Something Wild (Child of the Winter Moon Book 1)

19: Fyke Island

Geralt could feel something wasn't right about this isle. And he was pretty sure it had more to do than the amount of drowners, necrophages, and wraiths he'd killed since arriving. Using the lamp Kiera had given him, he was able to find several harmless spirits that seemed to be reliving the day they died. Turned out the villagers hadn't come to beg for food as Kiera had been told, but to murder their lord. Geralt went through the abandoned village that nature was well on its way to reclaiming, and headed to the tower at the center of the isle.

Inside, he saw the place was crawling with rats.

"Where's that noble?"

Geralt turned the lamp towards the voice, seeing the ghosts of a couple of the villagers.

"Lying here, quiet as a mouse, head split open like a rotten pumpkin."

"More like a peasant, sloshin' around in his own blood and shite. Be nothin' noble 'bout him. Too quick a death they gave him. Should've made him suffer."

"He's not the end of it. Sons can suffer for 'im. And the daughter! To the top!" They disappeared and Geralt headed up the stairs, where he found the ghosts of Vserad and his daughter.

"Don't start, Anabelle," he said. "Back to your crafts! Always bending my ear about fool peasants! I'll not hear of them again! That simpleton turned your head! But one Graham hardly makes the rest courtly, one and all."

Another ghost ran in. "My lord! Peasants! They're through the door, in the tower!" They, too, disappeared.

As he continued to climb the tower, he noticed the torches, candles, and fireplaces seemed to be lighting themselves.

"Gooooold!" a voice cried, excitedly. "Piles of it! Won't do the dead any good, will it?" A ghost was going through chests in a room. "Strange it's still here. The noble died a time ago."

Geralt realized this was the ghost of a scavenger.

The ghost turned, looking around. "Who's that? Show yourself! Anyone there? Who... who are you?" Then he suddenly screamed and disappeared.

Setting the lamp on the table, Geralt crouched next to the body on the floor. While every other body looked like it had been here a while, the one looked fresher, maybe a week or two old.

"Wonder what killed him," Geralt muttered.

Geralt finally reached the top of the tower, cursing himself for agreeing to this. Kiera's voice came from the xenovox, a contraption that allowed her to speak to Geralt across the distance, breaking the silence.

"Where are you? Have you got to the laboratory at the top of the tower yet?"

"I'm at the top. Nothing here that looks like a laboratory."

"Then you have not reached the highest level. Look for a passage."

Using his Witcher senses, he soon found evidence of the passageway, before finding the mechanism to open the door. He walked up the stairs and found the laboratory Kiera spoke of. He was amazed at how well equipped it was. Across the room was another ghost, who looked to be crying.

"Why did you leave?" she asked. "I thought you loved me. I'm cold. Why has no one come for me? I cannot leave this place, I see no way out." She looked over at Geralt. "Who are you? Do you seek to hurt me as well?" She walked over to him.