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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run
"What?" Grant demanded.
"His name is Koshelav. He's a Skotpsi."
"I thought he was a Russian," said Kane.
With a weary smile Brigid replied, "He is. The Skotpsis were a religious sect
which flourished in Russia four hundred years ago. The cult traces its origins
back to the pagan goddess Cybele, whose priests wore women's clothes and
castrated themselves as sacrificial offerings at her altars. After the cleansing the
cult enjoyed a brief revival. He claims he is the only priest left."
Despite the cold, Kane felt sweat form at his hairline. The infant and probably
the animals had been sacrificed during Koshelav's insane rites. And he had a clue
as to why the village was deserted.
Grant came to the same conclusion. "He probably chilled the villagers and their
animals. Let's blast the crazy son of a bitch and move on."
"Wait," said Brigid. Waving her hand to the dangling skeletons, then to the bowl
containing the bones of the child, she asked Koshelav a long question containing
an accusatory note.
Koshelav's eyes blinked, and he shook his head so vigorously that his makeshift
wig nearly slipped from his bald pate. He vehemently said, "Nyet, nyet!" over
and over.
When Koshelav stopped speaking, Brigid shook her head in frustration. "I don't
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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run
know whether to believe him or not. He claims Peredelinko was a Skotpsi ville
for many, many years. They lived in peace here. Then a new regime took power
in Moscow and classified everyone here as undesirables, as perverts, as spies.
They suffered through a long reign of terror. The villagers who were not
murdered fled the place. As the high priest, he stayed behind, lest he violate his
oath to Cybele. The bones are those of his own animals, and the child's skeleton
is his son's. All were killed by the police. He dug them up."
Eyeing the wired-together skeletons dangling overhead, Grant asked, "Why'd he
mix and match 'em, then?"
"For one," replied Brigid impatiently, "he's obviously insane. For another he
switched the remains according to gender, female skulls on male bodies or vice
versa, in accordance to Cybele's necromantic rites."
"So he's not a murderer," Kane remarked. "Just a fused-out ghoul. That makes
me feel a whole lot better."
Koshelav spoke again, this time in a tone hushed with reverence. Grant started to
speak, but Brigid shushed him into silence. When Koshelav's words trailed off,
he inclined his head, putting his hands together, the tips of the long, ragged nails
touching.
"He says he had been praying to Cybele to send him new acolytes," she
translated. "And his prayers have at last been answered."
"I don't think so," muttered Kane.
Grant whispered, "If the dumb bastard castrated himself, how could he have a
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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run
son?"
Brigid lifted an eyebrow. "Good point. I'll ask him."
She spoke to Koshelav. The man acted as though he hadn't heard. Head still
bowed, he turned and shuffled into the gloom. Brigid called out after him.
Koshelav continued shuffling, out of the range of the two microlights. Kane
stepped swiftly after him, around the edge of the table. "Hold it, chief."
With shocking suddenness, the shadows around, behind and above them erupted
with a flurry of movement. The pungent odor of rot grew perceptibly stronger,
like a wave. Something brushed the crown of Kane's head. He ducked
instinctively, his hand rising to shine his light overhead. A loop of thin, flexible
wire encircled his wrist. The wire tightened, and a jerk from above snatched his
arm up, shooting a streak of pain into his shoulder socket. At the same time, he
heard Grant and Brigid cry out behind him. He turned on his toes, wrenching at
the wire.
In the dim, wavering light he saw Grant, his arms flying up to horizontal
positions, pointing in two directions. His wrists were snared by loops of wire,
and they were pulled simultaneously by two ragged figures on either side of the
barn.
Brigid clutched at her throat with both hands, her teeth bared as she gagged for
air. Her hat fell off, and Kane glimpsed a glinting strand of wire stretching up
from the base of her neck into the shadow-shrouded rafters.
He pressed the trigger of the Sin Eater, and bursts of orange flame smeared the
darkness. The rapid-fire roar was nearly deafening. Pieces of bullet-chopped
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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run
wood showered down, and a dangling skeleton danced and flew to flinders under
the barrage.
The tension on the wire around Brigid's throat relaxed. She dropped to her knees,
followed half a heartbeat later by a ragged, robed body plummeting down from
above. A flailing leg struck her a glancing blow on the shoulder, knocking her
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