Sons of Evil: Book 1 Book of Dread (28 page)

Silas watched him for a time,
then said, “I’m not sure what else to do. We all feel it, but none more so than
him. It feels like he’s slipping away.”

“If whatever it is that stalks
us would only show itself…,” Barlow said with a frustrated shake of his head.

Silas was pleased his friend
had drawn the same conclusion he and Adrianna had earlier about a real enemy
stalking them, but he shared Barlow’s frustration. “Maybe with time. Right now,
he’s content to wear us down.”

“ ‘He?’ ” Adrianna asked.

Silas shrugged. “I don’t know
anything, not even a guess. Just have to call him—it—something.”

“I’d call him a pain in the—”

“Adrianna,” Silas warned.

“Any chance the elves can
help?”

“I don’t know. I believe
they’ll grant us refuge, at least for a time. Hopefully that will aid us.”

“I wish you sounded more
certain,” Barlow commented.

“So do I,” Silas replied.

“If that’s our best
hope—assuming our enemy won’t show himself—I propose we continue on our way. Whatever’s
affecting Darius is working on all of us. I don’t think I’ll be able to find
sleep tonight, either.”

“Lack of sleep can play its
own tricks on the mind,” Barlow said.

“True,” said Silas. “But I
fear I’ve got to count myself with those who will not sleep tonight. Perhaps if
you want you can catch a few hours while we patrol. Darius’ mind isn’t on his
work anyway. He won’t make much of a guard tonight.”

“That’s okay,” Barlow said. “Guess
I was just making a point that we’ll need to be extra cautious. I don’t think I
can sleep either. I’m having the nightmares, too.”

None had openly admitted as
much, but it was easy to tell no one had been sleeping well. They had all been
plagued by horrible images in their dreams for days, vivid dreams even the
light of day struggled to chase away.

After they gathered their
things they told Darius they were of like mind as to moving on. He brightened
at the news, if only for a moment. It was the closest thing to a smile they’d
seen on his face all day.

The moon was in the first
quarter, and was frequently obscured by clouds, so its light was insufficient
for travel in wooded areas. Adrianna used her magic to create a globe of light
to lead them. As the night wore on and the lack of sleep started to dull their
minds, these magic spheres came to stand as symbols of the general mental state
of the group. At first strong and consistent, they grew less intense and
sometimes winked out completely. When this happened they were forced to pause
while Adrianna gathered herself for another try. For this and a myriad of other
reasons, they were all greatly relieved when dawn lit the sky.

They ignored breakfast and
stumbled on through the morning, the tiredness of their minds worse than that
of their bodies, but none of them were willing to take a break. The elven wood
became an obsession, a possible way out of the dark dread that threatened to
swallow them, and they drove themselves to reach it before their stamina gave
out completely.

Late morning a wood came into
view, large enough that they did not want to try to pass around, but of such a
sickly hue that Darius felt his heart sink upon seeing it. “Please tell me
that’s not Auerl Forest.”

“It’s not,” said Silas. “The
trees of that ancient wood are far taller. But it looks like we’ll have to pass
through it.”

“I can live with that. Just
didn’t want that to be our final destination. I guess I’m hoping for something
a little more uplifting.”

“We all are,” Adrianna told
him.

The wood was a fairly dense
one, but the trees had dropped a large percentage of their leaves, and those
remaining had gone dark, more black than green now. No one asked if it might be
some aspect of this colder clime, perhaps suggesting that an early chill had
caused the trees to shed their leaves, and that the black color was just the
northern equivalent of the reds, oranges, and yellows soon to be on display
further south. They could sense there was nothing natural to the wood’s
deterioration, the decay like that they had seen in the crops and grass. As
they neared they noted the place had a musty, unclean smell.

Barlow looked right and left. “Sure
wish we could go around, but it could be a long detour.”

“At least it’ll help us keep a
quick pace,” Silas said. “The sooner we’re through, the better.”

They plunged in, and were soon
enough used to the smell. This particular wood was a depressing place, but they
felt little worse than they had over the last few days, and enough light
trickled in to keep their way lit. Their pace was brisk, and they even ate the
small lunch they allowed themselves while they marched. As the sun started to
drop further in the west, they found they were
nearly running, wanting
to be free of this place before nightfall. They
poured all their energy into moving forward, and despite their fears and the
nightmares they
had experienced, they knew
that if they could make it to open spaces this night that a sleep born of
exhaustion would come to each of them.

Darius found himself taking
small groups of steps with his eyes closed, almost able to convince himself it
gave him a momentary respite from his growing dizziness and the headache
forming behind his left eye. Occasionally he had to redirect himself when he
opened his eyes again, finding he had veered a bit from the path the others
were taking through the woods. At least he hadn’t come close to walking into a
tree.

It was after one of these dark
intervals that Darius caught a flash of movement above him, and then something
thudded off his neck and upper back. He wheeled about and saw one of the little
demon hunters scampering behind a tree. It had the book.

“Hey!” Darius shouted, half at
the creature and half to alert his companions. He charged the little monster,
which paused a few beats before darting off.

Silas saw what it was just
before it moved. “It has the book!” he called to the others as he started to
follow Darius.

“Wait!”
Adrianna cried, but too late. Silas was already in hot pursuit and Barlow ran
by without heeding her request or asking why it was made.

Darius heard the calls and
shouts behind him, but being the closest his focus was solely on the pursuit. If
he got help, all the better, but he couldn’t risk losing sight of the little
demon. He thought it could easily outrun him, at least over a short distance,
and certainly it was more nimble than he was, but the book apparently slowed it
and he found he could keep up. If he could guess right on one of the trees they
dodged around, he just might have a chance…

Silas’ first few steps had
been in direct pursuit of Darius, but once he spotted the demon sneaking off to
the left while Darius continued running to the right, he went for the book. He
considered yelling for Darius to come back, but thought he might have a better
chance of surprising the demon if he kept silent. The demon was trying to slink
away, confirming his thought. He stealthily followed.

Barlow couldn’t tell if his
two friends had gone daft from the lack of sleep, or were brilliantly trying to
flank the demon, which was sneaking off in almost a straight line while the men
pursuing it went left and right. He shook his head, thinking it more likely to
be the former. He raced after it, knowing his old, tired legs were the only
chance left at saving their quest.

Adrianna called out two more
times, to no avail. Seeing her companions moving off in all directions, her
worst fear was realized: they had been separated. Unsure which way to go, or
whether she should simply remain where she was in case one or more of the
others could retrace their steps, it was only a matter of seconds before her
hesitation meant she was as alone as the others. She called once more, her
voice not carrying far, and got no reply. A stillness came over the wood, a
silence that made her stomach tighten.

*

Darius stopped short and tried
to still his heavy breathing. He had lost it, the demon darting around a pair
of trees, and now…

Hearing a noise to his left,
he turned, hoping he had gotten lucky, but it wasn’t the demon, nor one of his
companions. It was Sasha.

She waited for him as Luke
had, her body broken but her eyes alive, her mournful expression boring into
his soul.

He took two steps toward her,
mouthing her name. He stopped and gripped the hilt of his sword, but refrained
from drawing it. “I know it isn’t you.”

“But it is. Luke and I are
together now, in death.”

Darius managed two more steps
and drew his sword, but his arm seemed to have lost its strength. The sword’s
point dipped and touched the ground.

“Are you going to cleave me in
two?” she asked, a sickening smile distorting her face, which was badly bruised
on one side, the good one. On the other half her flesh had been torn or eaten
away in spots, revealing most of her jaw and several teeth. “Go ahead if you
wish. I am beyond any such harm.”

Getting no reply, she went on.
“I wish Landri would have simply killed me with a sword. It would have been so
much easier on me that way. I called out to you then, Darius, to save me, but
you weren’t there. You couldn’t help me. No one could. Death was a relief.”

“Shut up,” Darius said,
raising the sword a few inches. “You aren’t my sister.”

She shrugged. “You can think
what you want. By the way, Croupy says ‘Hello.’ ”

Darius felt a chill go up his
spine. “What did you say?”

“Come, now, Darius. Surely you
haven’t forgotten Croupy.”

He hadn’t. The name had been
one he had bestowed upon a boyhood friend who seemed to always be fighting a
cough. Darius had never said the name aloud to anyone except his older sister…

*

“Silas.”

The cleric froze. He had just
lost sight of the little hunter demon, and had slowed, trying to pick up the
trail again. But the voice that called his name, even after fifteen years, made
his heartbeat quicken. Slowly he turned to regard her.

She smiled at him and moved
forward, then halted, the look on his face giving her pause. “Surely you have
not forgotten me? Please say I meant more to you than that.”

“You are not Carolyn.”

Hearing her name seemed to
bring her some relief. “I understand. This must be very hard for you.”

“Perhaps not. You are only an
illusion. When I grow weary of our conversation, I’ll send you back to the
pit.”

“There you speak the truth,
though maybe not in the way you believe. But how can you say I am not the one
you loved, all those years ago? You can see me plainly enough.”

“True, and perfectly unaged. Odd,
don’t you think?”

She smiled, dropping her head
slightly. “You always were impossible to lie to. But is it not better this way,
to see me as you remember me?”

Silas forced a laugh. “Why
not? One lie is as good as another. At least you’re not wasting your time
trying to convince me you
are
Carolyn.”

“Oh, but I am. You mistake an
admission of my current appearance being an illusion with the fact of who I am,
or at least who I was in life.”

Somehow,
despite Silas’ own mental defenses, these words hurt him.

Carolyn could read the flash
of pain on his face. “Yes, I passed away several years ago. A fever that only
grew worse. I called for you, near the end, but of course you weren’t there. That’s
part of the pain I’ll carry through eternity, knowing what could have been for
us. Knowing you threw it away to chase after some fantasy of serving God.”

Silas lifted his staff in
warning. “I’ll not hear you blaspheme.”

“It matters not. In the end,
we’ll all be together, not that there will be any joy in it. There is no joy at
all down below.”

“I wouldn’t expect there would
be.”

“But that is our fate. Mine,
Luke’s, Barlow’s, yours.”

“Is that why you’re here? To
tell me that?”

“Yes. And it was why Luke
came, although you could not accept that he was who he said he was because of
the forms our bodies take after death. Mine is no different. But if you see my
true appearance, you will never believe my words.”

“I don’t believe your words
now, and I don’t believe you are Carolyn. But if you were, why come here to
tell me these things?”

“Because I have been set a
task to dissuade you from this quest. And if I fail, I will be punished now, as
you will be later, after your own passing. Oh, Silas, you don’t know despair
and emptiness…there is nothing in life that can prepare you. Please, Silas, if
you once loved me, heed my words.”

She began to weep, and a part
of Silas wanted to comfort her, so much so that his left foot moved a step
toward her. “The fact you ask me to abandon the quest tells me your dark masters
fear me completing it. That is enough reason for me to press on.”

Her head dropped and her
shoulders sagged, and her tears fell in single drops onto the ground while she
sobbed. She shook her head and said, “I will still tell myself you loved me
once, even through my agony.”