Riven by A R Knight

Author:A R Knight [Knight, A R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781946554079
Publisher: Black Key Books
Published: 2017-05-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

On the walk back to the lab, I kept turning over the banded spirit in my mind. While Riven had plenty of spirits in states between losing their minds and on dead-eyed journeys to the Cycle, before Graham, I hadn’t encountered any that were calculating. Aggressive but not out of control. Now, counting Cane and Spike, there’d been four in the last couple of days.

Anna and I passed by a trio of spirits, standing on the thin sidewalk and staring at each other, confused. Newcomers. Sharing that lost and dazed stare amongst themselves.

“Hold this,” I said, handing the sphere to Anna. “I want to try something.”

I went up to the trio and waved my hand in front of their faces. They looked like travelers, sporting jackets and trousers meant for a trek. Victims, perhaps, of an accident or disease in some edgy frontier. As my hand passed in front of their eyes, they tracked it.

“What’re you names?” I asked them. They turned at the sound of my voice, but said nothing. Angry spirits, like the one Selena found days ago, clung to their personality. To a warped version of themselves. Others, especially if they had some expectation of death, understood where they were and managed to bring part of themselves to bear on it. Gained a voice, even determination. Until the Cycle washed it away.

These three, though, they were what I expected. Whomever they had been at the moment their lives left them was gone.

“What are you doing?” Anna asked me.

“Confirming that Riven still makes sense,” I said. “At least in its own way.”

We left the spirits and kept going back to the apartment. The trio hadn’t helped me figure out why the banded spirit bothered to attack, but at least Riven wasn’t turning to a murderer’s row of hostile spirits around every corner. I only knew one way, though, that a spirit could gain that level of reasoning, come up with goals beyond tearing the throat out of the next thing it saw. That was through binding, which a guide could do, which anchored a spirit to Riven through a piece of the guide himself.

Graham suggested another. That perhaps a strong-willed spirit could survive on its own. Even bring other spirits under its power. If that was true, and Cane and Spike suggested it was, then Graham might be able to form his own army. Bring bands of armed, deliberate spirits to sweep ambush and annihilate unsuspecting guides. He was more dangerous than ever.

I opened the door to the apartment and froze. Nicholas stood in the middle of the living room, holding one of the blue-tinged crossbow bolts and wearing a dark cloth vest with indigo lines running through it.

“You’ve returned!” Nicholas said as he saw me. “Now, the test can begin!”

Before Anna or I could say anything, Nicholas stabbed himself with the crossbow bolt, blazing blue fire up and around the scientist. I felt a sudden rush as Nicholas severed our connection. Ran forward to try and pull the bolt out of the scientist’s chest, but Selena stopped me.

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