The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 21

Pandemonium. Elena whipped her qualifying up, separated as to whether she was conjectural to be the repentant break guggleles punt any longer. The community leaders were in entirely babbling at single an early(a), pointing fingers, throwing up their hands. Damon had physicall(a)y restrained the Godfather, who seemed to experience his part in the ceremony as concluded.The crowd was hooting and cheering. It give eared as if at that place would be a nonher fight this era between Damon and the Godfathers men, especially the iodin called Clewd.Elenas head was whirling. She could catch alto accepther disjointed phrases. only six strokes and promised me that I could administer Damon was sh fall outing. really think that these little flunkies tell the truth? psyche else probably Clewd was shouting jut. only when isnt that exactly what the Godfather was, also? Just a bigger, more f decentlyening, and, undoubtedly, more efficient flunky who reported to just closel yone higher(prenominal) up, and didnt cloud his mind with dope-smoke? Elena thought and then ducked her head hastily as the fat man glanced toward her.She could hear Damon again, this period shitly above the hubbub. He was standing by the Godfather. I had believed that even here there was just about honor erstwhile a bargain was struck. His voice made it unequivocal that he no longer thought negotiations were possible and that he was about to go on the attack. Elena tensed, horrified. She had never perceive such open endanger in his talk voice.Wait. It was in the Godfathers deficiencyadaisical tones, except it caused an instant of hush in the babble. The fat man, having removed Damons hand from his arm, turned his head back toward Elena.I will waive, for my part, the participation of my nephew Clewd. Diarmund, or whoever you were, you are free to penalise your witness slave with your stand tools.Suddenly, surprisingly, the ancient man was brushing bits of gold out o f his beard and speaking directly to Elena. His eyes were ancient, tired, and surprisingly discerning. Clewd is a master at whipping, you deign. He has his own little invention. He calls it the cats byssus and one blow c murderin nail flay the skin from neck to hip. roughly men die from ten lashes. But Im afraid hell be disappointed today. Then exposing surprisingly white and even teeth, the Godfather smiled. He extended to her the domain of roaring sweetmeats hed been eating. You exponent as well taste one in front your Discipline. Go on.Afraid to try one, afraid not to, Elena took one of the illegal pieces and popped it in her mouth. Her teeth crunched pleasantly. A walnut half Thats what the mysterious sweets were. A delicious half walnut dipped in some merciful of sweet lemon syrup, with bits of hot pepper or something like that clinging to it, all gilded with that edible gold stuff. AmbrosiaThe Godfather was saying to Damon, Do your own discipline, boy. But dont ne glect to teach the girl how to covering her thoughts. She has too ofttimes wit to be wasted here in a slum-brothel. But then why do I not think she wishes to manufacture a famous courtesan at all?Before Damon could effect or Elena look up from her genuflection, he was gone, carried by palanquin bearers to the only horse-drawn carriage Elena had seen in the slums.By now the arguing, gesticulating civil leaders, egged on by new-fangled Drohzne, had come to a sullen confinement. ten lashes, and she need not strip, and you may give them, they said. But our final intelligence activity is ten. The man who negotiated with you has no more power to argue.Almost casually, one displace by a tuft of hairs-breadth a bodiless head. Absurdly, it was crowned with dusty leaves in anticipation of the banquet after the ceremony.Damons eyes flared with uncoiled rage that set objects close to him vibrating. Elena could feel his Power like a panther rearing back against a leash. She felt as if she were speaking against a hurri contri justee which cast e truly word back into her throat.I agree to it.What?Its over, Da Master Damon. No more yelling. I agree.Now, as she prostrated herself on the carpets before Drohzne, there was a sudden keening of women and kidren and a fusillade of pellets aimed former(prenominal)s badly at the smirking slave owner.The train of her dress was spread dirty dog her like a brides, the pearl overskirt fashioning the underskirt a shimmering burgundy in the eternal red light. Her hair had fallen free of its high knot, do a cloud around her shoulders that Damon had to part with his hands. He was shaking. From fury. Elena didnt dare look at him, cunning that their minds would rush together. She was the one who remembered to say her formal livery before him and vernal Drohzne so this entire farce would not control to be reenacted.Say it with note, her drama teacher, Ms. Courtland, had invariably excoriated the class. If there was no feeling in you there could be none in the audience.Master Elena yelled in a voice that was loud enough to be heard above the womens lamentations. Master, I am only when a slave, not explosion to address you. But I make up trespassed and I accept my punishment eagerly yea, eagerly, if it will restore to you but one hairsbreadth of the re spewability you enjoyed before my unwonted evildoing. I beg you to punish this disgraced slave who lies like discarded collide withal in your gracious path.The speech, which she had shouted in the unvarying glassy tones of someone who had been taught each word by rote, hadnt actually indispens adequate to(p) to be more than four words, Master, I beg forgiveness. But no one seemed to get under ones skin recognized the irony that Meredith had put into it, or to find it amusing. The Godfather had accepted it Young Drohzne had already heard it once, and now it was Damons turn.But Young Drohzne wasnt finished yet. Smirking at Elena, he said, Her es where you find out, Missy. But I sine qua non to see that ash rod before you use it stumbling to Damon. A few practice swishes and blows to the cushions surrounding them (which filled the air with ruby-colored dust) satisfied him that the rod was all that even he could want.Mouth visibly watering, he settled on the gold couch, taking in Elena from head to toe.And finally the time had come. Damon couldnt put it off any longer. Slowly, as if every step was part of a play that he hadnt rehearsed meetly, he sidled alongside Elena to get an angle. Finally, as the gather crowd became restless, and the women showed signs of losing themselves in drink, rather than in keening, he picked his spot.I assume forgiveness, my master, Elena said in her no-expression voice. If left to himself, she thought, he wouldnt even have remembered the necessities.Now, indeed, was the time. Elena knew what Damon had promised her. She as well as knew that a lot of promises had been broken that day. For one thing, ten was almost doubly six.She wasnt looking forward to this.But when the first of all blow came, she knew that Damon wasnt one of the promise-breakers. She felt a dull thud, and a numbness, and then, curiously, a wetness which had her glancing up through the grille of boards above them for clouds. It was disconcerting to realize that the wetness was her own blood, spilled without pain, running spate her side. act upon her count them, Young Drohzne slurred in a snarl, and Elena said cardinal automatically, before Damon could put up a fight.Elena went on counting in the same clear, unaffected voice. In her mind she wasnt here, in this foul-smelling ugly gutter at all. She was lying with her elbows propped up to support her typeface, and looking down into Stefans eyes those spring- discolor eyes that would never be old, no matter how numerous centuries he accumulated. She was pipe dreamily counting for him, and ten would be their signal to skitter up and begin the race. It was raining gently, but Stefan was giving her a handicap, and short, soon she would scramble off him and run a appearance through lush green potty. She would make this a fair race and really put her go across into it, but Stefan, of course, would catch her. Then they would go down on the grass together, laughing and laughing as if they were having hysterics.As for the vague, far-off large(p)s of wolflike leers and inebriated snarls, even they were gradually changing. It all had to do with some silly dream about Damon and an ash rod. In the dream, Damon was swinging problematic enough to satiate the most exacting of onlookers, and the blows, which Elena could hear in the increasing silence, sounded more than hard enough, and made her feel a bit nauseated when she reflected that they were the sound of her own skin splitting, but she felt no more than dull cuffs up and down her back. And Stefan was drawing up her hand to kissIll always be yours, Stefan said. We belong together every time you dream.Ill always be yours, Elena told him silently, tell aparting he would get the message. I may not be able to dream of you all the time, but I am always with you.Always, my angel. Im wait for you, Stefan said.Elena heard her own voice say Ten, and Stefan kissed her hand again and was gone. Blinking, bewildered, and confused by the sudden inrush of noises, she sat cautiously up, looking around.Young Drohzne was hunched into himself, blind with fury, disappointment, and more liquor than even he could stand up under. The wailing women had long ago gone silent, awed. The children were the only ones who restrained made any noise, climbing up and down on the boards, talk to one another and running if Elena should happen to glance their way.And then, with an entire lack of ceremony, it was over.When Elena first stood up the world made a complete triplex circle around her and her legs folded. Damon caught her, and called to the few new-fangled men still int ended and inclined to look at him, Give me a cape. It wasnt a request, and the best-dressed of the men, who seemed to have been slumming, tossed him a heavy cape, forbidding, lined with greenish blue, and said, Keep it. The performance marvelous. Is it a hypnotists act?No performance, Damon snarled, in a voice that stopped the other slummers in the act of holding out business cards.Take them, Elena whispered.Damon snatched up the cards in one hand, ungraciously. But Elena forced herself to toss the hair off her face and smile slowly, heavy-lidded, at the young men. They smiled somewhat bashfully back.When you ah perform againYoull hear, Elena called to them. Damon was already carrying her back to Dr. Meggar, surrounded by the unavoidable entourage of children plucking at their cloaks. It was only then that it occurred to Elena to wonder why Damon had asked for a cloak from some strangers, when he, in fact, was already wearing one.They will be having ceremonies somewhere, now t hat there are this many of them, Mrs. Flowers said in accomplished distress as she and categorical sat and sipped herbal tea tea in the boardinghouse parlour. It was dinnertime, but still quite light outside.Ceremonies to do what? monotonic asked. He had never made it to his parents house since hed left Damon and Elena more than a week ago to come back to Fells Church. Hed stopped by Merediths house, which was on the edge of town, and shed convinced him to come by Mrs. Flowerss first. After the conversation the tether of them had had with Bonnie, matted had decided it was best to be invisible. His family would be safer if no one knew that he was still in Fells Church. He would live at the boardinghouse, but none of the children who were making all the trouble would realize that. Then, with Bonnie and Meredith safely gone to meet Damon and Elena, compressed could be a sort of hole-and-corner(a) operative.Now he almost wished hed gone with the girls. Trying to be a secret opera tive in a place where all the enemies seemed to be able to hear and see better than you could, as well as to move much faster, hadnt turned out to be nearly as processful as it had sounded. He spent reading most of the time the Internet blogs that Meredith had marked, looking for clues that might do them some good.But he hadnt read of the need for any kind of ceremonies. He turned to Mrs. Flowers as she thoughtfully sipped her tea.Ceremonies for what? he repeated.With her soft white hair and her gentle face and vague, amiable blue eyes, Mrs. Flowers looked like the most harmless little old lady in the world. She wasnt. A witch by birth, and a gardener by vocation, she knew as much about black magic herbal toxins as about white magic healing poultices.Oh, doing generally nasty things, she replied sadly, staring into the tea leaves in her cup. Theyre partly like pep rallies, you know, to get everyone all worked up. They probably also do some small black magic there. Some of it is by way of blackmail and brainwashing they nookie tell any new converts that they are guilty now by reason of attending the meetings. They might as well give in and become fully initiatedthat sort of thing. Very sharp-worded.But what kind of unpleasant? planeness persisted.I really dont know, dear. I never went to one of them. insipid considered. It was almost 700, which was curfew for children under eighteen. Eighteen seemed to be the oldest that a child could be and become possessed.Of course, it wasnt an official curfew. The sheriffs department seemed to have no brain of how to deal with the curious disease that was working its way through the young girls of Fells Church. Scare them straight? It was the police that were frightened. one(a) young sheriff had come lacrimation out of the Ryan house to be sick after seeing how Karen Ryan had bitten off the heads of her pet mice and what she had done with the rest of them.Lock them away? The parents wouldnt hear of it, no matter ho w bad their childs behavior was, how obvious it was that their kid needed help. Children who were towed off to the next town for an appointment with a psychiatrist sat demurely and spoke calmly and logicallyfor the entire fifty minutes of their appointment. Then, on their way back they took revenge, repeating everything their parents said in perfect mimicry, making startlingly real-sounding animal noises, holding conversations with themselves in Asian-sounding languages, or even resorting to the clich but still chilling backward-talking routine.Neither ordinary discipline nor ordinary medical checkup science seemed to have an answer to the childrens problem.But what frightened parents the most was when their sons and daughters would disappear. too soon on, it was assumed that the children went to the cemetery, but when adults tried to follow them to one of their secret meetings, they institute the cemetery empty even down to Honoria Fells secret crypt. The children seemed to hav e just nowvanished.Matt thought he knew the answer to this conundrum. That thicket of the Old forest still standing near the cemetery. Either Elenas powers of purification had not reached this far, or the place was so malevolent that it had been able to resist her cleansing.And, as Matt knew well, the Old Woods were completely under the domination of the kitsune by now. You could study two steps into the thicket and spend the rest of your life exhausting to get out.But maybe Im young enough to follow them in, he said now to Mrs. Flowers. I know Tom Pierler goes with them and hes my age. And then so were the ones who started it Caroline gave it to Jim Bryce, who gave it to Isobel Saitou.Mrs. Flowers looked abstracted. We should ask Isobels grandmother for more of those Shinto wards against evil she blessed, she said. Do you think you could do that sometime, Matt? Soon well have to ready ourselves for a barricade, Im afraid.Is that what the tea leaves say?Yes, dear, and they agree with what my poor old head says, too. You might want to pass the word on to Dr. Alpert as well so she can get her daughter and grandchildren out of town before its too late.Ill give her the message, but I think its going to be handsome hard tearing Tyrone away from Deborah Koll. Hes really stuck on her hey, maybe Dr. Alpert can get the Kolls to leave, too.Maybe she can. That would mean a few less children to gravel about, Mrs. Flowers said, taking Matts cup to peer into it.Ill do it. It was weird, Matt thought. He had common chord allies now in Fells Church and they were all women over sixty. One was Mrs. Flowers, still vigorous enough to be up every daybreak taking a walk and doing her gardening one was Obaasan confined to bed, trivial and doll-like, with her black hair held up in a bun who was always ready with advice from the years she had spent as a shrine beginning(a) and the last was Dr. Alpert, Fells Churchs local doctor, who had iron gray hair, burnished dark brow nish skin, and an absolutely pragmatic attitude about everything, including magic. Unlike the police, she refused to deny what was fortuity in front of her, and did her best to help alleviate the fears of the children as well as to advise the terrified parents.A witch, a priestess, and a doctor. Matt figured that he had all his bases covered, especially since he also knew Caroline, the fender patient in this case whether it was possession by foxes or wolves or both, plus something else.Ill go to the meeting tonight, he said firmly. The kids have been utter and contacting each other all day. Ill dissemble in the afternoon somewhere where I can see them going into the thicket. Then Ill follow as long as Caroline or God help us, Shinichi or Misao isnt with them.Mrs. Flowers poured him another cup of tea. Im very worried about you, Matt, dear. It seems to me to be a day of bad omens. Not the sort of day to apply chances.Does your mummy have anything to say about it? Matt asked , genuinely interested. Mrs. Flowerss mother had died sometime around the beginning of the 1900s, but that hadnt stopped her from communicating with her daughter.Well, thats just the thing. I havent heard a word from her all day. Ill just try one more time. Mrs. Flowers shut her eyes, and Matt could see her crepe-textured eyelids move around as she presumably looked for her mother or tried to go into a enthral or something. Matt drank his tea and finally began to play a risque on his mobile.At last Mrs. Flowers opened her eyes again and sighed. in force(p) Mama (she always said it that way, with the accent on the second syllable) is existence fractious today. I just cant get her to give me a clear answer. She does say that the meeting will be very noisy, and then very silent. And its clear that she feels it will be very dangerous as well. I think Id better go with you, my dear.No, no If your mother thinks its that dangerous I wont even try it, Matt said. The girls would skin him alive if anything happened to Mrs. Flowers, he thought. transgress to play it safe.Mrs. Flowers sat back in her chair, seeming relieved. Well, she said at last, I suppose Id better get to my weeding. I have mugwort to newspaper clipping and dry, too. And blueberries should be ripe by now, as well. How time flies.Well, youre cooking for me and all, Matt said. I wish youd let me pay you bed and board.I could never forgive myself You are my guest, Matt. As well as my friend, I do so hope.Absolutely. Without you, Id be lost. And Ill just take a walk around the edge of town. I need to burn off some energy. I wish He broke off suddenly. Hed started to say he wished he could shoot a few hoops with Jim Bryce. But Jim wouldnt be stab hoops again ever. Not with his mutilated hands.Ill just go out and take a walk, he said.Yes, said Mrs. Flowers. Please, Matt dear, be careful. immortalise to take a jacket or Windbreaker.Yes, maam. It was early August, hot and wet enough to walk around i n swimming briefs. But Matt had been raised to treat little old ladies in a definite way even if they were witches and in most things sharp as the X-acto stab he slipped into his pocket as he left the boardinghouse.He went outside, then, by a side route, down to the cemetery.Now, if he just went over there, where the cornerstone dipped down below the thicket, hed have a good conniption of anyone going into the last remnant of the Old Wood while no one on the path below could see him from any angle.He hurried toward his chosen hide noiselessly, ducking behind tombstones, keeping bouncy for any change in vocal, which would indicate that the children were coming. But the only birdsong was the raucous shriek of crows in the thicket and he saw no one at all until he slipped into his hideout.Then he open himself face-to-face with a drawn gun, and, behind that, the face of Sheriff Rich Mossberg.The first words out of the officers mouth seemed to come entirely by rote, as if someon e had pulled a string on a twentieth-century talking doll.Matthew Jeffrey Honeycutt, I hereby check off you for assault and battery upon Caroline Beula Forbes. You have the right to remain silent And so do you, Matt hissed. But not for long Hear those crows all taking off at once? The kids are coming to the Old Wood And theyre closeSheriff Mossberg was one of those heap who never stop speaking until they are finished, so by this time he was saying Do you understand these rights?No, sir Mi ne komprenas DumbtalkA wrinkle appeared between the sheriffs eyebrows. Is that Italian lingo youre trying on me?Its Esperanto we dont have time There they are and, oh, God, Shinichis with them The last sentence was spoken in the barest of whispers as Matt lowered his head, peeking through the tall weeds at the edge of the cemetery without stirring them.Yes, it was Shinichi, hand in hand with a little girl of maybe twelve. Matt recognized her vaguely she lived up near Ridgemont. Now, what was h er name? Betsy, Becca?There was a faint anguished sound from Sheriff Mossberg. My niece, he breathed, surprising Matt that he could speak so softly. That, in fact, is my niece, RebeccaOkay, just stay still and hang on, Matt whispered. There was a line of children following behind Shinichi just as if he were some sort of Satanic Pied Piper, with his red-tipped black hair shining and his golden eyes laughing in the late-afternoon sunlight. The children were giggling and recounting, some of them in sweet nursery school voices, a remarkably twisted version of Seven dinky Rabbits. Matt felt his mouth go dry. It was agony to watch them border district into the forest thicket, like watching lambs riding up a wild leek into an abattoir.He had to commend the sheriff for not trying to shoot Shinichi. That would really have caused all hell to break loose. But then, just as Matts head was sagging in relief as the last of the children entered the thicket, he jerked it back up again.Sheriff M ossberg was preparing to get up.No Matt grabbed his wrist.The sheriff pulled away. I have to go in there Hes got my nieceHe wont kill her. They dont kill the children. I dont know why, but they dont.You heard what sort of filth he was teaching them. Hell sing a different tune when he sees a semiautomatic Glock shooting iron aimed at his head.Listen, Matt said, youve got to arrest me, right? I demand that you arrest me. But dont go into that WoodI dont see any proper Wood, the sheriff said with disdain. Theres barely room in that stand of oak trees for all those kids to sit down. If you want to be of some use in your life, you can grab one or two of the little ones as they come running out.Running out?When they see me, theyre going to scatter. Probably crock up out in all directions, but some of em will take the path they used to go in. Now are you going to help or not?Not, sir, Matt said slowly and firmly. And and, look look, Im pray you not to go in there Believe me, I know wh at Im talking aboutI dont know what kind of dope youre on, kid, but in fact I dont have time to talk any more right now. And if you try to stop me again he swung the Glock to cover Matt Ill cite you for another account of trying to obstruct justice. protrude it?Yeah, I get it, Matt said, feeling tired. He slumped back into the hide as the officer, making surprisingly little noise, slipped out and made his way down to the thicket. Then Sheriff Rich Mossberg strode in between the trees and was lost to Matts guinea pig of vision.Matt sat in the hide and sweated for an hour. He was having trouble staying waken when there was a disturbance in the thicket and Shinichi came out, leading the laughing, singing children.Sheriff Mossberg didnt come out with them.