by D. H. Dunn
“I understand, I would worry too,” Drew said. “We’ll get down there as fast as we can, though I have to admit I am not sure where this lower library is.”
The wind whipped up, tearing through his hair and sending a wave of cold through him, starting in his ears and running to his feet. He scrunched his toes in his boots while rubbing his ears with his hands, grateful he had gloves. It was not as cold as he had been on Everest, but it was still cold enough for frostbite if he wasn’t careful.
Merin pulled a blue knit cap out of her pack and handed it to Drew. Pulling it onto his head, it fit snugly, but immediately he felt some relief for his ears.
“Kad’s hat,” she offered, now looking out over the cloud-covered horizon, the sun just over it now. Pulling it back off his head, Drew held the simple, blue cap in his hands, the knitting frayed in places. A flicker of anger rose inside him at the memory of the small, cheerful man. Another crime on Kater’s ledger, the fact that Upala’s brother was now dead only a small comfort.
When they reached the lower library, if her children were safe Merin would have to tell them what had happened to their father. He had been on one end of that conversation himself, his own father angrily describing his mother’s suicide to him. Leaving in no uncertain terms whose fault her death was.
“Thank you. I know it might not help you to hear this, but I’ll do everything I can to honor his sacrifice. Without Kaditula, we’d all be in the Under and we’d have no chance to help your children. What Kad did, he did for us all.”
Merin’s shoulders hunched and Drew could hear a soft sob. She stood still for a moment, then turned to him. He could still see the tears in her eyes, he admired her bravery for allowing him to see her grief.
“Thank you, Drew. I know your words would mean a lot to him, were he here. When we first made this climb together, passing through the doors to the upper library, I never imagined that we’d never...” She looked past him to the ruins behind them. “You are correct, we are here now because of his sacrifice, but also of Wanda’s Not to mention Nima’s and yours. You both gave up much to see me returned home to my family.”
Drew nodded. “Nima.” The small sound of her name seemed lost among the snow and clouds. “I hope she is all right, I mean I just hope she found a way to be happy wherever she is.”
“I hope that too. It looks to me that you have found some happiness, Drew. I want you to know that seeing you with Upala, knowing that it may ease the pain on your soul, it does make me happy, as it would Kad. Whatever feelings I might have toward Upala, I will try to keep Kad’s views in my heart as well. He always saw the sunlight in all things.”
“Were he here, I’m sure he could help us scout a path down to this lower library,” Drew said. “His ability to find his way through the Under was amazing.”
“He’d love to hear you say that too,” Merin said with a chuckle. “Odd to speak this, but even Kater would be a help were he here.”
Drew’s anger rose inside him at the mention of Upala’s brother, the reason so much had gone wrong.
“I hate to speak his name,” Merin said. “Yet, he has climbed both your mountain as well as Ish Rav Partha. He might know how to relate to you the location we need to reach. I myself have only been there on rare occasions.”
“I have made many mistakes,” Upala said, walking from the tent to join them. “Not allowing you more access to the libraries was one of them, Merin.”
Drew’s heart beat faster just at the sight of Upala, her olive skin contrasting with the white fur of her garments. She looked so majestic and regal he expected the snow to part in front of her as she walked toward the path leading out of the clearing. She smiled at Merin, motioning with a gloved hand for Drew to take the lead.
Drew was about to comment on his surprise that Upala wanted him to break trail down the mountain, but the ice in Merin’s stare froze his words before he could speak them.
“I would rank keeping me from my children to enforce my service as a higher error. My lady,” Merin said, pushing past Drew and heading down the path, one hand on the rope guides that had been nailed into the side of the mountain. A few strands of the tall woman’s dark hair peeked out from under her knit cap, moving slightly with the wind.
The smile fell away from Upala’s face as she watched the woman leave. Drew frowned, feeling for Upala, yet understanding Merin’s reaction. After all that had happened, and her own children’s fate in question, what had Upala expected?
“It’s going to take time,” he said, putting his hand on Upala’s shoulder.
“I am going to have to become accustomed to that, Drew,” she said, slowly exhaling into the frigid air where it clouded then dissipated. “There are many who will have grievances with me, and I am no longer the person I was. I cannot look at the Rakhum as I once did, where once I saw tools I now see victims. There is part of me that wishes to stay up here, in this upper library with you. Ruined by Kater or not, that place was my home, not where we are headed. It is overwhelming.”
“I can imagine some of what you are feeling,” Drew said, his mind again going back to that house in Oregon, which had become at once so empty, but also so filled with anger and blame.
“The Rakhum like to say that Kater and I, as Manad Vhan, we have no fears save the Dragons, but I am afraid now. I am afraid of the anger of these people, and how justified it is.”
Drew frowned, the stones in his mind piling up one by one as he learned more about Upala’s time with Merin’s people.
“Let’s get to this lower library, and that will be a good start,” Drew said, taking her gloved hand and coaxing her toward the path. “One boot and then the next, we can deal with what we find when we get there.”
Drew’s tension was already high when the attack came.
Leading them down a shelf made mostly of freshly fallen snow, he had first insisted they all tie off to each other, doing so over Merin’s protests. He had acknowledged there was still a roped path connected to the rock wall the trail was hugging, but the avalanche danger still looked too high. All it would take would be for one of their fingers to slip off the rope and that person would be headed for the end. To their right was an angled sheet of deep powder for about a hundred feet, and then an abyss.
He supposed being a Manad Vhan, Upala would survive such a fall, but there would be no chance for Merin or himself.
From that point, things had only gotten worse. The wind picked up, pushing cold gusts in from the east and bringing with it drifts of snow that limited their visibility. Warmer than Everest or not, it was still cold enough that Drew felt confident frostbite was a danger if they delayed. They needed to get down to that lower library, it would be easier than trying to retreat to the ruins higher up on the mountain.
The view ahead of him became so clouded that Drew almost didn’t see the roped path’s frayed end, nearly grabbing on to empty air. He came to a dead stop, the snow as deep as his shins and now nothing but the rock wall to guide them farther.
“Shit,” he muttered, hearing a confused grunt behind him as Upala bumped into him.
He put his back to the wall, taking a moment to get his breath and try to survey the path ahead. Now facing the long sheet of snow that loomed like a slide waiting to take them all to the bottom of the mountain, he saw three lights in the sky. Light blue, they twinkled at him, growing in intensity.
Stars in the middle of the day? He squinted through the snow-filled wind. The stars were arcing toward them now, getting larger as they sped closer.
“Snowslicks!” Merin’s call sounded distant, torn away by the wind the moment Drew heard it. He only had time to grab his ax off his belt before the small blue charges landed about twenty feet in front of them, a wave of energy coursing through the snow as each one impacted.
The snow around them seemed to ripple, then became so smooth and shiny Drew’s eyes were momentarily blinded. He was off his feet before he knew it had happened.
The world now sliding b
y him in a blur, Drew whipped his ax in arc over his head, holding on to it with both hands.
He slammed it downward, trying to drive it into the new ice with enough force to arrest their fall.
A ping sound was his only indication of failure, the ax snapping from its wooden handle as Drew slid away from the useless metal at an increasing speed.
Grunting, he kicked his feet into the ground but the ice was too solid and he could find no purchase. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder, knowing the drop would be coming ever closer.
A red spark lit off in the corner of his vision, as Upala began shooting small flames from her hands. She had her arms wide, keeping the fire away from the rope holding them together. Drew felt himself sliding lower into the speeding surface underneath him, Upala’s magic turning the ice to a mix of snow and slush.
With nothing else to arrest with, Drew pushed his arms and legs as deep as he could into the mixture, immediately feeling his velocity slow and the pull of the rope increase.
It was working, but it wasn’t enough. Just one glance told Drew that.
Inside the slush he spread his fingers wide, hoping to just grab on to something even if the jolt was likely to pull his hand right off his arm. He felt gravel beneath the snow, and then finally rock. He pushed his arm further in the direction of the sharp stone under the slush, hoping for a miracle.
There was a wrenching of his left forearm and the world suddenly stopped, all of Drew’s senses becoming an explosion of pain that ran from his left shoulder up to his wrist. For a moment, he could not see or hear, his mind refused to do anything but process the pain.
Then slowly the world returned. His face was cold and wet, those two facts leaking in through the agony. Through blurred vision he could see Upala lying below him, a few feet farther down the mountain, fire still jetting out of one of her hands. A shape moved in the distance past Upala, crawling up towards them through the snow.
The shape became Merin, who approached them and appeared to be injury free. A wave of exhaustion ran through him, and he laid his head down in the wet snow. His arm throbbed to the point where he could barely feel it, but it was enough.
They were alive. Likely all it cost him was his arm, now shredded by the rocks and blazing with pain as it lay embedded in the snow.
He cried out at the pain through gritted teeth, his voice muffled by the slush. The cold mixture dribbled into his mouth. His arm felt as if he’d never use it again. He supposed it was a small price to pay.
Still dazed, Drew slowly removed his arm out of the crimson patch of snow. Pulling his sleeve up, he found several long gashes running half the length of his arm. Blood was everywhere, the flesh pulled open by the force of the ice and rock, exposing muscle and tissue.
“Drew, your arm--oh, by the Hero!” Upala cried as she ran to him.
His stomach lurched at the sight. His right arm had been sliced open from wrist to elbow and he was losing blood fast. There was little pain, but he felt more warmth and a tingling sensation was filling the limb quickly. Shock, he supposed.
“Create a bandage!” Merin shouted at Upala, who was already tearing strips of her coat.
The two women shared a look of intensity, but Drew could not bring his mind to focus on them. The tingling was growing and now his whole arm felt as if it was on fire. He yelled, fresh pain hitting him.
“Haste!” Merin shouted, taking the strips and wrapping it around the top of his injury. Drew continued to scream, the searing around the injury focusing on his wrist. After a moment, he realized Merin’s hands were no longer moving. She was frozen, staring at Drew’s wrist with both ends of the makeshift bandage lying uselessly in her hands. Upala’s mouth hung open, staring at the same sight.
“Deeds of Orami Feram,” Upala muttered.
Drew looked at his wrist, where the pain was greatest. Though still covered in blood, the skin was closing back up on its own. It looked to Drew as if there were a zipper inside his arm that was slowly being pulled back together. The intensity of the burning moved with the closure up his arm, the cut now only running from his elbow to halfway up his forearm. He watched horrified, his mouth still open but no longer screaming.
“What the hell?”
Within moments, the wound was completely closed. The warmth and tingling sensation continued inside his arm, Drew could sense bones stitching themselves back together and tissues reconnecting.
Impossibly, his arm was healing itself.
Chapter 5
By the time Drew crested the last hill and the entrance to the lower library was in sight, his arm seemed completely normal, though he still felt light-headed from the loss of blood, as well as the shock of what had happened to him.
His arm had become usable only moments after the injury, though it had retained a sense of heat for several minutes, feeling like the inside of his forearm was filled with some sort of boiling liquid.
His arm had returned to normal, but Drew had not. The high winds and the urgency of their descent had kept him from discussing what had happened with Upala and Merin, but his mind tore around this strange regenerating of his flesh all the way down.
He had expected to deal with more of these “snowslicks” as Merin had called them. They were a trap of sorts, Upala had clarified. Invented by Kater and left until someone in proximity triggered them. Why they were here or who had left them, neither Merin nor Upala could say.
With no further hazards present, he continued to fixate on his bizarre recovery. The more he thought about it, the more confused Drew became.
Injuries did not magically heal themselves, and yet that was just what he had seen. Upala and Merin had been just as shocked and seemed to know no more than he did, Merin even going so far as to ask him if this had happened to him before.
What was happening to him?
The winds and snow held no more answers for him than his companions, the pit in his stomach only tightening as they finally made it down the mountain face to the approach of the library.
The plateau on which the structure lay corresponded with the Western Cwm on Everest for Drew, and it brought them finally below the cloud level and allowed him to see more of the world he had entered. Below them was the Khumbu, the icefall present much as he would expect it to be, though it was much shorter than the one he had been through in Nepal. At its end, it curved into a small river which split a broad, dusty plain nearly in two. The plains sat in a bowl surrounded by mountains that seemed familiar. Peering into the low mist that hung over the area, he could make out the distinctive peaks of Nupste, Lobuche, and Ama Dablam. Just to his left, Mount Lhoste rose into the mist alongside its sister mountain, Everest.
Ish Rav Partha, he reminded himself. He wasn’t on Everest anymore, and he needed to look no farther than his right forearm for proof of that.
The entrance to Upala’s lower library lay about a hundred feet before him, seemingly built into what he would consider the Lhotse face. It was little more than an open doorway carved into the stone and a few torn flags tied to spikes driven into the ground. Upala and Merin had both spoken of the library in reverent tones, but whatever inspired that reverence must be inside.
Several sets of footprints led from the entrance back down the mountain, some of them fresher than others. Drew noticed one set of massive circular prints, perhaps some beast native to the area.
He looked over his shoulder at Merin coming down off the mountain route and onto the plateau first. Upala was several steps behind her, the white fur of her clothing making her garb almost invisible against the snow.
He resolved to press Upala for more answers on his arm, but for now he would wait. The flares and the attack during their descent meant that Merin’s children might be in danger, and that had to be their focus.
Yet even as he looked at her, a swell rose inside him, a mixture of desire and curiosity, sparked just by the small details he could see from this distance.
He felt a brief tinge of shame that he might have
such a base reaction to her, even in such tense circumstances.
“Hail!” a male voice came across the plains.
Drew turned toward the sound. He braced himself for an attack, but it was only a tall, thin man running toward him with both arms over his head, waving conspicuously from a great distance away, close to the entrance to the Library.
He was dressed in a heavy looking brown robe with a long, wool cap pulled over his head. To Drew, he looked like a man preparing for bed, not running across a snow-filled plain.
The man continued forward, a thin, red sash now visible across the front of his robe. He was a younger man than he had at first thought, yet still a few years older than Drew. Wisps of thin brown hair poked out from his hat, framing a long oval face, with pale cheeks flushed from exertion. The man smiled, a gesture that seemed more nervous than joyful.
“Good sir,” he said, hunched a bit as he caught his breath. “I have been watching your descent with Miss Merin and our lady.” The man stopped again, his chest still heaving. “My apologies, I am not comfortable with this altitude.”
“It’s all right,” Drew said, holding up his hands. “I’m just the guide here. My name is Drew. Drew Adley.”
The pale man smiled again, showing more teeth this time. “Drew Adley, thank you for your name. Mine is Trillip, a short one but I hope to grow it as time goes--ah, Miss Merin.”
Merin came charging up next to Drew, her face a mixture of relief and concern. “Trillip, oh Trillip. It is good to see you are all right. Are my children, Arix and Lam here? Can you tell me--”
Trillip’s smile broadened. “The children, they are here and they are fine, Miss Merin. I lit the flares before entering the library, so as to warn anyone above in the Keep that I suspected trouble. Ingenious children, your pair. Especially your daughter. Ah so many clouds this dark day, but in her I can see one sunray. Your children hid during the incident I discovered. They are waiting for you inside. It is for them that I ran out to meet you, no offense to this good guide of yours.”