Murder in Cormyr - Chet Williamson [54]
I talked to her a bit longer, until it grew dark inside the hovel and she lit a candle, to my relief. Harmless or not, I didn't relish sitting in the darkness with the mad old woman.
When I saw that I could get no more out of her, I thanked her for her time and the visit, and rose to leave. "You can't go yet, Jamie," she said.
"I'm Jasper," I reminded her. "Not Jamie."
"Oh," she said, a world of disappointment in the word. "All right then, you must be getting back to Benelaius, I suppose." Her sanity was like a lantern that blinked on and off, and I rose, eager to be on my way.
It was dark when I opened the door, and to the north I saw a wagon coming down the road, a farmer returning home from Ghars. A lantern hung from a pole, and swayed back and forth over his head, illuminating the road ahead.
"A golden hand," said Liz Clawthorn from behind me, and I turned and looked at her.
"What?"
"A golden hand," she said. "There it waves."
I looked back at the wagon, then turned to her again. "Do you see the wagon?" I asked her.
"Wagon? Nay, only the gold hand that waves and waves."
We watched as the wagon passed fifty yards away, and listened to the sound of its wheels, and I realized that Elizabeth Clawthorn's old eyes must be like a cloudy lens, and thought that, to her, a lantern would look like a bright smudge, and its rays, separate golden fingers of light.
A golden hand. A lantern. And another, far away across the swamp.
I bade her good-bye, and she begged a kiss of her "Jamie." I gave her one, though it gave me no pleasure, and went on my way south, toward the swamp road, thinking of the great mere within the swamp, and of lights winking back and forth across it.
25
Dovo must have had a lantern in the swamp on those nights. But what was he looking for? And why would he brave the trek into the swamp to that inner lake near which we found Fastred's tomb?
And most important of all, who was carrying the other lantern?
All these thoughts and more rushed through my head as I neared the turn-off to the left that would put me on the swamp road and take me home to Benelaius's cottage. Indeed, my mind was rushing so that I completely forgot the horror of the night before until I reached the spot where I had seen Dovo playing Fastred's ghost.
Then the terrors of that night and the nightmares it had caused made me bump my heels against Jenkus's sides and urge him to a greater speed than his easy trot provided. He complied, but with a complaining whicker, as though the previous night's chase had never occurred. Animals forget past fears and hurts all too readily. Perhaps that is why they are able to live with our cruelty.
We cantered down the road and past the Swamp Rat, which had only a few horses tied in front of it. I suspected the farmers who patronized it were staying home. What with two savage murders in as many days, I didn't blame them.
Two hundred yards past the Swamp Rat, I thought I heard the pursuing footsteps once again. At first I told myself it was only my imagination, so terrified had I been the night before. But as I listened, trying to transform the sounds into wind through swamp grass or the croaking of bullfrogs, I knew the sound was real, and familiar, and chilling.
da-da-boom…
da-da-Boom…
da-da BOOM!
Whatever the monstrous thing (or things) was, it was behind me again. But if Jenkus and I had outrun it once, we could outrun it twice.
"Hyah!" I shouted, and Jenkus was off like a shot. I nearly laughed in relief as the menacing sounds fell farther behind. Soon we would be home and safe.
And then Jenkus lost a shoe.
I heard the rattle as it came off. He stumbled, caught himself, and staggered again. Unprepared for the drastic change in speed, I slewed to the left and fell, automatically kicking my feet free of the stirrups so that I would not be dragged. I rolled several feet before coming to a stop. In the darkness, I could not see Jenkus, but what I could see as it approached was the thing that had