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  “Whoo! I didn’t even get hit that time!” Finn shouted. “Mech got knocked down twice!”

  “No,” the twin corrected, “that was Mach!”

  Rifter barely heard them. The glory of the kill was like nothing else, and all of them could agree with that truth. He stood at the edge of the tide, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, waiting for the adrenaline rush to fade so that his heart would be still again.

  That was when he heard the shriek, and he could hardly describe what that did to him. His chest clenched and his eyes shot open, and then he was searching for the source.

  Wren… He couldn’t stand the sound of a girl’s scream. It reminded him of something, but he couldn’t say what, because he just didn’t remember.

  Even so, he couldn’t quite forget. He knew one thing about it, however. He didn’t need a new memory in place of that old one.

  3

  As the battle had raged on before her, Wren could feel herself slipping away – growing distant – even though her feet weren’t moving. She didn’t think she could wish herself out of here, but she thought of trying. But where would she send herself? She didn’t want to be back at the orphanage as much as she didn’t want to be here right now.

  Sometimes things might be unpleasant, but it will be worth it in the end. Be strong.

  Not far away, a smaller black blob had sloshed up on the sand, and almost immediately it began to writhe and shift as the nightmare contained inside broke free. Wren’s eyes locked onto it. The atrocity was close – much too close to her – but she wasn’t sure if she should run.

  She shifted her gaze toward the others, who were caught up in the battle. None of them were paying any attention to her. She was just a few paces from the thrashing creature that was trying to break free of its gelatinous egg, and she held the knife in her fist, remembering it.

  If it comes close, I’ll just do what I have to, like at the factory.

  She hoped it didn’t come to that. She was so busy staring at the blob, making sure that it didn’t come near her, that she wasn’t paying attention to what the larger nightmare was doing.

  She was caught by surprise when a thrashing tentacle threw her back onto the sand with so much force that the wind left her. A sharp pain in her lungs wouldn’t let her have it back. She felt a dull ache where she landed, though she might have been thankful for how the sand cushioned her. The knife flew from her hand since she had not been holding it tightly enough, and by the time she looked back up, the smaller nightmare creature was upon her.

  The dark mass had sprung up from the egg, taller than her, with elongated arms and abnormally long fingers. A sharp beak had formed on its face, ready to pick her apart.

  Wren didn’t know what to do, and so she did the only thing that her instincts would allow her. When she found her breath, she screamed. She shielded her face with her arms so she would not have to watch as it killed her, yet she could not quite close her eyes.

  They were open just enough that she saw a large figure slam into the advancing nightmare, tackling it to the ground.

  Get up! Get out of the way! Wren crawled back and got to her feet, her eyes wide now, seeing everything, and she saw that it was Toss who had come to her aid, and Finn was not far behind him.

  The grounded nightmare flailed and complained, but Toss held it down as Finn stabbed it through the chest with one of his blades. It gave one final shriek and then it was finished, crackling and turning to ash that blew away in the breeze.

  It’s alright, she told herself. It’s over. You’re safe.

  She felt a light touch on her arm and jerked around. Rifter was there with his fingers on her arm, and at her turn, she was within his grasp. He looked her over to see if she was injured, and yet didn’t say anything when he looked in her eyes, but his expression was firm.

  He’s disappointed in me, she thought, and she could no longer look him in the face.

  “Are you alright?” he asked her finally, and she was able to breathe again. She sighed out her relief, not only for the end of the battle but for knowing that he hadn’t completely dismissed her because she hadn’t been able to protect herself.

  “Are you alright, Wren?” Finn asked anxiously, and she looked up to see that he and the twins were standing there to the side, peering at her with concern.

  She opened her mouth to assure them, but a sharp accusation from across the beach cut her off.

  “You weren’t supposed to defend her!” Nix growled angrily. “She’s supposed to defend herself! Those are the rules!”

  Nix tromped heatedly toward them, his gun still in hand.

  “I said she wasn’t taking the test, Nix,” Rifter reminded him.

  “Doesn’t matter,” he went on, shaking his head. “In a situation like that, she should have defended herself. She didn’t!”

  Rifter heard what the other was saying, but he didn’t respond – he didn’t get a chance to before Toss had spoken up to give an account of his actions.

  “I’m sorry, Rifter, but I just couldn’t let her get killed,” Toss claimed, and Wren was surprised to find that he looked menacing for the first time.

  “Yeah!” seconded Finn. “Leaving her to get slaughtered like that wouldn’t be very gentlemanly, would it?”

  The twins looked at each other and then nodded their heads in agreement.

  Rifter didn’t look as though he held any of them at fault. He didn’t say anything toward it as he went to recover the knife that Wren had dropped but, seeing this, Nix couldn’t let it lie.

  “She’d have been dead if they hadn’t stepped in. She has to go!”

  Rifter stepped heatedly toward his defiant brother. “This is not up for discussion, Nix. I told you that.”

  “Just admit you made a poor choice!”

  In a flash, Rifter had taken a swipe at Nix with the knife, aiming at his head. Wren gasped and put her hands over her mouth in surprise. Though Nix attempted to dodge, and even with Whisper’s blessing, he rose up with a trickle of blood along his ear.

  “Next time, I take the ear off,” Rifter promised. He touched at the small amount of blood on the blade and drew a short line down his chin.

  “You want it now?” Nix yelled, coming up in Rifter’s face but not taking his own weapon. “Go ahead!”

  “Please don’t!” Wren shrieked. None of the others moved, but she couldn’t let this happen. “Please, Rifter, don’t do it!”

  Every one of them was caught in the moment of tension, holding their breath as Rifter and Nix stared at each other, that small trickle of blood slowly trailing down Nix’s neck.

  Each second was heavy, filled with the weight of strain. Neither could make a decision – with Rifter pushing himself to act and with Nix silently calling his bluff – but the moment passed when Finn noticed something down the beach.

  “Uh, mates?” he said, daring to interrupt. “Look.”

  It was with reluctance that Rifter put the knife away, and then they were all free to look where Finn had directed them.

  They peered down the beach and noticed the small figure at once. A lone child was walking along the shore, just beyond the tide. It was a young boy, and Wren thought that she recognized him.

  Max?

  It couldn’t have been. She had taken a couple of steps before she realized that this child had much darker hair. Her relief at the end of the confrontation did not last long before she had forgotten it for her curiosity toward this new thing.

  “A dreamer?” she asked.

  Wren glanced at the others who were looking on at the little boy with somber expressions. Rifter’s was perhaps the gravest of all, and without a word, he stepped away from Nix and began to approach the boy. Nix did not protest to that. Looking at the young child, he seemed to have forgotten all else as well.

  Wren was confused and looked toward Sly imploringly.

  “That’s not a dreamer,” he told her. “It’s a wanderer. They don’t belong here.”

  “He’s s
o young,” Toss commented sadly from behind them.

  Wren considered these words, only to gasp when the thorn of understanding pricked her heart.

  A wanderer… A ghost? Could it be? Was the child, in fact, dead?

  Poor thing…

  The others stayed in place but Wren was compelled to go forward after Rifter as he approached the boy. She kept back a few paces, stopping when Rifter reached the child and knelt down in front of him.

  “Do you know where you are?” she heard him ask the boy. His voice was gentle, and she didn’t think she’d ever heard him use such a tone. It seemed a stark contrast to how he’d just been talking to Nix.

  The child looked up with large innocent eyes, but he didn’t speak. He shook his head.

  “You’re lost?” Rifter tried.

  The boy nodded. Wren watched him, feeling very sad in the deepest, motherly part of her emotions. The child was so young to have met an end like this, yet Wren knew that it happened to many children each day. Still, she couldn’t help thinking of her youngest brother as she looked at him.

  “It’s alright,” Rifter told him consolingly. “I’ll take you to where you belong. Will you trust me?”

  The child lifted his eyes up past Rifter and settled on Wren, staring a moment as if he could see through her. She gave him a brave smile but felt a tear welling behind her eye. The boy didn’t show any expression, but he looked back up at Rifter and nodded.

  Rifter stood up and took the child’s hand.

  “I’m taking him on,” he announced so that the others could hear him. They didn’t say anything to that, and then he directed his attention to Wren. “I’ll take care of him. Don’t worry.”

  She nodded, putting her trust in him and his words. Rifter pushed himself off the ground as easily as if he was floating through water, and he and the boy went up into the air together. Whisper followed, leading them on as a light in the night sky.

  Wren watched them until they were out of sight, feeling that she knew where they were going. The child had gotten lost on his way to the afterlife, and Rifter was redirecting him on his way. It gave her solace to know that the child – though dead – was being taken to a better place.

  And how generous of Rifter to do it. Her heart swelled with warm feelings of approval, despite the other things she’d seen him do.

  Behind her, the others were quiet for a few moments after Rifter had disappeared, showing their reverence. Then, finally, one of them spoke.

  “Hey, he didn’t say what we should do about the girl.” It was one of the twins.

  “We’ll deal with it later,” Sly said, mildly perturbed. “Let’s just go home and get to sleep. I’m exhausted.”

  “No one’s going to sleep. I call the council of the Talker,” Nix claimed, and the others groaned.

  “Without Rifter?” Toss asked. “You know he won’t like that.”

  “He’s not here to say no, so we’re doing it.” Nix cut a sharp eye at Wren. “No offense, but you aren’t invited.”

  She was shocked by his rudeness, though not sure why she should be. She didn’t respond.

  “Well, we can’t just leave her,” Finn said. “He’ll be even madder about that.”

  “We’ll take her home and she can wait in the other room,” Sly said, starting off with a yawn. “It’s not so hard.”

  Wren wasn’t sure whether she felt very comfortable going back with them without Rifter, but she guessed she didn’t have much of a choice. Before she could ask how long Rifter was going to be gone, there was a twin on either side of her, and the group of boys swept her away into the trees.

  Chapter Nine

  1

  Wren’s introduction to the underground home was not quite what she’d expected to get. The boys brought her into the tunnels and led her down a long, dark corridor until finally the narrow way opened up into a cavern that was part rock and part dirt, where the tree roots were reaching in like twisted fingers. There was not a lot of light inside, though there were patches above where moonlight was streaming in past some of the roots.

  The boys left her here without preamble and closed themselves up in another section of the tunnel in order to have their meeting away from her. She knew that she was to be the subject of discussion, and wondered how she felt about that. She tried not to feel upset, but it didn’t sit well to think that she wasn’t welcome.

  She had wanted to be here so terribly that the thought of being forced out made her feel sick.

  Left alone, she looked around the room where she found herself. There were a few tree stumps that served as stools and one from a larger tree that looked like a table. There was a hearth built into one of the walls with a hole for ventilation above it, but overall, there was not much furniture in the place.

  Yet even for how sparse it was, it was cluttered. There were articles of discarded clothing and animal bones littering the floor. There were skins and mounted heads all over the walls, hung crookedly in a disorderly way. There was a furry rug of some sort beneath her feet, and she assumed it was animal skin as well.

  I guess there is really nothing to do except wait – wait for them to finish talking about me and wait for Rifter to come back.

  Wren found herself thinking about Rifter at that. He was not like any boy she’d ever met – that was certain. Though her first mission was to get her brothers here, she vowed that her second objective would be to figure the Rifter out. Perhaps she would have to be very devious about it, but she had made up her mind that he might at least be tricked into answering questions about himself. How had he first arrived in Nevermor? What about the fairy that was always trailing around after him? How was he able to go back and forth at will? What did he think of her? Did he think she was a waste? Did he think she was pretty?

  She blushed as she thought about that, though there was no one around to see it. There was no reason she should have been thinking about a secret crush, though she might as well admit to herself that she did have a special liking for him. Perhaps he was a bit arrogant and maybe a tad too violent, but she could not subtract the idea that he was also brave and strong. He had held her hand. He did chide her a bit, but he had been so caring with that poor little boy at the beach. And his smile…

  Don’t be silly, Wren. This is not what you’re here for.

  She was here to claim a new life, not look for romance. There were more important things to do. She still had to decide how she could approach Rifter about her brothers again, after all. She had not done so well tonight in convincing any of them that she was fit to stay, yet she still wanted it so terribly that she could feel it all through her – in her fingers and toes and the roots of her hair.

  I have to make this work. But nothing could be done until Rifter came back.

  Unable to find anything else to do with herself, she sat down on the rug and looked around, wondering how long it would be before the others came back to hand down their judgment. She would try to stay awake until then, but she hoped that Rifter came back first. If they decided to do away with her, he might have been the only one who could stop them.

  2

  “The pirates have women and the Tribals have women; I don’t see why we shouldn’t too. There are seven of us, so one lady is enough, right?”

  Finn plopped down onto the floor in the underground room where the rest of them had gathered for the council of the Talker. At his comment, Sly looked at him through narrowed eyes.

  “I don’t think you know what you’re saying. Besides, you can’t give your opinion yet. You don’t have your hand on the skull.”

  In the middle of the room, there was a pillar with a skull mounted on it. It was the head of one of the most vicious nightmares they’d ever killed – a mind-reading beast that they’d called the Talker, which could detect all of their blows before they’d even tried them, not to mention that it had jaws that could clamp easily around a man’s head. They’d kept the skull as a trophy, as they often did, but it also served as a tool for times
like these, when they wanted to have an orderly discussion about a serious matter.

  “I called the council and so I’ll start,” Nix said heatedly, placing his hand on the skull. “That girl out there does not deserve to be one of us. I tried to bring it to Rifter’s attention when he first brought her here, but he wouldn’t listen, as usual. But all of you saw what happened at the beach, just as well as I did. She can’t take care of herself. She didn’t even try! She’s only going to be a burden to us if she stays here. We have to bind together and make Rifter understand this.”

  Nix did not often have a lot to say, but when he believed firmly in something, he could be as stubborn as Rifter. When he paused and looked around at them, no one seconded his motion, even though he allowed them an extra moment.

  “Surely you agree with me, Sly,” Nix entreated, desperate for any support.

  Attention turned to the boy who was always so quick to correct them when they were wrong, but Sly just shook his head.

  “I don’t have anything else to say about it,” he said. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if to say something else, but Finn motioned – with a smile of self-satisfaction – that he should put his hand on the skull. Sly did so begrudgingly.

  “We’ve already talked about this,” Sly went on. “I’ve already said what I thought. Now, she’s here.” He shrugged. “Rifter had his reasons for choosing her. If she dies, I suppose that is just the way it will be.”

  Nix didn’t seem at all happy with that answer. “It won’t happen that way though, and you know it. She’ll be Rifter’s prize, and when he’s away, it will fall to us to protect her – and if we fail, he’ll have our heads.”

  “You think it will be that serious?” Toss asked, sounding concerned.

  “Didn’t you see the way he looked at her?” Nix asked. They all looked very confused – except Sly, who only looked bored.

  “You’ll see that I’m right eventually, so you might as well trust me now,” Nix warned. “She’s going to ruin what we have here.”