Nevermor (50 page)

Wren tried to
rest but she could not.  She kept having notions that the ground was shaking
beneath her and she would snap awake again.  In one instance, she dreamed that
the Scourge was standing over her, a shadow in a dark cloud, reaching down to
grab her.  She woke up again.  This time, she felt she could do nothing else.

Max was looking
up at her, wide awake.

“Can we go for a
stroll?” he requested.

“Probably best
if we don’t,” she told him, and there were so many reasons why.

“But…”  She
could tell that he was squirming uncomfortably then, and she finally understood
what this was about.  She didn’t have much choice.

“Alright, we’ll
go,” she agreed.

Sly was still
awake, sitting nearby. 

“Yell if there’s
trouble,” he said, resting his head back.

Wren took the
child out from beyond the rocks, insisting that they shouldn’t go farther than
just beyond the cluster, but he insisted on going a little more, and that she
shouldn’t go with him once he had chosen a spot behind a rock.  After she’d
given him as much time as she thought she should, she looked back to see that
he was walking away from the rocks, farther down the beach.

“Max, where are
you going?  We have to go back.”

“Let’s go to the
water!” he said, and he didn’t wait for her to answer before he was running
down the slope.

“Wait!”  He
didn’t heed her, and she felt a rush of panic as she went after him,
considering all that might happen.

The nightmares
will get him
. 
But the beach seemed clear.  Once she had chased him down to the edge, she
still felt uneasy, but the water appeared undisturbed.  The others weren’t far
if she needed help.  She supposed she might appease him for now.

“Alright, you
can play for just a moment but then we have to go back.”

Max walked along
the edge of the water, trying to leap out of the way as the frothy white waves
came in – just as she’d imagined him to do – but it did not make her smile. 
The beach was alight with the glow of the moon and the orange twilight of the
fire behind them.  She remembered the story of Lot’s wife and tried to pretend
that the same was true for her – it was forbidden for her to turn and look. 
She kept her eyes peeled for signs of trouble instead.

The boy seemed
completely untroubled by the tragedy.  She wondered if she ought to try to
explain it to him, but perhaps she should have been grateful that he was
unaware of what had happened because of the fire.

“I’m not
afraid,” he said suddenly, his tone resolute.  The way his young face was set
so firmly startled her.

“No?”

Max splashed in
the water with both feet as if trying to smash something.  “If anything tries
to hurt me, I’ll
kill
it!”

“Where did you
get that from?” she wanted to know, but of course she already did.

“Rifter said
it’s good to protect others, and that you can’t be afraid when you do that.  I
want to protect
you
, Wren.”

She was at a
loss.  He sounded so grown up, and yet he wasn’t supposed to be taking on ideas
like that.  Wasn’t it part of the Vow that he didn’t have to grow up – that he
wouldn’t have to take on heavy worries?

“You’re not
supposed to protect me,” she told him.  “I’m supposed to protect you.”

“How can you do
that without a sword?” he asked.  He gazed at her questioningly, wanting a
response, but only one thing would come to her mind.

“A sword’s not
always the answer,” she tried to tell him, but he didn’t seem to believe her.

He went back to
splashing in the water, and Wren wondered if all of her influence on him had
been washed away like the sand beneath their feet.  There were so many other
boys around, and he wanted to be like them instead of remaining as she wanted
him to be – young and carefree.

This world was
confusing.  It was a complete contradiction within itself.  Perhaps the body
didn’t grow older physically, but the mind aged nonetheless – unless one was
lucky enough to forget the horrors once they had passed.

She was not that
lucky.

2

Rifter sat alone
on a rock, staring out at the water as he had done on so many nights before
when his mind was troubled.

He could hear
the crackling of the forest as it fell apart, but he didn’t wish to look at
it.  He had to ignore it – wished he could forget it but it would do him no
good.  As soon as he turned around, he would know the truth again.

He knew this was
his fault.  He’d been out looking for the ship and hadn’t been at home to keep
an eye on things.

How could you
have stopped it?
 
He couldn’t answer himself.

Rifter sat
there, staring over the endless water and sky until he had confused himself
with which one belonged on top.  That was when he became aware of the light
behind him.

He felt her
there before he saw her, but he always knew when she was close.

“I’m glad you’re
alright,” he said to the pixie that was hovering there.  She took that as an
invitation to come forward, but he hadn’t meant it that way.  He could feel her
light on his face, but he refused to look at her.

“I didn’t say I
forgave you.”

Her whispery
voice filled his ears, seductive and sweet.

“
Don’t you
miss me
?” she asked hopefully.  “
I miss you.”

He’d known that
she’d kept close, even after he had sent her away.  She would never go far from
him, no matter what, but that didn’t mean she could be back in his presence.

“You made a fool
of me,” he reminded her.  “You tried to hurt Wren, and that was wrong of you. 
You know I accepted her as one of my own.”

“
She’s bad
for you.  I was only trying to keep her away
.”

“She—”  He
paused in his argument, unsure of what his defense was.  “She’s something worth
protecting.  I want her to be safe.  I care about her.”

“
You’re a boy
,”
Whisper sneered at him.  “
You don’t know what real feelings are.  You’re
attracted to her face – to thoughts of what she could make your body feel! 
What you have with her is nothing like what we have
.”

Was that true? 
Was it wrong to have desires?  He’d always done what he wanted, and why not? 
It was his world.  It all existed for his benefit.  The land was his as long as
he kept the nightmares away.  She couldn’t tell him that anything he did was
wrong.

He and Wren –
what they had was different from what she was going on about.

“I love her,” he
said.  That did not sit well with the wisp.

Whisper flew at
his face, drew her knife and cut him across the chin.

“
You idiot
boy!”
she screamed, though it was still a heated whisper in her language. 
“
You stupid, stupid bastard!
”

At that, she
flew away, but he didn’t try to call her back.  He was too stunned to do
anything.

Rifter wiped the
blood from his chin with the edge of his thumb and then stared down at it.  It
had been a while since he’d seen his own blood, but it was a good thing.  It
meant he was alive.  He was
real
.

How long had it
been since he’d slept?  He couldn’t say, but he was suddenly very tired.  He
was angry and full of hate, but he was also weak.  Though his home was lost in
the smoke and fire behind him, he supposed his revenge could be postponed for a
few hours.

He wiped the
blood on his finger along the side of his face and slid off the rock, walking
back toward where the others were, tired of flying for the day, needing to feel
some gravity.  It took him several steps before he noticed that he wasn’t alone
on the beach.

There was a boy
in the waves near the edge of the shore.  At first he thought it was a
wanderer, but then he realized that he knew the child.  It was Max, splashing
in the water –
playing
, even as the forest burned.  Rifter wondered why
he was unattended, but soon he noticed Wren there beyond the rocks.

He wanted to
approach but found that he couldn’t.  He just stared at her back.  She had the
sleeve of her gown pulled down over one shoulder and she was rubbing her own
skin.  He was caught there on that portion of flesh, on the hair that hung down
her back.

He hadn’t looked
at her like this before, not even when he’d been watching her sleep at the
orphanage that first night – when he’d been trying to figure her out.  At the
lagoon, he’d seen her soaked through, her shape prominent beneath the gown, and
yet it hadn’t fazed him.  Even through all the times he’d kissed her, he’d only
thought of how she had looked back at him afterward – the way she was smitten
in his presence.  He’d never thought of what it did for him, or if he had any
romantic feeling for her at all.  Somehow, saying it out loud to Whisper had
made it real.

He felt
different when he looked at her now.  Maybe it was because he had said it, or
maybe in light of everything that had happened, but he only wanted to be with
her – for her to tell him that everything was going to be alright, like she had
done the night of the storm.

But he wouldn’t
ask for it.

He stood back,
watching her until she turned around.  When she noticed him, she jerked back,
startled.  She was always jumpy.

“Oh!  Rifter,
you scared me.”

He didn’t
apologize for that, only looked at her.  Her wide blue eyes were searching for
a response.  He was only thinking of how he wanted to go to her, but he
didn’t.  He didn’t deserve that right now.

She was looking
at his chin, seeing how it bled, but she didn’t say anything about it.  Maybe
she had given up asking questions.  Did that mean she didn’t love him anymore?

“You shouldn’t
be out here alone,” he said, choosing to avoid the whole thing.  “Max, you’re
done, right?”

The boy didn’t
make any protests.  He had always known who his leader was.  He came promptly
out of the water to meet them.

Rifter held his
hand out to Wren and she took it without a word, letting him lead her.  They
walked toward the rocks, facing the fire, but all he could think of was how
solid and warm her hand was within his.

3

It was a snap in
the brush that brought Nix to attention.  He was a light sleeper and had
trained himself to be, resolved not to let anything sneak up on him.  This had
kept him alive, and it would not fail tonight.  The sound was much too close to
be the crackling of the forest.

Something is
lurking out there.

He looked up to
see Sly’s eyes shining toward him through the dark.  His brother had heard it
too, and was wordlessly inquiring which of them should go check it out.  Nix
was already getting to his feet.  He pulled his hood up and took his bow,
moving quietly past the rocks and into the trees that were black, flickering
with dying embers.  This would be quick.

He listened for
any further disturbance, but tried not to make any sound of his own.  Nix knew
that it might have been nothing – maybe an animal or even one of the others who
had stepped away for a moment.  Everything living in the forest had been
disturbed by the fire, but he wasn’t going to take the chance that it was a
pirate scout or a native hunter.

He set an arrow
against the bowstring and kept onward, looking for movement.  What he’d heard
was not far away, though if it was an animal, it was probably long gone.  If it
was someone –

He saw a trace
of movement from the corner of his eye, and he had scarcely seen the dark
figure before it took off at a full run, nimble as a deer.  Nix wasn’t about to
let the stalker get away, even though it was heading back toward the burning
forest.  He slung his bow over his shoulder and gave chase, following through
the dark woods.  Whoever it was, they were faster than Nix, and he had to
struggle to keep up.

Son of a bitch!

He wondered if
his effort was worth it, but that wasn’t acceptable.  He couldn’t let them get
away.  The farther they fled from him, the angrier he got – the harder he
pushed himself.  He avoided the trees as he ran into the smoky cloud, but
eventually realized that he was no longer chasing anyone.  His footsteps were
the only ones he heard.

Nix tried to
keep his panting under control as he looked around, wondering where he might
have lost the lurker.  He was readying the arrow again when the dark silhouette
spun out from behind a tree and took swipes at him with a weapon in each hand. 
He leapt out of the way, but hadn’t managed to set his weapon before she was
raining attacks on him.

He could see her
now – a girl, and a Tribal, though he couldn’t say much specific about her. 
They all looked the same to him.