by D. H. Dunn
“Yes,” Tanira said. “I have seen it. Once our task is complete, I can take you to it.”
The Thread coiled forward, moving so close to Tanira’s face she could count the lavender scales upon its snout. His two eyes locked onto hers, a gaze that was nearly physical in its push.
Tanira held her ground, using her exercises as she kept her breathing steady, her jaw set. She would not be intimidated, not after coming this far.
“Then, small Rakhum,” the Thread said. “Let us parley.”
Chapter 2
Nima walked alongside Drew, the pair moving down the narrow corridor inside the Temple of the Hero. Her footsteps echoed into the dark depths that stretched out before her, mixing with the soft, lonely wind that ran through the mountain passageways.
Cradled in her left arm, Lhamu slept peacefully, as if there was not a thing to worry about in the world. The glowing white crystal in the Caenolan infant’s forehead illuminated the path in front of Nima. If not for her, they would be walking in complete darkness.
Lhamu’s tranquil expression aside, there was much Nima was concerned about. With no way out, each day their supply of food would diminish, and they had no source of heat. Not to mention Merin being possibly lost somewhere in the dark labyrinth of the ancient Manad Vhan temple and the idea that somewhere on another world, Tanira was using the opportunity Nima had given her to cause more harm.
Her mind flashed back to the moment she had found Tanira, one hand clinging to life over a drop from Varesta that would surely have been fatal. I could’ve left her there, she thought. She could have prevented all of this.
She knew that was a lie. Even if she had known all that would happen after, Nima still would have gone to Tanira’s aid. Like her grandfather had said to her on one of their many walks through the woods of Nepal, You see someone in need, you don’t walk away.
“You seem as lost in thought as that little baby does.”
Drew’s voice, from just behind her. The two of them had quickly tired of the arguing between Upala and Kater, a process that started the moment the old man had revealed himself. After some stalling, Kater had finally revealed that Merin had restored him and was still alive in the temple. They quickly had run off in search of her.
Now she and Drew walked side by side down the narrow corridor. Troubles still followed them, but Nima felt safer than she had in a long time. She put her arm around Drew, reaching up to hold his shoulders. If nothing else had gone right, her big brother was here and that made things better.
“I am, I guess,” she said. Lhamu stirred for a moment, then nestled back in against her. “A lot has changed.”
Her dark hair fell back into her eyes. She blew it out of her vision, but it landed right back where it had been.
“So, Drew.” Her voice echoed down the hallway as they walked along. “Now that we’re finally alone, I have some questions for you.”
Beside her, she heard his sharp intake of breath. Typical Drew, she thought, a little warmth coming to her heart. Always worried. It was good to have him back.
“Sure,” he said. “That’s fair. Shoot.”
“Okay.” Nima stopped, turning to Drew and squinting at him in the dim light provided by Lhamu’s glowing head crystal. “So, how are you shaving?”
“What?” Drew’s face scrunched up in a funny way, like it always did when she confused him.
“Your face,” she nodded at his fairly smooth cheeks, only showing a hint of a day or two’s stubble. “It’s shaved. How are you doing that? Did you bring a razor through the portal?”
He shook his head at her, his laughter bouncing off the stone walls.
“That’s your question? All of … this. All that’s happened and you want to know how I am shaving?”
Nima smiled up at him. It was fun to tweak him like this, nearly as fun as teasing Pasang. There was a lot she wanted to know, but this was a good, safe place to start.
“Big brother, you climb a mountain from the bottom.”
“Fair enough,” he said, throwing up his hands in a mock surrender. He fished into a leather pouch he had tied to his belt and pulled out a small knife. Its sharp edge glinted in the light.
“I found this in one of Upala’s libraries,” he said. “It’s nothing I could fight with, but it gets the job done.”
Nima nodded, looking at the blade while shifting Lhamu to her other arm.
“Think it can cut my hair?” She shook her head, letting the dark strands fall down into her face, feeling them tickle the back of her neck.
“Sure, little sister.” Drew said with a laugh. “But, right now?”
“Please! It’s getting in my eyes and I hate that! Just chop it, okay. I don’t care how it looks.”
Stepping closer, Drew gently took the front bangs of her hair into his hands and began working the knife across them. Nima held one arm over Lhamu’s face, to cover her from the falling strands.
“So what’s it like?” Nima said as Drew worked. “Being magic I mean?” She had seen Drew perform some of the same spells as Kater and Upala when they were fighting Tanira. There would be a story there on how Drew even got this ability, but looking in his eyes she wasn’t sure he knew.
“It’s, uh … complicated.” He shifted to her left side, carefully moving the hair away from her ear. “I guess I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
“I saw you shooting fire from your hands, like Kater. Can you make those shields too?”
He sighed as she shifted to her back. She felt him chop the hair away from her shoulders, the small relief was a bright moment. The air felt cool on her neck.
“I can’t seem to figure the shields out,” he said. “Maybe it will come to me in time.”
Moving to her right side, Drew took a moment to reach out with his free hand and touch Lhamu’s glowing crystal. The Caenolan infant’s deep, dark eyes followed his movements with a look of wonder.
“My turn,” he said. “Tell me about Lhamu. She’s beautiful – but where did she come from?”
“She’s…” Nima’s voice trailed off as she looked down at the tiny, blue form she held. Once the harbinger of her people’s doom, now she was adrift, as disconnected from any real home as Nima was.
“Well, I met someone,” Nima said as Drew put the finishing touches on her bangs from the right side. “Someone here on this world. I helped him save his people, the Caenolans. Lhamu was one of them.”
“This guy,” he asked, taking a hand to carefully brush the hair from her cheeks. “Did he have a name?”
She felt dampness growing in her eyes as the memories came back to her, the loss only a yesterday away. A kiss at sunset, followed by blood on the snow.
“Val,” she said, her voice cracking. “He was … he was very brave.”
Drew wiped the single tear that ran down her cheek away. He didn’t speak, and she didn’t blame him. What could he say? Nothing that would change the hurt inside her when she thought of Val. She felt hollow, like an empty crevasse lay within her that might never be filled.
Yet her big brother’s presence made things seem a little better, the shadows of the long stone hallway a bit less ominous.
She ran her free hand through her hair, a cascade of smaller dark strands falling in front of her. It felt lighter, clearer. It was good to get that extra weight off.
“Thanks,” she said, looking up at him and smiling. He put one big arm around her shoulder as they continued their walk down the passage. She could think of a hundred dark times in her life when the comfort of Drew’s arm would have been a blessing, but she was glad to have it now.
“I’m surprised you didn’t try to use that knife on Kater,” she said. She needed to change the subject, it was too easy to see Val’s face in every shadow of the passage. “I know he thinks he’s a big help, but I’m sure we’d find our way out on our own.”
“At least Kater gave us one thing,” Drew said, pulling out his canteen and taking a long drink. “He knew where the water was
in this place.”
Nima had been horrified to see the grinning, smug face of Kater again. Of course, he had immediately started bragging about what a big help he would be to them, and at first refused to explain how he had returned.
Yet she had to admit, he had been immediately useful. Drew’s companion Upala had understood little of the Hero’s temple beyond its location, but Kater had known several valuable facts about the structure. Not far from where they had fought Tanira, something Kater called the antechamber, he had directed them to a natural spring with fresh water flowing forth from a bubbling hole in the ground.
Once he finally admitted Merin had brought him back, Drew, Nima, and Upala had quickly rushed out to look for her, leaving Kater to impress himself.
Nima accepted the canteen from Drew, wishing the water was not so cold. Yet, everything was cold.
“After we find Merin, we will need to focus on a way out of here.” It was obvious, she felt silly saying it but she wanted to talk about something that wasn’t Tanira or Val.
“Yeah, food is going to be an issue. At least we’ve got the water from the spring, so that won’t be a problem,” Drew said. The long passage continued ahead of them, giving no sign of a direction change or any doorways.
She pulled Lhamu a little tighter to her, thinking of the poor baby dying of cold. She wouldn’t let that happen.
“What about you, do you still get cold or hungry. . .” her voice trailed off as she noticed a dim light farther down the passage. Squinting into the dark, she could see it was square and had an emerald hue. Her heart leaped for a moment, hoping they were approaching a door, perhaps even a door that led out of the mountain.
Then the cube of green moved toward them.
“What the hell is that?” Drew asked, his mouth agape. He now stood still next to her, both of them frozen as they stared at the strange sight. “Something you have seen?”
The cube was shorter and narrower than the hallway, the green light coming from either the surface or from somewhere inside it. It was still several meters away, but it seemed as if Nima might be able to see through it if it were closer, like it was made of green glass or ice.
It moved silently, the top edge of the cube bulging out until it fell forward. It would pause for a moment, as if settling in to its new position, then it would repeat the process.
“I have seen nothing like that,” Nima whispered. The light from Lhamu’s crystal reflected on the object as it slowly clunked its way closer. She could see little bubbles moving inside the green, like the cube was filled with liquid. There was a dangerous urge inside her she knew well, to explore and investigate.
The small being in her arms was more important than that urge. She backed away, Drew following suit while both continued to watch the cube. It was just wide enough that there was no way they could run around it, and close enough to the ceiling they could not leap over it.
“Whatever this is, we should keep our distance for now,” Drew said. Nima didn’t hear fear in his voice, she was not sure that she ever had, but he did drop his tone to the serious level he usually only used when they were climbing.
“Yeah, we need to go.” She allowed her concern to leak into her voice, raising the volume as her words echoed down the corridor.
As Nima spoke, the cube froze for a fraction of a second, a faint vibration rippling across its surface. It then leaned toward them, tumbling end over end at a much more rapid pace.
“Run!” Nima yelled, turning and headed back down the passage, Drew right behind her. Around Nima, the green glow began to grow brighter.
Chapter 3
Upala sat on the cold stone with her legs dangling off the edge, the drop into the darkness below her surely enough to kill any mortal. Far to the left of her was a long platform that led out over the abyss, a small dais at the edge of the structure.
Merin stood in front of the dais, facing away from Upala with her hands flat on the plain surface. All around her were the remains of smashed pottery and ornate sculpture, the sound of their destruction having led Upala here.
Merin’s shoulders shook, as they had since Upala arrived and quietly sat. She was certain Merin knew she was there, but she had said nothing. Finally, Merin’s voice broke the silence, her small tone nearly swallowed up by the yawning depths of the darkness below them.
“You do not ask the question ‘why,’ yet I know that is what you are wondering.” The anger in her voice was clear.
“I do not need to know why, Merin,” Upala said. “I am only pleased to find you, see that you are safe.”
“I came to bring him back. Since the moment Sinar told me of this place, it was all I could think of. I would return my love to this world, give my children their father back, who had been wrongly taken from them.”
Upala recalled her conversation with Merin after the woman had rescued her from the Yeti. Merin had been angry that Upala had neglected to tell her of the artifact present in the temple that might restore her lost husband to her. Even at the time, she had thought it might be a cruel trick from Sinar, who seemed to take delight in hurting people emotionally in a way even her brother never did.
Apparently, the artifact had been real and Merin had used it, but not to bring back her lost husband, but rather Upala’s brother, the very man who was indirectly responsible for Kaditula’s death.
“I held it, held it over my head ready to smash the artifact on this altar. It would bring him back--I cannot say how I knew what to do, it was as if they chamber itself was in my mind. I would break the relic and Kad would be returned. My mistake would be undone.”
Upala did not fully understand why Merin viewed her husband’s death as her mistake, but she knew that Merin’s daughter had been angry with her mother for her inaction during that time.
Perhaps that was the cause, but the greater mystery was the one Merin referred to.
Why when given a second chance at happiness, an opportunity to return her love to her life, why would she choose to restore Kater, for whom she had nothing but contempt?
Merin turned, allowing Upala to see the tears streaming down her face. The glare of anger filled her eyes, her fists clenched and shaking.
“Because of you, Upala. I could not do it because of you.”
Because of me? “I-I do not understand.”
“I judged you. Even as I forgave you as we walked away from the Yeti, I still judged you, Upala.”
Merin folded her arms, looking down at Upala as she continued.
“A few words and deeds cannot erase all that you had done. Disconnected, shortsighted. Above all, selfish. All these centuries putting what you wanted ahead of what was best for the people who depended on you. Failing to use your power to help those who needed you to protect them.”
“But Merin, your children. . .”
“It is for my children that I did this!” She slapped her hands down on the stone altar, the sound echoing through the chamber. “Our world is not what it was. There is more threat than you and Kater now. I have seen the Under, seen a monster like Vihrut. Another Manad Vhan, Sinar, more powerful and casual with his violence than either you or your brother. Now Dragons are to be unleashed upon our home?”
Heat rose inside Upala as she thought about all Merin had been through, the shame that seemed carved inside her now, at times covered by dust but easily revealed again.
How much of this, all of this, is on my shoulders? Could I have prevented it all?
The Line could never have sent Upala, Kater, Kaditula and Merin to the Under, this woman Tanira could never have reached Sirapothi if she and her brother had not researched it.
And now the Dragons could return. The Fears of old, given freedom again.
“What could Kad do against a Dragon?” Merin continued. “What could any Rakhum do? We would be like wheat to them, felled without effort or even notice.”
Upala folded her hands, her pulse rising. The truth of her brother’s return brought with it a conflicting set of emo
tions. Fear, concern and even hope had fought for her attention. Yet Merin’s emotions regarding Kater were clear, making her choice all the more shocking.
“So I brought him back. It was my choice, my decision. I restored one of the subjugators of my people. Your brother, the man who is responsible for Kad’s death.”
Upala walked toward Merin, taking care on the narrow stone platform out to the altar. Merin’s anger was great, but Upala now understood it was not directed at her. Not completely.
“Do you know what he did when I restored him? When he appeared before me, standing right here on this altar in a flash of light?” Merin waved her arm to indicate where Kater must have materialized. “He simply--”
“--he walked right past you, like you were not even there. Is that correct?” Upala didn’t need the confirmation. She knew her brother too well.
“Yes. . . yes that is right.” The muscles in Merin’s jaw clenched as she spoke. Upala shook her head.
“Just as Sinar would have, just as I would have in the past.” It was true, there was no reason to pretend it was not. She may not have used the Rakhum and controlled them as Kater had, but she had considered their needs and concerns just as beneath her. The carving of her shame truly ran deep into the stone of her history and her crimes might be too great to redeem, but she did not intend to add another to the list.
This woman. This scholar and mother. This reluctant warrior. She had been hurt enough.
“We are making choices now, you and I. What is past is past--what we do here and now is all we have. Come with me, Merin. Come with me and make him earn that choice you made. My brother is a fool, but he is a powerful fool. He may indeed be the chance we need not just to escape this place, but to save our home, yours and mine. Save your children.”
“What of after, Upala?” Merin stared at her. “After the Dragons are gone, if that can somehow be achieved?”
“After, Merin, you and I will put your people back together. We will reunify Rogek Shad and Nalam Wast, if that is the Rakhum’s will. No more will Kater and I rule over you, neither by his boot, nor my apathy.”
