A Latent Dark (35 page)

“No sign of the girl?” he asked them through the haze.

“None, sir,” said the taller of the two. “We checked inside and out.”

Lyle looked out across the yard at the scattered wood behind the house. He had seen this entire thing before and it was starting to irritate him. Twice now he had come so close catching that little brat. He dropped the stub of the cigarette and crushed it under his heel.

“Check the barn,” he said.

The two men marched down the hill and into the barn. Lyle offered the pilot a cigarette, which the man accepted. They looked down at what was left of the two corpses at their feet. One soldier was untouched except for three neat, clean holes bored through his chest. The other man’s torso was hollowed out from the neck down. All that was left was a waxy husk—no blood, no entrails, the flesh simply ceased to be.

“I assume we wouldn’t have come this far if you didn’t think we had power to make it to Rhinewall,” he said.

“We might be able to drift in a little on the breeze if we have to, but I think we can make it without a problem.”

“You’re a fine pilot Randy,” he said, kicking a small rock under the vehicle.

“Thank you sir.”

“Wife and kids?”

“Still single, I’m afraid.” The pilot grinned, the top half of his face impossible to read under the instruments.

“
Ahh
, well,” said Lyle. “All in good time I suppose.“

Movement from the barn broke off their conversation. The soldiers were returning with a third man. He staggered between them, as if they were friends dragging him home from a night of heavy drinking. His arm hung around one of the men’s necks. His other arm was a twisted mess that didn’t seem to fit anywhere.

So this is the informant
, thought Lyle. The man’s piteous outline was unmistakable from the description in the note.
Quite a sacrifice on Sarah’s part
.

He reached a gloved hand out and patted the man’s face, grabbing him by the chin. Dale’s head lolled from side to side.

“Wake up,” he said and slapped the man harder.

As if drugged, the man’s eyes rolled from the back of his head. He gave Lyle a confused look. His mouth hung open stupidly.

“I take it you’re the informant,” he said, hissing at Dale. Recognition struck the man like a cold shower. His eyes suddenly focused on the Reverend and his entire body seemed to jerk awake.

“She…“ he stammered. “They… they were… I had her.”

“You had who?”

“The girl… I… I had her… Soldiers were following me.” Dale became more alert and stood upright, brushing dust from his clothes.

“I’m waiting,” said Lyle.

Dale cleared his throat. “The girl, I followed her, Sarah told me there was a reward on her head.”

Lyle nodded.

“I know her,” said Dale. “I think I got her to trust me, but there were two idiot soldiers following me. They made a hell of a racket—”

Dale stopped as he noticed the two corpses for the first time. Lyle reached a hand around his neck and grabbed him by his hair. Dale winced.

“Those idiot soldiers are dead because of you,” Lyle hissed into his face.

“They… they were starting to spook her,” Dale said, trying to explain. “I confronted them and told them to back off. I thought I could probably get her to trust me. They could move in when I signaled them.”

“What happened then?”

“I… I fell asleep.”

The Reverend released him with a rough shove and took a step back. The man was almost too stupid for words.

“You fell
asleep
.”

“Look,” said Dale, the words spilling out now. “She knows me. She didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in a strange place. I thought that if I could keep her there, you know. Just coax her. Maybe let her feel secure. We agreed to sleep in shifts. I was going to signal the soldiers when she was asleep.”

“So what happened?”

“She won the coin toss.”

“The
what?
” Lyle laughed incredulously.

“She insisted we flip a coin to decide who went first,” Dale said. “I lost.”

Lyle laughed in his face. “Oh, I’ll say.” He slapped Dale’s shoulder and squeezed. His hand was like a vice made of bone.

Dale chuckled nervously.

“So,” Lyle said. “You thought you could trick this girl into sleeping alone in a house and then split the reward with the soldiers. Do I have that right?”

“Yes.”

“And then you decided to risk the entire operation on a
coin toss
.”

Dale only nodded.

“Are you a gambling man, mister…”

“Dale.”

“…Mister Dale?”

“I was,” said Dale. “I don’t anymore.”

“Except when you might be on the verge of doing something that matters,” Lyle said.

“Look,” Dale said, “Sarah told me that she knew the girl and that you were looking for her. She mentioned a reward and said something about her being missing. If I’d known—”

“If you had known what?” Lyle said. “If you had known that you were betting against a witch?”

Dales confused eyes narrowed.

“If you had known that you’d end up getting these men killed? If. You. Knew. What?” said Lyle, his face inches from the man.

“Look,” Dale said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m sorry about your soldiers, but they must have known there’d be risks or they wouldn’t have followed.”

Lyle slapped him. Dale’s mouth fell slack. The soldiers grabbed him by the arms.

“Those men did what they had to do,” said Lyle. “They were doing exactly what they needed to do until you ruined everything for them.” Spittle flew from his lips.

Dale said nothing and Lyle stood back again, arms crossed.

“What happened then?” said Lyle. “How did they die?”

Dale’s face went white as he cleared his throat.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said.

“Try me.”

The entire evening had become a murky jumble of confusing images to Dale. As he described the scene to the Reverend, his mind organized the information in the only way that made any sense, the way one makes sense of dreams upon waking.

“I think there might have been an animal living in the house.”

“An animal.”

Dale nodded. “A bear or something. I don’t know. It was huge… it attacked them and I got away. I hid in the barn.” His eyes shifted uncomfortably between Lyle and the corpses.

If it had been anyone but the Reverend, they might have believed Dale. After all, who would believe that a giant shadow had leaked from the corner of the room and killed both men, ignoring the girl as she ran past? Dale didn’t even believe it himself.

Lyle listened intently to the man as he continued to come up with excuses and stories. When Dale finally fell silent, Lyle looked at the soldiers on either side of him.

“I want you to burn the house,” he said. “But first, pay Mr. Dale here. I’ll tell the lab to expect three bodies.”

The man in the white suit turned without another word and grabbed the ladder leading up to the aerolore. The anchor made a loud metallic clunk and retracted back into the hovering framework. Dale looked down at the two soldiers and winced.

How are they not even bleeding
, he thought.
Was that really a bear—

Dale was distracted from the observation as a bayonet blade emerged from his chest, pushing the fabric up in a crimson tent.

Three bodies,
he thought just before he collapsed.

Chapter 25

A thick, gnarled oak rose out of the fog that morning and Skyla collapsed against it, panting and sweaty. She took one last look behind her, still seeing the house in her mind, still imagining that something was chasing her. It was there every time she blinked—a lumbering hulk.

Instead she saw nothing but fog, heard nothing but the rustle of soft grass. There was a crook within the roots of the tree, deep and twisted. Hefting her backpack from her shoulders, Skyla slipped down into the hole, curled into a ball, and slept.

*

She slid through a warm, dark tunnel, the ground squeezing her painlessly through the earth. It felt like being born, she thought, but with less screaming. The ground rushed up suddenly, meeting her feet with a tenuous realism. She stood at the top of a hill, overlooking a vast, gray valley. The air was so clear she found she could see the opposite hillside, dozens or perhaps hundreds of miles away.

A crowd of people stood facing her, their numbers stretching off over the slope of the hill and out of sight. So varied were their outfits, she wondered if she hadn’t stumbled into a costume party by accident.

--which is silly because I am dreaming this.

They looked at her with anticipation, waiting for her to say something, all their eyes pleased yet surprised that she was there before them.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” the crowd echoed back. Skyla shifted her weight self-consciously.

She turned and saw the building again, infinitely massive and square, shimmering against gray mountains like a mirage before vanishing over the horizon. It was surrounded by still black water. A wolf howled from somewhere in its courtyard.

When she turned again to the crowd a man had approached her. He wore a strange canvas hat which conformed to his head, then extended above his eyes with a long, round bill.

 “Are you real?” he asked. There were a few nods from behind him.

Skyla couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah,” she said. “I am. Are you?”

The man in the red and white cap had such a comical look on his face, she couldn’t help but giggle at him.

“Yes,” he said.

He leaned toward her and extended a hand. She shook it and saw the man smile. He had a wonderful, handsome smile.

“What’s that building?” she asked.

“That’s where we all have to go,” he said, releasing her hand and placing his in his pocket. “We’re all waiting for the boatman.”

“Why are there so many of you?”

“Well, he hasn’t been by for a long time. We’ve been waiting for years, some of us even longer.”

A woman yelled up through the crowd, “The soul eater got him!”

Several heads nodded in unison.

“What’s a soul eater?” she asked. “And where is this place?”

The man looked at the people near him, and they shrugged. When his gaze met hers again, he frowned. “You mean you aren’t dead?”

“What? No! At least, I hope not,” she said.

Her hand went to her face and she could feel the goggles now, closed and sealed over her eyes.