Forsaken Dreamscape (Nevermor) (46 page)

She
glared at him, her mouth twisted.  Did he not know that this was serious?  He
didn’t have to be so haughty.

“Don’t
look at me like that,” he said, relenting a bit. “You know I hate it.”

Calico
turned her face and looked across the camp.  Had the boys met with Rifter at
all?  Where had they gone?  And most importantly, were they alright?

The
huntress could think of nothing else to do but move forward then.  She stood,
intent on widening the scope of her search, when something caught her eye.

“What’s
that?” she asked of the one standing near her.  “Do you see it?”

She
was standing near the slope, pointing down the incline.  Nix joined her there,
lending his eye to the ruts that had been kicked into the soft earth.  They ran
in a line and even though there was a short break after four, the holes did not
stop there.

She
understood it then: the clue.  Every few steps across the ground, there was a
deep rut, as if while walking through the mud, someone had forcibly dug their
foot in deeper.  The trail moved on farther than she could see.  One of them
had done this – a secret message for her to find.

Sly. 
He had asked her to stay behind for this very reason.  He had known she would
come.

Nix
seemed proud at this cleverness.  He smiled.

“Looks
like they went this way,” he said. 

Calico
could not be on the path fast enough.

2

With
their hands and legs freed, the Wolf Pack began to make decisions in the dark
cave.  They had been left with nothing except the clothes on their backs, but
they were determined that this would not be their final stand.  Finn and Mach
looked around, but they saw nothing more than what they had observed before the
cavern had collapsed.  There was no other way out and nothing there to help
them.  Their only option was to dig.

They
began to move the rocks with their hands, Toss working on the large ones while
the others moved what they could.  They worked diligently – for how much time,
they didn’t know.  Still, they could not see any light coming through the
cracks.  How thick was this wall that had been created by the explosion?  They
worked until they were tired, which didn’t take long.  This work, piled atop
their lack of sleep and their hunger, wore them down quickly.

“I
need a break,” Finn declared, stepping back and taking a deep breath, but he
suddenly remembered that there was precious little air inside this place.

The
others continued to pull at the rocks, though with very slow, weary motions. 
Since they had begun digging, Sly had not spoken a word.  At this moment, Finn
was obliged to remember what he’d blurted earlier and yet had not explained.

“Sly,
perhaps you’d want to go further into what you were rambling on about earlier? 
About Nix?”

The
boy with gray-brown ears slowed his work nearly to a halt.

“I
wouldn’t like to say,” he said, sounding much like his usual, reserved self
now.  “Not until I know for sure.”

Mach
stopped his work at this, turning toward his brother.  “And when will you
know?” he demanded.

“Once
we get out of here, I expect,” Sly said without even a shrug of uncertainty.

“So
then what was all that shit about us being honest with each other?” the twin
demanded.

Finn
nodded his agreement.  Toss did not like confrontation of this sort, but he
paused in his work, looking on with interest.

Sly
stood and brushed his dirty hands on his pants, smearing the grime.

“Understand
me,” he said to them. “If I tell you, and it isn’t true, then it will only
confuse things.  It could raise false hope, and I also sense your hostile
doubts.  I don’t think you will be able to understand it until you see it.  I’m
sorry for this, but right now, we need to concentrate on getting out of here.”

None
of them seemed ready to surrender, but each one did.  They would have to admit,
whether they wanted to or not, that this was no time for a fight, and that was
likely what this would escalate to if they didn’t back down.

“Alright,
forget about that,” Finn said, raking a dirty hand across his hair.  “Will you
at least answer me one question?  Just tell me what you see, will you?”

Sly
turned his face toward the frustrated sound of his brother’s voice.

“Ask,”
he bade. “I will tell you what I see, if anything.”

The
boy with the fang tooth sighed shakily.  “Is Rifter going to hurt Wren?”

The
reply came instantaneously.  “Rifter would never hurt Wren.”

“What
about Rifter’s demon?”

To
that, Sly did not make a reply, and the rest knew to fear the answer.  They
turned back to their work with new diligence.

 “I
know that Wren would never look at anyone but Rifter,” Toss began suddenly,
“but I feel something so strongly for her.  I – I don’t really know how to
describe it…”

“Like
you could never respect another woman more,” Mach said.

“Like
she’s the only woman you could ever trust,” added Finn.

“As
if she died, you would die, too,” Sly finished.

Once
again, all the brothers were in agreement.

“So,”
Toss said, “it is for Wren that we fight, and not Rifter.  No matter what he
tells us, and no matter how we feel about him, we have to fight this darkness. 
We have to do it for Wren.  It’s what she deserves.”

“Well
spoken,” Finn commented.  Mach nodded.

“Yes,”
Sly said, “and also for Wren, we must get ourselves out of here –
swiftly
.”

He
did not have to say anything more than that.  With renewed zeal, they all set
back to work, peeling away rock after rock from the cave entrance.

Above
their silent concentration and the sounds of the shifting rocks, a heavy
scraping sound was heard as one of the rocks was dropped carelessly.

“Dammit! 
My bloody
foot
!” Mach yelled.

“Sorry
for that,” Toss uttered.

As
tense and hopeless as they were, none could keep from laughing.  The sound
echoed back to them from within their prison.

3

Wren
awoke, struggling to lift her heavy eyelids.  She didn’t know where she was,
only able to acknowledge a dull pain at her wrists and ankles.  The last thing
she could remember was standing before Rifter – having him accuse her of
turning against him.  Was she with him still?

“You’re
awake.  Good.  I was afraid you would sleep through it all.”

That
can’t be.  I don’t sleep.

The
deep voice tickled her ears but nauseated her stomach.  When she opened her
swollen eyes, her vision adjusted easily to the dimness, noting jagged
formations.  She would guess that she was in a cave.  It may have been just
below the cliff of the Tribal camp itself, for several feet out from her was a
large amount of water, perhaps running directly to the sea.  There were a few
torches lit around the area to lighten it, and the flickering illumination
confused the shadows.  But there was one dark form before her that was not
confused.

No…

He
needed no introduction.  His face was hidden by bandages, but she did not have
to see his features to know who he was.  The Scourge stepped toward her where
she was tied between two large stalagmites.  He leaned in closer, and when she
turned her face away, he put his lips – half-covered by the bindings – against
her ear.

“I
heard about those children,” the Scourge said quietly.  “A dreadful business. 
But I assure you I had nothing to do with it, though if it is wrong to keep
company with the one who did, then I have sinned against you.”

Wren
caught a glimpse of light over his shoulder, and at that, she was persuaded to
look toward it.  There, drifting behind him was the one she hated – the fairy
wisp that had ruined her life.  Whisper said nothing, but she became the center
of Wren’s universe.

Wretched
thing!  You killed them!

Whisper
smiled with satisfaction, lighting herself to sit prettily on the Scourge’s
broad shoulder.

What
was this?  There was amity between them now?  Whisper knew who he was – was
aware of exactly where the Scourge had come from.  Rifter had sent her away,
and since the fairy could not be with him, she had transferred her loyalties to
the one who most closely resembled him, even if it was on the far end of the
spectrum.

Wren
was not sure what was happening before her, or how she might get out of it. 
There was a time when she would have had no doubts that her hero would save
her, but now, she could not even say where he had gone.  Hadn’t he just been
with her?  The times had indeed changed.

Done
with her for now, the Scourge stepped back, turning his attention to the little
devil on his shoulder.

“Why
are you still here?” he asked bluntly, looking at the haughty wisp.  “Don’t you
have other business?”

Twisting
her face but without complaint, the wisp shot away from them, clearing the area
in a blink, leaving Wren alone with the dark man.

How
did this happen?  How did I get here
, she wondered frantically.

Wren
was aware of every breath that passed through her lungs, every beat of her
heart.  The Scourge turned toward her slowly and began to approach again.  She
shrunk back.  Why did he exist?  Rifter had made it this far, and now he had
brought this wicked nightmare back to life?

“You
should see the look on your face,” the man teased, and her thoughts halted. 
His voice had changed, slipping from deep tones to something more familiar. 
Wren was confused.

Daring
to look up, she watched him peel the bandages away from his face, and while
Wren did not want to look, expecting to see horrible boils and burns, she was
surprised when the skin he revealed to her was smooth and youthful, untouched. 
The hat came off, followed by the long black hair, and Wren saw his truth. 
This was not the Scourge at all, and she cringed at the lie.

“Rifter!”
she cried.  Her mind was going in too many directions to get more words to exit
her mouth.

The
white-haired boy smiled at her, quite satisfied with his ruse, forgetting the
fact that he had terrified her in thinking that he was the Scourge.  But Wren
did not feel much relief to see that it was him.  She was angry, but that was
quickly replaced by fear.

“Why
am I tied up?” she asked carefully, knowing the answer would not be a good one.

“So
that you won’t be able to run away, of course,” he answered.  “It’s not time
yet.”

She
could not quite read him, but she understood what was happening before her.

Nix
had been right all along…

“You-!”
she sputtered.  “Whisper!”

“Does
she know about this?” he asked, filling in the rest of her sentence.  “Of
course.  Perhaps it wasn’t entirely true that she and I haven’t seen each other
in a while.  She’s been helping me from a distance, monitoring the island – the
pirates and the boys, waiting for the perfect time.  She’s still as agreeable
as ever – as easy to fool as
you
.”

Wren
could only shake her head in disbelief, but she knew where all of this was
going now.

That’s
not Rifter,
she realized then
.  It never has been Rifter
.  It was as they said – as
they had all feared.  The demon had taken over.

“I
spent a lot of time with Rifter,” he said, his fiery eyes burning into hers. 
“I got to know him very well.  His thoughts and memories – what was left of
them – were not so hard to access.  Now that you have gathered the Wolf Pack
together, I can exterminate them.  I have you, and I have the pirates eating
out of my hand.  All is going as I’d hoped.  Just a little longer, and then–”

He
stopped, smiling nastily with his pointed teeth.  He stroked her face with a
sweltering finger, but she could only look back at him sorrowfully.

“Rifter,
please, this isn’t you!  It’s the demon!  You have to fight it!”

“Oh
no,” he said with a laugh, clenching her face harshly between his fingers. 
“It’s much more than that.  I’m just getting started!”

4

Mach’s
fingers were bleeding, but he was sure that he wasn’t the only one.  While his
brothers around him were silently lost in their own thoughts, he was also
caught up in his own.

His
reflections centered on another boy, just his age, just his height.  That boy
was also the owner of a face just like his.  How long had it been since they’d
seen each other?  Mach knew that his twin brother Mech was not what he had been
once, and it was not only the remaining pirate influence that Mach was thinking
of.  That was why he had chosen to come – why he had to be a man.  He could not
let Wren do his work for him.  If something happened to her or his brothers
because of his neglect, he wouldn’t forgive himself.  He had to step up to his
brother, look him right in the eyes, and say–