. Jets of flame spouted from Kater’s hands, striking the beast in the neck. Vihrut attempted to turn away in mid-flight, soaring past Nima and the crystal and crashing into a book case.
Kater quickly scrambled to his feet, blood dripping from his forehead. His sister’s book was on the ground in front of him. He put one foot upon the tome as he raised both hands in the direction of Vihrut and the debris surrounding it. Fire leaked from his fingertips, dropping like small, firey raindrops on the stone floor.
“Hold, Vihrut!” Kater yelled, Nima noting the booming tone had returned to the old man’s voice. “I have no quarrel with you.”
Vihrut pulled himself up from the wreckage, taking a thundering step forward. Burn marks were visible on its neck and its head was leaning to one side, away from the injury. To Nima, the creature’s eyes were bright with new intelligence. It was as Pasang had said, Vihrut had grown smarter somehow.
“You hurt us,” Vihrut said.
The monster’s voice was so low and deep Nima’s insides vibrated with the words. The power of the creature seemed to pull the strength from her muscles, robbing her will to move. She stared at it as Kater slowly advanced, arms spread.
“We can hurt each other,” Kater said. “Or
we can help each other.”
Vihrut pulled himself fully out of the rubble, stepping into the light. His dark wings spread out, scraping against the ceiling and leaving Kater in their shadow.
“You betrayed us, Kater-food. How could you help us now?”
“Wait!” Drew said, rushing forward and standing between the pair. Nima wanted to reach out, to pull her friend back, but her body was still too rigid, too frozen. Vihrut was now truly a demon. The great head turned, eyes narrowed as it looked at Drew.
“We could talk,” Drew said. “You seem to know you cannot trust Kater, but we can―”
“Silence, Adley-food. We would speak with the old one.”
Nima stared at the toothed mouth of the beast. Adley-food? How did Vihrut know Drew’s name? How could Kater have betrayed Vihrut? Unless―
“Jang?” she asked. Her voice sounded small and weak inside the cold depths of the library. She heard Wanda gasp from behind her.
The beast’s mouth turned in a curious way as it swung its head to face her, teeth bared. Nima wondered if Vihrut was trying to smile.
“Jang-gift. Yes. He is with us now, Nima-food. He has helped us understand what we need.”
“Jang!” Kater pointed at the large head swaying back and forth on the long neck. His fingers seemed to snap and twitch randomly as he muttered the name again. “Jang. Yes, Jang. I can get you want you want.”
“We are not Jang-gift!” Vihrut shouted, pounding the floor with one clawed foot, his wings compressing against his back. “Jang-gift was small and fragile, Kater-food. His name is not ours, though he is with us. We are Vihrut.”
“Yes, my error,” Kater said, holding up his hands. He took a moment to wipe the blood from his forehead with his left hand, smearing it across his skin. “But I still have what you want. If you want Nepal, I can get you back there. Only I can get you back to Nepal.”
“Nepal?” Vihrut asked, the words sliding out of his mouth. “Yes, we want this Nepal. This Nepal is our new hunger, the gift we have been given.” The beast took another step closer to Kater, dust falling from the ceiling as the chamber trembled from its steps.
“Let us be rid of these distractions first then, friend Vihrut.” Kater waved his hand to indicate the gathered onlookers. “I grant you the honor of their demise.”
“You grant us nothing, Kater-prospect. We dispatch these for our own reasons, then we will gauge your value.” Vihrut turned away from Kater, his wings nearly clipping the top of Upala’s asan rashi as he advanced toward the rear of the room.
“We will start with the Adley-food,” it said. “I wonder what it will add to us?”
Drew backed away from Vihrut, his head twisting as he searched for an option. Merin and Pasang both rushed to his side. Pasang had grabbed a broken shelf from a nearby bookcase and was brandish it. Vihrut advanced slowly, claws scraping the floor as it slowly walked forward.
Nima was about to turn to Kater, to beg him to intervene, when Wanda stepped past her. With his shield still lowered, Wanda stepped casually up the dais and to stand next to Kater.
The fire continued to drip from his fingers, but Kater took a step back, his eyebrows arched. “Miss Dobrowolski?” A smile flickered on and off Kater’s face like a flame. “Wanda? You stand with me? I must say, I had almost lost hope in you.”
Wanda nodded. “I do. I stand with you, here. Next to you and your sister. You have the ability to give me what I came here for. The power to help my people.”
“Wanda!” Nima shouted. “I can’t believe you’d do this!” She began to run up the dais but was stopped by a glare from Wanda. A glare she had seen before, on Everest, her revolver in her hand as she brought snow and death down upon Jang’s men.
“She knows when to make a choice, young Nima,” Kater said. “She recognizes that sometimes hard decisions must be made.”
Kater raised his crimson shield back up to encompass both himself and Wanda, the pair standing next to Upala’s crystal tomb. Nima pounded on the outside of the shield as a crash behind her signaled the beginning of Vihrut’s attack on her friends.
“You are right, Kater,” Wanda said. “A choice. Do I help my people, or honor them? In the end, you gave me all the answers I needed.”
Kater stared at Wanda as she looked past him, her eyes connecting with Nima’s. She smiled as Nima continued to pound on the shield.
“I don’t understand,” Kater said. “What answers?”
“The key to opening the asan rashi, Kater. The one only you could open, remember? ‘Old family secret?’ ‘A blood cocoon?’” Wanda’s voice turned to a sneer as she suddenly rushed against Kater, crashing into him and driving him against the great crystal behind them.
He raised his hands to block her, but Wanda was too fast. Her arm nearly a blur, Wanda grabbed the back of Kater’s head and slammed it into the red crystal entombing Upala.
Kater’s blood quickly began to congeal on the crystal’s surface, as cracks began to form across the crimson surface. Inside, Nima could see the shadowed form of Upala begin to tremble, the chamber trembling with it.
Nima continued to attack the shield, her fists slamming into the unyielding surface. Wanda knelt next to Kater as the old man struggled to rise. Nima was just close enough to hear Wanda’s taunt, her words almost inaudible against the fracturing of Upala’s prison.
“The truth is, Kater, you talk too much.” Her tone was sweet.
Nima felt herself become airborne as Upala’s crystal shattered, the sudden release of the energy within the asan rashi turned the room into a silent world of white. For a moment, she could see Wanda’s form silhouetted against the explosion, then Nima’s world went dark.
27
“The mighty summit seemed to look down with cold indifference on me . . . and howl derision in wind-gusts at my petition to yield up its secret.”
—Noel Odell
Drew shook his head, trying to clear his vision. The wreckage of the library swam in front of his eyes, cracked wood and crushed stone rocked back and forth like the deck of a ship caught in a storm. Memories and images collided with each other inside his mind.
Wanda shattering the large red crystal with the impact of Kater’s forehead, correctly guessing his blood was the key to releasing the woman trapped inside. A brilliant eruption of light and force from the crimson structure, throwing Drew off his feet and onto the hard stone. The shared cries of Kater and Vihrut, along with those of his companions. Then nothing for a time that could have been seconds or hours.
He cast his swaying gaze across the room, searching for any sign of Nima, Pasang, or Wanda. Everything his sight landed on doubled or tripled in his eyes, his feet unsteady as his mind tried to process the sea of confusing images.
As he hobbled to his feet his attention was drawn to the sound of a female voice behind him, a grunt of exertion.
“Nima?” His voice came out in a croak, like the call of a dead man. Looking across the wreckage of the room―shattered wood, stone, and fragments of red crystal mixing into a mosaic of chaos―he saw a figure struggling atop the dais.
The image before his eyes nearly stopped his heart in his chest. Unlike everything else in the room, his view of her was clear and steady, as if she were the only real thing left in the world.
Emerging from the wreckage of the asan rashi, was her.
She was clad in an azure robe with matching cloth pants, just as she had been when he last saw her. The fabric was torn and singed from the battle that had led her to this crystal prison, but it was the same.
He gasped as her face came into view. He saw the same olive skin and bright inquisitive eyes that had been haunting his sleep for months.
Following a golden thread that only he could see had led Drew here. Even now it floated in the air before him, leading out of his chest and into hers. To Upala, Kater’s sister and the feared spell-queen of Aroha Darad. The woman from one day of his life and his dreams every night since.
She stumbled. Drew fo
und his balance and surged forward to catch her in his arms. As a pair, they half-tumbled to the ground, Drew managing to keep them mostly upright.
She looked up into his eyes with a weak smile he had been thinking of ever since he last saw it.
“I hoped you would come,” Upala said, her voice a whisper. “When I sealed myself in, I hoped it would be you I saw when I emerged.”
Drew looked down at the woman in his arms, his mind wrestling with his heart. So many questions pushed at him with their need to burst forth, yet all he wanted to do was hold her, feel her in his arms again. All the pain and hurt of the past year drained away.
The thread that issued forth from his chest bathed Upala in a golden light as it crossed the short distance to her. Leaning down, Drew pressed his lips against hers. Upala’s hand found his own, and for a moment Drew knew only the passion between them.
He broke the kiss while his heart continued to pound in his chest, the realization that he had finally found her taking root in the thin soil of his emotions.
“I didn’t know,” he said, his eyes growing damp. “I didn’t know it would be you, that it was you he was taking us to.”
“He?” she asked. She furrowed her brow for a moment, then the smile drained from her face. “My brother. It would have to be him, but why? He led you to me? Did you come alone?”
“No, not alone.” He shook his head, a new spark of panic lighting inside him. Nima! Wanda and Pasang! Looking up from her he studied the wreckage around the room from the asan rashi’s eruption. His vision was steadier now and he could make out several bodies at the far end of the room. He saw movement, heard the faint grunts of several voices.
Life, he thought, his heart pounding even harder. At least for some of them.
“I need to go to them,” he said. He began to gently lay Upala’s form down on the dais, only to have her to grasp his shoulder and pull herself into a standing position.
“We go together, Drew,” she said. “If they aided you, then I owe them as much as I owe you.”