THIRTY-SEVEN - Riordan

Riordan stands off against an old friend.

Riordan bolted from Willoughby’s office and tore down the hallway as quickly as his aging legs could take him.  Of course this had to happen now… Vanderford may be in serious trouble and I can’t even move fast enough to save him.

If Willoughby was telling the truth, what could have caused the explosive noise and the quake that followed?  Had Vanderford succeeded in moving the boulder and accidentally triggered something?  Had Xanthus VII planted some sort of trap in the rocks he had collapsed in front of the tunnel?  Or had the entire pile of boulders simply collapsed at once?  Vanderford would have been crushed.  He pushed the thought out of his mind, refusing to consider the possibility.  I’ll just have to find out when I get there.  Damn these legs!

He reached The Passing of the Seventh and burst through the doors, expecting to find an empty room, but instead found himself face-to-face with a room full of people�"some of whom he recognized.

“Draven,” he said, his brain racing to process how his old friend could possibly be standing in front of him in this room.  All he managed to say was, “you’re alive.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed to see me, Riordan!  Yes, I’m alive.  We’ll catch up later.  Do you have any idea what that noise was?  The whole castle shook.”

“I’m not sure.  I ran here as soon as I heard�"Vanderford was down in the passage.  He was trying to unblock the passage.  I think something may have happened to him.”  He looked at the other members of the room, people he didn’t recognize.  There was a man and a woman, the two of them stood together, watching the passageway intently.

“So it’s blocked on your end as well?  That’s disappointing.”

“Did you hear me?  Vanderford is down there right now.”  No one in the room showed any sign of having heard him.  Or if they did, no one cared.  “We have to make sure he’s okay!”

“We already have someone down there.  If he finds Vanderford I’m sure we’ll hear all about it.”

As if on cue, a dirty, gruff-looking bearded man appeared in the doorway of the secret passage, carrying a lifeless body over his shoulder.  It’s too small to be Vanderford.  Who else could have been down there?  “I couldn’t make it all the way down.  It’s completely underwater,” he said.

“Looks like someone already did our job for us,” Draven said, sounding pleased.  “Who do you have there?”

“I found this girl floating on top of the water.  Head’s bashed in pretty good, probably on the wall or ceiling.  She’s not doing too good.”

“Put here down over here, Wulfric,” Draven ordered.

“Was there anyone else?” Riordan asked.  Wulfric shook his head.  Vanderford is dead.  He felt as though the world had fallen out from under him.

The feeling got worse as Wulfric crossed the room with the body in his arms.  Riordan knew who it was before he saw her face.  His heart caught in his throat, and he couldn’t move or speak.  The one called Wulfric laid her down gently and he caught a good look at the wound on her head.  Esmarine… no.  What in the Dome were you even doing here?  You were supposed to be going home!

“We have to do something.  We have to save her.” Riordan choked out.  His voice was barely audible.

The three other men in the room looked from Riordan to the girl, then back to Riordan.  Clearly they didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation.  The woman in the room clearly felt Riordan’s pain and approached him.  “You know this girl?” she asked.

“Yes!  This is Esmarine… she’s the daughter of one of the King’s Guard, and someone I’m honored to be able to call my friend.  She can’t be…” the word stuck in his throat, but everyone knew what it was.  Dead.  “We have to do something.”

The third man in the room, the one who hadn’t spoken yet, chimed in.  “Draven.  It’s just a little girl.”

“It’s unfortunate,” Draven said, “but there’s nothing we can do for her here.”

“There’s still time… we can take her to Willoughby.  He’ll be able to help her,” Riordan said.  He pointed to Wulfric.  “Pick her up and follow me, quickly!”

Wulfric looked to Draven, who nodded.  “Take her.”

He picked up Esmarine, throwing her over his shoulder.  Riordan led the way, running out of the room and back in the direction he had just come from.  If the situation weren’t so dire, Riordan would have had a lot of questions.  For now, they could wait until Esmarine was okay.  With Vanderford gone, she’s one of the only people in this entire doomed city that I actually care about.  Of course it had to be her.

The two men burst through the doors to Willoughby’s office.  The frail man jumped back in terror to see Riordan again so soon�"and with a large, mysterious stranger at his side.  He cowered in the candlelight.  “Don’t hurt me, please!”

“I’m not going to hurt you.  Not unless you let this girl die.”

Willoughby glanced at the open wound on her head, then back to Riordan.  “Follow me,” he said, and turned to go through the second door in the back of the room.  Wulfric and Riordan obeyed, passing through into a large, open space with a stone table in the center.

“Put her here�"on the table.  What happened?” Willoughby asked, while Wulfric laid Esmarine down on the table.

“We found her facedown in some water,” Wulfric said.  “She’s not breathing.”

Willoughby held her nostrils closed with his fingers and blew air into her mouth.  What is he doing?  This was the first Healing Riordan had ever witnessed, and so far it wasn’t at all what he had expected.

Willoughby leaned in close, putting his ear beside Esmarine’s mouth.  “I’m listening for breathing,” he explained.  When he didn’t find any, he placed his hands on her chest and gave three short pumps.

“You’re going to hurt her!” Riordan said.  “Stop that!”  He rushed forward to pull the man off her, but Willoughby shook him off.

“Do you want me to save her or not?” he shouted.  “I’m trying to restart her heart!”  Riordan stepped back and looked at Wulfric, who seemed equally confused.  Willoughby got back to work, plugging her nose again and blowing into her mouth again.  He pulled away for a moment and said, “and get her to start breathing again.  If there’s water in her lungs, it needs to come out.”

He repeated those steps again and again, blowing and pumping, but Esmarine still lay perfectly still.

Riordan felt anger welling up inside of him.  “If you don’t save her, that’s your life,” he said.

“You mentioned,” he said, “but you’re going to kill me either way.”  He put his mouth back on hers for a fourth time.

“I won’t if you save her.”  As though a fire had been lit beneath the old man’s feet, he moved more quickly through the steps.  “It’s a shame that I have to reward you for doing your job,” Riordan added.  “You’d think that saving a child’s life would be enough for you.”

Willoughby had no response, but continued diligently alternating between the two steps, pumping and blowing.  At last, as he pulled away from her mouth, she coughed.  A mixture of water and blood spilled out of her mouth onto the table beside her.  She’s alive! was Riordan’s only thought.

“Help me turn her,” Willoughby said, and Wulfric was there, turning Esmarine onto her side while she continued coughing.  More water came out and sprayed onto the floor, splashing onto Riordan’s feet.  There’s so much more of it than I would have thought.

Esmarine gasped for air.  Her eyes shot open and she coughed again, but this time, at least she was breathing.  She swallowed more air greedily and laid on her back again.  As soon as the back of her head touched the table, she wailed in agony and turned back onto her side.

“You can’t put any pressure there,” Willoughby instructed.  “I’m very sorry, but this is all going to hurt quite a lot.”

Riordan wasn’t even paying attention to the words.  “I’m so happy you’re alive, Esmarine,” he said.  He took a step towards the table, and her eyes looked up at him.  “How are you feeling?”  The pain in her eyes was answer enough.  Then they rolled back into her head and she went limp.

“Esmarine?  Esmarine?!” Riordan never felt so panicked.  “What’s happening to her?!”

“You need to leave,” Willoughby said.  “You aren’t helping her by shouting at me.  She’s alive, but she’s got a long way to go.  She has massive damage to the back of her head, but there’s no telling how bad it is until she regains consciousness.  I’m going to keep working on her, but I can’t have you in here.”

“Willoughby, if you’re lying to me�"”

“I know.  You’ll kill me.  Trust me, I’m going to save her.  But you have to leave me alone with her.”

Reluctantly, Riordan turned and left the room.  “Do everything you can,” he said as he walked.  Willoughby nodded and closed the door, leaving Wulfric and Riordan standing alone in the office.

“I think she’s going to be okay,” Wulfric said, putting a hand on Riordan’s shoulder.  “He did manage to wake her up.  I thought she was already dead.”

Riordan wanted to respond, but Wulfric was already gone, halfway down the hallway in the direction of the Passing of the Seventh.  He hurried to catch up.

When they walked through the doors into the room, Draven and the others went silent.  What were they talking about that they didn’t want me to hear?

“How is she?” the woman asked.

“She’ll be fine,” Wulfric said.

“She coughed out a lot of water,” Riordan explained.  “She was conscious for a few seconds before the pain took over.”

“It sounds like she’s in good hands,” Draven said.  “Now let’s get back to work.”

“Wait,” Riordan said.  The others turned towards him.  “What’s going on here?  Are you really going to just appear in the castle after all these years and not even bother to explain to me how you’ve managed to survive?  Not to mention�"why come back?”

“We came back to kill King Xanthus,” Draven said plainly.  As if that were normal.  “We came here because these are the King’s Chambers.”

Riordan was speechless.  His mouth hung agape, but all he could put into words was, “Why?”

“Riordan�"I don’t have time to explain it to you,” Draven said.  “If you can help us, please do, but otherwise just stay out of this for awhile.”

“You’re sure these are the King’s Chambers?” the third man asked.

“Yes, Hadrian, I’m positive.  I was the Head of the Guard for years.  I stood outside this very room while he slept.”

“This isn’t the King’s room anymore,” Riordan heard himself say.  “After Seven died it was off-limits to everyone.”

“Ah,” Draven said.  “A pity.  Well, where might we find the King now?”

“You won’t,” Riordan said.  “He’s not in the castle.”

Draven pursed his lips.  “Well then where is he?”

“He’s gone.  He left the city this morning to lead the Hunt.  They should be back in a few days, but�"”

Draven turned and kicked the bed as hard as he could.  “He’s gone?!  The one time we finally manage to sneak into the city and he’s not even here?  This entire mission was one big colossal f*****g disaster!”

“Calm down,” the woman said.

“I will not calm down!  We’ve been planning this for years and we finally manage to get inside and it’s the one time he’s not even here!  It’s like the Dome is playing some massive prank on us!”

Hadrian stepped between Draven and the woman.  “You have every right to be angry, but I forbid you from taking it out on my wife.”

Draven, enraged, pulled back his fist.  Before he swung it, he seemed to come to his senses.  He took a deep breath and turned away, and it was as if he were a completely new person.  He sat down calmly on the bed and closed his eyes.

“It’s possible he’s already dead,” Wulfric said.  “Remember the sounds we heard on the other side of the lake?  If he was with the Hunt…”

“You came across the Hunt?” Riordan asked.  “Where were they?  Did something happen to them?”

“Riordan… there’s a whole lot that you don’t understand,” Draven said.  “Suffice to say, you shouldn’t be worried about the Hunt.  There are bigger problems you should concern yourself with.  Xanthus hasn’t been on your side before and he isn’t on your side now.”

“I know that.  That’s why Vanderford and I were trying to open the passage.  We’ve run out of supplies, and if we could get it open�"”

“Then I guess we have you to thank for finishing our mission for us,” Draven said.

“What do you mean?”

“We were trying to open the passage, too.  Didn’t realize it would be this easy.”

“Why were you trying to open the passage?  Were you trying to bring supplies for the city?  You must have some.  That’s how you survived, isn’t it?”

Draven smirked and nodded to Wulfric.  “Show him.”

Wulfric crossed to the entry to the passageway and started down the stairs.  Riordan followed with Draven at his side.  What are they trying to show me?

“This was the other half of our plan, Riordan.  This is why Xantom is doomed, regardless of whether or not Xanthus comes back with a new source of food.”

Riordan quickened his pace, getting ahead of Wulfric, who was carrying the torch.  Soon, the light disappeared but Riordan kept pressing forward, down the spiral staircase until…

SPLASH!

His feet were submerged in water.  He wasn’t anywhere near the bottom yet… he had been down these stairs before and knew that much for sure.  Where did all of this water come from?

The light from Wulfric’s torch appeared behind him and illuminated the black water in the passage.  They could go no further.

“Do you see now?” Draven asked.  “The Dome is flooding.  We don’t know for how long, or exactly how far along the process is… but it’s happening.  At some point in the future, this entire world will be underwater.  Now, at least Xantom will be the first thing to go.”

The pieces were all starting to come together in Riordan’s head.  The water�"the reason Esmarine had water in her lungs, the reason Vanderford was dead… it was all connected.  “It can’t be,” he said.

“It is.  I’m sorry this is the way you had to find out.”

“This was your plan?  You came back specifically to doom the city?”

“You give me the decision between every person living in Xantom and all of my people in the Barelands, and I choose my people every time.  My people can admit when they’ve made mistakes.  My people are treated as equals instead of cast out like the hundreds of people starving in the Outskirts.  It’s a better world.”

“There are good people here, too.  Vanderford was a good person.  Tadghan is a good person.  Esmarine is a good person.  And you’ve killed them all.”  He turned to Wulfric.  “You didn’t save Esmarine when you carried her to Willoughby.  You’re just drawing out her death.  The same as the rest of us.”

“We aren’t even the ones who opened the tunnel,” Draven said.  “You and Vanderford did that.  If we hadn’t come back, everything would be exactly the same.  You doomed yourselves.”

“We didn’t know what would happen when we opened the path!  We thought we were saving the city!  Your plan was to doom it!”

“Good people are welcome to leave Xantom and come with us,” Draven said.  “There’s always room for more of us in the caves.  And we don’t have a limited supply of food like you do here.”

“I don’t understand,” is all Riordan could manage to say.  This is too much.  The world is ending, and Draven barely seems concerned.  “If you’ve already solved the food crisis, you should share that with the city.  Then everyone�"”

“The answer isn’t for Xanthus, or any of his followers.  He’s a terrible person and a horrible leader who has run this city into the ground.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you, Draven, but dooming the city doesn’t fix that.  If you have the ability to feed everyone equally, and you choose to keep everything to yourselves, that makes you just as bad a person as Xanthus is.  There’s no point in punishing everyone for the crimes of one man.”

“One man?  You think Xanthus is the only person here who has committed a crime?  You’re blind, Riordan.  I had hoped you’d be able to open your eyes and see my point of view but if you can’t…”

“You’re being selfish.”

“Then I’m selfish.  I don’t care.  All I care about are the lives of my people, and in doing this I’ve prolonged them.  You can stay here and gripe about morality all you want, but we’re leaving.  You’re allowed to come with us, you know.  Bring along anyone you think is good.  We will welcome them with open arms.”

“I can’t… I can’t just judge people like that.  How am I supposed to decide who can come and who I should leave behind?”

“I leave that up to you,” Draven said, and turned to head back up the stairs.  Wulfric followed closely behind.  Riordan stayed where he was.  He bent down to put his hand in the freezing water.  Somewhere beneath the surface, Vanderford’s body was trapped forever.  He had given his life to try to save the city and had only ended up playing into Draven’s plans.

The darkness swallowed Riordan up as Wulfric’s torch disappeared up the staircase.  As soon as he was alone, he started to sob.  Everything he had worked for had been for nothing.  And on top of that he knew that if he had been with Vanderford, trying to accomplish the very same goal, he would be dead too.

And now Esmarine is barely clinging to life, and that’s my fault, too.  If only I’d made sure she made it home and headed to the castle afterwards… but I was too set in what I was trying to do.  I may very well have killed her.

He wiped the last of his tears away and began to climb back to the Passing of the Seventh.  As he neared the top of the staircase, he heard the distant echoes of an argument.  Something was happening.  He quickened his pace and burst out into the previous King’s chambers to discover Thaddeus, Zultan, and Castiel with their swords drawn, pointing at Draven and his companions.

Thaddeus turned his head when Riordan entered the room.  “Riordan.  Of course you’re here as well.  Why don’t you join your friends?  I think we’re going to have a lot to talk about.”