Unlovely- A Tale of Madness by Risa Fey

Author:Risa Fey [Fey, Risa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

THE ANIMALS THAT Cora saw outside the window looked like they’d been painted by a surrealist. They were strange and grotesque-looking, with limbs and tails that were too long, and maculated fur that was stained with blood and dirt. Their skeletons were oddly shaped, elongated so that even the foxes, rabbits, and roebucks resembled lissome ermines.

Ivory ribs poked out through the flanks of some of the animals, but they didn’t look to be disabled or in pain. Deer sleuthed through the woods on hooves of translucent diamond, and the patterns of their fur were variegated, kaleidoscopic in their vibrant hues and contrast. Birds swooped through the branches with unnaturally long wingspans and tail feathers of rippling streamers. The rabbits’ teeth were overlong, eyes filmed over and milky like pearls from an oyster.

Stray hounds roamed through the woods, eyes reflecting red, their hackles raised perpetually on end. They pawed at the outer walls of Cora’s home, as if what they sought was stowed somewhere inside, but Cora never let them in.

The dogs dug at the foundations of her cottage and sometimes waited in the thickets for the door to open. They frightened her, their hungry heaving and bloodstained teeth deterring her from even looking outside when they were near.

Thaed assured her that the hounds didn’t stalk the woods after midnight, and so she relaxed whenever the hour struck twelve o’clock. Apparently, they were off chasing other quarry with their master, and so she didn’t have to fear being outside at that hour.

“Who’s their master?” Cora asked.

But Thaed refused to divulge that information. The leader of the pack was a private man, and Thaed would not contribute to any whisperings behind his back.

That seemed reasonable to Cora, who disliked gossip herself. But she thought it was odd for Thaed to imply she might gossip with someone. She also thought it was odd that he would be disinclined to allow her to report the band of vicious dogs. After all, they had already destroyed some of her property and might one day kill her.

But beyond her momentary doubts, Cora didn’t worry anymore about it.

One evening, she sat in her nightgown up in a tree, braiding the yarn-made hair of a doll she had found lying around the cottage. Her back was propped against the tree trunk. Two black hounds circled the underbrush below, throats rumbling wetly with predatory menace.

She didn’t have so much as a pocket mirror on her, but she knew Thaed was somewhere with her, probably sitting on a neighboring bough.

Thaed was always with her, filling the atmosphere with his presence, brushing her hand at a sly moment, murmuring hypnotically at her ear when she least expected it. It was like being in love with a ghost, and it hardly upset her anymore if he wasn’t immediately within view, since she knew that he was always there.

The moon was gibbous and a ruddy brown color that tinged her skin to rust. The clouds grew thick, blurring the silver stars out of existence.

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