Page 25 of Red in Tooth and Claw

Chapter Twenty-five

We rode the horses until we could see the edge of the forest from our saddles. The horses would remain here, tethered loosely to the branches. Tallis wanted to give them the idea to stay put, while giving them the option to hoof it if things went wrong.

There was a high possibility that things would go wrong. I had argued that I should go in by myself. A single, smaller person was easier to overlook. Will shook his head and Tallis stared at me with amusement. They were coming with me, whether I wanted them to or not.

We took our time picking our way to the edge of the clearing. It’s difficult to step quietly in the forest. Dead leaves and twigs crackle and snap. Undergrowth can be thick. Since the canopy of the forest was substantial, we weren’t getting much in the way of moonlight, and we didn’t dare use lanterns.

There was no way we weren’t going to make some sort of ruckus. The best we could do was move slowly and attempt to mimic one of the forest critters out for a nose-about. I wasn’t sure how well the sound would carry all the way to the Settlement palisades, anyhow.

As soon as we were close to the edge of the forest, we stopped, waiting for the guards to pass. Minutes ticked by and there were no lanterns. No movement. Just darkness and stars.

“Maybe they finally listened to me,” Will whispered. “Those lanterns made them targets. Anyone with good aim or an ounce of luck could take them out.”

It was as good an explanation as any. It made sense. Perhaps they’d listened to Will. But I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that had come over me. From the expressions on Tallis’s and Will’s faces, I didn’t think they were buying it, either.

But we still needed to go in.

Tallis sat back on his haunches, putting a hand on Roon. “Stay here. Guard the horses.”

Roon dutifully trotted off, stopping when he got close to Neev. He settled in by her feet, ears up, eyes watchful.

I put a hand on my cave cat. “I need you to hide, Chirp.” There was no way he wouldn’t follow us—we’d accepted that—but things would go smoother if he pulled that disappearing trick he did so well.

Chirp tipped his head, staring at me.

I waved a hand over myself. “Hide.” Nothing. I put my hands on my shirt. “Camouflage.”

Chirp stood on his back feet, put his paws on my shirt, and licked my face. His tongue was as scratchy as any other cat’s and it hurt. I also got the feeling he thought I was being funny. I didn’t know why he’d done it so easily before and now didn’t seem to know what we wanted.

When covering my eyes didn’t work, I tried thinking at him. I imagined him in front of me, then imagined him vanishing. He made a sad sound, and I realized he thought I was telling him to go away. So I pictured him popping in and out, here, then not.

Finally he got it, disappearing in front of me. My shoulders drooped in relief. “Yes, good fella. Hide. ”

I felt him brush up against me, but I couldn’t see him. I dug my fingers down until I could feel his fur.

“That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Will said.

“Strange is good,” Tallis said. “Especially when it keeps you alive. Let’s go.”

There were still no lights up along the walkway, and we hadn’t seen any shifting shadows, so we decided to duck low and run as fast as we could. It wasn’t silent by any means, but it wasn’t loud, either.

We made it to the hidden door, Will insisting on going first. He opened it slowly, and the hinges made very little sound. He held a hand out to us as he peeked through. We stood still, listening.

I heard…nothing. No restless farm animals. No one walking around after dark.

That uneasy feeling deepened. Chirp leaned against me, still hidden, but I had the sense that he was leaning into me for comfort. That his expression was as uneasy as ours.

Will waved us in, and we followed him on ghost feet, closing the door quietly behind us.

We had decided to go to the boys’ bunkhouse first. It was more familiar territory, and we wouldn’t have to worry about Miss Moon catching us. I just had to hold on to the hope that my friends were sleeping soundly and safely in their beds.

We kept our steps light, but in the watery light of the poorest excuse for a moon, it was difficult to see, and I stepped on something that made a large crack . It echoed in the courtyard, the sound bouncing off the walls.

I felt Tallis’s hand on my shin, and I realized he’d squatted down. He pulled gently, trying to get me to lift my boot. I complied, watching as he picked something up off the ground. The twig I’d stepped on.

Only as he brought it close to my face, it didn’t look like a twig.

“Is that…?” I whispered.

“A bone,” he said, his voice low and soft. “Chicken, I think.”

It was an odd place for it, that bone. What we didn’t give to the pigs or other livestock, we buried outside with the compost. For our crops, yes, but also to keep vermin from coming into the Settlement.

Still, it was just one bone. Lots of ways to drop just one bone in a strange place. The youngins were always sticking food into their pockets. Made wash day a real hoot.

Tallis dropped the bone and we continued on, keeping close to the buildings.

It was so quiet. The night wasn’t usually. Lots of critters came out at night, making all kinds of noises. Owls hooted and screeched. Raccoons…well, they could make quite the ruckus when they were fighting over a morsel or getting amorous.

The bunkhouse had always been full of Will’s snoring and youngins talking in their sleep. The quiet was getting to me, making me jumpy. I chose to stop paying attention to it, to make my jabbering mind hush up. I focused on Will’s back, the warm brush of Chirp’s fur at my side, and the sound of Tallis’s soft breathing behind me.

We finally made it to the boys’ bunkhouse, the trickle of moonlight making shadows where there normally weren’t any, giving the building a mean and hungry look.

Will paused. “The door looks open.”

Everyone, even the smallest youngin, knew better than to leave the door open, especially at night. I suddenly grew very worried about what we were going to find.

We approached the bunkhouse door same as we had to get into the Settlement—Will taking point, with Tallis and me dropping back to keep an eye out. Will tried peeking through the opening gap in the door. I couldn’t see much from where I was standing. The fire must be well and truly banked, because I couldn’t see any rosy glow.

Will pushed the door open wider and stepped in. I moved to follow as Chirp made a low, distressed sound. I put a hand on him, offering solace, though I didn’t know for what as we followed after Will.

The smell hit me first. Iron, offal, and something slightly sweet, but not like candy sweet. Like fruit gone bad. Rotten. I put my arm over my mouth to block it, dread and grief hitting me as my mind conjured up poor Gertie, her eyes fixed. I shoved the feelings aside for now. I needed to be ready for whatever we were going to find.

We passed the cubbies. Last time I’d walked through this entryway, just before I’d gone out on that ill-fated hike with Stuckley, the cubbies had been neat as pin. Miss Moon would countenance nothing less. Clothes folded. Dirty boots scraped at the door and left lined up right inside. Orderly.

The cubbies didn’t look like that now. Clothing was everywhere. A boot here and there, knocked every which way on the floor. Not enough boots. Not nearly enough.

I wanted to turn tail right then and scoot my carcass back out into the eerie night. Only Pops’s voice in my head kept me moving. A Kelly doesn’t run, and we surely step into the jaws of death with our chins high and our backs straight.

If I had been alone, I’m not sure Pops’s words, strong as they were, would have helped.

As I wasn’t alone, I stepped forward as Pops would have wanted. Chin up. Step sure. Ready to meet whatever the bunkhouse hid in its inky depths.

Will stepped in first and froze. I moved around him so I could see.

Before Pops got sick, we’d hitch up the mule and cart and head on over to Wallhalla Springs, which was the next town over, for their spring fair. It was a good time to trade seeds and gossip, pick up new tools, cloth, and livestock. It was always fun, and if we had a little extra, Pops would get me something special. When I was eight, he got me my own little carving knife so I could whittle by the fire with him. It hooked on to my belt, and I felt very fine with it on. A grown-up, like Pops.

That same year, one of the farmers got full as a goat on blackberry moonshine. I’m not sure what set him off—I only saw the outcome. I’d never seen a grown man pitch a fit before, not like that, and he was a big fella, too. He was tossing jars from the jam seller, and pots from the potter, and when he wasn’t tossing, he was throwing fists. Took five people to put him on the ground before the potter could hog-tie him with some of his twine.

In that moment, I’d been impressed by the devastation one man could wreak so quickly. Jam was splattered everywhere, the seller crying as she picked up her broken jars. The potter spitting on the ground in front of the farmer and cussing a blue streak.

The bunkhouse looked like a whole passel of drunken farmers had been turned loose inside it. Bunks were splintered, bedding strewn about. Blankets shredded. Deep gouges in the walls.

And over a lot of it, splattered on torn shirts and broken furniture, was blood.

Blood and…other bodily things.

Chirp made a distressed noise. I looked down at my feet and caught a flash of something, I wasn’t sure what, but before I could stop myself, I leaned down and pulled it from the wreckage.

It was a finger.

Just…a finger. I dropped it, wiping my hand desperately on my trousers, trying to get the feeling of that cold, bony finger off of my skin.

I swallowed hard and wished I hadn’t. My stomach rolled, and I found a corner to be sick in.

Tallis must have followed, because I felt his hand on my back, comforting me the same way I’d done for Chirp only moments before.

“At least it wasn’t a small finger,” Tallis said.

I must have been in shock, because it took me several moments to understand what he meant.

That didn’t mean the youngins were safe, but whatever had happened to them, we didn’t know for sure that it was bad. Though there’s whole mountains and valleys of land between good and bad.

I didn’t think I could feel worse, but then cold slithered through my belly.

Jesse’s bunk. I needed to check Jesse’s bunk.

I ran over to where we’d slept, examining it to see if there were any clues. It looked just like the others, shredded and splintered. No blood, though. Not here.

My bunk was worse than Jesse’s. Over the destruction was the sharp ammonia scent of urine. Will dug under his mattress, pulling out Tallis’s jacket and handing it to him. Somehow it had avoided destruction.

“Thank you,” he said, shrugging into it.

I nodded, eyes scanning the room. “Someone died here, didn’t they?”

Tallis ran a hand over his face. “Yes, probably. If they didn’t die here, they started dying here and crawled somewhere nearby.”

“No one in here now,” Will said, his voice pitched low. “We should move along.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I turned on my heel and headed for the door. Only Tallis’s hand on my back kept me from barreling out into the courtyard.

“Slowly, Little Fox.”

He was right. I couldn’t thunder out of here, no matter how much I wanted to. We had no idea whether or not the person who had done this was still at the Settlement or where they might currently be.

I was afraid to go see what the girls’ bunkhouse was like.

We all were.