by Isaac Hooke
She reviewed the blueprint of the house in her mind as she advanced. The corridors remained dark, lit only by the dim light from the swords. She and Tanner encountered no one—while all the furniture was still here, the house itself was completely devoid of life. She passed a window. Outside it was pitch black.
"That's strange," she said, nodding at the window. "Wasn't it just daylight?"
Tanner gave her a look that said, let's get the hell out of here.
She shrugged off the pinprick sensation she felt along her arms, and pressed on.
She led Tanner down the main stairs to the first floor, and its reception hall. The carpet in this hall was the one that had come alive the last time she was here. It stretched from one side of the hall to the other, and at the perimeter there was a gap of about two paces between wall and carpet. She had attacked that carpet with her fire sword, charring a section. But there were no burn marks today, she noted. There also used to be a sword rack on one side of the hall, but Jeremy had moved it, apparently.
Giving the carpet the widest berth she could, Ari crossed to a corridor behind the reception hall, and followed it to the chamber that had housed the Control Room ten years ago.
The chamber was empty.
"So he's really abandoned the place," Ari said.
Tanner patted the handmirror beneath her livery. "Time to go. We'll get in touch with your New Users when we come back. Maybe they'll have some leads on Jeremy's new base of operations."
On the far side of the room Ari spotted a furled scroll resting on the floor.
She went over and picked it up.
Hello Ari.
I discovered your little tracker and moved it to a copy of my house. Impressive little replica isn't it? I've duplicated everything down to the piles in my woolen carpets and the veins in my marble walls. What you don't know is that the moment you set foot in this place you triggered my trap. You see, this copy of my house is at the bottom of a sand pit outside the Forever Gate. I hear the land is quite barren out there. Bones of giant fish and whatnot. If you're reading this, maybe you weren't lying after all when you spoke to me of crossing the Gate and finding immortality. Or maybe you were. My little surprise should get to the heart of matters.
Ta-ta.
Your Beloved,
Jeremy
"We have to go," Ari said. "We have to go now!"
47
Ari ran into the corridor. Beside her, the nearest window burst inward. Sand gushed inside.
"This way!" She led Tanner down the corridor. Around them, windows burst left and right. Side chambers also belched sand, adding to the inundation. By the time she reached the reception hall she was wading knee-deep through the stuff, and the grit got inside her boots where it scratched her ankles constantly. Sand poured in from upstairs too, spilling over the second floor balconies in waves.
"Where are you going?" Tanner said.
She crossed the remnants of the reception room, and entered the guest hall. There was a fireplace set against the far wall.
She ducked beneath the mantel and peered upward. The chimney was a long, dark esophagus of bricks that for now remained open to the sky—a small circle of light beckoned at the very top. Sand only occasionally sprinkled down from above.
She turned to Tanner.
He'd gone quite pale. "You gotta be kidding me..."
"I hate tight spaces," Ari said. "With a passion. But it's a way out."
"Oh it's not tight spaces I'm worried about," Tanner said. "It's dying in a chimney because I followed a brash and reckless woman inside, that's what's got me worked up."
"But it's only a false reality," Ari said. "There's only a chance we'll die in the real world if we die here."
"According to who?" Tanner sounded oddly exasperated.
"Hoodwink."
"Well you misunderstood him," Tanner said. "Because there's only a chance you'll die when you're connected via the pods. When you connect direct, like me and you are doing as gols, and you die violently in here, there's a 100% chance you die in the real world. I've lost three good friends already. So stop acting like you're invincible."
She felt her stomach tighten, the precariousness of their situation hitting home for the first time. But how could her father have survived what happened to him, when he'd died violently in the real world? Was he in some pod world above that one? It made no sense. But she had no time to ponder it now—she saw the sand literally pouring in through the room's entrance.
"I can give you the mirror..." She reached inside her livery. Could either of them disbelieve reality in time, with the distraction of imminent death?
"No." Tanner raised a hand. "There isn't time. You're right."
The sand continued to rise. At this rate, the entire room would be buried in less than one or two minutes.
Wishing that she'd injected a sword belt Inside too, she sliced a strand from a nearby tapestry, and used it to tie the sword around her waist. Tanner did the same. Once that was done, she lifted one foot over the base of the fireplace, ducked beneath the lintel, and pulled herself into the inner hearth, stepping onto the charred blocks of wood piled there. The chimney was made of mortared bricks, so she reached up and gripped a slab on either side and hoisted herself past the damper, forcing open the metal plate that was used to regulate the draft. Then she pulled herself up into the chimney proper.
And so she proceeded, reaching up with her arms to find a handhold, setting the toes of her boots in the gaps between bricks. The glow from the sword guided her, as did the portal of light far above, but even if she had no light, she could have felt her way along. The blade diminished in intensity as the moments passed, and she pressed the hilt occasionally to restore its brightness. Though she didn't need it, the light was a comfort.
But apparently she'd touched the weapon too much, because without warning the makeshift cord at her waist unraveled and the sword dropped.
"Oof!" Tanner said. She heard the clatter as the blade tumbled past him down the chimney.
"Tanner!" She glanced down and saw Tanner a few paces below, outlined by the glow of his own sword, which was still tied to his waist. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah." His voice sounded forced.
Above, the chimney tapered, becoming rather tight. The trickle of sand from above had increased, and was now a regular, pulsing rain of grit. Somehow she didn't think the sky above would remain open for very long.
As the chimney tightened, she was forced to bring her arms closer and closer to her chest, and to take smaller and smaller steps, until she could no longer move at all.
"Why have you stopped?" Tanner said, though he likely knew.
"Too tight!"
The sand continued to fall in waves.
The top of the chimney was only a pace away.
But it might as well have been a mile for all that she could move.
48
"Tanner!" she said, spitting the sand from her mouth. "Your sword!"
Tanner coughed and sneezed. "What about it!"
"Send it up to me!"
She saw the glow of his blade as it slid upward along the inside of the chimney and passed between her boots.
"Got it?" Tanner said from below.
"Ha! I'll never reach that."
The tip came further, coming to a stop roughly at knee level.
"Just a little more," she said.
"One sec!"
She heard Tanner repositioning himself below, climbing higher.
The blade rose in spurts until the tip reached the middle of her chest. She felt Tanner's shoulder brush against her calf.
"How's that?" Tanner said.
Ari braced her feet against the chimney. She slid her hands from the wall and reached down, knowing that if she slipped now, she'd send herself and Tanner to their doom. Death by broken neck or blunt force trauma wouldn't be the funnest experience.
You die violently in here as a gol, you die for real, no matter what.
She was just a
ble to wrap her hands around the hilt.
Vitra filled her. The source of life. A false source, she knew. But it invigorated her nonetheless, the wires inside her real-world body stimulating her brain. Pleasure, pain, and lust, all at once.
"Okay!" she said. "Let go of it!"
Ari lifted the blade, the glow of the sword full in her face. Her elbows were by necessity locked against her sides. Her flesh scraped the tight mortar around her. Sand poured down from above. In moments the tip of the sword extended beyond the opening of the chimney.
She let vitra accumulate in the blade and the sword glowed red-hot. When she'd gathered enough, she unleashed a torrent of flames. She swiveled the superheated weapon at the same time, in a funnel-like pattern, and cut through the bricks around her like a hot knife through ice.
The next part was critical, or all those bricks would come tumbling down on them. As the upper part of the chimney collapsed, she released a fiery half-sphere. It was a trick she'd learned in recent days after much practice with the sword.
The half-sphere exploded upward, bringing with it the dislodged bricks, and the sand just beyond.
Success.
Her head and shoulders were exposed to the air. She was at the bottom of a pit, surrounded by a depression where she'd blasted the sand away. The rest of the house was buried below her.
Abruptly fragments of crystallized sand flowed back down against the new, lower rim of the chimney. Some of those opaque crystals overtopped the uneven rim and spilled down like shards of ice, sharp and cutting. She heard Tanner curse beneath her. Ari's own arms and legs received their share of cuts.
Above, at the outskirts of the sand pit, she saw five iron monsters on treads, similar to the golems she'd witnessed on the Outside. Long buckets had been set into the fronts of these monsters and were used to dump sand into the pit. Back and forth the iron golems moved in sequence. Scoop sand in the bucket. Turn toward the pit. Dump the sand. Repeat.
She scrambled from the chimney onto the crystallized shards, and helped Tanner over the rim. The two of them waded through the fragments and the fresh loads of sand that continually poured in. Ari tried to crouch, hoping to escape notice, and she picked a path that was between the monsters. When she neared the top of the pit, she waited until the nearest monster turned its back to retrieve more sand, and then she hurried past, dragging her feet across the dune.
She and Tanner moved away from the golems. She glanced back, expecting the things to be in pursuit, but the iron monsters hadn't even noticed them.
Ari stopped right away. She looked at the nearest iron monster, and cocked her head.
"Ari..." Tanner had that tone again. The tone that said, we don't have time for this. And, you're going to get us in trouble. "I think you should give me back my sword."
She was never a big fan of that tone.
She filled the sword with vitra, and then ran toward the back of the nearest monster as it dumped a load of sand. She plunged the blade deep inside that metallic skin and released the flames. The monster ground to a halt. Its internal humming stuttered and dropped in pitch, ending in a final abrupt cough.
Another iron monster turned toward her.
She pulled at the sword. It wouldn't budge from that metallic body, not even with her gol-strength.
Tanner came to her side. "Ari let's go!"
"Think I broke it," Ari said.
"What?" Tanner sounded exasperated. "The sword? Or the machine?"
"Both!" She abandoned the sword and sprinted away.
Only the one iron monster pursued. The other three remained behind to finish burying the house. Not that there was much left to bury.
She didn't think those treads would work quite so well on the sand as her own legs, but the monster moved as fast as she and Tanner did.
Faster, actually.
She should have listened to Tanner, and now her recklessness had put the both of them in danger once again.
If anything happened to him, she'd never forgive herself.
The iron monster was gaining.
49
Ahead the bones of a dead leviathan strewed the dunes, the house-sized skull and claw-like ribcage baking in the sun. Ari sprinted toward it, and when she reached it, Ari ducked beneath the topmost hinge of the jaw. The colossal skull engulfed her. Tanner joined her and together they retreated to the far side. The skull was half-buried so that there was no other way out except through that gaping maw.
"I don't think this is such a good idea..." Tanner said.
Ari balled her hands. "You're welcome to go back out there."
The iron monster slammed into the opening of the skull, but, as expected, the tall bucket it carried in front prevented the monster from fitting in the gap between bone and sand. The monster gave it a good try though, pushing with all its might, treads spinning stubbornly, internal mechanisms whirring in protest, but the only result was to shift the entire skull backward just slightly.
The monster backed up and began shoveling sand away from the entrance.
"I told you this wasn't a good idea," Tanner said.
Ari watched the monster. "Draw it off. Circle the skeleton."
"Draw it off? I don't think so. Just give me the mirror."
"I have a plan," Ari said. "Trust me."
"Why don't you ever tell me your plans?"
She smiled grimly. "The longer we stay here talking—"
Tanner raised his hands. "Fine."
He waited until the monster turned to offload the sand in its bucket, and then he ducked outside. The monster detected his presence and pursued.
When the iron monster was gone, she left the skull and ran toward the backbone of the dead leviathan. She dashed onto one of its prodigious ribs. The bone extended up and out like a small curving footbridge. Before the climb became too steep, she jumped straight up, and when she landed she pushed down with both legs. She jumped a second time. A third time. She pushed all-out when she landed. If this didn't work she'd have to rush back to the pit and try for the sword again...
Tanner sprinted by below. The iron monster was almost on him.
Come on, gol-strength!
Her fourth jump did it, and the timing was perfect—the massive rib popped from the backbone and crashed down onto the iron monster, pinning it.
Ari was sent sprawling. She scrambled to her feet and wiped the grit from her palms and the sand from her knees. She watched, satisfied, as the trapped monster spun its treads and dug itself deeper into the dune.
And then she realized she'd lost Tanner.
"Tanner?" She turned in a circle, but other than the remaining iron monsters in the distance, she saw no one else. Her eyes fell on the golem and she felt a stab of fear.
"Tanner." She approached the monster. Those treads continued to spin uselessly.
"Now I know why you didn't want to tell me your plan," Tanner said, coming up behind her. "And I thought I was the crazy one. What if the socket hadn't rotted away enough and you couldn't knock the rib down?"
She spun on him irritably. "There were other ribs already lying around. So I knew it would work, okay? But where were you just now?"
"On the other side of that rib. Why? What's up your shaft today?"
"Damn it. I was worried, all right?"
He shrugged.
"And just to clarify matters," Ari said. "I never claimed to be sane."
Tanner smiled, though it seemed a bit forced. "Right. Let's get back to the city."
To reach the city they had to return to the Outside and reset their coordinates. That, or climb the Forever Gate. She preferred the former.
She went back to the protection of the giant skull in case those other monsters decided to visit, and she removed the handmirror from her livery to begin the process of disbelieving reality.
Tanner joined her, and peered into the mirror beside her. He made faces at first, trying to distract her. But she was dead serious, intent on beating him to the Outside, still angry that he'd wor
ried her like that.
She focused on her features.
I am the illusion. The reflection is real. I am the illusion.
The moments passed. Eventually she began to see her reflection initiate movements that should have originated from her own body first. Her reflection blinked. Then she blinked. Her reflection tilted its head. Then she tilted her head.
This isn't real. Any of it.
She woke up on the Outside to see an iron golem looming over Tanner.
Its pincers were raised—the thing was about to smash Tanner's helmet.
50
Ari bounded to her feet. "Tanner!"
His eyes shot open.
The iron golem swung its pincers down—
Tanner ducked to one side—
The pincers smashed into the desk behind him. The area crumpled.
Ari dashed forward, forgetting about the tether at her belly, and when she reached the cord's limit she was instantly flung backward.
She cursed. She got a hold of the cord and wrenched it from her suit, hoping she didn't damage the thing. She stood up, and saw that Tanner had climbed onto the desk. The iron golem—a steel barrel on treads with two wiry arms and a thin, hilt-like head—was swatting at him, and a new pit formed in the desk with each strike.
Tanner could never hope to fend off the golem. And Ari couldn't help. Not with the weak human body she had on the Outside. There was no way. She felt so powerless.
Unless...
"Ari get out of here!" Tanner's desperate voice blared in her ear.
She went to the window, where the broken desks lay in a pile beneath it. She twisted free a desk leg with some effort and then hobbled over to the golem as fast as the suit would allow. She was frightened. Terrified. But she could do this. She would.