by Ann Gimpel
“Here.” He did a better job of coiling the nylon loops around his arm. “This is why you don’t walk side by side. I’m bending the rules, though. I’ve waited a long time for this conversation.”
“Better watch it, Robson. You’re slipping. Break one rule, next thing you know—”
He swatted her on the rump. “Not interested in rules right now. Hell, you didn’t tell me anything seven years ago. Just said you couldn’t marry me and walked out of my life.”
“What happened to me here was so bizarre, I couldn’t find words for it. Part of me thought I might be having a late schizophrenic break. Maybe I’d hallucinated the whole thing, including my time in the crevasse.” She blew out an exasperated breath. “Regardless, whether I was going nuts or my life was on the line, I didn’t want to involve you. Didn’t seem fair.”
“It would’ve been better if you’d let me make that choice for myself.” He tried not to sound reproachful, but it leaked out, anyway.
“There was also my ambivalence about anything—marriage and children, for instance—getting between me and the mountains.”
“You still should’ve talked with me.”
“What can I say? It’s the whole caretaker thing. I make decisions for other people all the time. Most of my patients are too sick to be active participants—”
“Tina.” He latched a hand around her arm. “I wasn’t your patient. I was your lover.”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was low. “It doesn’t make it any better, but I’ve suffered from my choices as much as you.”
His head snapped up. “Wind. Can’t feel it yet, but I hear it.”
“Me too. It’s just a faint drone, but it’ll be on us in no time. Let’s hurry. I’ll drop behind. We’re faster when one’s in front. Lay into those afterburners. I won’t have trouble keeping up.”
The terrain steepened. Wind swirled yesterday’s snow into patterns. They looked surreal, glittering in the moonlight. If it didn’t get any worse, they’d be fine. Right now it was less than a minor annoyance. Craig checked his bearing from time to time using the GPS function in his watch. It wasn’t as accurate as the standalone GPS, but it was good enough.
He stopped to tap in another wand, but most of his energy was focused on Tina.
He couldn’t believe his good fortune. The only woman he’d ever wanted as part of his life wasn’t lost to him. Energy pulsed with every step. Tonight, he could’ve climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen and had strength to spare.
“The voices are back. What should I do?”
“Be open to them. Thank them. Ask for their help.”
He clicked on his avalanche transceiver. Nothing. It wouldn’t pick up Gunter’s signal until they were within a hundred feet or so. Craig checked his altimeter. He figured they’d find the German somewhere between seventeen-five and eighteen thousand feet. They were already at seventeen-seven. He pulled the radio out and keyed it. No answer. He tried again. “Gunter!”
“What’s going on?” It was hard to hear Tina over the wind. “He’s not responding?”
“No.” Craig slipped the radio back into his pocket. “But it’s not the top of the hour. His radio is probably off.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and cried, “Gunter!” The wind ripped the word away and made it echo strangely.
Tina climbed up next to him and slammed an axe into the slope to stabilize herself. “Nido de Condores has to be close. My memory is it’s the flat area at the top of this stretch.”
“Let’s go.” He powered up the last hundred feet and came out on a flattened shoulder. The upper mountain rose before him like a prehistoric beast. It was stunningly beautiful, with three of its five summits clearly illuminated by the moon.
“I’ve got a signal!” Tina’s voice held a note of excitement. She raced up behind him. “Angle left about twenty degrees. Transceiver says he’s a hundred and twenty feet from us.”
Craig moved quickly. Ever-present wind had scraped snow off the rocks. His crampon points skittered over uneven blocks of talus. He tilted his transceiver so he could see its display.
Yes!
He held the device flat in his hand and followed the arrow. Digitizing avalanche beacons had been a huge step forward. With the older analog ones, you had to walk a grid to find someone. The DTS Tracker in his hand would lead him right to...
“There he is.” Tina moved around him and bent into wind that was worsening by the minute. She fell to her knees in the snow beneath a huge boulder and turned her headlamp on high. Next she pulled her gloves off and tucked them under one knee, her hands busy at Gunter’s neck before they moved down his body.
“How is he?” Craig asked as he moved up from behind.
“Unconscious. Probably a blessing. Could you help me with more light?”
Craig angled his own headlamp to provide extra light. Once he saw Gunter’s gray face, he opened his mouth to tell Tina not to bother. Before he could say anything, she said, “Move a little farther right. Your light helps a lot.” She slid her pack off and retrieved her medical kit, extracting a syringe with a long needle. Climbers used them to inject medications through their clothes. She pulled three vials out of an inner pocket of her parka and loaded the syringe from them before jamming it into Gunter’s upper thigh.
“What’d you give him?”
“Dex, a broad spectrum antibiotic, and a small dose of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. His heartbeat’s weak and thready. Left femur’s broken, so he’s lost a lot of blood. It’s why his skin is so gray. We’ll need to reduce it—pull the bone back into place—before we try to move him.”
“I know you’re an MD and I’m just a dirtbag climber, but I think he’s dying.”
“He is dying,” she snapped. “But maybe I can alter the odds. I don’t think he has neurological damage. His pupils are equal and reactive to light. His core temperature is low, but that one’s a mixed bag. It’s probably the only reason he’s still alive. His femur’s bled like a stuck pig, and I’m pretty sure an edge of the broken bone clipped a minor vein when it came through the skin. It’s why his pants are soaked with blood.”
“Are you going to give him something for pain?”
“Why? He’s unconscious. Plus, I don’t want to depress his respiratory function any further.”
The wind blew harder. Craig’s instincts, the ones that had kept him alive in many dicey situations, went on high alert. Clouds appeared out of nowhere. The clear sky vanished. Thick snow fell blanketing them. Tina stuffed her hands back into her gloves and jammed them over her ears.
He knelt in the snow next to her and pulled her hands away from the sides of her head. “Talk to me, Tina.”
“They’re shouting at each other in my head. Christ! I finally know how it feels to be mentally ill.”
“Who?”
She tilted the beam of her headlamp out of the way and turned toward him. “Not Mururata, the other two.” She grappled for her medical kit and slid it back into her pack.
“Humph. Seems like a positive development.”
Gunter’s eyes snapped open as if pulled by an unseen puppeteer. They gleamed silver in the beam from his lamp.
“Holy crap!” Running on nerves and intuition, Craig shot to his feet, placed his hands under Tina’s arms, and pulled her against his body.
“What the fuck?” she sputtered, thrashing against him.
“Hush. Look.” He angled his headlamp beam toward Gunter.
“Shit! If I didn’t know better, I’d think—”
Still looking like a marionette, Gunter jerked upright. He took a step toward Tina, mouth contorted in agony. And then another.
“No!” Tina reached for the young German. “Don’t try to—” Her words were drowned out by an unholy shriek.
Craig yanked her back a few more feet. Adrenaline thrummed along his nerves, driving them into high gear. “Your first guess was right,” he ground out. “It’s not Gunter. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was dead before we got her
e. That’s why you haven’t seen Mururata. He’s been busy reanimating a corpse.”
“No. Gunter had a heartbeat when I examined him,” Tina insisted. “Mururata doesn’t.”
Gunter’s body took another step toward them. He extended a claw-like hand. “Your companion is clever. I thought I might be more palatable to you if I took on human form. It is time, doctor. Leave his arms and come to mine.”
“Never,” she shouted over the wind.
In one fluid motion, Craig shoved her behind him. “Head down the mountain, Tina. Do not look back. Go as fast as you can, but don’t take any chances.” He thrust the GPS at her. “The wands are programmed into it.”
“Nice try.” She stomped to his side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him. “We’re doing this together. Climbing buddies, remember? We don’t bug out when the going gets tough.”
Despite the desperateness of their situation, Craig grinned. What a hell of a woman. He eyed Gunter. He’d brought a cylinder of white gas with him. If he got lucky, he could douse the corpse and set it on fire before Mururata could disengage. He reached into his parka for the gas and a lighter.
“Illimani! Illampu!” Tina shouted into the howl of the wind. “I left you my blood. Help us.”
Chapter Eight
Tina screamed for the mountain gods again. She heard Craig mutter something. He took a few fast steps forward and threw something at Gunter. Her nose twitched. White gas.
“No.” She made a lunge for Craig’s arm, but it was too late. His windproof lighter was already flaring like a blowtorch. He chucked it at Gunter. The German’s body flashed into an inferno. The smell of burning flesh rose, thick and cloying, along with the stench of scorched cloth and plastic.
Laughter, malevolent and fey, filled the air. “I feed on heat. It strengthens me. I should thank you, human. Instead I shall kill you. There is ample fire. Come.”
Craig took a jerky step forward. “No!” Tina shrieked. “What are you doing?”
As if he couldn’t hear, Craig took another step.
She pushed between him and the tower of flame that had been Gunter. “Leave him alone,” she snarled at Mururata. “I’m the one you tricked into that bargain. Wouldn’t surprise me if you shoved me into the crevasse. I’m pretty sure-footed. Never did understand how I stumbled and fell that night.”
Craig dropped heavy hands on her shoulders. He was breathing hard. “Thanks. Don’t know what I was thinking.” He pulled her against his body. “We’re stronger together, and we’re not going down without a hell of a fight.”
“Close your mind to his suggestions,” she muttered. “They’re deadly.”
“No shit.”
The fire advanced toward them. Flames sliced between their bodies. Craig jumped away. “Run, Tina. I’ll try to hold him.”
“Like hell.” She scooped snow and smothered a place where his jacket was smoldering. Wind tugged her. She fought it, but her axes were in the snow next to where Gunter had been. It was all she could do to remain upright.
Craig latched on to her arm. Fire crashed down on his hand. He plunged his glove into the snow before it incinerated. His body arched as if something had hit him.
He rose a few feet in the air, spun, and fell, crashing against the snow.
“What have you done to him?” Tina shrieked. She tried to throw her body over Craig’s. Wind pulled her away. She dropped to her knees, slithered to Craig on her belly, and wrapped her arms around him.
“I grow weary of your games. You promised yourself to me. Must I kill your companion to get you to leave his side?” The fire advanced toward her.
“Leave him alone.”
The wind came alive, whipping around her body. No surprise since Mururata was Lord of Air. Heat from the fire made it hard to hold her ground. She clung to Craig, but flames pushed under her gloves, burning her fingers. She wanted to do something, anything, but how could she fight what she couldn’t get close to?
“I will kill him where he lays, human woman. Leave him now.”
Craig’s body writhed and bucked beneath hers. A moan tore from him. She crawled backward. This was her fight, not his. Maybe Mururata would spare him if she played her cards right. “All right,” she gritted. “Let him go. I’m the one who was deranged enough to fall for your bargain.”
Tina staggered to her feet. Her mind churned, and the metallic taste of fear flooded her mouth. There had to be something she could do. Mururata beckoned with a burning arm. Wind gathered behind her. It shoved her hard. She took a step forward because she had no choice. Heat seared her. “If you burn me, I’ll die.”
“You have my blood. You will never die. You must be punished for your hostility toward me. I am your master. It would amuse me if you were to suffer endlessly.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Tina.” Craig’s voice was gravelly. “Run, goddammit.”
“Not without you.”
“How touching,” Mururata snarled. Flames zipped past her. Craig’s jacket caught fire. He rolled in the snow.
Got to get him away from Craig.
Breath clotted in her throat. She grabbed one of Craig’s axes and backed away, fighting against the wind. At least she had a weapon now.
The air shimmered and grew brighter. The glare intensified and separated into two figures. Like Mururata seven years before, they were impossibly tall and draped in luminous robes that shaded through a rainbow of colors. One had blond hair hanging loose to his waist. The other’s was dark. Their eyes were whirling pools of golden light. High cheekbones and sharp noses blended into the most arresting faces she’d ever seen.
Tina wrenched her gaze from Mururata and stared. “Illimani and Illampu?” She bowed her head in a sign of respect.
They ignored her. Both were focused on Mururata. One raised an arm and barked a command. A third figure rose from Gunter’s burning body. Without the god to animate him, the German’s form crashed into the snow and howled piteously.
Good god. How could he still be alive? Tina stared in horror at the burning body. She screamed at Gunter to roll in the snow. Either he didn’t understand or he was beyond being able to help himself.
Craig groaned, rolled over, and staggered to his feet. “Nothing you can do for him,” he croaked. “White gas and nylon is a lethal combination.”
The god who’d raised his arm shifted his attention. Tina felt it as a command deep in her mind. She gazed at the pulsating light and shielded her eyes. “Illimani?”
“Nay. I am Illampu. Mururata told us you wished to become his queen.”
“Never. He tricked me.”
“She was willing to accept my help when her life hung in the balance,” Mururata growled. His voice was tinny. He sounded different than Illampu. “All assistance comes with a price.”
“Is it true you welcomed his aid?” Illampu asked.
Tina squared her shoulders, grateful Illampu was using English. It was accented and archaic, but at least she could understand him. She considered what to say. Not much point in lying. As impossible as it seemed, these were gods. “Yes, I accepted his help. I was even grateful for it. I was trapped in a crevasse. Would have died there if he hadn’t interceded. I agreed to his terms because—”
A piteous cry rose from Gunter. “Please.” Tina held out both hands. “Could you put out the fire? He’s suffering.”
Illimani shifted slightly from his stance near Illampu. Snow gathered itself from the mountainside and crashed atop Gunter. Tina raced to his side. Craig followed. Together, they pulled the German’s smoking body out from under a foot of powdery snow. He moaned. His eyes flickered open, their normal dark brown again.
“Please.” His gaze sought hers. “Hurts,” he moaned.
She grappled with her pack, got a syringe, and filled it with morphine. “Craig. Can you cut through what’s left of his jacket and the clothing beneath so I can find a vein?” Tina held the syringe in her mouth and stripped off her gloves.
“Ye
ah. I’m not hurt. More dazed than anything.” Craig dug for a pocket knife. Charred bits scattered when he cut the burned fabric away. Some of it had bonded with Gunter’s skin. “Good enough?” He glanced at her.
She jimmied what was left of the sleeve up another couple inches, looped a tourniquet around Gunter’s arm, and hunted for a vein. “Okay,” she breathed. “Got one.” Tina threaded the needle home and loosed the tourniquet. “Hush,” she murmured. “Relax. It will be like going to sleep.”
Tears filled her eyes. She’d helped more than one terminally-ill patient cross the veil when their life became untenable. It was never easy. It felt too much like playing God. Between burns, exposure, and blood loss, Gunter would die, anyway. The least she could do was see he didn’t suffer more than he already had. He’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. If Mururata hadn’t been lying in wait for her, Gunter would probably still be alive.
Tina rocked back on her heels. It was done. The young German’s body relaxed. He’d finally moved beyond pain. Not dead yet, but soon. She glanced over at the mountain gods. What would happen next?
“We conferred while you eased the human man to the place beyond,” Illampu said. “Since you did give our brother your word, we believe it binds you.”
“Ha!” Mururata moved closer. “Leave off your worthless ministrations. The man was as good as dead when I came across him. Prepare to leave. You are mine now.”
Tina’s stomach clenched. “Like hell I am,” she snarled. She pulled the syringe from Gunter’s arm and clutched it in a hand. “Just try to take me.” She withdrew more morphine from the vial in her pocket. “I’ll kill myself before I let that happen.”
Craig yanked the syringe from her and chucked it into the snow a few feet away. His green eyes blazed. “I will not let you throw your life away. You’re everything that’s strong and beautiful and good.” He sprang to his feet and faced the three gods. “I love this woman. She’s agreed to be my wife. Her bargain with Mururata must be severed.”