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I grinned. “I try.”
His expression softened as he studied my face. “You do more than that. You-”
A pair of screams interrupted his romancing. I wasn’t the only one to jump as Ferox skidded to a stop and reared up.
“Easy there!” Ben called out as he jumped down and hurried to grab the horse’s bridle. He pulled the rope down and stroked the side of Ferox’s neck. “Easy.”
I stood up in the carriage and looked around for the source of the noise. Ferox had taken us into one of the many winding narrow roads that accented the city. Small stone-walled homes lined both sides, though about a hundred feet down the road the buildings were interrupted by a short wrought-iron fence that ran for some fifty feet. A rusted gate allowed entrance, and it was from out of there that two little biddies appeared.
The older women were bundled in shawls and flowered dresses that brushed over the tops of their worn brown boots. Strands of their long gray hairs had broken loose from their tails and framed their terrified faces. They rushed down the street toward us and latched themselves on to Ben, who was nearly toppled to the ground by their clinging. Words flowed out of their mouths and mingled together in a garbled mess.
“. . .we thought we heard something. . .”
“. . .there was thatthingstanding there. . .”
“. . .the monster started shambling toward us. . .”
“. . .and we just had to run!”
Ben held up his hands and smiled down at the pair. “Ladies, take a minute to catch your breaths and start at the beginning. What’s frightened you so badly?”
One of them, the slightly taller of the two, took a deep breath. “It’s in there, sir.” She pointed a shaking finger at the gate. “We was paying our respects to our dear old dad-”
“When we heard a noise,” the other spoke up as she bobbed her head up and down. “We were nearly frightened to death by that horrible moaning sound-”
“But we just had to see what it was,” her companion interrupted as she bowed her head and shuddered. “The gods help us that we did.”
“Who was there?” Ben asked them as I climbed down from the carriage.
The shorter woman shook her head. “Notwho, sir, butwhat. We moved closer and found this. . .thisthingstanding there.”
The other woman frowned at her. “It wasn’t just athing, Gerty! It was a monster!”
Gerty glared at her companion. “I’ll call it a thing if I want to, Gracie!”
“Ladies, please.” Ben’s voice was low but cutting as he gave them a stern look. “What exactly did you see?”
The women scowled at each other before their expressions softened. Gracie looked up at him and shook her head. “I don’t know, sir, but it was all covered in dirt.”
“And it had one a few shreds of clothes, too,” Gerty added.
Gracie stared at the ground and wrinkled her nose. “It looked like a man, but he was awful thin.”
“Can you show us where you saw this man?” Ben requested.
Gerty’s eyes darted to the gate and she shrank back a little. “Back there, sir? I don’t think I dare. . .”
Gracie gave her companion a scolding look. “What would Father say if he heard you speaking such cowardly words, Gerty? He’d scold you out of his grave.”
Gerty fidgeted with her hands in front of herself. “But that thing. . .there was just something notrightabout it, Gracie.”
“But we’re here now,” Ben assured her as I joined the group. He took her hand and offered her a smile. “Now please show us where you saw this thing.”
“It’s this way, sir,” Gracie told us as she marched back down the road.
We followed, even Ferox, but the horse was forced to wait at the gate as we slipped into the open ground. My heart dropped into my stomach when I realized we stood in a cemetery. It wasn’t as large as the first one I had seen, coming in at only about a hundred feet square, but every inch had been used. Headstones stood stone-to-stone with other memorials, and the trunks of the old trees that dotted the space had even partially swallowed some of the stones. The ground was slightly uneven, what with inconsistent burials, and a half dozen mausoleums blocked a clear view of all the interior. A small stone-walled shed stood out some ten feet from the corner closest to the gate and was itself surrounded by tombstones.
Ferox tried to follow us into the cemetery, but at the first hoof near the gate he started back and let loose a shrill whinny. Ben grabbed his bridle again and drew the horse away from the gate.
