Riven

by A. R. Knight

  If there was one thing I knew, it was how to get around my own weapon. I dove beneath the crack as the spirit attacked. Tucked into a role and somersaulted into the spirit’s ankles. Like knocking down a building. The spirit tumbled back and fell at the head of the stairs. I heard outraged cries as other spirits tried to shove past the new blockade.

  I saw Alec, having freed himself, stand over Bryce and cut him loose. I grabbed the arm holding my lash, tried to tear it free. But the spirit was strong, shoved me away and stood up as we wrestled. Used his bulk to push me into the desk. The stone edge pressed into my back as the spirit bent me over.

  “A little help here?” I called.

  “There are too many,” I heard Bryce’s voice, strained. Spirits were running up into the room now. In a moment we would face the same overwhelming odds as the bottom of the tower, be killed in the same fashion as we would have then.

  With my left hand grappling for the lash, my eyes staring into the blue-black void of the spirit’s pupils, I scrabbled around the desk with my right. As my back exploded with pain, my spine rubbing into the stone, my right hand landed on something it could grab. I shoved it into the spirit’s face.

  A saw blade is quite a bit less effective when used as knife, but even glancing off the spirit’s mouth, the attack bought me some surprise. The spirit leaned back slightly, gave me just enough room to slip out from under him. I wanted space. A chance to figure out some plan of attack.

  Bad idea.

  The spirit snapped my lash again and this time I couldn’t move fast enough. The lash wrapped around my legs and threw me to the floor. I felt the point scrape around my knee but ignored it. Had to ignore it. The spirit was coming right at me with his left fist raised, which would hurt a lot more than the lash. As I raised my right hand in a pathetic defense, I noticed something.

  I still held the saw.

  The spirit punch down towards me and I twisted the saw blade up to meet his fist. The spirit punched into the tines and howled. Jerked his hand back and took the saw with it. With my left hand, I grabbed the lash’s cord, still wrapped around my leg, and pulled it free. The spirit didn’t notice, was more focused on the saw sticking out of its hand. Understandably.

  I stood up as the spirit yanked the saw free. As he looked towards me, I struck out with the lash and took him down. Wrapped my weapon around his neck and purified him with wrangling fire. The spirit collapsed and I took a breath.

  On the right, Bryce and Alec were faring better. They’d managed to trap most of the spirits on the stairs. Kept the fighting to where the two of them, armed with the knife I’d handed Alec and a strange curving sword that Bryce must’ve picked up from another spirit, could limit the number of enemies at once.

  “Get to Barth,” Bryce yelled. “We can’t hold them forever.”

  I nodded out of reflex; Bryce definitely wasn’t watching me. Turned behind the desk to see where Barth had fallen. Only to find he wasn’t there. A new door, however, was. A section of the wall behind the desk was open, a dark path that required crouching to get through. There were no torches along the walls, no light whatsoever except, in the distance, a gray glow. Coming from that glow was Barth’s babbling voice.

  I stepped along the tunnel, moving slow in case of any sort of strange trap or ambush. Normally in Riven I wouldn’t have suspected anything. Spirits weren’t the type to lie in wait. Only this one, Barth, seemed to play those kinds of games. At the end of the hall I stood up into what looked like a bedroom. A flat mattress on a stone floor. Scattered papers, some bound together. Ashy wood sticks piled in an urn. Going by what I could see on the paper, Barth was using the ash to write with.

  “I am so close. So close to finding the way. You cannot abandon me now. I need more chances,” Barth was pleading out loud to the air. But to what? To who? I stayed still as Barth shook his head, as though receiving some sort of an answer.

  “I know you said this was the last group. But there are always more. I’m so close,” Barth continued to whine. “Graham is a monster. He will turn on you. Not I, your loyal friend.”

  “Who are you talking to?” I said. Bryce and Alec were fighting for their lives out there. I couldn’t sit here listening to Barth babble to nobody.

  Barth turned slowly, like a person waking from a long nap. Glared at me. “You were supposed to be my key. Now I have nothing. He has abandoned me.”

  “Good for him,” I said. “Call the spirits off or I end you. Now.”

  I held out my lash, making it very clear exactly what would happen if Barth didn’t follow my instructions.

  To my surprise, Barth opened his mouth and spoke in that frequency only spirits could hear. A moment later, the man gave me a sideways nod. “What you want, it is done. My friends have retired back to their quarters.”

  “Speaking of friends,” I said. “Let’s go back. You’re going to tell us everything.”

  Chapter 45

  Back in Barth's experimental chamber I found Bryce and Alec leaning against the desk. Both had nasty gashes, cuts, and bruises from fighting with the spirits, but at least those enemies had disappeared. The spirit I'd wrangled had already walked off on his journey to the Cycle.

  "That was your doing, yes?" Alec said, looking at me. "How did you make them go away?"

  "I made Barth a compelling offer; your lives for his," I said.

  "Barth," Bryce said, turning to look at the man. "What happened to you? I heard you were killed. Years ago."

  Barth shifted his eyes between us, giggling to himself. He wrung his hands.

  "Can he still talk, or has he lost all of himself?" Alec said.

  "I didn't touch him," I said. "He can talk."

  "I've been here for so long," Barth blurted. "Yet no one knows how to tell the time. So long and always working. Always trying."

  "What were you trying to do?" Bryce said.

  "He told me to find a way back. That we would need one. That he would need one. So I searched. Searched for so long," Barth continued. "This place? There are doors that can be opened. Can be walked through if you know where they are."

  "He's not talking about the tower, is he?" Alec said.

  "Sounds like Graham," I said. "Talking about getting out of Riven."

  Barth's eyes lit up at the word. He became even more excite, swaying now as he spoke. "Yes, Riven. That's where we are. That's where we don't belong. I was trying to find a way to open the door."

  "And the spirits?" Bryce asked.

  "Guides," Barth replied. "One of them might be the key. Open the passage back. You sleep and you come over here, you are a door. I was trying to open it."

  "How many guides did you kill?" Bryce said, his voice changing to a darker mood.

  "So many. So many over the years that cannot be counted," Barth said, and then his face dropped. He stared at the ground. “Now it is over. He is letting me go."

  "Who is letting you go?" I said. "Is that who you were talking to, back there?"

  Barth shook his head. "My master does not let me see his face. Or know his name. I must do as he commands, until he releases me from his service."

  "It sounds like he's released you already?" Alec said.

  Barth cackled. We shrank away from the man. There were something crazy going in his eyes. "Released. Yes. After one more task."

  The tower started to shake. A growing boom echoed up from below. I grabbed onto the dust to study myself while Alec and Bryce leaned against the wall. Chunks of stone fell from the ceiling, shaken loose. Cracks appeared in the skylight.

  "I have failed, my master said. Failures must be buried with their friends," Barth said.

  "I say we leave," I said.

  "Seconded," Alec said. The three of us made quick steps to the stairs. Bryce and Alec started down and I took one look back at Barth, waving for him to come with, but he ignored us. Simply stared up at the skylight as it shattered, tears running down his grinning face.

  I flew down the stairs after Bryce and Alec. M
y feet barely touch the steps as they swayed back and forth with the tower. There didn't seem to be other floors, just a long spiral down to where we saw the glowing pool and the torches. Falling rock splashed by as we tried to make our way along the sides. When we passed by a stone-carved window I looked out, glanced down to try and see what was happening.

  Wrapped around the base of the tower were the spirits, hacking and bashing and tearing apart the base. Using guide weapons to shatter stone and destroy the foundation. A normal person, with normal energy, might have found the process impossible. But the tower was rickety from the start, and the spirits were tireless. They swung with every ounce of might they had every single time.

  The tower began its final collapse. I felt it from the window, the walls weaving in and the steps starting to pull away. I grabbed the outside, reached to the window frame and pulled myself through. Pressed my legs on the frame of the falling rock as stone and glass shredded my back. Jumped into the gray haze.

  Chapter 46

  I didn’t see the roof that I landed on, but I felt it. My shoulder slammed into the hard stone and I felt a pop, but aside from that searing pain, I rolled to a stop alive. Used my right hand, the shoulder that still worked, to push myself upright. I was on a small house with a pointed roof. The slant probably saved my life. I looked at the tower, or where it had been, and figured I’d fallen ten to twenty feet.

  Now the tower was a pile of rubble and broken boards. Around it stood the circle of spirits, at least fifteen. The destroyers of their own home. They stared around, lost with their former master buried in that pile. Somewhere in there, too, were Alec and Bryce.

  I crawled to the edge of the roof, hung down and dropped the remaining eight feet. Managed to keep my balance and made it to the ground. I went over to the rubble and looked at it. Tons of rock and broken wood. Twisted beams and crumbled mortar. No way I was going to clear it all by myself.

  There was another option, if I could pull together the energy.

  The spirits all around the tower were familiar. They wore guide coats and clothes, and most still held weapons made for guides, ones that could, with a twist or a tap, produce that pale blue fire. From what Barth had said, it wasn’t hard to make the connection. All of these spirits that he’d bound, every last one of them, had been an experiment gone wrong. An attempt to find the door back to the real world. Every time it failed, Barth bound the guide into service.

  The one closest to me was an older woman, bearing a pair of lethal-looking pick-axes. At least I assumed that’s what they were, short handles with pointed heads on them. She stared at me as I walked up.

  “You were a guide once,” I said, making things up as I went along. “Now I’m giving you a chance to help your friends. To do one last thing for who you were.”

  The woman tilted her head, stared at me, her eyes blank. I’d never tried to bind a spirit that had already been bound, but nobody had told me couldn’t be done. I reached out with my right hand and grabbed hers, which still held the pick.

  “Help us save them,” I said. I focused on the touch. The feel of the woman’s hand on mine. The spirit’s skin was cool, but I fought past that. It was like tracing a point of pain, a pinprick or a bug bite somewhere on your body. Only here I was looking for a way into hers. A spot where my life could bleed into the shadow of her own.

  When I found it, I took a breath and gripped her hand tight. It felt like a rush of blood to my face. Who and what I was, a living person crossed into Riven, flowed through that pinpoint into the spirit and tied her to me. A moment later her eyes lost their blank look and her face fell into a smile.

  “My name is Teresa,” the spirit said. “I was a guide once.”

  “I know, and now I need you to save two more,” I said. Pointed to the rubble. “I need you to dig them out. Find Bryce and Alec under there.”

  Teresa nodded, let go of my hand and started to dig. Hauled one block after the next off of the pile. I went to the next spirit, and the next and the next. Bound them one after another. Each one took a bit of myself with it and by the tenth spirit I was struggling to the next one. Limping and pale. Gulping Riven’s non-air with heavy breaths.

  The rubble was clearing. The spirits were tireless, shifting off the tower and it’s garbage. Diving underneath and hunting for any sign of Bryce or Alec. After I bound the eleventh, I collapsed onto the ground and watched. My left shoulder ached, and the rest of my body didn’t want to move. It wasn’t tired so much as dead. There simply wasn’t enough of me to do anything other than keep me awake.

  Barth must’ve been a incredible at this, to bind so many spirits. Years of practice. Or maybe the cost of keeping a spirit went down over time. Or maybe that’s what drove him insane. Losing so much of himself for so long.

  One of the spirits give a shout, and then, with another’s help, pulled Alec’s body from the rubble. He was wet. Soaking. He must’ve dove into the pool as a way to save himself.

  “Alec,” I said as the spirits carried the guide over to me. He didn’t respond. I didn’t really expect him to. “Lay him down. Press the water from his lungs.”

  The two spirits did as I asked and began compressing his chest. There was a chance that his bones were broken, but I didn’t think that would matter if the man was already drowning. Two presses in and Alec started to cough. Spat up water everywhere, but he was alive.

  Another shout came up and soon Bryce was lying next to Alec, his body more battered, also soaked from the pool. The water that had captured us at the start, had served to save our lives. Both of the guides were broken, lying there unconscious but alive. I had to get them back. Had to get me back.

  Thankfully, I had plenty of help.

  Chapter 47

  I braced myself, but it didn’t matter. I still let out a yelp when Bryce shoved my left shoulder back into its socket. We stood beneath the clock tower, surrounded by the spirits I’d bound. They all had the glazed look of the lost in their eyes. I’d released them, one by one when I took hold of their hands and, like soaking up the warmth from a fire, drew my own life back.

  “After all the hits you have taken,” Alec said, leaning against the wall next to the door inside. “This isn’t too bad, no?”

  “Pain is pain,” I said. “It hurts.”

  “I don’t like your decision,” Bryce said to me. “You should be crossing, with us. Recover and then come back tomorrow night.”

  I shook my head. “I have to go. I don’t know whether it will last until tomorrow.”

  I knew what I said sounded dumb, and Bryce’s arched eyebrow didn’t do anything to calm that feeling. Except, I couldn’t tell him about Selena. Couldn’t say that I needed to go after her, find her, and either bring her back or protect her from the dark spirit I’d seen in the vision. Retiring or no, I didn’t think Bryce would be a big fan of our guide-spirit romance.

  “Let him go,” Alec said. “Sometimes a man must be by himself. Find his own way.”

  “Trust me, self-discovery has nothing to do with it,” I replied.

  “Then be careful. You have your sparker?” Bryce asked.

  I nodded. Somewhat incredibly, the spirits had been armed with our weapons. Had worn our guide belts. I’d only noticed when we got back to the clock tower, but it made sense. Might as well arm your spirits with the best weapons available. Having bound them, they didn’t reject my request to return our stuff.

  “I’m going to find Piotr and tell him about what we saw,” Bryce said. “Tell him about Barth. He might have an idea of who Barth was talking to.”

  “I’ll meet you at Ezra’s when I’m done here,” I said.

  “Don’t go getting yourself into much trouble,” Alec said. “We won’t be running around to save you.”

  “Stay away from Graham,” Bryce said. “When we’re ready, we’ll take him together.”

  The two guides went back to clock tower and crossed over. I started the long walk south. I tried to remember from my vision where Selena had be
en going, and I thought I recognized the park. On the far edge of the Warrens, back towards Barth’s tower but then curling further south than west.

  I was tired. Despite Bryce’s first aid efforts, pain poured in from everywhere. By this point, though, that was starting to be the usual state of affairs. Every step, every twitch another opportunity for my body to remind me that it was not happy.

  The walk gave me a bit of time to reflect. Barth and Graham both seemed to have the same master. Someone that had power over them. Either through binding or other leverage. The way Barth had been talking, it seemed like this had been going on for a long time. Years.

  They all wanted a way out of Riven. Which meant that this master, whomever he was, was probably already here. The only other option, the only people that could bind spirits to their control, were guides. To bind a spirit for years and exert that level of control? To command Barth to trap and murder his friends? To force Graham, that deadly force, to do his bidding? Whomever this master was, I wasn’t looking forward to meeting him. If I lived long enough to do it.

  After an hour I reached the park. At the very edge of the Warrens. On the south side, the big apartment buildings disappeared into the parks which bled into what we called the Shambles. By far the worst part of the city, at least in terms of what was left. Crumbling half built homes, buildings collapsed against each other, streets that weren’t paved but were only chunks of rock that wound around remnants. If there was a war zone in Riven, this place was it.

  It was also the fastest way to the wall. Once you got the wall, you could leave. Once you made it outside, though I’d never been, it was supposed to be a straight shot to the Cycle. So as I walked into the Shambles I saw plenty of spirits, some bearing the blank-eyed look of lost ones heading to the Cycle on their own. Others the mute march of a wrangled soul. Ones that had met the wrong end of a guide’s weapon and were now on a straight path to destiny.