His flesh pursed around the blade and kissed it red. New colors were born before him, and new geometry, with every strike of the blade sending him on a wild new course through dimensions and aeons.
Down the hall, down the stairs and through the doorway into the starless night. There was nothing in which to believe anymore, for all things were known unto him, and he was all things. And as this was, his screams joined the rest.
THE KILLING FIELD
Tarl Hoch
They called it ‘The Killing Field’.
No one knew when it had been built, or even if it had been built. The elders in the village that bordered it told stories about how the Field had been around when they were but young whelps scraping their knees climbing trees, or hunting for frogs at Green’s pond.
Not that the elders would talk about the Field that often. On cold nights when the wind howled through the village they would speak in hushed tones, eyes wide as they glanced towards the edge of town. Children were warned away from it while the adults avoided it as much as possible. It was a shunned place, a haunted one. No one knew how it had come to be, and the myths were as varied as the flakes of snow that fell around me as I stared out across the Field. This was not something new to me.
Perhaps that was why they whispered about me.
I was never what people considered a normal child. I never chased frogs, built tree forts, or fought mock battles with swords fashioned from wood scraps. The self-abusive nature of the male youth never reared its head in me. Instead I spent most of my time near the Field, my gaze wondering over every detail I could see. Something about it called to me.
Winter’s breath caressed across my shoulders, a chill shivering its way through the layers of wool and into my skin. I hardly noticed, my attention on the Field. It was actually a lake, despite the name, the water a clear blue-green that seemed to go on forever until the light was swallowed in its depths. Even now, in the dead of winter, I knew that if I pushed aside the snow I would be able to see deep into the water despite the thick ice that covered it. It begged to have you leap into it to splash about, or to relieve your thirst.
But no one ever did.
No tire swings hung at its edge, no boats lay moored at its side. No matter how tempting the waters looked, how refreshing they would be, no ripples were sent across its surface. Even the animals avoided its banks.
But now, with winter’s hand firmly over us, it truly lived up to its name. Like a massive patch torn from the surrounding trees, it stretched off through the falling snow, its edge lost in the swirls of white. Even through the falling snow I could see one of the pillars jutting through the ice skywards.
It wasn’t alone.
No matter the season, the pillars were always there. They dotted the surface of the Field like silent sentinels. There were hundreds of them, set as if random throughout the lake, some of them barely breaking the surface, others rising taller than a man. I let my eyes wander over one, following grooves carved into its black form that had filled with snow like the veins in an arm. They were petrified wood, I had heard once, and I longed to cross the ice and press my naked palm against one. To feel the strength of it, to move my fingers through the grooves like a new lover exploring their partner. But even despite the call, I remained sitting on the fallen tree at the edge of the Field. No matter how much I wanted to cross the ice, something in the back of my head kept me from doing so.
Perhaps that was why I spent so much time here.
The wind picked up, the hiss of ice crystals brushing against each other, singing a song to me as the snow swirled around me. I could hear the soft keening noise come from the pillars when the wind blew in a certain direction.
“I thought I would find you here.”
The voice cut through the silence that had crawled into my head, making my gaze jerk away from the pillars, though I resisted the urge to turn. There was a crunch of snow and Derek sat beside me. The wind had shifted and the pillars were silent again. I scratched idly at my arm.
“Janice was looking for you.”
My head started to turn before I caught myself.
Janice.
My heart sped up, the pillars and Field forgotten. The memory of the last time I had seen her swam into my mind and I let it sweep over me. She had smiled at me in passing at the market, a basket of bread in her arms. Sunray yellow hair fell from her head in waves, spilling upon slender shoulders. Eyes of crystal blue had met my dirty brown ones and danced. But it had been her smile that had been the stunning blow, piercing my heart, and warming it in a way that had confused me. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was a young man. The lessons in school had told us of the changes in our bodies and that it was natural to seek out the opposite sex. It was an animal drive to reproduce.
But until then I had only had one thought in my mind.
The Field.
The pillars.
Janice had changed that with one smile. Suddenly my childhood obsession had competition.
“What did she say?” My voice sounded strange to my ears. Deeper, not the voice I had grown up with. This was also supposed to be expected with age, but even knowing that, it felt different. Alien, strange, not my own.
There was a crinkle as Derek turned his head but I kept my gaze on the Field, my eyes hidden in the depths of my woolen hood. I hated the modern fabric, brought into the village by those that had left and returned. It was stiff, loud and annoying. But yet people still left our village to see the world outside, hoping to find adventure, a life away from our little slice of the world and, of course, the Field.
They always came back.
“Nothing much.” His voice broke the wanderings of my mind. “Just that she was looking for you. I asked her why and she wouldn’t tell me.”
This time I looked at my friend, if that was what I could call him. Certainly, he was one of the only people who spent any length of time in close proximity to me. He was looking out across the Field, green eyes scanning the snow beneath bangs of dark blonde hair that reminded me of wheat left to brown and die.
His eyes met mine.
“What did you tell her?”
He licked his lips. “I told her I would find you, that I knew where you most likely were.”
I nodded.
He turned back to looking at the Field. “She wanted to come, but I told her no, it was too cold.”
“Good.”
“She’s a beautiful woman.”
I watched the warm air escape Derek’s lips with each word, the clouds of white vanishing as the wind caught them. It took me a moment to realize what he had said. My gaze returned to the Field; his statement didn’t need to be validated, he knew the answer. The wind pushed a burst of ice and snow against us as silence again drifted over us. I scratched my neck with numb fingers as I tried to figure out what I was going to do with this new information.
“So are you going to go and see her?” He glanced at me and our eyes met once more; this time it was I who averted my gaze. Finally I nodded.
“Do you know where she is?” I rose, the movement fluid despite the cold. Derek followed, the sound of his jacket’s synthetic fabric while he moved made me clench my jaw.
He turned to face me and smiled. “She’ll be at the Hall. Her father is there as well, though I think he’s preparing for the service that’s coming up. I’m sure if you’re careful you won’t have to deal with him.”
I turned without another word and started back towards the village, stepping in Derek’s footprints. Mine had been obscured long ago while I sat. Behind us, the wind picked up over the ice and the soft keening returned, following me as I walked back into town.
X
Derek started to talk now that we were moving away from the Field. The silence of the place had obviously made him uncomfortable rather than bringing the inner peace I so often found there. From behind me, he could not see my smirk while tales about the local girls-turned-women tumbled out of his mouth. Who was the fairest, who
was starting to go out with whom, who was easy. He had plans about leaving town to travel after a couple years of work at his father’s wood-shop followed soon after. Derek had skilled hands, so I nodded when he asked me if I thought it was a good idea, though I was simply agreeing out of reflex.
My thoughts were on Janice.
Then he started talking about the service. It was a big deal in the village. The Longest Night fell on the following day. There would be the service, and of course a celebration afterwards, which was what Derek was truly interested in. That and who was eligible for the service. I nodded, though I was always at the back of the Hall during the service, and a wallflower when it came time for the dance. Though perhaps this year would be different from all the others? After all, Janice would be there.
As daughter of the High Priest she would be near the altar during the service, as she was every year. But would she go to the celebration afterwards if asked? Would she want me to ask? Should I even try, especially with her father being there? As High Priest, it was his job to oversee the rites of the Killing Field. That alone made him someone of importance. What would he think of me, someone of no status, asking his daughter to the festivities?
“You’ve been quiet, what’s up?”
I realized I had stopped when Derek came up beside me.
“Janice.”
My eyes never left the snow at my feet as my mind tried to voice my concerns, but only silence answered him. He moved closer, his hand coming to rest on my shoulder. It felt heavy, confining, and although I wanted nothing more than to be free of it, I gave in, if only to get him to move away sooner.
“Ahh, young love.” He smirked at me while my skin crawled beneath his hand as though the tiny legs of insects were pressing against my flesh from the inside in an attempt to lift the foreign appendage off my shoulder. I finally stepped away, freeing myself of Derek’s bondage.
“She’s beyond my reach.”
Derek smiled, and I regretted opening my mouth.
“The woman asked after you, Halitus. She was looking for you. Use your head, man, or are you that inept with girls?”
Hearing someone my own age take the tone of an elder with me had me clenching my teeth again and I started walking again, driving my feet into the snow with each step. In my thick mitts my hands clenched until I felt my knuckles go numb. He must have realized he had crossed a line because we walked the rest of the distance to the town in silence.
Even with the weather as cold as it was, I could see people out in the snow. People out in the streets shoveling walkways or watching as their children played. Some glanced up at us as we finally reached the sidewalk and stomped the snow from our feet. I tried to ignore the subtle tightness that took over their actions. The way they moved closer to their children, or shoveled slower so they could glance at me when they thought I wasn’t looking. I lowered my gaze to the walk before me as I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“I’m going to stop off at home, Hal.” Derek patted me on the back, the blows almost knocking me from my feet. “Good luck; you’ll have to let me know what happens tomorrow at the service.” He trudged off across the street. I watched for a moment before turning and continuing towards the center of town. My thoughts were about what I would say to Janice when I saw her. Would she ask me instead of waiting for me to ask her to the dance? It wasn’t unknown in the town for women to break the subtle rules applied to the sexes.
No, I decided. She wouldn’t.
She was the daughter of the High Priest. It would be expected for me to court her. I would have to make the first move.
My mouth felt dry, the cold air tasting sharp and bitter as I pulled breaths in through the rough scarf pulled up around my mouth. The itch had returned on my arm and I rubbed the spot through my jacket before I raised my eyes and saw the massive form of the Hall before me.
It had been a church once upon a time, later converted to a community hall and now used as sort of both. The stones were weathered and ancient looking, cut square blocks mixed freely with round river stone so that the building had a certain chaotic flair to it. But I liked the look of it, there was a warmth there. Movement caught my eyes and a form resolved itself in the glow of a window.
Janice.
Her hair was more radiant than I had remembered it to be. I stood there, my hands in my pockets, my mouth slightly open as I sucked in air. My heart beat in my ears as my pulse started to race. She was reading something and kept glancing up to someone away from the window. It had to be her father. Raising a delicate hand with long fingers, she pushed back a stray strand of hair. It fell into place behind her ear and she smiled again.
My breath caught, and what courage Derek’s ribbing had risen in me faltered at the sight of my goal. I was a mortal in the presence of an angel, unable to form thought or words at the beauty before me. She nodded her head and I watched every movement of her slender neck. There was a burning in my chest that seemed to link with lower in my body and I cursed myself for the weakness of my flesh. I was not like the others, and I would behave as my mother taught me. In punishment I tore my eyes away from Janice only for them to alight on her again. She glanced up and saw me. Her mouth opened in a small ‘O’ which quickly vanished to be replaced with a smile, showing her perfect teeth. She waved me to come in.
Pulse racing, I took a step closer, even though my body told me to run. I chewed my lip and took another step forward. Janice’s smile widened and she disappeared from the window in the direction of the front doors. With her gone from my sight I was able to keep myself walking forward despite the numbness that centered in the heavy beating in my chest. As I reached the large double doors they opened and she smiled at me from the warmth inside.
“I was looking for you,” she said, and the smile she favored me with stole my words even as they formed in my mind. She moved aside and I gladly followed. Once the door was shut behind me the warmth became oppressive and I had trouble breathing. I wanted to be back in the cold, warmed by my own body rather than the artificial heat of the hall. Janice helped me pull off the layers of wool that made up my jacket.
“Did Derek find you?” Her gaze moved to the door. I hung up the last of my layers and tugged my worn sweater straight.
“He found me, told me you were looking for me.” The words felt blunt, heavy.
Her eyes reminded me of the snow and ice I had left behind. Even a few paces away I could see the flecks of green that swam in their depths. The feeling in my chest returned as she smiled again and nodded, her hair flowing around her head and neck.
“Father is in the altar room preparing for the service,” she said as she started moving along one of the hallways. I followed behind her, my booted strides heavy compared to the light, fawnish steps she took; her dainty feet placing each with elegance and grace.
“The Longest Night is tomorrow.” She glanced towards me as if I had forgotten. “There’s a lot to prepare for. It’s a lot of work but I enjoy it. Are you going to come?”
It was a silly question, everyone came to the service. In all my life in the town I had never known anyone who hadn’t. Even those that moved here from elsewhere seemed to know that it was expected of them. I scratched my neck as I answered, “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.”
She made a noise at my response, one that no male throat could mimic. Something in my body tightened upon hearing it and it felt like I had entered in some game I only knew a quarter of the rules to.
Elfin hands pushed open a large set of double doors as I paused to look at the dark wood. I had seen them a number of times before and was always fascinated at how similar to the petrified wood of the pillars they were. My hand pressed against them, feeling the primordial age in the grains under my fingertips. Janice’s hand on my arm broke my study of the wood, calling my eyes to hers. The green flecks seemed to dance faster in the endless pools of her eyes. I broke her gaze and looked where she touched me. I barely felt it. Instead of the heavy weight of Derek’s hand, it only
felt like a slightly warmer spot on my arm, as if a shaft of sunlight had fallen upon my bare skin.
“Come, I want to show you something.”
She pulled away and I followed, instantly longing for her to touch me again. My heart beat faster and I felt the stirrings of something unknown deeper in my chest. It wasn’t the peace of the field, it was something more. Something primal, something...
I glanced up and stopped. The room was the largest room in the Hall after the chamber where the service was held. Typically the celebration was held here, and this year would be no different. Janice spun away from me, laughing as her dress spun around her, higher and higher. My gaze was drawn to the pale, milky exposed skin of her calves and shins. With some confusion I wished the dress would travel higher but tore my gaze away, my mouth dry and my cheeks itching with heat.
Wreaths of mistletoe and holly curled around the columns that supported the roof which soared above a massive wooden dance floor. Large pillars held fat, deep green candles, their wicks unlit. I stepped forward, my head back as I gazed up at the skylight at the apex of the roof. Sunlight shone down on us, though I felt its warmth was drawn to Janice while leaving me only to bathe in her radiance.
She stopped twirling, her skirts moving until they finally settled about her ankles. Her breasts rose and fell as she drew in breath from her brief exertion, the sight of her breathlessness making my cheeks burn further. Skipping forward she grinned, though this time it was more serious than play. Her eyes darted downwards then back up, meeting mine.
“What do you think?” Janice tipped her head to the decorations.
“You did a really nice job this time.” I smiled, the motion felt awkward.
A hand settled on my chest and I wondered if she could feel my heart beating. “I wanted the decorations to be amazing.” She leaned in and whispered, her breath caressing my ear, “This Longest Night celebration is to be a special one.”
New Tales of the Old Ones Page 11
