Page 21 of His Human Believer

He exhales. “Yes…I want to tell him my story.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. But you need to be with me when I tell him.”

“No problem.”

Vidar comes around the end of the pallets a few moments later. “Ms. Reyes.” Smoke puffs from his nostrils. He looks at Dagr on the crate, then back at me. “I could not locate you,” he growls.

I smile. “I’m sorry if we worried you, but we’ve been right here. Dagr wanted to talk to me alone and I listened to him. That’s all that happened. This is not me investigating. I’m simply a civilian that Dagr was talking to, his Aunt Margaret who is visiting from Salo.”

His eyes narrow. “Margaret…”

“I know, but Dagr has something important to report. And he has given his permission for you to hear it directly from him. Not from me. From him.”

And then Dr. Vidar Coalstone, Senior Fellow of the Royal Hyrrokin Academy, nods and walks over and sits heavily on a nearby crate. “Dagr Hellstone, please tell me what you saw.”

Dagr proceeds to tell Vidar the exact same story that he told me. And when he’s finished, Vidar asks follow up questions.

“At what hour did this occur?”

“Maybe two hours after full dark.”

“And where were you standing?”

“On the path, near the first turn.”

“Could you show me the exact position?”

“Yeah.”

“And the sound you mentioned, how long did it continue?”

Dagr thinks. “The whole time. It started before I saw the eyes.”

Vidar’s head comes up at that.

“Before?”

“Yeah. I heard it first. That’s why I looked over and saw him. I think he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. We both froze and then he finally ran away first.”

“Did the pitch change?”

“It went up and down. Slow.”

“Would you make the sound for me?”

And Dagr does it again.

“Once more please,” Vidar has his tablet out. “I am going to record it this time. Do it exactly as you did it before.”

Dagr hums it again into the tablet.

Vidar looks at the readout for a long moment.

“I have audio equipment at that wall. It records across a frequency band that includes what you have just produced, and lower.” He taps the screen. “I have reviewed what I have so far and there is nothing of this description.”

Dagr’s face falls.