Rich Shapero Read Free

of his shoes was unlaced. A sharp
wind cut through them, and then it was twisting and twisting. He shuddered as
he fumbled and his shoe came off. He watched it whirl away into the bottomless
fog, hearing He Knows' warning, "Cold, cold, cold."
    Chill vapors circled as they stood, and the
ridgeline disappeared. Robbie shivered and hobbled forward, feeling his way.
The wind tugged the mist tightly around them.
    "To the left," a wheezy voice
said.
    Robbie stopped, glancing back at Fristeen.
Her eyes were wide.
    He edged to the left, squinting through the
blasts. They were descending, leaving the crest, heading straight into a white
morass.
    "Put your best foot forward," the
invisible voice said.
    Robbie recoiled and began side-stepping up
the incline. As they regained the crest, the voice came again.
    "Almost, almost—" A crazy titter
ricocheted around them.
    "Who are you?" Fristeen demanded.
    "The future," came the answer
from deep in the fog. The blast beat at them, shaking their parts.
"Shivers, for now."
    Robbie peered at the whorls, then gripped
Fristeen. There were sockets for eyes and soggy cheeks below. A sagging nose. A
scud curdled like a rumpled brow.
    "Whatever brings you here?"
    "We're exploring," Fristeen said.
    "Without coats?" An O opened
between Shivers' cheeks, and through it a freezing wind blasted.
    Robbie flung his arm around Fristeen,
fearful they would be swept from the ridge.
    The cloudy presence stood between them and
safety. Was that a high collar? No, a chin impossibly long, wound around his
neck.
    "What do you want?" Robbie
shouted.
    "Want?" Shivers blustered. He
began to quake. The turmoil mounted in his throat, as if he was choking, then
his lips sputtered, "Food!" and the blast was driven with a terrible
hacking. "I'm famished." The cloudy jaws chewed. "Children are best."
    An eddy reached out, gripping Fristeen like
a quivering claw. She screamed. Robbie kept hold of her, shouldering into the
maw of the horrid face.
    "Doubts, my boy?" Shivers mouthed
him. "It's doubt I taste."
    Shudders raked their bodies, gums soft and
slick wetting them through and spewing them out, delivering them to a frenzy of
icy gusts that crossed the ridge like giant razors. Robbie stumbled forward,
dragging Fristeen along, a putrid smell clinging to them, trailing back into
the guts of the fog.
    "Doubt and despair, and the sweet
nibble of decay."
    Robbie waved his arms to loosen the mist.
"The stumps—" He gestured toward the gate where the ridge dipped.
They struggled through the flurries while Shivers whispered in their ears.
    "Can you see? A feast. In your honor
it's laid. At the head of the table, that's me. I chew, I digest, I belch, I
void. Romance you seek, and romance you'll find. Hear? Do you hear? All those
voices lifted together— Whistling caeca. Buzzing livers. Lungs blown with mold.
Glorious—and you're there. I hear you both in the swelling choir. Your tiny
pipes join mankind's longed-for Esperanto. Hyphae ending! Mulch to all!
Shivers' peace worldwide."
    A break in the fog—the twin stumps stood clear.
They raced toward them, but as they approached a shred of mist appeared,
hanging between, sagging and furred. One leg was crookt, one arm was raised.
And a smudge like a head lifted to face them.
    "Get out of our way," Robbie
cried. Fristeen was shivering behind him, clutching his waist.
    "I'm a patient sort," Shivers'
voice creaked with age. "But not for such as you." A tendril lifted
like a finger and quivered threateningly at Fristeen.
    Robbie looked up and his heart rose in his
chest. A lake of fog was suspended directly above them. "Take me, not
her." And he hurled Fristeen through the gate.
    The hanging figure dissolved as the dam
broke, and the freezing white lake came pouring down. And with it, the voice,
husky with omen and creaking with scorn.
    "Both, and soon. You hear? Both, and
soon! It's the short way to Shivers if the heart is your guide."
    Robbie dove through the gate. He collided
with