Рита Браун - The Hounds And The Fury

Athena saw the boar, all four hundred and forty pounds of him, yellow tusks long and sharp, arrive in the little meadow at a trot in the opposite direction.

“Go right!” Athena called down.

Earl, running for his life, pounded through the snow as the huge boar trotted straight at him.

“Duck around him. He’ll swing his head in that direction. Make a wide circle, then run like hell, Earl!” Athena commanded.

Shaker, up behind his hounds, saw the danger and blew three long notes to call hounds back, but not before half the pack was face-to-face with one ugly brute.

The boar lowered his head. He stopped. He paid no attention to Earl, who circled him, reaching the woods and freedom.

“Go back!” Ardent boomed, barely managing to pull back the pack.

Shaker, blowing his hounds to him, galloped away from the boar, pulling hounds back into the woods from whence they had come but far to the right of the field, who did not know what lay ahead. The field did, however, pull up at woods’ edge.

Jason rode up to Sister, already in the meadow, before she could turn to follow Shaker. He wedged his knee under hers, throwing her over the saddle. Aztec trembled in front of the boar, then turned, racing back through the field. He was only six, but even a seasoned horse would be scared once it got a whiff. Horses were blowing up behind Aztec.

Jason then bellowed, “Reverse.”

The field, not able to see over the meadow’s rise, obediently turned in the woods.

The only person who had a clear view of what had happened was Betty, on the right at the edge of the woods.

Aztec stopped at the rear of first flight. Walter reached over and grabbed his reins.

Tedi and Edward turned, but Edward stopped turning back.

“Jason passed us—but where’s Sister?”

They waited a moment, their horses becoming more restive.

Betty bolted out of the woods toward Sister.

Luckily, Sister had fallen on her right side. Her .38 rested in a holster on her left side under her jacket.

Slipping in the snow, she tore open her coat, black horn buttons popping off, to reach for the gun as the boar charged. No time.

“Roll, then run!” Athena directed, hoping the human might understand.

Betty, hurtling toward the boar, said to Magellan, “We might get hurt, but we have to do this.”

“I will,” the thoroughbred replied, all heart.

The boar turned his big head for a moment upon hearing Magellan.

Sister had rolled. Then she ran as fast as she could. The snow slowed her.

She turned while Betty occupied the brute by circling him. Betty’d drawn her gun. Sister at last drew hers.

Betty, cool, didn’t fire. “Get to the woods, Janie. I’ll pick you up there,” she hollered.

“No. What if you fall?”

“Dammit!” Betty rode in the opposite direction of Sister, the boar charging after her. Then she wheeled and spurred Magellan. The horse flew past the beast, who though large had quick reflexes. Betty reached Sister, who stuck her gun back in the holster.

Slowing Magellan, Betty leaned down, her left arm straight.

Sister grabbed Betty’s arm, ran alongside Magellan for two steps, gained speed, and swung up.

Thank God, Betty was strong. She held Sister’s weight as the older woman flung her right leg over Magellan’s hindquarters. Mounted, the two galloped into the woods. Tedi and Edward followed on seeing them.

Walter was moving forward with Aztec. He had no idea what was up ahead, since Jason hadn’t told anyone. Most had turned to follow Jason, thinking he was temporary field master.

The boar had no desire to chase the horse or the people. His mission was to find the female whose perfume had reached him a half hour ago.

Sister, not dismounting, slid from Magellan to Aztec, who had calmed down next to Clemson, Walter’s bombproof older hunter.

“Where’s the field?”

“I don’t know,” Walter said.

“Jesus!” Sister’s face reddened. “Listen!”

Hearing Shaker’s horn, Sister said, “Tedi, kick on. Edward, too. Take the field. Don’t listen to Jason.”

Walter turned to the horn, but he waited a moment for Sister and Betty.

Sister reached over to Betty. “It’s not over.”

“I know.”

With that, both women left Walter in the lurch. Angry, he squeezed Clemson to catch up, but their horses were younger and faster, so he followed Tedi and Edward, also moving fast.

Sister reached the hilltoppers first as Betty pulled away to go to Shaker, who didn’t know anything had happened.

“Ben, he got away,” Sister said, voice low.

Ben reached into his pocket and plucked out his cell phone to call the deputies on the road.

“Bobby, you have one hell of a wife.” Sister then blew by the rest of them, calling out, “Tedi and Edward will lead you. They’re coming up behind. Wait for them.”

She rode up to Shaker and filled him in. Betty had not done so, feeling it was more important to take her position at ten o’clock from the hounds. She was right in this, as there was nothing any of them could do about Jason at the moment.

“Let’s pick them up. He’ll kill anyone or anything in his way, and we don’t know where he is.” Sister told her huntsman, “Hold hounds for a moment.”

Trudy sat on her haunches. “What was that ugly thing?”

“Big old fat wild pig, that’s what,” Asa informed her. “He would have cut us up like flank steak.”

“Quicker than you think, those pigs,” Cora commented.

“How come we haven’t smelled them before now?” Diddy asked a good question.

“They keep to themselves except during breeding season.” Ardent hated boar.

“And they’re in the mountains. Paradise runs into all that billy-goat land we hunted last week. You won’t find them at Tattenhall Station or Tedi or Edward’s. ” Diana studied game just as Sister and Shaker did.

“Well, they’ll come down if food is scarce. They’ll trot fifty miles and not think a thing of it.” Ardent thought it odd that a wild pig will hurry along to a foraging spot, then, when close, slow way down.

“Hope I don’t see another one.” Trinity had been scared out of her wits.

“Gather round.” Sister waited as the field made a semicircle around her. “Ben, do I have permission to announce our suspicions, which I believe are now confirmed? Everyone’s safety is at stake.”

“Yes.”

The sheriff’s one-word answer riveted everyone’s attention.

“We believe that Dr. Jason Woods killed Iphigenia Demetrios.” She waited while that sunk in. “He is armed, extremely dangerous, and highly intelligent. I want everyone to stick together on the ride back. In those places where it’s tight and you go single file, look to the person in front, then back. If anyone falls out of your sight line, holler. Loud.”

“Why won’t he just ride back to his trailer and take off?” Henry Xavier asked.

“Since he now knows that we know, he’ll assume I have officers at the trailers and on the crossroads in every direction. He’s going to keep clear,” Ben replied. “I will ride tail for the hilltoppers. I’ll be the last person in the line. I think we’d better move along.”

“Shaker…” Sister meant to tell him to move on. Then she suddenly exclaimed, “Where’s Sybil?”

“Still on the left, I hope,” Shaker, worried, replied.

“Did you blow her in?” Sister asked crossly.

“Of course I did.”

“I’m sorry, Shaker. I know better. I’m on edge.”

“If I’d nearly been gored by a boar, I’d be on edge, too, and we don’t know where that bastard is—the human, I mean.” Shaker removed his cap to wipe his brow, the cold air sharp on his sweating head.