The Dream Thief, Kari Kilgore [reading well TXT] 📗

said. "It might be wood for a while, maybe coal. George, let's go check the fence, make sure it's secure before everyone else comes outside."

Both of them looked at Loretta, as if she were going to scold them for keeping their little secrets. She rolled her eyes and waved her hand at the door.

"You want to get closer to that smell, be my guest. We'll see what needs to be done in here."

Chapter 45

Karl wanted to hold his breath when he stepped outside, but he knew it wouldn't help. Dry grassy weeds brushed against his knees, broken only by an old flattened path from the door to around the edge of the yard. He tried to imagine how his mother or anyone else at the Ministry of Decorum would react to such chaos. The spiraling brick columns were closer than he liked, even knowing some of the ’sters were loose out here.

"You were right about one thing, Georgie. The smell is about a thousand times worse out here."

"I know," George said. "I'm sorry about that. People swear they get used to it. We'll see."

"The thing about Gemma is if it can be solved, she'll solve it," Karl said. "She'll probably dream it up tonight. Listen, what did you mean about someone living out here depends on who the ’sters came from?"

The two men walked across the yard to the fence. The black metal was straight until a couple of feet above Karl's head. It arched inward all around, meeting in the middle like an upside down bowl.

"It might just be my paranoia playing tricks on me again." George tried to shake the fence with both hands every few feet as they walked, but it held firm. "They keep records when they can figure out who the ’sters come from. Lots of times they can't, but sometimes...well, you remember that part."

"I do," Karl said. "Wish I didn't."

"Yeah, me too. When we started digging into all of this, I looked at those records for when this place was abandoned. There were a bunch of ’sters that seemed to be connected to some pretty high-ranking folks in the Ministry for a long time. I always wondered why they were all bunched together like that. Anyway, when the last of that group died, the humans, I mean, they never sent another person to live out here."

Karl frowned. "So you think it was just to make sure those ’sters were safe."

"That or maybe those ’sters were particularly nasty, you know? I've wondered about that, if they weren't running around murdering the rest. Now they really don't seem to hurt each other all that much."

"I don't think this will have to go on too long," Karl said. "At least I hope not."

Too late, Karl realized what subject he'd led George right to.

"Has this Rhysto shown up again?"

"He did show up in the middle of the night," Karl said. "First night I came back out here. He used gas, knocked Gemma out. He was trying to do the same to Loretta, but she woke up. Thank The Crown she had a knife, but he’s the one who sliced up her arm before she stopped him. He told Loretta when he came back, he'd...have his way with her, then do the same to Gemma."

George shook his head, and Karl focused on the fence. Lying about why the pilot had been bothering them was one thing. Now he was covering up when a man had been killed. And a young woman.

"Sounds like a fine gentleman," George said. "Any way you'd consider reporting him, for the gas if nothing else? You have no way to know when he'll show up again."

"I'm afraid if we report him, word of what Gemma does will get out. Like you said, she can give people a way to get around the Ministry for almost anything. Even hiding her out here might not keep her safe if that happens."

George didn't say anything, just kept testing the fence. They were at the back of the house now, surrounded by more of the open grassland. Karl was afraid to look his friend in the eye.

He was a little horrified at how easily he seemed to be able to lie now.

"We'll keep them here for now, then," George said. "Unless something really bad happens that brings someone out here, no one's going to know."

"So far we're lucky none of the ’sters know."

Karl was surprised to hear his friend laugh quietly.

"You think so?" he said. "You're not looking in the right direction, buddy. Try again."

Karl's shoulders and back were instantly tense, and the last thing he wanted to do was turn around. He forced his hands to let go of the fence. His neck creaked when he turned.

The yard was still empty, and he couldn't see anything along the fence. He took a step forward to check the front of the house and froze.

"How long has that damned thing been there?" he whispered.

"Since we started checking the fence," George said. "I've seen that one before. Never tried to hurt me, but I've never gone up there to try to shake its hand, either."

A creature was crouched at the very top of the fence, right above the house. It looked like one of the demons described in the holy books of The Crown, maybe The Imp himself, with one important difference. This demon had a tail and wings and arms and even small curved horns, but instead of red it was pure white. And it was huge, bigger than Karl himself.

"I never heard a thing," he said. "Did it just climb up there?"

"It flew," George said. "I think it hangs out up there the whole time I'm checking things over." The ’ster watched the two of them intently as they continued to check the fence, its head turning this way and that as they spoke. "That one seems smart enough to make me nervous."

"That's what makes you nervous?"

The ’ster turned its body to keep