Read Online A Darkness in My Soul by Dean Koontz - Free Book Online Page B

and wings connected: useless arms.
        "Where do you go?" the largest creature asked me.
        "To all the lands," I said.
        "They are wide. And many."
        "I have time."
        "That is true."
        "Where do you come from?" I asked. I knew they were creatures fashioned by Child's mind, just as he peopled all the landscapes with animals of eerie forms. I was intrigued by their seeming intelligence.
        "We are from-from the place where he is trapped."
        "Where Child is trapped?" I asked,
        "Yes," the smaller one said.
        "Why doesn't Child come himself? Why must he take the form of birds?"
        "He is trapped. He wants out, but there is no way but except through the dumb animals of his landscapes. He can reach into us and make us more than we once were and thus monitor this land through others' eyes."
        "Can you take me to where Child is trapped?" I asked.
        "We don't know."
        "He can tell you."
        "He doesn't know either," the smaller one said.
        "Yet both of you are Child," I said. "In essence, you are your master." The wind buffeted us, but we did not mind it "I suppose," the larger bird said. "But there's really very little we can do about it. We can help him as he wishes. But he can only impart his general intelligence and psychic power to us. He cannot fully acquire us and speak through us in the direct manner he might wish."
        The smaller bird stepped forward and bent conspiratorially. "You are aware, of course, that he is mad. And being mad, he has become separated from total control of this inner world of his. It remains, and he keeps it functioning.
        But he does not share the harmony of it any longer."
        "I understand," I said. "But why did you come to me?"
        "We live in the mountains," the larger one said. "While you were here, it was our duty to speak with you about your journey."
        "Speak," I said. It was raining slightly, a warm rain.
        "We don't know what to say," the large bird said. "We have his general urgency in mind. We understand that he wishes us to say something to you concerning your idea to travel. But we cannot say exactly what he feels about it.
        We think, ourselves, that he wants you to continue, that he wants us to urge you on. Perhaps he feels that you will find the place where he dwells and will liberate him."
        "Possibly," I said.
        "We know the place is dark. It is cold and there are things crawling on a blue floor, crawling all around him so that he does not have a moment's peace. That is the sum of our impression."
        "I will watch for it," I said. "Now, I must be going."
        Without a word, they leaped over the chasm, fell through the mists until their wings buoyed them up, then soared, beyond me, and were gone, making chattering noises like dice rattled on a felt table.
        I went down, past the entrance to the inside of the mountain out of which I had come earlier. I walked for another day and reached the tree-shrouded floor of the valley, where the air smelled of pine and of flowers.
        Waiting for me there was a creature much like a wolf, with a hugely swollen head and a mouth full of long teeth.
        Eyes like chips of iron, gray and unperturbed.
        "I'll guide you through the valley," it said, scratching paws in the earth. "I know it, and I can give you a look at every hole there is."
        "Fine," I said.
        "First, you must change yourself. Assume my form so that we can go more easily."
        I had forgotten that the gossamer body analogue which I had assumed for my journey through Child's mental landscape was not the only shell I could use to contain my psychic energy. There was nothing essential about a humanoid form, for that psychic energy could take any form that I wished. Gently, I released the surface tension of the current, permitted my human body to shimmer and dissipate. I