by A. R. Knight
Mali entered from the right, her dark blue form appearing to plead with the pair. Being ignored. And, finally, raising her arms to the sky. Deep green lines came down the water curtain, splitting the man and woman. Splitting Mali apart from them. Mali’s figure hung her head, and then the water curtain dissipated. Scattered back to the pools.
“Now you understand,” Mali said. “I cannot free them. I cannot free Nara, because she will try again.”
“Try again to what?” I said. “Bind spirits? It didn’t look so bad, there, in the town.”
“She kept them,” Mali said. “All the spirits. They did her bidding. Worshiped her. You believe Riven is in danger now, then freeing her would only bring the hordes under her control. What you saw there was a city bent to the desires of its leader.”
“Then why did you make it in the first place?” Selena said.
“Because Nara asked me to,” Mali said. “We were the first ones. The first who kept ourselves from taking that last step into the Cycle. No doubt you have found its call easier to resist when you work together? So it was with us. When Nara wanted a city, I built it. When Nara wanted the Cycle gone, I tried to destroy it.”
“You put it in the Mountain,” I said.
“I would have sealed it off completely, were it not for Dolan,” Mali said. “If he hadn’t held me back. Argued that there might yet be some use for it.”
“So if you think Nara is going to ruin Riven,” I said. “Can you help us? Can you drive the spirits into the Cycle?”
Mali shook her head. A frown came over her face. “Meddling has only brought me pain, little spirits. I should have vanished into the Cycle when I first came here. Instead, here I am. Trapped in a prison of my own making.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“I learned to create this world,” Mali said. “I do not know how to destroy it. There is no way to free the Cycle. And I will not let Nara go. Whatever befalls Riven, she will not have a hand in it.”
I glanced at Selena. If Mali wasn’t going to help us, then there wasn’t much use in staying here. We were wasting time.
“Let’s go back,” I said. “Nara might have another idea.”
“Didn’t you hear her?” Selena said. “She’s saying Nara’s evil.”
“Mali also said she didn’t want to help Riven,” I said. “That makes them the same to me. At least Nara gives us a chance. Maybe she’s changed after all these years.”
At my nod, Selena and I turned back to the passage. The dark path to the surface.
“You are not the first,” Mali announced to our backs. “Nara has sent others. All begging for her release. All of them turned as you did. Determined to help Nara find a way free.”
“What happened to them?” Selena asked.
“I did not let them go,” Mali said, her voice dropping to a whisper. Once again, Mali’s hand shot forward. The stones bordering the passageway out shivered, then crumbled in on themselves. Blocking our escape.
“We don’t want to fight,” I said, turning back around.
“You are free to die,” Mali replied, then nodded at the golden ghoul beside her. Its head turned, and though its eyes were golden ovals, I met its gaze.
And when the ghoul marched towards us, Selena and I met its advance.
Chapter 19
Selena ran towards the ghoul, cleaver raised in her right hand, her long knife held at her waist, point forward and ready to stick Mali’s creation. The ghoul more than tripled our height; Selena didn’t come up to its waist. As the two approached, the ghoul swung out with its right hand and connected with Selena’s side, knocking her across the ground and into one of the pools. The ghoul didn’t bother to look at what happened to her. Came right on towards me.
Most of the other ghouls I’d seen had been horrendous creatures. Misshapen masses of arms and legs and limbs that bore no other description. The spirits that they’d consumed shifted beneath their skin, faces popping to the surface and giving you a reminder of who had been consumed to create the abomination. Mali’s ghoul looked different. Golden, pristine, a model of a person, if one without any clear gender features. Smooth skin and sporting a long gold tunic that stretched from collar to knees. I’d seen similar things before, in museums of ancient artifacts. Exhibitions on tours through Chicago. But it was one thing to stare at an artifact beneath a glass case and quite another to have an object of antiquity reaching for my throat.
I cracked the lash, wrapping around the ghoul’s outstretched hand. Waited for the telltale sign that the metal tip had pierced the ghoul’s skin. Then I’d start the fire and send it to its next life. Only the lash’s point bounced off the ghoul’s skin and hung, limp, as the ghoul continued its advance.
“It’s skin isn’t... skin,” I shouted to Selena as she pulled herself out of the pool. The bluish liquid clung to her, bits of it dripping off onto the ground. Thicker than water.
“Maybe if you actually hit it harder.” Selena shot back.
I didn’t have time to hit anything. The ghoul swung at me with its right hand again, just as it had attacked Selena. I dropped to the floor, flattening myself and feeling the ghoul’s fist fly overhead. Through the ghoul’s legs, I saw Selena coming up behind, cleaver ready. If I could get its attention for another moment, Selena could hammer home.
I glanced up and saw the ghoul’s left fist rising high. Ready to deliver a strike to my back that would bash me into nothingness. Then Selena’s cleaver bit into the ghoul’s calf. She swung her large knife with two hands, hacking at the monster’s skin. This time, unlike my lash, I saw flecks fly off. Selena’s blade breaking through. I expected a roar, but the ghoul stayed silent. A look at its face confirmed that it didn’t have a mouth, only a metal line. Still, her attack made the ghoul pause, turn and regard the flea biting at its leg. Which let me get back to my feet.
Selena’s cleaver had another trick. She twisted the hilt, the blade sticking into the ghoul, and wreathed the cleaver in blue fire. I waited for the cleansing flames to wash over the creature, to burn it to a cinder and leave nothing standing. Except the flames failed. They didn’t burn. They didn’t catch on and torch up and down the creature. They stayed on the cleaver, as though the ghoul were made of water. As though a steady breeze blew the flames back. Selena stared at her weapon as though it had betrayed her.
“Watch out!” I said. The ghoul, rather than smash me with its fist, swung its left arm back, catching Selena with its barrel-sized hand. Again she flew through the air, this time landing at the foot of Mali’s throne. Crumpled to the ground.
“Hey,” I said to the ghoul. “My turn.”
I did not want the creature mashing Selena to spirit-mush. The ghoul didn’t seem to care which of us it crushed, so long as it was crushing. Its right fist came at me in a lumbering hook. I sidestepped the attack, back out of the ghoul’s reach. I let go of my lash and drew my great sword. Lifted the weapon out as the ghoul pulled its arm for another swing and brought Piotr’s large blade down on the ghoul’s hand. It cut through, lopping off three of the creature’s fingers. They hit the ground; heavy, solid gold blocks.
“Have to be more careful,” I said. “You only have ten of those. Well, seven now.”
The ghoul didn’t seem to care about my jabs, physical or verbal. Its left hand made a grab for my head. I pivoted, swung the great sword at it, and at the last minute the ghoul jerked its hand back. My strike missed by inches. That was okay. All about buying time.
“Mali, call it off,” I shouted. “We don’t want to fight you. I don’t want to break your toy.”
Mali, for her part, ignored me. Ignored the fight. Her eyes were closed, her hands still playing that rhythm in the air. Either living in a memory or doing something I didn’t understand.
If she wasn’t going to stop the ghoul, then I’d have to destroy it.
The ghoul swept its broken right hand towards my legs, bringing it in low. I crouched, and then jumped over the swing, bringing the great sw
ord down on the ghoul’s wrist. My blade bit in, and, as I fell back to the ground, I twisted the hilt to send blue fire down into the creature. Again it failed. I stared at the cleaving cut, incredulous. The fire should burn away the rage, clear the binding that held a ghoul together in Riven. If it didn’t work, then we had no hope.
The ghoul’s left hand caught me unaware, bashed me into the side of the room. I bounced off and landed on my knees. My head rang with the impact, and I realized the great sword still hung from the creature’s right wrist, stuck in the ghoul. The monster turned towards me, and I drew the long knife from my belt. A pathetic choice to go against the giant creature.
So I ran.
I went around the ghoul and towards the blue pool on the far side. The ghoul turned, but its bulk made it a slow mover. A good thing, as I had to figure out a strategy. My knife wouldn’t help much. I had my crossbow. The normal bolts would be useless. A blue bolt, that would only send the same fire that had so far failed to hurt the creature. The orange. That was an option, if I wanted to bring down this entire temple on top of us. The space was too small; Nicholas’s invention would burn its way through the rock and us in its quest to devour anything within reach. So I backpedaled. Tried to get my distance. For its part, the ghoul didn’t seem to be in any hurry. Why bother running when the rat has nowhere to go?
My retreat around the pool brought Mali, and her throne, into view. A thought - if I couldn’t defeat the ghoul, then maybe I could take out its creator.
I took four steps towards her before Mali realized what I was doing. With her eyes still closed, Mali held out her hand. The floor around her began to shake, stone blocks rattling loose from their frames. Revealing dirt and grime underneath. They shot together, forming a wall in front of me, between Mali and the point of my knife.
“Please,” Mali said. “Stop this. Give in and let the end come. Embrace your fate as Cheo embraced his.”
Cheo. That was an idea. If I could get the ghoul to the right place...
Chapter 20
But I’d run out of time. The ghoul had closed, its hands wrapping around each other in a heavy overhead smash. I tried to dodge, squeeze around to the left along the chamber’s back wall. The ghoul, keeping its hands raised, kicked out with its right foot instead of smashing down. The swipe wasn’t dead-on, wasn’t very strong, so I only flew up and bounced off of the wall, landing near the corner with my head and back aching. The knife out of my hands, which were trying to push me up. I knew the ghoul’s follow-up would be coming, and as I scooted forward, the ghoul’s left fist flattened the spot where I’d fallen.
I didn’t make it past the right hand. Despite only having a thumb and pinkie finger, the ghoul wrapped its palm around me as I ran. Lifted me off the ground. Only, without the fingers, I could still move my right arm. The ghoul’s thumb pressed against my head, like squeezing a fruit. I tried to think of what I could grab, but all my weapons were gone. My crossbow pinned to my back. In a second, I’d snap apart.
“Let him go,” Selena growled, her voice trembling with pain, strong. The ghoul turned towards her, letting me see her running jump onto the creature’s tunic. Selena climbed, using her knife and cleaver to slice new handholds. With its left hand, the ghoul tried to pluck Selena off itself, but its movements were too slow. Too clumsy. Selena was a wiry spirit, slippery and quick when she wanted to be. She dodged the scrabbling hand and pulled herself up onto the ghoul’s shoulders. Took her cleaver in both arms as she wrapped her legs around its neck, and slammed her blade into the ghoul’s head, biting off flakes of metal. And then the ghoul jumped. Press its legs down and elevated, ducked its head. Slammed Selena into the ceiling and crushed her into the stone blocks.
The impact knocked the ghoul’s hand open, let me loose from the fingers. I splashed down into the blue pool, its icy water soaking my clothes. The chill seemed to scare away the pain, bring reality back into focus.
“Selena!” I called, sputtering away the water. She didn’t answer, her broken body motionless on the walkway. The ghoul, after staring at Selena’s form for a second, turned to me. I stood in the pool. Right where I wanted to be.
The ghoul’s hands came for me again, smashing down. I dodged back, towards the far end of the pool and the entrance that Mali had sealed. The ghoul’s hands splashed into the liquid in front of me, finally shaking the great sword out of its wrist. The blue, gooey water ran into the cuts and holes, the scratches we’d made on its hands. Filling them.
The ghoul shuddered. Paused.
When Cheo drank the green stuff on the other side, it seemed to erase his mind. A trap, or some sort of binding. Maybe, maybe the blue would do the same to the ghoul.
The monster seemed to fall asleep for a moment. It stood back, straightened. I stayed in the pool and watched. Did nothing to interrupt its reverie. If this didn’t work, if the ghoul decided again to pound us into dirt, then I didn’t think there was anything we could do to stop it.
Instead, the ghoul jerked. Turned towards the chamber’s exit and, with a strong swing of its left hand, punched through Mali’s broken wall. The golden ghoul walked away, vanishing into the darkness.
“Unexpected,” Mali said. “I’ve never seen that happen before. Not in all my years.”
“So glad we could make it interesting,” I said, running over to Selena’s form. If she’d been a human, I had no doubt the ghoul would have killed her. Every bone in her body would have been shattered into dust. As a spirit, however, Selena had no bones. Had nothing other than her soul. So when I held her, I saw her eyes flicker. Her mouth move. Selena would come back.
“Indeed,” Mali said, her eyes moving to the pool. “Nara’s gift, it seems, has proved to be a trap all this time. Always ruining the beautiful things Dolan and I built for this world.”
“I’m starting to think you’re the evil one, not her,” I said. “You keep spirits for centuries, replaying the same conflict over and over. You said that you murdered everyone Nara sent before.”
Mali considered. “Let me ask you, spirit, what you think I should have done? Should I have welcomed Nara’s pawns with open arms? Accepted her overtures, released her?”
“The way I see it, you all had the power to keep Riven safe. So why didn’t you?”
Mali sat forward, looked hard into my eyes. “I wonder if she has her claws in you even now. This far distant, you should be free, and yet...”
“Help us.”
“There is no helping you. I will not give this cursed world into Nara’s grasp.” Mali pressed her hands on the arms of her throne, digging her nails into its grooves. “Come now, servant. Let’s see if Nara has chosen well this time.”
As I held Selena in my arms, my weapons scattered around the room, Mali, the spirit that built the Riven I knew, that crafted its buildings, its forests, its ashen sky, rose from her throne with my end in her eyes.
Chapter 21
Mali slid out of her throne, stretched, holding her arms together above her head. I set Selena back down on the ground, picked up her knife in my right hand, unsure of what to do. What strategies worked against a spirit thousands of years old? What haven’t they seen? I decided to flip the knife to my left, lunge forward and stab.
Mali made me pause.
Two stone blocks in front of her feet rattled, broke out of the floor. One flew into each of her hands and melted into a ring, the stone seeming to liquefy and reform in her grip. The rings were as big around as a melon, only with serrated edges. Mali held them lightly, though I couldn’t see how she didn’t cut herself on the gleaming rings. Perhaps she did. Perhaps she didn’t care.
“It’s been such a long time,” Mali said. “I might be rusty.”
“That would be such a shame,” I replied. “Really wanted another hard fight after that last one.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that.”
Mali raised her right arm behind her, getting ready to throw the ring. Which meant I had to strike first. I stepped over Selena,
and took a long lunge forward. Bursting out with the knife towards Mali. A third stone flew up out of the ground in front of her, striking the middle of the knife and sending it flying. The blade splashed into the green pool, leaving me barehanded and staring into Mali’s devilish grin.
“Come now,” Mali said. “Such an obvious attack? You’ll have to do better.”
“Most people can’t pull blocks from the ground,” I countered. “Not fair.”
“You were expecting fair?” Mali said. “How have you made it this far?”
Mali whipped her right arm, then her left, the sharp disks flying towards me. I had no time to dodge - only a few feet separated us. The first one burrowed its way into my left shoulder, and the second into my right leg. They whirled like saw blades; grinding, spinning, and tearing. My left arm went numb, and I fell to one knee as my leg stopped being able to hold my weight. As fights go, I’d had better starts.
“That’s all you’ve got?” I said, trying to buy time. Spirits healed fast in Riven, and if I could keep her talking, I might get some function back. “All those centuries and you make a couple of rings? Why not another ghoul?”
“Dolan gave me the ghoul,” Mali said, sending a quick frown up the passage. “I covered it with gold after a while. There’s only so long you can stand to see swirling spirits and grotesque flesh.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t answer to you,” Mali replied. She sucked another pair of blocks up from the floor, once again pulling them into the circular rings. I still wore the crossbow on my back, but without two arms, drawing the weapon and loading it wasn’t possible. Not to mention it would be obvious, and I didn’t think Mali would stand there and let me crank a bolt into position.
