Briardark (Warhammer Horror) by C L Werner

Author:C L Werner [Werner, C L]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2022-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘A coach, Cicely! Just think of it!’ Lucilla tugged at Cicely’s arm as they hurried down the lane. All of Felstein was abuzz with excitement, everyone headed to the square to see for themselves this unusual visitor. The arrival of a coach was a remarkable event. The community was too small and isolated to warrant attention from those who travelled in such luxury.

‘I saw a coach once before,’ Cicely told her friend as they jostled through the crowd. ‘Oh, it must have been when I was six or seven. Markgraf Diemien came through Felstein on his way to find the Gravehold of Tarn.’

Lucilla curled her fingers together in the sign of Nagash. ‘You shouldn’t talk so,’ she warned in a subdued tone. ‘It’s bad luck to mention one of the wight kings. They might put a curse on you!’

Cicely smiled at her friend’s caution. She doubted if any wight could place a curse on her as terrible as the one she was already suffering. Today was the first day in five that she’d felt well enough – and looked presentable enough – to visit Lucilla or walk the streets in daylight. That’s because she was still flush with the energies she’d drawn out of her cousin Sebastian. The townsfolk had fished his body from the mill pond only yesterday.

‘A curse would be better than a chill,’ Cicely quipped, drawing her cloak more tightly about herself. She wasn’t actually cold, but she thought it better if her neighbours believed she was. That would explain why she went about so heavily muffled. Right now she was fine, but she knew her vigour wouldn’t last and there would come a time when she’d again need to conceal her affliction from everyone.

Lucilla frowned at Cicely’s morbid humour, but rather than scolding her, she simply changed the subject. ‘Oh, I wonder who it could be?’

Cicely could have answered that question. There was only one person she could think of who was so prosperous that he’d have a coach at his command and might be expected to pay Felstein a visit. Uncle Aaric Gothghul. She felt relief at the idea her uncle was here, because it meant her father had made it safely to Gothghul Hollow and would be back now. She also felt uneasy knowing the scholar was in the town. Knowing that there was now someone in Felstein who might discover what she was doing.

‘Let’s hurry before the square is too full,’ Cicely said. ‘Then we’ll see for ourselves who it is.’ Now it was her turn to speed Lucilla down the street, squeezing past people intent on the same objective.

A large crowd had gathered in the square. People craned their necks, eagerly whispering to one another as they awaited the arrival of the coach. When the clatter of hooves became audible, a hush fell upon the crowd. People scrambled aside to clear a path for the brace of huge demi-gryphs that emerged from the fog, the blue plumage of their feathered heads standing in marked contrast to the sleek black fur of their bodies.

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