The night was silent like an intake of breath, before the scream shattered the peace. Sarah was already on her feet by the time Meryl lit the lamp, fallen into Malin's arms who made soothing sounds, rubbing her back.
"It was over my bed– it was looking straight at me!" Sarah sobbed.
"It was just another nightmare," Malin said, glad he had made it back to his shell in time before the light had been lit.
"No, no– there's someone in the house," Sarah protested. "I heard it walking along the hallways before it came into the room."
Meryl and Malin both turned to the door, wide open despite having been shut and secured before they fell asleep. Sarah, luckily, was too upset to notice, burying her face in Malin's neck and trying to suppress the body-wide shudders of her crying. He met Meryl's eyes as they drifted back to him. "We should search the halls," she said, and by the time the words had been spoken, the neighbouring servants were already at the door.
It was quickly established that someone had snuck into the room of the servant girls, and a search of the manor was immediately organised. Sarah was placed in the care of a woman Malin had never bothered to learn the name of, as he found himself dragged out of the room to assist in the search. He paid it little attention, knowing fully well that he was the source of the trouble, but soon managed to get himself separated from the rest as he lazily walked around the kitchen in a pretend search.
He could smell Meryl's Christian rage before she'd even opened the door, closing it quietly behind her. "You and I are going to have a talk," she said.
"I'm busy," Malin said.
"I don't know if you noticed, but we may have an intruder in the house.""You know as well as I do that the door can only be unlocked from the inside," Meryl said, stepping forward and grabbing him by the thin wrist of his shell. "Now you and I are going to have a
talk."
Humans seemed to have a thing for dragging him all around the place, Malin thought as the night air hit his face. Meryl was trying her best to sneak unseen across the field towards the barn, though Malin was more observant and made absolutely sure they were alone. Lights were passing by windows inside the manor, but as far as he could tell, nobody looked out. Then the barn door opened and closed, and the two were alone.
"We were alone in the kitchen too, you know," Malin said, walking over to pet one of the cows.
"I'd rather not have us disturbed," Meryl said, putting the lantern aside on a stool. "People tend to frown upon unsanctioned witch burning."
"Aha," Malin said.
"So that's what you think is happening here, is it?""I should've seen it the moment you came into our service," Meryl was struggling with something on her belt. "Nobody
normal acts the way you do. Spitting God's name, talking about other gods. You're a heathen, or a Satanist– I don't know which, but there's only one way of curing it." Finally she pulled a knife from the inner pocket of her frock.
Malin continued to pet the cow, lips growing thin. If only he could get rid of the lantern.
"So, you made sure nobody saw us come out here?""Nobody's gonna come to help you," she nodded. "Not even Sarah, though she has some unhealthy obsession with you. I expect you put a spell on her too?"
He smiled, shrugging.
"I was kind. I get the feeling people aren't kind to her a lot."Mery snorted. "Lying isn't going to save your life now."