Part 19

"Aye," said Harper Groll. Groll appeared to David's right, carrying his own lamp. He halted beside the tree and looked around a bit more thoroughly than Mills had done.

David watched him kneel and run his fingertips lightly over the sandy soil.

"Tracks," Groll called.

"Same down here," Mills shouted back. He'd gone a short distance. David should have been able to see him clearly, but the preternatural darkness that had descended at the stranger's words turned Mills into a faint outline among darker shapes.

"Two sets?" said Groll.

"No. Just the one."

"Got TWO up here! Maybe whoever we saw is carryin' the boy!"

Mills gave an unintelligible grunt, and headed further down

Groll traced the footprints back up the hill, then followed them down again. They led him to the same place: The tree where David and the stranger stood uncovered... in plane sight. Only he didn't see them.

He looked directly at them, just as Mills had done earlier, but it was as if they weren't there.

Groll frowned. He was close enough for David to see his confused scowl with perfect clarity despite the darkness. The frown deepened.

Groll squinted at them. THROUGH them...

"Hmph," he grunted. He knelt again and re-examined the prints.

"Damned things lead right here, but..."

He stood, sighed, glanced around, and stretched out one arm intending to lean against the tree.

The stranger leaned heavily to one side. Mills' palm rested against the tree bark instead of the side of the stranger's head, which had been occupying that space an instant ago.

David's heart thundered in his chest. That had been close. It still WAS close. But it was also...

...amazing!

The voice had promised him magic at the top of the Hill, and the voice had been right! Here he'd encountered a stranger, and that stranger was weaving magic around them at this very moment! David could almost feel it! Almost. But he could see it, too, and that was no trick of the imagination. The stranger had made the dark... darker... which made them invisible to Mills and Groll even when they were inches away!

Amazing.

And that was what bought David's silence. True, he could barely breathe at all due to the stranger's grip, but there were other noises he could make. He could kick his feet in the dirt or... something. But he didn't want to. Not any more. Not now, when there was magic about.

David decided to play along... as if he had a choice... and see what happened next.

Of course, if he made a noise then maybe the stranger would have to cast MORE magic-

"GROLL!" Mills shouted from further down the hill.

"YEAH!" Groll straightened and searched out Mills in the darkness.

"GET DOWN HERE NOW, YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!"

David couldn't see Mills any more, but the voice wasn't that distant.

"WHAT?!" Groll shouted.

"GET DOWN HERE, SOMEBODY'S BEEN DIGGIN'!"

Groll left the tree and started down the slope in a hurry.

David watched him, then let his eyes skip ahead to the place where Mills had faded into the darkness. There was a shape on the ground there... one of the odd shadows that David had spotted earlier. Only it wasn't a shadow-

"THE BASTARD'S BEEN AT THE GRAVES!" Mills shouted back. "HE'S DUG UP THE BODIES!"