Usher's Passing by Robert R. McCammon Read Free Book Online Page A

ammunition, and weapons.
    Several thousand acres of the Usher estate had never been mapped. The land encompassed mountains, slow-moving streams, wide meadows, and three deep, peat-filmed lakes. As always, Rix was struck by the sheer beauty of Usherland as Edwin drove toward the Gatehouse. It was a magnificent, breathtaking estate worthy of American royalty. But then, Rix thought grimly, there was always the Lodge—the sanctified cathedral of the Usher clan.
    Edwin slowed the car as they neared the Gatehouse's porte-cochere. The mansion, of white limestone with a red slate roof, was surrounded by colorful gardens and huge, ancient oak trees.
    It held thirty-two rooms, and had been built by Rix's greatgrandfather Ludlow as a guesthouse.
    The limo stopped. Rix dreaded stepping into that house. He paused as Edwin started to get out of the car, then felt Edwin's hand on his shoulder.
    "It'll be all right," Edwin assured him. "You'll see."
    "Yeah," Rix replied. He forced himself to get out, and took his garment bag from the trunk as Edwin carried his suitcase. They climbed a flight of stone steps, walked across a tiled patio with a goldfish pond at its center, and stopped at a front door that looked like an oak slab.
    When Edwin pressed the doorbell, they were admitted by a young black maid in a crisp pale blue uniform. Another servant, a middle-aged black man in a gray suit, welcomed Rix home and took his bags, crossing the wide parquet-floored foyer to the sweeping central staircase. Rix saw that the house was becoming more like a damned museum every time he returned. The perfect furnishings—Persian rugs, antique French tables and chairs, gilded turn-of-the-century mirrors, and medieval tapestries of hunting scenes hanging from the walls—seemed meant to be admired at a distance. The Louis XV chairs would never feel human weight; brass and ceramic objets d'art would be tickled with a duster but never touched. All the things in the house seemed as cold to Rix as the people who had chosen them.
    "Mrs. Usher and Mr. Boone are in the living room, sir," the young maid said, and waited to escort him.
    Edwin said, "Good luck," and left to drive the limo around to the garage.
    The burnished walnut living room doors were set in tracks. The maid slid them open for him. Rix paused on the threshold for a second, noticing a sickly sweet smell that had suddenly come wafting out of nowhere.
    He realized it was human decay. Coming from upstairs.
    His father's room.
    He braced himself and walked into the living room to face his brother and the matriarch of the Usher family.

2
    NUDGING THE LOGS IN THE MARBLE FIREPLACE WITH A BRASS POKER , Boone glanced up at the sound of the opening doors and saw Rix in the gilt-framed mirror above the hearth. "Ah!" he said. "Here's the famous horror author, Momma!"
    Margaret Usher sat in a high-backed Italian armchair, facing the fire. She'd been chilly all day, and she couldn't drive the cold from her bones. She did not turn to greet her son.
    The doors slid closed behind Rix, gently but still with the faint click! of a trap snapping shut. Now he was alone with them. He wore faded jeans and a pale blue shirt under a beige sweater—a good enough outfit for anywhere but here, he thought. Boone was dressed in a pinstriped suit, his mother in an elaborate blue and gold gown. "Hello, Mother," Rix said.
    "I'm cold." She spoke as if she hadn't even heard. "It's very cold in this house, don't you think?"
    "Want me to get you a sweater, Momma?"
    She paused, her head cocked slightly to one side, pondering Boone's question. "Yes," she said finally. "A sweater would do nicely."
    "Sure thing. Momma, show Rixy those pearls I brought you from New York." He put a finger under her chin to persuade her to lift her head. The strand of pearls glowed, catching golden light that filtered in through the large picture window overlooking the azalea garden. "Nice, huh? They cost four thousand dollars."
    "Very nice," Rix agreed.