The Shadow Trail (An Evan Ryder Western)

by J. W. Bradley

  “This is all too weird for me beast. I am quite accustomed to the answers coming to me rather easily you…see.” Something had caught my eye on the wall behind the strange canine, and rather than continuing to converse with yet another four legged animal, I raised the lantern higher. A man was standing there. No. Wait! Not a man at all, at least anymore.

  Drooping and deflated, forlorn and lost, the whole of Grant Burnett’s skin was affixed, naked and without shame to the wall of the cavern, like an ancient cave painting. I could still recognize a younger and stronger version of Joshua Burnett in the flattened form. His hair was black and, I noticed with quite an amount of surprise, a silver streak running back from the center of the forehead. My eyes lowered to the wolf again as my mind considered this strange and terrible wonder. The silver streak was there, it had not been a trick of the moonlight before.

  I had experienced many questionable things in my travels, but this was stark and real, and very unexplainable without full consideration of the supernatural. After looking at the two again, I felt the facts were unmistakable. The term skin-walker came to mind, a Navajo legend that concerned witches and wild animals. I found myself wishing I had learned more about them over the years but the tribe was notoriously closed lipped on the topic. This woman must have had powers unexplainable in origin and undeterminable in limits to be able to perform such a feat.

  I holstered my pistol as a sign of trust that I hoped the wolf could acknowledge and decided to see if it could understand something I said. “Why did you lead me here?” My voice seemed loud and echoed slightly in the chamber, but I continued on, “Do you wish to help me destroy the woman?” The cavern was quite warmer than outside so I removed the heavy, long frock coat and I let it drop to the floor.

  The wolf stood up and padded to the edge of the pool. I followed his example. Holding the lantern out over the water, I stared into its seeming limitless depths. Then, after a moment, I concentrated on the reflections of the wolf and myself on the pool’s surface. All seemed as it should be and I realized that I had half expected the wolf to appear as Grant Burnett’s human form when I looked down. I began to turn away and the lantern’s reflection moved with me, but another pinpoint of light remained below causing me to twirl back around. When I dropped to my knees beside the pool, the wolf beside me began to whine quietly, the way domesticated dogs do when begging for something. Angling my head I could make out a side tunnel about ten feet below the surface. When I looked back to the wolf, his tail was swishing back and forth on the slick cavern floor and he had retrieved the small bundle I had placed in Grant’s coat back at the house. He’s was holding it in an offering manner between his jaws.

  Taking the doll, I slipped off my tattered shirt first, then my leather boots so recently purchased in New York City. The gun belt was last to come off, even as I questioned my own sanity. The water of the pool was warm to the touch, and I wondered if it would soon become warmer still with the heat of my own blood were the witch to find me while I was in such a defenseless state.

  Mysteries to some are enchanting and intoxicating, good for campfire tales and adventure novels, but for me they are made to be solved. I prefer the answers to the questions. Perhaps that is why I mustered my resolve beside that wolf in the cave. During that moment discovering the beast’s secrets was more important to me than my very life. I dove into the water and kicked hard, the flickering light coming from the side tunnel served as a beacon and I aimed right for it. Grabbing the rock lip, I looked down the tunnel and saw that it was very short, maybe the length of a man and that the light was coming from above the water, evidently from some kind of subterranean chamber! I swam into the tunnel and then up toward the light. My head broke through the surface and I gulped in a lung full of air.

  It was indeed a hidden chamber and on the wall of the room, burned a single torch in a crude, wood crafted sconce. The space was only slightly larger than a chicken coop and its ceiling was only about seven feet high. I followed the rise of the torch’s smoke and watched it disappear into a fist sized hole in the rock. That must also be how the place got its fresh air.

  There was a pile of debris shoved in the corner, but other than that, the room’s only other content was what looked to be a small cage resting against the far corner. The cage was constructed of fresh wood from the forest outside. It was only about three feet wide and stood as tall as my waist. My bare feet were silent as I approached but the quiet pitter patter of the water dripping from my wet skin seemed like gunshots in the earthly stillness of the tiny underwater chamber. In the torchlight I could see a small shape, wrapped in material not unlike what I clutched desperately in my left hand. I squatted beside the cage, my heart was beating furiously, for I had already surmised something of what I might find, and I eagerly wished to know the full truth of the matter.

  Before I could think of what to do next, the shape stirred and the cover fell away, revealing pinkish flesh and the back of a small skull, covered with long brownish hair. After a bit of fidgeting, the little creature became still again. For a moment, I thought of the monstrous, evil woman somewhere on the surface and wondered if this creature might be created too much in her image for me to face. But as I unwrapped the little doll and wrung the water out as best I could, I suspected that this thing was like all children newly born into the world, who come forth without evil in their hearts. Only after time do some learn of it and take to the devil eagerly and without remorse.

  While squeezing the doll, I detected something rigid inside. I squeezed again and felt over the little form more thoroughly. There was something inside that didn’t seem to belong. I pulled open the tiny dress and found even tinier little buttons sewn into the material of its flesh. With shaking hands, I undid these and pulled out the object.

  It was a short knife, with a sharp blade formed completely out of one bone, a single piece even including the handle onto which was carved intricate and inscrutable shapes and designs. It was light and hollow, weighing no more than a few ounces which explained why I had not noticed it when first I found the doll. At the tip of the blade portion, a tiny hole was bored, the purpose of which, I had not the time to fathom, for during my discovery and inspection of the strange knife, the little child must have awoken and was now watching me quietly from inside the cage.

  She was sitting up and peered at me so innocently that my heart nearly burst at the gentle beauty of the creature. Her big eyes reflecting the torchlight through glowing hazel prisms, locked on to me. She crawled to toward the bars of the cage, smiling with a normal happy face, dark hair, spilling and pointing everywhere. I saw no outward signs of her mother’s savage nature. I held the doll out and watched those impossibly large eyes grow to new proportions. She made a tiny happy sound then and I pushed the doll through the bars. I quickly used the odd knife to cut away some of the ropes securing the cage together. In a minute’s work, I was able to pull the front panel away. Stepping back, I watched the girl pat at the doll and coo to it softly. Considering the time frame, the child could be no older than several months, but her features were much more lithe and developed than a normal baby’s, and her movements were more skillful and exact than they should have been. As she made loving sounds at the doll I saw that already, tiny white teeth had grown from her gums. I thought of a wolf cub and their accelerated lifespan and was overcome with wonder once again. Most noticeable of all was her overall size, amazingly small, like a miniature child only half as big in proportion to a human.

  “We’ve got to get you out of here little one.” At the sound of my voice the girl jumped and crawled frantically to the furthest corner of the cage, for the first time showing a more feral side. “It’s alright. I squatted and reached in, as I did so, I saw the most peculiar thing. Her ears, while they were as hairless as mine, where pointed at the top, giving the girl a pixie like quality I had missed before. I assumed many more signs of this one’s heritage would show itself before the night was through, but for now, getting off this
hellish mountain was my first concern. When the girl refused to budge from the corner, I reached in and gently grabbed the scruff of her neck pulling her toward me. I got her out, grabbed the doll and shoved the bone knife in my belt.

  “I’ve got to get you back without drowning you girl.” At first she had struggled but I squeezed her tiny, slim form against my chest until she calmed and then walked to the water’s edge. “Nothing to do now but swim hard.” I covered the child’s mouth and nose in a firm grip to both to keep water from going in and to keep from getting bit by those little sharp looking teeth. Without wasting another second of her air, I jumped into the little pool and, one handed, swam hard down the tunnel. I reached the main pool and took a second to look down into its depths, the blackness there hinted at more secrets but I turned and kicked hard for the surface.

  We broke through into the air and I immediately looked to my new charge. That tiny face of hers was crinkled in terror. She coughed and gagged a bit but then she wailed long and hard with a howling vengeance and I knew she would be fine. There was a quiet growl from the water’s edge and I kicked toward where the wolf paced impatiently. Sensing it was safe, I pushed the little girl onto the dry rock floor, and the wolf quickly went to work, flipping her over, licking the water from her and nuzzling the babe’s little round belly. The girl giggled in delight, obviously well at ease with the beast’s loving attention.

  I went to my collect my boots and gun, unsure of what to do next. Evidently the woman had been keeping this strange offspring of hers hidden and inaccessible, out of reach of the wolf. Somewhere along the line Grant must have come to his senses and turned on the witch, hence his human skin draped on the wall. Perhaps it was the influence of the men from this weird group I had inadvertently discovered.

  After dressing myself, I looked up to see the baby girl loping in a circle around the wolf. She was bent over, her hands on the floor and little rump high in the air, an awkward position to hold, but she almost made it look graceful. The beast was sitting again and watching me expectantly. I sighed and shrugged back into Grant’s damp coat. “What do you want from me?” I asked, expecting no answer.

  The big grey beast stood up and began to prod the child toward me with his long snout. She went along with him playfully paying me no heed until she found herself at my feet, then she yelped in fear and crawled beneath the wolf’s belly. But I knew now what had to be done. “I’ll take her and make sure she is cared for.” The wolf growled softly. “Alright, I will keep her in my care perhaps?”

  Suddenly the wolf’s ears perked up and his head cocked to the side. Seeing this, I pulled out my gun and crept quickly toward the tunnel leading to the surface. I listened hard at the entrance and thought I might have heard the sound of Nina’s dancing hooves. I ran back to where the lantern rested and grabbed it up.

  Outside the rain had stopped, but the sky was still overcast, leaving the woods shrouded in chilling darkness. I held the little wolf child in the crux of my left arm, snuffling and sucking her thumb. The Iroquois revolver in my right hand was something I had lost faith in as far as being an effective weapon against the witch, but I held it steady before me regardless. The wolf padded along silently beside me as I made for Nina’s familiar shape, visible a ways down the trail. Its nose was to the ground and the wolf stayed by my side, his ears swiveled back and forth searching for any threatening sound.

  We reached my horse without incident, and Nina snuffled nervously at the wolf’s nearness. “Good girl. See anything while I was gone?” I peered around the woods as I spoke, feeling terribly vulnerable, being burdened with the child as I was. “Let’s get the hell off this mountain.”

  13

  When our strange group reached the end of the hanging bone trail, the wolf I had thus far resisted calling Grant Burnett, pulled in front and walked further ahead of us, seemingly on the lookout for our deadly adversary. The dampness, in the air, in my clothes and on the girl’s small form that I held to my chest, all conspired to wear me down. I was content for a time to let the wolf’s watchfulness be our guard. As we neared the trail’s bottom, I heard the first chirping of birds in many hours and my spirits began to rise at the thought of the closely approaching dawn.

  Finally we arrived at the tree line that bordered Burnett’s homestead and where the forest gave way to scrubland. Here the wolf came to a stop and I felt compelled to climb to the ground and hold the girl toward him. He licked her face once and seemed to turn away only with some effort. In a flash his dark form was gone into the woods. I stood there for a time, the events of the night churning in my mind. Nina swung her head and bumped me as if to hurry me up. I didn’t argue with her.

  During the crossing of the scrubland, I pondered which of the night’s events I would actually include in my report. Grant Burnett, as far as I was concerned was dead to the world. If this Weird group wished to investigate further, they were welcome to deal with the mountain and the witch in my place. The only matter I could not easily resolve was the one I currently held sleeping in my arm. From somewhere deep inside I sensed the first unheralded stirrings of possessiveness creep into my heart. I knew the girl was special and I felt compelled to be a part of her coming life.

  Nina seemed to be dragging from fatigue by the time the eastern horizon had brightened to a cool cerulean blue. Her head was bowed and I felt an unfamiliar jolting motion in her step. Burnett’s outbuildings were in sight, so I figured it was as good a time as any to give her a rest. Before I could grab the saddle horn and swing off, Nina convulsed violently and began hacking as if to dislodge something from her throat. The next instant she reared back and for the first time in all our years together, I was thrown from the saddle. I flew through the air and hit the dusty ground hard, all my efforts concentrated on protecting the girl from the impact. Even so, she was bounced from my chest and landed against a prickly bush. The girl sat up and I swear I could see her little button nose twitching on her face as if she was picking up a scent she didn’t like. Then she let a howl even more piercing than the one in the grotto. I jumped to my feet and searched the ground for a snake because Nina had begun bucking like a rodeo bronco and all I could think of was that she had been bitten.

  Now blood was spraying from my poor horse’s nose, splattering that beautiful spotted coat and her hooves were flashing around making her too dangerous to approach. The girl continued to howl and I looked to the buildings, expecting someone at any moment to come running. No one did. Nina’s front legs collapsed and she whinnied in agony, then a gush of blood spurted out her backside, drenching her tail, too much blood in fact, so pulled out the Iroquois.

  “Damn Nina, what the hell?” Hell was right, for next the horse’s side bulged horrifically in one spot and something burst through. It was a hand, white as Ivory, with long, curling claws. Then the hand was followed by an arm, the thing slapped around as if searching for purchase or to get a grip on Nina’s flesh. I shot my horse in the head then, and it flopped down in the dust.

  I watched the skin part in a line down Nina’s side and through it burst a gangly human form followed by a mass of bloody afterbirth. The witch looked up at me, her eyes startling white in the mass of dark red blood coating her face. Something amazing happened then, the little wolf-eared girl loped toward me and cowered behind my legs. The witch had seen her and hissed savagely. She crawled up into a spider like crouch, preparing to leap.

  Now I like to say that I’m more of a thinking man but if truth be told, some other people might say that I’ve got the heart of a gunfighter when I’ve been wronged. Then again, those people probably wouldn’t be able to say much at all due to the fact that they’re dead. And right there beside Nina’s carcass, I shot that bloody bitch once in each eye.

  The witch dropped to the dirt for a moment and I thought it was over, but even blind, she staggered to her feet and came at us. I grabbed up the girl and made to turn and run just as a dark form leaped over Nina and landed on the witch’s back, driving her into t
he ground. The wolf had come at the sound of his girl in distress and his big jaws were clamped tight on the back of that twisted neck. He continued to shake her savagely even as her clawed hands raked over his sides, leaving long, grievous wounds like a knife would make.

  Bloody hell! I thought as I groped along my belt, searching for the bone knife from the cave. All the pieces fell into place and I cried out in triumph as the decorated handle slipped into my palm. Of course Grant had been searching for a way to stop the witch from claiming him completely! He had fought back and with the help of those mysterious gentlemen in the night, he had found the necessary weapon. He may have been in thrall to her, but he had hated the witch none the less. By the time I reached the struggling pair, Grant was sorely wounded but I managed to push him aside just enough to expose the witch’s back. Just as well, I had no desire to look upon that evil visage ever again. Wasting no time, I drove the knife home between two ribs and the old crone froze up tight. She gasped out in pain, some air puttered out of her ass and then she was silent.

  I heard the wolf drop to the ground beside us, but I was watching the hollow end of the knife’s handle that was sticking out of the witch’s back. A coal black smoke had begun to flute through it. I stepped back and watched it disperse and fly away in the morning wind. Weird stuff indeed, I thought to myself.

  Grant was dead, his life blood pouring out and joining my lovely Nina’s as it soaked into the dry earth. The girl sniffed at his still form for a moment but then came to sit at my feet where she looked up at me expectantly. I looked back at her and could almost feel the next heartbreak coming down the line at me already.

  14

  “You don’t want to cross these people Ryder.” Carter Maynes rode beside me as we passed under the sign at the edge of Burnett’s land and he was abnormally full of stern warnings this fine afternoon. It seemed he had done quite the bit of reading in the secret bunker the night before. “I mean, for God’s sake their roots run deep, to our nation’s founding even!”