Blood Rain

by Nancy Gray

  Beryl was manning the flare when she got inside. He was also back in his human disguise. Beryl didn’t turn to look at her at first, and she could feel his apprehension. He was slightly afraid of her. She sighed. It seemed that she had made more of an impression than she intended to.

  Beryl asked without turning around, “You didn’t kill him, did you?”

  “No. I told you that I wasn’t going to do it.”

  Beryl turned. “Despite what he does, I think he’s a good man. He really did take good care of you when you were injured. His occupation forces him to distance himself from other people, but he wanted to help you. He is dangerous, but he does what he has to do.”

  “I know. I was wrong about him. He bought me supplies and is giving me a chance to warn my people before he reports to Dictator Crevane.”

  “Really? How is he going to do that?”

  “Apparently, both of you are going to find the source of the storm before he reports back.”

  Beryl chuckled. “Well, that’s news to me. I’d better get some things together, then. He’ll probably need to rent a small sailboat that he can crew by himself, and I’ll more than likely be swimming it.”

  “What about the lighthouse?”

  “I’ve been making inquiries about that. Apparently Bruton was as bad as Pyron said he would be. The flame was barely alive when I got here. He was in the Port District getting drunk. I think I’ve found a good replacement that seemed interested in the job. The boy is a lot younger than Bruton, but he seems to take the job seriously.”

  “I know that Pyron is a spy now, but why was he working in a lighthouse? He seems so attached to it.”

  “Well, I can’t tell you why he was stationed here, but from what I understand, he started working as the lighthouse keeper initially as a cover. The community appreciates his work, but he never has time to interact with them, so no one knows him well enough to suspect anything. Between you and me, I think he’s gone native. He legitimately cares about the people of this town.”

  “After you find where the storm originated, what will you do when he goes back to the capital?”

  “Well, I’ll have to report my findings at some point, too. My contacts know to find me at the lighthouse, so I’ll probably come back here.”

  Mercy walked over to the railing and glanced out over the ocean. “I didn’t want to ask Pyron, because I know he wants me to stay uninvolved, but if the chieftain asks me for more information, would you be willing to tell me who started the storm? Even though I know it’s magical, he’ll probably still suspect the Ashen capital is involved. I’ll need to have evidence otherwise, especially since the dictator is going to try to take advantage of the situation.”

  Beryl walked up next to her and leaned against the railing. “Mercy, as far as I’m concerned, you deserve to know as much as we do. I’m not under any obligation to keep anything from you, either. If you need me, you can more than likely find me here.”

  She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you, Beryl. If it wasn’t for you and Pyron, I would be dead right now. I think I understand what you meant about things changing.”

  He smiled and asked, “Do you?”

  “There’s a lot that I took for granted about the beast men and the Ashen People, well about everything. Now that I know more, I want to somehow stop the raids. Maybe one day when I become the new chieftain, I can change things.”

  “More than just how our races are interacting is going to change soon. But, I can’t tell you the details.”

  “You don’t have to. Magic has somehow reentered the world. Nothing will ever be the same.”

  Mercy and Beryl looked back in the direction of Concord and saw Pyron walking back towards the lighthouse.

  Mercy started down the steps. “I’d better get my things and go. He told me to hurry.”

  “Take care, Mercy. It was nice meeting you. Please be careful on your way home.”

  “I will.”

  Mercy got her things together and left before Pyron even reached the lighthouse. It didn’t take her long to reach the forest on horseback. As she entered the thicket, she could immediately tell something was wrong. The horse was twitching nervously as well. The forest was eerily silent except for the sound of crows and scavenger birds squabbling over the corpse of the dead beast man. As she rode by it, she shivered at seeing what was left. Leaving him there was a necessity when she was bleeding to death, but as she looked at the empty eye sockets facing skyward and the rest of the mostly picked apart body, she stopped her horse.

  Even though she remembered the last beast man that attacked her as a desperate monster, he didn’t look nearly as bestial now. The reddish brown fur wasn’t covering his whole body. It almost looked as though it was thick human body hair. His ears were still tall and pointed, but not conical. Even his teeth seemed slightly smaller. She could actually see the rest of the teeth the way his lips were dried and pulled back from his gums. They were very human, with the exception of the elongated canines on the top and bottom.

  Mercy thought, “It’s because I know they aren’t monsters now. I thought he looked bestial because that’s what I wanted to see.”

  Seeing it there was like seeing a human corpse left to rot. It didn’t feel right. It also reminded her that she had killed another intelligent being.

  Mercy said in a whisper, “Why didn’t you give me a choice? Well, I have a choice now.”

  She got off of the horse and began to dig a very shallow grave. She didn’t have the tools to dig anything deep, but the earth was still moist from the rainstorm allowing her to use her hands to claw at the earth like an animal.

  She knew she didn’t have long enough to dig a proper grave. Just digging a two foot deep hole with enough length to accommodate his body took her hours. Her fingernails were cracked and bleeding and her fingers were sore, but she pulled the body inside, packing the earth back over it. Then she pushed some heavy stones on top of the shallow grave to discourage animals from attempting to dig it up.

  Mercy bowed her head in prayer. “May the Forest Spirits grant you a better fate in your next life, and may our paths never cross again.”

  A voice that made her skin crawl said in answer to her, “And may they grant you a better fate as well.”

  10

  Mercy rushed in the direction of her horse but was too late as she felt something slam against her, pushing the air out of her lungs. Her horse nickered and shied away in fear. She didn’t have to see what struck her to know it was one of the beast men, Carmine’s son. She couldn’t say that she wasn’t warned of the danger, but his advice was useless now.

  The gray beast man turned her so she was lying on her back, and then pinned her to the ground. His eyes glowed with a halo of red light as he stared at her neck. Now that she saw him up close, she realized he did look a great deal like Carmine. His eyes were a lighter shade of violet, but his fur was the same shade of gray and his hair was the same shade of black. She almost laughed hysterically as she realized he was also the same beast man that had stared at her in fascination the night that the blood first rained on her village. He was also the first beast man to bite her as she was fleeing.

  His fangs seemed to get longer as his eyes roamed over her body, over the parts that would bleed the most profusely if he bit into them. He looked as though he was getting ready to tear her throat out. She struggled, trying to reach for her daggers, but he had pinned her hands over her head. She tried to kick, but his legs were tangled around her own. Mercy also noticed as she looked at him, she must’ve been mistaken about the corpse - the beast men did indeed look like animals or monsters except for their human eyes.

  Mercy closed her eyes. She hated feeling so helpless, but the way he pinned her was perfect, like a render holding down its prey. At any moment he would bite her somewhere vital and she knew by his hungry expression he meant to drain her entirely dry. Instead, she felt him move her hands together, grasping them with one hand in a vise-like
grip. Then he lifted up the silver medallion around her neck with his other.

  He said under his breath, “Where did you get that?”

  Mercy opened her eyes. She had forgotten about Carmine’s medallion.

  He snarled, “Answer the question, Human!”

  “Carmine gave it to me. I take it you must be Erebus.”

  Erebus said with a frustrated shout, “How do you know my name? No, how do you know his name? You’d better start talking, girl.”

  “Kill me and I won’t be able to tell you anything. You’re not in a position to be making threats, Erebus.”

  “On the contrary. I’m holding you down. I could do worse things to you than bite you. Do you want me to torture the information out of you?”

  Mercy tried to concentrate. Erebus was harder to read than anyone she had ever met, but her instincts told her that what he said was an empty threat. The few emotions she did feel from him were fleeting and hard to read, like seeing a bird flying away from the corner of her eye and then trying to figure out the type. She did catch burning curiosity, some anger, suspicion, and his hunger. The hunger was what was drowning out his other thoughts, saturating them with need. He wouldn’t be able to torture her and keep his hunger at bay long enough for her to tell him anything.

  Mercy remembered Carmine’s initial words. “He’ll be very hungry by the time he gets here.”

  “Well, you want information. I want you to stop pinning me down. Maybe we can work something out. You also need blood, and I need a blood pact from you.”

  Erebus seemed startled. “You want a blood pact? How did you know about…?”

  “I’ll explain, after you get off of me.”

  “How do I know you aren’t going to just stab me or shoot me with an arrow like you did to Crimson?”

  He motioned with his eyes in the direction of the grave. Mercy shivered, realizing that Erebus must’ve been watching her the entire time and heard her confess to killing his friend in the prayer. Now she even knew the name of the beast man that she had killed. She cleared her head of the guilt and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. She knew it was risky, but she needed to somehow gain his trust or one of them would be dead by the end of the evening.

  “Well, you have one free hand. Take my weapons away, for now.”

  Erebus fumbled around her belt and pulled the daggers free and then took all of her arrows from her leather quiver, tossing them about five feet away.

  “Now, if you would just let me up, I’ll move very slowly. Besides, I think you could probably overpower me if I tried to attack you with my bare hands.”

  Erebus grunted assent but didn’t say anything, carefully letting go of her hands. She barely moved them, just enough so that she could relax. Then he carefully climbed off of her and stood between her and the weapons.

  “Now, your end of the deal. Tell me everything.”

  “I intend to, but first the blood pact.”

  Erebus’ back stiffened. She could feel the anger and frustration building in him, like the embers smoldering beneath the heat of a fire.

  He snarled, “I had your word that you would tell me what I wanted to know.”

  “I guess it couldn’t hurt to tell you a little bit of information first. I knew your name because Carmine told me that I might run into you on the trail. I met Carmine in Concord while I was looking into the cause of the blood rain. I have his medallion because he said it would stop you from killing me, and he said it would be in your best interest and your colony’s to listen to me. But, before I tell you everything, I need to be in a blood pact with you. That was something that he was emphatic about.”

  “Did you find the cause of the blood rain while you were there?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Did you find out who caused it?”

  “Not yet, but I know two people who are trying to find that out as we speak. Not only that, but I have influence in my tribe. I might be able to prevent them from attacking your kind, but I need your cooperation.”

  Erebus frowned. “I see. Well, let’s get this over with then. What are your terms?”

  “My terms?”

  Erebus rolled his eyes. “He didn’t explain this, did he?”

  “He didn’t explain everything, but I have a general idea of how it works…”

  Erebus interrupted her. “You’re not a good liar. A blood pact is what it sounds like, a pact, but there’s more to it than that. It’s a binding compromise that neither party can break. We make a deal and then cut our palms and shake after we’ve established the terms of the contract. I should warn you though, I’m starved for blood. I might frenzy.”

  “Well, I’m willing to take that risk.”

  Erebus nodded. “Very well, then. What do you want from me?”

  “To start with, I want your word that you and your kind won’t injure or kill me.”

  Erebus scoffed. “Well, I can give you my word that I won’t harm you, but I can’t guarantee the cooperation of everyone in my colony.”

  “Then, that you won’t injure or kill me and you’ll protect me from being injured or killed even by others of your kind.”

  “For how long?”

  “For however long it takes for me to find my people, convince them not to attack your colony, and to find out who is behind the blood rain.”

  “That seems like an awful long time for you to have a free bodyguard and for me to travel with you.”

  “Well, I have to assume you’re interested in finding out the same thing that I am, the source of the rain. Why else would you be going to visit Carmine?”

  He glanced at the medallion for a moment, and then he met her eyes again. “Anything else?”

  “Yes. You also won’t hurt anyone from my tribe until the pact is over, and you’ll attempt to convince your people not to attack mine while they’re recovering from the last raid.”

  “Then where are they supposed to get blood?”

  “I already know that you keep some of my people as slaves. As much as it sickens me to think about it, I’m sure that your kind feed on them all the time. Plus, it just rained blood. I doubt you’ll go hungry. You probably farm my people like cattle anyway.”

  “Damn it, how much did my father tell you?”

  “He told me more than I wanted to know.”

  “Your request is reasonable, given that we occasionally use the slaves as a source of blood, but how am I going to get blood? I don’t own a slave and, according to your terms, I’m not allowed to feed from your people. If I’m traveling with you, I won’t have many opportunities.”

  Mercy cringed and closed her eyes. “I’ll give you blood, or you can find another source. I doubt you have to feed from my tribe.”

  “But, if I don’t have access to another source, you’ll give me your blood when I need it? And that will be part of the contract?”

  “As much as I can spare without dying or becoming too weak to fight.”

  Erebus nodded. “Is that all?”

  “No. I also think it would be in our best interest for both of us to be honest with one another. We won’t lie to each other while we travel together. Other than that, yes. I think that’s all.”

  “Agreed, and now for my terms.”

  Mercy nodded.

  “First of all, you won’t injure or kill me, and you’ll protect me even from your people until the pact is over.”

  Mercy said, “Done.”

  “When I go to negotiate with my kind, I’ll have to go back to my colony. You’ll have to be close by so that I can protect you, otherwise I’ll be breaking my vow. You are never to tell your tribe the location of my colony or lead them to any of the entrances.”

  “Very well.”

  “And, finally, I want my father’s medallion.”

  “Fine by me. I have no use for it.”

  “Once we find out who is behind the blood rain, our pact is over.”

  Mercy held out her hand. “Agreed.”

  “And may
the powers that be strike down the one that breaks this vow.”

  Erebus cut his own hand with one of her knives and then offered the blade to her. She cut her hand as well, cringing at the stinging pain of the very sharp blade. The cut was much deeper than she intended. She had never used a real steel blade before, and it was far sharper than stone and burned a great deal more as well. Blood trickled from the gash to the ground. Erebus groaned for a moment as his eyes rolled back. He dug his clawed fingertips into his own open wound hissing in pain, and his eyes rolled forward again. They shook hands.

  A cold wind blew around both of them, swirling first around Erebus and then around her, and for a moment everything around them seemed to get darker. She felt a wave of nausea and fought against it. From the expression on Erebus’ face, she could tell that he felt it as well. Then, she felt the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, as though she was feeling the static before a lightning strike, and then the sensation was over.

  Mercy said in a frightened whisper, “What just happened?”

  Erebus visibly relaxed. “That was a result of the binding. We’re in a blood pact now. And, now that we are, I expect you to take care of your end of the bargain. As I said, I’m starved for blood.”

  Mercy swallowed her fear back. “I made a vow. I don’t have a water skin for you to drink it from, but it might be hard for me to offer it to you on a leaf…”

  “Let me see your hand.”

  Mercy offered him her wounded hand. He knelt down and ran his tongue along the wound, and the stinging abruptly stopped. It was as though she had held the wound under cold water until the skin around it was totally numb, but she could feel a gentle pressure as well as he began to suck on the cut, every now and again licking it. She shivered. There was something too intimate about the action, but she tried not to think about it.

  “How do I know you’ll stop in time?”

  “Part of the vow was that I wouldn’t take enough to make you too weak to fight or to kill you. I literally can’t take more than I need or more than you can safely provide.”

  “Forgive me if I doubt the mystical powers of our pact.”