Hiya those of you who have read this far! Thank you! I appreciate you reading this story that is very dear to my heart.
Time to start exploring Riven! Yay!
As always please review. It helps me more then you could ever know.
Next to the linking spot was a giant dagger stuck in the ground. It had the same design as the dagger the masked man had jammed into the lever for the cage.
She studied the cage thoughtfully. If this was the official linking spot for Riven why was there a cage there? Anyone who linked to Riven would be instantly trapped. Had Gehn built the cage to trap his son, knowing that Atrus would come to rescue Catherine?
Not far from the linking spot was a telescope that was looking down over a closed shaft. A numbered lock kept her from opening it. She supposed she should be surprised that the telescope was pointing down instead of up, but Melody had ceased to be surprised by the strange things she encountered in the Ages she ended up in.
On the cliff above the telescope was a giant dome. Looking out over the ocean, she spotted several other islands all connected by cables.
She discovered some stairs and headed up to a room that was built into the rock wall.
The entire room looked like it was made of gold. On the floor was a strange pattern, which she assumed was Gehn's crest: five pen-tips in a star pattern surrounded by a circle with a symbol in the middle.
The ceiling of the room was like the observatory, covered in stars. Something that looked like a pen-tip descended from the ceiling.
Five columns, carved to look like trees, connected the floor to the ceiling. Large carved beetles sat in the middle of the columns. By pulling a ring at the bottom of body, the beetle's wings opened to reveal a peephole. Looking through it showed paintings lit from behind.
All of the paintings looked like religious representations like you would see in Renaissance paintings. Two showed a man she assumed was Gehn writing in a book. People, animals, plants, water and stars poured from the pen in his hand.
Melody snorted. Gehn certainly had delusions of god-hood. He obviously mistakenly believed that he created the worlds he wrote linking books to.
Another painting showed Gehn throwing someone, most likely Atrus, into what Atrus had called the Star Fissure. That was obviously a lie. Gehn must have made up a story of him banishing Atrus to make his ruse of being a god more believable.
The last two paintings showed guilds (builders, educators, maintainers, surveyors and book makers) and...
She froze when she came to the final painting.
What it implied wasn't possible.
The final painting seemed to depict a book-making process. Had Gehn found a way to make and write linking books to other Ages? If so, why was he still here in Riven? Could he escape? Had he escaped?
Melody backed away from the beetles and headed out the other doorway. All she could do was continue to explore while keeping out of sight.
Outside the room was a staircase that led down into a large temple-like room. A large circular cage stood at the end of the room. Behind the cage was a large stained glass window of Gehn's crest. On either side of the cage were stone pillars carved to look like some kind of giant fish with tusks. In front of the pillars were piles of food and flowers.
Were they offerings to the fish or to Gehn?
As she approached the cage, the image of a man's face appeared. Melody squeaked and darted behind a pillar. She heard the man speaking what sounded like the same language as the guard. Slowly, she peeked out from her hiding place.
He continued to speak as if he didn't see her.
She waved her hand.
No reaction.
Stepping out from behind the pillar, she walked toward the man's head. He began to speak again, repeating what he had said before. It reminded her of the recorder she had found in Channelwood. It must have been activated when she entered the room.
So who was the man? He looked to be about sixty, but there was no way to tell for sure. Atrus himself looked forty when he was in fact over a hundred years old. Evidently the D'ni people lived for quite a bit longer than ordinary humans.
Could this be Gehn? There was a faint resemblance between the man she was seeing and Atrus. He certainly looked old enough to be Atrus' father.
The message finished and the projection disappeared. Melody spotted another door and head for it. She had to keep moving or risk being found by more of Gehn's guards.
The door led to a tunnel through the mountain to the other side. It ended at a cave with a long cable leading out of it and some machinery looked interesting. It seemed to be some kind of station.
Stepping onto the platform, Melody pressed the big round blue button on the console.
The whir of machinery coming to life made her smile.
A few minutes later a vehicle came along the cable and stopped at the station. It turned around automatically and the door opened. Inside there was only a seat and a console with a lever.
Sitting down, Melody pulled the lever.
The door shut and the cable car sped away from the cave. It soared over the water and followed the cables to another island. This island was quite a bit larger than the first, which she decided to call Dome Island.
As she approached, Melody noticed what looked like a forest and a few buildings. A village maybe? If it was, that meant there would be more people and more of a chance of her being caught. She would have to be even more careful now.
The car came to a stop inside a shallow cave. The entrance was brilliantly lit by the sun bouncing off the rocks. Embedded in the rock wall was what looked like a wooden eyeball. Melody frowned in curiosity and examined it. When she touched it, then eyeball rolled back and made a noise. A symbol was on the back side of it. It rolled back into place, making the same noise once again.
Melody whipped out her notebook and copied down the symbol. She had been traveling in Ages long enough to know that all symbols and numbers were important.
The only way out of the cave was a natural staircase cut into the rock. They led up and out over a rope bridge. A stone path wound through a forest of trees that had been cut down. A metal axe stuck in one of the trunks made her rather nervous.
She saw some steps leading down to what looked like a mine cart, but she wanted to explore the rest of the path first. She followed it around the cleared forest and toward a jungle, the trees had been stripped of their bark. Glowing mushrooms illuminated a walkway through the dense jungle. Off the path, she noticed another large dagger. At the base of it was another wooden eyeball. Melody copied down the symbol.
She eventually found some more steps leading down to what looked like another statue of the tusked fish she had seen in the temple. It was made of wooden and very large. She approached it curiously. What exactly was it supposed to be? Was that an actual creature in Riven? If so, she really didn't want to meet it.
A lever caught her attention and she pulled it out of habit.
The mouth of the wooden fish lowered to form steps leading up inside it.
Somehow she just wasn't surprised.
Inside was an elevator that she rode to a second floor in the forest. Melody shook her head. Only in an Age would a second floor in a forest make any sense.
A path through the trees led to a rotating golden dome. In front of it was what looked like some kind of viewer. By looking through it she realized that there were symbols carved into the dome and only one was gold like the rest of it. By pressing a button on the viewer she caused it to slow down and finally stop on the gold symbol. The dome rotated the opposite way and opened. Inside was a book on a pedestal behind glass. There was a combination lock underneath it, but Melody didn't feel like guessing at the numbers. She would just have to keep an eye out for it.
Farther down the walkway led to a flight of stairs that led up to solid ground. Melody spotted the guard tower a second too late. She dropped down in a futile effort to keep from being seen, but the guard in the tower took off.
Melody swore under her breath. So much for the element of surprise.
A small building in front of her seemed to be the only hope she had of a hiding place. Darting inside, she closed the door just as two men ran past and down the stairs, obviously looking for her.
The only thing inside the building was a chair covered in a large snake skin and decorated with a reptile skull on top of the headrest. There were two levers attached to the chair.
Sitting in the chair gingerly, Melody pulled the left lever and nothing happened. Pulling the right one caused her to gasp and hang on as the chair rose toward the ceiling, which opened. The chair turned slowly as it rose until it was facing the opposite direction than before. From the high vantage point Melody could see the village. Strange rounded houses were built into the side of a cliff, wooden walkways and pulleys connected everything. A dock was built along the bottom a few feet above the water.
The water itself was a mystery. There were several holes in the water. Melody stared and rubbed her eyes, thinking she was seeing things. The holes were positioned along an underwater track that ran throughout the lagoon. Right below the chair was an extremely large golden cage with a gaping hole in the floor. A gold walkway extended from the top of the cage to a building with cells that she assumed was a prison.
After experimenting a bit, she discovered that by moving the left lever she could move a bar hanging over the hole up to the walkway and all the way down to the water. Considering the looks of the monstrous fish she had seen so far, she could only assume that Gehn was feeding prisoners to it.
Melody shivered at the thought. She really didn't want to end up as fish food.
She pulled the right lever to go down. The sounds of shouts and struggles caused her to pause at the door. Peeking out, she watched in alarm as the two guards from before dragged a third man toward the village. It was the masked man who had helped her!
What could she do? The good Samaritan part of her brain told her she had to help him. If she didn't, Gehn would feed him to the monster fish and probably enjoy it. How to get down there without being seen was the question.
Here we go again! Melody getting distracted by a good deed.
Melody : once again, you are making me do this.
Me : Hush!
Melody : *rolls eyes* just upload this chapter so we can get on to the next one.
Me : Stop telling me what to do! You're my character! I tell you what to do! I'm in charge here!
Melody : keep telling yourself that.