“The way to stabilise a bond – a consensual contract.”
Neyvik frowned. “This is a building. Not a person.”
Janus shook his head. “Need to formalise. A contract. The owner needs to sign it over.”
“That makes no sense! You want me to create a contract to sign ownership of the building over to a – to a – to a riftspawn?”
Janus simply stared. From above a deep rumbling started, the foundations quaking beneath the force it. He could feel the vibrations in his bones.
Neyvik sighed. “Hang you, Janus. We all own this building.”
He dragged his weary limbs off the floor and held out a hand. “Need to get a lot of signatures, then.”
“This is ridiculous. You are ridiculous.”
Something fell from the ceiling. Janus grimaced as the drop of liquid on his shoulder trailed steam, burning a hole in his already tattered coat. Sweeping it away, he sucked his thumb when it stung and turned back to Neyvik. “Any other ideas?”
He could pinpoint the exact moment the fight left her. She clambered to her feet, dusting off her torn kobi. “I’m going to write something up quickly. We’re going to have to try and find every rift maiden in this witless house and get them to sign this contract. I swear to Lai Kusok if this doesn’t work I’m going to string you up myself.”
Janus shrugged. “Need to get in line, I think.”
She looked him over and then snorted, shaking her head. “Watch my back.”
He nodded. Three bullets left. Well, it didn’t really matter. They were down to one simple principle now: survive or die. If Janus’ idea did not pan out then there really would be no saving them. But the itch was burning a hole in his skin, the guide’s words spinning around in his head. He thought of Rook, who despite her struggle had been carrying The Rook around with her for a good chunk of her life.
The bond needed to be consensual. It was the most pivotal rule.
“I don’t even know if we’ll be able to find paper and ink.”
Suddenly the walls around them started to shake. He met her gaze and nodded. As a hand shot out from the wall, they both pushed themselves into a run. His own breaths sounded in his ears, amplified by Neyvik’s beside him. Skidding to a halt, he grabbed her arm and tugged her down a corridor that had opened up from nowhere, with no idea where it would lead to. The monastery no longer followed the natural laws of order. They could be anywhere within the building.
“Hold on, stop!” said Neyvik, clawing him back before he could take off.
Janus used her grip to propel himself around, firing off another shot at the hands bursting from the wall, and then landing painfully on his knees. With a grunt, he pushed himself back to his feet, eyes still peeled on the quivering walls. At any moment they could simply be crushed between them, should the riftspawn decide it so.
“Here! Look!” Neyvik snatched up a notebook and a quill from within a drawer. “But I can’t find any ink.”
Janus grabbed the quill and jammed it into the sludgy liquid that made up the walls, wrenching it back with a fight as it tried to tug him back into its grasp. With the strange substance staining the feather, he passed it back to Neyvik who scribbled a quick test passage upon the page. It was messy and crude but the text was mostly legible.
“Quick,” he said.
“Stop it,” she hissed back, the pen scratching across the thick paper of her notebook. “I’m trying to think.”
Janus grabbed a vase and swung at the probing hands of the riftspawn infecting the monastery. His muscles ached and his lungs burned but he had to keep fighting it off until Neyvik could come up with a suitable contract. They had to permanently bond it to the building and thus trap it into the foundations. If they worded it properly the Danma Vyll would be sealed forever and no other riftspawn could bother them within the walls of the monastery. Or so he hoped.
“Does this sound okay?”
Janus struggled to read the messy scrawl of her characters but he could mostly follow the conditions. “It’ll do. We don’t have much time,” he grunted, cutting into the probing tentacle swinging his way.
“We need to find the girls!”
He didn’t bother adding that they had no way of knowing who was still alive. There was no need for distractions. So he cut his way through the reaching hands of the riftspawn, allowing them to escape into the altar room, the domed structure filled with gloom from the murky sky above that swirled green and purple like a sickening concoction brewing in the air. Janus wrinkled his nose, scenting an unpleasant tingle in his nostrils. Everything felt wrong, his senses screaming at him. He kept his grip firm on his revolver and spun in a circle. It was the only way to ensure nothing could sneak up on him.
“Don’t know how to get to the upper floor.”
“There’s another staircase,” said Neyvik, pausing to catch her breath with a hand propped upon a pew. Standing in the centre of the circular floor, lit in dark, dramatic colours of a toxic sky, she looked like one of the paintings upon the walls in the style of the famed Yormir, her red kobi the one stark colour against such overwhelming darkness.
“Neyvik!” piped a voice.
Janus stalked around the crescent of the pew to see a wide eyed face peeking out. Yukara. The girl slid out from her hiding place, lip wobbling. She threw herself at a shocked Neyvik, wrapping her arms around her waist and burying her face in the woman’s stomach. Neyvik met Janus’ eyes and then reached a tentative hand up to pat the girl’s locks.
“I need you to do something for me, Yu-chana. Do you think you could do that?”
The girl peeled her tear stained face away from Neyvik’s kobi and nodded. “I’m scared. It’s so strong. It hurts.”
“I know. I know.” She tugged the girl towards one of the pews, nodding to Janus as she unfolded the wrinkled paper and directed her where to sign her name.
Their hushed conversation washed over his ears as he kept his focus, prepared for an attack at any moment. Everything was eerily still, like every candlestick and painting, every draping curtain and statue, was afraid of the predator prowling within the walls of the building itself. Like drawing breath might catch its attention. He felt the compulsion himself, loosing his breath in a rushing woosh as he reminded himself to release some of the tension locking up his muscles. There was only survival or death.
That is not what the cards say for you.
Four of serpents. Eight of serpents. Ace of skulls. Eight of hearts.
Janus hadn’t understood then and he was no closer to understanding now. Perhaps it was indicative of himself, that he had not grown any since that day. But it did not matter, because Janus was good at surviving. He had not turned himself into a weapon to let himself be taken unawares when it counted.
“Where are the other girls?” he said, voice cutting through the cushioned hush in the church.
Yukara trembled, peering up at him. “Hika told me to hide here. I do not know where she went.”
“As if that would save you,” snorted Neyvik, biting her lip when the girl sniffled once more. “Please, don’t cry,” she said, flapping her hand with a stricken expression. “Just – just don’t cry.”
Yukara’s sobs filled the church, shoulders curling in with the force of each shake. “I can’t help it.”
Janus crossed the room to them. “Need to find the others.”
“She’s in no state to move.”
He continued to stare at Neyvik until understanding dawned across her face. “We can’t just leave her here.”
“Seems to be safest here.” It made no sense. Not unless – unless there was weight to the maidens’ prayers. That it recognised some kind of power there, from these women who were touched by the energy of the otherworld even if they never permanently bonded themselves to it. Even he felt calmer here, like perhaps his lingering sixth sense from his brush with The Rook knew this was the best place for her to be.
Neyvik sighed. “All right,” she said, dusting herself off. �
�I need you to wait here for us. We’re going to find the others.”
The girl’s hand snatched at her kobi, silk bunching in a pudgy fist. “Please don’t leave me.”
Janus met Neyvik’s gaze. “Can stay, if you want. I’ll find them.”
“No. I need to do this.” Gently, she prized Yukara’s hand away. “Chana, I need you to hide here. Janus and I need to find our sisters but we can only do that if we know you are safe. I know you have already been so brave.” She tapped the girl under the chin. “Can you be a little more brave for me?”
Eventually the girl bobbed her head, ducking back in between the pews. Neyvik ruffled her hair, murmuring more words into her ear before she straightened and began to walk away without so much as a backwards glance. Taking it as his cue, Janus followed her, coming upon a door behind the altar. Beyond was complete darkness and he groped blindly after her, hands scraping across the rough stone walls until his foot hit the first step of a staircase. This one appeared to be untouched but without his sight it was difficult to be sure.
“How many girls are we looking for?”
“I don’t know.”
A beat of silence lingered between them.
“I mean, I do not know who is still –”
“They are resilient. Have experience.”
“I have no idea if that’s supposed to be comforting.” The door creaked opened, a beam of murky light escaping through and outlining her silhouette in a dusky teal. She looked both ways before disappearing through the door.
Janus pushed through, the stone door heavier than he had been expecting. It hit his shoulder, his body too sluggish to get out of the way quick enough, and a burst of pain exploded down his back. Breathing sharply, he staggered for a moment, and only regained his focus when he realised he didn’t know which way Neyvik had gone.
With frustration he scrubbed a hand over his eyes, struggling to know what was real and what wasn’t. The walls bled waterfalls of brick and stone, shimmering with patches of bright colours like gems embedded in cave walls. He could feel the rift, its pressure faintly pushing on his temples. Had he been bonded it would have been unbearable.
“Janus!”
Whirling, he stumbled when Hika ran towards to him, hair loose and tumbling around her shoulders, kobi ripped up to her thigh. The unnatural gait of her run had Janus reeling back, something sinking in his gut. Around her flared the heat hazy distortion that was an aura and as she charged towards him, he saw that her eyes were as black as coal.
His gun between them stopped her in her tracks, palms rising. “Janus, we don’t have time for this!”
“What are you doing?”
“Channelling a Yokki.”
He flicked the safety. Janus didn’t want to kill her but he would.
“Janus,” she said, mouth pressing tight. Her whiteless eyes were unsettling; too black pits that could swallow him whole. “I can channel them for brief periods for power. It’s a very minor level riftspawn. It won’t kill me as long as I am quick.”
“You have done this before.”
“Yes.”
It was true she did not appear to be suffering. Her form was as it had always looked, besides the black eyes and the aura. And, he noticed now that her braids had fallen apart completely, that two tiny horns protruded from between her black locks, curling at the pointed tips.
“How many times?”
“Janus. Now is not the time for this conversation!”
She might think she had control over it but if the bond wasn’t permanent – if she was only channelling it without an actual contract – then it would eat her from the inside out. Too many times had he seen the results of possession. Of how it changed the person so utterly that their body couldn’t cope with the changes. Until they wore away and died.
Survive or die. There was a trick in card games like Rattlebones called the ‘suicide pact’. It involved sacrificing one’s own cards in order to take out the opponent’s hand. It was a risky play, one that was mostly played by the greedy and desperate who had already spiralled into gambling addictions and piling debts. But sometimes, on rare occasions, it could be played in a feat of inspired brilliance, and change the flow of the game completely.
Survive or die meant putting aside morality for the sake of the moment.
“Neyvik has a contract. Needs signed by everyone. Where are the girls?”
Hika’s head jerked, hearing something Janus couldn’t. A distant quaking crept upon them, growing more and more violent by the moment. Something further down the corridor moved, Janus frozen in shock as he realised a great rolling wave was racing towards them, about to swallow them down into that sludge.
Planting her feet, Hika lowered her posture and crossed her arms sharply before her. Black flame-like tendrils erupted from around her, building and building until he could barely see anything except for the impenetrable darkness of her aura. Then as the wave reached its peak mere feet from them, she shoved her hands out with a ghastly inhuman cry. The black energy expelled from her in a shining carpet of obsidian, blanketing the sludge.
The ensuring explosion blew out his eardrums, the light so blinding Janus had to throw his arms over his face to shield his eyes. When the dust settled around him, darkness flooding back in, he looked to see Hika wobbling on uncertain feet. She turned and her irises were still jet black but surrounded by white, her chest heaving with the force of her panting breath. Above her hovered a small black riftpspawn, tiny wings fluttering.
“Hika! Janus! Come, quick.”
Up ahead Neyvik’s red kobi was a beacon amongst the drab colours of the collapsed hallway. Hika wheeled on him with a stern look. “Don’t say anything.”
Janus would make no promises. Shoving past her, he ignored her shouts as he approached Neyvik, accompanied by two other rift maidens.
“Hika, you need to sign this! Right now!” She thrust the contract and quill at a startled Hika, her waxen face and deep eye shadows making her look more ghoul than girl. But she took the papers and scrawled out a signature as directed, the contract snatched from her hand before she could even ask the question moving her lips.
“Come on,” said Neyvik, “we’re gathering up all the girls. I still need to find Mylai and Karras.”
Hika stopped, reaching out to grab Neyvik’s wrist. Whatever Neyvik saw on Hika’s face drained her of her ardour. Janus leapt into action, cutting back against the riftspawn’s eager hands. Around them the building was becoming less and less recognisable, shapes dripping into one another until they were surrounded by some strange melted painting of what a man who had never seen a monastery but only described one thought it might look like.
“Karras didn’t make it, Neyvik.”
“No. She can’t have – what of Mylai?”
Grunting, he rolled out of the way of a probing tentacle, glowing with a soft yellow glow. Striking downward with the candle holder he had grabbed in the chase, he sliced it off completely, grimacing when it wriggled away to join back up with the wall, melting into the shifting mass of the building.
“I don’t know. I don’t know, Neyvik! What are you planning?”
“She’s the only one left. We need to find her.”
“What good will a piece of paper do?”
A tentacle wrapped around his ankle and smashed him to the ground, considerably less soft than it appeared. Winded, Janus rolled to see another tentacle bearing vague facial features hovering above his face. The tentacle around his leg burned through his clothes, not hot, but so cold it seeped through his skin and chilled the flesh and bone beneath. With a cry of agony, he kicked and bucked against it, but another wrapped around his other leg and chained him down.
“What do you want from me, Hika?”
“You always said you thought it was pointless that we weren’t allowed to bond. That we could do so much more if we just let the riftspawn in. Why don’t you? You know it could save us all.”
Silence between them, filled with the sounds of
Janus wrestling with the riftspawn for freedom, a hand snaking down to grasp his revolver nestled in its holster. His spat curses and gasps of breath sounded loud beneath such heavy quiet. The riftspawn was all the creepier for the lack of sound.
“No, I don’t. I could die. I could turn on you and kill you all. I don’t know what could happen.”
“What you’re trying to do… you’re trying to bind the building to this riftspawn?”
Janus pushed past the instinctive revulsion he felt when he touched the creature, gripping it tight and squeezing as he rolled with it across the ground. His legs wrapped around it so he could smash the butt of his revolver against its head. Again and again and again. Survive or die. Well, Janus had learned that he was too bloody good at surviving so this creature would just have to die. The creature reared its ugly head, bearing needle pointed teeth at him, eyes glowing a bright amber gold.
With a spin of his revolver, Janus shot it point blank in the head. Exploding in a splatter of debris, he shielded his face from the blast. The tentacles retracted from around him and when he pulled himself onto his feet, he found it was upon steadier ground. Ground made of a substance that resembled something he had seen before in his life, even if it was not quite stone.
“Janus…”
“Need to make your decision. Quick.”
The rumbling was already beginning again, vibrating beneath his feet. This riftspawn was powerful; it would not be held down for long. Neyvik glanced around her, fist clutching tight around her contract. It shook faintly and when she noticed him looking at her hand she snatched it away with a scowl, turning around. The two girls with her shrank back at whatever they saw upon her face.
Suddenly tens of tentacles shot from the walls. The floor sagged beneath their feet, drooping thinner and thinner. At this point they must have been halfway between floors, bouncing upon the stretching membrane of the ground. Where he stepped gold sparks flared up, like smashed street lamps scattering glass that shone in the light. Janus danced around the writhing tentacles, struggling to keep up his pace from earlier due to the exhaustion weighing down his bones. With the sky a noxious brew above, he had long lost sense of time. He had no idea how long he had been fighting on, or how much more he could take before his body caved.
The Rising Tide Page 32