Read Online Goat Mother and Others: The Collected Mythos Fiction of Pierre Comtois by Pierre V. Comtois, Charlie Krank, Nick Nacario - Free Book Online Page A

through Uncle Silas’ papers, but I guess that’ll have to be put off for a while,” Darlene said. “Right now, I have a guest to entertain.”
    Darlene crossed the foyer into the living room and as she did so, her guest rose from where he was sitting in an old wing-back before the empty fireplace. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but she was surprised to find that the man before her barely came to her waist in height. At the moment, he was swathed in a cloak of some kind with a hood fallen behind his head. His features seemed vaguely Asian but because his skin was slightly disfigured from what Darlene guessed was burn damage, she couldn’t be sure.
    “I’m Darlene Cobb, Silas’ niece,” said Darlene, extending a hand.
    The little man nodded his head slightly but didn’t offer his own hand in return.
    “I am pleased to meets you,” he said in heavily accented English…or was there something wrong with his voice? “My name is Shuri.”
    “Welcome to my uncle’s home, Mr. Shuri,” replied Darlene, motioning for her guest to retake his chair. “You have already been informed of my uncle’s death?”
    Shuri nodded. “Yes, very tragic. Very untimely. I have traveled a very long way to do business with your uncles.”
    “Where do you come from, if I may ask?”
    “Very far,” Shuri said again. “Far to the East, near the land you knows as Burma.”
    “That is far away. But, if I may ask, what is the nature of the business you were to have with my uncle? Perhaps it’s something that can yet be completed?”
    “Perhaps. You are his niece? The daughter of his brother, Joshua?”
    It was an odd way of putting it, and certainly strange to hear this stranger from the other side of the world speak of her in such familiar tones. What exactly had her uncle told Shuri about her and why the need for such detail? “Yes, I am she. Does that make any difference?”
    Shuri visibly relaxed and leaned back in his chair.
    “Very much so,” said Shuri. “Your uncles spoke very highly of you, and was eager that I should meet you.”
    “Why was that?”
    Shuri didn’t answer, instead, he leaned over and took a suitcase that had stood behind his chair out of Darlene’s line of sight. Placing it on his lap, he clicked open the lid and reached inside. A moment later, the suitcase was back on the floor and in his hands he held a plain loose-leaf binder filled to its capacity with sheaves of paper.
    “This binder contains the full history of my peoples, called the Tcho Tcho.”
    Darlene had never heard of them.
    “We are a very old peoples and growing fewer with each year that passes,” continued Shuri. “Your uncles, as you no doubt know, was a seeker of knowledge. Objects, whether books, idols, or even stones and plants that furthered that knowledge were precious to him. He was very eager to acquire them.” Shuri looked around the room. “And I can see that he had much success at it. There, for instance, is a carving of Chaugnar Faugn, very rare. And there, a porcelain figurine of Tsathoggua. Most delightful to behold however is this she-goat, a fetish hand-woven by the Tcho Tcho.”
    Here, Shuri took down the goat from the mantelpiece.
    “It is a figure very holy to my people, the fleshly appearance of Shub-Niggurath, she who has guarded our fields and blessed us with many offspring for countless centuries.” Suddenly, Shuri became more somber. “Unfortunately, due to transgressions we do not understands, the goat of a thousand young has abandoned us. The Black Lotus lies withered in our fields and the sounds of young ones do not ring amid the barren hills of my homelands.”
    “That’s…too bad,” was all Darlene could say, not really able to identify with what was clearly some uncivilized tribe in the back country of…Burma, was it?
Where exactly was that, anyway?
    Shuri replaced the stuffed goat and extended the binder to Darlene.
    “Take this, as your uncle’s heir, it is yours