Nevermor (34 page)

She could
honestly say that she wasn’t afraid she would fall.  He was there holding her
and that was all the faith she needed – that was all that mattered.  Wren
closed her eyes, letting the wind blow by her, feeling the warmth of his face
against her own as she leaned in against his shoulder.  She knew that if she
could do this with her eyes shut so tight, her trust in him was real.

It was all she
needed.

2

Once Rifter and
Wren had gone out into the night, the underground home was filled with
whispers, but the hushed words were not from the banished fairy.  The wolves
were stirring.  They had their leader’s permission to take on a task tonight,
and their unsuspecting victim was the only one among them who didn’t know what
was in store.

Their prey was
lying on the bear rug in the den, having slept for a few hours, but he should
not have needed to sleep.  He had been slumbering when Rifter had brought him
through the veil, and he should have been plenty strong enough for the test.

It was a rude
awakening when Henry felt a boot jab him in the ribs.  His temper flared even
before he had woken fully, but he did not lash out when he saw the ones that
had shaken him awake.  There were six faces looming over him, none of them very
friendly.

Henry could see
why they were called a Pack, even if it was only his personal reason.  They
glared at him like wolves who’d found an intruder sleeping in their territory.

His eyes widened
in confusion and his muscles tightened.  He had seen them all before when the
Rifter had brought him in, but none of them had said a word to him since. 
Their glares, however, had spoken volumes.  Henry hadn’t expected to find more
than just Wren when he’d come to this place, but he guessed that these were
others Rifter had kidnapped, much like she had been snatched.  Apparently, they
didn’t like newcomers.

“Get up,” the
tallest boy said, but Henry wasn’t going to do anything they told him to do. 
Even if it was something as simple as that, he wouldn’t let them order him
around.

“What’s going
on?” he growled at them.  “What do you want?”

They all smiled
down at him wickedly, and he knew that something unsavory was afoot.

“It’s time for
your initiation,” said a boy with a red mohawk, and Henry saw that there was
another who looked just like him on the other side.  But this didn’t distract
him for long.

“My what?”

Many hands
reached down for him and jerked him up, setting him on his feet.  This wasn’t
received very well.  Henry pushed their hands away from him where they gripped
his clothes, but once he was standing upright, they let him be.  A few of them
stepped back, but there was still one large, rotund boy keeping an eye on him.

“Where’s Wren?”
Henry demanded to know.  He didn’t see his siblings anywhere.  “And Max?”

“She’s off with
Rifter.  The little one is asleep,” said the short one with the animal hood. 
“What do you figure for this one, Nix?  A standard knife?  Or perhaps something
a bit more difficult?”

“Nothing
ranged,” said the curly-haired one.  “He might try to turn it on us.  This
one’s explosive; I can tell.”

Weapons? 
Henry thought
with surprise. 
What are they going to do to me?  I knew it!  This whole
thing was a trick!

Henry had come
here with a knife he’d swiped from the kitchen at the Home, but it was nowhere
in sight now.  They must have taken it off him.  Furious, he began to struggle,
but the large boy held him fast.

“Stop
squirming.  We’re not going to hurt you,” the one called Nix said.  “We’re just
going to give you a little test.”

“What kind of
test?”  He might have been able to figure out the answer to the question by
deduction, but he was in a mood to make demands.

The boys didn’t
answer him.  Instead, they made sure he went forward into a different part of
the tunnel, beyond a flap of animal hide, where he was confronted with a wall
of weapons like he had never seen before.  To be honest, Henry had never even
seen a sword up close and the only gun had been his father’s pistol, but this
collection was so much more than he could have imagined.

There were
blades and guns of many different shapes and lengths.  Henry couldn’t begin to
guess where they had gotten all these.  They had enough to arm a small militia.

He suddenly
wished he had known it was there.  He might have secretly taken an item for
himself.  It was too late to look back on that now.

Nix stepped up
to the wall, perused it silently, and finally decided on a weapon.  He held up
the one he’d chosen – a short sword with a bronze blade.

“Let’s have this
done with,” he said, stepping through the midst of them to head down one of the
tunnels, keeping the sword to himself.

Henry wanted to
fight them all, and he did think of trying.  He would have had a better chance
with a weapon, which they hadn’t given him, and they’d directed him out of the
armory before he’d set his eyes on one.  Several of these boys were bigger than
him, but he didn’t care.  If they thought he was going to roll over, they were
wrong.  He intended to find a way to escape them.

“Wait, we can’t
all go,” the boy with the animal hood said suddenly.  He spoke as if the rest
of them should have known it.  “Rifter’s gone with Wren.  We can’t leave the
small one here by himself.”

“Sounds like you
just volunteered, Sly,” Nix said.

The twins
laughed at his misfortune, but Sly looked at them with a smirk on his mouth.

“I wouldn’t
laugh so fast if I were you.  The two of you owe me a favor.  Seems I recall
covering for you when you were supposed to be on the early morning watch.”

“What?” Mech
asked, horrified.

“No way!  We’re
not missing this!” Mach screeched.

Sly shrugged in
his common way.  “Nothing you can do about it really,” he told them.

The twins were
aghast, but it was true that there wasn’t much they could do to protest. 
Rifter had told them that they could have Henry, but they had to leave the
little one alone.  In that case, someone had to watch him.  The twins looked as
though they wanted to complain more, but the others were already leaving,
pushing Henry toward the tunnel.

“Have fun with
the baby, nannies,” Finn taunted as they steered Henry out of the den, leaving
the twins to look after them, sighing identically in frustration.

3

The night sky
was breathtaking, painted across the span of the heavens in all shades of
purple, spread with so many blinking stars.  Wren thought it was beautiful, and
though she had started with her eyes closed, couldn’t hold them shut any
longer.

If this was all
he had to show her tonight, she would have been satisfied, but eventually they
began to descend.  He took them down toward a cluster of pale, marbled rocks,
and she could see that there was a lovely little lagoon beyond it, where the
water was bluer than any she’d ever seen.

She was pleased
to see that the world had beauty beyond the forest.

Rifter touched
down at the ledge and led her along a path through the rocks, closer to the
water.  Personally, Wren had never cared much for the idea of getting wet. 
Large bodies of water were fine to look at, such as the sea was, but she’d
never had a desire to go for a swim in the salty depths.  She hoped that wasn’t
what he had on his mind.

“It’s beautiful
here,” she said, looking at the way the ripples of light reflected off the
surface and waved hypnotically across the rocks.

The water was
glowing as if there was light beneath it, and she thought she could see several
crystals growing along the edge of the lagoon.  Those seemed to be the sources
of the light.  Wren couldn’t believe how fantastic it was!  It truly was
something she might only see in a dream, but accepting that it was real was not
hard for her.

“This island is
a collection of pure dreams,” Rifter said as he led her forward.  She was
surprised that he was offering her an explanation, but she wouldn’t turn it
down.  “It should be a place of beauty – like this.  That’s why I fight the
nightmares away.  If too many got in, they could corrupt everything.  This
wouldn’t be the same world anymore.”

“But the
nightmares aren’t the only things that cause trouble here,” she said, hoping to
lead him on.  “There are pirates.  Where did they come from?”

She slipped on
the rocks and he caught her arm, helping her get her footing.  She smiled
apologetically and, at that, he allowed them to pause a moment.

“The sea is
endless. Sometimes ships get lost –
one
in particular.  It crossed the
veil on accident somehow and the people aboard began to repopulate here.  This
place is about freedom, but men like that tend to think that acts of evil are
what give them that.”

She’d been
hoping to lead him to talk about the Scourge, but it didn’t work.  His mind
didn’t go there.

“Too many people
in one place always ruin things,” he went on.  “I don’t mind some of them being
here.  They’re only living their lives.  This world is a refuge for those who
want to seek it.  The problem comes when others try to ruin that.”

She saw how
grave his demeanor had become, and as soon as he realized it himself, he
smiled, shaking his head.

“Enough about
all those serious things.  Come on.”

Rifter took her
farther on, but they had not quite reached the water when he stopped.  They
were hidden behind some of the rocks, but had a clear view of the lagoon.  Wren
glanced at him, seeing how he watched the pool intently.  She mirrored that,
though she didn’t know what they were looking for – and then she saw it.

It was a flash
of a shining fish tail, and then one of them climbed up onto a rock near the
edge of the water.  Her eyes widened in amazement.

“Is that..!” 
Wren couldn’t believe her eyes, but he indicated that she should be quiet by
putting a finger to his mouth.

“We shouldn’t
let them know you’re here,” he told her, and she did as she was told.

There were a
dozen of them or more, swimming around, splashing playfully, but they did not
speak or laugh or make any communication to each other at all.  Wren had always
been fascinated by the idea of a mermaid – had often dreamed that she was one –
but she had known that dream was a fantasy.  Still, seeing them here was an
easy acceptance after what she had observed so far.

“They’re
beautiful!” she said in an awed whisper.

“Wisp never
liked me to come here,” he confessed.  “I never really gave much thought to
why, but since you mentioned it, I guess she must have been jealous, like you
said.”

Wren had only
been excited at the idea of seeing a mermaid, but now that she stopped to think
of it, she could understand why the fairy had been against it.  The mermaids
were shapely and beautiful – with supple parts that Wren couldn’t quite compete
with.  The more feminine features of their bodies were hidden by their long
hair, but it was clear to her that they were naked.  She felt her face grow
hot, but she tried to recover quickly.

Don’t they know
how they’re naked?  Certainly he must.

“Well, it’s not
as if you engage them,” she tried.

A little smirk
at the corner of his mouth made her wonder if that was true.  When that thought
hit her, she felt a hint of what Whisper must have felt.

Don’t ask. 
Don’t be that sort of girl.
  But it wasn’t quite so easy to get it out of her
mind.

“Listen
carefully, but don’t let go of my hand,” he instructed.  She looked at him,
waiting for what he would tell her, but it was a different sound that reached
her ears.  A chorus of voices began to drift through the air, the song so
beautiful that she felt overwhelmed by it.  The melody was wordless and made no
sense, and yet the pitches wove in and out of each other like silk.  It was
calling for her.  She wanted to be near it, to hear it better—

“Wren.”  The
sound of her name snapped her back.  She looked into Rifter’s eyes, but
suddenly realized that she was pulling against him, trying to get her hand out
of his grasp where he was holding her wrist tightly.

“The song will
pull you away if you don’t stay focused,” he warned.  She was surprised at
herself.  She didn’t even remember resisting him, but she understood what he
was telling her.  This was just like the whispers of the fairies.  If she let
them in, they would lead her astray.

“What would they
do to me?”

“I can’t say for
sure,” he admitted, considering it.  “Usually they just swim away if they sense
someone getting too close.  Like the fairies, they don’t care for humans.”

“But they don’t
mind you,” she guessed.

“That’s right,”
he answered, but wouldn’t speak further.  “This way.”