The Fabulous Beast Read Online Free Page B

sir.’ He stepped up beside me and looked down at the thing lying in the straw.
    William let out a strangled cry, then croaked, ‘Lord have mercy!’
    I believe his next action was instinctive rather than deliberate. The rifle shot sounded monstrously loud in my ear and I reeled backwards half-stunned by the sound. When I had gathered my wits it took me some long moments before I realised that William had shot the creature through the head. There were shards of bone and pieces of flesh flying everywhere. Despite my feelings of revulsion, I half-understood why William reacted thus.
    But William was gone from my side. When I ran out of the barn he was already riding through the gateway, out onto Salisbury Plain.
    He shouted over his shoulder, ‘We have to kill her too, Mr Wilkins. She’s breedin’ monsters. We have to kill her and burn her.’
    Then he and his horse was swallowed by the darkness.
    I carried the remains of the creature William has shot to the burning piggery and threw them into the flames. The place was still blazing and hot enough to melt the iron hinges on the doors. Such a fire would soon destroy any evidence and we could return later and bury the ashes out on the plain.
    Staring at the blackened carcasses of our erstwhile brood of so-called myths, I could make out certain shapes and suddenly realised what had started the fire. It must have been the small green dragon, of course, who no doubt had just discovered his special gift. The dragon would have experimented with its fiery breath, once its throat had developed its potential to blast away, thus destroying not only its siblings, but itself in the bargain.
    I now had to ride out and find William, before he killed the mother beast and . . . what was it he intended to do? Burn her? Had he taken inflammable liquid with him? There was plenty of it lying around. Paraffin for the lamps. Petrol for the farm machinery. I realised the urgency now. I had to stop him destroying my chance of fame and fortune. Possibly William, who was not a stupid man, believed that if humankind were to discover we are not a natural species, but an aberrant lifeform produced by a deviant offshoot from what is regarded as normal and scientifically sound, then society would descend into chaos.
    It is possible that such a revelation might eventually be welcomed as a wonderful and marvellous thing, but initially it would undoubtedly send the human race reeling from the shock of a discovery that might take decades and many violent upheavals to overcome. Old religions, cultures, beliefs and scientific philosophies would fall, new ones arise, and in that terrible mix there would be chaos and confusion, madness, terror and despair.
    Yet, we had been through many shocks in our history on the Earth and have managed to overcome them without.
    I swung myself into the saddle, just as a new dawn was putting her torch to the sky in the East. There is absolutely no doubt that what we had seen, that final birth of the mother before she stampeded from the barn, was mankind’s close kith and kin. I saw the expression on the creature’s face, clearly in the torchlight. There was no mistaking what kind of being lay in that straw at my feet.
    We are the only animals on earth able to smile.

Murders in the White Garden
    I stood disconsolate, miserable, under the linked statues of Pan and Syrinx, envious of the hold the cloven-hoofed god had over his lover. Syrinx was looking into his eyes as if she adored him with all her being. Would that a certain someone might look into my eyes with that adoring gaze, instead of those of another.
    Eros and Psyche too, were in a similar passionate embrace, and not far away Meleager and Atalanta were wound around each other’s forms,
    ‘Dinner is ready, sir,’ said Simon, tripping over the lawn towards me. ‘I brought your coat, as the evening has lost its warmth. And with your advanced years . . .’
    He held the garment out towards me. I ignored