by Lenore, Lani
“I suppose we’ll have to be old-fashioned about this then.”
Before she could protest, he had swept her up beneath her knees, lifted her up in his arms and stepped over the platform. She was too terrified to scream, using all of her concentration to hold on tightly to his shoulders.
It was several moments of falling before they hit the damp ground, and even after the wind had stopped rushing up through her hair and gown, Wren was not able to feel comfortable enough to pry away her grip. Nix let her legs fall to the soggy earth, and after feeling it beneath her feet, she was finally able to let go and stand on her own. Here, the trees were still, and they did not stir even at their presence.
“Not so bad,” Nix said to her quietly. “You’re alright now.”
He may have been sure of that, but Wren was not. True she was alive, and perhaps safe now, but she was furious with him.
“Perhaps not so bad for you,” she snapped, shoving him in the chest to push away from him. He didn’t say anything and she didn’t feel like explaining herself – refused to talk about it – but she did not appreciate what he had done. She trusted that he knew that for now, and that was all he needed to know. She stormed away.
“You need to be braver, Wren,” he said after her. She heard his words, but made no response to them. Instead, she looked toward Finn.
He was staring up toward the village, silent as he’d been when he’d dwelled among them. There was sadness in his eyes, but how could there not be. He had cared about those people. She wanted to ask if he was alright, but almost as soon as the words had come up from the back of her throat, Finn stood up a little straighter and took a breath. In that moment, she saw him put all of the night’s events behind him.
How can it be that easy? But perhaps it is.
“Right, so you’ll want to take point then,” Finn said to Nix knowingly.
Nix was silent as he took the lead, but shook his head as he stepped past her. Wren stood there sullenly, waiting for her heart to slow, and as they began to move, Finn took her arm. She must have looked as unsteady as she felt.
“I hate that this was how you experienced the village,” he said. She couldn’t believe her ears. After all that he had seen himself, he was concerned over her.
“Finn, please…”
“No, you were right,” he cut in. “What you said to me earlier is true. If there is even the slightest chance that this world can be fixed, I have to take it. I really have no choice. I guess that we’re off to meet Rifter, whether I like it or not. It has nothing to do with me.”
Wren was not quite to the point of being relieved, but she was glad to hear him say it.
“And I’m sorry about the jump,” he went on. “You get used to it. I’ve always found it helps to think of it as flying.”
That was not flying, Wren thought to herself. Flying was controlled. Falling was not. Consider that she might have landed on her head? Terrible thoughts. Terrible memories.
Even so, Wren swallowed her uneasiness and moved on with her three companions, off on a path that Nix had explained to her previously – finishing this stretch of woods and a piece of flatland until they reached their next destination of significance.
The mountains.
4
Hidden within the trees of the Silent Woods, a tiny golden-skinned creature looked on at the scene, and after she saw what transpired, she smiled mischievously to herself. The Pack was gathering, just as anticipated – as foretold – and among them was the demon that was all too familiar to Whisper.
Wren, she recalled disgustedly.
The fairy wisp remembered this girl. She had never been anything but trouble for Rifter and this place, but was strangely untouchable. All of Whisper’s attempts to destroy her – and there had been many – had failed. This time, however, there was no escaping what was in store. The fairy could have gone for her now, but she would wait – wait because the outcome would be much more satisfying.
With a light snicker, she turned away, shooting off through the trees. Yes, it would be worth the wait to finally watch Wren die.
Chapter Seventeen
1
After the events of the night which had left a mark on them all, the company traveled in silence for a long while. The rain had stopped and dawn had broken, but dark clouds were looming overhead, threatening a downpour.
As Wren walked, she cast her gaze over at Finn. He was quiet as the rest of them, dressed in his furry disguise from the night before. His appearance was frightening in a way, but in the daylight it was clearer that the attire was only a costume. His satchel was secured beneath the covering of fur that hung over him, giving the impression of a nastily curved spine. On his face beneath the hood, his mask jutted out in a short beak and he wore a pair of bulky goggles that enlarged his interesting eyes, making him look even more inhuman.
He must feel horrible about what happened. While she felt sympathetic toward him, she couldn’t bring herself to offer words.
He stayed near to her, but she had since begun to travel without the support of his arm. Since her descent from the treetops, she was feeling better. She had almost forgotten it, but not the way she had snapped at Nix, who had not spoken to her since. Nix continued to lead while Calico trailed straight after him as if it were her duty to keep him in line.
I should apologize, Wren thought, but changed her mind. She would wait until an opportunity presented itself.
“It’s not too far until we’re out of the woods,” Calico called back to them. “The trees are thinning.”
“What do you know about the mountains, Finn?” Nix asked. “Since they aren’t far from where you dwell, you must know something useful.”
“Thank you for that rousing vote of faith,” Finn countered. Wren thought that he sounded very much like his old self in that moment. Perhaps he was not so beaten down after all. “But as luck would have it, I do know something. I’m familiar with this range. We call it the Northern Barrier.”
He made a signal with his hand as he said it – a force of habit.
“Not to be confused with the High Mountain; that is a long way from here. I haven’t been near them in years myself, but I’d say conditions are the same as they were. The barrier was always fairly deserted because of the cold weather and harsh winds, but the Tikilin will help adjust our body temperature so that we might handle it. Who knows what dwells there... Could be any form of beastly nightmare – or nothing at all.”
“No people?” asked Wren, keeping up with his stride.
“Perhaps a few,” he conceded, “but most likely not on the mountain itself. They would live in the caves beneath. In former days, the caves were said to be the secret dwellings of pirates, but I’ve never heard a confirmation of that.”
Wren shook her head, beginning to wonder if there were any certainties about the distant reaches of this island. Was it so unsafe and secretive? Why did no one know? They only stayed in their own areas and never left them? Then again, Calico…
“Calico, you came from the plains, correct?” Finn asked as if reading Wren’s thoughts. “How in hell did you manage not to have traveled through this way already?”
Wren listened closely as Calico released a sigh. This was a matter that the girl had refused to speak of, and by the look on her face now, she was only going to reveal it because it might affect their level of trust in her.
“I did a thing that I was warned not to do,” she said. “I traveled from my camp to the nearest pirate cove and hid away on a small vessel that was headed toward Bleed Neck Bay.”
At that confession, even Nix cut a disapproving glance at her, but said nothing.
“There was something I had to do, and I had to try it no matter the consequences,” Calico said solidly, making an excuse for herself. “It was working out perfectly until quite a while after I’d already gotten off the ship, when the pirates found out about me watching them. But enough about that. It is done.”
The others had to be content with that. They relen
ted.
The trees were very thin now, the grass scarce. As was the way of the world, all plant life had vanished in a flash, giving way to a portion of land beyond which was gray and desolate. There were craters and gorges, piles of rubble that looked like small mountains, but this land was just as empty and dead as the charred forest on the distant side.
It’s a wasteland, Wren thought with some degree of disappointment. Just looking at it made her throat feel dry. She wanted to cough up dust from her lungs like an old mummy.
In the distance, she could see the shadows of the mountains, reaching up over the flat grounds.
“If we keep a steady pace,” Calico started, judging the distance, “we’ll be at the mountain’s base in a couple of hours.”
Finn nodded as he examined her reasoning.
“Perhaps,” he said with hesitation. “Considering…”
His voice trailed off, but Wren did not allow it for long.
“Considering what?” she urged.
“Oh, well, considering we don’t run into any setbacks, Wren dear,” said Finn. If he thought he was protecting her by that, she would beg to differ.
“Elaborate,” Nix commanded, not bothering to turn.
“Vorks, actually,” Finn offered up.
Wren looked at him in confusion at this word. It was certainly foreign to her.
“What’s a Vork?” she asked.
“Vorks are beasts that live under the ground,” Finn explained, “They are some of the oldest nightmare monsters that learned to repopulate – especially dangerous. A Vork can pull you beneath the surface and swallow you whole!”
He was clearly caught up in the drama of the moment. The idea of coming into contact with one excited more than frightened him, but it had the opposite effect on Wren.
“What does it look like?” she ventured, quite set on avoiding them at all cost.
“No one really knows,” Finn said with a good-natured laugh. “That’s how fast they can come upon you. We have no recorded knowledge because no one has ever seen one and lived.”
“I’ve seen a dead one,” Nix inserted. “It was a large, worm-like creature. Not so dangerous out of its own habitat.”
“Is that so? Imagine that…” Finn responded, taking note.
“There is a saying that if you ever see a Vork, you’ll never see anything ever again,” Calico went on, ignoring them. “I would think that Rifter has escaped one before. You know how he’s always looking for a challenge.”
Wren hummed thoughtfully, her mind filling with fond thoughts of Rifter and harsh thoughts for Calico. How could she claim to know him? For a moment, fear filled her belly at the thought that Calico might have gotten closer to Rifter in her absence. A fire flared up inside her.
Wren’s mind had slipped away, once again remembering a forbidden kiss and a betrayal, but she did not manage to rekindle her anger very far. Nix cut her off with precision.
“We have to stay alert on this ground,” he said firmly. “One false step could cost us our lives.”
Wren decided not to encourage talk of Rifter, even after Calico’s comment. She wanted no arguments. Everything should go smoothly.
She continued across the ground, wondering how exactly she should place her steps. Should she move quickly or slowly? It was all a mystery, but she had not needed long to decide before she was stopped in her tracks when those before her halted.
She said nothing as she watched Nix peer over the area. Finn stomped the ground to test it, and then turned back to the group, who now stood completely unmoving.
“It’s hollow here and farther on. Best tread carefully,” Finn said.
Wren didn’t like the sound of this. Hollow means Vorks, she presumed. She knew enough now to guess that. She stood motionless, awaiting instruction. In her moments of doubt, she looked to Nix. Perhaps it was strange, considering the past, but she had come to rely on him. She trusted him. He wouldn’t lead her astray.
“Perhaps if we pass near the rock formations, we’ll be harder to detect,” Nix suggested.
They all seemed to agree on that strategy – or at least none among them had a better idea. They moved together in an orderly line, cautious but undisturbed as they reached the first rocky obstruction. They passed around the far side of it where the ground was craggy and uneven, for apparently flat ground was better to avoid. The slope gave way to a sort of valley beyond – empty as the open ground behind them – but there was an unusual arc of minerals that rose up over their heads, casting a broad shadow over them. Wren was only concerned with keeping her footing, staring at the ground to mark the placement of her feet until Finn spoke up.
“Look,” he said, his voice full of wonder. Raising her head, she followed his gaze toward the curving ridge she had seen, elevated on skeletal pillars.
Skeletal… Wren realized that they were bones.
She hadn’t seen it at first glance, but now she recognized the strange formation for what it was. The ridge was a backbone that towered over them in an arc, curving down to a long tail on one end and a massive head on the other. The mouth was lined with enormous teeth as long as her hand. The bones had been cleaved of flesh by wandering predators long ago, leaving the rest to rot away.
Without having to speculate, Wren knew what this beast was.
The Ren. She remembered this creature. They had met up with it on more than one occasion in her time. This was a dangerous nightmare; unkillable, they’d said. The boys had saved her from it once – the very same that had Nix pulling her free of its jaws in the frozen tundra. The second time, it had swooped down on them as Rifter had been battling the Scourge, attacking as the world had gone mad. Rifter had cut off the Scourge’s hand and fed it to the beast…
And it came here to die.
Wren was able to pick up her pace and move on behind the rest of them, only to eye the Ren with little feeling toward it. She was glad that it had died, merely grateful that it was not available to terrorize them now. Still, she could not help but wonder: if the smallest taste of the Scourge’s malady had devoured even the most frightening of nightmares, what would it eventually do to them?
2
Nix was not as interested in the Ren as the rest of them were. The nightmare beast was simply one of those old memories that had no relevance in the new world. It had been an impressive feat back then, but now it was only a corpse. It was not a threat and so he gave it no mind. Instead, he peered toward the mountains in the distance, estimating their position.
If they moved at a steady pace, they might be able to secure an area near the base for camp – that was considering that none of them would run out of energy before they got there, which he knew he couldn’t count on. He could make it, but he knew for a fact that Wren couldn’t. She was not as athletic as the rest of them. They had the advantage of Tikilin, but this was already accounted for and counting on that.
And will there be more danger if we pick up our pace?
He searched for other options, wondering how long it would be before their first encounter with a Vork. It seemed inevitable. The creatures would certainly notice a free meal traveling so foolishly over their ground. Nix wasn’t looking forward to this, but they would have to pull through it somehow.
He looked at those with him now, wondering if it bothered him that they had been involved in this mess. He supposed that he could not deny that all who had once kept Rifter’s company were already involved, even Calico in an indirect way. But not Wren. She shouldn’t have been here.
He glanced at her, surprised that she was looking back at him, awaiting instruction. Nix stared at her a moment, considering her role here. This girl… He was not sure how he felt about her anymore.
Keeping his feet planted, he felt suddenly uneasy. Though it was said that a Vork could not be detected, he had the keen senses of a hunter, and he was aware of its approach. He could hear it – the rumbling beneath their feet. It came now.
“On my word,” Nix said, grabbing the attention o
f his companions and looking back towards the mountains, “everyone run as hard as you can, and don’t look back!”
“What’s going on? You hear something, mate?” Finn asked, not daring to move.
“Just do what I say. Finn, stay with Wren no matter what.”
He saw Finn take her hand. She seemed worried, but Nix couldn’t let that distract him.
He waited to mark the location of the Vork – to be certain of which direction it was moving – feeling the tremor stronger now, shaking him, taunting him. It was about time.
“East. Go now!” Nix said, waving them on before him.
Finn took off, pulling Wren along. The ground was rising up in a mound that trailed swiftly in their direction – the path of a Vork preparing to surface. Nix drew his gun, intent on buying them time–
“You’re not planning on staying to fight that thing?”
Calico had started away with the others but had stopped when she noticed that he wasn’t following. Nix turned back to her in annoyance, his timing off now. Why had she stopped? Had he not clearly said–? No matter. There was no time left. Rushing forward with a snarl on his lips, he grabbed her wrist harshly and pulled her along with him. She had not gotten a proper head-start. He knew he’d be able to catch up, but now he had her to worry about.
Just like her, he thought heatedly, rushing onward as danger approached. Always meddling.
3
Finn tore across the ground, forcing Wren to stay with him by keeping a tight grip on her hand. He wasn’t sure what was going on behind them or whether Nix and Calico were following, but he didn’t have time to look back. Clearing the distance was the top priority, and he understood that.
He could hear Wren struggling to breathe now. The running was a bit too much for her. She wasn’t used to it, but if she would just hang in there with him a little longer – a little longer… At that moment, the idea that he had no destination began to bother him. Run east. That was all he was given? The mountains were hazy shapes on the horizon, but they could not hope to make it there!
