by A. R. Knight
“The same rings again. Very creative,” I said. “It’s like you’re stuck on them.”
Mali worked a smile at me. “When you’ve already made everything, you find yourself returning to your favorites.”
Behind me, Selena groaned. She’d been barely moving since the ghoul crushed her into the ceiling. If she could wake up, then we’d have a better shot. Goddess or no, Selena and I were a tough team to handle.
Mali wasn’t going to let that happen. She walked around me, and I watched her. I couldn’t do anything, could barely focus over the burning pain from the stone disks, which were still embedded in my skin from Mali’s attack. The goddess stood over Selena and looked down at her, shook her head. “I forget how hard it is to actually destroy a spirit. Without Dolan’s weapons, you’ll keep coming back.”
She wasn’t wrong. I took Mali’s moment of distraction and used my right arm to pull the stone ring from my left shoulder, ripped out the one from my right leg. Tossed them to the ground. Immediately, I felt my spirit tying itself together. Like drinking water after a long thirst - a cool, nourishing glow. It would take hours to get full movement back, but every little bit helped.
“You know what?” Mali said. “Nara and Dolan called me the creator. You call me a goddess. It’s an incomplete name. I cannot make whatever I want. Inanimate things, yes. Facsimiles. Those trees in Riven’s great forest. The grain covering Nara’s fields. All of it is so close to life, none of it is living. The flowers in the canyons, the endless copies of ferns and vines. None of it is alive. All of it stays as I wish it, and will as long as I want it to. But if I want souls to play with, I have to find them. Same as you.”
“I don’t play with souls. I send them to the Cycle.”
“Yes, and how noble of you,” Mali said. Selena twitched and Mali gave her a vicious kick, stilling her. Then Mali walked over to the green pool and dipped her rings inside of it. “You feed souls, creatures of mind and memory, love and loss, into the one thing that can destroy them completely. Have you ever wondered why?”
“If I didn’t, Riven would be overrun,” I said. “This world, and Earth, would only be home to the dead.”
“Would that really be so bad?” Mali said. She pulled the rings out, dripping with green. I knew what she was going to do. I’d seen it with Cheo. With the ghoul. Cut us, get that liquid inside of our souls, and bind us to her. Or to her left hand. Or right hand. I couldn’t remember which color meant which. I didn’t want either.
“You tell me,” I said. “You’ve been living with the dead all this time. You don’t seem too happy about it.”
I twisted around, faced Selena. The motion tapped the crossbow against my back. An idea, maybe, but I needed a distraction.
“All due to a lack of variety,” Mali said. “A little more space. Freedom from this place. Then, I think, I would be as happy as a spirit could possibly be.”
“You’ll be as alone then as you are now,” I said.
“Maybe, but it’s worth a try, don’t you think?” Mali replied. She walked up to me, raised the ring in her left hand. “Now I will give you one last choice. Yourself, or her? Which of you will be the first to enter my service?”
“She will,” I said.
And Mali laughed.
Chapter 22
“So gallant,” Mali said. “Even the men in my own time were better than that.”
Mali turned her back to me, and gave me my chance. With my right hand, I reached behind my back. Grabbed the blue bolts loaded into the side of the crossbow and slipped one out. Twisted it in my fingers as I brought my arm back forward. Threw it. Like a dart, hard and fast. The bolt stuck between Mali’s shoulders, bursting into blue flame. I could see Mali shudder, and I’m sure her eyes would’ve been wide had I seen her face. But Riven’s creator did not scream. Didn’t shout, or howl, or curse my name. As the fire covered her, she dropped the rings to the ground and knelt.
“There’s the freedom you were looking for,” I said, pulling a second blue bolt out. Just in case.
A moment later, Mali’s spirit rose, vacant and ignorant to the world she’d made. The goddess’s ghost walked out of the room, vanishing into the dark passage.
After Mali left I stayed in the chamber, sitting on the stone floor for what felt like hours. Letting my soul knit itself back together and playing over in my mind what had happened. Nara had sent us a request to find Mali, to convince her to come back. Instead we found her, enraged her, and destroyed her. A spirit that Nara said was key to saving Riven, and we’d sent her to the Cycle.
Add to that everything Mali had told us. Her show with the water. Her statements about Nara, that the old spirit was playing us. That Nara wanted to undermine Riven and all that it stood for. That all Nara believed in was binding spirits by the dozen; creating a world of her own making.
“Carver?” Selena’s voice sounded weak. Tired. “Are we still here?”
“Against all odds, we are,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“Oh fine.” Selena groaned. “You know, broken everywhere. Every possible part of my soul is aching. The pain is canceling itself out, I think. As though my mind can’t reconcile all of it.”
“It’ll get better,” I said. “We’re safe now. Mali’s gone.”
I replayed the fight for her. When I came to the part where I suggested Mali take Selena first, Selena laughed. Still lying there on the stones, her head flat against the rock, but I saw the smile, and it made me feel happy. Needed those moments. A little bit of love and levity in the twin pool’s dim light.
“Of course you’d send me first,” Selena said. “Always about you.”
“I had to,” I protested. “If she hadn’t turned her back, then I wouldn’t have--“
“Sure, sure,” Selena said. “Of course that’s the reason. Couldn’t you have done that any other time, like when she was dipping her rings in the pool? Had to wait until she was going to take me out?”
“The pool would’ve been a far shot,” I said. “I had to be sure.”
I could tell Selena wasn’t being serious. Could see the play in her eyes. We spent a while there, sitting, then standing, and then limping out of the chamber, picking up our weapons on the way. With every step our spirits put themselves back together. By the time we made it out of the temple, we could make a fairly good pace, leaning on each other for support.
“I feel like an old man,” I said. “Like my body doesn’t work anymore.”
“You don’t have a body, remember?” Selena replied.
“If this is what they feel like, maybe I’m glad I never saw mine broken.”
Outside, we turned to look back at the temple entrance. All those runes, those stories about the goddess that lived inside. No longer. The temple would stand empty, potentially forever. Riven didn’t have natural forces, and unless something came by and actively destroyed this place, Mali’s home would stand for more centuries than she did.
“So what are we going to tell Nara?” Selena said as we turned back to the jungle.
“That we tried,” I said. “Maybe she’ll have other ideas.”
“Do you think we should trust her?” Selena said. “Because if we don’t, and we’re wrong, Riven’s going to fall apart. But if we do, and we’re wrong, then Nara’s version might be worse.”
“We play it both ways,” I said. “If what she says seems to be right, that we do it. If it’s wrong, now we know that we can wrangle her just like any other spirit. Mali showed us that much.”
Selena nodded. We passed by the same rock-hard flower from before. Again, Selena reached out to touch it. No change. No sign that the flower knew its creator had disappeared. Like the buildings in Riven’s city, the only thing that would tear the plant apart would be our weapons, our struggle.
“Strange that this flower will likely last longer than all of us,” Selena mused, looking at the plant.
“So will the stones, and the rivers and the clouds,” I said. “The difference is that
they aren’t doing anything with their time. They aren’t risking themselves to save this place.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad.”
“You’d get bored.”
Selena laughed, then grimaced and steadied herself on my shoulder. Still putting ourselves back together.
We continued walking, past the ferns and trees that took on a stranger cast now that we knew none of them truly lived. That they were all figments of a bored spirit trying to find something to do with her imagination. Onward into the canyon, until the whispering wind gave way to harsher noises. Shouts and cries. The sound of metal on metal.
“Is Cheo already fighting another war?” I said.
“I don’t think we can wage another one,” Selena said.
“We may not have a choice.”
Because the sounds were coming straight for us now. A rolling mix of snapping branches, crashing brush, and clashing iron. And we didn’t have the strength to run.
Chapter 23
In front of us a tree simply disappeared, vaporized and blew apart as the golden form of Mali’s ghoul smashed through it. Cheo and a group of other spirits came hot behind the monster, all throwing knives, spears, or firing arrows at the ghoul’s back.
“Do not let up,” Cheo shouted over the noise. “The Left Hand’s monster must not be allowed to live! It is a perversion, a slight against our goddess!”
The ghoul ran straight for us, but as it noticed our limping forms, it slowed to a stop. Stared down at us with its solid, unseeing eyes. Behind it, arrows and thrown spears clinked off the ghoul’s back, bouncing away. Cheo and the others, four spirits, caught up and stared at us as well, halting their attack as they realized the ghoul had done the same.
“Didn’t realize we were that stunning,” I said. “Do we really look that bad?”
“Who are you?” Cheo said, pointing one of his crude knives towards us. “Are you part of the Left Hand?”
“He doesn’t remember,” Selena said to me. Cheo’s other spirits fanned out around us, setting a trap. In our condition, even with our weapons back in hand, neither Selena nor I would be able to fight them off. If Cheo truly had no idea who we were, if he believed we were the enemy, there was no way we could win.
“Remember you?” Cheo said. “I don’t understand.”
“You know who Mali is?” I said.
“Of course,” Cheo replied. “She is my goddess.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said. “But she’s dead.”
Rather than flying into a rage, or sitting down in despair, Cheo reacted with a nod. A slow, sad motion. The other spirits mimicked the move. “Her voice changed. A whisper, now, telling us to go far away from here. I assumed it was a Left Hand trick.”
“The Cycle,” I said. “You’ll get used to it.”
“I do not understand?” Cheo asked, and Selena and I told the spirits about the Cycle, how Mali fell. By the time we were done, the spirits had put up their weapons. I couldn’t tell if the ghoul listened as well, but it stood tall and shining over us the entire time.
“It seems we have nowhere left to go,” Cheo said. “Except to this Cycle.”
“You’ve been a spirit for a long time,” Selena said. “You don’t have to be one anymore.”
“And this one?” Cheo pointed at the ghoul. “Does it belong in your Cycle as well?”
The ghoul, standing above us in silence, reached out and pointed at me with one hand. The one that only had two fingers left.
“Think it’s mad you cut off its fingers?” Selena asked me.
“I hope not,” I replied. The ghoul pulled its hand back. Stared at me with its blank gold face. On an impulse, I pointed to a tree next to me and spoke to the ghoul. “Grab that.”
The ghoul stomped around me, reached down with its intact hand, and pulled the tree from the ground. Held it aloft like a club.
“It’s obeying you?” Selena said.
“Looks like I got myself a ghoul.” I waved for the monster to toss the tree away and the golden ghoul launched it through the brush. “You better be real nice to me now.”
“Aren’t I always?”
The ghoul, along with the other spirits, belonged in the Cycle. But as I started to tell them to march that way, I paused. The spirits had wrangling weapons, and the ghoul could certainly pound some breaches into pulp.
Bryce and the guides could use a force like this.
“Selena,” I said. “I think we’ve got a new plan.”
“I get nervous when you say that.”
“This one’s good, promise,” I said. “How many spirits do you have, Cheo?”
“Between both hands? The number would be around one hundred. There have not been many new collections lately. Spirits are becoming rare.”
“The breaches are drawing them south,” I said. “Cheo, I need you to gather up both hands. Even the spirits you hate. We’re going to the city.”
“The Left Hand will not march for me,” Cheo replied.
“No.” I glanced at the ghoul. “But they will for this.”
Chapter 24
Convincing Cheo to round up the other spirits in the jungle and hike back to the city with us didn’t take much doing. I guess living without a purpose means there’s nothing to hold on to. They weren’t giving up anything to come with us, and so they took to the new adventure without complaint. The ghoul followed us everywhere. Tromping along behind me. I wasn’t sure what drove its actions either, except, perhaps, a loyalty to whomever had destroyed its master.
Mali had said the ghoul was a gift from Dolan, the third one of their trio. I’d never heard of anyone making a ghoul before, perhaps this one was different. In any case, I wasn’t going to say no to a giant monster for a bodyguard.
After a long trek, we made it back in sight of the city’s walls. Then to the north gate. Selena and I walked on our own now, almost back to full strength. Truly, being dead did wonders for one’s health.
The north side of Riven held a scattered series of large houses. Parks and dried lakes. Empty, ruined from fighting. We didn’t even encounter a guide until we entered the city center. Then a pack poured into the street in front of us. Their weapons at the ready. Several guides hung out of windows from buildings bordering the street, aiming at us with guns and bows of their own making. Our band, nearly a hundred strong, boasting our own military menagerie, and a giant golden ghoul, probably had them nervous.
Understandable.
“Never expected to see you again,” said the guide leading the pack. He pulled up his mask and I knew him. My most likely murderer. Polk stood a thin and wiry man. A weaselly face. I hadn’t known the guides still counted him a member. Didn’t know what he was doing here.
My hand drifted to my lash. Selena grabbed it. Stopped me.
“Now is not the time,” Selena said. “There’s too much at stake.”
“You know why we did it,” Polk said to me. “Piotr’s orders. He told us he had a solution that would save everybody. We didn’t want to die anymore than he did.”
“That’s not an excuse,” I said.
“Why I’m here,” Polk replied. “Trying to pay it back. Closing breaches. Buying you time.”
“You want to buy us time?” I said. “Then let us through. This group is reinforcements. To help you. They know what they’re doing, and they can wrangle spirits.”
“And that thing?” Polk said, nodding at the ghoul.
“He’s mine,” I said. “I’ll send him after anyone that annoys me. Like you.”
Polk laughed, but it was a weak chuckle. Laced with nervousness. Good.
The guides didn’t fight us. They let us into their territory. From there it wasn’t a far walk to the square with the fountain, near the clock tower’s charred ruins, where Bryce had set up headquarters. We were lucky. We’d come in at a time when both Bryce and Alec had crossed over. They were there, looking over a large board on which a crude map of Riven had been drawn. Markers placed, moved on and off t
o indicate breaches. Still other pieces, bits of debris cut into squares and circles, indicated groups of guides and where they had been sent.
It didn’t take Bryce long after I told him our tale to send the ghoul, Cheo and his army to a new target. The west gate into the city.
“It’s the best choke point we’ve got,” Bryce said to Cheo. “You’ll have constant action. There’s too many breaches in the forest and we can’t get out there. But if you hold them with the walls, funnel them to the gate, that will give us time to clear the city. Right now we’re just hanging on.”
Cheo accepted the new duty with the same solemn expression he’d given Mali. Pledged his devotion to the new cause, and then marched his force off.
Bryce came to Selena and I. Waved Alec over.
“It’s not looking good,” I said to my former mentor. “We killed the person Nara said was going to help us.”
“There’s no backup plan?” Bryce said.
“We don’t know,” Selena said. “We haven’t been back to her.”
“That’s where we’re going now,” I said.
“Can you spare an hour or two?” Bryce said. “Anna is missing. She and that sneak of hers, Laurence, were helping us out. I don’t have any guides left that I can send after them. Especially not any that want to risk themselves for a sneak.”
“I’d go alone, but the breaches make it too dangerous to travel solo,” Alec chimed in.
“Where’d she go?” I said.
“She said she was going back to where they cross over. They wanted a tall building to help scope the city. If we can secure a vantage point, we’ll be able to send guides to breaches quickly. Keep us living a little longer,” Bryce said. “You know where a building like that might be?”