by Lani Lenore
“What is it?” she asked quietly, wondering why none of them were moving. Shouldn’t they have tried to hide? They were out in the open! Even though her first instinct was to move away, she kept with them, trusting they knew best.
“It’s the Ren,” Finn said with a shudder, never taking his eyes off it.
She could hear the fear in his voice, much like she’d heard when they’d found out her name. There was no question that this creature was something they feared.
“It can’t see too well, but it will be alerted by movement. Don’t move unless it moves,” Nix instructed.
“And if it does?” she wanted to know.
“Run.”
Wren looked around at the area without turning her head much, wondering where she would run if it came down to that. Would going back toward the woods help? Back to the cave they had come from? Both of those might be too far for her to go.
The beast cried out again, as if calling for something, searching. It moved around a bit, and she could feel the shocks under her feet.
“What are we supposed to do? Rifter’s not here!” Toss said. There was fear in his voice, but he tried to keep it quiet.
“We can handle this!” Nix said commandingly. “Don’t act as if we can’t function without him if we have to.”
“Yeah, but not for the Ren! It’s too dangerous!” said Mach.
“Just do what I say and hold your ground.”
Wren caught sight of her own shadow. Even though it was cast in front of her, it had turned its head to look at the thing. She wondered why they were all just standing there, but felt she had no right to speak out against it. Were they waiting for the nightmare to go away? Were they trying to pretend that they were part of the landscape so it would pass by them?
The Ren craned its neck, turned its head and froze. There was no mistaking that it had seen them. Wren felt her muscles tense, tasting panic. She wasn’t sure why, but she got the feeling that it was looking right at her.
“Scatter!” Nix told them, and Wren was amazed at how quickly they moved – also at how fast the beast ran at them as soon as they did. She likely wouldn’t have moved at all if Sly hadn’t grabbed her arm.
“Run!” he said as he rushed by her, tugging her arm to get her moving.
She saw the others running off in different directions, but she was baffled, not knowing which way to turn. She didn’t know this terrain and didn’t know what the creature was capable of.
Most of the boys seemed to be running back toward the woods where they had first emerged, but they already had a lead on her. She was certain that she would be the straggler, and if the monster had any of them for lunch, it would be her. She wasn’t as fast as she might have been since she was wearing the fur, and she knew it. Wren looked around frantically for an alternative, finally finding one in a patch of trees to the east.
There! Go, go!
She moved toward the evergreens as quickly as she could in her heavy covering. Her thin shoes didn’t aid her much, but she made it there, even with the ground shaking beneath her.
She dove beneath the pines that were weighed down by ice and snow, drooping low in the cold slush in an attempt to hide. If the beast hadn’t seen her, the trees would have been good cover, but she wasn’t sure she felt safe. The creature was bounding closer. She could feel the way it shook the ground, and she was sure that a creature this large and heavy would have no trouble knocking over a few trees if it wanted.
What can I do? Where did the boys go?
Wren lifted her eyes to look around, and then an even better hiding place caught her attention. There was an opening in the rocks not far away, and it appeared large enough that she would be able to slip through. It would be much better protection than the trees.
Jumping up, she rushed there and wedged herself in between the rocks, hoping that the beast hadn’t seen her. She thought she could hear her own heartbeat echoing off the walls, and knew that she should be keeping her sharp breaths under control. When she was unable to do this, she clamped her hands over her mouth as if that would hold in her gasps.
Outside, the ground had settled. The monster must have stopped running – or had taken to the skies – making it much harder to know where it was.
That only lasted a moment.
She heard its roar again as it pierced the cold air. The beast wasn’t far away, perhaps even very near the trees she had just fled from. She was lucky that she had moved away from there.
I’m going to be safe here, she told herself, closing her eyes. The boys will be fine too. They’ll hide and then the creature will go away. It will—
Heavy steps drew her out of her fantasy. She heard cracking and splintering sounds as trees were broken like twigs.
Wren shrieked when they fell over, the tops of them crashing in to block the opening in the rocks, covering her in darkness. The branches clicked together, rattling like bones. Her breathing was quick and shallow as she waited for more.
All was quiet. Wren held her breath, hoping that the creature hadn’t heard her scream.
Her wishing was in vain. The trees were ripped free of where they had fallen into the crevice, replaced by a large violet eye that looked in at her. She didn’t try to keep quiet at that. She screamed again, and the pupil widened with recognition.
The beast reacted violently to the sound of her voice, trying to force its muzzle in, but its face was too wide for the opening. Once it had figured this out, it reached in with its fingers, its nails so sharp that they scratched the surface of the stone, creating long screeching ruts. The Ren moved so quickly that all she could see were flashes of teeth and claws, and eventually she just shut her eyes and turned her face away.
No no no! I don’t want to die this way!
But there was nothing she could do. She was pressed back against the rocks as far as she could get, and she had no weapon. Would this beast give up before it attempted to break the rock wall apart to get at her?
As the Ren clawed away at the crevice, trying to best discover how it might get inside, words that Nix had spoken to her came back to the front of her mind.
If you don’t learn to fight your own battles, don’t expect me to. Maybe the others will take pity and put themselves in harm’s way for you, but not me.
He had been right about her. In a situation like this, she was completely useless. The only way that she could get out of this was if they put themselves back in danger for her sake.
She wasn’t sure she could blame them if they didn’t.
2
“Come on!” Nix yelled, ushering the rest of them toward the edge of the woods.
He and the others were familiar with this particular nightmare, as had been indicated to Wren before. They had tried to kill the Ren some time ago and had barely gotten away with their lives. A few unfortunate natives had not been so lucky. Nix knew they were not ready to face it again now. As much as it pained him to flee, a swift retreat was their only option. The flesh of the beast was too thick to be penetrated by weapons – even Rifter’s blessed sword trick hadn’t worked on it. Perhaps there was a soft spot on the thing, but they were not going to find that out today. They needed to withdraw as quickly as possible.
Nix had seen how the Ren had gotten distracted by something in the rocks, and he could only assume that it was one of them, but there was only one way to know which. The others were running toward him now and once they had all come forward, he didn’t even have to recognize them all before he knew which one of them wasn’t there. It didn’t surprise him.
This seems right. Might as well happen now rather than later.
“We need to get out of here while it’s distracted,” he told them.
“Wait, where’s Wren?” Finn asked, out of breath. The others hesitated as if to ask the same thing. Not one of them ran toward the woods like they’d been told. Nix suspected they knew the truth, but they often needed someone to spell things out for them.
“Where do you think?”
He pointed toward the opening in the rocks where the Ren was so preoccupied, knowing he wasn’t telling them anything they couldn’t have figured out.
“It’s after her!” Sly said as if he’d known it all along. “It didn’t even look at us!”
“How can we help her?” Mach asked hurriedly.
“Leave her!” Nix persisted. “If she’s what it wants, let it have her!”
They were all looking at him like he was Lucifer himself, trying to lead them off into damnation.
“No, we’re not leaving her!” Finn declared, and the rest of them seemed to stand with him. Sly must have known Nix was right, but the issue was a moral dilemma for him. Not even he would agree to leave her to die like this.
“We could be gone by the time it’s done with her,” he tried to tell them, but they still stood firm.
“What if it was one of us?” Finn accused. “Would you leave us behind?”
“She’s not one of us!” Nix claimed. He was right, of course. She hadn’t taken the Vow, and Rifter hadn’t said that she would. He had told them to take care of her, but at the end of it, she was still an outsider.
“You’re the one who said Rifter would be pissed if we let something happen to her!” Finn claimed, but Nix was tired of listening.
“Which one of you wants to risk your life for her, huh?” Nix asked them. “Which of you would be in her place?”
Nix expected them all to be quiet at that, but he saw the fire in their eyes, and Toss stood up a little straighter.
“Rifter would if he was here,” the large boy said. “He would step up. We have to think of what he would do, and that’s how I know it’s the right choice. I’ll do it.”
Nix knew this might have been the right choice, but it was not the best one. He held his tongue.
“We’re not going to run away like cowards!” Finn assured him, and the twins set their faces firmly. Sly seemed indifferent, but he would go with the largest part of the group. It seemed they had won. Nix may have been willing to abandon Wren, but he would not desert his brothers if they were intent on this.
He saw he was not going to change their minds.
With a roar of anger, Nix shoved through them and ran toward the beast that was breaking away at the rocks. The rest followed him, just as they would if he had been Rifter. The closer they came, they could hear Wren screaming inside the cleft, but the creature hadn’t gotten to her yet. She was only expressing her fear. The sound was murder on their ears.
There wasn’t any time to waste, for the monster was hell-bent on showing her exactly how it had gotten its name. The Ren – named for how it tore its prey apart.
“Hey!” Nix yelled at the nightmare, waving his arms. The others fell in with him.
“Hey, you ugly son of a bitch! Over here!”
“Come and get us! Hey!”
That didn’t work. The beast did not even know they were there, snarling and thrashing as it was. It was in a blind frenzy, though it had not even tasted her blood.
“It’s stuck on her!” Sly insisted to Nix. “It must have her scent! It won’t matter if you stand next to it and smack it on the head, it’s not going to forget about her!”
Nix knew that Sly was probably right, but that had brought an idea to his mind. Since it was after Wren, they probably could get closer to the beast without it even noticing.
“You’re right,” he said. “It’s not going to respond to anything except pain.” He turned to look at them. “You’re not afraid of death? Well you might get it today. Here’s what we’re going to do: Sly, cut its tail. Can’t hope of killing it that way, but it’ll turn around if it wants you gone. Don’t forget that it’s fast. If you run away, it may not chase you, but as soon as it seems to notice the pain, Toss, hurt it again.”
“How?” Toss asked, looking a bit unsure.
“Doesn’t matter. Just get its attention away from Sly. Finn, Mach and Mech, your turns after that. Pass it around so it won’t get too close to you. It might forget about Wren for long enough that I can pull her out of there. Then we run like hell to the woods and into the nearest tunnel. Every man for himself. Got it?”
They nodded, still resolute despite what the consequences might be. Perhaps it was all because of some romantic notion in their heads – that it was the ultimate display of bravery to give their lives for a woman. Nix wanted to slap them all, but he had to go along with it. They weren’t giving him a choice.
“Do it now,” he commanded.
Sly nodded and rushed off. The others spread out over the area. Nix only hoped that his idea would work, but he was not so sure that it would.
Sly drew a short blade and sliced the Ren’s tail as he’d been told, keeping himself nimble in case it turned too quickly. It roared into the crevice but did not turn. He slashed it again in a second attempt, and all the while Nix was drawing closer to the opening in the rocks.
He pressed his back against the wall in hopes that the beast wouldn’t notice him there as it was trying to force its head inside the hole. He wanted to be as close as possible so that he would have enough time to get her out of there.
Why am I doing this? Was it for them? For Rifter? For his own conscience? Not possible. He couldn’t care less whether she lived or died, but he could not turn his face from it now. The plan was already in motion.
It took Sly several cuts before the Ren was annoyed enough that it turned on him, but Nix didn’t waste time watching what happened after that. He couldn’t look to see if his brothers were ripped to shreds. As soon as the Ren turned its face away, he rushed to the opening.
He saw the girl there, pressed against the back wall. She was terrified, her face wet with tears, but she was unharmed.
“Let’s go!” he yelled at her angrily, but his tone didn’t matter to her. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her out of the crevice, forcing her to move faster than she might have on her own.
It took only the scent trail of her movement to draw the creature’s attention. The nightmare turned from the others and put its sights back on her.
“Let’s go! Run!” Nix barked at them, knowing that the beast would follow along behind him with the girl and leave the others alone. If they could just get back into the forest – into the tunnels – the nightmare would lose their scent. Nix knew this, even though he couldn’t explain it. The forest was sacred somehow. They could always hide there.
He could feel the ground shaking as the Ren gave chase, but Nix kept pulling the girl along through the snow and toward the trees. It wasn’t far. They could make it!
They broke through beneath the pines and the beast was directly behind them, crashing through to knock the trees over as if they were blades of grass.
Just a little farther. He was getting tired from running and he knew she must have been as well. She nearly fell but he didn’t allow it. He kept pulling her until he saw the hollow tree ahead of him. It was a hidden entrance to the tunnels.
The trees of the forest were slowing the creature down as it tried to follow, but as soon as they had gotten out of sight, it would forget them. Nix only hoped the others had been as lucky.
He didn’t stop until he had run into the hollow tree, smacking his body against the bark. He swung her forward and pushed her inside first, relying on her own momentum to propel her downward. He didn’t look behind him to find out if he could still see the monster. He only jumped in after her and was enveloped in the darkness – the safety of home.
He urged Wren down the tunnel a few paces and then they both slumped against the dirt wall, trying to catch their breath. Nix could still hear the Ren moving around above, but it was slower now, confused. It had lost track of them.
Nix closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, but he wouldn’t look at the girl beside him. This was her fault – all her fault because she was here.
She didn’t try to thank him – not now at least – and he dreaded the moment that she would try. If she did, he would tell her that
he hadn’t done this for her. She was nothing.
“Can anyone hear me?” The voice echoed to them from somewhere down the tunnel. There was a note of concern riding atop it as the words bounced off the walls.
“Over here,” came another, and Nix led Wren deeper inside until they had all come together again. Every one of them was there, still alive, thankfully unscathed. They didn’t say it, but they were glad to see that all had gone well. They had gotten back safely and had saved Wren. In their minds, it was a victory.
“That was a hell of a rush,” Finn said, trying to make light of it. Some of the others caught on and laughed nervously, but Nix wasn’t amused. He was usually of the opinion that any fight they walked away from was a good one, but this time was different.
“It had you tagged, Wren,” Sly told her seriously. “That’s strange. I wouldn’t think you’d have encountered it before. How did it get your scent?”
“I don’t know,” the girl said, still breathless and shivering. “I’ve never seen that creature before in my life.”
“Do you think we should tell Rifter about it?” Toss asked.
Sly opened his mouth to answer, but Nix was quick to cut him off.
“Rifter doesn’t need to know about this,” he told them firmly. He didn’t wait for them to respond before he turned and left them all standing there. This would more than prove his point to Rifter that the girl was only a liability, but their failure was nothing to brag about. In telling it, they might also be forced to explain why they were beyond the woods in the first place.
Rifter’s not going to change his mind anyway. He made his decision. He chose her over us.
Nix knew that was the truth. He had stood against Rifter over it already, and so Rifter didn’t need to know how Nix had put his life on the line to help this girl that he didn’t even care about. Nix supposed, above all, that was what he didn’t want to admit. He would keep it to himself, but use it if he had to – later.
Chapter Seventeen
1
A shooting star passed across the night sky, but no one in the city below could see it for the fog. At Miss Nora’s, things were the same as they had always been. The absence of one of them – seemingly spirited from her bed in the night – had not changed much except in the minds of the other orphans as they whispered the secret to each other.
