Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25 Amy's decision was instant. She dropped the Janus serum and clamped both hands on Ian's arm. The vial plunged down the face, disappearing from sight long before it shattered far below. The Sherpas joined her, and Ian was hauled back to the safety of the summit. Amy had no more breath. Even as she sprinted for the ultralight, she knew it was too late. She was running on empty, already collapsing, the snow of the summit swinging up to meet her…. Dan clamped his arms around his sister and hauled her bodily into the A-Star. As they tumbled aboard, the pilot reached up and closed the bubble. With a lurch, the little craft left Everest behind. "The serum!" Dan asked anxiously. Amy shook her head, awareness returning.

"Smashed." She regarded her brother apologetically. "I couldn't let him die." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized the importance of what she'd just said. "Dan— I had a choice! And I saved Isabel Kabra's son!" "Don't remind me," Dan said through clenched teeth. "The next time Ian and Natalie feed me to a lollipop machine, I'll know who to thank." "Don't you get it?" Amy persisted. "If the Madrigals were as bad as everybody says, I would have saved the bottle, not Ian! I did the human thing." She looked at him earnestly. "We don't have to be evil just because we're Madrigals. Madrigals are horrible— but we can change our destiny." "What about Mom and Dad?" asked Dan. "I don't know…." If Amy had learned one lesson from the Clue hunt and its many deceptions, it was to value truth above all. She would have given anything to believe that their parents were good people. But her eyes met Dan's, and the name beamed between them as if by radar: Nudelman.

"I wouldn't have let Ian die, either," Dan admitted after a solemn pause. "I just hate losing the serum. Especially since we didn't even get a clue out of this." Amy smiled broadly. "Yes, we did. We've had it since the Forbidden City," She told him. "I just didn't understand it until now. Alistair translated Puyi's poem: 'That which you seek, you hold in your hand, Fixed forever in birth, Where the Earth meets the sky.'" "I understand the 'Earth meets sky' part," said Dan. "But holding it in your hand? The only thing you could be holding is the sheet with the poem on it." "Which is silk," Amy added, eyes alight. "Silk is spun by the silkworm, which is really—" "The Bombyx mori caterpillar," her brother supplied, thinking of snack time at the Shaolin Temple. "It tastes like chicken." She gave him a strange look and went on. "The

stuff comes out liquid and solidifies into silk filament when it hits the air. But the ingredient is 'fixed forever in birth.' In other words, the silk in its liquid form— raw silkworm secretion." Dan shook his head in wonder. "And Puyi didn't have a freezer, so he got Mallory to stick it up on Mount Everest for him. Wow!" Amy nodded. "Can you imagine what must have been going through Mallory's head when he planted that vial on the summit eighty-six years ago? He'd just conquered Everest— and he did it twenty-nine years before Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953." She paused ruefully. "Little did the poor guy realize that he was going to die on the way down. He's still on the mountain, you know. His body is frozen solid, so he's always going to be there." "Cool," said Dan. "I mean, not the being dead part. But, you know— the spot of his greatest triumph becomes his final resting place. It makes sense." Amy regarded him with disapproval. "I'd forgotten how weird you are."

The pilot's voice intruded on their conversation. "Since neither of you American hotshots bothered to ask if we have enough fuel to land, the answer is yes. Barely." "That's great news!" Amy exclaimed, embarrassed. "Thank you for the— uh— ride." "De rien, mademoiselle. You have powerful friends. At least, your companion with the nose ring does." "Yeah, what's up with that?" Dan mused. "How many au pairs could make a phone call and score you a ticket up Everest in an experimental chopper?" "She's definitely more than a regular au pair," Amy agreed. "You should have seen her at the Great Wall. She picked a lock like a pro." Her expression softened. "But whatever else she is, she's on our side. I think." They looked back at Everest, silent and severe in its powerful majesty. "Did you ever dream of being up there?" Amy asked in a hushed tone. "Sure," Dan enthused. "All the time. One day

I'm going to climb it." She made a face. "Be sure to send me a postcard." They were low enough to make out the village of Tingri now, a small collection of ancient buildings on the vast Tibetan plateau. A mile or so outside of town, the helipad came into view, and, standing outside, Nellie was shading her eyes as she scanned the sky. Not far from her, a tiny gray dot— Saladin. Family, waiting to welcome them home. For two orphans, that was something you couldn't put a price on.