Powered by Ghosts by Kaje Harper

Author:Kaje Harper [Harper, Kaje]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-25T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Silas fiddled with the tangled cord of the phone on Clarice’s kitchen counter, while he listened to Locke tell him why it was unlikely they’d actually encountered a ghoul.

When Locke ran out of words, he repeated, “I know they’re rare, but it was dark and amorphous with many hands and mouths and it ran off with a woman’s shade and left only a wisp of a ghost. What would you call it?”

Locke said, “There might be some other explanation. Let me check Catellus’s Magical Entities.”

“I’d appreciate that.” He took the chair beside Darien, stretching the cord to its limit.

Across the table, Clarice and Annie sat close together. Clarice patted Annie’s hand on the tablecloth, and asked, “How does something like a ghoul end up in our small town? There’s never been mass deaths— We didn’t even have a Civil War battle, or a tornado.”

Silas rubbed his lips with a fist. “Well, the only ones I remember reading about were associated with battlefields, but maybe Locke will find out more. He’s checking his books.”

“Can they cross the Veil?” Annie asked. She was small and quiet, plain-looking beside Clarice, but Clarice looked at her like she’d hung the moon.

“I don’t know. Something else I hope Locke can find out.” Silas straightened and turned his attention to the phone as Locke mumbled something. “Go on…”

Clarice made a gesture, forming an apple-green cone of light at the receiver, and suddenly Locke’s voice came through clearly to them all. Silas raised his eyebrows and held the earpiece away from his head. He was just as glad not to have to do a recap for the others. Useful spell, that.

“All right,” Locke said, voice thin over the line. “Catellus didn’t have a good alternative. So I’m going to tentatively accept that it might have been a ghoul.”

Big of you. Silas said, “It’s a starting point.”

“True. The most complete record of a ghoul I remember came from World War One, after Gallipoli. Let me find it.”

There was a pause on the line, a distant thump and scuff sounds, then Locke returned. “Got it. There’s some frothing in here about the Ottomans and their heathen magic practices… but it’s not clear the ghoul favored one side over the other, and it didn’t appear to be controlled by them. The account says, ‘Necromancers reported the creature first, seeing it among the dead as they worked. Its aspect was fearsome, a dark miasma that could move swiftly, where a hundred hungry maws opened and closed as it sought to consume the dead.’” Locke’s tone went dry. “Someone fancied themselves a thriller writer.”

“Any details we can use?”

Locke cleared his throat and read, “‘The creature grew stronger over subsequent days. Necromancer Borden opined that it was gaining sustenance from the numerous dead, and perhaps the dying. His powers were unable to touch it, and Sorcerer Cardiff did no better. It would appear amidst the dead, snatch its prey, and vanish again. Borden followed it numerous times and said it seemed at home on either side of the Veil, and was too swift to pursue.

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