The Call of Mount Sumeru Read online

  THE CALL OF MOUNT SUMERU

  By Elyse Salpeter

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. While certain places are real, the incidences regarding them are works of the author.

  Copyright © 2016

  Amazon Edition

  Edited by Denise Vitola

  Published by Elyse Salpeter

  Cover created by LLPix Photography

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in print or electronic version without permission from the author.

  This ebook is licensed to the original purchaser only. It cannot be sold, transferred, shared, or given away.

  Dedication

  I am dedicating this novel to girlfriends, Andrea and Karin. The both of you have been rocks in my life, have allowed my crazy visions to get on paper and not once have either of you ever been anything but supportive. I value both of you so much, your intelligence, your wit, your humor and your love. Thank you. 

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  BONUS CHAPTER: THE HAUNTING OF CRAGG HILL HOUSE

  Other Books by Elyse Salpeter

  THE CALL OF MOUNT SUMERU

  By Elyse Salpeter

  Chapter 1

  Kelsey charged past Clarice before the elderly secretary could stop her and slammed open the door to Ari’s office. Her brother jumped up from his chair and skirted around the desk to greet her, his arms outstretched in apology. Instead of embracing him, Kelsey reared back and punched him in his jaw. He stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. In seconds she jumped on him. Ari never even raised his hands in self-defense. Clarice ran out of the office, shrieking for help.

  Kelsey hit Ari and bloodied his nose. She grasped his lapels, pulled him towards her, and screamed into his face. “How dare you? How dare you try to kill Desmond? After everything we’ve been through?” She socked him again and split his lip.

  He spat out blood and tried to apologize. “I was tricked. It was Ustha. She came to me and told me you were in trouble. I had to help. She took me to Xanadu, pretended she was a monk and told me if I didn’t end Desmond’s life, he would get you killed.”

  Kelsey released him and he fell back to the concrete slab floor. “You were never in Xanadu, Ari,” she snarled, leaning in towards him. “You were dreaming and she conjured everything. Were you so blinded by the perfection of the land she fabricated that you lost all thought and believed it was real? What did she promise you? Power? Your own steed? A place in the land at the feet of the Emperor and Empress if you did her bidding? How stupid could you be, you narcissistic, self-absorbed, egotistical pig?”

  Julia and Dennis burst into the office and tried to pull Kelsey off, but she pushed them roughly aside. “Stay out of this, both of you. This is between me and my brother.”

  “Kelsey, I’m so sorry.” It was all Ari could say before Kelsey continued to pummel him until he was a bloody, shaken mess. At that point, Josh finally came into the room, tore her away from Ari, and dragged her out into the hallway.

  “Let go of me!” She shook Josh off and stormed out of the building.

  Chapter 2

  Two months later

  Breaking News: Reports of isolated pockets of devastation continue in the Middle East. A third remote village, identified as a major terrorist stronghold, has been hit with a mysterious plague that wiped out the entire village. After pressure from the leaders of various Middle Eastern States, the United Nations Council is investigating. One journalist reported, “It’s like a crime scene from a Stephen King novel. The dead are everywhere, fallen where they died. On the street, in their cars, in their beds. No one made it out alive.”

  Fear pervades the surrounding civilian areas as factions try to decide the method of the killing agent's delivery. At this time, the vector is unknown. Scientists are considering all the possibilities, including biological and chemical contaminants and whether they were ingested or airborne.

  At this time, extensive testing continues on the victims. All that’s known is that various toxic ecological agents are common to each of the attacks. Researchers theorize that it may be a plant-based killing agent.

  The leaders of each of the known terrorist organizations have turned their eyes towards Israel with promises of retribution, regardless of the Israeli Prime Minister's denial that Israel had involvement in any of the recent activities. The Israeli Defense Forces are on alert and ready to respond if needed.

  The bartender clicked the remote and turned the channel to the football game. The Jets were playing and losing, again.

  “Want to watch the end of the game?” Josh asked.

  “Not really.” Kelsey toyed with the cherry stem in her mouth. After a moment she spit it out into her open palm and glanced at it. The knot she twisted it into was nice and tight. She tossed it aside onto her napkin, drained her soda and glanced at Josh. “Do you want to get out of here?”

  He stared at the knotted cherry stem. “I forgot how talented you are, Kelsey. Sure, let’s get out of here.” He finished the last sips of his beer and threw a fifty on the bar. Kelsey’s black leather jacket hung from the coat rack. Josh plucked up it up and helped her put it on.

  She raised her brows. “Look at you. Such a gentlemen.”

  “I’m not that much of a gentleman, and you know it. Besides, you’re practically naked in that little thing you call a dress. I’d rather you not get arrested for indecent exposure.” He threw on his own leather jacket, and they left the bar.

  They strolled the two blocks to her apartment with the echoes of Kelsey’s stiletto heels clicking loudly on the pavement. They mixed comfortably with the sounds of the busy New York City street traffic.

  While Kelsey was glad dinner was a diversion, her mind wandered back to how her life had been turned inside out over the past two months--Desmond disappearing, her showdown with Ari.

  She was determined to find Desmond and was sure the Voynich Manuscript was the key she needed. She spent every day and night trying to decipher its hidden code. She tore apart every inch of Desmond’s townhouse, and put together all his doodles and compared them. She found hidden paintings in his closet that blew her away by their clarity and otherworldliness. She realized he must have been drawing memories from his youth. It was clear they were the exact same visuals from the Voynich Manuscript, but they didn’t shed any light to help her search. Kelsey had stared for a long time at Desmond’s painting of Ustha and seethed with anger and frustration. The Decan Star God was one of the reasons Desmond had disappeared. Kelsey held some solace that at least Ustha was now banished and would never be able to bother her or anyone else again. I wish I were less evolved and had actually killed her when I had the chance. It’s too bad I became more human.

  Kelsey was still processing what had happened to her. How she had found out h
er mother, Margaret, had cheated on her father with her old college professor, the famous archeologist, Armand Dupuis. How Armand had gotten Margaret pregnant. Margaret had no idea the man was actually a descendant of a Decan Sky God named Kenmut who once had an affair with a human. Because of these indiscretions, Kelsey was stuck in a bad B movie where now she was tainted by being the spawn of yet another fantastical being. Her spiritual father was Mara, the God of the Buddhist Hell realms; and her physical great grandfather Kenmut, many times removed, was actually an Egyptian Decan Sky God who ruled the night sky. Who would have believed that the Egyptian gods were real?

  Of course, back in Kenmut’s time when his own affair came to light, he had apparently angered Ustha, a female Decan who thought she was his girlfriend. For the next umpteen thousands of years that chick became the biggest stalker of Kenmut’s descendants that the earth had ever seen.

  Kelsey laid her hand on her side and ran her fingers over her newly healed scar. She’d gotten critically hurt in a fight with Ustha when the goddess had thrust a knife into her side.

  She swallowed hard, allowing her thoughts, for just a single moment, to drift to the baby she’d been carrying. An entire future, gone in one single, solitary, violent instant.

  Enough, Kelsey. Move on.

  She let her thoughts wander to a trip she took to see Desmond’s adoptive mother in Massachusetts just a few weeks before. Now she knew why Desmond hadn’t introduced her to Collette the entire time they’d been dating. He’d had secrets about his own past he obviously was uncomfortable sharing with her. But if he had shared them, would things be different? Would she be able to help him now? And why hadn’t he shared them? Did he think she would leave him? Maybe if he had said something, she would have been able to confront her Devic protector and done something different. She’d never know now, though.

  Collette turned out to be a gentle woman who invited her in for tea and took the time to tell Kelsey everything about Desmond that she could. She had a sharp memory and recalled many details about her first time meeting him. How scared he’d been during his stay in the hospital. How much he adored music and art. How he loved it when she came to visit and did music therapy with him, and how quickly she and her family fell in love with him. She recalled how when he had grown up, he’d been drawn to the violence of the police force, even though her husband had begged him to become an academic because of his intellect. Something about the force had appealed to him greatly, and he could not be swayed no matter how hard her husband had tried.

  “Mrs. Gisborne, do you have any videos of him, or home movies of him as a child? Maybe one from when you first met him that would shed some light on where he came from?” Kelsey knew she was reaching but didn’t want to leave any stone unturned. And truth be told, she was desperate to learn everything she could about him, especially from his youth. She yearned to see him animated and not just in snapshots culled from a photo album.

  Collette nodded enthusiastically. “I do, actually. The doctors videotaped him when he first arrived and sent the videos to police stations across the country, hoping someone could identify him. My sister acquired one for me. I never showed it to Desmond, though, because I thought he would find it too disturbing. I turned it into a DVD about ten years ago, just in case Desmond ever wanted to see it. Let me check if I can locate it.” She rummaged through her entertainment center and found a pile of dusty DVD cases shoved in the back. She flipped through disc after disc and finally brightened. “Ah, here it is.” She turned on the television, slid the DVD in the player and clicked the remote to turn it on. “Have a strong heart, dear. It’s difficult to watch.”

  But even with Collette’s warning, Kelsey winced when she stared at the frightened and disturbed little boy who suddenly filled the screen. Even though the video wasn’t clear, his sorrow overwhelmed her – she could feel his pain reaching through time to pierce her heart. Desmond rocked on a chair in a hospital room, his arms wrapped around his knees. His hid his face, but she could tell he sobbed from the way his shoulders heaved. His hair, long and wild, stretched well past his shoulders. When the cameraman spoke to him, Desmond flinched and glanced up fearfully. Those big blue-green eyes were wide and bloodshot. Kelsey just wanted to reach into the screen and hold him and tell him it was all going to be okay. The camera zoomed closer and Kelsey heard a gentle voice. “It’s okay, son, you’re going to be okay. Please don’t be afraid.”

  Shadows appeared behind Desmond and Kelsey realized many people were in the room with him, though all of them remained out of camera range. Desmond bobbed his head between each of the shadows and appeared to plead for help. When he spoke, Kelsey gasped. He repeated his plea, urgently, but Kelsey realized no one understood him. But she did. She understood every single word and her heart broke listening to him. He spoke Tedanaleese, the language of Xanadu. Obviously the language of his homeworld, Aihika. There was a connection between the realms that could not be denied. He had repeated the same phrases over and over: “I am lost. I don’t know who I am. Can someone help me, please?”

  Kelsey felt something soft touch her cheek and turned to see Collette holding out a lace hankie. Kelsey gave her a small smile in thanks and wiped the tears from her eyes. The screen went black and Collette heaved a great sigh.

  “Dear, I wish I could give you more to go on, but I know absolutely nothing about Desmond’s early life before I met him at the hospital. No one does. Even with years of therapy, he never regained any memory from his youth. When I first met him, he spoke a language no one understood. He was scared of birds and didn’t seem to comprehend anything of our culture. We joked that it was as if he came from another world.” She wiped away her own tears and chuckled. “But he was most certainly human. All the tests proved it, but where he came from? No one knows. All I knew, and feared, was that one day he might disappear again, just like he appeared. Out of thin air. And it finally happened, didn’t it?” She stared at Kelsey knowingly.

  Kelsey had simply told Collette that Desmond had vanished one day from their hotel room in Egypt, but had not revealed the circumstances surrounding it. A strong part of Kelsey knew Collette didn’t believe her story, though to her credit, she said nothing.

  Kelsey reached out to her and gently squeezed her arm. “I will find him, Mrs. Gisborne. If it’s the last thing I do, I will find a way to bring him home.”

  Collette gave her a woeful look, one reserved for women who’ve lost every member of their family and are sure of their own reality. “Have you considered he may already be home, dear?”

  Chills ran up and down Kelsey’s spine. Just then, Collette glanced down and something in her demeanor made Kelsey pause. Kelsey squeezed her arm again. “Mrs. Gisborne? Is there something else you want to tell me?”

  Collette bit her lip. “There is, though I’m… embarrassed by it.” She moved to the far end of the room where she kept an antique rolltop desk. She pulled open one of the cabinets and reached into the back. Kelsey heard a click. A part of the wood opened to reveal a hidden compartment. From this, Collette withdrew a single sheet of yellowed paper.

  She brought it over to Kelsey and sat down next to her. “When Desmond was twelve and had been living with us for a year, a man came and asked that we give this to him.” She handed Kelsey the paper and it crinkled under her touch. Kelsey glanced at it and did her best to show no reaction.

  The note was filled with the text and squiggles of the Voynich Manuscript. The doodles eerily mimicked what Desmond had been drawing for the past six months. The lettering had started to fade badly and the paper should have been preserved in plastic, at the very least.

  “What did Desmond think of this?” Kelsey asked. “Could he tell you anything about it?”

  Collette blinked a few times and glanced away. “I never showed it to him,” she whispered.

  “Why not?” Kelsey asked, startled. “Maybe this could have helped him find out who he was?”

  Collette wrung her hands and her shoulders shook. �
��I know, I know. But he was finally adjusting to life here. He was making friends. His nightmares had finally stopped and I just didn’t want to ruin anything for him. You have to understand, I did it to help him. Things had finally gotten better for him. For us.” She shook her head. “You don’t have children. You wouldn’t understand.”

  Kelsey said nothing. What she understood was that Collette didn’t want to lose Desmond, so she kept silent about something that might have been used to take him home. To take him away from her. What if this paper had been the key to giving him some peace his entire life?

  More importantly, though, was that someone else on this earth knew who Desmond was. Someone knew his connection to the Voynich Manuscript, to Aihika and the other worlds. She held up the paper to Collette. “Can I have this?”

  Collette waved her hands. “Take it. I don’t want to hold onto it anymore.”

  Kelsey stood and was about to leave when she rested her hands on the front door knob and paused. “What did the man look like who gave this to you? Was he a monk?”

  Collette shook her head. “Oh, no, dear. He wasn’t a monk at all. He was a dapper gentleman. Smartly dressed with a British accent. ”

  “What did he say to you, Mrs. Gisborne?”

  Collette began to cry. “I’m so ashamed. I should have showed this to him,” she sobbed.

  Kelsey waited her out. The guilt of leaving Desmond in ignorance was something she was going to have to live with and come to terms with later.

  Finally, Collette looked up. “He said, 'please give this to Desmond. It’s of the utmost importance. It’s a clue.'”

  “Yet, you didn’t. Did he scare you? Threaten you in any way?”

  Collette shook her head. “No. Nothing about him frightened me, but what he represented did. I didn’t want this vulnerable little boy to be hurt anymore. You have to understand, dear. He was so fragile.”