by Lani Lenore
“I didn’t say I forgave you.”
Her whispery voice filled his ears, seductive and sweet.
“Don’t you miss me?” she asked hopefully. “I miss you.”
He’d known that she’d kept close, even after he had sent her away. She would never go far from him, no matter what, but that didn’t mean she could be back in his presence.
“You made a fool of me,” he reminded her. “You tried to hurt Wren, and that was wrong of you. You know I accepted her as one of my own.”
“She’s bad for you. I was only trying to keep her away.”
“She—” He paused in his argument, unsure of what his defense was. “She’s something worth protecting. I want her to be safe. I care about her.”
“You’re a boy,” Whisper sneered at him. “You don’t know what real feelings are. You’re attracted to her face – to thoughts of what she could make your body feel! What you have with her is nothing like what we have.”
Was that true? Was it wrong to have desires? He’d always done what he wanted, and why not? It was his world. It all existed for his benefit. The land was his as long as he kept the nightmares away. She couldn’t tell him that anything he did was wrong.
He and Wren – what they had was different from what she was going on about.
“I love her,” he said. That did not sit well with the wisp.
Whisper flew at his face, drew her knife and cut him across the chin.
“You idiot boy!” she screamed, though it was still a heated whisper in her language. “You stupid, stupid bastard!”
At that, she flew away, but he didn’t try to call her back. He was too stunned to do anything.
Rifter wiped the blood from his chin with the edge of his thumb and then stared down at it. It had been a while since he’d seen his own blood, but it was a good thing. It meant he was alive. He was real.
How long had it been since he’d slept? He couldn’t say, but he was suddenly very tired. He was angry and full of hate, but he was also weak. Though his home was lost in the smoke and fire behind him, he supposed his revenge could be postponed for a few hours.
He wiped the blood on his finger along the side of his face and slid off the rock, walking back toward where the others were, tired of flying for the day, needing to feel some gravity. It took him several steps before he noticed that he wasn’t alone on the beach.
There was a boy in the waves near the edge of the shore. At first he thought it was a wanderer, but then he realized that he knew the child. It was Max, splashing in the water – playing, even as the forest burned. Rifter wondered why he was unattended, but soon he noticed Wren there beyond the rocks.
He wanted to approach but found that he couldn’t. He just stared at her back. She had the sleeve of her gown pulled down over one shoulder and she was rubbing her own skin. He was caught there on that portion of flesh, on the hair that hung down her back.
He hadn’t looked at her like this before, not even when he’d been watching her sleep at the orphanage that first night – when he’d been trying to figure her out. At the lagoon, he’d seen her soaked through, her shape prominent beneath the gown, and yet it hadn’t fazed him. Even through all the times he’d kissed her, he’d only thought of how she had looked back at him afterward – the way she was smitten in his presence. He’d never thought of what it did for him, or if he had any romantic feeling for her at all. Somehow, saying it out loud to Whisper had made it real.
He felt different when he looked at her now. Maybe it was because he had said it, or maybe in light of everything that had happened, but he only wanted to be with her – for her to tell him that everything was going to be alright, like she had done the night of the storm.
But he wouldn’t ask for it.
He stood back, watching her until she turned around. When she noticed him, she jerked back, startled. She was always jumpy.
“Oh! Rifter, you scared me.”
He didn’t apologize for that, only looked at her. Her wide blue eyes were searching for a response. He was only thinking of how he wanted to go to her, but he didn’t. He didn’t deserve that right now.
She was looking at his chin, seeing how it bled, but she didn’t say anything about it. Maybe she had given up asking questions. Did that mean she didn’t love him anymore?
“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he said, choosing to avoid the whole thing. “Max, you’re done, right?”
The boy didn’t make any protests. He had always known who his leader was. He came promptly out of the water to meet them.
Rifter held his hand out to Wren and she took it without a word, letting him lead her. They walked toward the rocks, facing the fire, but all he could think of was how solid and warm her hand was within his.
3
It was a snap in the brush that brought Nix to attention. He was a light sleeper and had trained himself to be, resolved not to let anything sneak up on him. This had kept him alive, and it would not fail tonight. The sound was much too close to be the crackling of the forest.
Something is lurking out there.
He looked up to see Sly’s eyes shining toward him through the dark. His brother had heard it too, and was wordlessly inquiring which of them should go check it out. Nix was already getting to his feet. He pulled his hood up and took his bow, moving quietly past the rocks and into the trees that were black, flickering with dying embers. This would be quick.
He listened for any further disturbance, but tried not to make any sound of his own. Nix knew that it might have been nothing – maybe an animal or even one of the others who had stepped away for a moment. Everything living in the forest had been disturbed by the fire, but he wasn’t going to take the chance that it was a pirate scout or a native hunter.
He set an arrow against the bowstring and kept onward, looking for movement. What he’d heard was not far away, though if it was an animal, it was probably long gone. If it was someone –
He saw a trace of movement from the corner of his eye, and he had scarcely seen the dark figure before it took off at a full run, nimble as a deer. Nix wasn’t about to let the stalker get away, even though it was heading back toward the burning forest. He slung his bow over his shoulder and gave chase, following through the dark woods. Whoever it was, they were faster than Nix, and he had to struggle to keep up.
Son of a bitch!
He wondered if his effort was worth it, but that wasn’t acceptable. He couldn’t let them get away. The farther they fled from him, the angrier he got – the harder he pushed himself. He avoided the trees as he ran into the smoky cloud, but eventually realized that he was no longer chasing anyone. His footsteps were the only ones he heard.
Nix tried to keep his panting under control as he looked around, wondering where he might have lost the lurker. He was readying the arrow again when the dark silhouette spun out from behind a tree and took swipes at him with a weapon in each hand. He leapt out of the way, but hadn’t managed to set his weapon before she was raining attacks on him.
He could see her now – a girl, and a Tribal, though he couldn’t say much specific about her. They all looked the same to him.
This ought to be fun, he mused privately.
She was vicious, that was certain, and she had plenty of energy. She may have had her fury, but he had more mass, and there was still that little rule of nature that made boys stronger than girls.
If only he could have gotten his hands on her. She was fast and fully intent on killing him.
He could tell that she wasn’t giving much thought to her attacks as she came at him. She only focused on being too swift for him to comprehend, hoping that she would land a hit. It was surprisingly effective. Though he was able to dodge, she didn’t leave him any kind of opening to counter, and it was quickly starting to annoy him. He wasn’t going to do this all night.
That’s about enough.
Nix drew his pistol and fired it into the air, then aimed it at her face. He didn’t have more than two s
hots, but he expected her not to know that. She reacted just as he’d hoped. She jerked back when she saw the gun, stopping, but she didn’t drop her weapons until he had indicated for her to do so.
He saw her now. He knew her.
The painted huntress was reluctant to do what he wanted. She scowled at him, spat in his direction as she was heaving with rage. When she realized that she couldn’t get around him, she finally threw her axes at his feet and began to speak nastily in her own language. Nix didn’t know what she was saying, but he was sure that it wasn’t very friendly. He didn’t care.
He clicked back the hammer of the gun and she was immediately quiet, staring down the barrel of the pistol with her head held up, as if daring him to shoot her. Despite his frustration, Nix couldn’t help but feel somewhat pleased. They may not have spoken with the same tongue, but everyone understood the language of a threat when there was a gun in their face.
“Turn around,” he ordered, and when she did, he was immediately at her back with the gun. “Let’s go have a chat.”
4
The others were awake when he got back, having heard the shot. Nix shoved the painted huntress down in the midst of them all, and she glared at them from beyond the black paint that was across her eyes. They were all awake now, having heard the commotion, but they were not as unhappy to see her as she was to see them.
“Look what I found lurking,” Nix said, keeping his pistol in sight so that she would stay put.
“It’s her,” the twins marveled. None of the others would have stood a chance against her if they had been sent to battle her instead of Nix. They would have been too mesmerized to fight back.
“How’d you catch her?” Finn asked, examining the girl’s face. He smiled at her when he gained her attention, but she only scowled.
“Get your heads together,” Nix scolded. “She’s a prisoner.”
“Were there others?” Sly asked.
“Not that I could tell,” Nix replied. “They probably would have attacked me if there had been.”
“I wonder what she wants…”
The Tribal began to speak heatedly – too fast – but her unusual words meant little to them.
“Shut up,” Nix commanded after she had carried on a while. She made one last comment and then was quiet.
Though they didn’t understand her, it was clear that she was not pleading for her life. The girl was not afraid, and she was not willing to beg.
“What should we do with her?” Toss asked. “Kill her? I don’t think that the rest of the tribe would like that.”
“Besides, she’s a girl,” Fang added, as if he had been with them long enough to know what was best. “We can’t just kill her.”
“But we can’t let her go either, can we?” Nix asked them. It was hardly a question. “She knows where we are for now. She could lead others to us – set them on our trail.”
“She’s a long way from home though,” Mach said. “Do you think she tracked us all this way?”
The huntress began talking again, angrily this time, frustrated that they didn’t understand her, perhaps.
“Let me try talking to her,” Sly said, coming forward.
“You think you can make sense of that?” Nix scoffed. “Be my guest.”
Sly knelt down to talk to her directly, attempting to be civil, but she did not see it that way. She sneered at him as she looked him in the face, but once he had tried a few words in her language, she perked up immediately. The girl responded to him, and the rest looked on with interest.
“What’s she saying?” Toss asked, interested in talking to girls, but never able to do a very good job of it. This was just indirect enough that he did not feel like running away.
“Her name is Calico,” Sly told them.
“We don’t care what her name is,” Nix sneered.
“Way to make friends, Nix,” said Finn disapprovingly.
Nix snorted, pacing across the sand. “I don’t have time for this shit.”
Sly rolled his eyes and urged her to go on. She spoke rapidly. He listened to her, and though he picked out a few words, he couldn’t get all of what she was saying.
“She’s talking about Rifter – I think. Something about a flying vessel.”
“All that blabbing and that’s all she said?” Nix asked in annoyance.
“I can’t really get it all. Something about images of the past, a little moon… It seems abstract. I don’t know if she’s telling me something literal or if—”
“What’s going on?” They looked up at the sound of Rifter’s voice, seeing that he had finally returned from wherever he had gone off to fume. Wren and Max were with him.
As soon as Calico saw Rifter, her eyes widened and she began to talk rapidly again. He saw her, heard her noise, but he ignored it.
“What’s she doing here?” Rifter asked.
“I found her snooping around,” Nix told him. “Sly’s trying to talk to her, but he’s not getting much.”
“Be quiet,” Sly ordered him. Calico was speaking urgently in Rifter’s direction, but he just looked at her indifferently until she stopped. Rifter gave his attention to Sly, who he always expected to have an answer for him. Sly thought he had a pretty good idea, but he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
“She’s saying that she knows a safe place. She wants to take us there.”
Nix scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”
“She says Rifter saved her life and she owes him hers. She wants to help.”
“Do you believe her?” Rifter asked him.
Sly shrugged. “She seems sincere.”
“Oh please!” Nix cried in disbelief. “She tried to kill me just now!”
“I’m sure she had no reason to feel threatened,” Sly defended. His delivery of sarcasm was always flat, but it was impossible to overlook because of the dour expression on his face.
Nix was boiling but Sly stood his ground. The fight might have intensified if Toss hadn’t broken in.
“Where else are we going to go?” he reasoned. “We’re out in the open if we don’t go with her.”
“But is it worth the risk?” Finn wondered.
Rifter stared at Calico for a long time, and judging by the look of her eyes, he didn’t believe she meant them harm. She was looking at him with the same sort of fascination that Wren often showed him, and he was sure that no harm could come from that.
“We go with her,” he decided finally. “If there’s trouble, we can get out.”
No one protested, not even Nix, but he kept his gun ready when he ordered the huntress to her feet. She held her chin high as she glared at him, but was content to turn her back and lead them on. They followed, but kept their eyes open.
Chapter Thirty
1
The painted huntress named Calico – who wore the pelt of a coyote around her neck – was true to her word. She led them away from the fire, along the shoreline and into the trees. They guessed this might have been the way she had come to avoid the flames, but they intended to stay away from the beach in case the dark ship was lurking.
She took them to the far edge of the swamp where there was a much smaller settlement of the savage people. The arrangement was obviously meant as a temporary camp, thrown together in the wake of what had happened at the cliff. Tents were pitched precariously and everyone seemed out of place. Some of the survivors of the cliff had come here, and the whole setup was a bit disorganized as the Tribals worked to settle everyone and see to the wounded.
Even with the disarray, there was no lack of security. The Tribals had seen the Pack coming and their first instinct had been to attack. The boys would have defended themselves, but Calico had spoken out for them. After that, the group was welcomed, but none had much to say to the outsiders.
The group was given a spot of ground where they could camp and build a fire, just down the hill from the settlement. On one side, they were protected by the trees of another woodland area that gave way to the mountains; on the ot
her, the hill. They accepted what they were given without complaint.
Pulling up logs to sit on, the boys settled the area for themselves. They gathered wood for a fire and prepared to spend the rest of the night on the ground. There was no alternative. Their lives had once been charmed with a plethora of choices, but freedom had been whittled away to nothing.
When a spark finally set the tinder ablaze, they all stared into the flames for a moment of reflection, but none shared his thoughts with the others.
A faint glow of the forest blaze could be seen in the distance. In the mountains as well, fires burned. Rifter stared at the glow, smelling the smoke, and his teeth clenched in anger.
Unforgivable, he thought, but it was not as if he had any intention of excusing his enemy from this crime.
He was sure that the Scourge was responsible for this. He just couldn’t say how.
“Do you think we’re safe here?”
The voice brought him back, but only partway. Wren had approached, gazing at him now, needing reassurance. Was he in a position to give her that? Had he ever been?
“Safer than being out in the open, I guess,” he said.
You could’ve done better than that, he thought in his conscience, but he didn’t try again.
She searched his eyes for something deeper, and he wondered if she found anything there.
“I hate that this has happened,” she said finally, looking at the ground.
“He’ll pay,” Rifter said resolutely. This, at least, was something he could promise.
He couldn’t quite read the expression on her face when she looked back at him, though he did give it an honest try before he gave up. She reached for his hand and he flinched, but he didn’t know why.
“Rifter, I wish you would talk to me about—”
She stopped. Her gaze drifted over his shoulder and he turned to follow her line of sight, now seeing what had stolen her attention.