The Child Thief

guessed these were the ones the deer couldn’t get to.

“Me too,” Cricket said. She held up the back of her hand. She was a couple bushes down the slope, but Nick had no problem seeing the scratches. Danny actually looked like he was enjoying himself for the first time all day. He was on all fours, knocking at a mushroom with his spear.

“It’s kind of like hunting Easter eggs,” Danny said. “Don’t you think?”

“Just shut up and keep picking,” Leroy said.

Abraham came over to Leroy and dropped a handful of mushrooms into his sack.

“We do need to hurry,” Abraham said, looking worriedly up the hill. “The fog’s gettin’ up.”

Nick glanced up the hill and could just make out the shape of Sekeu and Redbone digging around on the ridgeline.

Something splashed nearby; Abraham heard it too. The fog was indeed getting thicker. At first, Nick thought he was just imagining things, then a wave of fog drifted into the clearing and all but obscured Danny.

“No sir, this ain’t right at all,” Abraham said. “We need to git. I’ll fetch Sekeu. Now, don’t any of you go nowhere.” He sprinted away up the hill.

The fog continued to roll in.

“Nobody told you to stop,” Leroy said.

“Can you see them?” Cricket asked.

“Not anymore,” Nick said.

“Got it!” Danny said, holding up a big yellow mushroom. “Man, would you look at the size of this thing?”

“Shit, I can’t see a thing,” Cricket said.

“I said get back to work,” Leroy growled.

A small break opened in the fog. Nick spotted Abraham nearing the ridge, then the hair shot up on the back of his neck. Behind Abraham were four, maybe five hunched shapes, right on his heels, and whatever they were, they weren’t human.

Nick was in mid-shout when a horrible screech cut him off.

It was Danny. He was on the ground and on top of him was a—monster. It had red fur, was no larger than a cat, and reminded Nick of a hyena but with long arms and clawed fingers that were even now digging into Danny’s arm and shoulder. It whipped about a long tail with a wet red stinger protruding from the end, and it began slamming the stinger repeatedly into Danny’s neck and face.

“OH, SHIT!” Nick cried. His sack fell from his hand, sending the handful of mushrooms tumbling down the slope.

Danny’s face went bright red, his mouth opened wide as he gasped loudly for breath. He toppled over backward, twitched violently, then lay still, his eyes staring up at nothing.

Another hyena-thing dropped from the tree above Cricket, knocking the spear from her hand. This one was much larger, closer to the size of a German shepherd, a thick mane of black fur circling its head. It too had a whip tail, but this one lacked any sort of stinger that Nick could see.

Cricket screamed and swung wildly with her bucket, driving it back. She tried to get around it, but it kept her pinned between the thorn bushes, hissing and snapping its teeth.

Leroy, not five strides away from her, seemed frozen in place, his eyes big, his mouth agape, clutching his spear between his white-knuckled fists.

“HELP HER!” Nick shouted. But Leroy only continued to stare.

Cricket hit the monster with the pail. It jigged side to side, darting to and fro. Nick saw the smaller, red- haired creature creeping up from behind her. If somebody didn’t do something now, Cricket would be as dead as Danny.

Leroy stumbled backward and fell.

Nick rushed out from the bushes, not even feeling the thorns dig into his legs, not thinking about anything but driving those monsters away from Cricket. He snatched up his spear and rushed the beasts, leaping past Leroy as Leroy scrambled up the hill on all fours.

The red creature leaped on Cricket’s back and jabbed its stinger into her neck, over and over. Cricket let out a pitiful cry and tumbled over.

“NO!” Nick screamed, and slammed the spear into the red creature’s ribs, knocking it off Cricket and driving it into the dirt.

The red creature shrieked and thrashed, black blood spewing from the wound.

The black hyena-thing let loose a howl that almost caused Nick to drop his spear. The wail sounded human, sounded full of rage and anguish.

Nick yanked his spear free and leveled it at the hyena-thing.

The monster locked eyes with Nick and began to beat the ground in front of it. It bared its fangs and tore up clumps of dirt and leaves, slinging them into the air.

It means to tear me apart, Nick thought, and wanted to run, but knew if he turned his back, even for a second, the creature would have him. His heart thundered in his chest. This is beyond me, I can’t do this. But there was a new voice in his head; Sekeu, telling him to hold steady, to focus. Nick slid into the L-stance, fixed his trembling hands on the spear. One shot, he thought, that’s all I’m gonna get.

The hyena-thing let loose an earsplitting screech and came for him, ripping across the ground in a crazy zigzagging charge, hooting and howling.

Focus, Nick thought, taking quick, short breaths, fighting to hold steady. The monster leaped and Nick swung, putting a snap on the spear just as Sekeu had showed him. The blade caught the beast in the neck, cutting its throat wide-open.

The creature slammed into Nick, spattering him in black blood and knocking him to the ground. Nick shoved the convulsing body away and tried for his feet, but before he could get up, something landed on his back. The smaller, red creature, its claws sunk into his shoulder, its stinger whipping toward his face. Nick managed to get his arm up and the stinger ripped across his forearm.

Nick cried out as searing pain shot up his arm. He twisted free and kicked away from the beast. It twitched and clawed at the dirt but didn’t get back up.

Nick clasped his wounded arm to his chest; he could feel the burning spread up his shoulder. His face began to grow warm, then hot; his throat tightened. Nick dropped his spear and fell over on his back, gasping for breath as his throat continued to constrict. He caught a glimpse of Cricket. She was pale and still, her eyes lifeless.

The red beast lay on its side, twitching. Leroy, his face a mask of fear and revulsion, rushed up and slammed his spear into the monster’s body over and over, and kept repeating, “Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!”

“THEY ARE HERE!” Sekeu shouted, running out of the fog, taking in the scene in a glance and sliding down next to Cricket. She leaned over, putting an ear against the girl’s chest.

Abraham, Dirk, Dash, and Redbone came running up. Redbone was splattered in black blood. A nasty slash ran across his shoulder and chest, his breath coming hard and fast through clenched teeth, sword in one hand, knife in the other, both dripping with blood. He locked wild, fierce eyes on the two dead creatures.

“I killed them,” Leroy said quickly. “Killed both of them.” He looked at Cricket and Danny. “I tried to save them. Things just happened so fast. I did what I could.”

Redbone met Leroy’s eyes; his mouth a grim line. He slipped away his knife, clapped a bloody hand on Leroy’s shoulder, and shook the boy. “Those are barghest, man. Right on, Leroy!”

Leroy grinned weakly and cut his eyes to Nick.

What? Nick thought. “No!” he tried to shout, but his throat was too tight and he broke into a fit of painful coughing.

A howl cut through the fog; it came from everywhere, from the very ground. The fog itself began to darken like a storm cloud.

“The witch,” Sekeu said.

Chapter Twelve Lady Modron’s Garden