by Kenny Soward
Contents
Title Page | Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
What's Next?
Notes About Locale
About The Author
Other Books by Kenny Soward
Galefire III - Tether War
by Kenny Soward
Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved. This electronic book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published by Broken Dog Press
Edited by Tim Marquitz
http://www.tmarquitz.com/
Cover Design by Eloise Knapp Design,
http://www.eloiseknappdesign.com
For my original familiar, Mr. K.
Chapter 1
As our heroes battled Makare in the Under River, something else was afoot in the Kentucky Hills.
The sun busted through the treetops as Torri Dowe and little Lida hurried down the hillside. The Kirby place was off the beaten path, so there was nothing easy about it. They picked their way around the biggest boulders and huge tangles of boughs caused by broken trees and pipe vines.
Their feet crunched on the fallen leaves and twigs littering the hillside floor, their voices muted and close.
“We gotta hurry, Torri. Come on!”
Torri re-adjusted the huge pack she carried. They’d been walking for hours so the damn thing hung halfway down her back as she slouched forward, soaked with sweat. “I’m hurrying, Lida. Any more hurrying and I’m gonna trip and break my neck, and then what are you going to do?”
“Shit, I don’t know.”
“And don’t say shit. Your ma would kill you.”
“But you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t, but I’m not the one who’ll tan your hide.”
“That is true.”
“Damn right it is. Now quit fussin’.”
Torri got a burst of energy toward the bottom of the hill as things cleared out. There was plenty of space between the white pines to walk and their feet didn’t get tangled so much. She even pulled ahead of the little girl, who was carrying nothing, by the way.
Lida had come to Torri late last night yapping that her mother was about to have a baby and how they couldn’t get to the regular doctor in town. Furthermore, Lida suspected there was something wrong with the baby, or her mother, or both.
And while Torri suspected there wasn’t all that much wrong, probably just the mind of a little girl exaggerating everything, she thought it best to be sure.
She’d thrown some essentials together in her pack and left her home in Black Mountain, walking all night to get here.
Just now, they came out of the woods and found themselves at the base of a big, flat hill that rose up and then angled down way off in the distance. If she remembered correctly, the Kirby place would be at the far side and just over another small hill.
Not much farther at all.
“All right. Looks like clear sailin’,” she said and plowed forward through the knee-high switchgrass.
Light glinted off the early morning dew and the sun was finally warm enough to drive off the overnight chill. But like any Kentucky Fall, you could be freezing one minute and burning up the next, so Torri had packed a few sweaters and various shirts to adjust her layers as necessary.
“What makes you think there’s something wrong, Lida?”
The little girl kneed her way through the tall grass, which came up to about her waist.
“Well, Pa’s been acting funny. And him and Mama have been fighting a lot.”
“About what?”
“Well, just the usual stuff. Money. Pancakes.”
“Pancakes? That seems dumb.”
“Yeah, I didn’t understand that argument. But they had it.”
“What do you think is causing all this? They still love each other, right?”
Lida shrugged. “I guess so. It all started after Pa came home one night from a card game with his friends. You know, Rob Petry who works at the Marathon, his brother Eddie, and the Samuels boys.”
“Yeah, I know them all in one way or another. Haven’t seen the Samuels boys in years, but yeah. Boys playin’ cards ain’t so strange, Lida.”
“I know that. But things seemed different after the game. Like, Pa had some strange moods. Kept going out to hunt at odd hours, never did bring nuthin’ back.”
“People sometimes hunt at strange times. Early in the morning, sometimes before there’s any light at all.”
“I know. Jesus H. Christ, Torri. I ain’t daft.”
“You better watch your mouth, girl, talking to me that way. I’ll turn right around and march back home.” Torri would never actually do that but she wasn’t about to have a little girl mince words with her.
“Sorry. I’ll stop.”
“Fine. Now, what else?”
“I don’t know, Torri. It just feels bad, and I didn’t know who else to tell.” The little girl’s face scrunched up with torment and fear.
Torri admonished herself even as she wrapped her arm around Lida’s shoulders, giving her a squeeze. “You did the right thing. You should always come to me for help. I’m just tryin’ to get to the bottom of it before the bottom gets to me, if you know what I mean. Now, go on. Tell me more.”
“Well, Daddy has always hunted. But, like I was trying to say, lately he’d leave in the evening, sometimes even before supper. And Daddy never misses supper. And then he’d come in real late with a strange look in his eyes. Like he was doing something wrong and dared anybody to take him up on it. You know, sorta mean?”
“Yeah. I know what mean is like.”
“And Mama would worry, worry, worry. She’d stay up half the night worrying.”
“When did all this start, you know, with the card game and dark moods?”
The girl twisted her face up, thinking. “Oh, probably around the middle of summer.”
“So about three months.”
“Right. And it’s been getting worse. Mama put up with it at the beginning, but she called him on it one night and they had an awful row. I thought he might hurt her.”
Now that was strange. Jack Kirby, for all his plainness, was no asshole. Torri remembered him as being a good man. She’d known him since he was a little boy, and that was thirty odd years ago. She also remembered him giving off a nice aura when she looked at him. Not angelic, no, but green and true which was an indication of a good heart and mind. Healthy, anyways.
And only a strong outside force or a major heartache over a long period of time could change a person’s aura.
The two hikers were starting to lag again, still with about a half hour to go to get to the Kirby’s. On top of that, dark clouds were barreling in on them from the west.
Looked like a storm.
Torri made them
pick up their pace, she didn’t want to be caught out in it.
They rounded the hill, cut across a creek, and then traversed another small hill that was fairly wooded but easy enough to get through. Sprinkles of rain were just starting, but the trees sheltered from the worst of it. Her nose picked up the pleasant scent of wet dirt.
The Kirby’s yard was just a little open space surrounding a ramshackle house with a tree out back, a tire hanging from it where Lida always played. It was a comfortable place all nestled into the hillside, and the house was built well. But as Torri gazed at the plume of smoke snaking up from its chimney, she realized Lida was right. Something was amiss here, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.
The aura of the house was just wrong.
Jack Kirby came out the front door and down the steps, wearing overalls with only one side buckled and carrying his shotgun. His beard was long and dark and he had a little muss hair on his head haphazardly parted on the side. He was a thin man who had always looked a bit pallid, but his countenance had always been happy and cheerful.
It was not the case this time. He had a more sunken appearance now and shadows loomed beneath his unkind eyes. His aura was a sickly gray.
“Hey there, Torri,” he called, gesturing with his hands in apology. “Glad to see Lida found you. Damn, you ain’t changed a lick since I was a boy. You could pass for seventeen.”
“Well, I sure as hell ain’t seventeen. What’s goin’ on, Jack?”
The man shrugged. “Something’s wrong with Sara. She’s been laying around all day. I told her to get up, but… I dunno.”
Torri gave him the most incredulous look she could come up with, raising her brows and twisting her lips together. “Well heck, Jack. Maybe it’s because she’s pregnant.”
“I told him that,” Lida whispered.
Jack nodded as if agreeing that were true, but it didn’t seem to register with him. His eyes seemed distracted with something else. As if there was someone standing right behind him and whispering in his ear. As if he was haunted.
“And why in the world did you bring your shotgun with you out here? I’m sure you saw it was me.”
Jack held up the hand with the gun and just shook his head. “Aw, I dunno, Torri. Seemed important. Never know what folks’ intentions are.”
Torri brushed by him, eyeing the shotgun with disdain and noticing its aura was as black as black could be. “Oh please, Jack. Come on inside, let’s see about Sara.”
Chapter 2
Pushing the door open with a squeal, Torri instantly recognized something was wrong. Not right out in the open, no, but somewhere buried in the room. A stench that did not touch her nose but something that struck a deep, instinctive cord within her.
She stood in the family room. There was a mantle above the fireplace covered with pictures and knicknacks. The old hardwood floors had been refinished at one time, but even that was a long time ago. Wood paneling covered every wall. All of it, the whole house, was well over a hundred years old. Sara kept the place nice and clean except for some spots like the couch where there were a couple pillows piled at the end along with a tumble of throw covers. It looked like someone slept there a lot. Probably Jack.
A cry came from one of the back rooms. Torri rushed down the hall, her feet causing the floorboards to squeak. She bypassed all the other rooms and followed her instincts to the last one at the end. The door was cracked open so Torri pushed it the rest of the way and went inside. The first thing that hit her was the stench of sweat. Next thing was Sara laying in the middle of the bed, legs sprawled apart and her hands crossed over her bulging bare belly, rubbing her hands light and shaky over it.
The room itself was simple. Probably a guest room for family whenever they visited. Just a dresser drawer and a nightstand on both sides. A closet with the sliding doors removed filled to the top with boxes. A tiny window above the bed was opened about halfway.
“That you, Lida?”
“Naw. It’s me. Torri Dowe from up on the hill.”
“Thank God. I wouldn’t have normally sent Lida by herself, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I was desperate.”
Torri’s eyes scanned the room, a doubtful expression on her face. “That’s fine. I’m here now.” And she went to the bedside, letting her backpack slide to the floor.
“Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
“Yeah, that’s what Lida said. Tell me about it.”
“Well, the baby is early for one thing. Wasn’t supposed to come for another three weeks. And the pain is different this time.”
“What do you mean?”
Sara shook her head. “I don’t rightly know. When I had Lida it hurt bad, probably the worst pain I ever felt in my life. But this time, it feels like…”
The whole time Sara talked, Torri’d been looking her over. Touching her forehead. Touching her heart through her T-shirt where it had been pulled up. Running her hands over the woman’s belly, checking for tender spots and the like.
“Yeah. Go on. You can tell me.”
“Well.” Sara’s eyes went wide with fear, as if she were telling a truth she’d known all along but hadn’t been willing to admit to herself. “It feels like my baby boy is fightin’ something.”
“Uh huh.”
“He’s been restless and kicking a lot. Kicking hard.”
Jack was suddenly standing in the doorway still holding the shotgun. “I brought the horse and saddled her up in case we needed to get Sarah to the hospital.”
“Uh huh. That’s a good idea, but how were you gonna do that? This woman cain’t ride no horse.”
“Well,” he said, pointing off somewhere like Torri knew what he was talking about. “We’ve got a trailer and a tractor, too. There’s a trail goes right into town.”
Sara wore just a pair of cotton shorts which made it easy for Torri to inspect her hips, legs, and feet. The woman’s skin was hot to the touch, like she’d come down with a horrible flu. “Hospitals are all right. Why didn’t you take her yesterday?”
Jack looked befuddled. “I don’t know. I should have. I just…didn’t.”
“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t cost your son his life.”
“My son?”
“Yep, it’s a boy,” Torri said, agreeing with Sara’s earlier assessment. “But that’s not here nor there. Lida, you there?”
“Yeah,” the girl called from the hallway.
“I need you to get some things for me. Think you can do that?”
“Sure.”
Torri ticked off a list of things she needed and sent the girl off to get them while Jack just stood there in the doorway, holding the shotgun.
“Hey, Jack.”
Jack snapped his head around. “Yeah?”
Damn. The man looked dazed as hell. Like he was under some kind of spell.
“Why don’t you go get the tractor hitched to that trailer in case we need to get on into town. And, Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you leave the gun in here? I’ll make sure no one touches it. Especially Lida.”
“Sure. Okay.”
Jack went to set the shotgun against the wall but he was having a tough time of it. Like he didn’t want to put it down. His fingers lingered on the well-oiled barrel, staring at it like a lovestruck man watching his lover sleep.
“Go on, Jack.” Torri eased her tone into something close to seductive, using her voice on him. It was an old trick, old magic woven into her tone that could make people do what she wanted, mostly. “Go get the trailer hitched to the tractor, like I said.”
“All right.” Jack shot Torri a sleepy look and left the room, his boots clomping down the hall.
She turned back to Sara, who had lifted her head from the sweat soaked pillow and glared at the gun like it was a coyote come to steel her baby off the front porch. “I hate that fuckin’ gun. I told him to get rid of it the night he brought it home.”
“He won it in the poker gam
e, huh?”
Sara nodded. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
“Oh,” Torri sighed. “Just puttin’ two and two together. Now, a gun is just a thing, but sometimes it’s more than that, too. Best get this little boy out of you before we go provokin’ it, if you get my meaning.” Torri smiled and gave her a wink.
Sara’s eyes, still fearful, glanced at the shotgun. “I guess so. But what if Jack comes back? I’m afraid of him, too.”
“Darlin’, Jack isn’t the one you got to be afraid of. You just worry about your boy and let me take care of the rest. Now breathe.”
Sara did as she was told, taking long, steady breaths.
“Good.”
Lida came back in the room with a jug of water and some fresh towels, candles, a half bottle of alcohol, and some scissors. “I’m going to go heat up some water now like you said.”
“Wait. That all the candles you got?”
“Yep.”
Torri counted nine candles. Not enough, but it would have to do. “Light two of those and set them on the nightstand here. Then get the water heated.”
The girl did as she was told.
As the girl ran off, Sara lifted her head, lips brushing Torri’s ear. “What is it? What’s trying to get at my baby?”
Torri shrugged. “I thought maybe it was something from this world but seems like it slipped in from another, darker place. It happens sometimes.” What Torri didn’t say was that it had been happening a lot lately. “That’s why I’m here. To protect ya. To run it out.”
“It’s from Hell?”
“Sorta.”
“Would it help if I prayed more?”
“Sure, honey. Pray all you want. God’s listening.”
“Didn’t think you cared much about God.”
“Well, God’s real, ma’am. Just like my powers of the Earth. Just like sorcery, too. They all do a thing, sometimes together.”
Sara’s eyes brightened, and the hint of a smile crossed her lips. “Okay, then. Do what you gotta do and I’ll leave it all in God’s hands.”
Lida came back ten minutes later with a pot of steaming water. She set it next to the candles on the nightstand.