What Feasts at Night

The next day, Easton finds Bors asleep beside the springhouse and scolds him for trying to return to work. Ka guides him back to his room and gives him bridles to repair. Easton then makes him tea, thinking uneasily of Codrin. Ka tells the Widow that ka wants to fetch a doctor, but she refuses, insisting that such a visit would kill the boy. She says, “Might as well put him in the ground and save that money” (71). Even when Easton offers to pay, she declines and takes over brewing the tea herself.

Worried, Easton remembers the many people ka has seen sicken and die, noting that Bors’s illness is nothing like Madeline Usher’s. Ka drinks too much that night, skips dinner, and goes to bed, only to shout in pain when something sharp stabs kan hand. Angus rushes in as Easton pulls a knife from beneath kan pillow. Miss Potter appears, and at Easton’s prompting, she checks her own bed and returns with a butcher knife; Angus finds a bread knife in his bed. Easton assumes that the Widow planted the knives, and Angus explains, “Iron under your pillow wards off evil” (74). Though ka is furious, Easton swallows kan anger, knowing that the Widow and Bors need their wages. As Miss Potter leaves, Easton notes that the Widow gave her the largest blade. Angus bandages Easton’s hand, adding that superstitions sometimes prove real—witch-hares, for instance.

Easton rises early to see falling snow. Ka finds the Widow cooking. She admits to placing the knives, and when Easton shows her the cut, she promises a honey-and-onion poultice and asks for the blades to be returned during the day. Easton joins Angus in the stable, and they discuss the Widow’s refusal to seek medical help. Angus suggests calling Father Sebastian. While Angus prepares the horses, Easton checks on Bors, who is still gasping for breath and says it feels as though “something heavy” is on his chest. Easton tells him that ka is going for a doctor, but Bors whispers that the Widow says he must “fight” the woman from his dreams.

Easton, Angus, and Miss Potter ride into town, with Miss Potter sharing Angus’s horse and Easton hanging back to give them privacy. As they travel, Easton’s thoughts drift toward the war—not to battle, but to long marches that ka spent half-asleep on a horse named Skipper. In that drowsy state, ka momentarily wonders why Miss Potter is in Serbia before remembering that ka is now riding Hob, not Skipper. Easton reflects that war is a ”place,” not an event, and that one can return to it without warning. Ka resents people’s well-meaning reassurances that the war is over—“It’s nonsensical. Places aren’t ever over” (83)—yet rarely bothers to correct people, knowing that ka now has two homelands: Gallacia and war.

At Father Sebastian’s house, the priest (who uses va/var pronouns) lets them in. Easton explains Bors’s worsening condition, but Father Sebastian doubts that va can persuade the Widow to hire a doctor. Instead, va suggests inviting the doctor to dinner under the pretext of practicing German. Easton agrees, and they make plans for the following evening. Before leaving, Easton asks if red thread carries any particular superstition; Father Sebastian says that some believe it protects children from “other families.”

Back at the lodge, Easton is telling the Widow about the dinner when they hear Miss Potter speaking urgently to Bors. They rush upstairs to find him with eyes closed, leaning against the wall with purplish fingers. Easton wakes him with a shout and moves him into kan own nearby room despite his protests. Then ka rides back to the village to buy goose grease.

Later that night, Easton notices a line of salt across Bors’s doorway and pulls a handkerchief that had been stuffed into the keyhole—more of the Widow’s protections. Ka broods over her refusal to call a doctor.

Later, Easton seemingly awakens, unable to breathe beneath a heavy blanket. After tearing it away, ka thinks that ka can hear a voice before silence “covers” kan. A familiar woman sits nearby. Easton tries to speak, but no sound emerges. When ka clenches kan jaw to trigger kan tinnitus, nothing happens. The woman leans over kan, pressing down until the tinnitus finally flares. Easton gasps, awakening for real to find that the woman is gone. Easton mentally insists that it was another dream, then gets up and replaces the handkerchief in the keyhole.

Bors looks better the next morning, and Easton insists that the boy remain in kan room. The Widow expresses her resentment by overcooking breakfast, and after eating, Easton removes a red thread that she has draped around the dining room. Father Sebastian arrives with Dr. Virtanen, prompting the Widow to snap at Easton; Easton replies that the doctor came with the priest, not at their request.

Easton likes Dr. Virtanen, a Finnish physician who moved to Gallacia for love. The doctor brings a bottle of salmiakki—a Finnish liquor—as a gift. The Widow serves a “lavish” dinner, and Easton privately notes that ka should invite the Widow’s “enemies” more often. Father Sebastian asks about Bors and escorts Dr. Virtanen upstairs. The doctor assures Bors that his nightmares are normal, recommends rest, and says that the illness is unlikely to be tuberculosis. Back downstairs, he advises Easton to send for him again if needed and adds that ka should consider building a sauna, saying, “even if it doesn’t help, at least then you’ll have a sauna” (94).

By the next day, Bors has not improved, and the Widow blames Easton. When Easton suggests taking Bors home, she snaps, “Didn’t help Codrin, did it?” (95). When questioned about the salt and other protections, she says the moroi still managed to enter. She brings Easton to the springhouse, insisting that the creature escaped when the rock fell and that a body—possibly a werewolf—had been buried beneath it long ago. Easton nearly asks her why she took the job, then realizes that the answer is money. After she leaves, Easton weighs superstition against experience, reflecting that the horrors at the Usher estate all had natural causes.

With Angus’s help, Easton decides to unblock the springhouse. Hob grudgingly pulls the fallen rock free, allowing Easton to clear debris and restore the water flow. Back at the stable, Easton finds Miss Potter, who rejects kan assumption that she dismisses the Widow’s fears. In truth, Miss Potter believes a ghost is possible, but this is not her area of expertise. Angus says that he has seen supernatural things; he argues that Easton has too—on the front lines of war. After parting from them, Easton returns Hob to his stall and apologizes for the hard labor.