Redemption (17 page)

He looked up at
her defiantly and let go of her hands.  “For me it’s different.  I’ve been so
dirty for so long, it’s impossible for me to ever be clean again.”  His eyes were
deep holes, pits of endless empty blue.  “The popularity, the sex, the high- I
enjoyed it, at least for a while.  Sure, I did it all for my brother and
sisters, but deep down part of me enjoyed it.  That’s the worst part of all.”

Rebecca shook
her head adamantly.  “That’s no different.  Someone like me- you think there
wasn’t a part of me that liked being the victim?  That enjoyed being able to
blame everyone else for my pain?  My decisions were made out of hurt and
desperation- but they were decisions all the same!”

Her big round
eyes stared up at him, pleading.  “Do you think I can ever make up for all the
wrong?”

He stared back
at her as she sat there, breathless and waiting, as if she actually thought his
answer would decide her fate.  “Of course you can.”  His big hands cupped her
face.  “You can.  There’s something so beautiful in you.  You could never be
evil.”

She clasped his
hands where they cradled her face.  “That’s exactly how I feel about you,” she
said fiercely.  “If there is anything in me worth redeeming, I’ll use it to get
you free.  To let you live your life again.”

“Rebecca…” 
Isaac’s face was full of a sad kind of tenderness.  Rebecca’s breath came short
and her heart pounded in her chest.  His beautiful lips were inches from her
own. 

She
stood, shattering the moment of danger.  “Let’s go while it’s still light.” 
She gave him an impatient hand up.  “We are
both
getting out of here. 
No more playing the martyr!”

Isaac
nodded.  But he knew he would do anything to save this woman.

A
figure nestled
among the lush greens and browns of the forest.  At first, Rebecca thought it
was a large boulder, but the closer they got, the more it looked as if it were
actually a giant statue, standing guard over the little rise that led out of
the valley. 

“It looks pretty
clear off that way,” Isaac pointed to the sloping ground to the right of the
path.  Apparently, he shared her opinion that they ought to try to avoid that
thing if they could. 

It was a nice
thought, while it lasted.  As they moved on, the forest seemed to encroach on
them.  The undergrowth grew thicker with every step, and they had to push branches
out of their way and scramble through tall ferns and irascible thorny bushes. 
At last, their progress slowed to a complete halt.  Rebecca stood there feeling
mutinous while Isaac sucked on a bleeding scratch that spanned the back of his
left hand. 

“Damn it!”  She
threw her hands up and began to fight her way back through the undergrowth,
back the way they had come.  The going got easier and easier until they finally
stood on the path again. 

Knowing it would
do no good, they tried the other side of the path.  It was the same as before. 
They were soon mired in the tangle of undergrowth, unable to move another inch
forward, while they could almost skip back the way they had come, completely
unhindered.  They were supposed to walk past that big statue up there.  There
was no going around.

Rebecca sighed. 
Isaac stretched out his hand and she took it.  They made their way down into
the valley without hesitation.  Though the constant trials were getting old,
Rebecca knew that the only way to keep moving on was to get past whatever
challenge lay ahead.

Hand in hand,
they boldly marched to the statue and stood staring up at the towering figure. 
“What do you suppose it means?”  Rebecca’s voice was hushed.  She didn’t want
to invite trouble.  Something about the statue made all of her resolution to
get it over with just drain away. 

The statue
before them was that of a voluptuous woman with the hindquarters of a lion, and
big, outstretched wings that cast shadows on the ground.  Her face was stately,
somehow, as if she was looking down on the world.  The way the light touched
the smooth stone made it look as if the thing were alive.  

Isaac shook his
head.  “It’s creeping me out.  Let’s get out of here.” 

He tugged at her
hand, and they moved toward the little sloping path- the only clear way out of
the valley.  They had taken no more than a few steps, just past one massive
paw, when the statue stirred. 

The sphinx stood
from her crouched position, stretched, and moved her massive body to block the
path.  Her supple flesh rippled with muscle, and her lion’s tail lashed as she
settled herself on her haunches before them.

Rebecca and Issac
were rooted to the spot, though they did manage to move closer to each other,
just out of instinct. 

“Little people
have come tripping merrily into my valley and roused me,” the sphinx said in a
melodious voice.  Her serene face was somewhat ruined by the long, pointed
teeth that flashed when she spoke. 

Rebecca was
mesmerized.  Though obviously very alive, the thing still looked as if it was
made of stone, right down to the slight crack that marred one elegant cheek and
the bridge of the noble nose.

“We only want to
pass through,” said Rebecca, with what she hoped was a confident tone. 

The creature
laughed mirthlessly.  “The little people only want to pass through,” she said
darting a disdainful look at the tiny figures in front of her. 

Isaac glanced at
Rebecca, his blue eyes full of resignation.  Another challenge.  But how in the
world could they hope to win against this thing?  They could hardly fight it or
outrun it.  Rebecca stared at the great white wings, knowing that it was feeble
to hope that it might not be able to use them.

The sphinx
tilted its head, sending light dancing off hair the shade of a lion’s pelt. 
"Which
creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and
three legs in the evening?"

Isaac exhaled a
sigh of relief.  “Riddles,” he breathed.  “It only needs us to answer a
riddle.”  He turned his attention to the beast and said with a smile, “Man. 
Man crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two as an adult, and uses a cane as
an old man.” 

The sphinx nodded
her head gravely, as if she wasn’t surprised that he had answered so readily. 
“Answer correctly three times and you may pass.  Fail and I devour one of
you.”  Her eyes rested greedily on Isaac’s tall form. 

“The next one is
for the little female person.”  Her cat-like eyes narrowed with pleasure. 
"There are two sisters.  One gives birth to the other and she, in turn,
gives birth to the first.  Who are the two sisters?"

Rebecca
swallowed hard.  She was intelligent, she reminded herself, well read, she had
once thought she would make her living speaking cases in front of the court. 
But all thought failed her as she stared up into that sly, smiling face.  Isaac
squeezed her hand.  Ice trailed down her spine.  It was only a dream, right? 
The sphinx wouldn’t really
eat
Isaac. 

But something
told her she was wrong.  “Sisters,” she muttered frantically.  “Sisters that
give birth to one another…”

Isaac shifted
his weight and took a breath, but the sphinx immediately squelched his
intentions.  “Tut, tut,” she clucked.  “Let the lady person answer, please.”

He shifted
anxiously on the balls of his feet, and Rebecca was slightly annoyed.  Did he
already know the answer, or was he just afraid he was about to be eaten by a
giant lion chick?

Rebecca closed
her eyes and thought frantically.  “Oh!”  She gasped, happiness and anxiety
warring within her.  What if she was wrong?  “Day and night,” she said
hastily.  “Day gives birth to night and night to day… one giving way to the
other.”

The sphinx
grinned again.  “For a moment I thought I would get to have a small snack.” 
Her ancient eyes studied their linked hands.  “This one is for you both, then,
though it’s fitting to only one of you.”

She crossed her
front paws leisurely.  “
The man who invented it
doesn't want it.  The man who bought it doesn't need it.  The man who needs it
doesn't know it.”  Again that sly, knowing smile.  “What is it?”

They
stared at each other for a moment in panic, but it wasn’t long before Isaac
squeezed Rebecca’s hand and turned to face the sphinx.  “Coffin,” he said
softly.  His voice was pitched low, but full of emotion.  “It’s a coffin.”

“Correct,”
the sphinx said with a sigh.  “Though in this case, I believe the man who needs
it
does
know it.”  Her sly eyes roved over them and Rebecca felt a
tremor in Isaac’s hand. 

~~~~~

The reaper wheezed
at her from the dark recesses of his hood.  For a moment, Rebecca thought there
must be something wrong with him.  Maybe… maybe they were winning, and their
successes were weakening him.

But this thought
did little to bolster her, for when he spoke, it was in his usual deep, gravely
rasp, and the cold power that radiated from him turned her blood to ice in her
veins.  She was stupid to ever have thought that death might be weak.

“You’re cleverer
than I expected,” he hissed at her, as he leaned on his staff. 

Rebecca
snorted.  “It was just riddles.  Just a game.  Just like this whole
nightmare.”  But even she could hear the lie in her voice.  It was, all the
time, getting harder and harder to tell herself it was all a dream. 

The hooded
figure tilted its head back, as if glancing up at the sky.  Even at that angle,
all her eyes could find beneath the hood was deep blackness.  “Night gives
birth to day,” he rasped softly.  “And day to night.”  The head lowered and she
could feel the gaze- or whatever passed for a gaze when you were faceless-
boring into her.  “You fear me.”

He had glided
closer without her even realizing it, and quite suddenly he was far too close
for comfort.  “You
need
me,” he rasped.  “You and that idiot fight on as
if you’re on some noble quest to eliminate darkness,” a sucking inhalation, “but
it’s a futile effort.  There is no light without darkness.  No good without
evil.”

She made as if
to shove him away, stopping at the last second and stepping back herself
instead.  Death chuckled at her from behind a raven mask, and the sound made
her feel like she would come unhinged.  God, had she almost touched that
thing?  What would have happened, she wondered, if she had been so stupid?

“You’re afraid
of me?”  The deep voice rasped.  “Good.  You should be.”  Rebecca squeezed her
eyes closed and held her ground as a cold wind rushed her.  Grains of grit and
bits of leaf and twig stung her skin, and the cold went through her chest,
burning.  And then he was gone.

She was at a
loss to explain the obtuse behavior of their tormentor, but something was
starting to bother her.  There was an edge to the hooded figure’s words that
hadn’t been there before.  Maybe they really were wearing him down.  There was
a desperation there that was wicked and sharp. 

“We have to get
out of here as soon as we can,” she told Isaac when he returned from his trip
behind a nearby bush.

He shot her a
puzzled blue look at her words, but didn’t argue.  He wanted out of the dream
as badly as she did.

~~~~~~

They began to
climb the base of the mountain, and the forest seemed to close in on either
side. 

“Did you hear
that?”  Rebecca’s voice sounded muffled in the fog.

Isaac shifted
closer, taking her hand.  “Yeah.  It sounds like…hoof beats?”

The rhythmic
beats were accompanied by the soft jangling and creaking of the horse’s tack. 
The air had taken on a chill.  Rebecca braced herself.  Another challenge. 

A deep, harsh
voice broke the muffled silence.  “Isaac!”  The man’s voice rang out, seeming
to hang in the misty air.

Isaac and
Rebecca stood rooted to the ground, as the voice grew closer.  “Isaac of the
clan Brennan!  Come and face your death!”

Rebecca jerked
into motion, pulling Isaac with her down the path, then darting into a thin
screen of saplings and thorny bushes.  Every footstep seemed loud, every
scuffed pebble and snapped twig like an alarm.  The clip-clopping of the horses
hooves drew nearer, bringing with it a damp, chilling fog.

“Isaac of the
clan Brennan, descended from the son of the witch of Ardboe!” 

The voice seemed
to lodge in Rebecca’s bones and start a chill there.  “What is it?” she
hissed. 

Isaac pulled her
down behind a large fallen tree and they sheltered beneath its exposed roots. 
The damp air smelled of earth and decay, and the exposed tree roots reminded
Rebecca of bones.  She could just make out the path through the screen of
smaller trees around them.  The horse came trotting into view.  It was a large
horse, black, and covered with dark, rusty armor from a bygone era.  It snorted
and steam issued from its flaring nostrils. 

Rebecca couldn’t
make out much of the rider.  His face was hidden by the trees, but he seemed to
be clothed in the same type of armor as his horse.  He carried something pale
under one arm, and in the other hand, he held a long, barbed sword.