A Night in the Lonesome October Read online

  Rearing up, I placed a forepaw on the casket's side and looked down into the interior.

  Quicklime, nearby, said, «What is it?» and I realized that I had made a small woofing sound.

  «The Game has grown more serious,» I answered.

  He climbed up to the ledge, then mounted the end of the casket where he hovered, looking like Pharaoh's headdress.

  «Oh my!» he said then.

  A skeleton lay within, atop a long black cloak. It still had on a suit of dark garments, somewhat in disarray now, opened in front. Splitting the sternum was a large wooden stake, angled slightly, passing far down, missing the backbone to the left. There was considerable dry dust within and without.

  «Looks like the new site wasn't as secret as he'd thought,» I said.

  «Wonder whether he was an opener or a closer?» Quicklime said.

  «I'd've guessed 'opener,'» I said, «but I suppose we'll never know.»

  «Who do you think nailed him?»

  «I've no idea, yet,» I said, lowering myself and turning away. I squinted into nooks and fissures then. «See Needle anywhere about?» I asked.

  «No. You think they got him, too?»

  «Could be. If he turns up, though, he'll certainly bear questioning.»

  I climbed the stair and emerged into light. I started walking back.

  «What happens now?» Quicklime asked.

  «I have to make my rounds,» I said.

  «Do we just go on and wait for it to happen again?»

  «No. We exercise caution.»

  We slithered and trotted back to our own area.

  Jack was out, and I took care of business about the house and went looking for Graymalk to fill her in on the latest. Was surprised to encounter Jack engaged in conversation with Crazy Jill on her back step. He had in his hand a cup of sugar which he had presumably just borrowed. He ended the conversation and turned away as I approached. Graymalk was nowhere about. Jack told me as I walked him home that we might ride into town for supplies of a mundane nature sometime soon.

  Later, I was out front, still looking for Graymalk, when the Great Detective's coach passed, him still in his Linda Enderby guise. Our eyes met and held for several long seconds. Then he was gone.

  I went back inside and took a long nap.

  I awoke near dusk and made the rounds again. The Things in the Mirror were still clustered, and pulsing lightly. The flaw appeared slightly larger, though this could have been a trick of memory and imagination. I resolved to call it to Jack's attention soon, however.

  Eating and drinking and passing outside then, I sought Graymalk once more. I found her in her front yard doing catnappery on the steps.

  «Hello. Looked for you earlier,» I said. «Missed you.»

  She yawned and stretched, cleaned her shoulders.

  «I was out,» she responded, «checking around the church and the vicarage.»

  «Did you get inside?»

  «No. Looked into every opening I could, though.»

  «Learn anything interesting?»

  «The vicar keeps a skull on the desk in his study.»

  «Memento mori,» I remarked. «Churchmen are sometimes big on that sort of thing. Maybe it came with the place as a part of the furnishings.»

  «It's resting in the bowl.»

  «The bowl?»

  «The bowl. The old pentacle bowl they talk about.»

  «Oh.» So I'd been wrong in assigning that tool to the Good Doctor. «That accounts for an item.» Then, disingenuously, «Now, if you can tell me where the two wands are …» I said.

  She gave me a strange look and continued grooming herself.

  «… And I had to climb the outside of the place,» she said.

  «Why?»

  «I heard someone crying upstairs. So I made my way up the siding and looked in what seemed the proper window. I saw a girl on a bed. She had on a blue dress, and there was a long chain around her ankle. The other end was attached to the bed frame.»

  «Who was it?»

  «Well, I met Tekela a little later,» she went on. «I don't think she was too eager to talk to a cat. Still, I persuaded her to tell me that the girl is Lynette, the daughter of the vicar's late wife Janet by a previous marriage.»

  «Why was she chained up?»

  «Tekela said that she was being disciplined for attempting to run away.»

  «Very suspicious. How old is she?»

  «Thirteen.»

  «Yes. Just right. Sacrifice, of course.»

  «Of course.»

  «What did you give her for the information?»

  «I told her the story of our encounter with the big man the other night, and the possibility that the Gipsies may be associated with the Count.»

  «I'd better tell you something about the Count,» I said, and I detailed my investigations with Quicklime.

  «No matter whose side he was on, I can't say I'm sorry to see him out of the picture,» she said. «He was extremely frightening.»

  «You met him?»

  «I saw him one night, departing that first crypt. I'd hidden myself on a tree limb, to watch it happen. He seemed to ooze up out of there as if he weren't really moving any muscles, just flowing, the way Quicklime can do. Then he stood there a moment with his cloak flapping about him in the wind, turning his head, looking at the world as if he owned it and was deciding what part of it would amuse him just then. And then he laughed. I'll never forget that sound. He just threw his head back and barked, not the way you do, unless you've a special way of barking just before you eat something that might not want to be eaten, and that this pleases you, adds to the flavor. Then he moved, and it played tricks with my eyes. He was different things, different shapes, flapping cloak all about, even in different places at the same time, and then he was gone, like a piece of the cloak sailing away in the moonlight. I wasn't unhappy to see him go.»

  «I never saw anything that dramatic,» I said. «But I met him at even closer quarters, and I was impressed.» I paused, then, «Did Tekela give you anything besides the story on Lynette?» I asked.

  «Everyone seems to be onto the idea of the old manse as the center now,» she said. «The vicar told her that it had served a much larger church, south of here, in the old days, one that the last Henry had ruined, as an example to the others that he meant business.»

  «That makes it such a good candidate that I'm irritated at the Count's bad taste in throwing off the calculations.»

  «Have you figured the new site yet?»

  «No. I should be about that pretty soon, though.»

  «You'll let me know?»

  «I'll take you with me when I do it,» I offered.

  «When will that be?»

  «Probably tomorrow. I was just going to walk up the road to see the Gipsies now.»

  «Why?»

  «They're sometimes colorful. You can come along if you like.»

  «I will.»

  We headed on up the road. It was another clear-skied night, with multitudes of stars. I could hear a distant music as we neared Larry's place. Beyond, I could make out the glow of bonfires. As we continued, I could distinguish the sounds of violin, guitar, tambourine, and a single drum within the music. We drew nearer, coming at last to a hiding place beneath a caravan, from which we could watch. I smelled dogs, but we were downwind and none bothered us.

  Several older Gipsy women were dancing and there was suddenly a singer making wailing sounds. The music was stirring, the dancers' movements stylized, like the steps of long-legged birds I'd seen in warmer climes. There were many fires, and from some of them came the smells of cooking. The spectacle was as much a thing of the shadows as the light, however, and I rather liked the wailing, being something of a connoisseur when it comes to barks and howls. We watched for some time, taken by the bright colors of the dancers' and players' garments as much as by the movements and the sounds.

  They played several tunes, and then the fiddler gestured toward a knot of spectators, holding out his inst
rument and pointing to it. I heard a sound of protest, but he insisted, and finally a woman moved forward into the light. It was several moments before I realized it to be Linda Enderby. Obviously, the Great Detective was making yet another of his social calls. Back in the shadows, I could now make out the short, husky form of his companion.

  Over several protests, he accepted the violin and bow, touched the strings, then cradled the instrument as if he knew its kind well. He raised the bow, paused for a long moment, and then began to play.

  He was good. It was not Gipsy music, but was some old folk tune I'd heard somewhere before. When it was done he moved immediately into another on which he worked several variations. He played and he played, and it grew wilder and wilder…

  Abruptly, he halted and took a step, as if suddenly moving out of a dream. He bowed then and returned the instrument to its owner, his movements in that moment entirely masculine. I thought of all the controlled thinking, the masterfully developed deductions, which had served to bring him here, and then this, this momentary slipping into the wildness he must keep carefully restrained, and then seeing him come out of it, smiling, becoming the woman again. I saw in this the action of an enormous will, and suddenly I knew him much better than as the pursuing figure of many faces. Suddenly I knew that he had to be learning, as we were learning other aspects, of the scope of our enterprise, that he could well be right behind us at the end, that he was almost, in some way, a player, more a force, really, in the Game, and I respected him as I have few beings of the many I have known.

  Later, as we walked back, Graymalk said, «It was good to get away for a time.»

  «Yes,» I said, «it was,» and I regarded the sky, where the moon was growing.

  October 22

  «A chihuahua?» The thing in the circle suggested. «Just for laughs?»

  «Nope,» I answered. «Language barrier.»

  «Come on!» it said. «I'm almost strong enough to break out of here on my own now. It won't go well with you if you keep me till I do.»

  «'Almost,'» I said, «isn't good enough.»

  It growled. I growled back. It flinched. I was still in control.

  The Thing in the Steamer Trunk had become a lot more active, too, glaring at me through its aperture. And we had to install a sliding bar on the wardrobe in the attic, as the Thing there succeeded in breaking the latch. But I drove it back again. I was still in control there, too.

  I went outside then, checking for foci of interference. Finding nothing untoward, I walked over to Larry's place, intending to bring him up to date on everything and to see what news he might have. I halted as it came into sight, though. The Enderby coach was parked out front, the heavy man beside it. Had I let this go on too long? What might the Great Detective find so fascinating here that it warranted a return visit? Nothing I could do now, of course.

  I turned and walked back.

  When I reached the neighborhood I found Graymalk waiting in my yard.

  «Snuff,» she said, «have you been calculating?»

  «Only in my head,» I replied. «I think it might be easier to work this one out from a vantage.»

  «What vantage?»

  «Dog's Nest,» I said. «If you're interested, come on.»

  She fell into step beside me. The air was damp, the sky gray. A wind gusted out of the northeast.

  We passed Owen's place and Cheeter chattered at us from a branch:

  «Odd couple! Odd couple!» he called. «Opener, closer! Opener, closer!»

  We did not respond. Let the divinators have their day.

  «It is an odd curse you are under,» Graymalk remarked after a long while.

  «Say rather that we are the keepers of a curse. Perhaps more than one. If you live long enough, these things have a way of accumulating. How do you know of it?»

  «Jack said something of it to the mistress.»

  «How strange. It is not usually a thing we speak of.»

  «There must be a reason.»

  «Of course.»

  «So you have been present at more than one. You have played the Game, many times?»

  «Yes.»

  «Do you think he might be trying to persuade her to change, orientation?»

  «Yes.»

  «I wonder what it would be like?»

  We passed Rastov's place but did not stop. On the road, later, MacCab went by, a stick in his hand. He raised it as we neared, and I snarled at him. He lowered it and muttered a curse. I am used to curses, and no one can tell when I smile.

  We continued into the countryside, coming at length to my hill. There we climbed to the place of fallen and standing stones. Southward of us, the black clouds rumbled and glared above the Good Doctor's house.

  The winds were stronger at this height, and as I paced the circle a small rain began to descend. Graymalk crouched on the dry side of a block of stone, watching me as I took my sightings.

  Out of the southwest, I took my line from the distant graveyard, extending it to all of the other points of residence in view or in mind. Then, from the place where lay the Count's remains, I did it again. In my mind, I beheld the new design. This pulled the center away from the manse, downward, southward, passing us, coming to rest ahead, slightly to the left. I stood stock-still, the rain forgotten, as I worked it out, repeating the process line by line, seeing that center shift, positing where it had to fall… .

  Again, the same area. But there was nothing there, no outstanding feature. Just a hillside, a few trees and rocks upon it. No structures at all nearby.

  «Something's wrong,» I muttered.

  «What is it?» Graymalk said.

  «I don't know. It's just not right. In the past, they've always at least been interesting, acceptable candidates. But this is, nothing. Just a dull stretch of field to the south and a little to the west.»

  «All of the other candidates have also been wrong,» she said, coming over, «no matter how interesting.» She mounted a nearby stone. «Where is it?»

  «Over there,» I said, pointing with my head. «To the right of those five or six trees clustered on that hillside.»

  She stared.

  «You're right,» she said. «It doesn't look particularly promising. You sure you calculated correctly?»

  «Double-checked,» I answered.

  She returned to her shelter again, as the rain suddenly grew more forceful. I followed her.

  «I suppose we must visit it,» she said a little later. «After this lets up, of course.»

  She began licking herself. She hesitated.

  «I just thought of something,» she said. «The Count's skeleton. Was that big ring he wore still upon his finger?»

  «No,» I said. «Whoever did him in doubtless collected it.»

  «Then someone's probably doubly endowed.»

  «Probably.»

  «That would make him stronger, wouldn't it?»

  «Only in technical prowess. It might make him more vulnerable, too.»

  «Well, the technical end of things counts for something.»

  «It does.»

  «Do the Games always get confusing at some point? Do they mess up the players' thinking, ideas, values?»

  «Always. Especially as events begin to cascade and accelerate near the end. We create a kind of vortex about us just by being here and doing certain things. Your confusion may trip you up. Somebody else's confusion may save you.»

  «You're saying that it gets weird, but it all cancels out?»

  «Pretty much, I think. Till the end, of course.»

  There came a flash of light from nearby, followed by an instant crack of thunder. The Good Doctor's storm was spreading. Abruptly, the wind shifted, and we were drenched by the sudden pelting.

  We bounded across the way immediately, into the shelter of a much larger stone.

  Sitting there, miserable in the special way that wetness brings, my gaze was suddenly fixed upon the side of the stone. There, brought out perhaps by the moisture, a series of scratchings and irregularit
ies now appeared to be somewhat more than that.

  «Well, I hope the whole gang of them appreciates all this trouble,» she said, «Nyarlathotep, Chthulu, and all the rest of the unpronounceables. Makes me wish I had a nice simple job catching mice for some farmer's wife…»

  Yes, they were characters in some alphabet I did not know, incised there, worn faint, emphasized suddenly as the trickling water darkened the stone in some places, bringing out contrasts. Even as I watched, they seemed to be growing clearer.

  Then I drew back, for they began to glow with a faint red light. They continued to brighten.

  «Snuff,» she said then, «why're you standing in the rain?» Then her gaze moved to follow my own, and she added, «Uh-oh! Think they heard me?»

  Now they were ablaze, those letters, and they began to flow as if reading themselves. Excess light formed itself into a high rectangular perimeter about them.

  «I was only joking, you know,» she said softly.

  The interior of the rectangle took on a milky light. A part of me wanted to bolt and run, but another part stood fascinated by the process. Unfortunately, it was the latter part that seemed to be in control. Graymalk stood like a shadowy statue, staring.

  Deep within it then came a roiling, and I suppose it must be called a premonition, for suddenly that other part of me was in control again. I sprang forward, seized Graymalk by the nape of her neck with my teeth and sprang away to the right. Just as I did, a flare of lightning sprang from the rectangle and fell upon the area we had occupied but moments before. I stumbled, feeling a small shock, feeling my hair rise. Graymalk wailed, and the air smelled of ozone.

  «I guess they're kind of touchy,» I said, rising to my feet and falling again.

  Then I felt the wind swirling about us, ten times stronger than it had been earlier. I tried again to get to my feet and was again knocked down. I glanced back at the stone, saw that the roiling had subsided, that another lightning bolt might not be imminent. Instead, a faint outline hung there, of a silver key. I crawled nearer to Graymalk. The wind increased in intensity. Somewhere, a voice came chanting, «Ia! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Wood with a Thousand Young!»