AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The thunder came again, heavy and pounding, as if some wild thing had broken free of its cage. The people of Gideon came out of their shops and filling stations and pretty houses with nice front porches. They gathered in the street. Dark clouds were swirling above the town. A red pulse beat behind them, like a fire ready to break out.
“What is that?”
“Never seen anything quite like it.”
“It was pure blue a minute ago!”
“Theta…?” Evie said.
Isaiah fought his wooziness. He clawed at Memphis to get his attention.
“Me-mem… phis…” Isaiah spat out the words on a hoarse whisper: “Th-th-they’re… c-c-com-ming.”
When the sky cracked open over Gideon, the people were too startled to scream. They had no reference for what they were seeing, and so they were simply stunned into silence. The Diviners knew better.
“Do you see…?” Evie said.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “We’re about to have company.”
“He’s f-f-found us,” Isaiah said, struggling to his feet. “They’re c-coming.”
Angry lightning shot down from the clouds and arced around the town like the talons of a feral bird intent on making Gideon its prey. The lightning made contact with a distant grain silo and a farm. They wavered for a moment, an X-ray image, and then they were simply gone. Nothing but smoke and fire and rubble. A locust smashed against the windshield of a shiny Chrysler. Its bug guts spread out jellylike against the glass. Another hit, and then another, locusts falling from the sky like raindrops. The birds pushed off from the telephone wires. The citizens ducked as the birds swooped through the town, crying. The people crowded together. Fear had picked up along with the storm. A great shadow moved across the land like fingers reaching toward Gideon. Down the road, a giant billowing wall of dust gobbled up everything in its path. And out of the dust emerged a man.
A farmer in coveralls and a brown hat elbowed his neighbor. “What in the name of heaven? How’s he doing that?”
“Dunno.” The other man called to his wife, who was coming out of the dry-goods store, “Myrtle! Is the circus come to town?”
“Not that I know about,” the wife answered, holding fast to her hat. “Mercy! What on earth?”
Behind her, the shop boy carrying her bags of flour, sugar, and salt slowed and gaped, slack-jawed, at the angry sky and the ominous, stormy dust cloud that roiled behind the King of Crows, who moved with some secret purpose toward the good citizens of Gideon. The shop boy’s mother had told him that staring was rude, but who wouldn’t stare at this man? Blue lightning sparked along his feather-caped shoulders and danced atop his tall hat. His shadow stretched out before him, reaching the town first. And as he walked down the center of Main Street, seemingly oblivious to the destruction in his wake, he tipped his hat.
“Good afternoon. How do you do? I am the King of Crows.”
There were a good many people gathered on Main Street now.
“Must be one of those circus fellas. Maybe even something with the Elks or Booster Club,” a man whispered to his wife, his brain still trying to make sense of the senseless, to banish fear with any form of reason.
“We all need a good boost now and then, don’t we?” The King of Crows raised a hand. The electricity along his fingers grew fainter, shorting out.
“A magic trick!” a young girl in pigtails said in wonder.
“I have more magic tricks up my sleeve. Would you like to see?”
“Don’t listen to him. Don’t let him get inside your head,” Sam said to the people of Gideon.
“Ah. At last. Welcome, Diviners.” The King of Crows rested his thumbs against the lapels of his shine-slick feathered coat and faced the Diviners, drawing the attention of Gideon’s townspeople.
“You know this fella?” the farmer asked just as a woman in a simple cloche squinted at the Diviners and asked, “Who are you?”
“Don’t you recognize these criminals in your midst? These are the Diviners. That radical sort wanted by the authorities across the nation for the bombings at Mr. Marlowe’s exhibition. For the murder of Sarah Snow.”
The buzz of gossip filled the streets: “I heard about it on the radio.” “Lands’ sake! How’d they get to Gideon?” “This is a safe place.”
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Theta promised.
“How do we know that?” “You killed Sarah Snow!” “Ralph, grab the rifles and get the sheriff.”
“We didn’t. I promise you,” Henry chimed in.
