A Council of Ghosts by Ryan Harper Jones

Author:Ryan Harper Jones [Jones, Ryan Harper]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2021-10-28T23:00:00+00:00

~ 16 ~

The Rickety Old House

The carriage moved along slowly. Now and again, Henry heard Rankin and Edgerton talking casually. Occasionally, the carriage stopped, there was a brief exchange of words with a third or fourth voice, and then it moved on.

Later, the carriage came to a jerking stop. The door opened. Edgerton climbed in, released the rope from Henry’s mouth and threw a small piece of bread on the floor in front of him.

“Eat!” he grunted before stepping out.

“Please!” cried Henry as the lock on the carriage door closed with a grating sound. “Please, let me go,” he whimpered, realising the hopelessness of pleading with the two men.

Food was the last thing on Henry’s mind, and for a while, he lay on the floor wondering what he could do to help himself out of his feeble situation. Ideas were hard to come by. His hands and feet were numb with pain and his mind was a confused emotional mess. Later, Henry pushed himself across the carriage floor and took a few bites of the bread as it lay on the floor. If he was going to have any hope of escaping, he had to keep his energy up.

Henry bit into the bread and wondered what fate awaited him. Jarrett’s words resonated in his head: the searchers are cutthroats; they’ll murder their own mothers if there’s money to be made.

After what seemed an eternity, the carriage eventually stopped. The door was unlocked, and Henry was dragged out. It was a cold still night. Two owls hooted sporadically, one of them was so close it must have been perched on top of the carriage.

“Into the house and don’t try anything stupid,” snapped Rankin, undoing the ropes around Henry’s legs.

Henry shuddered at the sight of a dark ghostly house sitting against the moonlit sky. He guessed that they had travelled many miles from Kirk Heidengaard. Although there was a strong chill in the air, the snow had gone and the sowren had been replaced by two narks.

Henry was jostled through a long corridor. The floorboards creaked with each step and there was a dank stale smell in the air giving an impression the house was abandoned. Rankin grabbed a wall lamp and cast a flickery light around the corridor.

“Down the steps,” he ordered.

Henry walked steadily downwards into a cold dark cellar. A strong damp smell pervaded the room. The floor was cold, the atmosphere felt humid.

Rankin placed the lamp into a holder on the wall. He pushed Henry onto a chair, loosened his hands, and tied them securely to the back of the chair. Finally, he tied both of Henry’s legs to the chair before walking out.

The silence was broken by a quiet murmuring upstairs. It turned into a conversation and then a loud argument.

“What do you mean you lost him?” shrieked a loud timbered voice. “You’ve come all this way with this insolent brat to tell me you lost Rufus?”

“Master we had no—”

“What good is the boy? You should have got rid of him you idiots.

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