The Paper Sword by Robert Priest

Author:Robert Priest
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2014-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

14

Mother

The ghoulish woman had returned to her cave by the time the dogs, running at the ends of their long leashes, arrived. High up on the boar the examiner held the chains of the dogs in one hand and the reins of the boar in the other as he galloped along the canyon floor. His sword was flapping at his side and he was furious. Travelling through the night at great risk he had reached the cabin not long after his prey had left. But there the dogs, one of whom still had a fishhook in his nose from an earlier trap, filled their long snouts with the red pepper Torgee had so stealthily spread on and around the porch. For some time, despite his most energetic whipping, the beasts had been unable to do anything but roll and sneeze and whine in pain. Then they had been tricked by that chimerant swan. And now this — a locked black gate barring the way. And his prey was so close, just beyond the gate, somewhere, he knew it. The three remaining dogs hunkered timidly before the black gates, scenting even over the painful aroma of cayenne in their nostrils something strange, deathly, and unnatural about this place. The examiner dismounted and shoved at the gates, but there was no give at all despite his efforts. Grunting with rage, he leapt back atop the boar, backed it up a way, and then charged it at the gates. The dogs scurried out of the way as the poor beast slammed into the black metal grill, but still the gates remained tightly shut.

Perhaps the mad youth and the girl were trapped here too. He spun around to scan the black leaf-covered walls of the chasm. But already creatures were parting the hanging vegetal veils and emerging from numerous hidden caves and crannies. A draft of fear ran through him as the grey-cloaked creatures ran toward him. There was something curious in their gait, and only when one of their hoods was blown back by the wind did he see that their heads had been yanked around atop their shoulders. Running backward, they came at him, and the dogs began to howl. They scurried back and forth before the gates looking for an exit, but there was none. One of them began to dig desperately.

The boar, too, was unnerved by the unnatural procession before him. It backed up against the gates, trembling so hard the leaves on the vines that bound them were visibly shaking.

The examiner drew his sword and charged at the first line of the ghouls, hacking his way through, severing a couple of heads as he did so. Even as he spotted a narrow stairway proceeding up to a ledge on the canyon wall, he heard the shrieking of the dogs and the squealing of the boar rise to a crescendo. He looked back only long enough to see the ghouls swarming over the dogs. The dogs were writhing and yelping

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