_Don’t hate me,_ it said, _for running out, but I think it really is an angel. I’m scared of this mountain. I’ll climb any pile of rocks, but I won’t fight Heaven. The way down is easier than the way up, so don’t worry about me. Good luck. Try to understand._ S
So we were five–Doc and Kelly and Henry and Mallardi and me–and that day we hit a hundred eighty thousand and felt very alone. The girl came again that night and spoke to me, black hair against black sky and eyes like points of blue fire, and she stood beside an icy pillar and said, “Two of you have gone.” “And the rest of us remain,” I replied. “For a time.” “We will climb to the top and then we will go away,” I said. “How can that do you harm? Why do you hate us?” “No hate, sir,” she said. “What, then?” “I protect.” “What? What is it that you protect?” “The dying, that she may live.” “What? Who is dying? How?” But her words went away somewhere, and I did not hear them. Then she went away too, and there was nothing left but sleep for the rest of the night.
One hundred eighty-two thousand and three, and four, and five. Then back down to four for the following night. The creatures whined about us now, and the land pulsed beneath us, and the mountain seemed sometimes to sway as we climbed. We carved a path to one eighty-six, and for three days we fought to gain another thousand feet. Everything we touched was cold and slick and slippery, sparkled, and had a bluish haze about it. When we hit one ninety, Henry looked back and shuddered. “I’m no longer worried about making it to the top,” he said. “It’s the return trip that’s bothering me now. The clouds are like little wisps of cotton way down there.” “The sooner up, the sooner down,” I said, and we began to climb once again. It took us another week to cut our way to within a mile of the top. All the creatures of fire had withdrawn, but two ice avalanches showed us we were still unwanted. We survived the first without mishap, but Kelly sprained his right ankle during the second, and Doc thought he might have cracked a couple of ribs, too. We made a camp. Doc stayed there with him; Henry and Mallardi and I pushed on up the last mile. Now the going was beastly. It had become a mountain of glass. We had to hammer out a hold for every foot we made. We worked in shifts. We fought for everything we gained. Our packs became monstrous loads and our fingers grew numb. Our defense system–the projectors–seemed to be wearing down, or else something was increasing its efforts to get us, because the snakes kept slithering closer, burning brighter. They hurt my eyes, and I cursed them. When we were within a thousand feet of the top, we dug in and made another camp. The next couple hundred feet looked easier, then a rotten spot, and I couldn’t tell what it was like above that. When we awakened, there was just Henry and myself. There was no indication of where Mallardi had gotten to. Henry switched his communicator to Doc’s letter and called below. I tuned in in time to hear him say, “Haven’t seen him.” “How’s Kelly?” I asked. “Better,” he replied. “Those ribs might not be cracked at that.” Then Mallardi called us. “I’m four hundred feet above you, fellows,” his voice came in. “It was easy up to here, but the going’s just gotten rough again.” “Why’d you cut out on your own?” I asked. “Because I think something’s going to try to kill me before too long,” he said. “It’s up ahead, waiting at the top. You can probably even see it from there. It’s a snake.” Henry and I used the binoculars. Snake? A better word might be dragon–or maybe even Midgard Serpent. It was coiled around the peak, head upraised. It seemed to be several hundred feet in length, and it moved its head from side to side, and up and down, and it smoked solar coronas. Then I spotted Mallardi climbing toward it. “Don’t go any further!” I called. “I don’t know whether your unit will protect you against anything like that! Wait’ll I call Doc–” “Not a chance,” he said. “This baby is mine.” “Listen! You can be first on the mountain, if that’s what you want! But don’t tackle that thing alone!” A laugh was the only reply. “All three units might hold it off,” I said. “Wait for us.” There was no answer, and we began to climb. I left Henry far below me. The creature was a moving light in the sky. I made two hundred feet in a hurry, and when I looked up again, I saw that the creature had grown two more heads. Lightnings flashed from its nostrils, and its tail whipped around the mountain. I made another hundred feet, and I could see Mallardi clearly by then, climbing steadily, outlined against the brilliance. I swung my pick, gasping, and I fought the mountain, following the trail he had cut. I began to gain on him, because he was still pounding out his way and I didn’t have that problem. Then I heard him talking: “Not yet, big fella, not yet,” he was saying, from behind a wall of static. “Here’s a ledge….” I looked up, and he vanished. Then that fiery tail came lashing down toward where I had last seen him, and I heard him curse and I felt the vibrations of his pneumatic gun. The tail snapped back again, and I heard another “Damn!”