Master of the Moors (37 page)

"So what are you waiting
for? Let them kill me, you coward." Her tears were hot and silent.
"Do it!"

As if they'd been waiting
for this very command, no matter who issued it, the creatures began
to advance, their drooling mouths spread wide. Kate closed her
eyes, blinding herself to the pale fire as it threw her shadow over
her shoulder. She began to pray, not for salvation, but for Grady,
and Neil, and her father, and her beloved Mrs. Fletcher.

Behind her, the muttering
of the crowd seemed closer, but it didn't matter now. They would
kill her with one swipe of their claws and be gone, woven into the
fabric of the night, before her would-be rescuers discovered her
bloodied remains.

"Stop."

Kate opened her eyes.

Callow was scowling.
"Leave her be."

The creatures exchanged
glances but after a moment in which she was sure they'd defy their
master, they retreated, and moved to flank Callow. His eyes moved
back to the orange glow growing ever closer as the search party
scanned the dark. "Your friend told me something," he said. "Which
I suspect was a lie specifically designed to try and save you." He
sighed. "But I can't take the chance that he was telling the truth.
So tonight, you go home." He stepped close to her, his dark
fissured flesh twisting to accommodate his bitter smile. "But we'll
be watching you closely, monitoring your progress, and if the
groundskeeper lied, then we'll come for you. Do you
understand?"

There were a million
things she wanted to say, every one of them an insult or a
challenge, every one of them a rock she wished to throw in his face
for what he had done. But he was letting her live, and while it
didn't seem much of a mercy considering all he had taken away from
her, she bowed her head and nodded once.

As Callow turned and began
to walk away, the animals at his heels, another question occurred
to her and she called it after him. "What did Grady tell you? What
was your mistake?"

For a moment it looked
like he wasn't going to respond, wasn't going to satisfy a
curiosity that would combine with grief to haunt whatever time she
had left to live, but then he stopped, and looked over his shoulder
at her.

"He said Sylvia didn't
give birth to a boy."

And then he was gone,
perhaps fearing the return of the flames that had disfigured him,
and moments later Kate found herself weeping amid the attention of
many voices and many hands. Mrs. Fletcher sobbed and hugged the
breath from her and asked more questions than she could
answer.

"I thought I'd lost you,
but thank the good Lord, you're safe now!"

Yes. She was safe, for a
while, but ahead, in the dark where no one else was looking, she
saw her brother's eyes burning in the dark like lanterns as he
glanced over his shoulder at her. And in those lights she saw the
promise of his return.

***

As they led her away
swaddled in blankets and sipping at brews she could not taste, she
numbed herself against the agony that waited behind her eyes for
its chance to become her, and in those moments, as she walked
within the villagers' comforting lights, leading them to where
Grady lay dead, she felt something cold in the pit of her stomach,
something that sent dark tendrils into her brain and forced her to
acknowledge its presence.

Mrs. Fletcher dropped to
her knees and wept over Grady's body.

Kate caught sight of
Tabitha Newman, hurrying to join the crowd, rushing to find the
charwoman, and declining a kind offer to be assisted when someone
pointed out the dried blood on her blouse.

The villagers encircled
the corpse, weapons at the ready, but there was no need. The
creatures, and the master of the moors, had no business here
tonight.

Kate knew this to be true,
just as she knew Grady had told Callow the truth.

The ache in her stomach
proved it, for it was nothing so simple as grief, or regret,
nothing so paltry as worry, rather the first stirrings of a great
and terrible power.

# # #

About the Author

Kealan Patrick
Burke
is the Bram Stoker Award-winning
author of
The Turtle
Boy
,
The
Hides
,
Vessels
,
Kin
,
Midlisters
,
Master of the Moors
,
Ravenous Ghosts
,
The Number 121 to Pennsylvania &
Others
,
Currency
of Souls
,
Seldom
Seen in August
, and
Jack & Jill
.

Visit him on the web at:
http://www.kealanpatrickburke.com or
facebook.com/kealan.burke

.