Realm Wraith (37 page)

The two of them sat there together in awkward silence. Miranda sipped her tea, placing the empty cup down next to the still open book. She idly flipped through the other pages, looking at the caricatures drawn in the margins.

“What is that, a bloody three-headed chicken on fire?” she murmured, stopping at a page with a fiery, skeletal creature, somewhat avian in appearance. “There’s no name—I really don’t like the look of that one.”

Staring at the image, Rayne didn’t even realize he was grinding his teeth together until the scraping became audible.

“Those fiery sorts are rather disgusting,” he remarked.

Miranda slowly drew her hand away from the book, her expression somber. “Are you going to face that monster tonight? Tomordred, I mean.”

“I have to. There’s something I need to know. And I can’t keep running forever. Besides, if I can find a way to face him, to stand up to him, maybe it’ll make things easier if I tell others what I’ve learned, so they can face him as well.”

“How reckless.”

“If I fail, and he eats me, at least I leave Levi in capable hands. David’s a good man; he’ll take care of him.”

“What about me?”

He looked at her. “You?”

“You’d run to your death and leave me all alone?”

Rayne hadn’t considered that. He never thought that she needed him.

“I was so alone for so long,” she mumbled. “That night, as I stood there huddled beside a tree, and I heard voices, I barely dared to hope that I had finally found someone. I was so scared at first, because there was this overwhelming demonic presence, so dark and crushing. Yet I heard people talking, so I worked up the courage to approach you. And then I heard your voice, and felt your icy hand taking mine, and I was horrified that someone like you could be there, but I also felt rather glad, that someone I knew, and liked, shared this fate. And you helped me. You refused to abandon me; even when you were gone you made certain I’d be safe. If you’re just going to throw yourself into the mouth of this monster, then what was the point? Why try so hard to give me hope if you’re just going to throw your existence away?”

“I’m sorry,” Rayne said. “I have to do this. Not just for me. For my son.”

“I see.” She didn’t cry. All emotion had drained from her face, and she stared ahead, numb.

“But, I will promise you this. I won’t go down easy. If he wants to eat me, he has to fight for it. I will do everything humanly possible to survive, so you will see me again.”

“Please, don’t die before I do.”

“I won’t.” Rayne’s lowered his voice, as he stared at her, sensing her sorrow. He reached out and touched her golden hair with gentle grace, brushing aside a stray strand with a finger, and his face went red when he realized how forward he was being, and he buried all sense of emotion within him. She blushed as well, gripping her hands together as she tried to restrain her own feelings.

“It’s late,” she said after a minute or so. “I should get going. Been on my feet all day you know. It’ll be nice to get home, relax a bit.” She stood up. “You have a good evening, Mr. Mercer.”

“Yeah. You too.” Rayne fumbled with the wheels of his chair, but she went to the study door and exited without even looking back at him. Outside, he could hear her talking to David.

“Are you done already? I can give you a ride home if you like.”

“I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll catch a late bus; don’t worry about it.”

“Well, if you’re certain. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Take care, David.”

“Yeah, you too.”

The front door had already shut by the time Rayne reached the study door. He opened it to find David looking at him.

“Did you say something to upset her?”

“Not really. She’s just concerned about me.”

“Because of your injuries?”

“No, nothing like that. She thinks I’m off to fight a dragon, that’s all.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

Chapter 12

Rayne stood beside his bed later that evening, feeling wistful. He very well knew this could be his last night on earth, his last night of even existing. But he did not want to dwell on potential goodbyes. He had not seen his son since that afternoon, and his encounter with David after Miranda left had been brief. As far as either of them were concerned, everyday life continued to be normal. Deep down, he didn’t want to do this. But he knew it was inevitable. It was one thing for Tomordred to threaten Rayne’s own existence, and it was another to threaten his child’s.

The rain falling outside still hadn’t ceased. He could hear it pounding against the window, but could not see it in the darkness of night. He listened to it fall as he lay there in bed, and it comforted him, the sound of water. The sound grew louder and louder in his mind behind closed eyes. What started as a simple pattering became a loud rushing roar, and Rayne clung to that sound, sensing himself slipping between worlds, but continuing to focus.

Water rushed all around him, turbulent ocean in a screaming tempest. Rayne’s feet alighted on the surface of the water, never passing through, even as the swells burst around him. The damned that struggled in this sea did not reach out to him. Not since that first night had they tried to touch him at all, and a frozen glare on this evening stayed as warning not to try again.

“
Tomordred!
” he bellowed at the screaming heavens. “
I know you can hear me! Show yourself!
”

His heart quavered, and he almost hoped that the beast would not appear, and give Rayne temporary reprieve. The longer he stood here, the more this seemed like a terrible idea that would end painfully. But there was no turning back. He would face this nightmare.

The great eye burst open within the clouds, and Rayne felt the full fury of its power searing through his soul, threatening to tear him apart. Even the swirling winds and vapors could not diminish its strength this time.

“I knew you’d come,” the terrible voice wafted through the maelstrom.

“So it’s true!” Rayne cried. “That was you in my son’s dreams.”

The eye narrowed its gaze. “If you had accepted your fate, I wouldn’t have been forced to find another soul, one close to yours. And I found that boy. Innocent. Naïve. Easily terrorized. It’s a simple matter of reaching through the Abyss into the soul, into the mind. In his dreams, I can speak to him.”

It was as if a dam broke. Despite his terror, Rayne’s anger flooded through him. “You
bastard!
This is between us! You leave my son out of it!”

“If I want to speak with your son, I shall do so. What are you going to do about it?” Six black tentacles erupted from the sea around him.

Rayne curled his fingers into fists. Here in the den of the beast, as Darrigan had said, he didn’t have to hide. The air grew cold around him. He felt nothing, no pain, no discomfort, only keen awareness of swirling, frozen mist. The threatening tentacles slowed as they froze.

A seventh limb pierced through the surface of the water, wrapping around Rayne’s feet like a coiled serpent before he could act. It dragged him down through the waves into the churning water beneath, deeper and deeper. Everything grew black, and he grasped that this sea had no bottom. He was still surrounded by cold air that froze the water around him, crystallizing it into ice with him imprisoned inside. The tentacle released him before it could become trapped in the ice, leaving him to plummet.

He couldn’t move his limbs, he couldn’t even open his mouth to cry out, trapped in the ice like so many damned. Through the fractured facets of his prison, he saw a shape before him, a white gleaming form, narrowed at the tip. Another shape, inverted in direction and thus narrow at the bottom, hung above it. They pulled back, then snapped together, catching the crystallized shape, crushing it. Beyond them, Rayne saw the swirling void of nothingness, and as the ice shattered he floated before a wall of teeth, and swam backwards. Too late, as another worming black tendril grabbed him again.

The three great eyes opened behind him, hundreds of times his size, and here, so close, the sense of power they stirred around Rayne intensified. He screamed—he couldn’t help it. He fought to regain some dignity, and thought about why he was doing this, giving himself purpose. It helped, but he still couldn’t banish the nightmarish feelings, the cold sweat that somehow ran down his brow even while he was underwater.

“Your stupidity should be commended,” Tomordred taunted him, dangling Rayne by a tentacle right above the void of a mouth. “You’re the first mortal that’s ever been insane enough to try to fight me.”

“At least I’m not a coward!” Rayne spat back. It took all his nerve to do that, and he regretted it instantly.

“What?” The three eyes blinked.

Rayne gulped. “You heard me. I know the secrets they whisper about you on the shores. They said you were tiny and frail a long time ago, a weak creature. And now look at you. Bigger than anything! Nothing else in the universe compares! And you use it to cover for your lack of courage! If you really were more than a coward, you wouldn’t be so hell-bent on destroying
one little mortal!”

His eyes suddenly widened, as a thought entered his mind. “That’s it,” he gasped. The eye before him, despite its power, suddenly did not rattle him. The cold quiet that had gripped him in the past filled him now. His anger remained, but it was tempered, focused. He spoke in the barest whisper. “You were mortal once, weren’t you?”

All three eyes went wide, the power inside them flaring as a raging inferno, threatening to consume Rayne with sheer aura. But Rayne held his ground, bolstered as Tomodred’s reaction confirmed his suspicion.

“That’s why you hate mortal beings, isn’t it? We remind you of what you were—a testament to your weakness.”

“I have had enough of you—”

“The other denizens of the Abyss don’t know, do they?” Rayne clung to the tentacle now as it loosened its grip, trying to drop him down into that gaping mouth. Its movement halted when he asked that question. “I see now. If other demons knew you were mortal, you wouldn’t be so high and mighty now, would you?”

“And you’re about to cease to be. There will be nobody to tell them.”

“Oh no? How do you think I learned your secret? The information is out there.” Rayne looked Tomordred right in the eye. “And I wasn’t alone when I discovered it. Others know. And if I don’t return safely, they’ll spread your secret.”

“Are you trying to threaten me?”

“Why yes, I am. What are you going to do about it?”

The mouth behind Rayne closed, disappearing into the inky blackness that enclosed them both.

“Don’t act so smug. I will devour you, eventually.” The two eyes in the distance closed themselves, leaving one dull, dejected eye. “I suppose you want me to let you go?”

“I want you to leave my son alone. Never speak through his dreams again. I want you to stop chasing me, and I don’t want you targeting the other Realm Wraiths either. Let us wander in peace.”

“Fine. If I agree to all this, you will not breathe a word of what you know?”

“I swear I will not tell a soul about what you once were.”

“Good. Now get lost.”

“Wait, I—”

“I said leave!” Tomordred roared.

“I want to know more!” Rayne blurted out.

The demon’s eyes flashed. “More? About what? Are you looking for more reasons to humiliate me?”

“No! I just want to know what happened! You’re this big, terrifying monster. How could a mortal become something that all other demons fear?”

“How brazen. Why am I not surprised?”

“You’re the one who noted I was curious.”

“Curiosity is very dangerous, you know.”

“Look, I already know your secret. What could it hurt to know the details?”

“And if I tell you these details, mortal, then you’ll leave?”

“Stop calling me mortal. I have a name; it’s Rayne.”

“I don’t care what your name is.”

“Well I just thought it seemed silly, calling me that when you yourself—”

“Enough! Fine. Rayne. If it will shut you up.”

The world around them shifted as Tomordred took them from the black depths of the bottomless sea to the blue underwater floor of another ocean, where a graveyard of vessels rested beneath endless fathoms of water. Here, the tentacle let go of Rayne’s body, and he swam forward to sit on a rusted anchor that dug its way into the ground. In the dim aqua light, he could see the formless black of a great mountain, but couldn’t tell if it stood close or far away from him. When the violet eye opened and stared through him, Rayne felt his fear creeping up on him. But he controlled it now. Perhaps knowing he had power over this intimidating creature put things in perspective. He pushed that fear into the back of his mind, and dwelt on the positives of the situation. Levi was safe now. That’s what mattered.

Enormous sea creatures floated above them, but they shied away from Tomordred’s massive form, their instincts sensing danger. Their movements were sluggish next to the speed of his tendrils, and as Rayne watched, Tomordred snatched up the great worming form of a massive fish-like demon with a mouth full of jagged spikes that passed for teeth, dragging it while it struggled into a mouth many times its size, where far larger, sharper, and more numerous teeth crushed it, obliterating its existence. Rayne knew this was not any act to satisfy hunger, but a warning of the fate he would face should he break his promise.