Nevermor (45 page)

The pirates and Tribals
who were doing battle on the hill began to notice it as well, and many of them
abandoned their efforts against each other in order to flee.  Once the area had
cleared, there were only two figures left.  Rifter was there, evident in his
coat of leaves, and not but a few paces away there was a dark man brandishing a
pair of swords.

That’s him,
Wren thought,
pulling Max closer to her. 
It’s Him.

She shivered
when she looked at him, and she knew that the things the Pack had told her
about this evil man – this
Scourge of Nevermor
– were true.  She could
feel his presence near her, on her flesh, even though he was a distance away.

As they watched,
the two figures on the hill began to move toward each other. 
They’re going
to fight,
she realized.  When their blades connected, she felt the ground
shake beneath her feet as if the earth had shuddered in fear.

What? 
She looked down
as if that would help, but it did not stop the quaking.  In her arms, Max began
to whimper, and her own heart was stricken with dread.  With every clash of
their blades, the ground shook until their attacks became so swift and frequent
that there was a constant earthquake beneath her feet.

What is going
on!
 Her
heart was speeding and she was beginning to panic, but she did not know what to
do.

“It’s
happening!” she heard Finn yell, a twinge of excitement on the edge of his
voice.  “It’s happening
now
!”

“Take cover!”
Nix instructed them, abandoning his previous plan for action.

“Come on,
Wren!”  She heard Henry’s voice, but it was far away.  She felt someone grab
her hand, but she stood there in a daze, watching as Rifter fought with the
dark man in the midst of the camp.  Mach took Max out of her arms and ran away
with him.  Wren just stared ahead as the wind picked up and the sky swirled.

What…

An urgent tug on
her arm finally turned her around, and then she was running too.  Henry was
pulling her, urging her on, but she didn’t know where they were going.  She
merely fell in with the herd of them as they ran.

The ground was
shaking steadily now, breaking apart in places.  Wren was watching her footing
when she noticed the round shadows on the grass, steadily growing larger.

When the first
of the stones fell, she shrieked.  She wanted to take cover under her own arms,
as if it would help, but Henry had a hold on her wrist and wouldn’t let go.

“Don’t stop! 
Come on!” he shouted at her.

Don’t stop?
  She couldn’t
even think about what her legs were doing.  Her mind was scrambled.  Stones
were falling from the sky!

They dodged the
shadows to avoid being crushed, but Wren only went where she was pulled.  She
was hardly aware of reaching safety beneath a rocky ledge, but only knew when
she was allowed to stop.  Max was whining and the twins were trying to console
him, but these were only noises in the background.  Thunder boomed and boulders
rained down, and meanwhile the earth had begun to split.

At the cliff,
the Rifter and the Scourge did not seem aware of anything except their battle.

Wren was
terrified – but
entranced
.  Against all thought, she began to step
forward from beneath the cleft as if to get a better look, and she might have
gotten farther if Henry hadn’t grabbed her arm again.

“Are you crazy,
Wren?  Do you wanna get killed?”

He pulled her
back but he could not tear her attention away, and then the situation turned
even grimmer – as if she could imagine it getting worse.

A dark shadow
passed over their heads, lifting their eyes from the battle before them.  An
echoing cry pierced the air as a large creature began to circle above.

“You’ve got to
be shitting me,” Finn exclaimed.  “
Now
?”

This can’t be
happening,
she
thought.  But it was.

In the midst of
everything, the Ren had come.  It had found her again.

3

The Rifter and
the Scourge were oblivious to the world around them, locked in battle as they
were.  The stones that fell from the sky were not a threat to their fight,
merely falling around the two of them in a wide circle.  Even the lifeless
rocks were afraid to interfere.  The ground shook, but it seemed to move with
their feet, even though Rifter didn’t always care to stay rooted.

It was with
complete absorption that they fought each other.  Nothing else mattered.

Both of Rifter’s
hands were on his sword as he struck down with all his might.  Scourge
deflected his attacks and lashed out with a blade in each hand, but neither
managed to cut into the other.  Their swords connected and they leaned in with
all their weight, each trying to force the other down, but it did no good. 
Neither of them gained any ground, and eventually the Scourge pushed the
younger one away.

They stared at
each other, slightly winded, but far from done.  Rifter was like a feral dog,
bristled and agitated, but smiling as he glared from beneath his darkened
brow.  The Scourge found a smirk at the corner of his own mouth, but he did not
let his guard down.

“How do you
think it will end this time?” he asked the boy before him.

“Maybe I’ll kill
you,” Rifter said without hesitation.

The Scourge
laughed.  It was a deep chuckle in the back of his throat.  “You’re a cocky
little bastard, as always.  It’s good to see that nothing’s changed since I’ve
been away.”

“You shouldn’t
have come back.”

“Oh, but I had
to,” the Scourge assured him.  “I couldn’t go without finishing what we started
all those years ago.”

For a few stray
seconds, neither of them moved nor spoke.  Time was frozen between them, and it
could be guessed that, in that moment, both of them felt that they had been
here before.  That wasn’t such an unusual feeling.  They’d crossed paths more
times than either of them could count.

“Don’t you want
to ask where I went?” the Scourge asked, but the Rifter was done talking.

“I don’t care,”
he said.  “I’ll see you to hell soon enough!”

Rifter attacked
him, hiking himself up in the air to strike down hard at his foe, but the
Scourge only pressed up against the blow with one sword and did not go down. 
This battle was nothing and he knew that.  It was one of so many and didn’t
amount to much in the end.  This was not their final fight.  It was merely a
diversion for what he truly had in store for this one that he loathed.

And when he is
finally dead, I will drink his blood – savor it to the last drop.  This world
will forget him, and it will be mine to ruin.  All mine.

The Scourge
could barely stand to be patient, but he knew it was crucial.  That was a
virtue he had learned over time, which was one advantage he had to his rival.

“I have several
years on you, boy!” Scourge spat as their blades clanged and hissed against
each other.  “Whether or not you want to believe it, you can’t get the best of
me!”

“You’re just
confused, old man,” Rifter growled.  “I won’t stop until I’m dead, and you
can’t
kill me
!”

Their weapons
connected and they glared at each other over them, straining as they pressed
with formidable strength, but neither could budge the other.

“Maybe not
today, but we’ll see how smart your mouth is once I take all of your friends
from you.”

Rifter snarled,
but the Scourge drew power from his anger.  “I’ll kill them all, and you’ll be
alone.  You know I’ve done it before.  Their blood will be on your hands and
you won’t be able to stop it!  And then you’ll die, pathetic and alone – just
as you started!”

“Like
you
?”
Rifter shouted.  The boy’s teeth were clenched.  He was boiling with rage, but
the Scourge was only amused.

“That is your
greatest fear, isn’t it,” Scourge questioned, knowing that he had weakened his
foe mentally.  The Rifter was strong and his body was young, but it wasn’t hard
to outwit him.  “You can’t hide from me, boy.  I know all of your nightmares!”

Rifter’s eyes
were blazing, but the Scourge wore a smile.  They didn’t notice the dark shadow
circling over the camp now, engrossed in each other as they were.  The Scourge
stared at Rifter, thinking of what a pleasure it would be to finally run him
through – skewer him like a piece of meat – but a spot of white in the distance
killed those thoughts.

He looked beyond
the Rifter, letting his eyes focus on that spot of purity in the distance,
seeing that it was a girl in a white dress.  She was staring forward at them,
affixed on their battle.  One of Rifter’s boys was trying to pull her back into
hiding, but the Scourge had already seen her.

The
determination fell from his face and an icy shard pricked his heart.  She was
new to him.  He had never seen her before and yet –

She seems familiar…

Seeing the girl
affected him in a way that he could not describe, and without meaning to, he
had let his guard down.  It was only the smallest bit of weakness, but his
enemy had detected it.  Then it was too late.

Rifter leaned
back, threw up his foot and kicked the man in the chest.  The Scourge tried to
guard as he staggered back, but he did not manage it with the perfect rhythm he
had before.  Rifter brought his sword down just a bit faster than the man could
raise his blade to block.

The boy’s sword
struck him in the elbow, slicing through flesh, muscle and bone.

4

Rifter saw the
blood spurt from the amputated arm.  He couldn’t lie; the vibrant color of it
excited him.  He had marred his foe!  For the first time in so many years of
battles, he had done some real damage!

Finish him! 
Finish him now!

Grinning madly,
Rifter raised his blade again, but even though the Scourge was wounded, he was
not beaten.  He was losing blood quickly, but he had found his focus.  He stood
and blocked the blow that Rifter delivered down on him, catching it against the
sword that was still in his remaining hand.  He fought back with the resilience
of a man who insisted on living – but that was not all that was going on in
that moment.  Rifter was aware of it now.

There was
commotion behind him.  He recognized the voices. 
Nix…  Finn…
  A few of
Scourge’s men had seen how their commander had been wounded and were rushing
back into the fray, aiming guns in Rifter’s direction.  On top of that, there
was a gigantic form circling overhead.  It was the Ren, come seeking the girl
that it had gotten a taste for.

A taste
…  Rifter was
struck by an idea.

The first
gunshot rang out and he heard the rapid tumbling of a bullet that whizzed by
him.  He couldn’t stay in this spot any longer.

Stooping
quickly, he grabbed the Scourge’s dismembered arm and shot up into the air. 
The aerial beast was already diving down toward Wren and the others, who were
shooting at it and fighting off pirates at the same time.  Their attacks
weren’t stopping it, but Rifter had the solution.

He flew down in
front of the creature swiftly, dangerously close to its sharp teeth, and
released the bloody arm into its open maw.

The dreaded
nightmare changed directions immediately, but it did not react as Rifter had
anticipated.  He'd meant for the creature to be thrown off Wren’s trail once it
had a new taste in its mouth, but even a small piece of something as evil and
wretched as the Scourge had proved too much for it.

The beast
roared, a guttural cry of pain.  It recoiled and began to retreat, but Rifter
had seen the way its flesh had begun to turn gray as ash, and he was sure that
it was dying.  Had the Scourge’s flesh poisoned it?  The Rifter couldn’t say he
was surprised, but he’d accomplished what he’d meant to and nothing beyond that
concerned him.

The monster had
retreated, no longer after Wren.  His enemy had fled into the sea of natives
that were chasing the rest of the pirates off their land.  The Scourge’s escape
was regrettable, but Rifter couldn’t deny his pleasure in the fact that he’d
wounded him.  It was a start, and it would have to be good enough for now.

I wish I could
have kept the arm.  Would have made a fine trophy.
  But he had to
let that go as well.

He could see the
Pack down below – his family – waving their arms at him to draw him down.  He
was glad to see them there but didn’t give any thought to how he’d run off
ahead of them before.  He only hoped that they’d seen what he’d done.

Rifter landed
near them and it was an immediate uproar of amazement and congratulations.

“Rifter!  That
was fucking amazing!”

“Incredible!”