by Lani Lenore
“It has to be.”
Through all of that, Rifter was quiet. They were right, but he had already known. There was no need to discuss it further, for hesitating would not delay the inevitable.
He had to go there alone.
With tight lips, he looked at them, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. There was no need for instruction. Whether he lived or died was not up to the rest of them.
Rifter did not tell them goodbye. He didn’t wait for them to wish him good luck. He shot up into the air, pressing through the dark toward the ship – toward his fate.
3
The Pack watched their leader transcend into the sky, recognizing that this was Rifter’s fight now. They were not the same as he was, and there was nothing they could do. Rifter’s sworn brothers knew this, but there was one among them that could not quite swallow it down.
At the end of it all, he was still Wren’s brother first.
“So this is it then?” Henry asked them. “He goes alone and we can’t do anything?”
“Rifter is the only one who can stand against him,” Sly said as if reciting it from a rule book.
“Sometimes it happens this way,” Finn said, “and we just have to wait for him to do what he has to do.”
“Has the Scourge ever taken a hostage before?” Henry pressed. “You said yourselves that it was different this time – that it didn’t feel right this time.”
“And what do you suggest we do?” Nix wanted to know. “We can’t fly. We’re fully grounded.”
Henry didn’t know what to say to that, only sure that it wasn’t good enough.
“He has Wren,” he said weakly. He was giving up, feeling like a helpless child. He hadn’t felt that way in a long time. “I’m responsible for her.”
“There’s nothing you can do,” Nix continued to insist. The others didn’t try to reassure him, lost in their own thoughts and concerns, perhaps. Henry wanted to give them all a rough shake.
“At least tell me that he can save her,” Henry entreated. He tried to keep his voice strong, but he knew he was pleading with them. “Say that he can do what needs to be done and come back with my sister alive.”
He looked desperately at every one of them, trying to catch their eyes. None of them said a word. For the first time, they felt something in their leader that they never had before.
Doubt.
Chapter Thirty-Six
1
The ship was riding on a cloud of darkness, the hands of a hundred shadows holding it up in the sky. This was something new – a fresh twist on an old story. Rifter felt that he was impressed by the effort. How had the Scourge managed it?
Maybe I should be impressed that he hasn’t quite run out of ideas for me. He shook those thoughts away. He had to keep focused.
Rifter was surprised that the deck was empty, even though he had seen the pirates hanging by their necks from the side of the vessel, but he hadn’t expected that there would be no one on board. Why had the Scourge done this to them? Did he need a reason? Perhaps his crew had been more trouble than they were worth and he’d decided he didn’t need them anymore. It didn’t matter much to Rifter. He would likely have killed them himself if they’d still been alive to oppose him now.
He drew his sword upon landing, knowing what sort of reception he was sure to get, but none came out to meet him. He stepped carefully, looking for trouble as the old ship creaked and groaned, but there was no one. He was alone. Could this have been a trick as the others had said?
No. He’s here. He’s close.
He lifted his eyes toward the ship’s wheel on the upper level, and there he saw a figure in white. She was lashed to the mast, her gown billowing and her expression listless.
“Wren…”
He didn’t realize that he had said her name out loud until she turned to him. Her eyes locked on his, but she didn’t call out. If it was to keep his presence a secret, it didn’t matter. A dark figure emerged from beyond the shaft, and Rifter felt his blood boil.
A thousand alarms went off inside his head, but he tried to keep himself restrained. The sky began to swirl above them, the clouds meshing together like a spiral of smoke above the mountain. Everything had built up to this moment. After so long, he knew that today was the day.
How many times have I thought that before? He couldn’t remember.
He tried to pretend that Wren’s presence had no effect on him, but inside, his heart was beating with quick pulses of worry. He knew he shouldn’t have cared about her now – she shouldn’t have been the reason he’d come here – but he couldn’t quite make himself stop.
If anything happens to her…
“I’m glad you made it,” the Scourge said to him, starting down the steps to meet Rifter on the lower deck.
“Yeah, I’m here,” Rifter responded, pacing casually. “I never refuse an invitation. But I’ll admit: I was disappointed when I heard you’d taken the girl. I thought we’d already talked about this. We decided it was better if there wasn’t a woman between us.”
“Ah, yes I do recall that, but that was before I realized that there is a woman between us. And it’s her,” he said, indicating Wren. “I thought we might share her, you see, because we already do.”
“What are you talking about?” Rifter growled. He didn’t like what the man was implying.
The Scourge came down the steps, drawing one sword and passing it from one hand to the other. Rifter focused on his hands briefly – seeing that the man wasn’t missing an appendage, as he should have been. Both hands were covered by gloves, but Rifter was sure he had seen the fingers bend. This confused him. The Scourge laughed.
“I was oblivious to it as well,” he said with a wicked grin, “but suddenly I see the light – or rather, the mystical lure of the dark.”
Stabbing his sword down into the deck, he took off his glove from the hand that Rifter had severed, holding it up, and Rifter saw that there was indeed no hand there. There was no flesh, only a shadow that wavered like black fire. The boy didn’t understand. The Scourge was inhuman – Rifter must have already known that – but he hadn’t expected this.
“You see,” the man went on, “It wasn’t long ago that I walked the moor of my subconscious, and I recovered some things that I had lost – that I had forgotten. I too remembered this girl, Wren, from my own past. How could that be, since she is yours? I’ve never seen her before and yet I know her.”
Rifter didn’t try to answer, but he listened to this riddle that the man was offering him.
“I’ve gone a long time, asking myself questions that I don’t know the answers to. Who am I? Where did I come from? Did I ever really exist, except through you? Yet, I have power. How is that possible?”
Rifter just stared at him. He had forgotten how to breathe. He suddenly felt very small, or perhaps the man before him had grown bigger, stretching his height to loom over him.
“It’s been said that this place was born of a dream – your dream – when you wished for escape. No one knows what you wanted to escape from, but I do. It was because you feared the man that you would become. What was he like that he scared you so much?”
“He didn’t scare me,” Rifter said, trying to stay strong. “I hated him.”
“Was he like your father?”
Rifter wasn’t sure why that affected him, but it froze him in place.
“Your father was a man of the sea, wasn’t he? A criminal. A pirate. Weren’t you afraid that you’d end up the same way?”
The Scourge was growing even larger, his coat spreading out across the ship as a shadowy wall with a life of its own. The cloth was wavering like a mirage and Rifter thought he could see strange red eyes opening across it, peering at him.
“I remember it all now,” the Scourge said. “It’s strange how it came to me so suddenly. I remember your brothers – your real brothers. I know how you abandoned them when they needed you most. I know how you’ve tried to replace them, and how so many of tho
se have fallen. I remember Wren – so beautiful, so pure. I remember seeing her die – today in fact.”
“No…” Rifter listened but he could hardly believe his ears. How could the Scourge know all of that? Rifter himself didn’t even remember those things. His enemy was making them up – yes – not so hard to do, considering that Rifter didn’t have any of those old memories himself. Yet there was something about those things that rang true to him.
“I remember the other girl – the first girl. The one that you died for. You loved her too, but of course it was in a different way. She was far too young. She was a child. Don’t you remember her?”
Rifter’s mind was blank, but he began to feel sick inside, nauseous. An acrid taste rose up in his mouth – the memory of blood.
“You’re lying,” he said, but his voice was weak.
The Scourge saw his doubt and he smiled maliciously at it – the grin of the devil.
“I know everything about you, boy, because I am you. I am the man that you feared you’d become – the one you dream about,” the dark one said, narrowing his eyes sharply. “I am your Nightmare.”
2
Wren had been silent as she looked on, listening, and she had heard every word of this exchange.
I am your Nightmare. She’d gasped when she heard that, and yet it made sense. The Scourge had said that he’d meant for her to see it – Rifter had said the same thing to her before. This was what she had been meant to see at the end of it all. These two before her: they were the same, but different!
The things that the Scourge had just said about Rifter’s brothers – his real brothers – were true. His account was exactly what she had seen when Whisper had shown her the memories. She recalled that now, but still could not quite see it all.
The Scourge was the bad dream that Rifter had been having over and over again. This was why he kept going away and coming back, even after being killed. It was why he had only shown up after the storm.
After Rifter’s nightmare…
Wren wanted to call out to him and tell him that it was alright, to say all those things that she might never get a chance to, but she already understood that it was too late.
She could hear the thunder grumbling overhead in the swirling sky, and she knew it was time.
3
Beyond a locked door in the realm of memories, where the ghosts and echoes lived – there was a forgotten truth. The fairy wisp had kept the place safe and secure with her life, keeping all those horrible things locked away so that Rifter would not know them. She had done this out of love and concern, and because he had asked her to long ago.
“Please,” he’d said. “I can’t live with it. It hurts…”
Whisper had taken pity on him. Perhaps he could not even remember asking, but she had done her duty to him, and none could say otherwise. She had taken away those memories, and with that, the pain.
Rifter may have given up the images of his past life, but Whisper still had hers. She remembered the day she had first seen him.
She didn't recall the moment of her first breath, but she remembered moving across the world, searching for a home. What she’d found instead was him.
Whisper had told herself that it was his goodness that had drawn her to him. She had sensed the decency in his heart. Since that time, she wondered if she had warped him from what he had been before she had taken his memories, but she could not go back on that. It was too late to change things. Back then, she had only known that she wanted to be near him.
He had been living in a shack with five other boys. Unlike the ones who were with him now, these were his brothers by blood, not just some mismatched collection. She had hovered by the windows, watching him. The boys didn't have any parents, as most children did, but he looked after the rest of them. He made sure they had food and clothing. He protected them.
They didn't have much, but they seemed to enjoy being together. Sometimes at night, they would tell stories of battles and great feats in the wilderness – of beasts and of savages. Whisper had listened, fascinated by it herself.
She kept close, not wanting to leave him. She even remembered when he had taken in the girl.
The wisp had been living in the rafters of the house, darting from corner to corner when she couldn’t be seen. She had watched them bring the girl inside for the first time. She was a tiny thing – only a child, malnourished with stringy yellow hair. The wisp hadn't thought much of the girl beyond mere curiosity, but the girl had quickly become something special to them. He was especially protective of her. Though they were poor, he doted on her. The girl contributed to the stories, adding mermaids and fairies to the world that the boys had built. She was a bright spot in their lives.
Everything had been good until the day the dark man came home.
Whisper had never seen him before, but she could tell that the boys knew who he was when he staggered inside. They were nervous about his arrival – unprepared. Secretly, they urged the girl into hiding. She was not supposed to be there, and the dark man would notice.
The man stayed for a couple of days, during which he slept for the most part. The boys were uneasy. They didn't say much, even to each other. There were no stories – only quiet whispers – and they only urged the girl out of hiding when the man was asleep.
They were being careful. They had promised that he would leave soon, but one day, the man informed the boy – Whisper’s boy – that he would be going out to sea with him when he left this time. He was old enough now, and he would have to leave the others. It was time he learned what it was to be a man.
The wisp hadn't understood it then, but she knew that this infuriated the boy that she had fallen for. He didn't want this, but yet there seemed to be no choice. This had worried Whisper as well. If he left, would she be able to follow him? She had cast aside her own troubles when she’d seen how it affected him, however. He withdrew from his brothers – forgot to watch after them – and they slipped.
One night, the dark man found the girl.
Whisper had been sleeping in the rafters above the boy’s head, and they had both been awakened by the girl’s scream. It had been chaos after that, and Whisper had learned something that night.
A boy was no match for a man.
The boy that she loved was on the floor, bleeding. His brothers were calling for him, but he didn't respond. Whisper knew she shouldn’t let herself be seen, but she couldn't leave him alone. She went down to him, and though his eyes tried to focus on her, he was fading fast.
The light that he had inside him was going out. She couldn't let that happen to him.
The wisp gave him part of her own light, and in doing so, she saw the dream that was inside him. There was a world within, just like the stories that the boys had told. Whisper saw the place. They shared that dream together, and then they had found it. Whisper knew the way. She took him out of the chaos while he slept and they passed through the veil.
She'd been with him ever since.
In the strange new world, she had been transformed into his own idea of a fairy. He had given her a name, and all the other wisps were merely based on what she had become. Binding to him had made her more human than she'd ever desired, though she’d never given it much thought. She felt emotions she'd never had before, and some she’d never wanted.
Whisper craved nothing more than to protect him. She had seen the first time a girl had ruined him, and had known it would happen again if she let another one get too close. She had given up everything for him when she’d saved his life, and what had she gotten in return?
He had put someone else between them.
That silly girl, Wren, had asked for him to have his memories back? She hadn’t known what she was asking! Whisper hoped that she realized that now, and secretly wished that the girl was scarred by what she had seen in those images. Human girls really were very stupid.
Whisper had thought of putting Wren behind the locked door in the beginning – or at least the thought o
f her – but Rifter had not been willing to let go. The girl had intrigued him from the start and Whisper had not been able to pull him away.
The wisp had known she would be trouble. She’d known the girl would make him unhappy in the end. Now that it had happened, Whisper wasn’t surprised. She had been watching everything.
The fairy had let him send her away, but she had not gone far. How could she? He was the only thing that mattered to her. She had followed him from the woods after it had burned, to the natives’ camp and now to the mountain. She had seen him go off to the ship, but she’d not been invited to join him. She may have thought he was foolish – and perhaps she was sick with worry – but she wouldn’t go to him unless he asked for her.
And there was another reason. The darkness churning here was too strong. The land had begun to react as these two opposites had come together – just as it had in the beginning. She didn’t want to go too close. All she could do was wait.
4
“What’s going on up there? Can you see anything?” Finn asked.
The boys were all huddled around Sly anxiously as he peered through the scope, watching the floating ship, but he couldn’t see near as much as he might have liked.
“The clouds are swirling, which means they are both there, but I can’t see them. It’s too far away.”
“You need a better scope,” Mech said disapprovingly.
“I hate that we can’t be up there,” Nix said, pacing. “He never learns!”
“We can only hope that he doesn’t try to do more than get Wren out of there,” Sly said. “Fang was right. We said it before. Something is just not—”
He wasn’t able to finish before the ground began to shake beneath their feet. They were used to quakes like this. It happened every time that Rifter and the Scourge fought each other, and they didn’t give much thought to it at first – not until they heard the cracking sound.
Before them, the mountain was splitting apart, opening against the sky. Their initial thought was to fear an avalanche, but then they could see the real danger as the cracks in the rock began to glow bright with liquid heat. Molten lava began to pour out from the spaces, trailing down the mountainside toward them.
