by D. H. Dunn
Now, all she wanted to do was stay. The sight of this machine, clearly a creation of the Hero and his mysterious companion, rekindled a flame she had tried to keep cold, the ashes of her intellect roaring back to life at the sight of this new, fascinating puzzle.
“I asked you a question,” Nima said, staring up at her. The woman’s hands were on her hips as she looked back and forth between Upala and the machine around them.
Upala turned, having to pull her vision away from the gears and pulleys. The small woman looked back up at her, arms folded.
“Yes. Yes,” Upala said, the vision of the machine’s complexities teasing her mind like a rasi sakta. “The portal is in here. This room. Somewhere.”
“By the Hero!” Kater’s voice, bouncing off the ins and outs of the machine, seemed to come from everywhere as he strode into the room. Drew and Merin followed closely, both of their heads twisting and turning to try and take in the sight.
Upala ran to Kater, her hands clamping to his forearm as she peered into his eyes. Seeing past the beard and the lines of age the Under had added, looking for the brother she once knew underneath.
“Is it not amazing, Kater?” she exclaimed. “Do you know of it? Have any of your digs or studies found record of this?”
“No,” Kater said. His voice carried a tone of wonder as he craned his neck above them, where metal and stone interlocked constructs seemed to stretch into the darkness.
When had he last sounded like that, like there was still something in the world to humble him?
“No, nothing like this, Upala. I can see Manad Vhan designs and patterns in this, but there is more here. Hints of other inspirations.”
There was a tug on her arm, Upala only barely resisting the urge to pull her hand away. The touch of Drew’s skin on hers was reassuring, bringing a feeling of warmth and safety. Despite the worry in his tone, everything seemed a little less urgent.
She needed to see this, to study this.
“Upala, the portal,” Drew said, giving her arm a slight tug. “We have to get to the portal.”
He was pulling her toward the path into the depths of the machine, where she had indicated to Nima the portal was located. Even now the Sherpa picked her way into the dense construct, Merin attempting to follow.
“Yes. Yes, of course.” Her feet moved along with Drew, but her eyes looked everywhere but forward, fascinated with each strange element of the vast machine.
Nima had picked an opening between two massive stone gears, both standing parallel just a hair’s breadth off the ground. Upala had to duck under the axle joining the two, and placed one hand on the stone shaft. She thought she could feel the coolness of metal blended with the rock.
Bringing her head up, she was inside the interior of the machine itself. There was more open space here, even though the margins of her vision were cluttered with the same valves and arms, all right angles and sharp edges.
The open space was huge in its own right and generally spherical in shape. At floor level in the sphere were more than a dozen huge, stone platforms. Upala guessed twenty men could be placed on each. Long tubes of a yellowish metal ran from each of the platforms to a sort of stone bowl in the center of the room, apparently designed to catch their contents. The bowl itself was enormous, the sides of it taller than Nima as she worked her way around it.
“Upala, are you counting?” It had been centuries since she had heard Kater’s voice so excited. “Count them!”
“Fourteen platforms!” she cried. “One for each of the Fourteen Fears!” Somehow this machine was connected to the Dragons, there was enough room on each platform that orbited the bowl for one of the massive beasts. The long copper tubes to collect blood? Tears? Essence? She had no idea.
She ran to the edge of the massive object, standing on the tips of her toes and peering over the edge.
Though there was no trace of what it might have collected, it was not empty. What did lay in the depths of the bowl’s interior shocked her sufficiently that she grasped Kater’s shoulder, gasping. Next to her he chuckled, she knew he was as amazed as she was by the sight.
The others had already walked past and were at the opposite end of the chamber where another maze of gears, axles and pipes awaited. She and Kater stood next to each other, staring into the huge stone bowl where a small table was raised in the center, perhaps long enough for one person to lay upon. The cracked remains on top of the table were unmistakably an egg.
“The Fifteenth Fear,” Kater said in a whisper. “It must have come from here.”
She nodded, it could be no other. Her mind flashed back to that terrible morning, both a thousand years ago and yesterday. The blood as the claws sliced through her parents, the awful roar of its pain as they fought back against the beast, trying to buy their children time to escape.
The fear as she ran, her panicked heart a cold stone in her chest. Time had not dulled the edge of the memory, it always cut as sharp as any Dragon’s tooth.
“It would take centuries to study this device fully,” Kater said.
She nodded again. This device answered one question she and Kater had wondered all their lives, where the Dragon that had killed their parents had come from. Yet it birthed so many new questions.
The Dragons could not return to Sirapothi, all the research she had done had clearly stated that. How then could they have used this machine? Even more perplexing, the Fifteenth Fear had attacked their parents long after Orami Feram had sealed the Dragons in their vaults. How could he, or they, have brought them here to use this machine? Why would the Great Hero even build a machine designed to help the Dragons? And why would they need one?
“Upala.”
There was a voice in her ear, a voice competing for her attention with all these mysteries. Gears in her head were turning much like the gears around her, teeth connecting to teeth as they moved concepts and questions around. Everything she had believed was challenged, what lay before her was a puzzle unlike any she had encountered. A chance to touch the work of the Hero, to see inside his mind. Or their minds.
“Upala!”
Drew stood before her, his warm hands clasping her own. Behind him the lines and curves of the machine still beckoned for her attention. She looked for Merin and Nima, but the others were all gone, even Kater. Only Drew remained with her in the machine.
Drew leaned in, his face only inches from hers. His green eyes were deep with concern, the care and worry in them pools she could drown in.
“Upala, listen to me.”
The conviction in his voice strong enough to hold Upala’s focus, though her brain still struggled to stay in the moment. “I see this around you. I know it is fascinating, it is everything you’ve spent your life studying. I know this is about the Dragons, your parents. But now is not the time! We cannot wait for this!”
Can’t we? There was a voice in her head that argued. A few more moments, just to commit some of the design to memory?
She struggled to keep her mind in the moment. Drew was right, leaving all those people to suffer would be wrong, terribly wrong. That was not what she wanted, was it?
Was it?
Drew stood there before her, unmoving. His hands still held hers gently, his voice a solid floor she could steady herself upon.
“Upala, I promise,” he said. “We will come back. But we have to go. Now.”
She nodded, filling her mind with a new image, one to replace the gears and designs. Tanira and her Dragons raining death and destruction down upon Rogek Shad. The bodies of Merin and Drew, of Trillip and Kater. Merin and her children. All trampled under the massive claws of Terminus and his brothers and sisters.
That would not be her legacy. That would not be the truth of her.
She leaned forward, pressing her lips against Drew’s as she held his hands tightly. “No,” she said, ignoring how her voice bounced and echoed inside the innards of the machine. “I am sorry, Drew. I lost myself inside this.”
Drew smiled, h
is face a warm, soft place that felt safe and free of judgement.
“I’ve lost myself inside things too,” he said. “Plenty of times. It’s good to have a friend who can pull you out.” He motioned toward the path Nima and Merin had taken out of the chamber. “Let’s go before Kater gets into trouble.”
She laughed, holding his hand and following Drew away from the stone bowl, away from secrets and mysteries and toward danger and conflict. The sense of the portal was stronger as she followed the path through the other side of the machine, through the maze of parts and puzzles she would have to force herself not to study.
She had responsibilities to the people she had hurt, and to herself.
She gave one last look back as she passed into the workings of the machine again, one last glance at the bowl and the platforms, the shattered egg that birthed the death of her parents. A vow was built inside her, as strong and solid as any of the mountain rock that housed the temple.
She would travel back to Aroha Darad. She would find a way to stop the Dragons. She would right what she had wronged, and make sure her brother was held accountable as well. If the Rakhum desired reunification, she would see it done.
Then she would return here, she would study this creation and unlock its secrets. She would find a way.
Chapter 7
Drew studied the chamber in front of him, just as he knew Kater and Nima were doing. Once Merin returned with Upala, she could confirm it, but he was fairly certain the portal that led back to Aroha Darad was at the far end of the room.
Unfortunately, there was more than one portal. Drew wished that was the only issue before them.
The room, like many in the temple, was a massive, open chamber. It was not as large as the machine chamber, but it was still bigger than any space Drew had seen since the Under. Most of the room was actually a drop into the depths of the mountain, stone walkways connected each side, cutting the chasm into quarters.
There was an intersection at the center, the left side leading to what appeared to be another entrance to the machine, or perhaps a whole new machine. The walkway off the right side of the intersection led to a wall, into which several copper pipes and tubes had been inserted.
Drew supposed this might have been the start of another machine in this room, or perhaps the pipes were supposed to lead to one of the other chambers and had just never been connected. The scene reminded him of the USS Machias, where the ceiling below decks often contained many pipes of various sizes.
Directly across from them, past the intersection, a pair of oval portals swirled and pulsed, one placed in front of the other, a configuration Drew had never seen.
Directly in front of the twin portals was a green cube, identical to the one that had chased him and Nima earlier. It made no move toward them, but it completely blocked their access to the portals.
Why can’t anything be easy?
Behind the cube, the smaller of the two portals was in front. It was similar in size and shape to the many portals Drew had seen before. It was inactive, but he was confident Upala could open it. His instincts told him this was the one they were looking for, but he hoped Upala could confirm.
Directly behind was a second inactive portal, this one much larger than any Drew had seen before. It was not clear to him that one portal could be activated without touching the other. Only Upala would know for sure.
“Another cube!” Nima whispered, pointing. “And have you ever seen two portals together like that?” Lhamu was awake, strapped to Nima’s back, the tiny child looking around with her huge, dark eyes, her crystal glowing as brightly as ever.
“No,” Upala said, running her hands through the braids of her dark hair. “Nor have I read of such a thing. I can sense that one of those is the portal back to Aroha Darad though, if not both. I have many crystals with me. If I can get to the portals I should be able to determine the correct one and open it.”
Upala came forward, standing next to Nima. Merin stood with Drew, her eyes casting about the room. Analyzing it, he suspected, like he had.
“That cube though,” Merin said while pointing. “Kater you said they were ‘carvers.’ How do they work?”
“I said I suspect they are carvers. Does no one listen? They have an acidic that could be used to dissolve the rock, I surmise they were how the Hero-”
“Heroes,” Nima said.
“Hero or heroes is immaterial at this point, girl. It is an obstacle in reaching our goal. We will never get past it by discussing it here, will we? Again, it is fortunate I am present.”
He walked toward the intersection, all eyes on the old man as he approached the center of the room. He stopped for a moment, the cube staying as motionless as the stone it sat upon.
“Should we not stop him?” Merin whispered to Drew.
“He’s the big genius here, let him have his moment,” Drew said with a chuckle.
Kater left the intersection and strode toward the cube. The object stayed motionless as he came to stand right next to it. He knelt, studying the front of the square.
“It is sitting where Upala would need to tune either portal,” he called back. His graveled voice bounced and echoed throughout the cavernous chamber. “There is room on this platform in front of the portals to slide it about ten steps, which should be sufficient. The surface appears like glass, I suspect it would slide easily.”
“Maybe it is broken?” Nima asked, though Kater was too far away to hear her. “Or sleeping?”
“If it is sleeping, let’s hope he doesn’t wake it up,” Drew said.
Upala began running forward.
“Kater, wait!” she yelled out to him, just as he braced his legs and placed his hands on the cube to push it aside.
Kater’s screams echoed through the room, the man pulling his hands away instantly. Upala continued forward, Nima about to do so as well. Drew reached out, pulling Nima back.
Kater retreated back toward the center intersection of the room, staring at his hands. Upala rushed up to him, Kater turning around and looking at Drew as he held his palms up. His hands were blistered and swollen, in some place the bone was visible.
“A foolish decision,” Kater said, his eyes flashing an anger that Drew knew had more to do with looking like an idiot than anything else. “Yet my hands will heal shortly, and we have valuable data, thanks to me.”
“That data being that the cube’s surface is acid?” Merin asked, a slight smirk on her face. Upala led Kater back to join them, her expression of concern fading as it became clear her brother would be fine.
“Well, now we know,” Drew said. “Thanks, Kater.” More quips and comments came to mind, but he stifled them.
“Still, the obstacle remains,” Upala said.
“Perhaps another attempt.” Kater continued to stare at his hands. “Myself, Upala and Adley together might be able to move it.”
“You never confirmed it was movable,” Merin said.
“I felt it move, slightly. I admit it was heavier than I expected.”
“Can you heal faster than that thing can dissolve you?” Drew asked, eyebrows raised in the old man’s direction. “Can any of us?”
Kater sighed. “I am frustrated to admit I cannot say.”
“It chased us before,” Nima said. “Or the other one did, unless that is the same one. The one in the hall didn’t care about us until I said something. Maybe we can get this one to chase me and then it will be out of the way.”
“Excellent idea,” Kater said, slapping Nima on the shoulder and then wincing and grabbing his hand. “Likely they are instructed to ignore Manad Vhan, which it may have mistaken Adley here for and-”
“Kater, that is a terrible idea.” Upala shook her head. “If Nima lures it away, what then? She will not heal when it touches her.”
“If it touches me!” Nima laughed.
“What about Lhamu, Nima?” Merin asked, Nima’s face falling as she did. She looked over her shoulder at the peaceful child, who had again fallen a
sleep. “Perhaps I should do this? I am no more Manad Vhan than Nima is.”
“Nima.” Drew nodded at the wall to the right side of the intersection. The wall was littered with half-finished copper tubes and the remnants of pipes. “That wall over there--couldn’t you lead that cube over there and climb up the wall?”
“Yes, yes I could!” Nima looked around at the group of them, Drew watching as her expression bounced between the excitable young woman who had made climbing in Nepal so enjoyable, and the new woman he met just yesterday, one who had been hurt and had responsibilities.
“Of course,” Drew said. “Once you’re there, we’ll need to figure out a way for you to get down when Upala gets the portal open.”
“I’m good at two things,” Nima grinned, holding up a pair of fingers. “Climbing and jumping. Once the portal is open, I’ll just jump down over it and run back!”
“Just that easy, huh?” Drew said, shaking his head at her.
Nima approached Merin.
“Would you protect Lhamu for me? I would feel safest if she was with you.”
Merin looked concerned to Drew, but Nima was already unstrapping Lhamu from her back. By the time Nima had removed all the various cords that had kept the child secure, Merin was nodding her acceptance.
“I-I appreciate your trust in me, Nima. I will keep her safe.”
She turned, allowing Nima to start attaching Lhamu’s harness to Merin’s back while the taller woman held the child, Drew noting the ease and comfort with which Merin held her. She even began rocking back and forth, perhaps muscle memory from caring for her own children. She looked over her shoulder at Drew.
“I still would prefer that it was I who led the cube on a chase though.”
Drew frowned, so would he. Yet he was certain Kater was right, the cube was set to chase off Rakhum, or at least non-Manad Vhan. Merin was another option, but there was no question in his mind the quicker, more agile Sherpa was more likely to succeed.
Additionally, he had no idea how he’d talk Nima out of it anyway. He walked close to her, whispering, “You sure about this, little sister?”
