The Rising Tide

by Sarah Stirling

  “Put those away! What are you doing?”

  The shape appeared in the doorway too quickly for her eyes to register, too quickly for her to follow its truncated movements. One moment the woman was across the other side of the room, the next she was upon them, screeching such a terrible sound it cut through her. She gritted her teeth against it, fighting off the nauseating effects. The Rook stirred, ready for battle.

  “Thiemi!” cried Hika. Behind her, clutching her kobi, Yukara sniffled.

  Thiemi was not looking at them. She could not look at them, for her eyes were melting into her face. From the gaping holes streaked with black blood a bright blue light shone, blinding. Holding a hand up to her face, Rook ducked out of the way of her attack and swiped at her back. The strike caught Thiemi on the spine and she shrieked, falling forward.

  “Stop it!” yelled Yukara. “No!” Hika yanked her back before she could get in the way.

  The shouting distracted her enough for Thiemi to crash into her, clawed hands latching onto her neck. Rook squirmed beneath, overwhelmed by the rotting stench that was so much more potent when filtered through her enhanced senses. Thiemi’s screams rattled through her, her ears ringing. Her reluctance to kill the woman so dear to the rift maidens cost her, the riftspawn inside leaching her energy from her in waves. The Rook protested with shrill cries in her ear, fighting back against the Rellshar. She jerked, kicking the body off of her and scurrying away, breathless.

  Thiemi’s mouth opened and she let out such a high pitched wail that Rook’s head spun and she doubled over, clutching her ears. Warm liquid trickled past her fingers. Blood. She could barely focus, the unearthly wail echoing in her mind. Even as the woman ran at her with blue light emanating from a flaring aura, she could only stumble on clumsy feet, barely scraping herself off the floor.

  A gunshot cut through the commotion, Thiemi toppling back onto the floor. Wisps of blue light faded into the air. Rook could feel the moment the spirit was vanquished, the atmosphere trembling with the expulsion of energy. Heaving a sigh, she sat up, peering from Janus’ blank expression to the girls huddled in the corner, tears staining their cheeks.

  Hika crashed to her knees beside her fallen companion, cradling her head. “Thiemi? Thiemi, please.”

  Neyvik cradled Yukara in her arms, lips twisting in disgust even as the moisture shone in her eyes. “Leave her. She is gone.”

  “No, no! It is not supposed to happen like this!”

  Guilt curdling in her stomach, Rook pushed herself to her feet and stumbled into Janus, gripping the sleeve of his coat in her fist. She felt his hand steadying her on her back and leant into it gratefully. The acidic taste of vomit tainted her mouth. Somehow it always came back to this, every single time.

  “Where has it gone to?” was heard before the owner of the voice crashed into the room, surveying the scene with small beady eyes. “It’s gone.”

  Another man nearly crashed into him before he appeared from behind his broader companion. “Is she dead?”

  Neyvik straightened. The emotions slipped from her face like she had simply washed them off with water. Holding her chin high, she wiped at her eyes and said, “Hika, take her out of here.” Palming the younger, quivering girl over to the woman in red, she waited until they had scurried off before she turned on the rest of them, eyes blazing.

  “All of you need to leave. Right now. I won’t have your filth tainting this hallowed space any longer.”

  “I’m so sorry,” said Rook, voice cracking.

  “Don’t give me that,” Neyvik snapped. “This is your fault. Messing around with riftspawn like you’re above the common laws of men. If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be having this problem. But now the rifts are a mess and it’s because none of you can do your jobs properly!”

  The skinnier of the two men scratched his head. “So many of our wardens have gone missing. There aren’t any keepers these days to even manage them.”

  His companion scoffed. “You just proved today that you can’t protect yourselves.”

  “We can protect ourselves just fine! So leave! Leave and don’t even think about coming back!” Neyvik collapsed beside the fallen rift maiden, knuckles pressing into her eyes.

  Rook glanced at Janus, biting her lip. He nodded and she sighed softly, making her way out. Curiosity tugged at her, regarding the two men and what they knew about the wardens, but it felt wrong somehow, disrespectful, to be trying to pick their brains for information after what had just happened. So she kept her grip tight on his arm, treading out with her head hanging low. Her body shook from being drained of energy and she couldn’t remember how long it had been since she had last slept a full night’s sleep. Janus had to be feeling it too but he had said so little during the entire thing, hands stuffed into his pockets like he didn’t dare look at them. It was a feeling she knew too well.

  “Weishei?” said a soft voice.

  Rook glanced to the stairs where Hika was gripping the bannister so tight her knuckles shone white. Her throat was too dry to speak so she nodded to show she was listening.

  “You may stay within the compound for the evening – I mean, morning.” Sunlight spilled from the window, too warm for the sombre atmosphere of the temple. “It is a lengthy travel back to the city.

  She shook her head. “That’s not necessary. Janus and I will –” A yawn betrayed her words and she slapped a horrified hand over her mouth. “Forgive me, Hika-dan.”

  Hika’s smile was grim. “Come,” she said, “I will show you where to stay.”

  Tired, worn, and reeling from the sudden turn of the day’s events, Rook followed her back out to the garden, across the bridge over the pond, and then towards another building hidden amongst the trees, nothing but a dark red roof peeking out from the green canopy. The path led them to the door of a simple domed building, less grand than the temple entrance, with rows of round porthole windows. Inside the staircase spiralled upwards in the centre of the room on the ground floor, which was warmly lit from the windows and plainly furnished with a small hearth, a scattering of chairs and a table. Without speaking Hika led them up the stairs to the next floor which opened up into a narrow concentric hall, several doors shooting off all the way around the floor.

  “Please, take your pick. You may stay here for tonight.”

  Rook dipped her head into a short bow. “Thank you, Hika-dan. I’m truly sorry for what has happened. I – we – we didn’t mean for –”

  “It is what it is, Rook-wei. Please.” The woman’s eyes were red, cheeks blotchy and damp. “Things have been hard lately but this…” She shook her head, catching a sob with her hand. Rook placed a hand on her back but she shirked out of her grasp. “I must leave you now.”

  Rook was nearly in tears herself as the woman fled, leaving nothing but silence behind. The weight of it pressed down upon her shoulders, too heavy for her to carry. Sagging into Janus’ arms, she let him haul her into the nearest room and deposit her on a simple futon. She curled up onto the bed, folding her long limbs into the smallest shape possible, knees tucked up into her chest. The light from the window above spilled across the other bed, leaving her side cast in shadow.

  Floorboards creaked under Janus’ feet as he moved to sit on the other cot, glowing in the hazy light of a rising sun. He rested his elbows on his knees, knitting his fingers together and simply existing. The rings of his curly hair looked like a halo around his head, painting him in ethereal strokes of amber and gold; not quite holy but otherworldly, the outline of his hunched shoulders shimmering like a mirage. Rook curled onto her side and stared at him, unwilling to break the hushed reverence that had fallen over the room. Here, in this small box far away from civilisation, her failures did not exist. There was only Rook and Janus and all the words left unsaid between them. Here was sanctuary, and here and now, before she stood up and faced her past so that she might be ready for her future, she could rest her weary head.

  She must have drifted off for a while because w
hen she blinked again the light had moved around in the room, removing the sheen from Janus’ prone form with his back slouched against the wall, and her arm was stiff from the weight of her body pressed down upon it, one of her blades digging into the meat of her back. “Do you think…” she trailed off, unsure what she had been about to ask. The thought had fizzled out like the fleeting spark of a fire made from damp kindling.

  “Not your fault. Don’t think like that.”

  Rook pushed up onto her elbows. “So much of this could have been prevented. If we had managed to stop that soldier back in Nirket maybe…”

  Janus shook his head. “Won’t help you. Would have, could have, should have. No use in it.”

  The coloured glass in the window began to swirl, red and purple spinning in a wheel that made her dizzy. Rook could feel the soft cadence of the riftspawn’s signature, calming her own tempestuous thoughts until she was crawling over the bed to poke at it, yanking back her finger at the buzz against her skin. The riftspawn popped out, a creature of melting, dripping glass, leaving half of the window permanently open, cold air spilling in. Rook bit her lip, trying not to laugh. It was such a ridiculous sight that she couldn’t not find it a little funny.

  As it moved the riftspawn started to take shape, something like a molten lizard with wings of glass, pieces falling from its form as it swooped past Janus’ face and back outside, the damage left behind for them to explain to the poor rift maidens.

  She turned to smile at him when she saw the grave expression on his face. “What is it?”

  “Missed the ship.”

  With a sigh, she nodded. “I know. I thought it was more important we try to help. Not that that has ever really worked for us before.”

  “Looks like running away.”

  “I’m not running away.”

  The words spilled out before she could stop to think that perhaps it was exactly what she was doing. Fists tightening in the thin sheets of her bed, she looked down at her crossed legs and thought about home. About her family and her tribe, the cold, merciless snows of the south, and the constant battles for dominance. “Who I was then… I don’t think you would recognise me.”

  Janus’ lips quirked. “Mm. Know the feeling.”

  “I know I chose to go back. I think I need to go back, you know? Before I can really move forward. But I keep thinking, what if it only reveals that nothing has changed at all?”

  “Won’t know until you go.”

  “Janus!” she exclaimed. “You’re supposed to be more encouraging than that.”

  He pointed to himself and grimaced. “Picked the wrong man.”

  She found herself laughing, some of the tension in her body easing. “Maybe I did.” She tilted her head, watching him fidget with his bag of tobacco before deciding to close it and drop it back in his pocket. “Because I get the feeling you’re going to give me bad news.”

  There was a beat of silence. “Not coming with you.”

  “Too cold for you? We can get you a new coat. Locker knows you need one.”

  He snorted. “Might be a creature that needs hunting.”

  “Is this your way of saying you want some space?”

  “Might be we both need it.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to do it on my own.” She winced at her voice, small and vulnerable. Fragile.

  “You’re strong, Rook-ka,” he said, meeting her gaze levelly from across the room. “Strong enough to get through this.”

  Tears were welling in her eyes again, unbidden. She did her best to blink them away. “Will we meet again? Will we all meet again?”

  Janus scratched his chin then shrugged. “Would seem fate has a hand in our destinies. Think we were supposed to meet, somehow.”

  “You really believe in destiny?”

  “Don’t know what to think.” The playing card she had seen before was being plucked between his fingers, the sound almost like the strings of an instrument. “Knew an oracle once and he could predict things. Sometimes they changed. Sometimes they didn’t. Some things just seemed inevitable.”

  She pulled her knees up to her chest, thinking. As much as the grand idea of destiny seemed nice, Rook could see no truth in it. For how could this be anyone’s destiny; endless failure and blundering, only to come full circle on her life? Here she was doing what she had vowed never to do the day she left her tribe: looking back. Turning around and walking back into her past. Rook didn’t see how that was destiny.

  Besides, if she couldn’t choose then who was to say she was herself at all, but a puppet on the strings of an invisible master? No, she could only be Rook if she was the one to choose her own cards and make the best of the hand she picked. To be a better version of herself, she had to be the one to make that commitment. It meant nothing if it had already been written into history, the pages yet to reveal themselves.

  “The kashei will reunite because we all want it to. We just need a little time to find ourselves first. Then we will find our way back to one another.”

  Janus nodded. “No one else would put up with me.”

  Rook’s laughter startled her, ripping from her chest like a cough, and she pressed a hand to her mouth, startled. There was still much of her journey left, and a lot of pain still to come when she reunited with her family, but it made the burden easier, to know there were people waiting for her at the other end. That not everyone had abandoned her for a lost cause.

  The Rook trilled in her ear and she closed her eyes, welcoming its presence in her mind. I believe in you, it seemed to say. It had to mean something, that they had found this peace, in the no man’s land between their warring encampments. It had to mean something, because otherwise she was fighting for nothing.

  *

  I thought maybe I dreamt you.

  This is the land of dreams. You did dream me.

  Ziko faltered for a moment. But, no, he could feel the edges of the black hole inside him knit together. The currents and streams of energy emanating so strongly from this world glistened all around him, potent with scents of fresh rain and lightning; with the tickling, singing sensation against skin he did not have but could only imagine; with the trickle and trill like water burbling in a rook. Ziko had been awakened once more. Because he had found his other half. The one who made him whole.

  You’re really here.

  Niks twitched her tails, glancing behind her. Waves crashed against the rocks, throwing up blood red spray, before withdrawing on the same breath as the flow of spiritual energy surging towards the heart of the otherworld. Perhaps it truly was the Netherworld his father had always preached of, but not as the man had understood it. For this could never be a realm of death when everything felt so blisteringly alive. Throwing his hands open wide, Ziko let the laughter fall from his lips and roll across the horizon, booming like thunder. It sparked a thought within him and he thrust his hand to the sky, calling the lightning.

  Like it knew his name, it lit up the sky in a blinding white, catching in his outstretched palm in a burning ball of pure energy. From the light shining down upon her, Niks looked even more heavenly to him, as if she had been sent to him from a benevolent god who had acknowledged his suffering. Only she was the benevolent god and she had bestowed her favour upon him. Upon the poor, snivelling wreck of a man who had never even had a name to call his own, never mind thoughts of wants beyond that. He had been blessed.

  The ball of light danced in his hands, surging and retracting as if a live beast. Perhaps it was. In this world it could be anything, and by the book, that was such a staggering height over which he would be more than happy to drop.

  I am pleased to see you again, too.

  Her voice sounded strained, tails flicking from one side to another with sharp movements.

  You are afraid.

  I am not!

  She peered up at him again, red eyes burning through the white of her mask. The Freelands are not safe. There is a reason why so many try to cross into your realm.

  Zik
o scooped up the ball of lightning and tossed it into his other hand. There is no death here. You have no clock to fight.

  Niks simply stared at him for a long moment, the waves around her crashing higher and higher. She remained calm even as they crested the top of her head and climbed higher still, a sheer cliff of red water. Then suddenly it all crashed down at once and Ziko braced himself for the impact, scrambling back. His vision filled with red and for a brief second he thought he was sinking in blood, thick and sticky and disgusting. Cold and hot at the same time, he couldn’t find enough thought within him to try and swim, scrambling to find a surface that did not seem to exist. Panic set in, his movements more frantic. The liquid wanted to consume him, its consciousness seeping into him, through him, until he struggled to remember who or where he was.

  Then just as quickly the liquid drained away, leaving both of them as they had been, as if nothing had happened at all. The lightning had escaped his grasp, fading away to nothing. Niks huffed, swinging her tails.

  There are worse things than death here.

  Ziko rubbed at himself, at the sense of body he had conjured in his mind, but there was no remnants of the red liquid. Is everything trying to eat me?

  Yes. That is how this world works.

  He pictured gaping jaws in the darkness, swallowing around him, and he shivered. And you? Do you eat them to?

  Would that disturb you?

  Ziko snorted. Do you remember when we first met? How you first came to me?

  You were quite unhappy.

  You came to me as a walking corpse. After seeing that, it’s hard to find something truly disturbing.

  Her tails snapped, catching flame. I did not understand death as you do.

  Mm. So I don’t understand not-death. Or what it is you’re afraid of. But we’re together again. You and I, Niks. You and I are unstoppable. We will find our way out of here and we will fulfil your wish.

  We will unite the worlds.

  A ripple of pleasure rumbled across the sky, colours mottling pink and lavender like a beautiful sunset reflecting across a perfect sheet of water. Ziko glanced around him, at where the lines of the world did not exist – no horizon, no parameter. Just endless, infinite imagination, as far as the brain could perceive.