Under Everest

by D. H. Dunn

  Together they shuffled down the steps of the dais. As his vision continued to clear, Drew could see a massive hole had been blown through the wall to his left, looking very much like a larger version of the worm holes Kad had shown him when they had first entered the Under.

  He reasoned this was likely the result Vihrut’s departure, but the thought gave him little hope. The beast, now guided by Jang’s malevolence, could return at any time.

  After a few steps he realized he was leaning on Upala for support, even while she needed the same from him. With his arm over her shoulder, he moved toward the nearest bodies. The dust in the air parted, the poor lighting now enough to see the back of a recognizable jacket.

  Nima! She had her back to him, hunched over another form while her shoulders shook. Just a few feet away, he could see Pasang sitting against what looked like the remains of a bookcase. Drew felt some of the tightness in his chest release to see them both alive, though the haunted expression on Pasang’s face gave him pause.

  He quickened his pace, Upala matching his stride, kicking at stray bits of stone and crystal. Nima looked up at the sound of their approach. Tears ran down her face, though Drew could see relief in her eyes as well when she saw him.

  “Drew,” she whispered. “You are all right. One prayer answered, at least.”

  Drew gritted his teeth and looked at the shattered form of Wanda laying on the ground next to Nima, blood pooling beneath her. Several large shards of red crystal were embedded in the woman’s chest; more than one had pierced her and jutted from her body like spears. Her lifeless eyes, partially covered by her crimson hair, stared at the rocky ceiling above them. Drew thought he could see the hint of a smile on Wanda’s face, though he knew that might be his own wishful thinking.

  Wanda deserved to die satisfied. She had been decisive in ways Drew found challenging. In the short time he had known her, Wanda had never failed to act to preserve what was important to her. In the beginning, that had been Poland and her father’s legacy. In the end, Wanda had sacrificed herself to save them all.

  Kneeling next to her, he brushed her hair from her eyes. He moved his fingers lightly over her eyelids to close them, feeling Nima’s arms around him as she wept lightly on his shoulder.

  “Thank you,” Drew whispered to Wanda. “We won’t waste what you did for us.”

  Another hand came to rest on his shoulder, the touch lighter than Nima’s yet conveying strength it its firm grip.

  “Your loss is my grief as well,” Upala said. “I am sorry to have caused this pain to you―both of you.”

  Drew allowed himself one more look at Wanda, his hands clenched into fists. She looked peaceful now, at rest with all tasks complete. Her sacrifice gave Drew another task in his own list, another goal he would see accomplished.

  Kater would answer for this.

  He stood. Nima moved to sit next to Pasang. She put her arm around her brother, the taller man slumping against her. Upala walked around Drew as she peered into the darkness of the room.

  “Is this all of your group?” Upala asked. “There are others I had hoped would be with you. I know we cannot linger to search for them.”

  “There were others. Though by the time”―he stopped, looking around at the destruction surrounding them―“this happened, only two were left alive. Your brother and a woman named Merin. Perhaps she is―”

  “That woman lives.” Merin’s strong voice called across the room as she emerged from a doorway that led to a hallway. She walked toward them, her face a mixture of anger and fatigue. Like Nima and Pasang, her skin was riddled with small cuts and scrapes, her clothing torn in several places. Her pace was firm and steady, betraying no hint of injury.

  A look of pain crossed Upala’s face as Merin approached.

  “Attendant,” Upala said, her voice cracking. “I am relieved to see you, yet you are alone? Where is―”

  “He is not here,” Merin said. “Thus, the answer is obvious.” She walked past Upala with clenched fists, avoiding Drew’s gaze as she knelt before Wanda’s prone form.

  “Merin, I―” His words died away in the silent chamber as the weight of all that had been lost continued to fall upon him.

  Merin stood and placed one hand on Nima’s shoulder. She then turned and faced Drew and Upala.

  “My queen,” she said, casting the title like an accusation. “My husband is dead. My children are barred from me, kept on the other side of a door only you can open. These brave souls”―she used her hand to indicate Drew and Nima―“they have risked everything to release you. Let us not linger and waste their sacrifices.”

  Drew was startled by the depth of Merin’s anger, yet he let every word that came to his mind die unspoken. Upala may have been the woman he had be searching for all this time, but Merin had indeed risked her life and lost her love. She had shown herself to be as brave as any sailor he had served with.

  “Merin is right,” he said. “Right now, our focus should be on . . .” His voice trailed off as his gaze ran to every darkened corner of the room.

  Merin now stood apart from Upala and was leaning on one of the few intact bookcases while she picked crystal shards from her clothing. Nima was kneeling over Wanda’s body and covering her with a torn tapestry. Upala stood next to him while looking at Merin, her mouth opening and closing as if she could not decide what to say.

  “Where’s Pasang?”

  Nima ran hurriedly through the room, taking care to avoid several bookcases, each toppled and smashed. Some bearing scorch marks, others mere smoking embers, signs of where Kater’s fire had touched them.

  Her heart was pounding, her eyes checked every corner of the room for her brother. Rushing out of the chamber, she found Pasang just outside the door, relief coming just as she felt her panic beginning to rise.

  Just a few steps from the doorway, he was standing in the shadows while looking down each end of the long hallway, as if he could not decide which way to go.

  The passage extended into the darkness in each direction. Nima saw dozens of openings on each side. Pasang looked at her, but turned away after meeting her gaze.

  “Why are you out here, Pasang? The others are inside. We need to find out if this Upala woman can get everyone home.”

  “I left. I left because I am ashamed,” Pasang said, his head down. “Before all of this, I did not believe you. I did not believe grandfather’s stories. Yetis and dragons, magic. But now I have seen them.”

  He took a step closer, the dim light casting a haunted look upon his eyes.

  “They are not magical to me, Nima. This is a nightmare, and I am ashamed to be afraid of it.”

  “Ashamed? Why would you not be afraid of something like Vihrut, or Kater. Pasang, it is all right to be afraid.”

  “But fear is the only thing I feel, Nima! I have seen you, this is a world you want to be real, this world of magic. I do not. I want to tend yak, not run from worms and men who shoot fire. I want to climb mountains, not travel to other worlds. Nima, I want to eat Ama’s thukpa not glowing mushroom soup!”

  Nima pulled her brother close and put her arms around him. He stilled. In that moment, Nima felt as if she were back home again, comforting her little brother after a storm.

  She felt his arms slowly reached around her, his height and strength reminding her that this wasn’t a little boy anymore. This was a man, a man who had, in a short few days, seen horrors that nothing could have prepared him for. It was not fair. He least of all had asked for any of this.

  “Pasang, it is not wrong what you feel. You have seen things you were never meant to see, that no one should see. You are right that I feel other things besides fear, but right now . . .” She looked back into the chamber, the far-off sight of Drew and the others looking back at her. They were waiting. “Right now, we must get home, Pasang.” She took a step back toward Upala’s library and held out her hand. “Please, Pasang. Let’s go home.”

  The haunted look she could see in his stare did not
leave his eyes, but his hand found hers just the same. She squeezed it.

  “It is brave to admit you are scared, you know. I am scared too.”

  “Thank you, Nima.”

  “I am your sister, Pasang, and you are my brother. No monster can stand against that magic.”

  She led him back into the library and Drew and the others ran up to meet them.

  “I was worried about you, kid.” Drew said, putting an arm around Pasang. Nima was relieved to see her brother smile. It was easy to see him back in Nepal, back with Awa helping on the farm. It was a good goal to get him back there, back safe with her father.

  “Now that we are collected,” Merin said, “we should depart with haste. Wanda’s sacrifice seems to have left us safe from Kater and Vihrut, be they slain or injured. For this moment we have an opportunity.”

  “We’re not safe from Vihrut. Not for long anyway,” Pasang said, nodding up at the hole in the ceiling.

  “I know not of this Vihrut, not through my own eyes.” Upala’s voice was still unusual to Nima, so different from any other she had heard. “My brother still lives. I can sense him; he is still here.”

  Nima stood, her head spinning as she did so. She put her hand on Drew’s shoulder for support, the dizziness fading after a moment. “If Kater is alive, we can’t stay here. We shouldn’t be waiting to see if Vihrut comes back either.”

  Nima looked at the faces of the people around her, exhaustion and fatigue were evident on all of them. The last thing she felt capable of was facing more adversity, yet there was no other option. On a mountain, they could turn back from the summit if the risk was too high, but there was no descending to safety here.

  “Can you get us home?” Nima asked. She found her heart was racing, the question erupting forth from her. Everything hung on the answer. “That’s . . . ever since we found ourselves here that’s what we have been hoping.”

  “I can,” Upala said, her voice losing a bit of its musical quality. Her face reflected confidence, which soothed Nima’s nerves. “Or I will do everything I can to help you.”

  “What about Kater?” Pasang asked. He was now by Nima’s side.

  “He may try to stop us,” Upala said. “More likely though, he is trying to get back to our home, Aroha Darad. If he can access the portal from the Under, he can close it from the other side.”

  “Then have we already lost?” Drew asked. “He’s not here so he’s had more time.”

  “Unlikely,” Upala said. “Yes, my brother has my notes and research, but he needs time to study them. There is much in there that will not be relevant to his needs, but he will still need to read through it to determine that. He also does not know what destination each portal goes to, whereas I know where they all lead, be they opened or closed.”

  “But our portal home is far, far above us,” Nima said. “It took us days to climb down here. We have no way to climb back up.”

  “The one you came through, yes,” Upala said. “The portals scattered throughout the Under are only echoes, unstable copies. I suspect they were created by the violence of my library’s translation into the Under. The true portals are right here in the rooms of my keep.”

  Upala waved her hand indicating the doorway where Nima had already seen the hallway leading to dozens of other rooms, all apparently filled with magical gateways.

  “What of Vihrut?” Nima asked, looking back at the gaping hole in the ceiling. “Jang is in there somewhere. He said he wanted to get to Nepal. We cannot let that happen, there might be no answer for that monster in our world.”

  Nima didn’t know what the addition of Jang’s motivations would mean for Vihrut. The creature could not possibly hope to restore the dynasty the way Jang did, yet the hunger in its voice when it mentioned Nepal was unmistakable.

  “I doubt a creature such as Vihrut could find the portal to your world on its own, much less operate it,” Merin said.

  “I don’t know,” Drew said, shaking his head. “We’ve underestimated Jang before, to our regret. Nima’s right, we have to be prepared to stop Vihrut as well.”

  Upala walked away from the dais, her back straight and her head held high. After a few steps, though, she became unsteady and reached out to an overturned bookcase for support.

  “The portal back to your world is not far from here, just two rooms to the left from the antechamber there,” Upala said. She straightened and walked slowly to a small overturned desk. By taking slower steps, she seemed more secure in her footing. Opening a drawer, she removed several small crystals. Returning, she handed one to Nima―a small blue one―with what looked like white clouds floating in it.

  “There is a chamber down that hallway―seventh room on the right. It’s circular and will contain five portals. The one you seek is the third from doorway.

  “That’s very specific,” Drew said.

  “I have been through this portal before,” Upala said, with a slight twinkle in her eye. “The crystal I gave you, touch the stone once to open the portal. After it is open, take care not to shatter the crystal until you both are through.”

  “Smashing the crystal will shut the portal?” Nima asked.

  “Inside the Under, yes. It would be instant. If the crystal is shattered after passing through to your world it will still start the closing process earlier. Once closed, this Vihrut will have no path back to your world. With any luck, we will have departed as well, and he will be trapped in the Under forever.”

  Nima nodded, pocketing the crystal in her jacket, where it joined Wanda’s pencil. She patted them both, keeping the pair close to her heart.

  “I guess there’s nothing to do except get moving then,” Pasang said, already walking toward the door. He looked back, his eyes filled with a nervousness Nima was all too familiar with. He was checking to see if she was coming.

  Merin knelt, putting her arms around Nima.

  Nima immediately felt safer, more secure. A feeling not unlike being hugged by her grandmother when she was a small child, transporting her to a world where no one, not worms or mothers, could hurt her.

  “Thank you, small one,” Merin said. “Kad would have been honored to call you a Scout, you have his heart and his strength. I shall tell my children of you.”

  Nima returned the embrace, feeling a catch in her breath. She had not thought much about the consequences of getting what they came here for. Now Merin would head back to her home and her children. Bereft of her husband, but also returning to a world of magic and wonders.

  “Shall we be going, my queen?” Merin asked, bowing before Upala.

  A frown crossed her lips and she shook her head. “No, my attendant,” Upala said. “I cannot move forward, I cannot step from this place yet.” Upala lowered her head, her dark braids falling into her eyes. She brushed them aside, her voice shaking as she spoke. “Merin, I am . . . I cannot find the words. All my life, all this time and yet the words fail me much as I have failed you. Failed all of the people I had the power to protect. My focus, my obsession. It caused all of this.”

  Merin nodded, releasing a sigh. She looked up at her queen, taking the woman’s hand. “My husband had a phrase he liked: ‘It is a strength to admit weakness.’ In truth, the blame is not all yours. Your brother launched the attack on our people, on the library. Not you.”

  “No,” Upala said, shaking her head. “My single focus allowed that to happen. I allowed others to make decisions I should have made, others to guard that which I should have been guarding. The cost of my errors―your husband, your children―it staggers me.” Merin stood silently, tears on her cheeks. “I do not ask you to forgive me,” Upala said, kneeling in front of her attendant. “I only ask that you allow me a chance to correct what I can back home. Our home.”

  “I―” Merin stopped, choking on her words. “Kad would forgive you. I don’t know that I can.” She put out her hand, Upala took it and Merin helped the taller woman to her feet.

  “I can honor his memory and sacrifice, though―t
he sacrifices of all our friends. I don’t need to forgive you to work with you,” Merin said.

  Upala nodded, releasing Merin’s hand while allowing her own to hang in the air for a moment. She then placed both her hands in her robe and walked slowly toward the door to the antechamber, Merin taking a place beside her.

  “I suggest we be going,” Upala said.

  Pasang bounced nervously from one foot to the other by the door as everyone walked toward him. Nima thought about the friends who would stay forever in this room―about Wanda and Kaditula. Their sacrifices would mean nothing if she and Drew and Pasang didn’t make it back.

  If all went well, she might be back in Nepal in hours. They’d likely be back on Everest, with a difficult descent ahead of them, but she was confident they could manage. Then they could seek rest and refuge in the Temple before heading back to their father and the village.

  And then? Nima didn’t know what would come after. Pasang would be safe, but what would he do? There would be the farm to look after, and Awa’s failing health. Wanda’s words came back to her, asking her when Nima’s choices would be about what Nima wanted.

  Drew came up alongside her, pulling her out of her thoughts. He put an arm around her shoulder, offering his strength. She could feel nervousness in his movements. The look his eyes confirmed it. He was afraid.

  “Nima, I . . .” He stopped, rubbing his chin the way he did when he couldn’t find the words he wanted. Like a door opening in her mind, she could guess what he was going to ask her.

  Nima held up her hand, smiling. “You are not coming with Pasang and me. You are going with them. With Upala.”

  Drew blinked for a moment, his face frozen. He then broke out in a broad grin, laughing. “I always think you know what I’m thinking―now I’m sure. It’s not what you think though, this is not about her.”

  “I know she’s the woman you met in Kathmandu, but, yes, I know this is not only about her. You think it’s about Merin and Kaditula, but it’s not about them either. It’s about you, Drew.