Page 8 - Mad Shadows II

Part One

The Girl Who Loved Ghouls
The noise and laughter of children playing in the streets
greeted me as I left the livery where I had stabled my horse and
headed toward my rendezvous with Valuta Jefoor. A mother’s
voice called out loud and clear for her child, a voice filled with
love and concern and authority.
“Bikki!”
One little boy broke away from the others and charged past
me. I laughed as he ran down the street in the direction from
which I had come. The woman called out again, causing me to
reflect back on my own childhood years of living in an
orphanage and then later on the streets. It was a bittersweet
walk down the pathways of memory, a journey quickly
interrupted by the sound of cursing and jeering men.
Turning a corner, I drew to an abrupt halt, unprepared for
what I saw not far ahead of me.
The heads of thirteen ghouls hung by their manes from a
crossbeam mounted on two vertical poles planted in the ground.
The eyes of the dead ghouls looked like balls of yellow glass,
open and staring at nothing.
I’d never really seen a ghoul this close up before. They tend
to be shy, nocturnal creatures living in warrens deep below the
earth, shunning the sunlight because it hurts their eyes, not
because they’re supernatural creatures. Their faces resemble a
hybrid of baboon and hyena, with a faint trace of human mixed

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