"Born of the Winds"

by Brian Lumley

originally published The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1975

"I am, or was, a meteorologist of some note - " so begins the tale of David Lawton, noteworthy meteorologist, who went to rural Manitoba for a vacation/convalescence, and ended up getting hisself in biiiig trouble.

David has put up at the home of Judge Andrews (I guess his first name is Judge?).  Andrews is a reclusive scholar with an extensive library (uh oh!).  There, Lawton comes across the works of Samuel Bridgman, an anthropologist with some nutty theories about certain air/sky deity worship among indigenous peoples, especially those of the Canadian area ... especially those concerning a deity called ... ITHAQUA!

On top of having weird theories about these entities, Bridgman apparently died, right in the Manitoba area, about 20 years back, under mysterious circumstances.

But that's not all.  Andrews is getting visits from a strangely-aged woman, who, it turns out, is Lucille Bridgman, Samuel Bridgman's widow.

It turns out - the area near the Judge's home is a site of cultish activity, related to Ithaqua, of course, every five years.  During one such event, Bridgman and Lucille became stranded in the woods.  They made it back, but Sam lost his life in the process.

Lucille is here now looking for their son, Kirby, who was always a strange boy and who now, at 21, has run off - she believes to join the Ithaqua cult here in Manitoba.  Lucille and David investigate the nearby ghost town of Stillwater (named for the band in Almost Famous?), and then camp out in the woods (and the snow).  There, David learns some odd things about Lucille, such as she is impervious to cold.  And she talks in the worst kind of pulp-speak imaginable: "Do you recall the Wendy-Smith expedition of `33? What do you suppose he found, that poor man, in the fastness of Africa?  What prompted him to say these words, which I know by heart: `There are fabulous legends of star-born creatures who inhabited this Earth many millions of years before Man appeared and who were still here, in certain black places, when he eventually evolved."  Yeah, she talks like that.

So, after spending a few night survivor-ing in the snowy woods with Ms. Nutcase, David finds that, indeed, Kirby is in town, and with the cultists even now gathering for their annual Ithaqua-fest. And that's not all - you see ... Kirby is Ithaqua's love child!

Well, despite Lucille's best attempts, the ritual goes off, Ithaqua shows up, Kirby shows up, Ithaqua stomps Lucille, prompting Kirby to turn into mini-Ithaqua and slug it out with him.

Lawton and Kirby's bodies are later found, frozen...

Basically, this is "The Dunwich Horror", theme-wise, retold as being Ithaqua-focused.  Lumley seems to like Ith a lot - this story was the springboard for an entire trilogy with Ithy-baby lurching around like a comic villain - as he does here.  The whole last portion could have come from a Godzilla movie.  A later Godzilla movie...

Not a terrible story but nothing special.  That it was nominated for a World Fantasy Award baffles me...