by A. R. Knight
“I’m glad to give you the peace you sought,” I said as Cheo looked at me. “You’re fighting days are done.”
A moment later, Cheo walked away. On his last steps the Cycle.
Chapter 58
I slid the great sword back into its sheath and turned westward. Ready to follow in the footsteps of Cheo’s spirits and catch up with the guides heading towards the Mountain. I took one step forward and then heard a rumbling sound behind me.
Oh. Over my shoulder, I noticed the golden ghoul looming over me.
Took another step forward. Heard the ground shake under my feet as the ghoul shifted, following.
Guess he wanted to come with.
From there we kept walking. The ghoul followed me almost to the line, brushing aside trees as if they were twigs and staying within inches of my back foot. If the idea of a ten foot tall living statue, with bits and pieces broken off, walking behind me didn’t seem odd, well, I’d been in Riven a long time now.
Things didn’t surprise me much anymore.
As we moved, spirits occasionally appeared, from breaches or lost contingents of Nara’s army. The ghoul and I handled them with equal amounts of disdain and skill. I would either slash or stab. The ghoul would stomp, or hit the spirit with its fist so hard that the soul would go flying through the trees and not show its face again. So we progressed. With every step I felt stronger. My soul knitting itself together.
I don’t know how long it took, but we caught up with Nara’s army. Or what was left of it. When I’d set out from the Mountain, as commander of Nara’s force, there had been over a thousand spirits walking with me. But over time, as breaches and guides and angry spirits had torn away at the sides, what remained were only a few dozen marching in any semblance of order. As the ghoul and I approached, they paused in their march. Turned to look at us.
“Carver!” I heard the voice; Bryce’s call. “How about you take them from the back, and we’ll take them from the front?”
I held the sword high, signaled a yes. We charged. Nara’s spirits turned, half of them to greet me and the ghoul, and the other half to stand against the sudden appearance of a dozen guides. Guides I recognized. Anna and Bryce, Alec and more. They dove at the spirits with a viciousness that I treated to desperation. We all knew this was it, and we weren’t going to let the snarling traces of Nara’s army stand in our way.
The fight was swift, uneventful. An unbroken line of cuts and swirls, tweaked with blue fire and Nara’s spirits were laid to waste.
When it was done, I helped some of the guides tend to their wounds. Bryce found me setting a man’s shoulder, dislocated when a spirit he’d wrangled fell onto it, back into place.
“Nicholas is just beyond the next set of trees. The remainder of our forces around him.” Bryce looked me up and down. “Glad you’re back, Carver.”
“If you wanted me back, you could have found a nicer way to ask,” I said. “Leaving a bomb, really?”
“We didn’t know if you’d even find it,” Bryce said. “More a last-ditch shot than anything. Anna had more faith than I did.”
“Thanks.”
“But now that you’re here, we need to decide what to do.”
“I saw the map,” I said. “You want to detonate it inside the Mountain.”
“Nicholas believes his device will burn far enough to bring the Mountain down. To set the Cycle free.” Bryce led me into the trees, away from the cleanup. Towards Nicholas. “If that happens, the Cycle will wash through the forest, over the city–“
“It’ll wipe out everything,” I said. “I know.”
“Including you. And Selena.”
“We’re already dead Bryce.” I gave him a halfhearted grin. “I’ve died once, I can do it again.”
My mentor gave me a quick nod. “Thank you for understanding. The other part of it, of course, is the rest of us.”
“We’ll give you time to escape.” I wasn’t going to detonate the bomb while Bryce and Alec and all the others were still in here. They had families. This whole thing was pointless if it meant killing the ones I loved.
“We can’t trust this to you,” Bryce said. “If you fail, if Nicholas can’t detonate the bomb, then we lose everything. Who knows what Nara has waiting for us up there - if it’s only you, there might be no chance of success. If that means we lose ourselves, then so be it.”
As we went into the main force of the guides, I could feel stares on me. Some hands went to their weapons, before relaxing at Bryce’s look. My fellows, having last seen me carving through their own ranks, no doubt had some grievances. Debts they felt they needed to settle.
“Nara’s hold is broken,” I announced to the guides. “I’m here as I am. I will take Nicholas and the bomb into the Mountain, we will detonate it, and end the risk Riven poses to you and your families.”
I saw a few nods, but it seemed like the guides weren’t in the mood for speeches. That’s when I realized that they had been traveling for days already. Crossed over for far longer than a normal hunt. Their bodies, on the other side, were at risk.
“Bryce,” I turned to him. “You have to get them back. You have to get back.”
“How would we do that?” Bryce replied. “They’re exhausted. Only some of us, the strongest and most experienced, have been able to keep their endurance. To send them back now, through that forest, would be sending them to die.”
“Not if they had an escort.”
“There’s no time.”
“We split them up,” I said. “Mali’s golden ghoul goes with all of you, back to the city. Nicholas and I go to the Mountain.”
“You, Nicholas, and some of us,” Bryce countered. “As I said, Carver, we mean to see this through.”
Bryce gathered up the rest of the guides, those who could walk, and those who could carry the ones who couldn’t. I sent the ghoul off with them. Pointed and told the creature to protect the guides with its life. I didn’t know if it really understood me, but when the guides shuffled off back towards the city, to the places where they could cross over and return to their homes, the ghoul followed.
They would make it. They would be saved.
Alec and Anna stood near Nicholas, looking over the bomb, which was attached to a cart nearly as tall as I was. Crude wheels on the bottom, and ropes around the device that tied it to the signs. Keeping it level, keeping it safe.
“Sorry I nearly killed you,” I said to Alec as I walked up.
“Me? Why, I decided not to kill you.” Alec glanced at Anna. “For her sake. I, I had declared that you had outlived your usefulness. But she argued that you should have one more chance.”
“Well then, thanks Anna,” I said. “Alec, I won’t be saving you when you get into trouble.”
“My friend, if I get into trouble, it will be trouble’s problem, not mine.”
Anna laughed. “Carver, without you around, he’s only become more insufferable.”
“I didn’t think that was possible.” I looked at Nicholas, bending over the bomb, adjusting something on the left side. “Will it work?”
The scientist paused, then stood up and looked at me, his face straight. “Always you question me, and always you are wrong. Why would this time be any different?”
“This time is different because you trying to blow up a mountain. Not make a lash, or a crossbow.”
“They are all miracles, and I am a miracle worker.”
“If you’re wondering, Carver,” Anna interjected. “I stay sane around these two by taking long walks. Long walks where I find and wrangle every spirit I see.”
“Healthier than drinking, which was my solution,” I replied.
“You imply that I am in nuisance in some way,” Nicholas drew in a fake breath. Smiled. “You are likely correct. Glad to have you back, Carver.”
“Couldn’t miss the finish.”
“We will need that sword of yours,” Alec said. “It would be nice if we had Selena as well.”
“She’ll be
there,” I said. “Just not on our side.”
“Yet,” Anna placed her hand on my shoulder, the drew me in for a hug. “We’ll get her back. Before the end.”
“I hope so,” I said. And I did. Really. I hadn’t said goodbye to Selena yet. I didn’t want to go away the vast nothing, into the next grand adventure, without one last time to talk to her. We had our life stolen from us, and it was time to take it back.
Bryce sounded the call a moment later. Time to head off, to the Mountain. To drive one more mad spirit into the ground.
Chapter 59
The Mountain rose out above the forest; no longer a natural wonder but a trap constructed with hopeful intents. To trap the and turn Riven into a second home for humanity. A dream turned nightmare.
The Mountain was, at the heart of it, the only reason Riven existed in the first place. Without it, the Cycle would be free. Spirits would wander into its blue oblivion soon after arriving.
No breaches. No ghouls. No guides.
But there the Mountain stood in front of us, and before the wide cave entrance through which hundreds and thousands of spirits passed through on their walk to the Cycle, stood Nara’s new force. Smaller and concentrated, and led by the love of my life. Of my death.
Selena led at least a hundred spirits. They arranged behind her, standing in rank-and-file, in sections. Perfect lines, perfect soldiers.
A couple dozen of us walked out of the forest. Bryce, Anna, Alec, myself and a bunch of other guides that had made the journey. All of them exhausted. All of them slow. All of them knowing they weren’t likely to make it home. Today, they were here for their friends. For their families. For their homes.
I wouldn’t let them down. I wouldn’t fail them.
Not again.
Nicholas stayed at the back, hidden in the lost spirits that continued to move around us in their blank walk to the Mountain. Had to keep him protected. If Nara destroyed Nicholas’ device, then this was all lost.
Me, on the other hand. I was expendable. The only spirit on our side. Which meant I walked out in front. I kept the great sword on my back as I went toward Selena, who stood several yards in front of Nara’s troops. Their many eyes followed me and I flashed briefly back to that moment in the Tar Pit when my father, Graham, threw a torch. So many single-minded faces, locked on mine.
“Nara suspected that you’d been turned.” Selena didn’t smile as I walked up. Didn’t draw her weapons. Instead, she looked at me as someone might stare at a particularly ugly house. An object both ordinary, and unimportant. To be dealt with if necessary, or ignored.
“I have problems picking sides,” I said, spreading my hands as I came close to her. “But I think you’d like the benefits over here. The people are nicer, for one.”
“They won’t win,” Selena replied. “Look at them. Half are about ready to fall over right now. And the others... can they even lift their swords?”
“My love, I dare you to find out.”
Love. That word seemed to penetrate Nara’s binding. Made Selena flinch, look away for a moment. Her hands, I noticed, balled into fists. For a second Selena had her own body back.
When her face came back to mine, Nara’s mask had slipped on again.
“Nara is willing to offer all of you one last chance,” Selena said the words not to me, but above and around, to Bryce and the other guides. “If you leave, she will let you go back to the city unmolested. You can head back to your families, safe.”
“Till when?” Bryce called back. “Until your army grows again, and chases us down? Or until you let Riven fall to pieces under the weight of the dead?”
Selena turned back to me. “I see Bryce hasn’t changed. He’s never been a man of reason.”
“Is that you, or Nara talking?”
“I suppose you’ll never know,” Selena said, and then she frowned. I noticed a single tear slip out of one eye. “But Carver, you should know, what happens next is all her.”
Selena’s hand moved faster than I thought possible. Sliding in her coat and drawing the cleaver into a slash at my stomach. I didn’t jump back so much as fall, my feet dancing quick under me to keep my balance. The cut snagged the edges of my borrowed coat and tore through it. But not me. No blue fire burned my skin.
I reached behind my back and drew the sword out in a wide swing that forced Selena to stop her advance. I had reach. I had power. Selena had speed. Tough to say who would win this one.
“Resist her,” I said, keeping the sword in a guard stance. Ready to swivel to any side Selena chose.
“I can’t.” Selena rose her cleaver into the air, twisted the hilt, bursting the blade into blue flame. Behind her, the spirits roared as one, and began their stampede towards my friends. This would be it, and I didn’t know how the guides could survive. They were too tired, too drained.
Selena brought her cleaver down, dropped into a crouch. Ready to spring at me.
Only I wasn’t standing still.
I jumped to the left, bowled into a bunch of charging spirits ignoring me to rush the guides. Swung the great sword in through their ranks. Felt the weapon bite and cut and burn. Tried to take as many as I could with every lunge and spin. Dolan’s sword sang, and it played a fiery tune.
And then Selena was on me. Her cleaver blocking my strike, stopping the sword. Her knife stabbing towards me. I reversed first my grip on the sword and spun backwards. Away from her knife.
With my wrist reversed, I didn’t have the leverage to keep the blade upright, and my sword went down into the ground. Dropped away from Selena’s cleaver.
I flipped my wrist again, underneath the sword, and swept it up. Selena dodged to the right, into the path of one of her own spirits. The charging soul shoved into Selena and knocked her to the ground.
I had a clear shot. Lifted the sword, about to swing it down, when I felt Anna’s panic through our bond. A paralyzing fear, numbing cold through my body. I turned, looked down the hill.
I’d done what I could, but the guides were still being overwhelmed. Anna herself, flail swinging, was holding four spirits at bay alone. She was already bleeding, already hurt.
“You stay here,” I said to Selena, who was trying to free herself from the spirit.
I sprinted down the hill, using the weight of the sword to give me extra momentum. Swung at spirits on my way down, hacking their legs out from under them, or pushing them into each other. Anything to disrupt their numbers. To keep them from simply overwhelming over my friends like a wave crashing over a small rock.
I hit the spirits from behind, slicing through three of them in one broad swipe. Anna’s flail caught the fourth. She gave me a quick, tired grin. “Like I said, it’s good to have you back.”
“Doing what I can,” I replied, twisting and laying into another two with a couple of chops. Unlike Nara’s first army, the one I’d taken into the city, these spirits lacked weapons, lacked discipline. Nara was panicking. I could see, in the stream of occasional spirits coming out of the Mountain and diving towards us in suicidal charges, that Nara seemed more bent on numbers than strategy. Her forces lived and died by hordes, not skill.
“Watch it, Carver!” Alec called as I took care of another spirit. The guide, his gauntlets lit with flame, darted in between Anna and I, catching another spirit that I thought had gone down, but had only tripped, its hands grasping for my ankles.
“Get back to Nicholas.” I needed them by the scientist. I needed them away from me. “I can take their claws. You can’t.”
But I couldn’t take the cleaver. I couldn’t take Selena’s knife. She came after me, relentless. I barely had my sword up in time to block a straight ahead stab, the ridged edge of the cleaver making that as lethal as the sideways chop. She tried to stick the knife in my right leg, but I shifted to a side stance, her knife only grazing me. Not enough to set me aflame.
I drove her back with a quick series of in cuts; short jabs that leveraged the sword’s reach to force her into a defensive stance
.
“Nara says that she’ll forgive you,” Selena said as she whirled around me, moving her feet from side to side in a circle, continually testing my movement with the great sword. Looking for me to get out of position. To not follow her around and leave myself open for a quick strike.
“So kind of her.” I shuffled my feet well. If there’s one thing that had I learned with Bryce and our hunts, it’s that being nimble was the key to survival. Movement kept you alive, which wa more important than getting a lucky blow. We rotated until Selena stood downhill from me. A bad move.
“She thinks it’s generous,” Selena said “I think it’s your only chance.”
“I think you need to pay more attention.” I lunged forward. Used my higher ground to deliver an overhead blow at an angle she couldn’t counter without sticking both her blades above her head. But I didn’t count on her roll. Rather than block, she dove down the hill. Towards were Anna stood, fending off another spirit. Selena came out of her tumble, rose, and jabbed Anna with the knife.
I saw Anna’s eyes widen. Saw her mouth drop, saw her turn at the pain and knock Selena’s knife away with her flail. Anna stumbled back against a tree trunk. The sneak that I had found, that I met on the train all those days and months and years ago, held her hand on the blossoming red coming from her side.
Through our bond flowed pain, and a sudden weakness.
I ran. Followed my swing. Selena turned towards me with the cleaver, but I stepped by her. Delivered a cross chop that caught a spirit reaching to finish Anna off. Selena had a clear shot at my back.
I expected the bite of her cleaver, even as I planted my feet to turn around.
Anna pressed herself off of the tree, her left hand leaving a bloody print behind. Swung the flail forward, over my head as Selena thrust forward. Anna’s spiked, burning ball hit Selena’s shoulder, knocking her strike away and bursting her into fire. The blue flame covered my love, and washed her away.