The Twins of Noremway Parish (17 page)

***

After their climax, they laid on the soft bed, staring into the dark, wishing they could remain in each other’s arms forever. The lovemaking was wonderful, and the twins in the next room had been silent throughout, presumably having fallen asleep. “I love you, Teret,” he said. He meant it. He’d loved her for years. At first, admittedly, it was in more of a paternal way as he helped her through the ups and downs of teaching the parish youth, but his love had quickly grown.

She had come into his office in the cathedral after that first day as parochial vicar. “I can’t do this anymore,” she said. “I know I’ve prepared my whole life for this, but being the parochial vicar…it’s just too much for me.” She was referring to the incident with Abigail Morgan. After school, and before coming to see Decon about it, she had spoken to Rita Morgan, who lashed out with the viciousness of a deadly canine. The issue hadn’t just been that Abigail was rude, but that was the reason Teret called the meeting. The problem was that Rita Morgan absolutely hated Teret Finley and there was no getting out of that. When Rita decided she didn’t like someone, she wasn’t going to let something like rational discussion get between her and her hatred.

From that moment on, he had not just taken her under his wing, but had become her partner in managing the parish school. Teret became perfectly capable of handling the battles herself after a year, but the system of trust and support they had developed together was something neither was willing to give up. They were partners, and that was the way it would stay.

She hugged him, rolled over on top of him, and kissed him again. “Should we maybe check on the kids?” he asked.

“
No. They’re fine.” She was right. The twins were perfectly content watching the flickering of shadows across the walls, too innocent to be aware of the darkness that could lurk within, or of the tradition being shattered in the room next door.

***

In front of Teret Finley’s house, Rita Morgan couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Brother Decon and the Sister Teret were embraced in each other’s arms and kissing. She was horrified, yet she found herself smiling; she finally had something to hold against them that the chancellor would listen to. Of course, she would just have to convince him somehow to come and see it with his own eyes. Her smile was also due to (if asked, she would never admit this) the thrill that the sight of these two attractive people in such a passionate and lovely embrace sent up her spine. It made her momentarily forget the loathing she felt for these two people. Her heart pounded with excitement. She had to force herself to turn away from the window, wishing she could watch longer.

As she turned and saw her out-of-shape, unattractive husband standing behind her, she felt a pang of jealousy, and that incensed her. She was jealous of Teret Finley’s beauty, her intelligence, her confidence. The more she thought about it, the more she hated her.

And that crib…was she going to be caring for the twins, those devilish creatures? She longed for a baby, a child, a son or daughter–her own daughter, gone these past thirteen years. She was an adult now, grown, moved on, living in another land, and married to some strange man. Her daughter hated her and wanted nothing to do with her.

She looked at her husband’s bulging gut, his crooked nose, and missing teeth; and of course, the constant sweat on his brow. Rita wasn’t much of a looker herself, but she had been at one time. She wished she could see her daughter. While she was torn over whether or not to believe him, Falcon had promised her she would see Abigail again; she would be seeing her soon. He would be bringing her here.

“
Come on, let’s go,” Rita said.

“
To the chancellor’s?”

“
Yes. I’m enraged.”

“
Rita, my dear.”

“
Don’t, James. They’ll get what’s coming to them.”

They walked in the direction of the chancellor’s house, which wasn’t far. She saw him on the portico outside the house, smoking a cigar and talking to someone, or something. She couldn’t make out what he was talking about, but she could tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn’t happy. He was nervous, frightened.

Then three figures approached from the darkness. The wolves howled and nipped at their legs. The beings ignored them and continued their approach. “Ghora Urey,” one of them said in a gravelly voice. It wasn’t a deep voice exactly, but it was demanding, and scary. She looked on, her curiosity temporarily overriding her fear.

“
No,” Urey said as he took a puff off his cigar. “You imps cannot control me. Be gone from my sight.” The three imps bellowed laughter as if this were the funniest thing they had ever heard, but they offered no challenge beyond this. They simply walked off into the darkness, continuing their laughter, and snorting the foul sounds of pig-like imps.

Rita and James stayed back. Those beings that had just disappeared, with their long arms that dragged on the ground and tall frames, did not look inviting, but the fact that the chancellor had been conversing with them (and one could argue
commanding
them) was something else altogether.

It wasn’t long before the chancellor had another set of visitors. Four wolves materialized out of the darkness. They did not walk out of it, but simply appeared out of thin air. Urey did not look surprised to see them. In fact, upon sight, he offered a stunningly realistic wolf howl to which the leader of the pack responded in kind with a howl of its own.

They exchanged several more howls, some barks and growls, before he stooped down on all fours and began a metamorphosis that Rita didn’t understand, and James couldn’t believe. His features became wolf-like, with the long snout, the razor-sharp tusks, and broad muscular haunches. Then, with the four other wolves, he ran off at a high speed, howling into the night.

Rita looked to James and simply said, “We didn’t just see that.” She thought for a few seconds and concluded, “Yes, we
did
see that. Decon and Teret have neutralized the protection that Ragas has given us these 2,000 years. And the chancellor is…” She trailed off as she looked over to her husband. “What are you doing?”

James could only stare at the place where the chancellor had been standing. He spoke not a word, but found his hand rising to massage the new pain that had entered his chest. Drawing in a deep breath he let it out slowly, but the pain was still there as a sharp stabbing in the left side of his chest. He drew in another breath and found he couldn’t fill his lungs to the same capacity as before.

“
What are you doing, James? We don’t have time for games,” Rita said, completely oblivious to the potentially serious issue plaguing her husband. He just held his tongue and followed her back to their house through the dark.

It was inadvisable to walk outdoors in the parish during the night, but their late-night excursion at the suggestion of Zuriz Falcon lead them to take this approach. Wolves could appear out of nowhere at any time during the night without warning. Sometimes meetings or services were held at the cathedral until late, but the wolves always seemed to steer clear of interfering with parishioners as they traveled to and from the cathedral. It was a fact of life that was taken for granted in Noremway Parish. It was something never questioned, but if pressed, Brother Decon would have explained that it was part of Raga’s protection.

Either way, the wolves at this point were a peripheral danger to James. He was more concerned about his heart. Rita, on the other hand, was worried that the affair between the friar and parochial vicar was bringing the Darkness upon the land.

Chapter 10

Ghora Urey ran through the night like he was flying. The air was dry, but he didn’t mind. The new form that he had taken fit him perfectly. He hardly knew what was happening, however. An outside observer, like the Morgans, would say he turned into a wolf and ran off into the night, but his experience had been much different. To him, he did nothing more than change cloaks.

Did he know what was happening? Was he aware that as he ran faster than he ever could have imagined, he had the full-blown appearance of a wolf? No. His thoughts were more wolf-like. He was following a scent, and as he neared the great wall he effortlessly passed through it and found a group of
Ujimati
on the other side.

There were three large wagons and roughly a hundred people waiting. As Urey approached, still in his wolf form, the man who appeared to be the leader cracked open a tiny shell that was in his hand and held it out to him. Urey ate the treat hungrily and suddenly found himself back in his human form. The salty taste of a peanut lingered in his mouth. “Good to see you could join us, Urey,” the man said. He wore a necklace made of approximately ten shrunken heads. His sharpened teeth were visible as he spoke. His overall countenance was of someone who had endured difficulty and strife for a stretch of time so long as to be unknowable.

The chancellor stood confused, slightly disoriented. “How did I get here?”

“
Oh come now, Urey, don’t pretend you don’t remember your night journey.” The three demons—the imps—that Rita and James had seen him speaking to earlier, said. He hadn’t noticed their presence before then. “You are one of us now,” one of them said, but the leader of the
Ujimati
quickly raised his hand to silence him. “Speak not in my presence, imp.” The three demons retreated into the darkness, becoming nothing but unseen entities among a hundred human figures.

Images of the night, things that could only be described as a wolf’s intuition, flashed in his mind; the transformation from human to wolf, and then back again; the running through the night, longing for the fullness of the moon; the exhilarating feeling of dematerializing and then coming back together to ambush prey. These things were with him, and he couldn’t deny it no matter how much he wanted to.

“
The name is Massa of the
Ujimati
,” the man said. He didn’t hold out his hand or give any other offer of greeting. He stood straight and flashed those sharpened teeth that gleamed with a bright light as they reflected the white rays from the moon. “Garish, ye’ve well met?” He gestured to the man who had earlier that day come to make the water deal with the chancellor. He should have known there was something more sinister happening now. Things had changed. “Yar, Chancellor, the turn o’ the world changes much. Yar, so it does, and an instrument of that change you are, you and the other wolves.”

“
Other wolves?”

“
Yar, yar, the terror shines in your eyes, Chancellor, but fear not. A wolf’s existence is but a peaceful one. Humanity is your weakness and will soon be wholly stripped of your soul. Find it as a small gift that you are able to retain your human form for any length of time. The transformation has begun, and will soon be complete. Then a servant of the Darkness, of the chaos, you will be.”

His heart fluttered in his chest as he heard this. This
Ujimati
named Massa spoke what certainly could not be the truth, but on the other hand, how else could he explain the fact that he had just turned into a wolf and run through Noremway Parish?

He looked around, looking for a possible path of escape, but his jerky movements caught the attention of the leader. “Garish, grab him,” Massa ordered. Garish approached quickly, seizing his arm and bending it behind his back until he heard a pop.

“
Ow!” Urey cried out.

“
Silence,” Massa said. “One thing needs to be done within Noremway Parish, something we cannot do ourselves. Rumor travels to us from the howl of the wolves that the Twins of Noremway Parish have returned.”

“
The Twins of Noremway Parish?” Urey asked, at first unsure what the man was talking about. Then it dawned on him that he could be referring to the conjoined twins.

“
Playing dumb doesn’t suit you, Urey.”

“
What are they?” he asked.

As Massa spoke, understanding dawned on him, and the darkness growing inside him made him a slave to
Ujimati
demands. “I need to bring them to you,” he said in the monotone voice of a programmed drone.

“
Yar. Ye be proper to do make haste.”

***

He didn’t sleep that night, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He tossed and turned, the memories of the night washing over him. He longed for the beautiful orb in the sky—the nighttime companion. The sensation of running like a wolf, which felt like flying to his human senses, caused his heart to race as he finally gave up on sleep and stood up from the bed. It would only be a matter of time before these sensations drove him to the brink of insanity.

What the caravan-folk—the
Ujimati
—had revealed about the twins, which they called by the formal title “The Twins of Noremway Parish,” was more than a little surprising.

How could he deliver them unto these savages? Knowing what he knew about them, how could he give in to their demands?

Maybe he could talk to the friar. Brother Decon would know what to do, wouldn’t he?

Decon’s guidance had always been steady. He was someone that people could look to for solid counsel. That had been one of the great things about life in Noremway Parish–the leadership was calm and collected. That, of course, was until a few days ago when Tomias Waterman died. But since then, with Waterman’s death, all of that seemed to be falling apart. Things were changing. Urey hadn’t appreciated just how instrumental Waterman had been in ensuring the continued cooperation between the parish leaders. When he died, it became quite apparent. Even Franz Phoenix, a peripheral character in the times of Tomias Waterman, was edging toward some sort of control. He had somehow found a strength that was a little disconcerting to him, and an evil in his blood.