Sekeu’s eyes were wide. And for the first time, Nick caught a flash of fear even on Redbone’s face.
The fog thinned, and there in front of them, not twenty feet away, stood a little girl with long white hair in a flowing white gown. She smiled at them and tittered.
“Look,” she said, “little boys and girls come out to play.”
“How precious,” someone answered. Nick glanced behind and saw another girl.
“Precious indeed,” called a third girl, this one on his left. The girls appeared to be identical in every detail.
“Such nice hides. Mother will surely make us new shoes.”
“Shoesies-poosies. I want a necklace of shiny white teeth.”
“And earrings, don’t forget earrings. One can
“Oh my, such a tiger!”
“Little boys shouldn’t use such language.”
“Should rinse his mouth out with a good swig of hot piss.”
“Most certainly,” the girls agreed. And from behind them, a line of beasts crept forward out of the fog. Nick guessed there were easily fifteen, maybe even twenty more of the hyena beasts that had attacked them earlier, what Redbone had called barghest. Nick didn’t see any more of the red ones with the poisonous tails, only the larger, dog-size ones with black, bristling manes.
The barghest circled the kids, growling, slapping the earth, and tearing at the loose leaves. Some of the larger ones lunged at them, darting in and away, getting bolder with every charge.
The Devils kept their guard, trying to hold the beasts at bay.
“Why, you die, silly,” said one of the girls and all three girls laughed.
Two large barghest rushed Nick, knocking the spear from his hands and yanking him out of the circle. Their claws bit into his arm as they dragged him away from the group and into the fog.
Redbone let out a war cry and came for Nick, cutting and jabbing, chasing the two creatures back. Two more rushed in from behind, one slashing at Redbone’s face. Redbone ducked the blow; when he did, the other raked its claws across his thigh, tearing a gash into his pants and flesh. Redbone yowled, struck out, but the barghest were already away.
“
But it was all they could do to keep the claws and teeth at bay. The barghest were slowly splitting them up.
A long howl came from somewhere in the swamp. The sound carried over the den of clacking teeth, hoots, and growls—a fearsome howl—and Nick wondered what new horror had beset them.
A figure burst into the ring of barghest, smashed right through them like a cannonball, little more than a blur of arms and legs as he spun and jabbed. Nick caught a flash of steel, and two beasts hit the dirt, one with its gut cut wide open, the other clutching at its neck.
“
And there he was. With no more than his long knife, driving into the beasts, all teeth and wild eyes, never in one place for more than a second as he slashed and screamed, stabbed and howled. The beasts scattered before his blazing eyes and horrifying grin.
Peter drove in, snatched up Nick’s spear, and sent it flying at the nearest girl. The girl’s eyes flashed in outrage. She moved incredibly fast, but not fast enough. The spear hit her slightly off-mark, slicing through her hair, the staff slapping her shoulder and ricocheting against her jaw. She let loose a shrill screech, clutched her face, and spun away into the fog.
Big grins lit up the faces of all the Devils. They answered his call with wild screams of their own and attacked, driving the barghest back. The horde broke and fled, seeming to melt away into the fog.
Peter and Sekeu picked up Cricket, rolling her over Peter’s shoulder. Dirk grabbed Danny’s arms, Dash his feet, and Redbone got an arm around Nick, dragging him along. They moved quickly back down the trail.
There, just ahead, a single shadowy figure blocked their way.
The party halted.
“Peter,” Sekeu whispered. “Do we run?”
“No,” he said, letting Cricket slide gently to the ground. “There’s no running from her.”
The shadow melted away from the figure. Nick saw it was a woman, a shapely one, her skin glistening green and her hair long and dark, almost black. Her face remained in shadow, but within that shadow one eye lit up like a blazing emerald, and her full, dark lips parted into a triumphant smile, exposing a row of long, sharp, green teeth. Nick didn’t need anyone to tell him that this was the witch.
The three little girls skipped out from behind the trees and stood in front of the witch. The barghest crept out from the swamp, flanking Nick and the Devils. But that was not all. Nick heard rustling, clicking, and crackling. The sound was approaching them from all sides. The very ground came alive; the carpet of dead leaves jittered and danced. Then Nick understood, and the hair pricked up along his arms: bugs, creepy-crawlies, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of them, big oily beetles, long segmented centipedes, scorpions, roaches, and spiders as big as his fist. They swarmed down from trees, up out of holes, skittering toward them like a living carpet of stingers, snapping pincers and clacking mandibles. They circled the party, approaching to within five feet, twisting and crawling over one another, the ground boiling with black, shiny bugs.
The witch sauntered forward a few steps, tracing the outline of her thighs with long, black fingernails as she gently swayed from hip to hip. “Little thieves, stealing from my swamp,” she called, her voice low and husky.
The three little girls shook their fingers at them.
“Naughty.”
“Naughty.”
“Naughty.”
“Peter darling,” the witch cooed. “You owe me a little something.” She pulled back her hair, exposing the scar of her left eye socket. “One chance, sweet Peter. I’ll give you and your little playmates one chance. Give me one of your eyes and you can all go free. Peter dear, what say you?”
Peter let out a wild laugh, a crazy crowing, like madness had taken him, then suddenly stopped. His face tight, hard, he locked his eyes on the witch. “I say we cut heads from necks, empty guts from stomachs, and slice arms off bodies.” He leaped forward and stomped a huge green beetle, its yellow guts squirting out from beneath his boot.
The witch’s face twisted into a snarl, her one eye narrowed to a slit. “You will regret—”
Nick watched a tall, stooped goat-headed beast come trotting up the trail waving a gnarled staff.
“Excuse me, Ginny,” he said as he pushed past the witch, moving up the trail, careful not to step on any of the bugs as they skittered from in front of his large hooves. He halted between the two parties, leaning on his staff, trying to catch his breath. “So sorry to interrupt your little squabble,” he said curtly. “But there are pressing matters at stake.”
The witch rolled her eye. “Don’t interfere, Tanngnost. I’ve no patience for your meddling. Today I will have my eye.”
“Come and take it!” Peter snarled.
“
The swamp fell quiet.
All the malevolence fell from the witch’s face. “That’s not possible.”
