Having had the same exact thoughts before they had embarked on their uphill journey, Brian frowned. After a few moments of silence, the worry lines which creased his forehead gradually dissolved. “There’s no point in fretting about the things we can’t change.” He sighed. “For now, we need to concentrate on carrying out his wishes. The sooner we can get this dilemma taken care of, the sooner we can get back. Hopefully, by the time we return, Edward will be healed enough to resume traveling.”
“True,” Katie admitted, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “I only hope this doesn’t turn out to be a pointless errand. I mean, for all we know, those creatures could be long gone by now.”
Even though he had no desire to burst her bubble, his lips pressed together in a grim line. “I don’t think that’s an issue.” He frowned, earning himself a questioning look from her. Before she could open her mouth to ask what he meant, Brian continued. “I’ve been sensing something for the last ten minutes or so, but so far it hasn’t been strong enough to be considered an immediate threat.”
Katie gasped, her expression a mixture of confusion and unease. “Why didn’t you say something before now?”
“I didn’t think it was a big deal,” he remarked, averting her demanding stare.
“How can you possibly think it’s not a big deal?”
“I’m sorry … I didn’t want to needlessly worry you. I swear I would’ve said something before now if the feeling had been stronger,” he apologized.
“Please, don’t keep me out of the loop. Getting caught off guard is something neither of us can afford to do,” Katie stated, her tone softening slightly.
Feeling chastised, he was about to tell her he wouldn’t hold anything back from her in the future when a noise from above them distracted him. Whipping his head around toward the sound, he saw a cascade of small, pebble-sized rocks coming right at them, bounding down the hill as if someone had lost their footing above them for a second. “Cover your eyes,” he yelled, raising a hand to shield his own from the falling debris.
As the tiny avalanche of stones bounced past them, the sound of cackling laughter erupted above them. Turning her face upward, Katie caught a brief glimpse of movement. “I think we’ve walked into a trap,” she declared, attempting to maintain her balance as she craned her neck, trying to get a better look. “I’m not positive, but I think the demons that attacked Edward are hiding behind that outcropping.” She pointed toward it, holding the pose just long enough for Brian to follow the angle of her finger.
Quickly glancing from left to right, looking for shelter from the rock-slide, he shouted back to Katie, “I think we need to take cover in the trees. Maybe we can work our way close enough for them to be in range of—”
“I don’t think that’s an option, Brian,” she interrupted, nervously casting a look to either side of the rails. “I’ll never make it without sliding to the bottom of the hill. Remember? I only have one good hand!”
I need an alternative … before those demons decide to throw something larger than a pebble down at us! He pounded the palm of one hand against his forehead as if it would somehow, miraculously forcibly eject a usable idea from his brain. Scrambling to come up with a plan that would work, he mentally flipped through every possible scenario he could think of. Suddenly, his eyes glimmered with hope. “Climb up to where I am. I have an idea.”
As Katie ventured upward in compliance, she saw Brian shifting away from the tracks toward a pine tree which poked out of the rocky ground a few feet from the rails. “What are you doing? I’ll never make it over there without slipping,” she grunted with effort as she climbed to where he’d been standing a moment ago.
“Just keep going,” he urged. “Trust me. I have a plan.”
Glancing uneasily toward him as she attained Brian’s prior position, she saw him extending his arm out to her, coaxing her to grab hold of his hand. She looked at the precarious slant of his body, one hand wrapped around the slender trunk of the tree in front of him, his booted feet braced on a large rock embedded in the earth. The sound of more debris falling from above prodded Katie into motion. Reaching out with her good hand, she fought the urge to close her eyes. Feeling his fingers lock tightly around her wrist, she held her breath as he tugged her toward him. Her feet flailed beneath her for a moment, making her look like she was running on an inclined treadmill, before sliding into his ankle and grinding to a halt.
“Son of a …” He winced at the sudden pressure on his joint, the pain forcing him to wonder if she had dislocated it.
“Don’t let go,” Katie pleaded, wrapping her arms around him so tightly that Brian felt like a large boa constrictor was attempting to squeeze the life from him.
“Grab on to the tree,” he wheezed, trying to pry her vise-like grip from his torso. “I can’t breathe.”
At first she didn’t hear what he had said, the utter panic of the situation clouding her mind. When she realized his words were not part of a vivid daydream, the fog began to dissipate and her clinging grip loosened enough for her to shift her position, allowing her to grasp the pine in the same manner as Brian had. “Sorry,” she whispered sheepishly.
***
Verin had turned his attention from the assemblage of impish demons, which were clustered together just outside the mountain entrance to Cemetery Hill, furious that they had failed to dispatch the mortals in the town below. As he stormed through the nearly empty chamber, intending to return to the Black Knight’s throne room to check and see if he could locate his master’s whereabouts by studying the monitors, the tiny creatures began to cackle with delight. Whipping his head around to investigate the commotion, Verin saw them gathering handfuls of small rocks and chucking them downhill from the precipice where the platform rail-car rested.
Spinning toward the ruckus, he marched outside to admonish them for their behavior. “Knock it off,” he scolded, his features twisting with rage. “You idiots are acting like children!”
The boldest of the lesser demons spun to face him. “In case you haven’t noticed, there are two of the humans from below attempting to scale the mountain,” he retorted angrily. “We are merely trying to keep them at bay, and with any luck cause them to fall. Why can’t we have a little fun while we’re doing our job?”
His forehead crinkled in thought as Verin slowly drifted to the edge of the outcropping and peered over the top of a sizable boulder at the terrain below. At first he didn’t see anything noteworthy, but as he made to turn away he caught a glimpse of red hair peeking out from behind a tree trunk at the limit of his vision. Growling at the temerity of the humans, he whipped his head around and glared at the bolder minion. “Whatever you do, make sure the mortals don’t reach Cemetery Hill,” Verin spat. “Stop pelting them with those pebbles! Make them think the threat has passed so they will begin climbing again, and once they get too close to dodge it, heave the boulder down upon them and pulverize their bones to dust!”
Chapter 9
Standing in the open doorway of the inn, having used Edward’s body to give himself a way out before relinquishing control of his fleshy shell, George watched the wizard draw the conclusion that he had killed his werewolf friend. The man’s thin frame heaved, tears of anguish streaming down his dirty, blood smeared cheeks as his chin sunk to his chest, blubbering like a child who had lost his favorite toy. It seemed as if it had been forever since George had reveled in the glee of torture. He savored the moment while he could, knowing full well that it wouldn’t last long. Once the wizard regained his composure, his mind would surely start working to solve the riddle of how the events of the day had led to the death of his friend.
Silently, George considered his next move. What would be more devastating ... reclaiming the body of Edward’s mother and using her frail body to extinguish her son’s life, or reentering the wizard and steering the man to murder the woman who’d given birth to him? Decisions, decisions. Finally making up his mind, George drifted towar
d the stable where he’d stored the old woman for safe keeping.
***
For the better part of the last hour, Edward had been overcome with grief. Though the debilitating sadness he felt was far from over, his tear ducts had dried up, refusing to allow even the smallest trickle of moisture to leave their confines. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and slowly exhaled in an attempt to clear his mind. He was tempted to wipe the liquid sorrow from his dampened cheeks, but decided not to. Instead, he resolved to leave his tear stained face untouched. Sort of like wearing a badge of shame.
The hint of a warm breeze drifted through the open portal which led outside, turning cold for a second and causing a shiver to run up his spine as he turned his head toward the doorway. The feeling was so brief that it triggered a memory, one in which his mother was telling him a story when he was a child. Her words vaguely wafted through his mind. Something about a ghost walking over a grave. Shaking his head to clear the vision, Edward pushed himself up from the floor. Absently, he began pacing back and forth. Even once he realized what he was doing he didn’t stop; he understood that his body was subconsciously forcing him through the motions because, for whatever reason, it helped clear his mind so he could think.
When he could no longer take the sound of the thickening blood on the floor squishing under his worn boots, a sickening reminder of his dead friend, he stopped and regarded the scattered pieces of Jack. I should probably gather his remains and at least give him a decent burial, he thought. It would have been bad enough to see his furry body parts strewn recklessly around the room, but somehow it was worse seeing the severed appendages littered about in their human appearance. Silently, he cursed the fact that werewolves reverted from their wolf form upon death. The task ahead would have at least been slightly easier if Edward could have convinced himself that he was burying a wild animal instead of a friend, and ally. Gathering what few remnants of resolve he had left, Edward turned and strode to the door, determined to honor Jack.
As he walked outside, he was greeted by the warm, afternoon sun. Immediately upon his exit from the inn, a murder of crows took flight, leaving only a few of their fellows dotting the corpse of his horse. One of them glanced toward Edward, a malevolent gleam in its beady black eyes, as if it were daring him to approach. When the enormous bird saw that its warning was being heeded, it returned to greedily feasting upon the horse’s flesh, stretching a decayed piece of sinew from the animal’s hide with its blood splattered beak.
Knowing the task ahead of him would not be an easy one, he did his best to ignore the foul creatures defiling his once proud steed and scoured the town in search of ground which was soft enough that he could move it with his bare hands. After canvassing nearly every square inch of the abandoned village, and not finding a suitable area to bury Jack, he resigned himself to collecting rocks. He had seen this interment tactic used before when there were no digging implements available, the object of which was to encase the body in stone so that wild animals would be less likely to ravage the corpse of the deceased. As Edward began toting rocks to the location he’d chosen to enshrine Jack’s remains, a place between the inn and the structure beside it—which he had picked out because it received shade for the majority of the day—he heard a noise coming from within the building; the sound was reminiscent of a muffled voice. A female voice!
***
A gleeful madness twinkled in his eyes as George entered the stable. In the dimness of the interior, he floated toward his restrained victim. When his ghostly form drifted into the crone’s field of vision, she tilted her bloodshot eyes in his direction. Though her wrinkled face was a shade somewhere between red and purple, most likely caused by her struggles and the rope encircling her neck, she uttered a muffled scream; the gag George had made from a strip of her gown wound tightly around her head, cutting painfully into her cheeks, successfully muted her cries of terror.
Knowing his time was short, he inched closer to Victoria. As he was about to slip inside her body and take control, her wide-eyed look of panicked hope distracted him. Something, or someone, was on the other side of the wall! For a moment he had almost dismissed the noise, but the old woman’s reaction gave him reason to hurry.
Quickly, George slid into the fleshy disguise of Edward’s mother and took control. The woman choked and gasped as he forced her to lean forward so he could remove the bindings. Throwing the loosened ropes to the side, he stood up. Within seconds of doing so the stable door flew open, sending the shadows of the interior into hiding as bright sunlight penetrated the gloom.
“Mother?” Edward rushed toward her, casting confused glances to each corner of the giant room as he approached. Stopping in front of her, he put his hands firmly on her arms and bent his head down slightly to meet her eyes. “Are you all right? I thought I heard screaming.” Gently, he brushed her frazzled, gray hair from her features and searched her bloodshot, brown irises for an answer.
“I … I think so,” her cracked and aged voice finally responded, a bewildered expression etched on her face. She smoothed out her dirty and disheveled gown before meeting her son’s gaze again. Without realizing he was doing it, George contorted Victoria’s features into a frown. Edward’s piercing stare told George that he didn’t believe the words rolling off his mother’s tongue.
Raising one hand, Edward brushed his fingertips across her cheek. “If everything is fine, then what are these marks? And while I’m thinking about it, what were you doing in here? Everyone in the inn thought you slipped out during the night to return to Elysia.”
“I must have sleepwalked here because I have no memory of leaving the inn,” George lied, hoping the excuse would be believable. Especially considering the fact he had no idea if it was something the woman had ever done before. “As for the marks … they were probably caused by whatever I fell asleep on.” As George studied the wizard’s face he saw the worry lines begin to soften.
Not entirely satisfied with his mother’s response, but enough so to put off any reservations he had, Edward turned back toward the open stable door and put an arm around her shoulder. As he stepped forward to lead her outside, he realized that there was unfinished business awaiting him. Business that his mother should not be forced to witness.
“Why are you stopping?” George tilted her head upward to see if he had somehow managed to put together the pieces and sensed there was something amiss.
Edward hesitated before answering, then looked down into her uplifted face. “There’s something I must do,” he began sadly, a tear slipping from the corner of one eye. “However, after finding you again, I am trying to figure out how,” he continued. “I don’t want to leave you alone, but I also don’t want you to witness it.” Sighing heavily, he chanced a look into her eyes. She appeared to be deep in thought.
Shrugging her shoulders, Victoria sidestepped from beneath his arm and plopped down on a musty bale of straw near the open door. “I’ll just wait here for you. Is that a viable alternative?” Her lips pressed together in a tight-lipped smile and one eyebrow lifted questioningly.
As much as he hated to leave her somewhere that was not in his direct line of sight, Edward knew it was probably for the best. “I will try not to take too long.” For a moment he considered forcing a promise out of her that she would stay put, but changed his mind when he realized it would likely have an unwanted affect. It would probably do one of two things: either it would offend her, or it would raise her curiosity. Neither of which were options he wished to explore right now.
Grudgingly, Edward turned his back on his mother as he strode toward the inn to retrieve the pieces of his dear friend in order to honor him with a decent burial. Behind him, a wicked grin creased Victoria’s face.
Chapter 10
The raining debris from above them had stopped, and an eerie silence enveloped them for approximately an hour, maybe more. It was so quiet, in fact, that Katie felt it was like being a musician in a recording studio who was on a break in between
tracks. She found herself wishing that a bird would squawk, a cricket would chirp ... something, anything to bring an end to the isolation she now felt, showing her they weren’t the only living creatures left in the world.
As if Brian had been reading her thoughts, he whispered softly in her ear, “What do you think? Is it safe to come out of hiding and resume our journey?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, turning her head to regard him. “We should probably at least test the waters to see. I sure don’t relish the thought of staying put until dark so we can sneak away in the shadows. My hand is already broken, I don’t want to add any other fractured bones to my list of injuries.”
Brian smirked as he attempted to restrain his laughter, exhaling a breathy snicker through his nose.
“I’m glad you find me so entertaining,” she commented sarcastically. Katie desperately wanted to throw a hand on her hip to emphasize her point, but knew that if she did she would probably lose her balance and fall to her death. Definitely not an option.
“Sorry. Your plan is as good as any, if you ask me,” he stated in a more serious tone. “Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll help you get back over to the rails.”
She hesitated for a moment as she considered their options. Why does he want me to go first? The thought had no more than entered her mind when the answer came to her and she felt like smacking herself in the head for being dimwitted. At first she had pondered the possibility that he was sacrificing the weakest link, presenting the vulture of opportunity with a tasty morsel … if said creature was still lurking about. Sure, it was a metaphor for Brian throwing her out first as bait, but it didn’t seem quite as offensive to think of it that way. After a moment of indecision, she realized the true reasoning behind his words. He feels safer about helping me to the tracks first than he does about him taking the lead and leaving me clinging to this tree trunk with a broken hand. “I’m ready, I guess,” she finally replied with a grim smile.
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