Chapter Four
Austin
Austin slipped out the back door while everyone was snuggled up in the library.
The night air was hotter than it should have been, but after spending most of the day in the laboratory, it was nice to defrost. His limbs were so sore from being cramped that stretching out his arms and legs left his skin tingling.
Austin laid his head back and took a large sniff of fresh air.
The soft mooing from the eldritch cows echoed across the massive yard, through the tall stalks of hay.
Hooves clicked against the gravel as Stewy sauntered up from the dark haven of the barn.
Austin stopped to pet the billy goat between his massive horns, dusting off the cobwebs that were woven that day.
Poor thing was constantly attracting black widow spiders while he slept.
One tiptoed out from the curve in his horns, dropping onto the back of Austin’s knuckles.
Lifting his hand up, he studied the sleek, lumbering arachnid.
One leg after another it tentatively crept forward, without any signs of distress.
Austin hummed, “Wonder why you don’t find me scary, tiny thing like you.
You ought to be the most scared of me.” The tiny spider didn’t speak.
Didn’t flinch. Didn’t scream. Just crept up to his wrist then stood still to take in the sights.
Austin held the spider aloft, walking with Stewy at his hip while they paraded through the farm behind the manor.
It was strange not finding Kevin at the barn door, or out in the yard.
In fact, when Austin turned to try and spot the zombie gardener, he found the yard distinctly missing the mop-headed, brain-munching undead.
Chickens were clucking unhappily as they flocked back into the shadows of their house.
Another hot breeze blew through the yard.
That’s odd.Austin continued trying to spot him, lifting his hand to the door to give his little rider a spot to hop off at.
When he returned to the barn, he heard the whinnying of a horse excited to see him.
With a smile, he slipped further into the dusty, hay-covered building. “Remmy!”
The Nightmare hopped up on his back foot, kicking out his front hooves in excitement before flying over his itty-bitty gate into the middle of the barn.
Much like all the other stalls at the Rosemont farm, they were more like guidelines than actual rules.
Suggestions even. Remmy waved his tail back and forth, trotting with a playful nicker as he met Austin in the middle.
Lord Rosemont’s horse and the three other Nightmares that loitered in the barn were too busy munching on hay or lapping up water to care about Austin’s presence.
I’m not the guy that usually feeds them or rides them, so it makes sense they’re unfazed by my presence.
But Remmy was Austin’s horse. Sebastian made him with rhino and hero shrew bones, which is what it took to be strong enough to cart Austin around.
It did give Remmy a little unicorn horn and a voluptuous mane made of flames, because after all, he was still a Nightmare.
“You seen Kevin, Remmy? I figured he’d be out here but... ”
The sound of the back door opening pulled Austin away.
He twisted back, Remmy walking at his side, always happy to just be included, and the pair stopped at the barn door.
Stewy snorted, spewing spittle along the gravel.
Greggory froze in the middle of the path, hugging a book.
His massive eyes were half the size of his blue face as the crypt keeper stared at the red-eyed goat.
“Stewy, knock it off,” Austin snickered, lightly nudging the goat with his knee.
The billy goat waggled his tongue aggressively at Greggory.
Remmy stepped in the way, walking the goat off into the field of tomatoes and other vegetables for him to haunt instead of the shortest of the Rosemont members.
Austin crouched down to the ground as Greggory scurried across the earth into Austin’s protective arms.
“How come the goat doesn’t hate you?” Greggory grumbled, climbing up onto Austin’s shoulder.
“I don’t know, honestly,” Austin chuckled.
He grabbed the crypt keeper by his ankles, seeing his three toes wiggle with their obsidian talons.
Three fingered hands lightly tapped against the top of his head as Greggory got comfortable.
Their normal arrangement was Austin’s shoulders were free for Greggory rides when desired so long as Greggory read to him at night when Austin couldn’t sleep.
And Austin wasn’t sleeping. Not well and definitely not for the last two years.
“Hey, you seen Kevin? I came out here to ask him for some more fertilizer. Our flowerbeds are looking a little sparse.” Austin rattled as they walked the hay fields toward the outer fence.
“Melody, Carl, and him went on a werewolf hunt earlier. They should be home in a bit.” Greggory snapped off a portion of a piece of hay.
It made the crypt keeper ‘feel like a cowboy’ and Austin didn’t want to correct his little brother that in order to be a cowboy…
he must ride a horse, not Austin’s shoulders. Close enough, I guess.
“Oh,” Austin exhaled, hanging his head a little.
He ran his fingers along the bars of the tall fence, slowing his progression to wait for Remmy.
His Nightmare emerged from the tall field of wheat, Bessy and Butter mooing after the horse but not moving an inch from their comfortable spots.
Austin rubbed Remmy’s head, raking his fingers through his steed’s mane to untangle it as they continued to walk up the side of the manor. “How did I miss that?”
“They discussed it in the kitchen while Smith was going over Hyacinth’s contract.
” Greggory tapped little drum solos across the back of Austin’s bare head as he spoke.
The pair walked in silence for a bit, listening to the air blow through the tall grass and rattle the shutters on the side of the house.
Remmy bobbed his head along to the beat Greggory made.
Austin stopped again as he stared out into the woods beyond the manor’s fence.
Greggory, however, spoke up, keeping him from getting lost in his thoughts.
“Are you avoiding the new girl? I thought you found her?”
“I’m not! I did!” Austin huffed then proceeded to mutter under his breath, leaving Greggory’s legs dangle freely. Not like he’s incapable of keeping himself balanced. He pocketed his hands. “I was just busy.”
“Mmm, busy avoiding her.” Greggory’s tease didn’t rile Austin like it usually would. Because he had a point. Austin was avoiding her. He wanted to meet her properly, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of his head.
“I wasn’t—” Their conversation ended with a sharp lurch and both of them swallowing over their own tongues as they spotted a man on the other side of the fence.
A few feet up, close to the poisonous garden, staring hard across the grounds, was a man in black robes.
His hair was slicked back, a dark obsidian mane with a lightning bolt streak of silver in it.
Outside the long, flowing robes, he was practically plain to the naked eye.
But Austin didn’t have naked eyes, or normal ones for that matter. His were special. A gift from Sebastian who thought his creation was too na?ve in the ways of the world a long time ago.
Over eight hundred years ago—after Austin let the wrong person into their camp and the pair were nearly blessed out of existence by a strong-willed cleric—his maker replaced his eyes.
Plucked them right out of the cleric’s skull and replaced the ones in Austin’s sockets.
They were blessed with intuitive vision, being able to spot auras and things attached to people.
Clerics used it to deem things good or evil.
But they were just using what the gods gave them and deciding based on their morality.
It's how Austin saw Melody’s wolf. Even when it wasn’t attached to her, he could see its outline.
He could always see Lady Rosemont’s true form—a terrifying, lumbering thing with three spinning eyes and a maw full of shark’s teeth.
He could even see Lord Rosemont’s true form as a shadow that slunk after him like a serpent on the carpet.
What Austin saw of the man on the other side of the fence was an oppressive cloud.
Like he was wrapped in a cloak of smoke that danced in the hot, afternoon breeze.
Normally he would call for Lord Rosemont or Smith to talk to the stranger…
but there was a bone in Austin’s body that was desperate to prove himself useful.
To prove himself the protector he was made to be!
“Pardon me, are you lost?” Austin called out, putting Greggory on Remmy for safe keeping. His Nightmare crept up behind him as Austin marched toward the man.
“Oh, my apologies, I thought this manor abandoned…” the man spoke with a broad, charming smile as he twisted to face Austin.
Only when his eyes landed on the undead did his facade drop.
One dark obsidian eye, one silver, widened in shock as he truly saw Austin.
“Nexxus, preserve me. What manner of abomination are you?”
Cleric. Austin scowled, crossed his arms over his chest.
“Hey! My name is Greggory!” Greggory barked as Remmy sidled up beside Austin. “And you’re rude.”
“By the skies, there’s more of you monsters.”
“And you are unwelcome here, priest.” Austin nodded back toward the woods. “Go back to your temple. The Lord of this Manor does not appreciate trespassers.”
“Yeah! Trespasser!” Greggory rattled his fist at the man. Remmy whinnied and stomped his flaming hooves at the ground, as if marking his territory. Austin arched a brow as the cleric stumbled back a step, his hand clutching at a holy symbol dangling over the front of his robes.
Austin only had a moment to see it, but it was so unusual that he couldn’t forget it.
An eight-pointed star, but there was something funny with it, like some of the points were longer than others.
Am I imagining it, but does it look like a serpent?
He was pretty sure, before the man covered it with his hand, that there was a snake weaving around the star and trying to choke it.
Odd. Austin didn’t know about religions.
Didn’t put much stock in it, being undead and the creation of a Lich, he’d met gods.
The Lady of the Manor was one, and yet she made him a cupcake just the other day with a candle in it as a reward for saving her from a mouse.
But he didn’t know any gods that used an eight-pointed star and a serpent.
“May Nexxus have mercy on you awful creatures,” the man stumbled back, “return now from whence you came.”
Austin jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at the manor behind him. “I am from whence I came. I live here. You do not. And I will give you one more chance to walk away, priest.”
The man surrounded himself with smoke, turned, and rushed away, yelling obscenities at them as he scattered.
Austin rolled his eyes. Priests. He’d been burned at a stake twice in his life.
Which wasn’t a lot, but it was annoying that it happened twice.
Thankfully, the first time the fire wasn’t hot enough.
The second, Lord Rosemont got to him before they succeeded.
And from then on, Austin held a deep-seated grudge against clerics. Which maybe made him the judgey one?
“Greggory, go tell Lord Rosemont about that guy, will you? I’m going to go put Remmy up and make sure there’s no one else lurking, okay?”
“You sure you don’t want back up?” Greggory piped up, dropping his mouth hay into Remmy’s flames. It ignited, turning to ash in a moment.
“Positive!” Austin beamed down at his little blue brother and watched him bound off the back of Remmy. He waited till the front door closed before nodding for his Nightmare to walk with him. Austin didn’t like the weird, unease the man left in the air.
A cleric sniffing around the manor? That can’t be good.
They were on good terms with King’s Fall, but that didn’t mean Lord Rosemont was without enemies.
Overachieving clerics with a grudge against undead, for one, would never accept them.
Wayward wizards with a bone to pick, warlocks of vengeful gods…
the list went on. However, for hundreds of years, they’d been living in Rosemont Manor peacefully.
They couldn’t just pick up and go anymore.
This was their home. They couldn’t abandon the city either.
If the cleric from the woods convinced his order to attack the manor…they’d have to defend it.
“I’m getting ahead of myself,” Austin laughed to Remmy, even though the horse didn’t say a word. “He was a lost cleric who wound up at the wrong house. That’s all.”