by Nick Harrow
Before the raven could react, I pushed my rin into the shadowy connection point. This would never have worked while the bird’s master was still alive, because an active master could easily deny a new connection to a bound spirit. But the station manager was long dead, and there was no one around to stop me from doing my thing. It was, as Aja had said, a case of finders, keepers. I only needed to forge my binding to the connection point, and the raven would be free from its duty.
I took a deep breath and willed my rin to form a binding seal around the dark spot on the bird’s core.
And it would have worked, too, if the sneaky fuck who’d set up the duty bond hadn’t been so goddamned clever.
The asshole had bound the bird not to a person, but to the station itself with a contingency that the binding was under the control of the station manager. And, while that manager was dead as a doornail, the station wasn’t.
“Stop!” the raven squawked. “You’re going to get us all killed!”
“Little late for that.” The bond I’d forged to the bird would keep us tied together until either I’d won my battle against the station, or I was dead.
A thread of silver senjin speared out of the darkness and smashed into the raven’s core like a blast of lightning. The script that surrounded the connection point flared to life, the symbols spinning faster and faster as sacred energy flooded into them.
I tightened my mental grasp around the black bird’s spirit with a grunt. The script pushed against my spirit like a gale force wind, but it wasn’t strong enough to sever the connection I’d forged. Unfortunately, I felt a tremendous amount of senjin behind the attack. It couldn’t overpower me with brute strength, but it could wear me down with its constant, unrelenting attack.
And the instant it threw me out of the bird’s core, the warding seals would kick in and do something really nasty.
“Aja,” I groaned. “Can you sense this senjin thread that’s trying to kill me?”
“I think so.” The spirit went silent for so long I had to look over my shoulder to make sure she hadn’t left. While I struggled against the core’s death trap, she sniffed the air. Finally, she cleared her throat and spoke again. “I have its scent now.”
“Find its source and kill it.” The effort of holding onto the raven’s core for dear life wrenched a long, pained groan from deep inside me. “Hurry!”
“I’m going with her,” Ayo called. “Give me your club for light.”
“Fine, take it, but go!” I didn’t want to be short with the spirits, but the spiritual battle had me worried. Senjin pulsed through the thread into the bird’s core, and it came closer to knocking me loose with every moment that passed.
Steal its fire. Mielyssi’s faint voice trickled through my thoughts like a cool, refreshing stream.
The connection I’d forged with the three-legged raven gave me access to its core.
A core rapidly filling with senjin.
I drew in a deep breath and pulled senjin through the rin thread I’d tied to the raven. A river of senjin gushed through the connection and into my core, where it stormed around inside me with bruising force. There was so much of the pure power I couldn’t hope to contain it all.
Oops.
Before the flood of pure dream energy could overwhelm my core, I sealed the rin thread against it. I immediately emptied two of my nodes by activating the Crimson Claws and Bear’s Mantle techniques, and my core split some of the senjin into its rin and shio components. The rin settled into the space I’d created for it, while my masculine core shed the feminine shio energy in opalescent droplets that oozed from my pores.
That maneuver didn’t do shit to help me. My core was still dangerously overloaded. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I couldn’t shed the senjin, and I didn’t want to find out. It was time to make a mess.
“We’re both going to die,” the raven croaked. “Oh, Blood God, what did I ever do to deserve such a miserable existence? Thirty years trapped in the dark, and now this so-called shaman strolls in and tears my soul apart!”
“You’re gonna have to shut the fuck up,” I gasped. “Can’t concentrate with you running your beak.”
“Well, excuse the fuck out of me, Mr. Breaking and Entering,” the raven muttered.
With a shout, I unleashed one node after another to trigger the Earthen Darts spell. The floor around me exploded into jagged shards that flew up into the darkness, where they shattered against the ceiling. A stinging hail of gravel fell down around me, pelting my head and shoulders, pinging off the raven’s back, and rattling against the top of the carriage in a seemingly endless barrage.
When my nodes filled again, I emptied them again, this time by forcing the sacred power into my blood and muscles. My strength and endurance surged, and I used my newfound vigor to push back against the trap. It was a constant struggle, but stealing the senjin from the trap was working.
Sadly, there seemed to be an inexhaustible amount of the shit. No matter how many times I emptied and refilled my core, there was more senjin flowing into the raven. It was like trying to bail the ocean with a fucking teaspoon.
“I should have just killed you,” I groaned.
“Oh, the Celestial Bureacracy would have just loved that.” The raven shielded its head from the gravel with one wing. “And if I ever get back there, I’m going to tell them just how much of an asshole you are.”
I turned my attention back to the senjin, draining and refilling my core, shattering more rock, and generally trying to not motherfucking die.
“Found it!” Aja’s voice was chased through the subterranean station by dozens of echoes that made it hard to tell where the hell she was. “It looks like some kind of script plaque. What do you want us to do?”
“Disable it!” I shouted. “You said you can read scripts, so find the power circuit and shut it off.”
“How?”
“Scratch it, break it, I don’t give a fuck!” My voice cracked with the effort of taming the senjin that wanted to murder the shit out of me. “Just make it quick!”
“Okay!”
A moment later, Cragtooth Station was hit by a lightning bolt.
The brilliant flash blinded my physical eyes and overwhelmed my spirit sight with a chaotic stream of silver senjin threads. The unfettered energy spiraled off in a thousand different directions, unfocused and unconstrained. The insanity only lasted for a second, and that was more than enough for me.
“You killed me!” the raven screeched and flapped its wings. “You’ve condemned me to the lowest of the Frozen Hells where maggots will feast on my burst eyes forever!”
“You’re not dead, you big baby.” The senjin burst had been impressive, but it hadn’t done any real damage. Released from its script, the reservoir of power had rushed back out into the world to be absorbed back into the earth, air, plants, and wildlife.
Or, more likely, to be corrupted by the rot that spread through the world.
“Everybody okay?” Aja ran over to me, Ayo hot on her heels. “That was a little more spectacular than I expected.”
“You did good,” I said with a lopsided grin. “It could have been much worse. And, yes, we’re all fine here. More or less.”
“I’m dead.” The raven croaked and flopped over onto its back, head lolling, eyes closed tight. All three of its legs poked straight up into the air in a reasonable imitation of rigor mortis.
“You’ll be fine.” The old duty bond was gone, blasted apart like the senjin that had powered it. Mine was the only connection that remained.
Now that the raven and I were bound together, the edges of our thoughts brushed together like tentative fingertips. The bird scratched at the surface of my thoughts, and I showed it that I meant it no harm.
It recoiled when I stroked its ruffled emotions, then settled its core against mine with a shuddering sigh. For all its protests about not wanting to be a pet, the raven had been alone for a very long time. It had almost forgotten what it was like to be aro
und other creatures. It craved the simple contact of another living being.
“That was way too close.” The raven righted itself and flapped off the roof of the carriage to land on my shoulder. Its talons were sharp, but the creature did a very good job of not skewering me. “Now what happens?”
“Serve me as my familiar.” I said the words softly, so quietly only the raven could hear. “Accept the bond between us of your own free will.”
The bird eyeballed me and pensively adjusted its position on my shoulder.
“What if I don’t want to be your familiar?” the raven asked.
“Then you’re free to go. I don’t need a slave bitching and moaning all the time.” I meant it, too. I could have forced the bird to serve me, but that was pointless and cruel. We’d spend the rest of our lives squabbling, and there was no sense in that.
“You really mean it?” The bird poked its beak into my hair and plucked out the remains of a leaf I’d picked up somewhere. “You won’t force me to do it?”
“It’s up to you.” I shrugged. “We could learn a lot from each other, I bet, but if you’ve got shit to do and places to be, then get the fuck out of here and let us get on with our looting.”
“Maybe you’re not so bad after all.” The bird hopped off my shoulder and flapped over to the carriage again. “Let’s do this thing.”
And, with those solemn and sacred words, the three-legged raven became my familiar.
“Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go shopping, ladies.” I led the way onto the carriage, which was packed with a dozen or so heavy metal crates. Scripts crawled across their surfaces like knots of fucking snakes, and their power glowed like a bonfire in my spirit sight.
“This one’s full of gemstones.” Ayo had moved to the back of the carriage to start her search. “Looks like a level-three warding script and a level-four locking script. Probably not worth the risk to try to unravel them.”
“We’ve got a bunch of preserved food here,” Aja said. “Level-one locking script, no wards.”
“You two weren’t kidding about your skill with scripts.” I hadn’t even known scripts had levels. Maybe after I healed their mistress, she’d be inclined to give me some private lessons. And maybe I could return the favor and teach her a few things I’d learned between the crimson bear’s thighs. “Let’s go through the rest of these, figure out what we’ve got, and take whatever we can carry.”
“Don’t get yourself killed,” the raven squawked. “I’m really looking forward to seeing some sunshine again. If you die, I’ll be stuck down here guarding your corpse until it rots away.”
“I’ll try not to inconvenience you,” I said.
“And we wouldn’t leave his corpse down here,” Ayo said, her voice surprisingly solemn. “He’s a shaman. We’d be sure to take him outside where the animals could eat him.”
“That’s comforting.” I shook my head. “Let’s get an inventory of this place and get out of here before you make any more funeral plans for me.”
It only took us an hour to get through the contents of the carriages. There was a lot of food, though most of it wasn’t terribly portable. The preservation containers held lots of fresh meat, some fruit, a wide variety of very spicy peppers I’d never seen before, some kind of sour vegetable that not even the spirits recognized, and pounds of fragrant, glossy black beans.
“Coffee,” the raven groaned. “Oh, coffee.”
“What is that?” I asked.
“The black blood of the earth. Elixir of the gods.” The raven hopped from foot to foot outside the carriage. “Please take some. I’ll show you how to use it. It’s been so long since I had coffee.”
At the end of our search both spirits had new sets of boots that were serviceable if a little ornate for our needs. They’d also found some light leather armor to replace the scraps they’d been wearing. Surprisingly, what they found still seemed sexier than serviceable, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“Yeah, try that on.” The raven bobbed his head toward Ayo. “I want to see that.”
“Knock it off.” I was surprised to feel a thread of animal lust through my bond with the raven. “Keep your beak to yourself.”
“Spoilsports,” the raven grunted.
The spirits also loaded up on bracelets, rings, and necklaces. The jewelry was all gold, studded with a few gemstones. It looked nice, but it was also practical. We could sell the hardware or trade it for whatever we needed, provided some bandits didn’t try to swipe it off us first.
I wondered if there were even any bandits left in the world, then decided there had to be. After any sort of disaster, the vermin were the first things to begin thriving again. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the only people left out there were bandits and soldiers.
We also found two packs and a satchel. We loaded them up with as much food as we could comfortably carry. Most of the other items were impractical to haul around, which is why they’d been on the carriage in the first place. I did find a tome of power, the Formation Manual of Borders and Boundaries, which seemed out of place amongst the rest of the goods.
I opened the book’s cover and squinted to make sense of the spidery text on its pages. Most of the scripts were too advanced for me to understand, though the index page was perfectly clear.
Wall of Sanctity: Restricts the flow of sacred energy into or out of its boundary.
Wall of Wind: For protection against projectiles and harmvul vapors.
Wall of Earth: For protection against physical assault.
Wall of Iron: An impervious barrier.
Wall of Morality: A deadly barrier.
Wall of the Void: A barrier between worlds.
My core wasn’t yet advanced enough to use any of the book’s knowledge, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave such a treasure behind. I shoved its waterproof sleeve into my satchel for safekeeping.
While the spirits went off to change their clothes out of the raven’s sight, I examined a map engraved on a thick copper panel bolted to the wall of one of the carriages. It showed the station and its environs, including a winding river that headed south to the Lake of Moonsilver Mist. The map also identified several towns and settlements in the area, though I didn’t have much confidence they’d still be there after all this time.
“My name’s Yata, by the way.” The raven had perched on my war club. “Not that my new shaman even fucking asked.”
Chapter Ten
WE LEFT CRAGTOOTH STATION under the light of the full moon, and the dark pools of corruption that dotted the plains around us looked even creepier under the silver glow of the night sky.
“I am not sleeping anywhere near this place,” Aja said. “It’s unclean.”
“No argument there. We’ll head west until we’re clear of the corruption before we break camp.” I hadn’t gone two steps when Ayo called out to me.
“Kyr, the Lake of Moonsilver Mist is southeast of here.” The spirits stood stock-still, their hands on their hips.
“I know. But the Hunjis River is to the west. It runs into the lake, and the map in the station showed tons of trade ports along its length. We can hire a riverboat pilot in one of those towns to take us to your mistress.” I’m more than just a pretty face.
The spirits’ dubious looks gave way to cautious optimism.
“If those trade ports are still there,” Yata croaked from its perch on the head of my war club. “That map hasn’t been updated in at least thirty years.”
“My mistress has had dealings with merchant ships traveling the Lake of Moonsilver Mist,” Ayo said. “There have to be at least some trading ports left, and following the river would be easier than tramping overland, in any case.”
“We aren’t getting any closer to our goal yammering about what we’re going to do.” Aja leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek. Her new jewelry jingled and jangled like distant wind chimes. “Your call, Kyr. Let’s get moving.”
“West it is.” I pointe
d toward the horizon and started walking.
We didn’t reach the forest until the full moon was well up in the sky. It wasn’t midnight yet, but it was getting close. The hike across the hilly terrain under the moonlight was more exhausting than I’d anticipated. The spirits were nearly out of shio in their cores and were seriously dragging ass. Even Yata, who had spent the whole march perched on my weapon’s tip, seemed exhausted by the time I had a small fire going. While the others watched me with weary eyes, I plucked some green branches from nearby trees for makeshift skewers and got our dinner cooking over the fire.
“I’ll stand watch.” My familiar flew up into the branches above us. “I don’t need to sleep, so you won’t have to worry your pretty heads about getting a good night’s rest.”
After we wolfed down our meager dinner, I gave the spirits more medicine to help their cores retain the sacred energy they needed to survive, then we got down to the always exciting business of refilling our cores. I’d wisely placed our camp farther away from the dream meridians, so when I drew the tainted senjin into my body with slow, careful breaths, it didn’t immediately try to kill me.
The spirits and I worked closely together to make the whole process a lot more manageable, and more pleasurable. The crimson bear woke the instant we began exploring one another’s bodies, and waves of primal lust radiated from her into me. The spirits noticed the change immediately, and it spurred their own desire. Gentle caresses became more urgent strokes, the flow of energy into me and through the spirits spiked with my quickened breathing, and our hearts pounded together.
My core had filled with senjin, and the burning pain only heightened the sensual pleasure that radiated from every inch of my body. A wave of carnal need washed my mind away, and the crimson bear roared her approval. I yanked Aja’s clothes away from her body, grabbed her hips, and pulled her down onto me, her face to the fire. She moaned and bucked like a wild creature, the surge of power that passed between us driving her away from the death that awaited an empty core and toward a life of savage passion.
