Swords v. Cthulhu by Jesse Bullington

Author:Jesse Bullington [Various]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stone Skin Press
Published: 2016-07-11T23:00:00+00:00

“Can you go now?” Sister Guda hissed in pain. “Your heel is digging into my shoulder.”

“Have strength, Sister,” Hildegard encouraged her. Guda’s already florid face flushed darker. Sister Richardis slipped over the windowsill and disappeared into the darkness.

“I’m next,” Marten piped. He scrambled up onto the bench and then onto Guda’s broad shoulders. He hesitated only a moment before going over the edge.

“I mislike sending him out there,” Brother Arnold whispered.

“You next, Sister Diemud.” Hildegard gave the youngest of the nuns a squeeze on the shoulder. She turned back to the brother. His cuts had begun to scab, but they looked swollen and red. They would soon need a poultice lest they become septic. “They’re the only ones small enough to get through the gardening shed window,” she reminded him. “We need weapons.”

The workman’s hoe had inspired the idea. Benedictine rule decreed that all communities must strive for self-sufficiency, and Hildegard’s first order of business building her priory had been the establishment of a large garden. Just as importantly, she had made sure her people had all the necessary tools to maintain an orchard and small farm.

“I am a man of peace,” he began, but Hildegard hushed him with a wave of her hand.

“At times, peace must be defended. Today we will be warriors of God. Tomorrow, we can repent.”

“If there is a tomorrow,” a sister whispered, and someone else shushed her.

Hildegard felt for her rosary. Her parents had given it to her before she had been shut away as an anchorite with Sister Jutta in Disibodenberg, a lifetime ago. It had been the only dependable comfort in her childhood. Loneliness had subsumed her in that quiet, closed up place, and it would have eaten her alive if she hadn’t had God by her side. His words had given Jutta a reason to educate the little girl. His words had changed her life.

She rolled a bead between her fingers. Time and hard use had worn it smooth. Sometimes she still felt like that young girl, cloistered from the world. How little she knew about things like weapons and fighting. She could only pray she was doing the right thing.

Silence lay over the priory’s muddy grounds. She tried to envision where Robold and his creatures might be, but nothing came to her. Construction had torn open the entire hillside, gouging open pits in the ground for harvesting sandstone and the usable remains of ancient ruins. Outside of this house, the other completed buildings were far too small to contain a group of any size. She closed her eyes and listened hard, her lips moving in silent prayer.

“Mother Hildegard! We’ve the tools!”

Marten’s voice came from far away. Hildegard opened her eyes and saw the others already moving around her. She squeezed her eyes shut again. She had seen something for a moment, a tiny hint of a vision. But now it was gone.

“Mother, hurry!”

She followed Ancilla out the door. The nuns’ temporary quarters sat on the flattest flank of the hill, and the ground here was much trammeled by carts and workers.

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