Reaver of Souls

by Stephanie Burke

  “Torn…”

  “Enough!” Nello bellowed again. “First we find Sable, then you can argue with your father!”

  “Father?” Jack and Jill both asked, staring from Torn to Terror. There was a small family resemblance, but it definitely was small, mostly in the build.

  “Later!” Nello snapped as she stepped to the window beside her son and closed her eyes in concentration. “I need silence.”

  There was silence.

  But Creator knew how long it would last, Nello thought as she sent her magic out seeking, seeking…seeking…

  * * * * *

  Where was she?

  That was the first thought that went through Sable’s brain as she began to regain consciousness.

  The second was that she was in an extreme amount of pain and wished she could go back to sleep.

  The third was that it was going to rain. Again.

  That made her open her eyes.

  “What the…?” she muttered, drawing the attention of the person who stood above her, wrapped in a voluminous cloak.

  When the person turned towards her, it all came flooding back with a vengeance.

  Zultha sneered as she watched awareness dawn in the copy’s eyes.

  She snorted as she ran one finger over the swollen area of her eye. She had never been struck before, and to have this little worm of an imposter be the one to deliver that blow…

  The witch would suffer!

  “Well, well, well,” Sable snorted as she placed her hands on the cold hard ground and forced herself to her knees. “Looks like beauty got one blow in on the beast.”

  Zultha couldn’t understand her words, but she understood the tones all too well. Narrowing her eyes in anger, she lifted one foot, ready to deliver a blow that would whip that smirk off her face.

  Sable had a second to see the foot flying in her direction, then dropped both hands.

  The smile left Zultha’s face as Sable neatly caught her foot. She had a second to look shocked before Sable smirked even harder…then yanked that foot with all her might and shoved it backwards.

  Zultha let out a shriek as her free leg shifted forward, then flew up in the air. She hit the ground with a satisfying crunch that Sable took no time to savor.

  She was up and running before Zultha’s ass bounced once, not that she was making much progress as woozy as she still was.

  But the ground was rocky, hard and unfamiliar. How far could that woman have taken her? Sable thought.

  She was on foot, for goodness sakes! She had to have taken her out of the window because Sable knew that if she tried to get her by Torn, he would have stopped her.

  Breath heaving in the cool night air, Sable was grateful for the sweats and tennis shoes as her terrain grew rougher and the night grew colder.

  Who was that lunatic anyway?

  She huffed as she ran, arms churning and lungs burning.

  Suddenly the terrain changed and instead of rocky ground, there was softer gravel and then that too gave way to a line of trees.

  Sable knew where she was. She was at the cliffs near her home.

  Even as she rejoiced that she was only a few miles from home, she felt a frisson of unease before a shadow seemed to overtake her.

  She slid to a halt, just nearing the trees when the shadow formed itself into that psycho bitch again.

  Man she was fast. She moved as fast as Torn, Sable decided.

  But what did she want?

  Zultha growled as she approached the copy that dared to do her person harm yet again! Did she not realize that she was a princess, that she was worthy of nothing but adoration, respect and honor?

  Maybe it was time to teach that harlot a lesson.

  “You would do well not to strike your betters,” Zultha purred, taking a step closer to her prey.

  “What are you saying?” Sable roared, tired of being the prey in this game of cat and mouse. “What do you want?”

  “I do not understand your savage words, copy. But I do so long to hear your screams of pain.”

  Before Sable could move, Zultha had her trapped within her arms, then surrounded by a rope that seemed to come from that never-ending space in that damn cloak.

  “Time to play,” she whispered, enjoying the widening of her copy’s eyes, the smell of fear that began to fill the air. This was one of the good things about being such a delicate princess, the nose to smell such delicious scents.

  “I know how to make Torn suffer,” Zultha said in her singsong voice. “I know how to make him pay.”

  “Torn?” That was the only thing that Sable understood as she was being dragged through the woods.

  “You are not fit to speak his name,” Zultha said, still in that surreal tone. “But that does not matter now. I know how to make Torn pay for what he did to me and my father. How he will weep and wail when he finds your body. How I will rejoice to see the Reaver brought low.”

  “Reaver?” Sable managed as she stumbled over a root, nearly falling on her face. In fact, the only thing that kept her face from smacking into the rough ground was the leash that the bitch managed to fashion with another length of rope, the same leash that she was using to drag her through the trees.

  She struggled to make it back to her feet, to climb to her knees, but the woman just kept dragging her and speaking in that damnable language.

  “The Reaver hasn’t the power to find us and the only one who does is Nello. And Nello isn’t here, little copy. By the time he finds your corpse, I will make my way back to Terror and then I will kill him. This is so easy! I wonder why I hadn’t thought of it before? But there is the Reaver to consider.”

  “Torn is the Reaver,” Sable said out loud, trying to piece together the mishmash of sounds, trying to buy some time, trying to gain her feet because she was not liking the way this Amazon was taking her.

  They were getting closer to the cliffs and the rocky bottom that meant nothing but an excruciatingly painful death for her.

  “And the Reaver will weep black tears for you,” Zultha added with a dreamy smile on her face as she easily dragged the copy, who sought to be her rival, closer to her doom.

  “And I will go back to the realm and kill Nello. Then I will take the crown and everyone will love me. I will have what is mine. No one will be able to take it from me. I will have what is rightfully mine, all mine, all mine, all mine…”

  * * * * *

  As soon as Nello pointed in the right direction, Torn was off, followed closely by Terror, who refused to leave his son again, not when he needed him.

  After they saved the wench, they could go home and leave this place behind.

  Nello was at her mate’s side, refusing to leave him to this task alone. That, and she wanted to kill the red-haired witch herself and meet the woman her son professed to love.

  Mace, Joz, and Del had returned to the realm, to tell of what was happening and to seek out other spies.

  Master Healer Fal traveled with his leader and his family, praying to the Creator that his services would not be needed.

  Jack and Jill were along for the ride as well. They had to be. Jack refused to drive them to the woman who had stolen Sable unless they both went along.

  Terror relented after Nello explained the speed of the animated metal carriage.

  Now Terror was praying to the Creator that he would not lose his dinner, and his dignity, in the insane thing.

  “That way,” Nello pointed, leaning over the driver’s seat giving directions to Jack. “They are not far now!”

  “Isn’t that the park with the cliffs?” Jillian asked, his eyes growing wide in fright as he deduced the only reason for a kidnapper to take her hostage to the cliffs.

  “Zultha is mad enough to want to kill Sable,” Nello said softly as she prayed that the metal contraption would move a little faster.

  Torn was just as anxious. The only reason he had not taken to the skies in his Reaver form was because he was afraid he could not pinpoint her location as
his mother could. That, and from the sky he could miss the pair of females in the trees that hid much of the ground from his view.

  He waited as his mother directed them, waited and felt the caged animal within him cry out for release and the justice that it would bring.

  “So his ex really has a head trip,” Jill whispered, his hands knotting in his lap.

  He didn’t know what he would do if he lost Sable. And Jack, Jack would be inconsolable.

  Nello just wished that she had been there from the beginning, then she could have put an end to Zultha’s game to hurt her family even before it had begun. She had many regrets, and those regrets were rising to the surface, making themselves known as the road they traveled flash past in a blur.

  “There!” Nello suddenly cried out as she felt a spike of protective magic from the amulet. “She is under attack, though not of a magical kind.”

  “Sable would fight,” Jack said, pride in his voice. “Sable has always been a fighter.”

  “She gives us precious time we need to get to her,” Nello said with a smile, glad that Torn had managed to find such a woman.

  Terror’s opinion of the strange beings didn’t change much, but he added a bit of admiration for the female. She was so tiny, he thought as he fought back his gag reflex, to be facing one as large as Zultha. Their women were almost as large as their men, and in this realm, that made her practically a giant.

  Torn said nothing, just sat there and wallowed in his anger, the voice inside his head screaming for vengeance. Once again the two beings that made up Torn were in complete agreement.

  “Where are these cliffs?” Terror asked then swallowed hard.

  “Why? It is not like you really want to help Sable anyway, just get her away from your son.” Jill’s tone was hard and filled with anger.

  “I wish no harm for the female,” Terror said yet again. The argument with his son had flared up as they left the manor, and the two men felt the need to get involved. “But this is not my son’s place.”

  “You harm Sable by taking away the one thing she needs more than anything. And you do the same harm to your son as well.”

  “I do no such thing!” Terror growled, and regretted it as his stomach rebelled.

  “What do you want to know about the cliffs?” Jill interrupted the tirade. There was no use in arguing with a brick wall.

  “Strategy,” Terror answered shortly. “If I had no magic and no conceivable means of killing a person without drawing attention to myself, I would toss them over a cliff and make it look like an accident.”

  “That is what I thought,” Jill sighed as he turned to Jack. “Isn’t there a shortcut to the cliffs?”

  “What if you both are wrong?” Jack asked as they entered the timberline of the park. “I would like to follow Nello. She has the magic GPS system.”

  “But we would be following!” Jill added. “We would get there too late. It is better to cut her off, to stop her before she actually is able to toss Sable over.”

  “You think like a warrior,” Terror reluctantly complimented.

  “Several generations of Highlander blood in these veins, lad,” Jill rolled his eyes over his shoulder at Terror. “And don’t you be forgettin’ it,” he added in his exaggerated brogue.

  “I don’t know…” Jack trailed off, looking uncertain. Jill had made several valid points, but Nello had the magic.

  “Trust me.” Jill looked into his partner’s eyes.

  “I do, but…”

  “Trust in me!” Jill growled with intensity. “Go to the cliffs.”

  Nodding and praying that he wasn’t making a mistake, Jack cut the wheel hard to the right and sped towards the little-used maintenance road that led to the cliffs.

  God, Jill thought. Don’t make me be too late!

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Zultha smiled as she saw the end of her journey and the beginning of her bright and glorious future, just up ahead. She looked back at her imposter, finally subdued after being dragged for several miles over the roots of trees and the branches that littered the ground.

  This was fun.

  “End of the line?” Sable managed as she forced her eyes to open and her body to respond instead of endure.

  “I know not what you say, copy,” Zultha giggled, her eyes almost beautiful, in an eerie way, as she looked down kindly at her captive. “But soon it will be time for a minor parting of the ways.”

  She sighed and dropped the rope leash as she surveyed the area before the cliffs.

  “Such a beautiful sight, my copy,” she muttered, dropping onto the ground next to Sable.

  “Princesses were not meant to touch the hard bare earth, but for you I make an exception. You were not a worthy opponent, my copy, my shadow, but even you have to see the beauty in this view.”

  She reached down to where Sable had been lying on her stomach and forced her head up.

  The moon sure was pretty, Sable decided as she wearily closed her eyes. Then she narrowed her eyes in anger.

  Why was she eyeing the moon and waiting for her final curtain call when she had a real live superhero cat/bird/flying thing in her life? Just where the hell was Torn? He was supposed to take care of evil, wasn’t he? Well they didn’t get any more evil than this…this crazy bitch holding her head up.

  “I am right here, Sable.”

  Sable and Zultha jerked around at the sound of that tri-toned voice. There was only one being that they both knew that could produce that sound.

  “Torn!” they both cried out, Sable in great delight and Zultha in anger.

  “Release her!” the Reaver demanded as a huge shadow blocked out the light of the moon, hinting at the large creature that created it.

  As they both watched, huge black angel wings snapped open and the frightening apparition of the Reaver stepped into their view.

  “No!” Zultha bellowed. “Why do you always ruin my plans?” Her face was red in her anger as she jumped to her feet, hauling Sable’s body before her.

  “Because you plan such poorly executed ones,” a light female voice said from behind that frightening apparition.

  Nello stepped around her son, her eyelids narrowing over snapping violet eyes.

  “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Zultha screamed as she looked wildly around her.

  Before she could make a move back the way she came, none other than Terror himself, bearing his huge broadsword, stepped forward, blocking that avenue of escape.

  To the right, two angry-looking warrior types stepped out, and to the left, the Healer Fal made his presence known, his huge sword in his hands.

  “What else can go wrong?” Zultha screamed, her eyes roiling wildly as she searched around her again and again, looking for an opening. Then the sky seemed to open up and pour…water? Yes! It was water falling down on her, ruining her vision as well as her cloak. She screeched as the first drops hit her.

  “What kind of place is this realm?” she bellowed as intelligent thoughts receded and the madness took over once more.

  “I don’t know what you all are saying, but it is about time you got here,” Sable managed, sighing and sagging in Zultha’s arms.

  Torn was here. Torn would make everything all right again.

  “No!” Zultha bellowed. “This is not fair. You ruined my plans! You seek to rob me of my vengeance.”

  “Will you tell that bitch to shut up?” Jill and Sable bellowed at the same time.

  Sable had to chuckle as their words sounded out with perfect timing. She may not be able to see Jillian, but she sure heard him. All of her family was there to protect her.

  “You never stood a chance,” she chuckled to Zultha, whose eyes suddenly snapped down in full concentration on the one she held in her hands.

  When Sable’s chuckles became full-blown laughs, Zultha snapped.

  “How dare you mock me?’’ she roared as she struggled to stare at her copy through the blinding water falling from the sky.

  But then some of
the intelligence gleamed for a moment, and a thought was born.

  If she had to fight to see them, then they had to fight to see her. Vengeance would be hers after all.

  “Die and burn little copy!” she bellowed as Sable felt her muscles tense. “And grieve, Torn. Grieve your pathetic life away.”

  Mindless of the dangers that surrounded her, Zultha barreled to her right, directly to the strange warriors, breaking in between the two of them.

  Before they could react, the giant holding their Sable broke between the two of them, then cut forward again, aiming right for the cliffs, and the bitch wasn’t slowing down.

  “No!” the Reaver bellowed as he took off after the madwoman, using all the strength and speed in his body.

  “No! Torn!” Sable screamed as she managed to make out what Zultha was doing! The crazy bitch was going to toss her off the cliff and suicide right along with her!

  Time seemed to move in slow motion as Torn tore after Zultha.

  Zultha stumbled, slowing herself down, but quickly recovered, moving closer to the cliffs.

  Then the unspeakable happened.

  The princess tripped.

  In the mud.

  In the mud that sent her sliding closer and closer to her goal.

  “Die!” Zultha bellowed as she fell partially on top of Sable, crunching her body as they both began to slide headfirst over the cliff.

  “Sable!” Jack bellowed as he struggled to his feet, racing toward the cliff even though he knew in his mind that it was too late to save her.

  “Zultha! No!” Nello screamed as Terror used his breath for running, even though his warrior’s mind was already calculating how many seconds they would be too late to save the women.

  “Beloved!” the Reaver gasped as he raced ahead, he watched the two women slide over the cliff, and then just like that, they were gone.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  She was falling!

  With a mouthful of mud and gravel, she was falling!