by A. R. Knight
“That doesn’t sound like victory,” I said.
“I am not aiming for victory. I am aiming for survival,” Nicholas said. “The device will annihilate most of the spirits. If the guides cross out ahead of the explosion, they will remain. Riven will be reset, and we get another chance.”
I let the words sink in. A reset button. If we triggered the device as the war wound down, as disease stopped the insane flow of spirits, then a reset might be all Riven needed. A chance to escape. We just had to keep Riven going long enough to set it up.
“I like it,” I said.
“You like it?” Selena said. “You like that he’s made something that can destroy all we have?”
“Please, Selena. We don’t really have anything. Mali thought this up ages ago. It’s not ours. It’s not real. The only thing that is, is you and I. What we have. That doesn’t need the city.”
“Nicholas,” Selena said. “Who’s going to trigger the bomb?”
“I will,” Nicholas said. “I’m the only one can. Who knows how. And I won’t teach you.”
“What? Why?” I said.
“Because, Carver,” Nicholas said. “You have Selena. Graham and Katherine are no longer here. That leaves me alone. With as much time as I’ve spent with these cold machines, I’m getting tired. Getting lonely. This device is my way out. A swan song, I believe they call it.”
“We’ll buy you enough time to use it,” I said.
Nicholas nodded. It felt strange; talking about the end of someone. Normally, a spirit’s end came through the Cycle. A slow walk to peaceful nothing. A journey triggered, perhaps, by my wrangling lash. Yet here was a soul planning self-sacrifice. To remove himself and take our troubles with him.
“You’re a good man,” I said to Nicholas. “A great scientist.”
“Do not tell me what I already know,” Nicholas said, the man’s smile flavoring his words. “Now go buy me some time. The device is not ready yet.”
Chapter 38
The west gate leading out of the city stood tall and grand, the opposite of the factory remnants of the Tar Pit that came before it. I could make out Cheo’s golden ghoul from blocks away, standing in the middle of the gate as though single-handedly barring the passage into the city. Only when we closed did I realize that’s exactly what the ghoul was doing. It braced its legs against the ground, a pair of large stones from one of the factories dragged behind it, to help the ghoul keep its balance. Its hands were outstretched, palms spread out against the gate. A gate shut for the first time in my memory.
On the other side we could hear the clamoring of angry spirits. The hammering as their fists struck the solid wood barrier. I couldn’t tell how many spirits were out there, not from the ground. So Dolan, Selena and I made our way up to the top of the left turret.
Cheo stood up there, staring down at the horde attempting to gain entry. A true mass. More spirits than I’d ever seen in one place. They stretched out in a wide semicircle all the way from the clearing at the gate to the edge of the forest. A hundred yards or more. All of them were shrieking, wailing, waving their hands in anger at some distress that I could never know. The spirits were all types: men, women, children, grandmothers and grandfathers. Races from across the globe. Cultures equally varied. A man in a soldier’s uniform might stand alongside a woman in a tribal headdress, both of their eyes burning with the pale angry fire.
“This is not a battle we can win,” Cheo said. “The Right Hand does not have the forces for this. The ghoul will not hold forever.”
“Seems to be doing a good job so far,” I said.
Cheo shook his head. “They are starting to climb on one another. Eventually, they will climb these very walls. Once that happens, the real battle will begin. It will end shortly thereafter.”
“Everyone’s all doom and gloom today,” I said. “First Nicholas, now you. Dolan, cheer me up?”
The old spirit looked out over the mob. The wave of burning blue eyes. “I’ve seen a force like this before,” Dolan said. “Nara did similar things. Brought an endless stream of enemies to our doorstep. Thrust them against us like a battering ram. Do you know how we beat them?”
“Do we look that old?” Selena said.
“We used what they did not have,” Dolan said. Tapped his head. “The spirits do not think. They are not bound, they cannot adjust their tactics. We lay a trap, we open the door, and we bring this fight to an end. So think, my friends. What snare can we set?”
“I have an idea,” I said, thanking Nicholas for reminding me of the very weapons I already had.
First, we took my crossbow and unloaded the orange bolts. All three of them. Then, we laid them out on the ground, one spaced out from the other across the gate. Safely behind the door as the ghoul held it. Once the bolts had been spaced out we drew back, assembled our guides and the Right Hand’s spirits around the opening. Far enough back to be out of the range of those blistering orange rays.
“Fair warning; the rays might destroy the gate,” I said.
“We won’t need it anymore,” Dolan said. “After this, we strike out. Carry the fight to the breaches in the woods. Slow them down and end them. If your man on the other side can fulfill his part of our bargain, then that should be enough to tip the scales.”
Bryce had crossed back when we left. Crossed back in yet another attempt to warn the world against its cataclysmic course. For his part, Bryce said that the war was dying down anyway. A lack of soldiers. A lack of national will. But the faster the conflicts could be resolved, the sooner we could gain control on our side. The sooner Nicholas would be able to flip a switch.
“Let’s go,” Dolan ordered and the ghoul complied. The beast rocked back on his heels, his hands leaving the door. Immediately the pounding grew, and without the ghoul’s hands supporting the gate, the sheer pounding force from dozens of tireless spirits began to break it apart.
A crease appeared in the gate’s middle, then a crack. The hinges groaning alongside the archway. You would’ve thought that such a massive thing would give way slowly, but no. When the gate lost its hold it was open in an instant. The large doors twisting and breaking along their sides. An endless flood of horrors pouring through towards us.
“Weapons ready,” Dolan said. He shifted the great sword, my great sword, into a forward stance with his hands. Point facing towards the spirits. I drew my lash and long knife. Selena held her cleaver at the ready. Then a spirit stepped on the first bolt.
The orange ray exploded, blossoming and dancing and cutting and burning its way into the charging ranks. Nicholas’ weapon worked best if the targets were close, and these spirits were as close as you could get. Smothered into one another as the stampede surged forward. The burning orange rays shot through all of them. Jumped and split from soldier to sailor. From bartender to baron. The spirits vanished as the blossoming glow consumed them.
By the time all three bolts had been triggered, by the time the growling roars had ceased, the only thing in front of us was a charred ruin that had once been a gate. The stone walls had burned away, the archway collapsed, but there were no spirits.
I didn’t know how many thousands upon thousands had been obliterated by those bolts, but I did know the idea had come from Dolan. The ancient spirit had proved why he deserved to lead. Why I was happy to follow.
“Do not rest,” Dolan announced. “For this is only the start. Ready yourselves, for now we charge.”
Chapter 39
Dolan could run. The ancient spirit wasn’t willing to wait an extra moment, and after we saw him sprint ahead five long strides, dancing around the rubble and the scorched remnants left behind by Nicholas’s burning rays, we joined him in the rush.
The guides fanned out behind Selena and I, along with Cheo’s squad of spirits. A motley crew. Our number, compared against the angry souls we’d just decimated, was nothing more than a pittance.
Dolan wanted to get to the breaches before more spirits came through. I knew we wouldn
’t make it. We weren’t that lucky.
We were halfway across the clearing when the next wave began emerging from the woods. The forest’s gray trees and their dark leaves hid the spirits until they broke out. Appearing as if from nowhere and running headlong across the open plain towards us. Their blue eyes burned with hatred. Hatred that they didn’t know or understand, yet acted upon regardless.
Dolan lifted the great sword high. “Never stop running!” Dolan shouted to us as he led. “Take them as they come and move on to the next. Find the breaches, seal the gates, and reclaim your world.”
And then the spirits were upon us.
I tried to stick close to Dolan, to Selena. But in the melee, that was an impossibility.
The first spirit coming towards me looked like a soldier that had caught the wrong end of a mortar. His torn arms outstretched, reaching towards my throat as he ran, and without stopping I cracked the lash in front of me. The point burrowed into the soldier’s chest and I lit him up in blue. Yanked the lash away as he collapsed in front of me.
I whipped the lash at another spirit on my right, heading straight for a guide. Caught him in the shoulder and twisted him, burning, to the ground.
Turning back towards the woods, I saw another rushing at me. This one a woman wearing a hospital gown. Another disease victim. She died a second death on the fiery edge of my knife. I shoved her off and kept forging ahead. We were nearly to the tree line.
Dolan had already hacked his way into the woods, but his shouts, loud whoops of thrilling excitement and encouragement, gave plenty of clues as to what way he slashed. Beside me, Selena finished a thorough dicing of a suit-sporting man and took a second to look across our line.
“We’re not going to move fast,” Selena said. I agreed. Too many spirits poured from the forest. Our band was being surrounded, despite the fact that we were working our way through with brutal efficiency. Plumes of blue fire erupted constantly around us as spirits were wrangled and sent to the Cycle. Yet, between the snarls of rage and howls of anger, I caught cries of pain. Strikes inflicted on the wrong side.
“We can’t stop here,” I said. “Dolan’s right, our only chance at slowing the spirits down is right now.” I didn’t wait for Selena’s nod, but dashed into the dark trees.
Chapter 40
The first breach sat a few yards beyond the forest’s edge. A lime green pool expanding to fill a clearing beneath the dark canopy. Dolan, as I approached, ducked beneath a pair scrabbling arms and dished out a fatal cut. Then, without pausing in his move, he twisted the hilt around in his hand and stabbed the sword straight down into the earth. Just as I’d seen in the desert; bright flame poured into the ground and burned away the breach. Different than the sapphire tablets we used. Not necessarily better.
Spirits on the edge of the breach crawled away, escaping the flames. Our tablets, they would grab everything within the area. Every spirit would be pulled back and cleansed of their fury. But then, a tablet would have grabbed me too.
“On to the next one,” Dolan said to me and Selena as we caught up.
“We’re getting ahead,” I said. “If we leave them behind, they might be trapped.”
“If we don’t move,” Dolan said. “We will be.”
The ancient spirit turned and advanced, slicing through another pair of burning blue souls.
“He’s losing it,” Selena said. “Dolan’s going to get us killed if he keeps going like this.”
“We’re already dead,” I said. But she was right. The guides straggling behind us were scratched, wounded, or were fighting through exhaustion. Spirits continued to pour from between the trees, and my lash cracked again and again and again. My knife stabbed more times than I could count. I didn’t have muscles that tired, but my friends did.
I had to get them out of here.
“Anna!” I shouted. And I heard the answer, somewhere in the woods. “Sound the retreat. Get the guides back to the gate. Hold that line. We’ll take it from here.”
The guides around us heard my words and backed away, formed a tight cluster then went towards the west gate. I went the other direction. Cheo and his Right Hand joined us, and I noticed some taking to the trees as they had in Mali’s jungle. Their wrangling arrows split the air, piercing and cleansing spirits we didn’t see.
Battered, we happened onto the second breach. Followed Dolan’s trail of wrangled spirits and slashes biting deep into the trunks. Except this time, Dolan wasn’t having it so easy.
In front of him loomed a ghoul, a two legged thing seemed that had no arms, like a living archway. It lunged forward and shifted its legs to any angle it wanted. As though made out of rubber, or sand. As we entered the clearing, Dolan rolled forward, ducking under a wide sweep of the creature’s front leg. Rather than continuing its motion, however, the ghoul sank back to the ground, and scooped its legs the other way, wrapping itself into a circle and pinning Dolan into the middle.
The ancient spirit tried to move the great sword, but the ghoul crushed him too tightly. No room, no range of motion.
I started to make a move, then Selena shouted and I turned. Too slow. A spirit, some sort of ragged deliveryman, tackled me and shoved me to the ground. His claws, sharp fingernails, raked my cheek. I felt the heat, and if I’d had blood, I’m sure it would’ve been running. I rolled to the left, using my shoulder to shove the spirit off of me. Stabbed with the knife in my left hand. Sent the spirit away. And then two more replaced it.
“Help Dolan!” I called, not sure Selena could hear me. The spirits bit and tore at my cloak, at my arms and legs. But they couldn’t kill me. At least not for a while. If that ghoul took Dolan, then this whole thing was lost.
One of the spirits wrapped its arms around my neck and tried to crush my throat. I jammed my head into its face, which I didn’t bother recognizing. There were too many, simply too many souls to note specifics this point. All of them burned the same, all of their teeth clicked and gnashed towards me. Their hands were all cold and hard. They weren’t the people they had been.
My head knocked the spirit’s own back, which gave me enough room to move my left hand and jab upwards towards the spirit’s hip. Or at least, I tried. A third spirit joined the pile, pinning my arm and my knife to my left side. I felt my legs go numb. The second spirit ripping my knees apart.
I wasn’t sure how much damage I could take until I ceased to be. I didn’t know at what point I could be overwhelmed. Whether I could be ripped so far that my soul would not be able to put itself back together. I didn’t want to find out.
With my right hand, I dropped the lash and gripped the spirit that sat on me. Wrenched my arm to the right and threw the ghost off. Grabbed the knife from my left hand by the blade and pulled it out of my own grip. The spirit I’d thrown off tried to dive back on, but it wasn’t fast enough. Still holding the base of the blade, I jammed it into the spirit as it tried to regain its position. Slipped my hand down to the hilt and twisted. Ignored my own searing pain to save what was left of my life.
I withdrew the knife and lunged into the spirit tearing into my left arm. Took care of it. Though I could no longer feel my left side, except for the pain. All of the pain. I’d been burned, I’d been beaten, I’d been slashed and bashed in this world. But this ripped a new layer of agony through my mind. I think the only way I maintained any concentration at all was by focusing on the shouts of Selena and Dolan as they tangled with the ghoul.
They were my friends, and they needed me.
I leaned forward, sat up and stabbed. Brought an end to the spirit that had made a meal of my legs.
I tried to stand up, only I couldn’t feel my feet. Couldn’t feel anything, in fact, outside of my right arm and my neck. The ground rumbled beneath me. Overhead, swinging in a lazy arc, came the large left foot the ghoul. More like an elephant, or a large Greek column than any human appendage. The ghoul’s leg hovered over my head, and I could see the dripping scars, the slashes made from Selena’s cleaver and Dolan�
��s sword. I could see that leg come down towards me. And I could do nothing to stop it.
A flash of gold, and then the leg flew away. The ghoul, from what mouth I did not know, roared its outrage as Mali’s creation battered it away. Pounded the ghoul with large gold fists. I looked over and saw the two-legged monster collapse under the fbarrage. Saw Selena and Dolan, limping, stick it with their blades and send their blue fire racing along the ghoul’s body. A moment later, Dolan did the same to the breach.
For the moment, we were clear. For a moment, we were alive.
Chapter 41
“You’re hurt.” Selena walked up to me as I sat on the ground, looking and feeling pathetic.
“You’ve seen the obvious,” I replied.
“We have to keep moving,” Dolan announced from where the breach used to be. “If we stay here, they’ll catch us. On to the next one.”
“Carver is wounded,” Selena said. “You can’t walk, can you?”
“I’m going to have to sit this one out,” I said. “Think Goldie over here can carry me back to the gate?”
Selena glanced at Mali’s ghoul, its formless face looking back at us. “I don’t think you’re that heavy, Carver.”
“Then go with Dolan,” I said. “Close the breaches. And make it back.”
Selena bent down, gave my forehead a quick kiss, and then she and Dolan were off. Sprinting further into the dark forest. Cheo and the others followed, the ghoul staying behind and lifting me up.
I’d never been carried like this before, in the arms of a giant creature like this one. Lofted above the ground. The peace didn’t last long. Not thirty seconds into our walk, the first spirits arrived. Drawn by the sound of our crunching and grinding through the brush. The ghoul snapping branches as we pounded through them.