Eximere (The River Book 4)

by Michael Richan

  “Steven and I can take this on,” Roy said. “And you’ll be welcome to come and go as you like.”

  “I’d come here just for a vacation,” she said, turning to look at the house. “There’s something about it that’s so relaxing and peaceful.”

  “Except for the marchers,” Steven said.

  “Well, yes,” she said, “except for that.”

  “Is it agreed then?” Roy asked the two of them. “We find a way to seal this place off, give Percival the bullshit story, and see what we can do to right the wrongs James committed?”

  “Yes,” Steven said. “Agreed.”

  “I agree too,” Eliza said.

  Their conversation drifted into speculation on what the books and objects in the house might contain. Roy said that for his part, he was thrilled just to have Thomas senior’s book to restore to his personal book, extending the family information back another generation. Then they began talking about their own personal histories, sharing stories from the past. They had several hours to kill before they’d be able to leave the safe spot behind the banyan tree.

  ◊

  “It’s time,” Roy said. He’d been pacing for the past several minutes, waiting for dawn to arrive. “I’m sick of this blanket.”

  “Help me with this, will you?” Eliza said to Steven, grabbing the edges of the blanket and lifting it from the ground. They gave it a good shake and folded it up.

  Roy saw light slowly begin to spread. The marchers faded from sight, and Roy began walking back to the house. He walked inside and went up the stairs, heading to James’ bedroom. The others followed.

  Inside the bedroom, Roy began looking over the items in the room. “We need something that will help us convince Percival we know what we’re talking about,” he said, opening the drawers of a dresser.

  Steven walked over to the body on the bed. James’ right hand held the soul trap, he thought. I wonder if his other hand is holding something? James’ left hand was under the covers. Steven pulled the covers down, exposing the right hand. Not holding something, he thought, but wearing it.

  “How about this?” Steven said. Eliza and Roy walked over to the bed and looked at the part of the body Steven had uncovered. On a finger of James’ left hand was a ring, and on the ring was a golden oval.

  “Same as the symbol on the door,” Eliza said.

  “That’s it,” Roy said. “That should convince Percival. Can you get it off?”

  Steven had never removed a ring from a skeleton before. He raised the finger from the bed and slipped the ring off. He felt a little like a grave robber. He dropped the finger back onto the bed, feeling the willies go up his spine.

  He showed the ring to Eliza and Roy. It was gold, and had intricate carvings surrounding the oval. “Looks about my size,” Steven said, slipping the ring on his left finger where his wedding band used to be. It fit perfectly.

  “OK,” Roy said. “Time to find the device. Let’s go downstairs.”

  Steven pulled the bedcovers back to their original position. It made him uncomfortable to leave them down, exposing more of James than they had originally encountered. Then he followed Roy and Eliza downstairs.

  In the library, Eliza once again found the bookcase lever and tripped it. The bookcase slid back and to the right, exposing the stairwell. They went down.

  “Any idea how much of our abilities remain?” Eliza asked. “I don’t think I could trance right now if I wanted to. Maybe enter the River, but even that would be hard.”

  “I don’t think we have much time left,” Roy said. “We’ve got to find it quickly.”

  Once they entered the basement room, they began searching the tables for the device.

  “There should be two spinning discs,” Roy said, “each going in the opposite direction.” They walked among the tables, examining the objects.

  “Any idea how big it is?” Steven asked.

  “No,” Roy said. “Might be very small; we don’t know.”

  “Anything else the book said about it?” Steven asked, examining the table in front of him. There were dozens of objects, all in various states of assembly and operation.

  “Guys,” Eliza said, “since I assume he would consider this device his most important possession, maybe it’s not out here with the other projects.”

  Roy and Steven stopped where they were and looked up at Eliza. She was standing by a door towards the back end of the room.

  “Perhaps he segregated it from the others,” she said, “as an additional way to protect it.”

  Steven and Roy joined her at the door. It was locked, and by the time they reached her, she had already begun to pick it. After a few moments the lock clicked and she opened the door.

  The room was small and plain, about ten feet square. Inside was another work table, exactly like the ones outside. On it were three objects. They immediately knew the middle one was the device. It was a clear sphere, and suspended inside were two golden oval-shaped discs, slowly rotating like a power meter. The top disc was rotating in a clockwise direction, and the lower counter-clockwise. A thin rod, rising from the bottom of the sphere, held them in place.

  Surrounding the sphere was a black rim that held several inscriptions. “So that others may be free,” Eliza said, reading one of them.

  Under the sphere was a clear base, with several small recesses. In the largest recess was a small glowing ball, about the size of a quarter. Its edges were fuzzy and at times it appeared transparent.

  “That’s where it’s collecting what it’s draining,” Roy said.

  “That,” Steven said, “is your ability? That little glowing ball?”

  “It’s what this machine makes it into,” Roy said. “That’s what Anita was using to increase her powers. I’m guessing James would store these somewhere, once he was done draining someone.”

  “That glowing ball,” Eliza said, “contains more than one person. That’s all of us who were tagged. Five people’s abilities are in there – well, four, if you don’t count Marilyn.”

  “Here,” Roy said, pointing to one of the other objects on the table. “This is where he stored them.” The object looked like a crystal cube, with dozens of square sections inside. There was a metal handle sticking out of one of the squares. Roy pulled it, and it removed the square from the cube. The cube was cracked and broken. “Once that device completed its job,” Roy said, demonstrating by moving the handle over to the device where the glowing ball continued to pulse, “he’d use this to transfer it to the cube. Like a storage container.”

  “They’re all broken,” Eliza said, examining the cube.

  “And the abilities they held gone,” Roy said. “Taken by Anita.” Roy replaced the handle in the cube and returned to the device, inspecting it. “Wish we could just pull a plug.”

  “This isn’t going to be as simple as the book made it sound,” Steven said. “I can’t see any way to get inside that sphere to stop the discs.”

  Steven felt something warm on the top of his hand, which was resting next to the device. He looked down and saw that it was blood. At first he thought he was bleeding somehow, but then he saw another drop hit, and he realized it wasn’t his blood. Roy was leaning over him, trying to inspect the device. It was coming from Roy.

  “Dad!” Steven said, “You’re bleeding!”

  Roy stood back and raised his head. Blood was coming from his nose.

  “Me too!” Eliza said, staring down at her own hands, which were covered in blood.

  “You two will have to go back upstairs,” Steven said. “You can’t be this close to it. I’ll figure it out.”

  “I think you’ll need our help to stop it,” Roy said.

  “Normally, yes,” Steven said. “But I wasn’t tagged. You’re both in danger. It’s probably accelerated its drain of you, being so close.”

  Neither Eliza nor Roy moved, they just held their hands to their noses, trying to stop the flow of blood.

  “Go!” Steven yelled. “If I
can’t figure it out, I’ll come back up and we’ll talk, I’ll get your input. Take a good look before you go, and then get out of here.”

  Roy and Eliza examined the device one more time, trying to memorize it.

  “Good luck, son,” Roy said. Then they walked out of the room and began making their way upstairs, leaving a trail of blood drops.

  Steven stepped up to the device, looking at every square inch of it. He could see no way to get inside the sphere. He examined the black rim, looking for a clue. There were other inscriptions, similar to the one Eliza read. Then he examined the base. The quarter-sized ball continued to pulse and glow. Upon close inspection he could see small glowing tendrils appear next to the ball and then attach themselves to it, enlarging its size.

  Let’s try the River, he thought, and jumped in. At first nothing appeared to be different, until a complete rotation of the discs occurred. He could see two markings, one on each of the discs. As they rotated, there was a point where both markings were on top of each other, and at that moment, a pulse of light came from the sphere. Steven watched several rotations, and noticed that every other pulse was different. The first pulse sent light out, and the next pulse seemed to be pulling light in. One initiates the drain, he thought, and the second collects it, pulls it in. I’ve got to stop those discs.

  He examined the other recesses of the base. They were indentations of various sizes, none of them as big as the recess that held the glowing ball.

  One of the recesses was a small oval. Steven held his left hand up next to the recess, comparing the shape on his ring – they were the same size. Why not? Steven thought. He balled his left hand into a fist, and tried inserting the slightly raised oval on his ring into the recess. It slipped in perfectly, and the sphere lit up.

  This has got to be it, he thought. Maybe it’s like a switch. He twisted his fist to the right, and the discs began to spin faster.

  Shit! he thought, and turned his fist back to its original position. The discs slowly returned to their original speed.

  Well, if right speeds them up, maybe left will slow them down. He slowly twisted his wrist to the left, watching the discs. He felt a ‘click’ under the ring, and he stopped. It’s working! he thought as he watched the discs begin to slow. It took a minute, but eventually they stopped. He pulled his ring from the recess, and the light in the sphere went out. He watched the device for a few moments. The discs had stopped completely. The glowing ball had stopped pulsing. He moved up close to the ball, examining it again. No more tendrils, he thought. It’s no longer sending out drain pulses and collecting.

  He ran out of the room and back up the stairs to find Eliza and Roy.

  ◊

  “It was the ring!” Steven shouted as he ran out of the library, searching for Eliza and Roy. He found them in the sitting room next door, each holding a white towel to their face. The towels were covered in blood. Eliza was crying.

  “It’s off!” Steven said. “The ring, it was like a switch. The discs have stopped.” He was breathing heavily from his run up the stairs.

  “You’re sure?” Roy said, standing up from the chair he’d been sitting in. He walked over to Steven. “You’re sure it’s stopped?”

  “I’m positive,” Steven said. “The ring was the key. It controlled it, like a switch. Without the ring to turn it on, no wonder it required something powerful like a focus. And it wasn’t all the way on, either.”

  “How do you know that?” Roy asked. Eliza had risen from her chair and walked over to join them. She was trying to stifle a sob.

  “Once I found where the ring should go, I turned it, and the wheels began spinning faster.”

  “Oh, that’s what that was,” Eliza said.

  “You felt that?” Steven asked.

  “Absolutely,” Roy said. “I thought maybe we’d hit the end, and we were about to lose our memory of it.”

  “Once I saw that they were moving faster,” Steven said, “I reversed it immediately. The discs slowed. So, it made sense that turning the ring the other direction would slow them even more. It did.”

  “What a relief!” Roy said. “Well done, son!”

  “Yes, Steven,” Eliza said, “good job.” She looked at him and burst into tears, turning away from him.

  Steven looked at Roy, shrugging. “The gift,” Roy said. “It’s gone.”

  Steven looked back at Eliza. He could see her shoulders heaving as she cried.

  “Completely?” Steven asked.

  “Yes,” Eliza said, “completely. I can’t do anything. I’m trying to remember how to enter the River, and I can’t even imagine it.” She broke into sobs again.

  “How about you?” Steven asked Roy.

  “Me either,” Roy said, looking back at Steven. Steven thought he saw Roy’s eyes look a little misty. I’ve never seen him cry, Steven thought. I’m not going to now.

  “Do you remember what you read in the book?” Steven asked Roy. “In Thomas junior’s section. Wasn’t it something about ‘no longer reversible’?”

  “Something like that,” Roy said.

  “Come with me,” Steven said. “Both of you.” Steven turned to leave the room, but neither Roy or Eliza moved. He turned back.

  “Are you both able to walk?” Steven asked.

  “Yes,” Roy said. Eliza, still turned away, nodded.

  “Then follow me, right now!” Steven ordered. “Quickly!”

  They both began to move. Steven led them back into the library and down the stairs, then to the room with the device. Roy’s nose had stopped bleeding, and he held his towel at his side. He looked defeated, like he needed to get into bed and sleep for a year. Eliza kept her towel to her face, a sob occasionally shaking her body.

  Steven made a fist once again with his left hand, and inserted the ring into the recess in the base of the device. The sphere lit, as before. “I’m thinking,” he said, “that if turning it to the left slowed the discs, then turning it further might reverse them.”

  Eliza looked up, realizing what Steven was trying to do. He saw a look of hope flash across her face. I hope I’m doing the right thing, Steven thought, and twisted his fist further to the left. He felt the switch under him leave the ‘click’ he’d felt earlier, and the discs began to move. He heard Eliza gasp as they started up. Steven looked inside the sphere – the top disc was moving counter-clockwise, the opposite direction from before.

  He continued turning his fist, and the discs began to speed up. He turned the ring as far left as it would go, until it met resistance and wouldn’t turn any further. The discs were now spinning rapidly, much faster than when they had first encountered the device.

  “Feel anything?” Steven asked them.

  “I do,” Roy said. “It’s working!”

  “Eliza?” Steven said.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I…I can’t be sure.”

  “Let’s give it a minute,” Steven said. “I think when James would drain someone, he normally would use his key – this ring – and the draining would happen relatively fast. When I was in the River, I noticed marks on the discs. It’s when the marks sync up between the two discs that a pulse is sent out. There are two pulses that alternate. The first causes the drain, and the second one collects what was drained. Watch,” he said, turning the ring back to the right a little, so the discs slowed down. “Try entering the River. See if you can see the pulses.”

  Roy jumped into the River. “I can see them, Eliza,” Roy said. “The first pulse prepares something within the device, and the second pulse delivers it. I can feel it each time the second pulse hits.”

  “I can’t jump in,” Eliza said. “I can’t see anything! Maybe it went too far with me, maybe I’m permanently drained.”

  Steven turned the ring back to the left, accelerating the discs. “Let’s give it some time,” he said. “It took several days to drain you at the lower speed, who knows how long it’ll take to restore you.”

  Roy left the room, returning wit
h two chairs he took from a table in the large basement workroom. “Here,” he said, placing one next to Eliza, and the other behind Steven, so they could sit. Steven kept his ring in the device, and sat in the chair. The position was a little awkward, but it felt better than standing.

  Roy left to find his own chair. Steven turned to Eliza.

  “I think this will work,” Steven said. “You didn’t feel the drain early on, either, remember? It may take a little time. If it’s coming back to Roy, it’ll come back to you.”

  She looked at him, her eyes pleading. “Oh, I hope you’re right,” she said, and gave him a weak smile.

  “I am,” Steven said. “I’m sure of it.”

  Roy returned with a chair and placed it next to the others. “Well, we might have to camp out here for a while,” he said. “Nothing we’re not used to!”

  That elicited a laugh from Eliza, and Steven joined her. It felt good to laugh.

  “Maybe not as long as that,” Steven said, pointing to the glowing ball in the recess of the device’s base. “It’s about half as big as it was. You should be feeling half full by now.”

  “Try again, Eliza,” Roy said.

  Eliza closed her eyes. “I can’t,” she said. “I do feel different, but I can’t jump in.”

  “I can easily,” Roy said. “It’ll come.”

  They waited patiently as the discs continued to spin.

  “I wonder how many people he used this thing on,” Steven said, looking over at the crystal cube.

  “Impossible to know at what point he moved from killing them to draining them,” Roy said.

  “Not impossible,” Steven said. “If we could get a total count somehow, we’d only have to subtract the number of graves outside. The rest were drained.”

  “Yes, I suppose that would do it,” Roy said. “I wonder if counting the books in the library would give us a total.”

  “Not everyone has a book,” Eliza said. “But maybe he kept a log in one of his books.”

  “We’ll have plenty of time to search for it,” Steven said, “as soon as we take care of Percival.”