Nevermor (62 page)

“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.

1

“
Damn
!”
the twins exclaimed at the same time.  The top of the mountain exploded, but it
was not just the highest peak.  The entire range was spitting fire and lava
beneath the menacing sky.  It was dark, but the glow of the lava lit up the
night.

“What do we do?”
Henry asked.

“We get the hell
out of here, that’s what!” Nix said, starting off the way they had come.  The
others followed him hurriedly.  The lava wasn’t moving rapidly, but they could
already feel the heat from it.  It would reach them eventually if they didn’t
get out of the path.

“We’re just
going to leave them?”  Henry wanted to know.  “I can’t leave my sister!”

“That flow’s not
going to stop and wait for us,” Nix said, his foul mood setting back in. 
“We’re not going to gain anything from standing here!”

“Trust us,” said
Finn, clapping Henry on the shoulder, “we want to be up there as much as you
do, but part of following Rifter is knowing when to back off.  We need our
lives.”

“What we need is
a blessing,” Sly muttered, and then he perked up.  An idea had wormed its way
into his mind.  A blessing…  That was
exactly
what they needed – and
perhaps not so far out of reach.

Sly looked
around him.  He knew the truth as well as Wren had before: Rifter may have
banished Whisper, but she had not gone far from him.  It was simply impossible
for her to have done so.

“Whisper, are
you there?” he asked.  He got no response except Nix’s annoyed tone.

“Rifter sent her
away, remember?  She’s not here.”

Sly ignored
him.  “Whisper, we need a blessing.  Rifter needs us.  We need to fly.”

“Rifter doesn’t
allow us to fly,” Toss said, frightened at the prospect.

“Rifter isn’t
here right now,” Sly said harshly.  “He needs our support.  And he needs you
too, Wisp, whether or not he’s too proud to ask you to come back. 
Help us
.”

For a moment, it
was as if he was only talking to the air.  She must have been there. 
Of
course
she was!  She may have been as stubborn as Rifter, but she would
never abandon him.

“Sly, this is
pointless!” Nix scolded.  “We have to go!”

The lava was
coming down, breaking the ice apart.  What didn’t melt would soon be falling
down on them as an avalanche.  They couldn’t stay.  To be honest, they would be
lucky to get out.

“Whisper,
please,” Sly entreated again.  “We can’t wait for his permission this time. 
Sometimes, you have to break the rules!”

There was no
response, and Sly began to think that maybe he had been fooling himself to
believe that she was there.  The others were moving on.  The world had been
taken by chaos again.

Maybe this
really is the end
,
Sly thought, staring up at the fiery mountain.

He’d been here
for decades and had seen a lot of terrible things – most of which he’d
forgotten.  Was this the worst?  He had already lived a lifetime – maybe two. 
Perhaps they should call it quits and bow out gracefully.

Standing there,
Sly thought – for the first time – that it would be easier to give up than to
fight – and then a stream of light shot forward through the trees.  The fairy
had come into their midst, and there wasn’t one among them that didn’t notice
her.

She gave them an
earful at first, but finally ushered them all together for one last blessing.

She flew over
their heads and spoke the secret prayer over them.  Though it took a great deal
of her own power – so much that she couldn’t fly and had to be carried by Toss
– all of the boys became light as air, weightless as they’d ever been.

They had never
been allowed to fly before, and they each had to say that it was the finest
thing they’d ever felt, despite the danger all around them.  The world was
reeling, but they were soaring.

“Yahoo!” Finn
yelled as he shot up into the night toward the dark ship with the rest of them,
and they all began to howl.

Perhaps it was
inappropriate considering the circumstances, but these might have been the last
moments of their lives.  They might as well enjoy them.

2

Rifter…are you
there?

Snap out of it,
boy; ya little shit…

Rifter!

A girl’s shrill
scream echoed through his mind and he gasped, snapping awake.  Somehow, he
found the strength to lift his head.

Rifter knelt on
the deck, propping himself up with his sword.  He’d heard the things that the
Scourge had said, but he couldn’t believe them.  They seemed unreal!  The man
claimed he was a
nightmare
, and Rifter’s own nightmare at that. 
Impossible!  Rifter looked at the man’s shadow hand, but he still couldn’t be
convinced.

He is me?  He’s
the man I didn’t want to become?  The one I’ve dreamed about for so long?

He stared into
the Scourge’s one blue eye, and he felt fully enraged at the assertion.  The
Scourge was an evil man.  He was a murderer, a criminal.  He was all that was
wicked, and even the land died beneath him.  Rifter would never become that. 
Not
ever
.

“You’re a
fucking liar!” he yelled, pulling himself off the deck to lunge at his enemy.

The Scourge
wasn’t a man anymore, but he had grown into a sheet of darkness that slipped
easily beyond Rifter’s attack and moved across the deck before becoming whole
again.

“Try again,” he
laughed, “but you won’t be any more right the next time you say it.”

“Are you going
to mess with me, or are you going to
fight me
?” Rifter shouted at him. 
He tried once again to attack, but the Scourge slipped easily out of his path a
second time.

“I’m going to
feed off your ignorance and fear,” the Scourge said, “and then I’m going to
kill you.  That’s all.  Want to attack me again?  Go ahead.”

Rifter did, but
not just because he was invited.  He wanted this man to
shut up
!  He
took flight and shot toward his enemy as fast as he could, but the man only
deflected his blows with a sword before shooting past him again.

He hadn’t been
this fast before.  Rifter knew that, despite whatever else his own mind kept
from him.  Even without being able to fly, the man had always been swift.  Now
it seemed that since he had embraced his claim of being part of the darkness,
he had become more than human – even beyond what Rifter was.

Rifter stared
across the deck at him now, and it was his own fury at this which caused the
mountain below to explode in a burst of fire and magma.

“Your brothers
are down below,” the Scourge said with a knowing smile.  “They’re dead.  You
let them die.  How could they not be?  Have you even noticed what’s happened?”

Rifter was aware
of how the earth was rumbling, but it did not affect the ship in the sky.  He
felt the heat and smelled the stench of the sulfur.  He didn’t fail to notice
the orange glow, but he thought little of it.  There was only one thing on his
mind, and it was standing in front of him.

But the others
are down there.  The lava flow could kill them if they can’t get away.  I left
them there…

“Don’t listen,
Rifter!”  Wren called to him.  “They can take care of themselves!”

Wren… 
He saw her
before him, a look of concern on her face, and he tried to focus on her. 
She’s
the only thing that’s real.  Nothing else is real.

“She’s a
woman
;
what does she know?” the Scourge asked him leadingly.  “It’s not like she’s
important.  She’s just something else for you to possess.  She’s like your
sword, like your coat.  She’s something that the others don’t have, and you can
be exalted by it.  I know that you feel this way.  Trust me.  I know you.”

Did he?  Rifter
didn’t even know what he felt.  Perhaps he should have given it more thought
before now.  Was this why she wanted to leave him?

“She’s not worth
dying for,” the Scourge went on, trying to sway him.  “Or is she?  Is there
something about her that you can’t live without – something that would make
eternity not worth living if she wasn’t here with you?  You could replace her
easily – with that feisty Tribal, perhaps. 
She
was something.”

Rifter was
confused, but he felt his face heat up.  Was he embarrassed at that?  How could
this man claim to know those things?

“I’ll give you
one opportunity, but I know you won’t take it.  Throw down your sword to save
her life.”

“Don’t do it,
Rifter!”  Wren urged.  “He said he was going to kill me anyway!”

“Don’t listen to
what she says,” the Scourge said dismissively.  “We both know that she doesn’t
know a thing.  Is she worth it?  Throw down your sword or I’ll kill her. 
She’ll be dead in an instant.  You’ve seen how fast I am.  You can’t hope to
stop me.”

Rifter
considered this.  He peered past his enemy at the girl who was tied there,
looking at him with so much fear in her eyes.  Could he do this?  Did he have
what it took to put her before himself, even when the consequences were so
severe?

You’re a selfish
bastard,
Nix had said to him.

Yes.  Yes,
you’re right
,
he realized.

Rifter felt his
resolve slipping.  Eternity without her didn’t have much to do with it.  She
had said she was going to leave him, but he couldn’t let another die because of
him – especially her.  He wanted her to have that life she wanted if she could
find it – to be happy, even if it was somewhere else, with
someone
else.

Rifter let his
fingers go limp, and his sword fell from his hand, clattering to the deck.  He
thought he saw something like surprise pass across the Scourge’s face, but that
was quickly replaced by glee.

“Kick it over
the edge,” he instructed.

Rifter
hesitated, but then he did as he was told.  The sword went through the railing
and plummeted toward the streams of lava below, where it would doubtless return
to the ore it had been forged from.  He was left without a proper weapon,
feeling naked, but he was aware of what he had done.  For her, he was ready.

He was willing
to die.

“You surprised
me,” the Scourge said, eyeing him, impressed.  “I was certain that you didn’t
have such strong feelings for her.  I wonder if this could possibly have any
bearing on the way things play out.  But I guess we’ll never know.  Now we come
to the important question.  How do you want to die?”

Rifter lifted
his clear eyes to look at the man he hated, and somehow, a smile formed on his
lips.

“You’re the
expert,” he replied curtly.  “What do you suggest?”

The Scourge didn’t
wait to give it thought.  He thrust his sword at the boy, lightning fast, but
Rifter stepped aside and the blade went past him, narrowly missing his body. 
He grabbed the Scourge’s arm as it glided by, making the man drop his sword.

The Scourge was
quick to slip out of his grasp, but at the same moment, every last member of
Rifter’s Pack landed on the deck behind him, their faces illuminated by the
volcanic glow and their weapons drawn, ready to fight.

Rifter smiled at
his enemy, knowing that the others were with him.  He had known they were
coming, for the same as he could feel the land, he was aware of those who were
bound to him because of the Vow.  Whisper was there as well.  He couldn’t see
her, but he knew.  He was glad to have her near him again.

No matter what
had happened in the past, it was important that he had them with him now.  They
were the ones that mattered.

With them
backing him up, Rifter knelt down and picked up his enemy’s own sword that had
been dropped, holding it toward the dark man menacingly.  The Scourge stood
back, appraising them all, but he didn’t appear intimidated, even though they
were a small army against him.