In The Shadow Of The Beast by Harlan H Howard Read Free Book Online

aspect of some furious demon in the dim
light of Veronique’s chamber.
    ‘ Seal the castle, we have
an intruder,’ he ordered of the towering Huron, who nodded in
compliance. Mortaron turned to Veronique, was about to speak again
when a tremendous and deafening roar, as of a volcanic detonation,
erupted from somewhere in the courtyard outside. The very castle
itself shook on its foundations, a great rumbling rolling through
the building, the chandeliers in the chamber swaying to a degree
beyond their design, the candles guttering and winking like the
eyes of frightened animals as dust cascaded down from the roof
above.
    Veronique was cast to the floor, screaming
once more in terror at this latest surprise horror. It was all
Mortaron and Huron could do to retain their balance, yet still they
covered their heads in case the foundations of the ancient castle
were inclined to give up their timeless defiance of gravity’s
might.
    As the rumbling rolled inexorably onwards
and the foundations continued to shake in the wake of the titanic
eruption, Huron threw himself toward Veronique to use his body as
cover for hers. Offering himself up as a shield for her safety, she
sheltered there beneath him for long moments until finally the
roaring and rumbling and quaking subsided.
    When all appeared to be quiet once more,
Huron gently helped Veronique to her feet. He did it with a
gentleness that belied his monstrous appearance.
    ‘ Thank you, lord.’
Veronique offered quietly, the shock of the last few moments still
lingering about her. Huron nodded, but did not meet the eyes of the
lady, instead keeping his gaze directed carefully toward the
floor.
    When at last he did look up, his eyes met
with the scrutinizing stare of The Baron, who looked upon him with
no small measure of distaste. Like a well heeled dog that fears his
master’s displeasure, Huron looked quickly away before turning
smartly and stalking from the chamber to carry out his orders.
    The Baron did not look to his sister’s
safety before marching from the chamber himself, his face still
flushed red, but his expression betraying some other emotion that
Veronique could not interpret.
    Still shaking with fright, she made her way
cautiously to the open doors of the balcony where those drapes
billowed more fervently than before, and a wave of unrelenting heat
could be felt through the opening.
    As Veronique stepped through the doorway
onto the balcony proper the sight that greeted her snatched her
breath away. From across the courtyard below, the east section of
the castle was a blazing ruin. Flames many dozens of feet high
scaled the walls of the buildings there, and entire sections of
that part of the structure had been blown wide to the night. The
ferocious heat of the blaze was such that with the direction of the
wind it carried far enough that Veronique could feel it stinging
her cheeks. The fire was spreading to other parts of the building
that had not been demolished by whatever had caused the apocalyptic
explosion.
    Scattered throughout the courtyard were the
smoking remains of several structures that had been caught in the
blast wave. Amongst the ruins and the wreckage she could see the
twisted and fused corpses of the unfortunate inhabitants of those
structures. Scattered here and there amongst the destruction like
miserable withered petals.
    Tears began to fall freely from her eyes as
she surveyed the carnage before her, and as much as she wept for
the victims of that destruction, she wept too with the knowledge
that things were about to change forever.
     

CHAPTER 4
     
    Thieves in the
night...
     
    The black smoke was acrid, it billowed
relentlessly through the tight confines of the corridor and Sigourd
was unable to breathe without pulling lungfuls of the choking soot
and ash down his throat. He tried in vain to cover his mouth with a
scarf that he’d pulled from the corpse of a court serf, but it was
doing a poor job of filtering the hot, poisonous