Free Bohemians of Sesqua Valley by W. H. Pugmire Page A

giving him a lunatic look. The chiseled mouth was wretchedly twisted and stained with slaver. His clothing were rumpled and one sleeve torn at the elbow. As the poet joined them, both Simon and Sarah curled their nose at his stench as they noted the spread of wetness at Loveman’s crotch. The young man raised his eyes so as to admire the statue.
    “Yes—yes, that’s him exactly. He could be your twin, Simon, except that his features are softer and he wears his hair longer. He has the most beautiful voice. I could have listened to him all night.”
    “What the devil are you chattering about, pathetic wretch?” Simon demanded.
    Ignoring him, Loveman turned to Sarah and took her hands. “You shouldn’t have fled. It was fantastic. The slab is large enough, we could both have slept there. Oh, the dreams! The heartbeat of the valley took hold of my own palpitation, and we thumped as one. Didn’t you hear it as you ran away? Why did you fly? I’ve experienced such wonders. Oh! I’ve left my lantern there. Come with me now, and I’ll teach you the sign of Nyarlathotep. It’s delicious, to feel the crawl of chaos creep over one and kiss one’s eyes!”
    Simon clutched at the lad and turned him. “How do you know that name?”
    “Manly taught it to me, when he showed me the Circle of Seven Suns. I liked the way he felt, his soft padded hand in mine. He’s far friendlier than you’ve ever been.”
    “You’ve dreamed of Manly?”
    “Don’t be stupid. Although, come to think of it, he seemed a thing of dream as he drifted to me out of the mauve mist. Manly came to me as I reclined upon the slab in the sunken chamber of the Howard mausoleum. He told me how the Howard family had been among the first mortals to settle in Sesqua Valley, how they began to build the town. They corrupted this place of secrecy and wonder, and awakened the children of shadow.” He cast a playful look at Simon. “The first to seep from out the valley’s shadowland was a potent fellow, richly daemonic and a very devil. Oh, the deadly tricks he played on those early white settlers who dared to invade the sacred land! They were driven away, those pilgrims, but the valley was forever tarnished, and others come, freaks of peculiar bent. The valley accepted them and their absurd ways. He told me of the mountain, which serves as symbol of the valley’s majesty, and of its influence over those who wander into this realm. The mountain adores those who are most bent, as I am, and those are the adopted souls of Sesqua Valley. And then he took my hand and guided me to the Circle of Seven Suns and taught me what ritual to perform once I took my statue there. I was so compelled to buy that statue from Leonidas. Now I know why—well, vaguely. Manly marvels that you’ve yet to figured it out, you’re usually so clever, beast. He’s been so amused by your ‘antics,’ as he calls them.”
    “Sirrah, William Davis Manly vanished from this valley decades ago. His fate remains a mystery. Come, we must remove ourselves from this soil. It has a vile affect and is the cause of your pathetic ranting. Come.”
    Akiva laughed as he allowed Simon to pull him across the ground and out of the cemetery, followed by Sarah. “You can be such an idiot, Simon. Manly hasn’t left the valley. He’s dwelling in the second shadowland, the place he’s conjured through his sorcery. Haven’t you felt his presence deep inside you? He’s your brother, so alike that you two almost share a single heartbeat. Don’t you heard him singing to you in your dreams?”
    “I never dream. This is all rubbish. You have slept within the Hungry Place and it hath made ye mad. Pah—this is what comes from allowing outsiders to enter freely into our demesne. I have warned the others of this, but things have become so lax. What madness you talk! The Circle of Seven Suns? No such place exists.”
    Swiftly, the poet turned to Simon and thrust his hand against the Sesquan’s face,