by Lenore, Lani
“He revealed to us what Whisper had done, and he had felt that her actions toward you were his fault. He was torn up inside. Though he’d never gotten his old memories back, he’d sworn he would never forget the things that happened here, even if they were terrible, and what she had done was a betrayal he could not afford to forget or forgive.
“When Rifter returned with the demon, and it struggled to be free inside him, he realized what he had done by bringing it here. He could not in good conscience have released a monster like that into this place – what with the darkness already making a home here. He decided to keep it inside himself and hold it as if his body were a prison. The demon, quite unhappy with this, fought against him with all its might, and I believe that in the end, it defeated him.”
Wren gasped. One thing she hadn’t wanted to believe had just been addressed. Could it be true that a demon was pulling the strings – that Rifter was not in control of his own body? But why, if the demon was not responsible for the corruption?
“I cannot prove these things, mind you,” Sly admitted. “Be sure to mind that. I do know for a fact that Rifter has been touched by some sort of darkness – but whether it is the demon or the corruption, I do not know. I’ve had many theories. I once thought it would take going back to the beginning to fix this world, but that place no longer exists. Over time, I have learned that there is a new way. I have not lost my faith. Perhaps we can never have back what we had, but I do believe it can be restored.”
At that, Wren’s heart soared with joy. Somehow this belief held more weight coming from him.
“As for the rest of us,” he went on, “perhaps you might have noticed how we are all a bit twisted.”
Sly raised his hand, and before she’d decided what he meant, he clenched his fist roughly, digging his own long nails into the flesh of his palm, drawing thick red blood. Her eyes widened as she looked at his hand. Wren was so shocked by this sudden thing – so frightened by him – that she could not scream or protest, but just as quickly as it had happened, a miracle took its place.
Sly shifted and pressed his hands together. She stared at the bandage on his face and toward the place his eyes should have been, but when he opened his palm again, she could look nowhere else. The blood remained, dripping on the grass, but Sly’s palm was whole again, healed instantly. She gasped with awe and fright.
“As for me,” he began a bit darkly, knowing he had her fullest attention. “I gained something special. Back then, I did what I promised I would do. I was not necessarily prepared to leave simply if Rifter did not return with Nix. Of course I had said that, but when he returned after a year, and still without Nix, it was actually the look of his face that made me go. He had changed so very much, and the way he smiled without any guilt or shame… It was as if he had forgotten why he had left us to begin with. He was no longer the boy I had known. I knew that the demon had gotten to him. And so when I left, I went with the intention of finding some way to release him.
“Yes, I went to the sun. I knew that power and knowledge rested there and that I needed to get to it. I used fairy ash and flew as high and as fast as I could until my eyes were burned out of my head. But I never reached the sun. Much like Icarus with his makeshift wings, I too was repelled. I fell, and to this day I do not know why I didn’t die. Perhaps I did and I just do not remember. But it was the Tribals who found me, and they somehow managed to save my life.
“I do not know what they did to me, but I fully believe that it was the sun’s gift that allowed me to live. It may have taken my eyes, but, Wren, it allowed me to see! Coupled with the rituals passed over me by these amazing people that I have surrounded myself with, I can hear the earth. The spirits of the land have touched me, and that is why I look as I do. But I do not mind it for the good things it allows me. You have perhaps noticed how fertile this land is, but it is only around this camp?”
She nodded because she could not find words.
“Well, it is because I am here. I am the land’s master, Wren. It obeys.”
He sat back a bit from her then, giving her a moment to absorb everything he had said. Even after all that, Wren thought only of his hand. He had abused it and healed it once again with nothing but a touch. According to that, he could heal this land? He had the power to reverse the way the Scourge had killed it?
“I do not mean you harm, Wren,” he said finally, breaking the silence in the dark. “I am very sorry if I frightened you. I wanted you to understand.”
“Oh, I – yes I can understand that,” she said, though keeping her hands away from his, wiping her palms on the grass absently. “But what you told me is unexpected. If what you say is true, then Sly, you have the power to restore this place to the way it was!”
What an incredible thought! To think that one among them could restore glory to the island! This excited her. This was progress in the proper direction.
“That is true,” Sly admitted. “I do believe I have that power. Unfortunately, the darkness and whatever has brought it here must be removed. This camp only remains so untouched because I have chosen to reside here. If I left, I know that the darkness would claim it once again, and everything would die.”
“How do you know that?” she asked, even though she had no right to question him after what he had said.
He smiled at her patiently. “I might lie down on the barren earth and sleep for a night, and when I rise up in the morning, there would be a bed of grass beneath me. But if I leave that spot for the day and return, the grass is gone.”
She nodded in understanding. “So your efforts will do no good until the corruption has been forced to retreat. Then the land might be replenished?”
He nodded. The news lifted her, making her heart pound faster. Despite whatever else she might discover, it was comforting news to know how the land might be restored once all was said and done. This, however, did not keep troubling thoughts from resurfacing in her mind.
“There’s something that I have to ask you,” she started. “Finn told me that Calico had a vision recently, and I was a prominent figure in it. The vision apparently upset her, and that in turn has me feeling upset. What does it mean?”
“I wouldn’t be too concerned, Wren,” Sly said, but it came out almost too quickly. “The prophecy has twisted everyone’s thoughts. Dreams and visions cannot always be trusted.”
“What is this prophecy everyone keeps speaking of?” she asked. “I’ve heard of it, but no one has told me what it is or where it came from.”
“It came from me, I’m afraid,” Sly admitted. “After I fell – after I’d received my gift – I saw and spoke of things that I can’t even remember now. It came in four verses, and I was not even aware of what I spoke. But my words were recorded by the people who watched over me, and were written on great stone rocks. As time has gone on, others have embellished it. They have given it their own meanings.”
“What does it really mean then?”
“It is vague, but yet clear in the outcome of things. It promised how the land has died and goes on to proclaim how certain events will lead to a war, after which all will be set right again – though the question of what is right may be different to some.”
Once, Rifter had made his own prophecy of sorts. It had come in the form of a poem that he did not understand, but it had been the answer to everything in the end. Perhaps that worked in the same way as this prophecy of theirs.
“Is there anything definite that you can tell me? Anything at all about Rifter or the Scourge or…”
Please let him know something, she thought. Please let the others have been right about him.
“I regret that I cannot,” he said with a shake of his head, and she felt her heart sink, “but I have not given up. I will speak with the others, but I wanted to speak with you first and alone. I wanted you to be the first to know that, even though mine is an amazing gift, my visions have been jumbled as of late. There are so many different things, and many of those seem to not coi
ncide with one another, but because I have seen them, I must believe that every one of them is true. I cannot reveal them to you, for to do so would cloud your own judgment, but I will meet with the others once we return to the camp. I will gather their accounts and try to sort through them, matching what I can. Perhaps, that way, I can put the pieces together. I am sure they would be willing to meet with me.”
“Yes – yes I’m sure they would.”
There was a pause in her voice, and Sly’s catlike ears noticed it – if his mind had not already told him that she had doubt in her words.
“Mach and Mech are not here with you,” he said. “And you are thinking of excluding Nix. He is here?”
She looked at him in surprise. “For now.”
“Hm,” Sly considered thoughtfully. “He would not like me to look at him.”
Wren stared back in confusion, but she could think of little to do but listen on.
“He will leave,” Sly predicted. “Is this true?”
Though Wren might have liked to avoid that answer, she knew the one she had to give.
“I believe he will.”
Sly was silent for a time. It was a shame that she couldn’t watch his eyes to know what he was thinking.
“After everything, I really cannot say that I blame him,” he said finally. “While his account would be valuable, I fear that he would not speak. I also believe that his thoughts would be too harsh and tangled that I could not get a hold on the truth. He would try to hide from me.”
With a sigh, Sly stood, folding his legs from beneath himself nimbly and then reaching down for her. She allowed him to help her up.
“Rifter desires to see us, isn’t this correct?” Sly asked as they walked back along the path to the settlement. “I knew that he would; only I do not know what he will say.”
This thing seemed to vex the lean boy. His face twisted a bit.
“Calico did tell me of her vision, and while she could not see clearly, I do not doubt that the dream does hold some weight. Try not to dwell on it, but we must tread carefully, Wren.”
His words gave her a chill, but she knew he spoke the truth. He would talk with the others now and gather from them, and then, hopefully, he would not keep his deductions from her.
When they reached the camp again, the celebration was finally dying down. Calico awaited them, standing anxiously at their approach. And what was that in her eyes? Wren saw it, but she did not recognize it until, as they passed, Calico gripped Sly’s hand. He stopped for her and Wren saw a look of concern in the huntress’ eyes. Sly did not speak, but he directed his face toward her, so that, if he had eyes, he would have been looking into hers. But Wren did not doubt that, in some way that no one else could understand, Sly could see.
After a moment, the look fell from Calico’s face and she gave a short nod. Her dark eyes rose, seeming to just notice Wren.
Calico opened her mouth to address her, but she did not have to go further. Wren had already caught sight of the boy who stood there, holding a satchel on one shoulder, peering at her from beneath a sheet of dark hair. At the admission her gaze gave him, he stepped forward.
“Mach,” she said with as much surprise in her voice as in her eyes, “I thought you had wanted to stay behind.”
“I did want to,” he admitted, nodding his agreement, “but I couldn’t. After you all left, I couldn’t stop wondering what I might have found out, had I come with you. I knew I would kick myself if I didn’t get involved in this. So, here I am.”
She was glad that he had changed his mind. A thought floated across her then, recalling what he had asked her concerning his twin. Please give him a message for me. Wren had wondered if it was actually because of Mech that Mach was hesitant to venture out, but she did not ask for the story. He had already told her one.
“Your brother…”
“Yes,” Mach said. “That message – I decided I should tell him myself.”
2
Away from the failing flames, Nix was drowsy, caught between visions and sleep. If he’d drifted off one way, he might fall into an abyss he could not escape from, and so he stayed on the fragile border in the middle where spectral fingers could not touch him.
He smelled of smoke from both wood and pipe, and now all he wanted was to rest, but he felt better; there was no doubt in that. He cared about very little, and he couldn’t say that bothered him. For all that he’d dealt with in the last few days, he felt that he’d earned his solitude.
He moved to the tent that was his to claim for the night, not because he felt so heavy, but because he’d made his decision. This was the night he would start off on his own, separating himself from the group once again to embrace isolation.
He would not be going on with the rest of them tomorrow.
He had told Wren that there was hope that he would go forward into the camp with them, but he had never meant it. It had been a thought in his head, he supposed, that he might go in order to protect her if need be, but she had the others with her now who were – if not anxious to see Rifter – very interested in what he would have to say. Nix was not interested. Not at all – not anymore.
Inside the shelter, Nix threw off his knapsack and spread himself promptly on the furs. He wanted sleep. Yes, it would come to him easily. His body relaxed and he tilted his head to the side, facing away from the torchlight that shone through the cloth, casting his resting shadow upon the rounded wall.
His eyelids fluttered, sealing off the one eye that was still allowed to see.
Rest… Sleep…
Regrettably, he did not get very far into the darkness. A movement against the wall caught his attention, and his blue eye shot open. There was a shadow of a figure there, standing still and looking toward him – a figure in a dress.
Wren? No, there was no one there, but yet a shadow remained. The answer struck him. Since Wren had been here, she had not had a shadow, but the dark mimic had been lurking. He had seen the imp on several occasions during the time she’d been gone from here, as if it were searching for her like a ghost. Now, here it was on his wall. Nix, however, was in no state to deal with it. He laid his head back down. He would close his eyes and the shadow would leave him be.
Unfortunately, its presence had him feeling restless, and when he opened his eyes again a minute later, the shadow had not fled. Instead, Wren’s detached shadow was leaning down over his own. The mimic poked a finger at his shadow’s chest, but as an obedient mimic should, his did not move. Nix only sighed and closed his eyes once again.
Idiot shadow. He had no time for its games. He rested on quite peacefully – until a strange stirring inside woke him.
Opening his eyes, he found the shadow still on his wall, but it was not Wren’s mimic that had disturbed his sleep. It was the restlessness of his own.
He watched as Wren’s shadow slid down atop his. The outline ran her tongue along the side of his neck, and while Nix could not feel the sensation at all, a wave of arousal ran through him. The girl’s rebel shadow kissed at his silhouette’s ear, and it did not take long for his own mimic to turn to disobedience. It broke itself away from the position that his solid form commanded.
Without his cooperation, his shadow took hers in its arms, accepting her kiss. Nix watched their lips touch, much more clearly than he would have liked. His heart pumped faster within him, throwing blood hotly to his extremities. He did not want to see this. Why was he still looking?
This is cruel puppetry!
Encouraging this fiery passion, his shadow claimed hers and rolled her beneath him. Fluidly, they became as a single shadow, merged together seamlessly.
His shadow did to her what he wanted to do to her, and what that wretched demon would most certainly be allowed to. He clenched his teeth until they could compress no further. No, this would not do. Sleep could wait. It could wait until he was alone in the wilderness, on his way back toward the burning woods where he belonged.
Immediately, Nix pulled himself off the g
round. He began to gather up his things, preparing for travel, despite his dizzy mind. He had to leave Wren now, and there was no room for anything else. It was not as if she still needed him, after all.
Within the cloth walls, Nix lit a torch. The fornicating shadows vanished.
Chapter Twenty-Six
1
Down beside the pond, illuminated by firelight, five figures sat. After the visitors had overcome the shock of their host’s appearance, Sly explained to them – just as he had explained to Wren – the truth of his missing eyes and animal-like attributes. Once they had asked their questions and seemed to be satisfied with the how and why, Sly revealed the reason he had assembled them here. It was not for the reunion they were long due. The time for pleasantries was past.
Calico sat quietly at his side as he addressed his brothers, Toss, Finn, and Mach.
“While there are still so many questions without answers, I believe that it is a good thing we have been brought together like this,” Sly started. “Perhaps it is fate, if you will. At any rate, I have assembled you here – my brothers, my friends – because despite the vast knowledge that I possess and have spoken to you of, everything I have seen concerning this matter at hand is very confused. My visions are in chaos. I have seen many things, and everything I have seen, I must believe to be true, but I need guidance, and I cannot take it anywhere but from you.”
“What about Nix then,” Finn brought up. It was a helpful suggestion, but his voice was incredibly snide.
“Nix, unfortunately, will not be joining us,” Sly said, dismissing the thought quickly. “While I do not doubt that his account would be very valuable, I will be forced to do without it. He wishes to remain separated from all this. That’s his choice.”
Calico released an angry sigh, but held her tongue. Toss looked at the ground as Finn shook his head in frustration. Mach seemed impartial, likely because he did not know as much as the rest of them. Sly moved his would-be gaze across their faces before he continued.
