Forever the Road (A Rucksack Universe Fantasy Novel) by Anthony St. Clair Page A

days to climb Everest. Hell, takes ages just to get to the foot of the damn mountain. Yet here’s a tale of some damn traveler who skips up and back in time for tea. They say he didn’t even remember it.”
    The man took a long drink of Deep’s Special Lager. “But he was standing on a little rise at Everest Base Camp, the Tibetan side, looking toward the mountain that night. The full moon rose over the slope, silver light shining on the white snow and the gray-black stone. The next morning, they say he was standing there again, only his clothes were ragged and torn. His face was bruised, his hands scratched up. He looked like he’d lost a fight with a pack of wild cats. Thing is, no one had seen him come to bed, but no one had seen him standing there all night either. But it’s Everest, you know? Sometimes you hallucinate up there. Low oxygen, high altitude, frigid temperatures. He couldn’t have been outside all night. The exposure would kill him.”
    The second man nodded, but his back was to Jade and Rucksack. “I heard about that too while I was finishing some business in Kathmandu. The stranger the news is, the faster it travels. Even weirder, from what I heard? The guy was clutching an Indian flag, and the flag was covered with signatures. Here’s the thing.” He tapped the table. “An Indian climbing team had recently summited Everest. And they had left that flag at the top.”
    The second man took a swig of beer and continued. “People say that when they saw the guy that morning, he dropped the flag and staggered from the little hill to his tent. You’d figure he’d want a long flop. But no. A couple minutes later, he’s running out of there, this huge black backpack on his back. Next thing everyone knew, he’d talked to these two guys and hopped into the bed of their truck as they were leaving. Don’t know who they were. They could’ve been from anywhere, you know?”
    The first man grinned. “Sounds like what I heard. No one knows for sure what happened or where he went after that. I heard he found something in his backpack that made him run. But I’ve also heard others say he’d worn out his welcome in Tibet—something about hocking portraits of the Dalai Lama—and the authorities were after him. Maybe a little of both. All I know is that somehow this guy had a flag that had last been seen at the top of the world’s tallest mountain. I also heard later that the flag wasn’t on the summit anymore. I don’t know where he is now or who he is or anything... But I tell you what. That’s one hell of a traveler.”
    “I’ll drink to that,” the second man said. They clinked glasses and finished their beers.
    “What the hell?” Jade said, moving around the bar.
    “What else have you heard?” Rucksack said, walking toward the men at their table.
    One of the men smiled at Rucksack, then glanced at the bar and nodded once.
    A crash behind Jade and Rucksack made them stop and turn around. The Deep’s Special Lager tap handle had shot off and was clattering on the bar. Beer gushed onto the floor.
    “Don’t let them leave!” Jade said. She ran to the taps and turned off the flow. “Who are they?”  
    Rucksack shook his head. “Wish I knew,” he replied. “They’re gone.”
    “We were only turned around a moment,” Jade said. “How’d they get out the door that quickly?”
    Rucksack’s face was tight and grim. “They didn’t use the door,” he said. “They vanished.”
    “My new guest isn’t just another backpacker, is he?” Jade said.
    Rucksack didn’t reply. Jade looked at the empty pub, and thought of all the things she hadn’t told him yet.

    H OW MUCH MORE did it cost him for us to have our own room? Jigme thought as he looked out the window at the city .
    I wish I could calm down, Jigme thought. Maybe then I could sleep. Instead he stared out the window, trying to make sense of the last few hours.
    They had walked by the other rooms. The beds were in rows along the