Nevermor (31 page)

“Do it now,” he
commanded.

Sly nodded and
rushed off.  The others spread out over the area.  Nix only hoped that his idea
would work, but he was not so sure that it would.

Sly drew a short
blade and sliced the Ren’s tail as he’d been told, keeping himself nimble in
case it turned too quickly.  It roared into the crevice but did not turn.  He
slashed it again in a second attempt, and all the while Nix was drawing closer
to the opening in the rocks.

He pressed his
back against the wall in hopes that the beast wouldn’t notice him there as it
was trying to force its head inside the hole.  He wanted to be as close as
possible so that he would have enough time to get her out of there.

Why am I doing
this?
 
Was it for them?  For Rifter?  For his own conscience? 
Not possible
. 
He couldn’t care less whether she lived or died, but he could not turn his face
from it now.  The plan was already in motion.

It took Sly
several cuts before the Ren was annoyed enough that it turned on him, but Nix
didn’t waste time watching what happened after that.  He couldn’t look to see
if his brothers were ripped to shreds.  As soon as the Ren turned its face
away, he rushed to the opening.

He saw the girl
there, pressed against the back wall.  She was terrified, her face wet with
tears, but she was unharmed.

“Let’s go!” he
yelled at her angrily, but his tone didn’t matter to her.  She grabbed his hand
and he pulled her out of the crevice, forcing her to move faster than she might
have on her own.

It took only the
scent trail of her movement to draw the creature’s attention.  The nightmare
turned from the others and put its sights back on her.

“Let’s go! 
Run
!” 
Nix barked at them, knowing that the beast would follow along behind him with
the girl and leave the others alone.  If they could just get back into the
forest – into the tunnels – the nightmare would lose their scent.  Nix knew
this, even though he couldn’t explain it.  The forest was sacred somehow.  They
could always hide there.

He could feel
the ground shaking as the Ren gave chase, but Nix kept pulling the girl along
through the snow and toward the trees.  It wasn’t far.  They could make it!

They broke
through beneath the pines and the beast was directly behind them, crashing
through to knock the trees over as if they were blades of grass.

Just a little
farther
. 
He was getting tired from running and he knew she must have been as well.  She
nearly fell but he didn’t allow it.  He kept pulling her until he saw the
hollow tree ahead of him.  It was a hidden entrance to the tunnels.

The trees of the
forest were slowing the creature down as it tried to follow, but as soon as
they had gotten out of sight, it would forget them.  Nix only hoped the others had
been as lucky.

He didn’t stop
until he had run into the hollow tree, smacking his body against the bark.  He
swung her forward and pushed her inside first, relying on her own momentum to
propel her downward.  He didn’t look behind him to find out if he could still
see the monster.  He only jumped in after her and was enveloped in the darkness
– the safety of home.

He urged Wren
down the tunnel a few paces and then they both slumped against the dirt wall,
trying to catch their breath.  Nix could still hear the Ren moving around
above, but it was slower now, confused.  It had lost track of them.

Nix closed his
eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, but he wouldn’t look at the girl beside
him.  This was her fault – all her fault because she was here.

She didn’t try
to thank him – not now at least – and he dreaded the moment that she would
try.  If she did, he would tell her that he hadn’t done this for her.  She was
nothing.

“
Can anyone
hear me
?”  The voice echoed to them from somewhere down the tunnel.  There was
a note of concern riding atop it as the words bounced off the walls.

“
Over here
,”
came another, and Nix led Wren deeper inside until they had all come together
again.  Every one of them was there, still alive, thankfully unscathed.  They
didn’t say it, but they were glad to see that all had gone well.  They had
gotten back safely and had saved Wren.  In their minds, it was a victory.

“That was a hell
of a rush,” Finn said, trying to make light of it.  Some of the others caught
on and laughed nervously, but Nix wasn’t amused.  He was usually of the opinion
that any fight they walked away from was a good one, but this time was
different.

“It had you
tagged, Wren,” Sly told her seriously.  “That’s strange.  I wouldn’t think
you’d have encountered it before.  How did it get your scent?”

“I don’t know,”
the girl said, still breathless and shivering.  “I’ve never seen that creature
before in my life.”

“Do you think we
should tell Rifter about it?” Toss asked.

Sly opened his
mouth to answer, but Nix was quick to cut him off.

“Rifter doesn’t
need to know about this,” he told them firmly.  He didn’t wait for them to
respond before he turned and left them all standing there.  This would more
than prove his point to Rifter that the girl was only a liability, but their
failure was nothing to brag about.  In telling it, they might also be forced to
explain
why
they were beyond the woods in the first place.

Rifter’s not
going to change his mind anyway.  He made his decision.  He chose her over us.

Nix knew that
was the truth.  He had stood against Rifter over it already, and so Rifter
didn’t need to know how Nix had put his life on the line to help this girl that
he didn’t even care about.  Nix supposed, above all, that was what he didn’t
want to admit.  He would keep it to himself, but use it if he had to – later.

1

A shooting star
passed across the night sky, but no one in the city below could see it for the
fog.  At Miss Nora’s, things were the same as they had always been.  The
absence of one of them – seemingly spirited from her bed in the night – had not
changed much except in the minds of the other orphans as they whispered the
secret to each other.

“
The Rifter
came and took Wren away, just like she said.  She is in a better place now, and
perhaps she might come back for us too.”

Some of them,
however, were not so pleased that she had gone away – two of them in
particular, who had much stronger ties with the missing girl.  For everyone
else, life went on.

Henry hated them
for it.

In the dark of
the night, Henry was in bed but he was not asleep.  He tossed and turned,
stared up at the ceiling, but he couldn’t keep himself from looking over at the
bed next to his where his sister should have been.  Of course she wasn’t
there.  She hadn’t been there when he’d woken up that morning, and she was
still missing.

Since Wren had
been gone, he was unable to feel at ease.  Max had also been disturbed.  From
the moment that he had realized she wasn’t there, the younger boy had not
ceased to cry and ask where she had gone to.  Miss Nora had tried to pacify
him, but she could not be bothered to take the full duty of that on herself. 
Max had taken to sleeping in Wren’s bed instead of his own, as if that would
make her come back.

“Where’s Wren?”
he had bawled.  “Why did she leave me?”

“I don’t know. 
Go to sleep,” was all Henry could say.

Henry hadn’t
been bothered to console him more than that, even though some of their peers
had tried.  While the others were busy telling him that Wren had gone away to a
magical world, Henry had other things on his mind.

He might have
been the only one aware enough to know it, but Wren would not have just left
them like that.  She would not have abandoned them without letting them know
where she was going, and she certainly wouldn’t have run off without waking
them up first.

Someone took her
away.

He knew this was
true.  Despite how he could not get along with his sister at times, he knew her
conscience would not let her leave them – not unless it was against her will.

So, Henry waited. 
He was nestled in the blankets, still in his clothes and even his shoes,
waiting for some clue as to where she had gone so that he could go get her – or
else he was waiting for the one who had taken her to come back for someone
else.

It seemed
strange to him that the other children thought that the Rifter was a hero.  He
had heard Wren’s story too but, after this had happened, Henry was convinced
that Rifter was a monster, much like the boogeyman, who came to those who
believed in him and spirited them away.  Henry was not afraid to face this
beast.  In fact, he was ready for it.  He’d stolen a knife from the kitchen,
which was now tucked underneath his mattress.

He was not
willing to let this boogeyman get away without a fight.  Consequences be
damned!  He was going to get Wren back.

And then we’re
leaving this place.  I won’t take no for an answer. 
Henry had
resolved that to himself.  This was the end of it.  He didn’t know where they
would go, but they could not stay here.  He just had to stay awake until he got
his answers.

As he lay there,
however, the effects of his sleeplessness began to take an effect on him.  His
eyes began to flutter, and sleep kept trying to steal him away.

I can’t sleep,
he reminded
himself, giving his cheek a rough slap.  It stung.  He was not quite healed
yet.

He managed to
stay awake for a while, but his depravation eventually got the better of him. 
Something was beckoning him through the shroud of darkness, urging him on to
the other side with a calm finger…

When he woke up
with a start, he hadn’t known that he’d been asleep, but he knew that there was
someone in the room with him.

The dormitory
was black and suffocating.  All of the gaslights were out except one, which
seemed to be hovering in the darkness, and Henry could just make out someone
moving around in the shadows.  It wasn’t one of the other children.  This one
was obviously bigger.

It’s HIM!

Henry tried to
be inconspicuous as he reached down for the butcher knife that he had tucked
away, but it didn’t go quite like he’d planned.  The blade slipped from his
fingers and he fumbled to catch it before it clattered to the floor.  He
managed to get control of it before it hit, but he had moved too quickly.  The
lurker saw him and was gone in a flash, darting out into the hallway without
making a sound.  Oddly, the light that Henry had seen followed him, and by it,
Henry thought that there had been a large bundle over the intruder’s shoulder.

He got up
hurriedly – but did not fail to notice that Max was no longer in the bed beside
him.

Shit!

Henry shot up
and rushed to the door, giving no thought to waking up the others.  He bounded
out into the hallway, ready to pursue the kidnapper, but he did not have to
give chase.  In the middle of the hall, illuminated by moonlight that was
shining in from the window at the end, was a hooded figure.  That small ball of
yellow light was looming over the intruder’s head, circling like a halo, but
Henry had been right about the bundle that he had seen slung over the prowler’s
shoulder.  It was unmoving, but it was just his brother’s size.

You’re not
getting away with this,
he sent silently to the phantom in his midst. 
You’re
not going to take my family out from under my nose!

Alone with the
intruder who was only a shadow – and much taller than him – he took a few steps
forward and held up the knife threateningly, his eyes narrowing in
determination.

“Put him down,”
Henry demanded.

The menace
before him was silent for several moments, and he didn’t move a muscle.

“No, I don’t
think I will,” the other replied finally, but he didn’t say anything more than
that.

Rage was already
boiling inside Henry, but there was also a hint of fear that made him gulp
dryly, like swallowing cotton.  He didn’t quite know what he was dealing with,
but he was not willing to back down.

“Where is my
sister?” Henry demanded to know.  “You took her, didn’t you?”

This specter
known as the Rifter looked down the end of the knife and back up toward the
bruised boy who held it.  In the light of the orb that was floating near him,
Henry could see the older boy’s face.  He was smiling haughtily.

In a flash, the
Rifter drew a much lengthier sword from his own belt and met Henry’s knife with
it, metal tapping against metal.  Henry could feel the pressure against his own
thin blade, knowing that it wouldn’t hold up in a fight.  He hadn’t quite
expected the Rifter to be armed somehow, but what good would running do?  He
would rather die standing up than live with himself for being a coward.

He stood there,
holding his ground, and the Rifter seemed intrigued.  It only took an easy
swipe and the knife had flown from Henry’s hand, hitting the wall, clanging to
the floor.  Though that sent a jolt of fear through him, he did not give up. 
Henry dove and grasped at it anxiously until he had it back in this hand, and
then turned to defend himself – as if it would have helped by that time.  The
Rifter could have cut him down three times before that.