Equinox by David Towsey

Author:David Towsey [Towsey, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781801101677
Publisher: Head of Zeus

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I left the Eder house under an almost full moon. The rest of the dinner proceeded without incident, with nothing more than the barbed comments of Mrs Channock to navigate. When the men retired to the drawing room, the women to the parlour, I took my leave professing no taste for whiskey and my day-brother’s pressing duties. If my hosts understood such a lie, they were too gracious to show it, and instead Mayor Eder feigned disappointment. I was the only guest from the august gathering to leave early.

The path wound down from the top of the valley, with loose rock and broken branches making slow going of it. I had not drunk beyond what was polite so I had the sense to let Tabitha choose the way, and do so at her own pace. I tried to clear all recollection of the actual dinner, the to-and-fro between Mrs Fredericks and Mrs Channock, from my mind. Instead, there was much to take from the evening; I understood that at least, even though I understood little of the specific details. The shared vision. Mrs Eder transformed. The boy, Olesca, watching on. No. Watching us.

I stopped Tabitha at a break in the hedgerow, the woods behind me, and looked out to the fort on the other side of the valley. It gained a kind of shape from the few lit camp fires and the teasing smallness of lamps. But that shape was too slight for the fort. It was shrinking, had been from the day I arrived, although now it was very clearly shrinking back from the ashes of itself.

Those ashes caught all the night’s light, but especially from that of the moon; a light that shared the ashes’ colour and coldness. It would have been somewhat pretty if it weren’t so terrible. That was the way of things.

I hoped they had stopped burning bodies at the fort. I knew better than to hope there were no new bodies to burn.

A crack sounded across the valley, like a single rifle shot in the still night. Except there was something more wooden to the noise. I found it curious. Tabitha felt more strongly on the matter. With no urging from me she skittered, almost lopsidedly, back onto the track. Then, with a fear no Reikovan thoroughbred has known, she galloped as fast as the rocky trail would allow.

Another crack followed behind.

I tried to call to the horse and pulled on the reins but it was no use. I could only cling on.

More reports came in the night, followed by slower, longer booms – like the thunder that trails behind lightning. Those booms seemed to shake everything, even my fogged breath and the billowing cloud coming from Tabitha. It wasn’t rifle fire. Cannon, perhaps.

Still clinging to the horse’s neck, I saw thick black lines snaking their way along the wall beside the track. Stones and mortar vibrated, visibly shook, before giving way. More and more debris fell onto the track. If it were a race between us and the failing wall, we were losing.

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