Serafina and the Black Cloak - Robert Beatty Page 0,32
few more steps.
Gidean looked at her and tilted his head as if to say, Are you crazy? You can’t go in there!
But then she padded quietly into the trees and ducked into the underbrush. She wanted to move, to prowl, to see what was out there, whatever it was. She wanted to be the hunter, not the hunted.
Leaving Gidean to guard the carriage, she crept deeper and deeper into the darkness of the forest, the very same black forest that her father had told her never to enter, the very same dark forest that Crankshod had said was filled with ghosts and demons.
But she was calm. She was in the right place. She figured if her mother could move through the forest at night, then so could she.
Suddenly, she heard the sounds of footfalls in the brush in front of her, as clear as a rat’s footsteps in the basement, but much louder, much larger, moving through the leaves and the dirt. She wasn’t sure whether it was an animal or a human.
As she crept closer to the sound, she crouched down but kept moving slowly forward. Sound and sight and feeling and smell—her whole body felt alive with sensation. With all her senses working, all her muscles in play, she stalked so slowly, so quietly, that she didn’t make a single sound.
She heard the footsteps ahead of her more closely now. Feet crunching through autumn leaves. Walking at first and then breaking into a run. A man running through the underbrush. Some fifty yards out into the woods. She ran toward the sound, knowing that when a rat was moving, it couldn’t hear nearly as well as when it wasn’t.
When the man suddenly stopped, she stopped as well and remained perfectly still, holding her breath.
She knew the man must be listening for her, but she made no sound.
As soon as he started moving again, she moved as well, shadowing him.
But then something happened. The footsteps stopped. She felt a swooshing sensation of air on her face and head, like the beat of a vulture’s wing. And then suddenly she heard a second set of footsteps behind her, between her and the carriage. How was that possible? Were there multiple attackers?
The forest erupted in a cacophony of sound. Leaves crashing. Sticks breaking. The rush of rapid movement. Her muscles exploded to life. It was an attack coming in from all directions.
In the distance, Gidean started barking and snarling and gnashing his teeth as if he were facing down Satan himself.
The carriage, she thought. They’re attacking the carriage. She turned and sprinted toward it, heedless of the sound she made. She glimpsed a flash of movement surge past her in the darkness but could not tell what it was. As she ran toward the carriage, she could see Braeden and Nolan. But where was Crankshod? He was the strongest person in their group, the man who was supposed to be protecting them.
“Look out, Braeden!” she shouted in warning. “They’re coming. Look out!”
Hearing her call, Braeden turned just in time to dodge the flashing shape of the incoming attacker. But then, in a startling movement of whirling black shadow, the attacker turned and was upon him again. Gidean charged in, snarling and biting. Nolan punched and kicked. Fighting, shouting, striking—all was confusion in a swirl of motion and battle.
Just as Serafina came within striking distance, a large black shape floated past her. She flinched so hard that her back hit a tree. Giant centipedes poured out of logs. Worms oozed up out of the earth. The Man in the Black Cloak had come. He was here in these woods. There weren’t multiple attackers. There was only one. He seemed to float on the violence of the battle, his decaying, blood-dripping hands reaching outward as he came upon Braeden. It was clear he wanted the boy in particular. Serafina leapt forward to defend her friend. Gidean charged as well, but it was little Nolan, in a desperate act of shouting courage, who threw himself in front of the young master and blocked the attack.
The Man in the Black Cloak opened his arms and pulled Nolan to his chest. The slithering folds of the cloak wrapped around the boy. Nolan’s shouts turned to screams. The gray smoke filled the forest. The rattling shook the trees. And then Nolan disappeared.
It took her breath away to see it again. “No!” she cried out in anguish, anger, and frustration.