The Call of Mount Sumeru Read online

  Nothing about Desmond is fragile. He is one of the strongest people I know. No, Mrs. Gisborne, you didn’t want him taken away from you.

  With that, Kelsey said her goodbyes and promised to contact her if she found anything new.

  #

  Josh and Kelsey arrived at her apartment and she checked her watch. It was the one Desmond had given to her for her birthday back in July. It now rested snugly against the bracelet her father had gifted to her as a child. The one with the smooth opal and jade beads that protected her from the others like herself.

  The Others. The people who carried the Decan Sky God Kenmut’s blood in their veins and the very act of being near any of his descendants had made her physically ill. The opals, though, were talismans. Charms that hid them from each other and protected them. Of course, once Kelsey had defeated the Sky God, things had changed. Still, it explained all the stomachaches she’d had as a child. She’d obviously been around one of his descendants and hadn’t even known it.

  The circumstances surrounding her life from two months ago still felt raw and she was continuing to process all of it. Though remembering it did remind her she owed Jay a phone call. Her half-brother, a child Armand had with his wife a year after Kelsey had been born, had called and left a message just last week that he was returning to New York City next month. He planned to crash at her apartment and ordered her to set up the guest room for two, since he was, of course, bringing a girl with him. She was instructed to have a few good bottles of red wine available and a block of aged brie, prosciutto and fig jam. Jay’s experiences in Egypt hadn’t humbled him one bit and he was still as arrogant as when they’d first met. The guy never even bothered to ask her if it were okay for him to stay the night, or if she might have other plans. So typical of him. He didn’t even know Desmond had disappeared. He was so wrapped up in his own selfish little world, he never even bothered to ask about him.

  Still, Kelsey begrudgingly wanted to see him and make sure he was healing from what had happened. She figured this arrogance was his way of dealing with his father’s death and if so, she’d give him some slack. If anyone else in the world understood what he’d gone through, even partially, it was her.

  Kelsey peeked into the kitchen and glanced at the clock on the microwave. It was only ten o’clock. Maybe she could get some more research done and work on the paper Desmond’s mother had given her. She’d already been able to connect the letters and symbols to different text on the Voynich Manuscript, but she had not yet been able to decode it, and it was driving her crazy. The symbols didn’t always match. She’d think she was on to something and then symbols would be backwards, upside down or reversed and Kelsey couldn’t make heads or tails of it. But she felt sure it was something that Desmond on his own would be able to understand.

  That Voynich Manuscript was the key to everything. Dubbed “The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World,” it was a book purchased by Polish book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, but believed to date back to the 1500s. It contained five different sections, each with a different theme. The volume featured drawings of plants and animals, various star systems, herbs, and even, amazingly, recipes. But no one could decipher the symbols for the words written on the pages. It had been eluding the best code breakers for centuries. Except now she had two books. The one that had been around for centuries and another that had been in the cave when they had found Desmond’s sister, Finley.

  Finley. She hadn’t even let Desmond say goodbye to her. She didn’t even explain what was happening.

  But when they disappeared, they’d left the second book behind, and it was a masterpiece. Clearly defined text, beautiful, crisp drawings. For the life of her, Kelsey couldn’t figure out why there was such a great disparity between the two manuscripts. The one with which people on Earth were familiar with seemed to be drawn by someone with no artistic talent.

  Kelsey spent most of her time with the newer manuscript and for hours she studied the pages, noticing the swirls, the symbols and the way it was written. She’d spent an inordinate amount of time and energy trying different code breaking methods. She plugged in common letters for words and searched for patterns.

  She looked for the most frequently used symbols and tried to find relationships there. She tried substitution ciphers, anything she could think of. She could literally see the same symbols being used over and over. But when she compared them to the original Voynich Manuscript, they didn’t match and it completely threw her.

  Instead, she concentrated on the drawings to see if she could glean any information from them, starting with the depictions of the naked women sitting in water filled tubs. Those were obviously depictions of the portals and a source of extreme power. There had to be something she could learn from them.

  “Penny for your thoughts, KP?”

  Kelsey blinked. She realized she’d just been standing on the apartment building steps, deep in thought. Chagrined, she glanced up at her friend and realized how patient he’d been. She’d been terrible company this evening. “Josh, I’m so sorry. I know you’re just trying to get my mind off of everything and here I am ignoring you. I really do appreciate you taking me out.”

  “Please, like it’s such a chore.” They skipped up the steps to her building and Eryk, her new doorman, swung the door wide for them. He said hello in Polish, and they made their way up to her apartment, taking the stairs rather than the elevator.

  She turned to Josh when they reached her front door. “So, are you finally going to tell me the big secret you’ve been keeping from me all night?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You could tell I was hiding something? How?”

  She scoffed. “Oh, please. How many years have I known you? I can read you like a book.”

  He clicked his tongue and pulled out a piece of paper from his wallet. She lifted her hand to take it, but he held it teasingly just out of her reach. “Open the door first and let me in.”

  “You’re impossible.” But she complied and they stepped inside.

  Kelsey’s entire antique glass dining room table was overtaken with papers, books and texts about the Voynich manuscript. Tomes on Buddhism and anything that held any reference to the Devic realms and how to get to them covered the hardwood floor. Her plush comforter and golden satin covered pillow from her bedroom was strewn on the couch. She’d slept there many nights instead of in her room.

  “Kelsey, this place is a mess.” Joshua tossed his wallet onto a stack of magazines that rested on the table and handed her the paper. Kelsey unfolded it and squinted in confusion. The notation on the top claimed that it was from the desk of Wilfrid Voynich, the Polish dealer who actually had purchased the original manuscript.

  Well, at least she knew she could understand the language written in the book when it was spoken aloud. When she was with Desmond in Egypt, they discovered that it was the language of Xanadu, of the land of Tedanalee that she thought she’d created as a child. But, it was the same language Desmond spoke on his homeworld. Everything is connected.

  Kelsey contemplated briefly once again asking her brother for help. Ari was the linguistics genius, and she’d spent the past ten years teaching him the language. He was also one of the smartest people she knew outside of herself and an adept linguist. She was certain if they worked together they would be able to decipher the code. But then she’d remember that he’d tried to kill her boyfriend and she wasn’t speaking to him, so she quickly put that thought aside. She still couldn’t stomach him, even two months later.

  Kelsey eyed the newest arrangement of purple hyacinths resting in an antique gilded copper vase, and scowled. It was the eighth bouquet he’d had delivered in as many weeks. He thinks sending me flowers every week will make up for what he did? That I’ll just forgive him? I don’t think so. She picked up the vase, albeit gently, as she begrudgingly admitted it was exceedingly beautiful, and hid it behind the blender on the marble kitchen countertop. At least now she couldn’t see the bouquet, though she could still
smell its cloyingly sweet scent. She couldn’t deny that it blended nicely with smell of the old tomes in her dining room.

  Josh came to stand beside her and gently rubbed her shoulder. “Ari’s really sorry, Kelsey. What happened wasn’t his fault. You, more than anyone, know how persuasive Ustha could be. You know she used him to get to you.”

  She sniffed. “I really don’t care.”

  “I think you do, but you’re just too stubborn to back down. Be lucky he’s just sending you flowers in fancy vases. The alternative is he could be showing up at your door day and night, begging for forgiveness.”

  Kelsey snorted. “No, he wouldn’t do that. First, that’s not his style, and second, Julia already told me he’s been off on one of his uber secret missions again for weeks now. One that he’s even refused to share with her. Good riddance. Maybe he’ll find a nice little hole to crawl into and die.”

  Josh wouldn’t back down. “Look, at some point, you’re going to need to forgive him. This can’t last forever. And really, this isn’t very Buddhist of you.”

  She brushed off his arm and glared at him. “Listen, don’t preach to me about Buddhism and how I should act, Josh. You’re asking me to forgive the absolute unforgivable, and at this moment I don’t really feel like it. How about Ari comes clean to me first on how he really felt about Desmond, and how he could be so stupid? Ustha is the Goddess of Dreams and she knows what’s in your heart. She has the ability to look into your soul and see your every need and desire. The hard fact is, in his heart Ari wanted Desmond dead, and obviously for a very long time. Long enough and strong enough for Ustha to latch onto that feeling deep in his essence and run with it. When she came to him with her deal, he should have recognized it for what it was, but his selfish greed and desire for control won out over his good sense. His selfish need and desire to always best me. That’s all he’s ever wanted growing up. You know how competitive he is with me. Well, now he betrayed me, kept his feelings about Desmond a big secret, and set him up to get killed. That secret is really quite unforgiveable.”

  Josh exhaled loudly. “Geez, Kelsey, everyone has secrets. And how Ari felt about Desmond shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. You know he’s been pissed at him ever since the Garters mission. He hired him to work with you, not to seduce you. Desmond should have backed down and not taken advantage of you.”

  Kelsey’s eyes widened in astonishment. “What is wrong with all of you? Just how was I taken advantage of? I was twenty-two years old and with a guy I liked. And for the record, I can, and will, do what I want. Ari does not control me. No one does, Josh.”

  Josh shook his head. “That’s not the point. You know what I mean.”

  “It is the point!”

  “Kelsey--” Josh began, but she cut him off.

  “Just let it go, okay? We’re just going around in circles.” Kelsey turned back to the paper he’d handed her and squinted. “So, the big secret you’ve been hiding from me all night is a drawing of Bigfoot?”

  He shook his head. “It’s not Bigfoot. It’s a Yeti.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeti, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, the Abominable Snowman. They’re all the same thing. It’s just a word depending on where you come from. The Native Americans have a whole other set of words and descriptions for it like Wild Man, Otter Man, and The Stone Man. I took a cryptozoology elective in college, so I know about this. Where did you get this and why does it say it’s from the desk of Wilfrid Voynich? What, was he also some sort of closet Bigfoot Hunter?” She studied the little swirls of script that surrounded the drawing. They were clearly the lettering of the coded text from the Voynich Manuscript, just like the drawings on the paper Collette had given her.

  “It was included with his things.” He handed her another sheet of paper. “This was also in his articles and was attached to the drawing of the Yeti. It’s a bill of sale from a shop in Nepal where Wilfred also picked up multiple examples of drawings and photographs of the creatures. He collected things all the time, but at about the same time he purchased the manuscript, he also acquired these.” He handed her a final set of drawings and sketches that he took out of a deep pocket in his jacket.

  She arched her brows. “You’re showing me drawings of great apes with what looks like the Voynich code written all over them. Maybe he was just doodling what he saw in the manuscript.”

  “They're not his doodles. The guy couldn’t draw a straight line. This ink and paper tests at least a hundred years before he purchased them.”

  Kelsey sifted through the documents and came across an old black and white photo. Josh leaned close to her, so close she could smell his cologne. He’d worn the same fragrance since she’d first met him in high school. An intoxicating scent with hints of cedar and citrus. He smells amazing. It’s nothing like Desmond, who always smelled like he’d just stepped out of some exotic oriental locale.

  Josh tapped the picture. “And that is one of the earliest photographs of what the Nepalese think is a Yeti. It was one of the last things saved from the shop before it caught on fire. But look at the script around the photograph, Kelsey.”

  She couldn’t stop staring if she tried. It was the same handwriting from the Voynich Manuscript. Where’s the connection? Yetis were considered Buddhist by nature, weren’t they?

  “So, the shop is gone?”

  Josh nodded. “Burned to the ground over a hundred years ago, but for the past few weeks, I’ve been tracking down the owner’s heirs. There’s a descendant of his living in Skagway, Alaska. Maybe he’s got some information stored away that no one’s discovered yet. It’s worth a check.” Josh handed Kelsey a note with the man’s name and address on it.

  Kelsey gazed at the paper and her eyes widened in surprise. “Rajiv Sitaula? Wait, we went to high school with someone with that last name, didn’t we?”

  Josh nodded in agreement. “We sure did. Bianca Sitaula, and this is her dad. Remember Ari dated her for about three months until her father suddenly pulled her out of school right before graduation? It was because of some international financial crisis or something.”

  “I do remember. Ari was crushed.” Kelsey actually recalled a lot more. Right after Bianca had left school, Kelsey had made a bet with her brother, which she lost. Some stupid sparring match that she was sure she was going to win, but didn’t. As a result of losing, she’d had to break into the principal’s office at night and steal a set of financial documents having to do with student’s parents’. Ari wouldn’t tell her what it was for.

  Was this just a coincidence? Not a shot. She didn’t believe in them.

  Kelsey gazed around her dining room at the disarray. Nothing in the past two months had given her any leads. Maybe it would be good to get away for a bit. Get some distance from New York, and her brother, and see if this man had any idea why the writings of the Voynich Manuscript were attached to these pictures. Maybe she’d get the chance to see Bianca again. She remembered Ari had liked her quite a bit. She was different than the other girls he usually went after. This one had been smart and had a quiet gentleness about her. Beautiful and graceful, with the body and mannerisms of a ballerina. Nothing like the brazen, silicone-filled hussies he lusted after now. Bianca had seemed to calm her hyper brother down whenever he was near her. Ari had always been so over-protective of Kelsey, but with Bianca close by, he was preoccupied and much less intense. I had a nice reprieve from him for a few months before Bianca left school.

  Kelsey turned to Josh. “Listen, thank you so much. You’ve been an amazing friend and I really appreciate it.” She embraced him and planted a friendly kiss on his lips in thanks.

  She was about pull away when she felt his hands suddenly at her waist. He gripped her firmly and held her in place. Without missing a beat, he returned her kiss, keeping his mouth planted on hers. It startled Kelsey so much that for a moment she froze. She knew he harbored feelings for her, but he’d kept them at bay for so long, she thought she was finally immune from them. She was so wrong.

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nbsp; She could taste the sweetness of his lips and feel his heat and desire. He parted his lips and when his tongue explored her mouth, her entire body responded and she melted into his embrace. She hadn’t planned on it, but her body just reacted. She pushed herself against his massive chest, enjoying the feel of his muscles. Enjoyed the feeling of being soft and vulnerable in someone’s arms. For a brief second she let herself disappear in the moment and imagined she kissed Desmond instead of Josh. She pictured Desmond in her mind, imagined his arms wrapped around her and she didn’t want the feeling to end. She missed him terribly.

  Josh moaned Kelsey’s name and ran his hands through her mane of hair. Then he moved to her ear and nuzzled it and her entire body tingled. I have to stop.

  But a strong part of her begged her to just let go, to let this moment happen. What would it matter in the scheme of things? It was just sex. It was Josh. They’d flirted with each other for years and she knew he liked her. If Desmond hadn’t come into the picture, this was bound to have happened at some point between the two of them.

  But another part of her, the part that controlled her desires in this lifetime, the part of her spiritually evolving essence that she’d worked a millennia to overcome, begged her just as hard to stop. The part that loved Desmond knew that doing this with Josh would be all wrong. This wasn’t her path. Josh wasn’t her path.

  Josh ran his hands up Kelsey’s back and pulled her body taut against his. She felt his need, his longing for her, but an alarm went off deep in her core.

  No, no, I can’t do this. This isn’t Desmond. I must stop. With extreme effort, Kelsey pulled back and stepped a few feet away to distance herself from her friend. She could almost feel Mara, the Buddhist Devil, mocking and chastising her from the hell realms below. Denying herself of pleasure when it was right in front of her. Denying her spiritual soul’s true wants and needs.