Forsaken Dreamscape (Nevermor) (52 page)

At
that, she walked away from him, and Rifter remained still and reflective,
recalling the foggy memory of the last time he had seen his brother.

‘Do
it, Rifter!’
Nix
had shouted.
  ‘Do it!  Kill me!’

Rifter
had nothing else to say – nothing to defend himself with.  She was absolutely
right.  He was fully to blame – for all of it.

3

The
morning for the Rifter and his Wolf Pack did not begin as it once had.  They
did not rise to a fairy’s urgent chatter.  There was no smell of warm food to welcome
them to the day, and no cheerful ‘
good morning
’s from one another.  They
rose on their own and began to assemble themselves in their weapons and Tikilin. 
Some did this without being fully awake, as if it were completely habitual in
this world they lived in.

Having
that done, they all came from their respective places in the abandoned Tribal
camp, gathering together.  Even once they were all standing there – the Rifter,
his love, and his band – there was very little that needed to be said. 
Whichever direction they moved off in, there was to be violence, blood, and
death.  Establishing that, it was only a matter of making sure that none of
those things were their own.

The
smell of death was especially terrible on the hill, but they forced themselves
to ignore it.  Rifter was silent as he peered out over the land.  The rest were
standing patiently behind him, awaiting orders.  Some waited eagerly, others a
bit begrudgingly, but Rifter did not say a word until he was ready.  When he
did open his mouth, it was only one word – a designation.

“Sly,”
he said, as if he were a general choosing his best soldier for some great
task.  Sly understood what was required of him.  At that, he spoke to them all.

“The
demon has begun this war to bring more chaos on the land – to confuse and
distract us,” the animal boy said without a hitch.  “But we are the ones it
wants, and it knows we will not stand for this suffering and decimation.  It
wants us to come to it so that it might use us or else destroy us.  It will
wait.”

“Can
you see it?” Finn inquired, looking like a creature in all of his furry garb. 
“Do you know where it is?”

The
ears on Sly’s head tilted back in discontentment.  “I spent a good part of the
night trying to locate that demon, but the land is too afraid to reveal him to
me.  I saw all sorts of violence and destruction, and in the midst of it, the
demon – dressed as the Scourge – waited with a group of followers, ready to
engage us in battle and take us down.  But
where
, I do not see.”

Sly
had spent many hours in constant darkness, searching for these answers.  Where
was that evil?  It was so strong that he should have been able to find it.

He
spread his fingers now, letting the wind pass through them – and then a sudden
pain brought his hand to his head.  An image accompanied that stab, but it was
only a flash, yet seemed so familiar to him that he could have sworn he’d seen
it before.

Wren
…  He saw her
face, but not as she was standing near him now.  In the split second he had
recognized her, he’d noticed that she hadn’t looked quite right.  She normally
appeared so sweet and delicate, but in his vision, her face had been distorted
by a hideous snarl.  Yes, he’d seen that expression on her face before, but
only inside his head.  He’d seen it when he’d discovered that the demon’s fire
was within her – when he’d first begun to think that she might be dangerous,
not just to him, but to
all of them
.  Sly knew that Calico had seen it
too.

What
does it mean?
 
Before he’d had time to contemplate it further, the pain came again.

This
discomfort was similar to what he’d felt when he’d first begun to have visions,
but the pain had not come in years.  It came on now with the war that was
raging inside his head.

He
saw great masses struggling in battle, cutting each other and taking one
another’s lives.  He saw Wren again, and she was smiling just as manically. 
Sly saw blood on his own hands.  He saw Mach aiming his gun at something with
an expression of uncertainty and guilt.  There was an enormous monster like he
had never seen, weaving its long, serpent-like body through the sky.  Rifter
was there, covered in blood, swooping up through the air to meet it.  Finn was
standing with a look of disbelief on his face, shaking his head in protest. 
And at the very end of that train, he saw Wren’s face again.  She smiled evilly
at him, and then he saw her differently – lying on the ground, unmoving.  Sly
hadn’t decided what it all meant before the flashes were gone and he was left
with a dull pain.

“What’s
wrong?”

The
words came from Wren’s throat, and he could see her face in his head as it was
now, looking at him with concern, wishing to know the source of his obvious
discomfort.  There was nothing evil or malicious about her now.

Because
for now, she is herself.

“Are
you alright?” Calico whispered near him, almost in unison with Wren.  She
hadn’t drifted far from his side since they had all gathered together.  But Sly
knew he must not tell them.  There was never any sense in worrying others when
his choppy visions could be so unpredictable.

“It’s
nothing,” he lied quickly.  “I just can’t see the demon.  It hurts to try.”

He
could sense Calico’s skeptical expression, but she remained silent.  Behind
them, Finn crossed his arms, shifting his weight to one leg.

“What
do we do then?  Rush around being heroes for a bit until we just happen across
the demon?  We need to find the damn thing
now
!”

Through
all of it, Sly sensed that Rifter’s expression remained flat and unconcerned,
but he raised his eye to them now.

“That
demon knows me,” he said.  “It knows everything that I’ve ever held dear; all I
might have feared.  It knows everything I know – knows where I began.”

He
turned to face them all, his blue eye resolute.

“I
think I know where we should start,” he said.

4

The
demon walked leisurely across the ground, trying to look dark and dignified,
for at this moment, the dead body that it had housed itself in was wearing the
elaborate costume of a pirate captain, feared by all.  Though the demon knew
this might be a role it would have to sacrifice, it was prepared to do so.  It
could turn things around quite easily, and it would still be in control.  The
demon’s plan was perfect.  The war was brilliant and beautiful.

Whisper
was hovering nearby, and the demon sensed her apprehension.  He was grateful for
her loyalty, but every time it thought of her undying devotion, a rumbling
chuckle rose in its throat.  This happened now, and with the chuckle, a bit of
bile rose up, followed by a pain in its chest.

To
hell with this dead man’s body!

Being
inside Rifter’s living body for all those months had been much better, but the
demon had not been able to control the boy fully.  That was why it had urged
him to let it pass into the dead body of his brother – a bad decision as well
as a good one.  But things would all turn out right in the end.

The
demon Scourge glanced over the large group of pirates that it had surrounded itself
with.  There were dozens of them – a nice little army.  The demon didn’t need
them, but they would do well to keep the Wolf Pack busy when they got here.  It
could kill the more important –
intrusive
– one when the time came, and
the Scourge’s followers would see to the deaths of the rest.

The
nightmare demon wondered if Rifter was truly smart enough to look for him
here.  This was a perfect place – the place that everything had begun.

It
was a spot in the middle of a dark jungle which had once been a desert, but a
small oasis had thrived to swallow it up.  The Rifter had held this place
sacred – the place he called
the
beginning
– where Rifter had
first opened his eyes in this world.

It
was a meaningful spot, and the perfect place for the end.

As
it began, so shall it end
, the demon thought to itself with a smirk,
recalling words of an old prophecy that Rifter had never forgotten.  That
memory had been easy to uncover, even if the demon had to fight for some of the
others.

When
the Pack arrived, they would all see who got to live and who had to die, but
the demon did not doubt its pending victory.  It had orchestrated everything –
played them all – and all would go according to plan.

5

Could
a dead land die?  As Rifter and his Pack cut through the tangle of the dark,
sticky jungle, they wondered this.  There had been destruction here during the
night which was certainly the work of warring wisps.  Tree trunks were
splintered in places, charred by fire that was no longer burning.  Patches of
ground were frozen, while other portions of soil were broken apart as if a bolt
of lightning had struck.  The air was thick with shimmering dust as the morning
rays grew brighter, and Wren tried her best not to inhale it, knowing that it
was the remains of living creatures.

Wren
was made to travel in the midst of the group as they moved along.  She kept the
hood of her cloak pulled closely around her face, feeling safer to be hidden within
its depth.  The others around her stepped carefully, watching everything,
though there appeared to be nothing left in this jungle that could walk or
breathe.

When
the line of trees finally vanished at the edge of a cliff ahead, they ducked
down to creep forward, and once they had moved slowly to the edge, they could
see where they had arrived.

This
was a place where every one of them had been.  They had taken the Vow here –
pledging themselves to Rifter and Nevermor, and had seen their brothers do the
same – but for the familiarity of it, they hardly recognized it now.

It
had become a place like so many others across the island – dark and dangerous –
and was positively
swarming
with pirates.  There were a few old ruins
here, as if long ago the pirates themselves had built a fort in this area much
like the one at Bleed Neck Bay.  On a former day, the rebels might have been
intimidated to see so many of their enemies, but on
this
day they hardly
seemed to see them at all.  None of them were concerned with a few buccaneers. 
Their eyes searched for the demon.

The
telltale glow of a fairy drew their attention, and they saw Whisper hovering
below.  Directly next to her was the Scourge – the false Rifter; the demon in
Nix’s corpse – standing still and resolute on a wooden platform.  Many
different sorts of anger flared within them at the sight, each one differing
from the next.

“I’m
going straight in,” Rifter told them quietly.  “I want the rest of you to
circle around so that when it’s appropriate, you can come in from different
sides.  I don’t imagine they’ll attack right away once they see me.  They’ll
leave me to their master.”

He
backed away so that they could all stand properly once again, out of sight
beyond the edge of the cliff.  Then, he directed his attention to Wren.  She
blinked up at him, her eyes filled with trust.

“You
have no part in this,” he told her.  “You’ll stay here.”

She
did not feel the need to protest to this.  What could she do out there to help
them?  The best thing would be to stay out of their way.  Wren gave him a short
nod, and he squeezed her shoulder affectionately, even though his face remained
hard and set.

“Someone
should stay with her,” Sly spoke up.  “I feel that she shouldn’t be left
alone.”

“Not
you,” Calico protested quickly.

“You
then,” he returned to her.  “You should stay here too.”

Despite
Sly’s obvious concern for her, Calico did not seem to appreciate this remark.

“Is
this just an excuse to keep me out of the fight?” Calico accused.

“This
is not your fight,” Sly tried to tell her.

“I
live in this world,” she replied heatedly.  “It is as much my fight as it is
yours.”

“Toss,”
Rifter designated finally, breaking into their argument.  “Will you stay with
her?”

Toss
was not reluctant.  He nodded his agreement.

“Scatter
then,” Rifter said, trusting them to their own judgment.  “I’ll give you a few
moments to find a position.”

Quietly,
Sly, Calico, Finn, and Mach all moved away from the cliff and branched off to
travel along the edge of the pirates’ camp.  Just as soon as they’d left, Wren
gripped Rifter in a tight, wordless embrace.  He held her close, and Toss, who
remained with them, stepped aside and looked away.  He had no words of protest
for this brother of his now.

“You
have to come back to me,” Wren begged him.  “I’ve just found you again.”

Rifter
lowered his mouth to her ear, letting his face rest against her curls.