Aldric Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 6 of 9

The dragging step came closer. Aldric turned his head, slow, and saw it push out from the trees. One eye, wet and yellow, set in the middle of a gray face. One leg under it, thick as a post, hopping with a small lurch each time. It was taller than a man. It smelled like the den. Aldric's arm would not lift. His legs were shaking from the walk in. The cracked cane was all he had, and it would not swing twice before he went down. He knew it plain as counting crates. "Ephrat," he said. "Behind the table." The boy did not go behind the table. He came forward instead, past Aldric, and stopped between him and the creature. He pulled a slingshot from his belt. Ephrat was the neighbor's grandson, fourteen, who had followed Aldric into these woods against every word Aldric had spoken. Now he stood in the open with a leather strap and a pocket of stones. "Get back," Aldric said. "No." Ephrat fit a stone. He drew. The creature hopped once and swung its head toward the sound. Ephrat let the stone fly. It struck the eye. The creature screamed, a wet high sound, and rocked back on its one leg. "Again," Aldric said. Ephrat was already loading. The second stone hit the eye at the edge. The third took it in the center. The creature dropped forward on its stump of a leg and could not catch itself. It fell hard against a tree at the clearing's edge. It thrashed. It could not stand. Ephrat did not lower the sling. He walked closer, loaded again, and put a fourth stone through the eye at ten paces. The creature stopped thrashing. Its chest moved once and then did not move. The clearing went quiet. The candles on the long table still burned. The pale blue flower sat in the white bowl. The hooded statue looked at the butterfly on her palm. Aldric's knees gave. He went down onto the grass beside the cracked cane. Ephrat came back to him and knelt. "You are bleeding again," Ephrat said. "A little." "I told you I could come alone." "You did." Aldric looked at the boy's hands. They were shaking now, after. The slingshot hung from one finger. Aldric had spent three days trying to send this child home, and this child had just kept him alive. "Thank you," Aldric said. He had not said it before. Ephrat nodded, once, and looked away. Behind them, at the offering table, the air moved. A shadow crossed the silver cloth that had not been there a breath before. Something had come into the clearing that they had not seen arrive. Aldric felt it at the back of his neck. He could not yet turn to look.