Read Into the Shadow for Free Online

chase me away so easily!’’
    Mingma threw the cigar to the ground. ‘‘Don’t, miss! Don’t anger Anaya. We are already in mortal peril.’’
    A cold wind blasted down the slopes.
    Karen staggered backward, chilled by the ominous reply. ‘‘What makes this place evil? It’s more than just Mount Anaya. It’s the whole place, Nepal on one side, Tibet on the other—’’
    ‘‘That is truth, miss.’’ Mingma lit another one of the slender cigars she smoked. ‘‘And Warlord is mighty.’’
    ‘‘Warlords don’t exist anymore. Not in the civilized world. But maybe here . . .’’ Drugs flowed through this area. Slaves, too—male slaves to work deep in the Siberian mines, female slaves to serve their masters. Although the governments protected the trekkers, sometimes a raid occurred on a particularly rich party. And from across the border in Tibet, rumors floated through the air of battles between the Chinese troops that controlled the area and insurgents.
    ‘‘We all want money.’’ Mingma looked up at the mountain and blew an appeasing puff of smoke in its direction.
    ‘‘Not you.’’ Karen smiled at her.
    Mingma stared solemnly and repeated, ‘‘Money is evil, but we all want it. Because it is Mount Anaya which pulls like a magnet all the bad people of the world.’’
    ‘‘Why? It doesn’t make sense.’’
    ‘‘But, yes, miss, it does. A thousand years ago a village abided below the mountain.’’ Mingma gestured toward the valley. ‘‘They dwelled in the sunshine, growing the crops, herding their yaks.’’ Her powerful voice dropped to a whisper. ‘‘Then the Evil One came.’’
    ‘‘The Evil One?’’
    ‘‘The Evil Which Walks as a Man. One by one he corrupted the villagers, promising power and glory if they would guard his treasure. They sought to obtain all he promised, and more, and so they agreed to sacrifice their heart.’’
    ‘‘Their . . . heart? They had only one?’’ Karen wasn’t mocking.
    But Mingma frowned, her tanned skin wrinkled by long exposure to the sun. ‘‘It is a legend.’’
    ‘‘Yes, but somehow it must be true.’’ Karen’s gaze swept the site. Here even the sunlight was tinged with gray.
    ‘‘Then listen.’’ Mingma pressed her hand to her chest. ‘‘They made their cruel sacrifice, and when their heart had ceased beating, then they realized how the Evil One had tricked them, for they had all the power they sought, but without a heart they were no longer living beings. They became one with the mountain, tainting the sky it pierces, the flesh of the earth around it, the stones that are its bones. Since that day the mountain has been cruel, destroying all who strive to live in its shadow, all who try to tame its heights. The mountain holds the heart and the Evil One’s treasure, burying them deep, protecting them from all who seek it. The people of the village are forever alone, cold and cruel, and that is their punishment.’’
    ‘‘Heartless.’’ Inevitably, Karen thought of her father. ‘‘Yes, I understand how being heartless can take your humanity, but I don’t know if a village can become one with the mountain.’’
    ‘‘At night do not you hear the sobs of the mothers who have lost their children? Do not you hear the husbands mourn their wives?’’ Mingma’s voice lowered to a whisper once more. ‘‘Do you not hear the wails of the lost babies, forever damned?’’
    If only Karen could be amused about Mingma’s quaint superstition, but in the night she had heard it all—and then in her dream she fell. She always fell into nothingness. ‘‘I wish I had never come here.’’ She paced away.
    Mingma joined her, making one round between the viewing point and the fire before squatting beside the pit. ‘‘You had no choice. Your destiny was set the day the creator first thought your name. There is no escaping it.’’
    ‘‘My destiny? I have a destiny?’’
    ‘‘As do we all.’’ Mingma’s slanted