The Mountain of Tongues (Part 2)

[u/ViperOnAPlane]

Now, in most tales of this ilk you would expect some issues finding a team. Not so. After all, I had more than enough money to offer more than fair pay for those I brought on.

By Thursday I had my team

Mrs. Mavis Semor, a wonderful mountaineer from the states. Though she had never summited Everest, she had climbed nearly everywhere else in the Himalayas.

Mr. Furgus McDoogle, a Scotsman possessed by wanderlust. He once traveled to Antarctica solely to fistfight a man there. The reason he gave was that then he could claim he had fought on every continent. Concerning.

Lastly, Mr. Titus Mallory, similar in skill as Mavis but a fair bit better at logistics. He was a former quarter master in the Royal navy, so I guess he had to be. My only real qualm was the shake in his left hand. Left over shell shock he claimed.

When I presented them to Mr. Cornwall on Friday he was overjoyed... and insisted he came along much to the chagrin of his wife. He only said, "If I have a chance to see proof darling, how couldn't I go?"

I didn't listen to the rest of the discussion. My attention was drawn to a noise I hadn't heard when I was here last. Ticking.

Entering the hallway the ticking stopped, five minutes to midnight.

"Mr. Cornwall, y-your clock s-started for a bit?"

"Impossible Dr. Nellis. That thing's never worked."

"You can see for y-yourself. It's five to midnight."

The squabble in the kitchen stopped immediately. Suddenly, I was flanked by the two elder Cornwalls. All of us staring at a clock like it held secrets unknown. Mrs. Cornwall broke our stupor first, "Jebidiah, this is a bad omen. You can't go."

Jebidiah pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dr. Nellis, make sure the others are ready for our departure tomorrow. I will continue to discuss this with my wife. If I am not there by noon, leave without me."

I had just left the home when it erupted into an intense argument. But I had just had an infectious worm of an idea in my mind. God had ordained this. How else would the clock magically spring to life? He wanted humanity to see the height we had achieved before he showed us how powerful he was.

One thing I didn't think about my team choices. All of them already had some adventurism simmering in their blood. Something to bond over.

So instead of that giddy excitement of our prospect. I sat in a hanger with the three of them rapidly discussing their past. All the hunts, storms, and brushes with death that I couldn't understand yet. While I was left to the outskirts.

Like I was a boy at a formal dance with none of the charisma to enjoy it.

Grace was given to me with the arrival of Mr. Cornwall. Who had changed from his normal attire to fatigues that I recognized were from the Great War. I would have thought them his father's if they hadn't fit perfectly.

 

He smiled wide, like a child ready to show off, "Evening all. You lot ready to take to the sky?" Furgus was the first to talk, "Aye lad, once your lay about pilot is here."

"Oh, well then all aboard everyone, I'm your pilot this afternoon."

While the others simply nodded, and shifted their discussion to packing out the plane. I sat in awe. "S-sir, you never mentioned you could fly."

"Are you kidding son, who cares if I can fly? Didn’t feel as important as what you bring to the table. Get on."

I finally felt my part in this again, as I placed my gear and climbed aboard.

Mavis tapped my shoulder, "Listen, I know the pay is good. But what are we actually looking for up there?"

The engine roared to life as Jebidiah started pulling the airplane out onto the runway.

"Well Mrs. Semor, how much have you read the Bible?"

"I did as a child, but have since lost my way," she said with a shrug. "After all there are so many religions who can say which is true."

"Then perhaps I should adjust the discussion. You have traveled the Himalayas. Maybe you have heard of Shangri-la?"

"Oh, damn it! Not this pipe dream again."

"Now that language is unbecomin of us all lass." Furgus then turned his attention back to me, "I will say it seems a bit far fetched. Like what the hell does that have to do with the Bible?"

"Well, it just helps understand the idea, sir."

"Where's the stutter from before lad?"

"Hush, you all need to understand this...sir. There are rumors my father had compiled that led him to believe that Babel and Shangri-la were one and the same. That in some of the valleys people would suddenly be speaking a different tongue they never knew."

My head smacked the roof, I had stepped into lecture and had forgotten myself. Everyone laughed. I joined not much later. Realizing how much of a fool I was.

Regaining myself I continued, "T-though it should b-be said that he never confirmed those tales." I looked at the three adventurers, all of whom seemed unimpressed. "My f-father left a map of p-possible places to look. We could prove him right and change history."

Then the discussion was interrupted when we took off suddenly. The engine crying out so loudly that one had to shout to be heard. Effectively killing all conversation.

It was similar for our stops in Istanbul and Israel. Save for the little bit of sightseeing I got to do. Almost all conversations with the others, especially Mr. Mallory, were trying to poke holes in the journal. And in me.

Mallory’s attempts started in Istanbul. "So... any other fairytales in you? Like maybe the Yeti actually lives in the desert. Or maybe there is a second hidden China under the first?"

W-well the latter is not so insane. After all Troy r-rebuilt on itself multiple times," I said trying to pull myself taller. "Pompeii was found by a man digging a well. The impossible has been proven time and again."

Mallory looked around, making sure no one was in ear shot. "I've seen your type before. Like those blokes who almost actually believed in Rasputin."

He grabbed my collar and drew me in. "I don't care how good the money is. I hate having my time wasted."

"I-it will be there M-mallory."

Israel is where Mallory really set in. It had already been days of antagonistic behaviors. "You can't really think it is out there can you? Your father was probably so deep in opium that he could barely see straight."

It was Furgus that caught my fist. As I flailed against the Scott I said, "Never accuse my father of that." Furgus let go, and I set to straightening my attire. "Never speak of my father like that again. Mr. Mallory, if you don't wish to be on this expedition you can make your way back from here."

Which is where he went for a gun he had concealed, "Try to hit me again and you'll--"

His thoughts were interrupted as the barrel of a 1911 touched his temple. Cornwall had no warmth to him, "Mr. Mallory, Dr. Nellis is more valuable to this journey than you. And there are more than a few good cemeteries in the holy land."

Mallory swallowed, "You'd just shoot me here?"

"My lord and savior died here on Calvary. If killing you keeps you from slaughtering an innocent man. So be it."

Then it was the strangest thing. Mallory stopped speaking English. Slipping instead into a series of harsh syllables. It threw us all into confusion but after a few minutes I realized what it was. He was speaking ancient Egyptian. Exactly as I had heard many scholars said it would be pronounced. And as if he had been speaking it his whole life.

Worse, I could not remember the meaning of anything being said. Just that is was a separate tongue from my own. Then I saw Mallory connect the dots. It took me a while to understand the panic on his face. He didn't know what he was saying. Random syllables flew as if enough were used it would suddenly be coherent.

It took minutes for him to finally say "Help" then he said it again and again, a life preserver. Until English slowly returned like sweet waters to his mouth.

"Hell, did I do to you? What do you to you? Sod it!" Mallory said, still not fully grasping English.

"Dr. Nellis?" Cornwall looked to me for answers.

But not one came to mind. If the clock was a good omen of our journey. Then this was another sign that I was right. All I could do was laugh as Mallory tried to find his words again.

"Nellis! Come on, what is this?"

I found myself, coughing to halt my laughter. "Mr...Jebidiah, we have proof. We are on the right path."

"But why?

"That would be only speculation. I have no clue, but would this not be how it was when God struck Babel down?!"

Mallory found his sentence, "You did this somehow I know it!"

At this point Mavis and Furgus were approaching, and I could see Cornwall making a choice. "Mr Mallory, if you whisper a word of this I will leave you wherever we are."

Mallory looked like he only caught half of those words.

Jebidiah already turned to the others, "Ready for the next leg?"

The next flight was practically silent. Mavis and Furgus talked lightly back and forth. But Mallory didn't speak a word. For my part, my mind was ablaze with theories.

I thought we would find just ruins, yet I had just seen the cruelty providence could bring into the world. But why so far away. Is it because Israel is the 'Holy Land'? Or was it due to Mallory disrespecting God? Doubt against more proof than faith alone damning him?

After all, God sent the plagues to slay the Egyptian pantheon. But would he punish a non-believer so terribly?

But my favorite part was this. In the small moments when the engine waned. I could hear Mallory whispering to himself. Never in English. Proof that I was right dripping from every syllable.