Rivers of Fire (Atherton, Book 2)

Rivers of Fire (Atherton #2)

Patrick Carman

For David Carlson at agros.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE WORLD OF ATHERTON
viii

THE KEY CHARACTERS ON ATHERTON
xi

PART 1: EXODUS

CHAPTER 1: Edgar Returns Home 5

CHAPTER
2: Intruders 10

CHAPTER
3: Mysterious Companions 21

CHAPTER
4: Unseen Ladders 27

CHAPTER
5: A House Divided 35

CHAPTER 6:
Into the Hollow 41

CHAPTER
7: Dawn Breaks on a Changed World 50

CHAPTER
8: The Falling Rope 59

CHAPTER
9: An Unnatural Quiet 70

CHAPTER
10: Flying Rocks 78

CHAPTER
11: A Plan Set in Motion 85

vi

PART 2: MULCIBER

CHAPTER 12: Two Parties Unite 99

CHAPTER
13: The Secret at the Source 112

CHAPTER
14: The Yellow Line 122

CHAPTER
15: One Village Remains 131

CHAPTER
16: Mulciber 137

CHAPTER
17: Dr. Harding's Laboratory 147

CHAPTER
18: Unlocking Dr. Harding's Brain 153

CHAPTER
19: A Cleaner in the Grove 166

CHAPTER
20: A Motherless World 176

CHAPTER
21: The Cavern 185

CHAPTER
22: Inside Atherton 195

CHAPTER
23: Night in the Grove 199

CHAPTER
24: The Keeper of Atherton 206

vii

PART 3: INVERSION

CHAPTER 25: A Storm in the Highlands 217

CHAPTER
26: The Nubian 224

CHAPTER
27: Across the Valley Floor 232

CHAPTER
28: Flight from the Grove 241

CHAPTER
29: The Inferno 248

CHAPTER
30: A Thousand Cleaners 261

CHAPTER
31: The Flood 269

CHAPTER
32: Edgar's Departure 282

CHAPTER
33: Reunited 289

CHAPTER
34: One Year Later 294

viii

THE WORLD OF ATHERTON A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

If you read
The House of Power
but it's been a while since you turned the last page, you might benefit from this brief reintroduction to the story and the characters of Atherton. If, on the other hand, you know nothing of the climbing boy Edgar, the disappearance of Dr. Maximus Harding, or the collapse of the three levels of Atherton, then this introduction is essential reading. See you on the inside!

***

Atherton is a made world, forged by the mind of a madman. It is inhabited by volunteers from the Dark Planet, a future Earth ravaged by pollution and overpopulation. Every inhabitant of Atherton has undergone a kind of memory retraining, leaving

ix

them under the assumption that Atherton is the only world that's ever been, the only place they've ever known.

Atherton was originally created on three circular levels, each one smaller than the level below it. The lowest level--the Flatlands--was a vast, barren, and largely unknown place. The middle level was known as Tabletop and contained most of Atherton's people, all of whom were poor laborers charged with maintaining the groves of trees or herds of livestock that provided all means of sustenance. At the top were the lush and beautiful Highlands, inhabited by the ruling class who controlled the sole source of water. These levels--the Flatlands, Tabletop, and the Highlands--were all separated by treacherous cliffs that established almost complete separation between the lands. But that distance exists no more.

I refer to these places in the past tense because when the second book of Atherton begins, the world of Atherton is not at all like it is described above. Throughout
The House of Power,
Atherton experiences catastrophic changes that alter everything about the world the characters live in. The Highlands descended until no cliffs remained and the ruling class was forced to come face-to-face with the people of Tabletop. The two lands were made one. Soon after, the joined lands of Tabletop and the Highlands moved down as well, until they came even with the Flatlands. When
Inversion
starts, the world of Atherton is, quite literally, flat. The images below, drawn by Dr. Maximus Harding, will help you better understand what happened to Atherton in
The House of Power.

As Atherton changed, people from all three levels were

x

***

forced to confront one another, choose sides, and ultimately decide whether they would stand together or apart against a mounting threat that rose up from the Flatlands--a threat that draws near as
Rivers of Fire
begins.

Atherton is changing once more, in ways that even those who were involved in making this world could not have predicted. For there is only one who knows the whole truth--Dr. Maximus Harding--and he has been missing for a very long time. It is in this book that we shall discover the whole truth of the matter.

Patrick Carman

xi

THE KEY CHARACTERS ON ATHERTON Edgar

A young orphan who lived in the fig grove on Tabletop, climbing the cliffs of Atherton in secret. In his search for answers to Atherton's destiny, he became the only person on Atherton to have climbed above to the Highlands or below to the Flatlands. He is now allied with Dr. Kincaid and Vincent, mysterious dwellers of the Flatlands.

Samuel

A boy of the Highlands who is caught between two worlds by his relationship with Edgar and Isabel, two children of the grove on Tabletop. He is a smart boy, not physically strong, and his father has been missing and presumed dead for over a year. He lived within the House of Power until he escaped in search of Edgar.

xii

Isabel

A wily and bright girl of the grove, she is thrust into a clash with the Highlands when it is discovered that she can use a sling with great skill. She passes on her knowledge and strikes a near lethal blow to Lord Phineus, the leader of the Highlands. When Inversion begins, Samuel and Isabel are secretly making their way back to the House of Power. They are searching for the only source of water on Atherton, its flow ceased by the evil hand of Lord Phineus.

Vincent

A protector of people on Atherton, he is charged with watching over Dr. Kincaid, a scientist trapped in the Flatlands. But when the three worlds of Atherton collide, Vincent's true mission is revealed: to help his companions find Dr. Harding and uncover the real nature of the world he created.

Dr. Maximus Harding

The creator of Atherton, a mysterious man of science who has been missing for years. Gone mad during the making of Atherton, Dr. Harding is thought to be alive but lost, both physically and mentally.

Dr. Luther Mead Kincaid

An old man of science, presumed at one time to be Edgar's father but later discovered to be a mentoring figure to Dr. Maximus Harding, Dr. Kincaid has lost control of the world he

xiii

helped build. When
Rivers of Fire
begins, he is traveling with Vincent and Edgar in search of answers about the maker of Atherton.

Lord Phineus

The cruel ruler of the Highlands and all of Atherton. When
Rivers of Fire
begins, he has crept beneath the House of Power by a secret way known only to a few.

Sir Emerik

Lord Phineus's longtime ally, he is also a conniving and wicked man with secret aspirations to rule all of Atherton.

Horace

The lead guard in the House of Power, he has turned against Lord Phineus and is mounting a plan of his own to unify the people of Atherton against the coming threat: violent, monstrous creatures from the Flatlands known as Cleaners, once trapped in the Flatlands, now free to roam all of Atherton in search of food.

Wallace

The leader of the people of the Village of Sheep, one of the three villages on Tabletop. Wallace is the wisest and most peaceful of all the leaders.

xiv

Maude

A feisty woman from the Village of Rabbits, one of the three villages on Tabletop. She previously helped Edgar escape Sir Emerik and becomes one of a handful of leaders of the free world along with Horace and Wallace.

xv

PART ONE EXODUS

xvi

xvii

There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.

A Sand County Almanac
Aldo Leopold

xviii

xix

5

*** CHAPTER 1 EDGAR RETURNS HOME

It was the middle of the night when Edgar entered the fig grove alone. A heavy quiet filled the air, and he wondered if everyone was sleeping, unaware of the approaching danger. He touched the trunks of the trees as he went, and this helped him find his way through the darkness. Though he'd only been gone a few days, he had a deep feeling of having come home after a long time away.

His first few steps into the grove reminded Edgar of what it had felt like to sneak home after a night of secret climbing. How long had it been since the Highlands were looming far above on a pillar of stone? He couldn't remember for sure. And when was the last time he'd climbed,
really
climbed, high into the grey evening sky against a forbidden wall? He couldn't remember that, either. Time seemed to have lost its meaning.

6

"Don't move another step!"

Edgar froze. Someone dropped out of a tree directly in front of him. He had let himself drift aimlessly into a tangled web of thoughts and emotions, and now he'd been caught.

There was hardly any light at all, only a dim whisper of dark grey, but Edgar could see a man carrying a club in one hand and a rock in the other. But it occurred to him that he knew the grove better than anyone and could make a quick escape if he wanted, especially at night.

"Edgar?" asked the man. He bobbed up and down like a rabbit, trying to catch an angle of light in the trees as he sized up the boy before him.

"Yes. It's me," said Edgar. The two did not know each other so much as know
of
each other.

"I've been gone awhile, but I'm back. There are some things I need to tell the people in the village. Can you let me pass?"

The man let the club he was holding hang down at the side of his leg and peered through the low branches of the trees, then his eyes settled back on the boy.

"Don't expect things to be the same as when you left," said the man. He was tired and unwilling to tell a young boy bad news. "Go that way." He pointed with the club toward the village.

Edgar watched the man pocket the rock he'd held and clumsily make his way back up into the limbs of the tree. As Edgar walked past, the man spoke.

"Is it true you climbed all the way to the top of the cliffs and back again?"

7

Edgar nodded in the darkness. "I did."

"And to the very bottom--to the Flatlands---you climbed down there as well?"

"I did," answered Edgar. It seemed that word of his adventures had spread.

"I don't believe you," grumbled the man. And he didn't. It had been so far to the bottom, and so difficult a stone surface to climb. It didn't seem possible that
anyone
--let alone a boy of eleven or twelve--could climb down.

Edgar walked on, feeling suddenly in a rush to finish his task and get back to Dr. Kincaid and Vincent. He had two similar encounters along the way, in which men dropped from trees, asked him questions, and let him pass. Each of them knew Edgar by sight if not by name. He had been a quiet orphan boy from the grove, a good worker, a familiar face. There were stories circulating concerning his recent whereabouts that were hard to believe.

When Edgar reached the clearing before the village, he spotted a surprising number of wakeful men and women moving in the shadows of open fires. He did not see Mr. Ratikan among them and began to wonder where the master of the grove was hiding.

Edgar stepped out into the open of the clearing and shouted toward the villagers. "It's me, Edgar!"

A small group approached, a single lit torch among them, and soon the two parties were shouting back and forth as the gap closed between them.

"Edgar?"