Chapter Twelve

'Faith is seeing light with your heart,
when all you see with your eyes,
is darkness.'

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-Segenah-

"Reverend Dunleavy. You cannot possibly mean to take the words of Segenah!" Bishop Swinburne chided Byron. "This was why I commissioned you to find the truth yourself," he admonished.

"Monsignor, please forgive my adamancy, but I believe he is the very one to whom I had to ask. I have met with nothing but locked shutters and closed conversations. There is no getting to the root by trying to get anyone in Pennybacker to talk. It is like they live in another reality and nothing is what it seems."

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Some hours earlier

Byron entered the livery before dawn where he found Constance's nephew Cyrus, asleep on a pile of hay. He watched him for a moment deciding not to wake him, and went to fetch his horse. He would ready the mare himself, instead.

It was still quite dark in the stable but he managed to find the tack room and lit a lantern he found on a shelf, which cast its ghostly dancing lights along the wall. He was engrossed in his effort to locate his bridle from among the vast selection which hung haphazard along the back wall when his eyes caught the movement of a shadow, and a quiet voice startled him.

"Whatcha doin' Reverend?"

Byrons body jerked roughly and he turned with a halted gasp to see Cyrus lurking in the doorway.

"Good heavens Cyrus! It's not wise to sneak up to people like that," he breathed.

"Oh, I'm not sneaking. If I was sneaking you wouldn't have ever known I was here. Before he died, Uncle Edward taught me the way, which he learned from Segenah," Cyrus chuckled.

"Ah I see," Byron humored the young man. "Tell me, how did your Uncle die?"

"Mosquitos, Granny Dyer said. Yellow fever."

He didn't know why but Byron felt somewhat relieved to hear that.

Thoughts of nefarious doings faded momentarily, until Cyrus' next statement had Byron turning slowly around to face him with a look of disbelief.

"What did you just say," he sputtered.

"I said, no such luck for Aunt Sadie. She got killed. It's a mystery to this day, but no one talks about it much. Grandad always said it was those Bird People that did it. Said it was revenge--, for what she done."

Byron took two steps toward Cyrus.

"Bird People? Cyrus, whatever are you talking about?" Byron was dumbfounded.

Cyrus looked at him with sideways amusement. "You're going to tell me that you haven't heard about them? Those creatures are the reason no Minister for miles around would step foot here unless they had too, Reverend. Didn't Segenah tell you?"

"Well, no. He did not tell me. But, why don't you Cyrus?"

"Sure. I don't mind," he stated with incredulity. "But we have to take a long walk, if your not in too big a hurry," he said enigmatically.

"I'm in no hurry what so ever."

"Alright then, come with me. I'll tell you and show you all about it."

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From the crack between the shuddered window, Iris watched as the Reverend and Cyrus slowly passed by. She knew where they were going. She knew Cyrus had a loose tongue. And she knew she should taken care of it, a long long time ago.

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Byron was in awe of the sudden windfall of information he felt he was soon to discover. He went along with Cyrus, who hummed a tune as he walked, and cut off the main road through the town and took a path that led toward the Nottoway River. Deeply wooded forests surrounded what was little more than a hidden trail, encased with more of the strange silence which haunted Byron's dreams at night.

Without a doubt, he knew what he had seen just yesterday in the shadowed woodline behind the Pennybacker cottage where he lived, was about to take form as a reality. Not just some ghostly entity his mind had conjured up.

Cyrus reached a sandy beach area and right ahead, Byron saw the remains of what looked to be a prior village. Dark, dilapidated structures, broken and sad dotted the upper crest of land butting up to the thick forest. Cyrus continued along the rivers bank where they reached a clearing and Byron saw the remnants of a rocky trail stretched out before them. It rambled along the waters edge for some distance rising slightly in elevation. As they reached the peak of the rise, Byron stopped in utter confusion. Nestled there, just ahead, was an unkempt graveyard.

Littered with tiny headstones, it sat bleak and ominous in the breaking dawn.

"Cyrus?" Byron uttered hoarsely. "What is this place?"

"This is the original settlement Reverend. Kinda spooky, I know."

'Am I losing my mind,' Byron thought weakly. He crossed himself and held his rosary to his lips. "What in God's Holy Name happened here," he sighed.

Cyrus nodded. "A curse happened here Reverend. Plain and simple."

Byron strode into the pine straw covered cemetery and turned around and around looking with horror at the tiny graves.

Some were mere mounds of dirt while others actually had crudely carved stones bearing a name or a date. "Please, Cyrus, tell me this was also Yellow Fever," Byron pled.

Cyrus shook his head. "This is where Aunt Sadie is buried. They put her here to forget she ever lived. So they wouldn't have to talk about what she done."

Byron walked back to Cyrus. "What? What did she do?"

"She made the Bird People angry. And if you do something they don't like, they'll be angry with you."

"This is madness! Tell me what happened here Cyrus, or I'll have this whole settlement razed to the ground!" Byron vowed earnestly.

"I'm getting to that Reverend, hold your horses," Cyrus twitched nervously. "I told you it was a long story. Mostly Segenah's fault, for he's the one who told Granddad the land was cursed."

"So. That's why he refuses to enter the settlement."

"It is." Cyrus devulged.

"But these graves. They're all children."

Cyrus looked away and nodded. "Infants," he corrected with a faraway gaze. "That's why Granddad had to kill her."

Byron thought he was going to vomit.

"And then Granny Dyer killed him. She said she'd had enough of his lunacy and she was afraid he would take Edwards baby from her. Granny loved her son Edward. No one else much cared for him. He was adlled in the mind," Cyrus said pointing to his temple knowingly.

Byron fought off the urge to run. Too much information was making his head spin and he felt the forest close in on him. He grabbed his head and squeezed to shut down the whispers of the spirits that haunted this land.

"It's all fine Reverend. No one knows. Just you, me and Aunt Iris."

Byron popped his head up. "Iris?"

"Yeah. She was God awful hurt when Granddad died. She was close to him. She was the only woman ever allowed to go to Granddad's meetings. I think that's why Granny killed him, myself," he shrugged. "Granddad favored Iris. She was their youngest."

"I feel it's much more than that. I have had the distinct sense that Iris doesn't care for my being here as well," Byron mumbled mostly to himself. "Cyrus, I think I have heard all I need to know."

"Don't try anything fishy, Reverend," Cyrus warned. According to Segenah, they are the guardians here, and there is nothing we can do about it."

"I beg to differ, Cyrus."

"No Reverend. The Bird People are truly powerful and they're always watching, even now," Cyrus said glancing behind Byron to the forest behind him.

Byron grasped his rosary a little tighter. "Let us leave this place Cyrus. The ghosts here are not at rest."

"The land here never has been at peace, Reverend."

His comment left Byron chilled.

"Cyrus. Would you consider joining me into Jamestowne? And as we go, you can explain to me how you have come to know-- all of these things."

"Perhaps. If Aunt Iris will allow it."

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