The following is an excerpt from Cauldhame by Bill Davidson
Copyright © 2025 by Bill Davidson
Josh Aitken came awake in stages, the familiar burn of old whisky in his throat. It was cold and his face hurt—his ribs too—but worst was his hand, like maybe a bone was broken in there. He didn’t ask himself out loud, “where the hell am I?”, but that was foremost in his mind. He rolled over on his side and dry-heaved, knowing from the crackle of leaf and twig exactly where he was.
Lying on the ground, deep in the forest, alone and in the middle of the night. The very place and time he had been warned and warned against, all those years ago. Trying for quiet even as he got his breath back, every movement breaking the silence, he peered into the dark.
After a while, he saw a light dancing through the trees and knew that he had been found.
When the light came closer, it turned out to be an old-style lantern, with an actual wick and flame, in the hand of a very short man. Shorter than Tommy Milne by some way, but at least Tommy had a neck. When he spoke, his breath plumed before him.
“Are ye awright there, son?”
Josh pulled himself to his feet, feeling like he was looming over the man, whose wrinkled face moved in and out of focus with the swing of the lantern. He looked down at himself, seeing that his shirt was bloody and torn, no buttons left so that his big, white belly showed, overtopping the belt of his jeans. He pulled it closer against the chill, with little effect, and rubbed his face, wincing at the pain in his hand and wrist.
All of it seemed to amuse the man. He lifted a bony fist and did a little skip in imitation of a boxer. Made punch noises. “Pah-pow, eh? Eh?”
A little bubble of semi-hysterical laughter burst out of Josh, which only encouraged the little man, who did another skip, pretending to box one-handed and say, “Eh? Eh?”
Then he said, “Ye look like ye’ve been in a bit o’ a bust up.”
Josh wondered, was this old guy from the town? It seemed likely that people were out searching for him and what was it that Caitlin had said? “This is a small town, and the Milnes are stitched into everything.” Still, he shrugged.
“Yeah, a few of the lads from Duncoll wanted to show me how much they liked me being here.”
“I ken fine what that’s like. Oh aye, we all ken that.”
“What?”
“Come on. We’ll get you fixed up.”
Josh looked around. “I need to get back. Find my car.”
But the man had already turned, and was walking away, his warm little lantern the only light in the forest. It occurred to Josh that he had no idea how far he had come, or what direction to go in, so he followed on, catching the man up.
“This is kind of you. Do you live close by?”
“Not far.”
“In Duncoll?”
“I would never set a foot in that place.”
The vehemence of his response took Josh aback, so he stayed quiet for a while, concentrating on walking, not tripping over anything. After a while, he realized that he was in a part of the forest that he had never been in before. The trees seemed, if anything, bigger, older. Less pines and more… now that he thought about it, he didn’t recognize these trees. They were mostly covered in long filaments of moss and creepers, tendrils hanging from every branch, it seemed.
It smelled different, too. Cleaner somehow. At some point, the moon had come out, and it hung surprisingly low and large above the trees. The man’s lantern was no longer lit, he noticed. In fact it seemed that he had no lantern, so he must have put it down somewhere along the way, without Josh noticing. Oddly, it wasn’t quite so cold.
Josh had been walking close to him but now angled away, feeling the need to do that. He had thought that the guy came just about up to his shoulder, but saw that wasn’t so, this man was so small and bent he barely reached his elbow.
Up ahead, he caught a sudden flare of music carried on the wind. The little man turned and smiled, a very wide smile in a very strange face.
“Not far now.”
“Where are we going?”
But the man didn’t answer. Josh kept taking surreptitious glances at him. His style of walking was all wrong, because now that Josh was looking for it, there was something strange about his legs. They were far too long for his tiny body, and each step took him further than seemed possible. His feet sought out holds far in front of him and his body just caught up. His arms were overlong too, and his face was all nose and mouth, constantly grinning.
It occurred to Josh to run, but he looked at those long, long legs, stretching out like a spider’s. He didn’t want this hunchbacked little man chasing him. That was a terrifying thought. No matter what, he told himself, don’t make him chase you.
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