Spirit's End

by A. R. Knight

  Alec pushed himself out from under my legs. Scrambled to his feet as I worked my sword out from the spirit. Dropped into a ready stance, which loosened as he looked over my shoulder.

  I could hear them. Nara’s spirits making their way across as they found ways through the flames. As burning rubble died down. The guides had delayed our advance, yes, but their gambit was at an end.

  “Much as I would love to continue,” Alec said. “I believe these odds are against me.”

  “You’re giving up the clock tower? How will you cross back?”

  “If we don’t end this now, there won’t be anywhere to cross back to!” Alec gave me a slight nod, then turned and ran. The square behind him was deserted. Guide gear, tables, and maps remained behind.

  Nara’s spirits flooded into it, tearing everything apart with abandon. I went up to the main table, where not long ago I’d sat with Dolan, Selena, and the others to plot our last best hope for salvation.

  On the table sat the same map they’d had on there before, only instead of breaches, there now was drawn a single thick line. From the center of the city towards the Mountain.

  A small ball sat at the end of it, right over the Cycle.

  Chapter 52

  I felt Nara’s pulse as I looked up from the map. Her words crossing the distance between us.

  “You have driven them from their home?” Nara asked.

  “Riven is their home, and they are still in it,” I replied.

  “Then you are failing.”

  “I do not wish to succeed.” I watched as spirits armed themselves with remaining gear. Long knives and swords. Spears and axes. Guide weapons in the hands of those they were designed to destroy.

  “But I do, and you belong to me.” Rather than hot anger, a cool acceptance flowed through the bond. Assurance that I was indeed hers. That I would do whatsoever she asked.

  Nara was right.

  “I believe they mean to come to you,” I said, explaining the map. “Though what they plan to do when they get there is harder to know.”

  “Try to destroy me, of course. Though what their hopes are after that, I do not know.”

  “The Mountain is too far for most of them,” I said, glancing at the clock tower’s ruins. “They won’t be able to cross back before their bodies die on the other side.”

  “A pity. You will follow from behind. Chase them. I am building up a secondary force that shall meet the guides head on in the forest. They will have nowhere to run.”

  With that command, Nara’s voice faded away. Her mind turned to other matters. Mine turned to the army, now staring at me and waiting for further orders.

  So we marched west. Towards the Mountain, Bryce and the guides.

  As we went through the city center, I realized we were passing close to the apartment I’d shared with Selena and the others. To Nicholas’ lab.

  I directed the spirits to continue their destructive walk after the guides and dipped down the right side street. Nara was paying less attention than usual. Focusing on growing her second army, no doubt.

  The apartment sat as I’d last seen it. Three stories of shabby, yet sturdy construction. The balconies that Selena loved to look out from stuck their black iron out from the top, a fire escape ladder marring the side view.

  I went inside Nicholas’s lab, which occupied the entire ground floor, and stopped. Empty, except for a couple of old tables. One of which held, on it, a piece of paper, next to a box no larger than my hand.

  Conspicuously absent was the bomb. The reset button. I’d half expected it to be waiting for us in the clock tower square. Thought they’d push it and send us back.

  Carver,

  Anna tells me you’re on your way to ruin us at the behest of some ancient spirit. I can think of no more appropriate way for our time here to end than at your hand, though I confess my own thinking has you too headstrong to simply follow orders.

  However, I’ve come to understand Riven as a place of paradoxes. A world where science ties loose with the spiritual, and where our strongest friends may need the most help. And so I offer you a gift, with all my thanks.

  Your humble scientist,

  Nicholas

  I looked at the box, small and squat and black. A gift. What Nicholas could have for me at this stage, I didn’t know. I reached for the box, no latch bound its contents, and pushed up on the top.

  I heard the bang. My eyes caught the flash before they closed by reflex. I felt the fire burn. In both the harsh heat of orange flames and the purifying blue.

  “Come back, Carver.”

  What? I floated. Or rather, existed in a place that did not. A vast emptiness. One I recognized, from when Dolan had wrangled me. A place of shadows and flitting images.

  This was, I understood, the place where spirits stayed as their mindless forms walked to the Cycle.

  “They told me I should leave you. But you saved me, so I feel I have to return the favor.”

  I looked around, but couldn’t find the source of the voice. Couldn’t remember to whom it belonged. The shadows shifted. A face? Hair?

  Something tugged me, yanked me off of my feet, such as they were, to my back and I fell. Through the shadows and the lights. Until the world gradually brightened around me and I realized I was looking into Anna’s eyes.

  “There you go,” Anna said. There was a noise, somewhere outside, and a worried frown crossed along her expression. “I’m sorry, but I can’t wait for you. When you get better, come find us. We’re going to the Mountain.”

  Anna stood up. I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn’t work. I couldn’t feel my legs, my arms. Pain began to leak through.

  Anna pulled out her flail, let the chain dangle near my head. “Good bye, Carver. I hope I see you again.”

  And then she was gone. Leaving me lying there, on the floor of the lab, with hordes of Nara’s spirits running through the area.

  Nicholas’s bomb had broken my spirit. It would take hours to heal. Hours I didn’t have.

  Chapter 53

  Feeling returned to my arms, tingling sensations that gradually grew into the cool touch of the stone floor or the ragged scratch of my ruined coat as it brushed my leg. The ceiling blurred in and out of focus as my eyes pieced themselves together.

  Nicholas hadn’t gone easy on me.

  If Anna hadn’t been there to bring me back, I’d still be in that dark nova. Lost. Unknowing.

  The first time, when Dolan burned me away, I hadn’t known what was happening. He’d yanked me back so fast that I didn’t have a chance to process the event. We’d moved on out of the desert and I hadn’t given it a second thought.

  Now I understood what had happened. Who to thank for bringing me back to Riven’s ashen world.

  I reached out through Anna’s bond. She was growing distant. On her way to the Mountain. I felt a rush of warm encouragement from her. She still believed in me, somehow.

  My right hand came back to me. I traced the floor. Felt my way around, as my neck refused to turn.

  Nicholas’ bomb had devastated my coat, leaving a shredded mess behind. At least the thick jacket had done some work protecting the shirt and pants beneath. They felt crisped to the touch, but intact.

  I couldn’t say the same about the lash. The heat, it seemed, had burned through the cable. The hilt sat in the holster, but as a weapon, its days were done.

  The scrabbling came soft at first. A grumbling rasp. The lab’s door swinging open and banging against the wall. I couldn’t turn to see, but I could feel its eyes on me. The rasping stopped.

  A spirit, and based on how fast it shaped up, one of Nara’s.

  “He is here, yes,” the spirit spoke to no one. At least, nobody here. “Alive, yes. Eyes are open. His hand moved.”

  My left hand only hurt. I couldn’t move it. Legs could twinge, but couldn’t bend. The only thing I had was my right.

  “I am sure, yes.” The spirit came closer to me. Its head popped into view. Long, stringy hair.
A face that should have been young, but had been worn hard. She blinked down at me. “Alive, yes.”

  “She can’t feel me, can she?” I said. Playing for the delay.

  “He is speaking,” the spirit muttered. “Asking questions.”

  “Ask her,” I said. The spirit snarled at me, then pulled back. Stared straight out at the wall of the lab.

  “He wonders if you can feel him?”

  I shifted my right hand. Pulled it across my body. To my left holster. Towards the long knife I hoped would be there. When the spirit jerked her eyes back down to me I paused.

  “No, she says. You are no longer hers.”

  “I can feel her,” I protested. My voice scratched. Again the spirit looked away. Listening.

  My hand made it farther. Grasped the end of the long knife’s hilt.

  “She says you lie.” The spirit leaned in close to me. Her manic eyes locked on mine, her lips pulling apart. “She says you are not to be trusted.”

  “What’s your name?” I said the words. A tactic I’d used before on spirits, especially ones on the edge of sanity. Even if they had no intention of answering, for a moment the spirit would think of their name. Many could no longer remember it, and that realization would throw them into a panic.

  As it did with this one. Her face went slack, then widened with worry. Until Nara clamped down on those feelings. Pushed the spirit back to its goal.

  “She says you are to be ended.” The spirit opened her mouth wide, the inside of it far too close and visible for comfort. Teeth, bent and broken, came in close for my eyes.

  The knife bit in hard, though I didn’t have the angle to twist the hilt. My wrist wasn’t turning. The spirit fell back, my long knife sticking out of her abdomen. Hissing in anger, pain. Whistling screeches that echoed around the lab’s hard walls.

  I lunged with my right arm, pulled my body over. Presented my back to the spirit, then my left side. But I saw what I wanted.

  Trapped beneath me, under the ruins of the crossbow, sat the great sword. I rolled slightly, giving my right arm enough room to grab its hilt. Bent my elbow to swing the point of the sword up, maybe a foot.

  I had never realized how heavy the blade was till now. I suddenly wasn’t sure I could actually use it. Could keep it high enough.

  The spirit wrapped her hands around the knife and pulled it free. Looked like she was about to throw the blade away, then paused. Nara again.

  This much direct control from so far away. If nothing else, keeping Nara so busy would buy my friends some time. Leave a few more spirits unbound.

  The spirit burst at me, stumbling forward with the knife swinging in her right hand. Holding it forward in a stab.

  I pushed with my right hand, levered the great sword’s hilt into the floor as I slid onto my back. The point went up as the spirit closed. My blade hit the knife, knocking it from the spirit’s hand. But then my move was done.

  The great sword stood upright, but it was all I could do to keep it that way.

  Outside, from the street, I heard the pounding of footsteps. Reinforcements, and I doubted they were mine.

  The spirit sidestepped nearer my head, her eyes locked onto my sword. I couldn’t move it to follow. I tried to think of what tricks I had left. Came up blank.

  As the spirit realized I couldn’t counter, a gnarly smile spread over her face. She came in to kill me.

  As she dove towards my face, I shifted my shoulder, pushed my right arm forward. Let the hilt tilt back towards my head. The heavy blade fell, right towards me. I locked eyes with the sword for a second, before the spirit’s wild face blocked my view.

  I felt her teeth bite my skin, and then heard the thick slice as the great sword fell onto, into the spirit’s head. This time, I had the leverage to turn my right hand, twist the great sword’s hilt, and send the pale fire burning.

  The flames covered my vision as they consumed the spirit, lying on top of me. I closed my eyes for a second. Started to relax. Until I heard the feet again. Close.

  I’d lived through one spirit, only to die to the coming dozen.

  Chapter 54

  I pushed the vacant spirit off of me with my right hand. Felt a bit of life in my left leg, so I pressed that foot against the ground and scooted back. Bought me some space and an angle with which to look at the door to the street.

  There I saw madness.

  Spirits were tangling with spirits. Diving at each other, rolling around in the street. Some had the telltale blue eyes of an angry soul, enraged and mindless. The others were likely Nara’s forces, pulled into a fight they weren’t looking for.

  That many angry spirits meant a breach would be nearby. A breach that, right now, was saving my life.

  A clang drew my eyes back towards the spirit I’d wrangled. The great sword had fallen to the floor when the spirit stood up, her head at an awkward angle from the sword’s cut. Her eyes were blank, staring straight ahead without emotion.

  She took one step, then a second and a third. Towards the door and out into the chaos. Without interruption, she would go all the way to the Cycle.

  Where, if Nara stood ready, she could be bound back into service.

  Nothing I could do about that, though. So I pushed my way over to the great sword. This time, I moved over to the wall, dragging the sword behind me as I crawled.

  I jammed the sword into the angle between the floor and the wall and pushed into with my right hand. Pressed down and slipped my left leg under me. With my right leg still straight, the position was profoundly uncomfortable.

  But if I couldn’t stand, I’d be defenseless against the next spirits that came in, whether they were Nara’s or wild ones from the breach.

  With my right hand, I let go of the sword. Shifted my weight to my left side. Leaned forward, grabbed my right ankle, and bent my right leg beneath me.

  Pain sparked and splashed. My vision swam. I tried to focus. Suppress it.

  The pain isn’t real, Carver. You don’t have nerves.

  If only it was that easy.

  Outside, shrieks grew louder. More of them. Spirits howling frustration without reservation. Which meant Nara’s side was losing. Or abandoning the field.

  Soon I’d have company, once one of those angry souls wandered in here.

  Again I picked up the sword, now in a kneeling stance. Pressed it against the wall with my right hand. My left foot, its shredded boot sticking to the skin, moved until it rested flat on the stone. Then I pushed, hard.

  I may have screamed.

  But, leaning on the sword, I stood. My right leg, still a broken mess, touched the floor. Did not want to put weight on that yet.

  I looked across the lab. To the tables two yards away. The sword would be my walking stick. My left leg my only balance. If I could get to the tables, then I’d have some support. Could free my right hand to swing the sword, at least somewhat.

  A body smashed against the outside of the lab, scrabbling hands and tearing teeth telling just what was happening to it.

  I lunged with the sword, turning and driving the point into the stone. Hoping Mali had made Dolan’s sword stronger than the city. That her gift to her fellow spirit could bite into rock.

  The sword struck the floor and sparks flew, but I felt the point lodge into the ground. It held my weight as I moved my left foot forward a long step. Did it a second time.

  Now I could reach the tables. Once more lurch with the sword, and I’d be perfect.

  But I’d run out of time.

  Behind me, I heard the mad mutterings, growls from a pair of spirits. I risked a glance. Soldiers, their military minds long gone. Looking at me as though I were lunch.

  They darted towards me, eyes wide and burning. I waited a long second, then shifted my weight to the left foot. Pressed down with my left leg, and then swept the great sword with my right hand.

  As my body twisted, I shoved off with my left leg. The spirits’ hands brushed my ragged coat as I turned, the sword scraping alo
ng the ground. I saw their faces, their burning eyes, as I fell. They kept coming.

  My back hit the edge of the table, and Nicholas’ workbench held firm. I used the leverage, dragged the sword up in a crossing cut that the spirits, without any sense in their souls, ran into.

  I twisted the hilt as the sword slashed, drawing burning blue lines across the spirits’ outstretched arms. And then they landed on me, bearing me off the table and to the floor. Collapsed.

  I saw the underside of the table, and had an idea. The burning spirits rolled off of me, and in seconds they would be gone. Leaving me again open to attack. Unless the spirits couldn’t tell I was there.

  With my right hand, I hefted and hacked at the table’s front right leg, nearest to the door. After a pair of whacks, the leg snapped in half and the table tilted forward, then fell. As it listed, I pushed myself behind the falling barrier.

  The table sat between me and the door, blocking all view of the outside. The screams had died down. The breach would still be drawing spirits, but with nothing to keep them here, they would be ranging farther in search of souls to maul.

  Me, I curled up behind that fallen table. Pulled my legs together, held the sword close, and willed my soul to heal.

  Chapter 55

  Hidden behind the table, waiting for my body to heal, I reached out across my bond to Anna. Felt her nervous excitement, and spoke to her.

  “Where are all of you?” I said the words in my mind and, like directing a shout towards a distant friend, sent the question to Anna.

  “We’re in the forest,” Anna replied. “Closing breaches and marching towards the Mountain. Bryce is leading. Determined.”

  “Not surprised. Sorry I can’t be there.”

  “Yet, you mean.”

  “I’m hiding behind a table, Anna. Nicholas’ bomb really tore me apart.”

  A wave of concern passed through the bond, along with a little bit of laughter.