Nevermor (51 page)

This ought to be
fun
,
he mused privately.

She was vicious,
that was certain, and she had plenty of energy.  She may have had her fury, but
he had more mass, and there was still that little rule of nature that made boys
stronger than girls.

If only he could
have gotten his hands on her.  She was fast and fully intent on killing him.

He could tell
that she wasn’t giving much thought to her attacks as she came at him.  She
only focused on being too swift for him to comprehend, hoping that she would
land a hit.  It was surprisingly effective.  Though he was able to dodge, she
didn’t leave him any kind of opening to counter, and it was quickly starting to
annoy him.  He wasn’t going to do this all night.

That’s about
enough.

Nix drew his
pistol and fired it into the air, then aimed it at her face.  He didn’t have
more than two shots, but he expected her not to know that.  She reacted just as
he’d hoped.  She jerked back when she saw the gun, stopping, but she didn’t
drop her weapons until he had indicated for her to do so.

He saw her now. 
He knew her.

The painted
huntress was reluctant to do what he wanted.  She scowled at him, spat in his
direction as she was heaving with rage.  When she realized that she couldn’t
get around him, she finally threw her axes at his feet and began to speak
nastily in her own language.  Nix didn’t know what she was saying, but he was
sure that it wasn’t very friendly.  He didn’t care.

He clicked back
the hammer of the gun and she was immediately quiet, staring down the barrel of
the pistol with her head held up, as if
daring
him to shoot her. 
Despite his frustration, Nix couldn’t help but feel somewhat pleased.  They may
not have spoken with the same tongue, but everyone understood the language of a
threat when there was a gun in their face.

“Turn around,”
he ordered, and when she did, he was immediately at her back with the gun. 
“Let’s go have a
chat
.”

4

The others were
awake when he got back, having heard the shot.  Nix shoved the painted huntress
down in the midst of them all, and she glared at them from beyond the black
paint that was across her eyes.  They were all awake now, having heard the
commotion, but they were not as unhappy to see her as she was to see them.

“Look what I
found lurking,” Nix said, keeping his pistol in sight so that she would stay
put.

“It’s
her
,”
the twins marveled.  None of the others would have stood a chance against her
if they had been sent to battle her instead of Nix.  They would have been too
mesmerized to fight back.

“How’d you catch
her?” Finn asked, examining the girl’s face.  He smiled at her when he gained
her attention, but she only scowled.

“Get your heads
together,” Nix scolded.  “She’s a prisoner.”

“Were there
others?” Sly asked.

“Not that I
could tell,” Nix replied.  “They probably would have attacked me if there had
been.”

“I wonder what
she wants…”

The Tribal began
to speak heatedly – too fast – but her unusual words meant little to them.

“Shut up,” Nix
commanded after she had carried on a while.  She made one last comment and then
was quiet.

Though they
didn’t understand her, it was clear that she was not pleading for her life. 
The girl was not afraid, and she was not willing to beg.

“What should we
do with her?”  Toss asked.  “Kill her?  I don’t think that the rest of the
tribe would like that.”

“Besides, she’s
a girl,” Fang added, as if he had been with them long enough to know what was
best.  “We can’t just kill her.”

“But we can’t
let her go either, can we?” Nix asked them.  It was hardly a question.  “She
knows where we are for now.  She could lead others to us – set them on our
trail.”

“She’s a long
way from home though,” Mach said.  “Do you think she tracked us all this way?”

The huntress
began talking again, angrily this time, frustrated that they didn’t understand
her, perhaps.

“Let me try
talking to her,” Sly said, coming forward.

“You think you
can make sense of that?” Nix scoffed.  “Be my guest.”

Sly knelt down
to talk to her directly, attempting to be civil, but she did not see it that
way.  She sneered at him as she looked him in the face, but once he had tried a
few words in her language, she perked up immediately.  The girl responded to
him, and the rest looked on with interest.

“What’s she
saying?” Toss asked, interested in talking to girls, but never able to do a
very good job of it.  This was just indirect enough that he did not feel like
running away.

“Her name is
Calico,” Sly told them.

“We don’t care
what her name is,” Nix sneered.

“Way to make
friends, Nix,” said Finn disapprovingly.

Nix snorted,
pacing across the sand.  “I don’t have time for this shit.”

Sly rolled his
eyes and urged her to go on.  She spoke rapidly.  He listened to her, and
though he picked out a few words, he couldn’t get all of what she was saying.

“She’s talking
about Rifter – I think.  Something about a flying vessel.”

“All that
blabbing and that’s all she said?” Nix asked in annoyance.

“I can’t really
get it all.  Something about images of the past, a little moon…  It seems
abstract.  I don’t know if she’s telling me something literal or if—”

“What’s going
on?”  They looked up at the sound of Rifter’s voice, seeing that he had finally
returned from wherever he had gone off to fume.  Wren and Max were with him.

As soon as
Calico saw Rifter, her eyes widened and she began to talk rapidly again.  He saw
her, heard her noise, but he ignored it.

“What’s she
doing here?” Rifter asked.

“I found her
snooping around,” Nix told him.  “Sly’s trying to talk to her, but he’s not
getting much.”

“Be quiet,” Sly
ordered him.  Calico was speaking urgently in Rifter’s direction, but he just
looked at her indifferently until she stopped.  Rifter gave his attention to
Sly, who he always expected to have an answer for him.  Sly thought he had a
pretty good idea, but he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

“She’s saying
that she knows a safe place.  She wants to take us there.”

Nix scoffed. 
“Yeah, sure.”

“She says Rifter
saved her life and she owes him hers.  She wants to help.”

“Do you believe
her?” Rifter asked him.

Sly shrugged. 
“She seems sincere.”

“Oh please!” Nix
cried in disbelief.  “She tried to kill me just now!”

“I’m sure she
had no reason to feel threatened,” Sly defended.  His delivery of sarcasm was
always flat, but it was impossible to overlook because of the dour expression
on his face.

Nix was boiling
but Sly stood his ground.  The fight might have intensified if Toss hadn’t
broken in.

“Where else are
we going to go?” he reasoned.  “We’re out in the open if we don’t go with her.”

“But is it worth
the risk?” Finn wondered.

Rifter stared at
Calico for a long time, and judging by the look of her eyes, he didn’t believe
she meant them harm.  She was looking at him with the same sort of fascination
that Wren often showed him, and he was sure that no harm could come from that.

“We go with
her,” he decided finally.  “If there’s trouble, we can get out.”

No one
protested, not even Nix, but he kept his gun ready when he ordered the huntress
to her feet.  She held her chin high as she glared at him, but was content to
turn her back and lead them on.  They followed, but kept their eyes open.

1

The painted
huntress named Calico – who wore the pelt of a coyote around her neck – was
true to her word.  She led them away from the fire, along the shoreline and
into the trees.  They guessed this might have been the way she had come to
avoid the flames, but they intended to stay away from the beach in case the
dark ship was lurking.

She took them to
the far edge of the swamp where there was a much smaller settlement of the
savage people.  The arrangement was obviously meant as a temporary camp, thrown
together in the wake of what had happened at the cliff.  Tents were pitched
precariously and everyone seemed out of place.  Some of the survivors of the
cliff had come here, and the whole setup was a bit disorganized as the Tribals
worked to settle everyone and see to the wounded.

Even with the
disarray, there was no lack of security.  The Tribals had seen the Pack coming
and their first instinct had been to attack.  The boys would have defended
themselves, but Calico had spoken out for them.  After that, the group was
welcomed, but none had much to say to the outsiders.

The group was
given a spot of ground where they could camp and build a fire, just down the
hill from the settlement.  On one side, they were protected by the trees of
another woodland area that gave way to the mountains; on the other, the hill. 
They accepted what they were given without complaint.

Pulling up logs
to sit on, the boys settled the area for themselves.  They gathered wood for a
fire and prepared to spend the rest of the night on the ground. There was no
alternative. Their lives had once been charmed with a plethora of choices, but
freedom had been whittled away to nothing.

When a spark
finally set the tinder ablaze, they all stared into the flames for a moment of
reflection, but none shared his thoughts with the others.

A faint glow of
the forest blaze could be seen in the distance.  In the mountains as well,
fires burned.  Rifter stared at the glow, smelling the smoke, and his teeth
clenched in anger.

Unforgivable,
he thought, but
it was not as if he had any intention of excusing his enemy from this crime.

He was sure that
the Scourge was responsible for this.  He just couldn’t say how.

“Do you think
we’re safe here?”

The voice
brought him back, but only partway.  Wren had approached, gazing at him now,
needing reassurance.  Was he in a position to give her that?  Had he ever been?

“Safer than
being out in the open, I guess,” he said.

You could’ve
done better than that
,
he thought in his conscience, but he didn’t try again.

She searched his
eyes for something deeper, and he wondered if she found anything there.

“I hate that
this has happened,” she said finally, looking at the ground.

“He’ll pay,”
Rifter said resolutely. This, at least, was something he could promise.

He couldn’t
quite read the expression on her face when she looked back at him, though he
did give it an honest try before he gave up. She reached for his hand and he
flinched, but he didn’t know why.

“Rifter, I wish
you would talk to me about—”

She stopped. 
Her gaze drifted over his shoulder and he turned to follow her line of sight,
now seeing what had stolen her attention.

From the hill,
Calico was approaching with two male hunters who were toting spears.  The Pack
stood to meet them – to be on guard – and Rifter gave them his full attention
as well.

Calico appraised
them all briefly before focusing on Rifter, recognizing him as the leader.  She
spoke only to him.  Sly translated as well as he could.

“She wants you
to come with them.  Their elder wishes to speak with you.”

Rifter studied
them a moment, but believed that this was genuine.  For the sake of the group,
he would do as they asked, though he couldn’t imagine what the elder had to say
to him.

“It would be
good to show some respect,” Sly advised.  Rifter was willing to agree with
that.

“You come with
me,” he instructed Sly.

“Not a problem,”
he agreed.  He was no doubt anxious to learn what he could about these people
first-hand.

Before Rifter
left, he cast an eye at Wren.  She looked on at the exchange without a word,
but that did not mean there was nothing on her mind.  He offered her a short
nod to assure her and then turned, considering it good enough.

Calico led them
onward while the two hunters stepped in behind Rifter and Sly to make sure they
didn’t stray, as if they would wreak havoc on the village if they took one step
out of line.  The boys were led up the hill and through the midst of the
village until they reached a tent.

Calico went
inside first and Rifter and Sly were instructed to follow.  The two
spear-toting warriors remained outside, at the ready in case they were needed. 
Rifter didn’t think he was in for trouble here, but he had already mapped out
exactly how he would kill them if he needed to escape, and he suspected Sly had
done the same.