Four Summoners Tales Part 21

I'm sorry, she thought. I ought to have shot Eleazar first. Let you escape. But all I could think about was Charlie.That monster in his body.

The monster that was dying now. Lying on the ground, wheezing its death rattle, arrow lodged in its throat.

"Let her go," Preacher said.

"I cannot," Eleazar said. "I need-"

"I know what you need. And I know that what you have isn't satisfactory.What you had wasn't either. So I'm offering you a trade."

"Are you? Interesting . . ."

"Take it," Preacher said. "It's what he'd want.You know it is."

Addie struggled to figure out what they were talking about. Preacher was making sure she didn't. She could tell that, and a knot of dread in her gut grew bigger with each pa.s.sing moment.

"Take it," Preacher said. "Quickly."

Eleazar seemed to be considering the matter, but then, without warning, he grabbed Addie by the hair and whipped her against a tree. Her head hit the trunk hard, blackness threatening as she fell. She lay there, fighting to remain awake, as she heard them continue.

"You did not need to do that," Preacher said.

"Oh, I believe I did. She's a feisty little one, and I don't think she'll like what I'm about to do."

"Just get it done. Quickly please."

Addie managed to raise her head and saw Eleazar walk to Preacher. She saw his hands go to Preacher's neck, wrapping around it, and she understood what he'd meant.That with Charlie's body dying, the monster-Rene-needed a new vessel. Eleazar had been going to take hers. Preacher had offered his instead.

"No," she whispered. "Please no."

She could see her bow there, only a few paces away. She dug her fingers into the dirt and pulled herself toward it and-

And she pa.s.sed out.

PreAcher As Preacher watched Addie lose consciousness, he had a sudden vision of her death, of Eleazar killing him for his master and then walking over, kneeling and wrapping his fingers around the girl's neck. Preacher's hands flew up, catching Eleazar's, stopping them as they squeezed.

"Wait!" he said.

He held the man's hands still as he looked at him. "You'll not hurt her," he said. "After it's done."

"I have no cause.You'll have given me what I want." "It was not a question," Preacher said, locking eyes with the

man. "You are accustomed to bodies where the soul is long departed. If Rene's soul still lingers now, then so will mine, for a time. If you hurt the girl . . . I cannot lie and say what I will do, because I do not know what I may do. But I am certain I can do something, and so I will, if she's harmed."

"As I said, I'll have no cause once Rene has his new body. A girl child is no threat to me. As for telling anyone, I'm quite certain that by now, your village has already realized something has gone very, very wrong."

The village.The other children.

"No," he said. "You-"

Eleazar's grip tightened. Preacher tried to stop him, to say

more, but the man squeezed with inhuman strength and then- Darkness. Preacher jolted upright. He was lying on the forest floor, Charlie's body beside him. He scrambled to his feet and looked around, but there was no sign of Eleazar.

Something had gone wrong. He'd been tricked.

Addie.

Preacher whirled, searching for his foster daughter, seeing

no sign-

No, there she was, across the clearing, still on the ground.

He raced over and dropped beside her. He put his hands to her

thin chest and-

His fingers pa.s.sed through her. He stumbled back, falling on

his rear. Then he looked down at his hand, the gra.s.s poking