Beneath Ceaseless Skies #172 by E. Catherine Tobler & Erin Cashier & Shannon Peavey

Author:E. Catherine Tobler & Erin Cashier & Shannon Peavey [Tobler, E. Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: _Beneath Ceaseless Skies_ Online Magazine
Published: 2015-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

That night the two of them sat around an anemic fire in the middle of the road, camping as a courtesy to Halpern and a necessity for the nag. Eldred would have had no problem seeing beneath the moon, and, with whatever power it availed him, continuing strong. His eyes glittered in the firelight, and Halpern wondered exactly how well he could see.

“How’d you know,” Eldred asked as Halpern ate his dinner, “what it is that done this?”

“My prior post, before Sarah and I moved out here. Thing ate four wagon’s worth before we figured it out—people, horses, supplies. Town damn near starved.” He set his plate down and stared into the fire. “It killed five horses, and three men—I started out with ten of each. Drove it off a cliff, then went the long way down to kick the corpse.”

“And this time? How did you know?”

“I saw its sign. A lucky thing, too.” Halpern had gone out to check on the wagon once it hadn’t come in. He’d taken the path, and spotted the wagon’s remains. It didn’t take much to notice all the bodies were gone, and deep gouges clawed into the earth besides. “They can’t help but eat, anything, everything. The one we’d killed had its stomach full of horse meat and stones. This one will be wagoneers and dirt.”

Eldred grunted, unfazed. One devil to another, of course. “So the nag’s bait?”

“Once we get there, yeah,” Halpern said. “You ever killed one before?”

“Never even seen one. But I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Eldred stood and took a few steps away from the fire before setting himself down on his blankets. There was a coyote howl in the distance.

“Friends of yours?” Halpern asked, as other coyotes joined in.

Eldred said nothing, just closed his eyes.

* * *

Halpern woke up at the ass end of night needing to piss. He stood, and spent a full minute figuring out how far out of camp he could step and still be safe. How long had its arms been? Surely if it were close, the horse would have startled or Eldred would have smelled it. Behind him, Eldred was snoring, his chest rising and falling with the sound. Halpern went downwind.

He didn’t know what Sarah had seen in Eldred. He’d felt it though, when Eldred was in the room with her, like heat lightning before a storm. Townspeople said that he’d cast a spell on her. Halpern knew Eldred hadn’t had to—he knew his sister, he’d seen the adoration in her eyes.

The thing was, Eldred’d asked Halpern for her hand. Halpern could have told him no. She was young enough then to still listen. But God, the Indians were something fierce that year, and he’d been younger too. He concentrated, and urine shot from his body in a warm stuttering stream. Piss on the devils, piss on the past, and piss on Golden Falls.

A creature rose up out of the brush in front of him. He leapt backwards with a yelp, splashing his leg.

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