tease people, to titillate and excite them without following through. It was one thing when she did it to Sunny, because the whole point was to get her so excited she couldn't control herself. But she figured if she were to do it too often, Sunny would take a baseball bat to her head. It was inconceivable to her that any woman would routinely lead men on with no concern for the possible consequences.
She looked over at Sunny, who sat enraptured, staring at Vichnia. It upset her so much that it soured her stomach. She wanted to trust Sunny, but the thought that she could have the hots for someone else made her crazy.
Maybe I am jealous. It's just that she's never looked at me like that. Then again, I don't do for her what Vichnia's doing now, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I just don't have it in me. Sunny's made it easier for me to express my feelings than I used to, but I'm still somewhat reserved, even in private. I love her so much that I can't imagine living without her, but I still have trouble showing it. I always thought she loved me the same way. Maybe I was just taking her for granted. Maybe she's getting bored with me. I wish I knew. All I do know is she's paying way too much attention to Vichnia, and it's tearing me up inside. I wish we had never come here. I wish her father would come and take her away.
An odd noise roused her from her reverie. It had started out low, barely perceptible, but it had grown until it became a conspicuous distraction. Frowning, she noticed that Sunny also heard it, and looked around trying to find its source. She examined the common room herself, but not for the sound. It seemed to her everyone heard it--patrons, barmaids, bouncers, musicians, Tyco himself--and they were also searching for its source. Only Vichnia seemed oblivious, and she figured it was because she was too wrapped up in her concentration.
Sunny glanced at her. "You hear that?"
She nodded.
Baffled, Sunny stared at the ceiling. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear it sounded like a jet."
She snapped her head up. It did sound like a jet!
By that time, the noise had become loud enough to drown out the music. The musicians stopped playing and she glanced at the stage, but Vichnia continued dancing for some moments until it dawned on her that she was performing a cappella. She ceased and looked down at them in an irritated fashion, but then she heard the roar. Her spine tingled when Vichnia jerked her head up. Though others were now watching the ceiling, she was the only one to do so immediately. Then her blood ran cold when she saw that the look on Vichnia's face was not confusion, as with everyone else, but abject fear.
From "The Golden Mushroom"
By that time they had reached the spot indicated on the map. It was a boggy hollow, in area a little larger than a baseball field. Pools of debris and silt-filled water lay interspersed by mounds and ridges of soggy earth. The trees were small and thinner there, and more widely scattered, but the only other vegetation were thick mats of a ground-hugging herb.
Shadow sat on a rock waiting for them as she gazed into the hollow. The long, lean, smoky-gray cat looked up at them with her mint-green eyes as they came abreast of her. "This may be a little more difficult."
To Eile she sounded smugly satisfied. "What do you think?" she asked Sunny.
"It doesn't look too bad." But there was a hint of uncertainty in her tone. Eile couldn't blame her. While it wasn't going to be as easy as the other items, it looked simple enough: avoid the pools, stay on the land, and hope it was solid enough to support them. But it would make searching for the gilded toadstool all the more difficult.
"If only we knew where to look," Sunny added in frustration.
As if her words were a prayer, a shaft of sunlight dropped out of a break in the clouds and fell on the central mound. At its center an object winked and twinkled with a distinctive metallic sheen.
Though stunned, Eile felt suspicious too. "Alright, now that was just too convenient."
"Yeah, but what choice do we have?"
Sunny sounded nervous, but she was right. "None." She placed the pack on the ground. "You go first. Use yer bow ta test the ground ahead, make sure it's firm." She unsheathed her sword and held it at the ready. "I'll watch our backs. Okay?"
"Okay, partner!" She grinned, excitement shining in her eyes. "Team Girl laughs in the face of death as we brave the dangers of the bog of doom! Ha-ha-ha!"
Eile grimaced and pressed the fingers of her left hand into her forehead. "Just...be careful where you step, will ya? Shadow, you stay here."
"I'll be sure to tell Mayv where to scatter the flowers."
She gave the cat a dirty look. "Thanks a bunch."
"Don't mention it."
Sunny made her way to the closest ridge and started out over it, probing the earth with her bow before she took each step. Eile made sure she stepped into Sunny's footprints. At first the ground seemed quite firm, but after a couple of yards Sunny started to sink. For a moment her heart seized up as she expected Sunny to be sucked down out of sight, but she only sank to her ankles. The ground was getting softer, but the vegetation seemed able to hold it together.
"Ick!" Sunny squealed as she extracted her foot.
"Keep moving!" She sank as well, but fortunately no deeper despite her armor. Apparently the herb mat was strong enough to bear their weight without breaking.
Sunny took another step. "I hope I tied the laces tight enough. I don't want to be stuck out here without boots."
After nearly twelve Dream-months, Eile had gotten pretty good at estimating the passage of time without a watch. It was sort of like dead reckoning. By her calculation, it took them a total of forty-five minutes to reach the central mound. It was a nerve-wracking trip; with each step, she expected them to stumble into quicksand or fall through an unsuspected dirt bridge and sink into a deep bog hole. But they made it safely, and she figured the journey back would be faster.
Sunny lifted her skirt and examined her feet. They were covered in muck half-way up her shins. "Ugh. I'm gonna need to get new shoes after this." She then dropped the hem and looked around, while Eile looked with her.
The mound was no different from any of the others, except larger. It was covered by an herb mat, but in its center stood the Golden Mushroom. It resembled its name exactly: a standard toadstool stalk and cap, but metallic gold in color. In fact, it looked like it was made of real gold.
"Here." Sunny held out her bow, and she took it.
"We'll take the same route back." She watched Sunny put on her gloves and go up to the fungus.
"Right." She spoke in an absentminded fashion as she knelt down.
In the same moment, Eile felt something strange in the woods around them. The hairs on the nape of neck stood up as her skin crawled and turned to goose flesh. Raising her sword, she turned around in all directions, trying to identify it, but she saw nothing. But she heard it: muffled thunderclaps like the stamping of huge feet. Then she felt the ground tremble with the concussion shock. Something was coming, something huge, but she couldn't pinpoint from where.
She looked back at Sunny. She had heard and felt it too, and she stood slowly as she looked around.
"Sunny!" She tossed her the bow. She caught it and nocked an arrow, ready for whatever came.
The sounds grew steadily louder as the tremors intensified. Then Eile saw them: gigantic anthropoid figures striding around the perimeter of the hollow, just beyond the tree line. She tried to count them, but lost track as they crossed and recrossed each other's paths. They moved faster than she expected from their size. She looked for Shadow, but the cat was gone.
Before she could try to find her, one of the figures emerged into the hollow. It came at her with startling speed as it covered great distances with each enormous stride.
"Sweet Jesus!" She saw it clearly for the first time: it looked like a tree!
Sunny screamed. Eile whipped around in time to see a second tree-creature stalking off with her in one hand. She struggled, kicked, and pounded on the fingers, but it had her in an iron grip.
"Eile!! Help me!!!" The mons
ter merged with the woods and vanished from sight.
"Sunnyyy!!!" She started off after her. The creature coming up behind her passed her in two massive strides, then turned and swung an arm at her. It caught her before she could dodge, picked her up, and threw her backwards in a high, long arch. She landed in one of the pools with a shocking splash. Terrified, she flailed about for some moments, desperately trying to stay afloat, when she realized she was already resting on the bottom. She sat up and wiped detritus away from her face as she sputtered to expel the foul tasting water from her mouth.
She looked around and found that the tree-monsters were gone.
"Shit!" She groped for her sword, and when she found it she stood up and ran back to the central mound, heedless to any danger. She gained the top and glanced around, looking for the spot where the one creature had taken Sunny into the woods, but she saw nothing to indicate where they had gone.
"Arrrgh, dammit, dammit, dammit!" she raged, as much from misery as wrath.
"Eile!"
She turned and saw Shadow standing on a farther mound.
"I know where they took Sunny. Follow me!"
She didn't argue. She charged off the mound and across a ridge, and followed the cat as it crossed the rest of the hollow and dashed into the woods. Eile ran as fast as she could push herself, relying on instinct to avoid roots and branches, and luck to
The Beast of Exmoor Page 10