The Devil Eats Here (Multi-Author Short Story Collection) by Alice Gaines, Tara Maya, Rayne Hall, Jonathan Broughton, Siewleng Torossian, John Hoddy, John Blackport, Douglas Kolacki, April Grey Read Free Book Online

Skyler! Will... you... keep... your... contract?”
    “Nope! Not yet! Going on a pig hunt! Wanna come?”
    “I can’t watch this!” The devil vanished with a frustrated roar.
    Dick relished the feel of riding again. Instead of riding straight into camp, he circled its perimeter. The heavy brush would have made it tough going for an ordinary horse, but his smokemare’s hooves just whooshed and whistled through like storm winds.
    Four people milled about the clearing’s center. All four looked to be under twenty years old. One boy had a two-pronged fork for a hand, and one girl had a hook. The boy also wore nipple clamps.
    The other two had brought a torch, lighting their bright young faces marred by scarring. This couple was huddled together nude, sharing a wool blanket.
    With glee, Dick remembered he was in country foreign to Foverre. Therefore, it was virtually certain none of them would recognize what a smokemare was. Dick lowered his voice, powering wind out from his diaphragm.
    “Followers of Grumach!” he boomed. “Behold my ghost horse!”
    The four looked at each other. They came closer to each other. One lit a torch, revealing their scars in more detail.
    “Where’s Vassos?” called the naked girl.
    Dick slowed to a trot, then went into a prance fit for parade ground. “Put your hand into the body of the ghost horse. Touch its heart, and feel the essence of Grumach!”
    The Grumachians exchanged looks. “Where’s Vassos?” the naked girl repeated.
    “Touch the heart of the ghost horse! You shall receive great power.”
    All four walked forward, almost in unison. Dick marvelled that followers of an evil god like Grumach could be so stupid.
    Dick rode into their midst, in a ceremonial trot. The two clothed Grumachians had machetes, and got to him first. They stretched forth their hands, accepting the offer of power.
    Mean Dick Skyler went to work.
    His first stroke stabbed the armed boy in the cheek. His second slashed the side of the boy’s neck until blood audibly spurted. His third drove down, into the armed girl’s undefended heart.
    The nude couple ran for a tent, but Dick rode after and caught them. His sword severed the boy’s hand in a downward whirl. The boy’s stump spurted blood, the boy grasped it, and Dick stabbed him deeply in the gut. He twisted the sword on the way out to ensure a fatal wound.
    The little coal-miner in Dick’s head cheered him on.
    The remaining girl reached her tent and huddled behind the flap. Dick dismounted and hobbled over as fast as his bum leg allowed. He heard the girl’s whimpers inside, mingled with the kicking and pissing of her dying cohorts. “Gods know why you ran to this tent, girl,” he chuckled. “Shoulda run to the woods, ya might’ve lost me in the dark.”
    “I surrender!” she called. “If you spare me I’ll let you take me!”
    “Will you now? Come out and let’s have a look at you.”
    “Pull the flap back.”
    Dick did so. As he expected, she lunged with a knife. He grabbed her arm at the elbow, twisted it about, and broke it. When she fell, he fell with her, landing knee-first on her abdomen.
    “Stop whining! Tell me where Becky is, wench, or I’ll feed you to me ghost horse!”
    “She...she... she’s in the little tent. We’ve got her tied up. She can’t run.”
    “Whaddaya mean, can’t run?”
    “We... cut the string in the flesh of her leg. Her calf. She can’t run!”
    “Hmm. Good thinking.” Dick lifted his knee, flipped the girl over roughly and replaced the knee into her back. Twisting to face her feet, he cut deeply into her calf until he was sure he’d disabled her. “Wait here.”
    The girl seemed to have passed out. Dick didn’t care whether she was faking.
    He thudded over to the smallest tent, grabbing a firebrand from the campfire on the way. He opened the small tent with careful slowness. Peering in, he saw his gagged granddaughter Becky, chained by the ankle to an iron ball. Even in this light, he