Nevermor (23 page)

He gets all the
best things.

Wren was given a
wooden bowl to use for herself, but she was too nervous to eat before they had
tasted it.  They gathered around the table and she was holding her breath as
they took their first bites.

The boys ate
greedily, without caution – and even better, they seemed to
like
it. 
They hummed and nodded as they stared down at their platters, completely
absorbed in the meal.  Seeing this, she was brave enough to taste it herself,
and her eyes lit up in surprise.  It was good.  In fact, it was delicious!  She
was proud of herself, especially since she had been working with meats and
herbs that she hadn’t understood.

Perhaps this was
her calling after all.

Even Nix ate it
without complaining, and when Finn reached to steal some when Nix was turned to
talk to Mech, he was quickly caught with a knife tapped across his wrist.  It
was a swift chop, but it drew blood, and Finn got the message.

“What the hell!”
Finn protested, looking down at the shallow gash in his skin as red liquid rose
to the top.

“You ate your
own.  Stay away from mine,” Nix warned him with a smile.  It was another
vicious
game
.  Strangely enough, the idea that he was defending what she
had cooked flattered her – until they started flicking the blood at each other.

“Stop!” she
gasped, appalled by their behavior.

All of them,
even those not involved, looked up at her outburst.  She was keenly aware of
the number of eyes looking her way, but she did not back down.  This was too
gruesome.  She wouldn't allow it.

“
Not
at
the table,” she insisted, as if it was alright for them to do it elsewhere.

“Sorry, Wren,”
Finn said, easily defeated.  He sat there quietly, wrapping a cloth around his
bleeding wrist.  Nix glared at her a moment, but didn't speak.

She glanced over
at Rifter, who was smirking for how she'd put them in their places, but she was
only wondering why they didn't have better sense than to engage in such
behavior.  It was
blood
, and they were treating it like water!  How
could they think that was sanitary?  She was asking them before she had told
herself not to.

“How can you all
deal with blood so casually?  Aren’t you afraid of some disease?”

“Oh, we don’t
get sick,” Finn said helpfully.  “Well, not that way at least.  I guess we’d
get sick if we were poisoned or something.”

She wasn't sure
what she'd expected them to say, but this nearly knocked her over.

“You don’t get
sick?  Not at all?”  She imagined all the times she’d comforted the others at
the orphanage when they’d gotten an ear or toothache – and those were some of
the minor things.  What a blessing it would be to never have to worry about
such trifles again.

“We have aches
and pains from battle, of course, but the Vow puts us in a state of being
unchanged, like time is standing still,” Sly spoke up.  “We don’t age; we don’t
decay at all.  It’s very fascinating, isn’t it, Rifter?”

“You think
everything is fascinating,” he said, and Wren could tell he found it all
tiresome.  She also thought that Sly knew he would react this way, and that he
had done it only so she would see it.

She had more
questions, but she knew that Rifter wasn’t interested in that.  But it really
was
fascinating.  She imagined being unchanged, not having to worry about what
would happen in the future, or what would become of her when she grew up,
because she never would – if she was allowed to stay here.  She supposed that
was still undetermined, but decided to probe for an answer.

“So, if it is
alright for me to stay here, I will take the Vow as well?”  She asked it in
Rifter’s direction, and he lifted his head to look at her.

She wasn’t sure
what she saw in that gaze.  He was terribly hard to read sometimes.

“Come with me,”
he said, rising abruptly.

At that, Whisper
came out of her grotto in the wall and went to sit on his shoulder.  Her light
was much dimmer than usual, flickering like a lamp that needed more oil.

“You shouldn’t
come.  You’re weak,” he scolded her, but she was not so weak that she didn’t
fill his ear with viscous accusations.

“
Fine
. 
Have it your way,” he snapped.  “You are the most insufferable thing there ever
was!  I don’t know how I keep company with you.  …No,
you
shut it.”

He carried on
with her as he walked away.  This suddenness caught Wren off guard.  Beside
her, Mach gave her a little nudge and she finally reacted, rising up from her
seat to hurry after him.

Am I going to
take the Vow right now?  Will he send me home?  What about my brothers?  I
can’t agree to stay here without them.  No – no, I won’t.

Her mind was
full of questions, but she managed to keep them contained as she followed
Rifter down the tunnel and out into the forest.

1

The day was
slowly fading, giving way to pink and amber hues.  The afternoon sun had
already passed behind the trees, cutting off most of the warm light.  There
were a few hours of daylight left, and Wren wondered what they would do with
them as she followed Rifter outside.  She kept her curiosity contained for as
long as she could, but finally she had to ask for instruction.

“May I ask what
we’re doing?”

He stopped to
face her when she had finally caught up to him, and the look in his blue eyes
shot straight through her.

“I was thinking
about you again,” he said, and this time she didn’t know what he meant.

“Oh?”  She
wasn’t sure if she should be hopefully or wary.

“
I want to be honest with you,” he began.  “Though you
probably already know it, this place is not always safe.  You've already seen
some of the ways that it isn't, but if you're going to stay here, you need to
see the rest.  Nevermor can be a wonderful place, full of freedom, but you have
to know how to handle it.  I’m a little torn.  I feel that since you're here,
it's my job to keep you safe, but I can't hide you from it.  So a
re you
willing to go further?”

Wren thought
about what he was saying.  Before she had come here, she might've said yes
without thinking – she
had
.  Then, in the first hours, she had been
assaulted by a shadow, nearly ravaged by pirates, and almost devoured by a
nightmare – not to mention the many times that Whisper had tried to kill her. 
But after what she had been through so far, how could the rest of it be worse?

It is still
better than the factory.  It is much better than the loneliness.

“Some of the
others don’t think you should be here,” Rifter went on.  “Do you still?”

He gazed at her
neutrally, as if he wouldn’t judge her one way or the other, but this opened up
a new conflict in her own mind.

You could say no
right now, and he’ll take you back.  No more nightmares.

What good would
that do?  I don’t want to go back.

“What do
you
think?”
she asked finally.  She needed to know his opinion.  He must have asked because
he was also beginning to doubt whether she was fit for this world.  Somehow,
she didn’t want to accept that, even if he was right.

“I think you’ve
proven yourself well enough,” he told her, and to hear his approval made her
feel like floating off the ground.  “You’re different from the rest of them,
and not just because you’re a girl.  I feel—”

He hesitated,
and she waited for what he would say, her heart speeding.

“Well, I feel that
I want you to stay,” he said finally.

That gave her
hope, even though it hadn’t been entirely what she was looking for.  Nix’s
comments about her being killed simply dissolved.  If Rifter believed she
wasn’t worthless, then she was able to feel better about herself.

Wren didn’t even
realize how she was smiling at him until he returned it with an incredulous
laugh.

“Come on then,”
he instructed her, starting out.  She’d forgotten that he hadn’t told her where
they were going.

They walked side
by side through the trees, with Rifter keeping an eye on the world around him
and with Wren wondering what he was looking for.

“Now we begin
your education,” he said.  When he spoke again, she hadn’t been expecting it. 
“If you’re going to stay here, there are things about this world that you need
to know, and the nightmares are just the start.  There are creatures and
peoples that you must be extremely cautious of if you value your life.”

Like the
pirates,
she guessed. 
And Whisper.  Possibly Nix…
  She nodded to show she was
receptive.

“There are some
beings that you should never involve yourself with, under any circumstances,
unless death is what you’re looking for.  Some are obvious – they look like
monsters.  Others are not so easy to pick out.  The first of these is
the
fairy wisp.”

He said this in
front of Whisper, who was sitting there on his shoulder, and she didn’t say a
word to it, though she did stare at Wren with a hateful gaze.  Wren had about
ten questions that battled for a place in her mouth.  He didn’t give her an
opportunity to ask them.

“Don’t be fooled
by the light or the attractive appearance.  The wisps are quite dangerous.  I’m
going to show you how to recognize that you’re in their territory before it’s
too late.”

“Too late?  What
would they do to me?”

“One fairy
alone?  Maybe not much more than lead you off to a monster if you try to follow
it.  But in a large group?  They’re like tiny witches.  They could curse you,
turn you to stone, burn you alive, pull you inside out…  That kind of thing.”

Inside out?

Whisper took to
the air finally, drifting ahead, and Rifter started off again, but how could
Wren leave it at that?

“I guess I can
take it that these wisps don’t generally like humans.”

“Not at all,” he
assured her.

“If that’s so,
then why does one go about with you?”

He shot her a
quick glance and smiled, shaking his head at her.  “You know, the others before
you never asked questions like this.  They’ve always been content for me to
tell them what they need to know.”

“They must not
have been very smart then,” she countered.

“I like to think
it’s because they were able to look and listen without having to ask,” he
retorted playfully.

Wren wasn’t
willing to believe that.  There was nothing wrong with being curious, despite
what Sly might have told her.

“I just like to
know the reasons for things,” she said to defend herself.

“You mean
girls
do,” he corrected.

“Not all girls
are the same, Rifter,” she replied indignantly.

He smiled a
little when she said that, and she wondered what he was thinking.

“I guess that’s
true,” he agreed finally.

“Besides, why
don’t you like questions?  Do they intimidate you?” she teased, trying to get
back at him.

Rifter turned
and gave her a long appraising look as they walked, but he was not angry.  In
fact, he had a smirk on his mouth.

“Did you just
challenge me?”

If it will get
you to answer.
 
“I suppose I did,” she said with an air of pride.

“I guess now I
have to prove you wrong,” he guessed.  “So go ahead.  Ask me something
difficult.”

“Anything I
want?” she asked, liking the idea what she had won this opportunity.

“Better think of
something fast before I change my mind.”

She pretended to
give it serious thought.  There were many things she could have asked, but Wren
went for the thing that was currently in the front of her mind.

“Why does
Whisper like you if the fairy wisps don’t like people?”

Rifter sighed,
but he was smiling, as if he had caught her at her own game.  “That, I can’t
answer.”

“Oh?  Why not?”

“I suppose if
you want to know that, you’ll have to ask
her
.  She’s never told me why
she saved my life.”

Wren’s ears
perked up.  She had instantly become as an alert animal who’d heard a telltale
snap in the brush.

“She saved your
life?  Well, you could begin with telling me about that,” she suggested.

He was quiet a
moment, and she began to think that he wouldn’t tell her.

“You don’t want
to talk about it?  I would think you’d
like
to talk about yourself.  You
must have had some great adventures for all the time you’ve been here.”

“It was a long
time ago,” Rifter said as a defense.  “Sometimes I…”

He stopped
talking, shaking his head. 
Don’t ask him about anything he might not
remember.
  Sly had told her that.  Wren wondered if that was what she had
done, and even though she’d been warned, she couldn’t help but wonder why she
shouldn’t do it.  And why couldn’t he remember things?  Maybe that was the
biggest mystery of all.