In the Darkness Visible - Elk Riders Volume One

Chapter 8: Linusport

They didn't see their uncle again until a pack of feral dogs dug up his body. For two months they had luxuriated without trouble. They had been kings of their very own castle. At night they had a roof over their heads and a warm fire in the hearth. They had sold the still to a neighboring farmer and with the money they were able to buy food to last them weeks. They had reinvigorated their uncle's fallow fields and planted them. When curious villagers asked where their uncle had gone to, they said they didn't know and that he had simply asked them—as his nephews—to look after his plot until he returned. In the evening Sade studied his uncle's texts by candlelight and he began to uncover his latent power. He learned to call the breeze, change the direction of a cloud, and even was able to move the flame of one candle to the next, although igniting fire was still beyond his ken.

Their lives were so full of abundance that some evenings Sade would fight off sleep just so he could remain awake, savoring the sound of the rain on the rooftop and the cozy warmth of the fire that kept the darkness and cold at bay.

So it was with utter horror that Sade looked up from turning a row of earth one morning to see a feral dog that usually slunk around the village garbage pit, carrying what was unmistakably a human arm in its jaws. His legs weak and his heart thrashing in his ears, he ran at the mutt but it did not give up its prize. It raced off into the woods before Sade could catch up with it.

Once it was gone, he rushed to the grave where he and his brother had buried their uncle. Even before Sade reached the clearing in the woods he knew by the sickly smell, a cloying scent of rot that burned his eyes and throat, that the body had been exhumed. He knew they should have buried it deeper. He cursed himself, holding his sleeve to his nose as he entered the clearing. It was worse than he thought. The entire grave had been disturbed by all matter of animals. A buzzard flapped up into the air, startled by his appearance. Rats scurried away from where they had been feeding on what was left of the torso. The limbs were all gone, gnawed loose and carried away. The head was a swollen ghastly melon with a covering of maggots shiny with the puss of decomposition.

Where the rest of the body had gone Sade had no way of knowing, but he knew it was prudent to assume the worst: that the dogs would carry the limbs to the neighbor's property, the midden, or even the village itself. It was only a matter of time before their crime was uncovered. Sade ran back to the cabin, black spots dancing before his eyes. He packed a satchel with the three spell books, a waterskin, bread, and salted dog meat—what was left of the hound—then rushed to saddle Crystal. Under their care, the mare had become stronger, her ribs less exposed and the luster returned to her coat. Sade adjusted the bridle, his throat caught with the loss of everything they would have to leave behind, including Crystal.

When Vondales appeared on the road carrying a basket of eggs from the market, Sade rode out to meet him, explained what had happened, and told his brother to mount behind him. Always deferential to his older brother, he climbed up onto Crystal. The regular meals, the rest and work had helped his brother to fill out even more. He looked bigger than he did just weeks before. When he wrapped his arms around Sade's waist, Sade coughed with the strength of his embrace. He could feel his brother turning back to look at the cabin. After the initial crime and the nightmares that followed had faded, the cottage had become a place of peace and comfort to them. A home like they had not known for a long time.

Sade somehow knew that to survive, they could afford no sentiment, only hate. He tried to rekindle the fire in him he had felt that day they had murdered Micael. "Don't look back Vondales," he said. "Only forward."

"Right," his brother said, but Sade could hear the emotion making his voice thick in his throat.

He kicked Crystal and they galloped down the road.