"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 All the creatures of fire had withdrawn, but two ice avalanches showed us we were still unwanted.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!"
I made haste, stretching and racking myself and grabbing at the holds he had cut, and then I heard him burst into song. Something from _Aida_, I think.
"Damn it! Wait up!" I said. "I'm only a few hundred feet behind."
He kept on singing.
I was beginning to get dizzy, but I couldn't let myself slow down. My right arm felt like a piece of wood, my left like a piece of ice. My feet were hooves, and my eyes burned in my head.
Then it happened.
Like a bomb, the snake and the swinging ended in a flash of brilliance that caused me to sway and almost lose my grip. I clung to the vibrating mountainside and squeezed my eyes against the light.
"Mallardi?" I called.
No answer. Nothing.
I looked down. Henry was still climbing. I continued to climb.
I reached the ledge Mallardi had mentioned, found him there.
His respirator was still working. His protective suit was blackened and scorched on the right side. Half of his pick had been melted away. I raised his shoulders.
I turned up the volume on the communicator and heard him breathing. His eyes opened, closed, opened.
"Okay...." he said.
"'Okay,' hell! Where do you hurt?"
"No place...I feel jus' fine....Listen! I think it's used up its juice for awhile....Go plant the flag. Prop me up here first, though. I wanna watch...."
I got him into a better position, squirted the water bulb, listened to him swallow. Then I waited for Henry to catch up. It took about six minutes.
"I'll stay here," said Henry, stooping beside him. "You go do it."
I started up the final slope.
VII
I swung and I cut and I blasted and I crawled. Some of the ice had been melted, the rocks scorched.
Nothing came to oppose me. The static had gone with the dragon. There was silence, and darkness between stars.
I climbed slowly, still tired from that last sprint, but determined not to stop.
All but sixty feet of the entire world lay beneath me, and heaven hung above me, and a rocket winked overhead. Perhaps it was the pressmen, with zoom cameras.
Fifty feet....
No bird, no archer, no angel, no girl.
Forty feet....
I started to shake. It was nervous tension. I steadied myself, went on.
Thirty feet...and the mountain seemed to be swaying now.
Twenty-five...and I grew dizzy, halted, took a drink.
Then click, click, my pick again.
Twenty....
Fifteen....
Ten....
I braced myself against the mountain's final assault, whatever it might be.
Five...
Nothing happened as I arrived.
I stood up. I could go no higher.
I looked at the sky, I looked back down. I waved at the blazing rocket exhaust.
I extruded the pole and attached the flag.
I planted it, there where no breezes would ever stir it. I cut in my communicator, said, "I'm here."
No other words.
It was time to go back down and give Henry his chance, but I looked down the western slope before I turned to go.
The lady was winking again. Perhaps eight hundred feet below, the red light shone. Could that have been what I had seen from the town during the storm, on that night, so long ago?
I didn't know and I had to.
I spoke into the communicator.
"How's Mallardi doing?"
"I just stood up," he answered. "Give me another half hour, and I'm coming up myself."