The Two Confessions John Whitbourn (best books for students to read txt) 📖

Theylooked from one to another, not wishing to be the first to speak. The older'snerve broke first.

‘It'sjust... well, he don't feel... like, clean.’

‘He'sall sort of... cacky,’ said the other, ‘only you can't see it.’

Samueldismissed their nonsense with an impatient shake of the head.

‘Where-did-you-go-to?’he asked the man, as though addressing a child. There was no answer. He seemedabsorbed in a world of his own, more interesting than the one before him. Itwas also pretty clear what was going on in that world.

Bydint of much shifting about Trevan caught his gaze and held it.

‘Talkto me or I'll have your hands bound.’

Thatgot through. Fearful of losing the means to pleasure himself, he desisted andpaid attention. His captors were bathed with a rapturous look.

‘Sorry,’he said. ‘I don't know what came over me.’

‘Really?No idea at all?’ said Trevan.

‘Mymind's a... blank,’ the man answered - and seemed particularly pleased with thechoice of words.

‘Seeif it is,’ Samuel told the Wizard.

Themagician lurched forward and applied his outstretched fingers against the man'sbrow. Futile attempts were made to lick them.

‘Itseems normal enough,’ came the verdict, ‘I sense only dull stuff. Deeper inthere might be... aaaaaa!’

TheWizard hurtled back against the cabin wall. The wood protested. He held his armtight against him, as though the funny-bone was jarred. His face was twistedwith disbelief.

‘Yuks!’The magician's pink tongue protruded from a grimace. He looked like he'd tastedsomething unutterably vile.

‘Iwas in the dark,’ the prisoner told them, quite softly, speaking sensibly. ‘Iembraced the dark. I love the dark….’

************

Hegot out in the night, somehow clawing and chewing his way though all the bonds andthe thick planks of the cabin. There was blood and fingernails left where he'dworked away like a wild animal.

Thefirst they knew of it was his return at dawn, wrapped in coils of rope andchain, dragged behind a group of horsemen. The riders were cold-furious andarmed. Yet he was still smiling, though both mouth and fingers were merered ruins. Samuel was roused out of bed to meet them.

‘Wewant justice!’ said their leader - and they meant to have it as well. The aircrackled with imminent violence. Trevan's men closed ranks behind him

‘Whatfor?’ Samuel asked - though he could guess. The prisoner was naked and markedby passage through mud and briar. He seemed proud of it.

‘Formy niece’s buggering!’

‘Andmy serving-girl the same!’

Therewas a babel of similar complaint from about half the houses in Welcombe. Theescapee had had a busy night.

‘Andthis window-creeping monster's says he's one of yours,’ added their leader,dumping all in Trevan’s lap. Silence awaited Samuel’s acceptance of delivery.

Itmight have gone either way at that point. All sorts of taboos had been brokenand third-party dignities rubbed raw. They wanted satisfaction every bit asbadly as their prisoner obviously had. A lynching was one way of achieving it,as was shaking someone else into action. For a few seconds yet they had anarrow preference for the latter. Samuel saw the sense of that. Better thisshould go no further or get out of hand.

‘Andso he is,’ he said, openly, unresisting. ‘Or was. We sorrow with you - and weshall deal with him before your eyes, this very day.’

Trevanwas taking a great deal on himself. Even the caught-red-handed were meant to goto the assizes and through due process of law. And sodomy was no longer acapital crime, not for decades now, for all that they never got reprieved.Strictly speaking, the man should end up bridegroom to an oar.

Forthe moment though, it did the trick. Fingers relaxed from hilt and trigger.They released the captive into Trevan's care. To reassure them, he had the manbattered around a bit. He appeared to enjoy it.

Whisperedorders were given for the drinks store to be unlocked and a generous breakfastprepared. Within an hour the powder-keg was defused and an almost jovialatmosphere prevailed.

‘It'snot like she lost her maidenhead,’ confided one huge and florid farmer,speaking of his niece, cider-flask in one hand and cutlet in the other. ‘A sorebum's no grounds for breaking off her betrothal. She can still marry.’

Andthen to round off festivities - and to bind them into his illegality - Samuelhad them stand witness as the rapist was kicked headfirst (and radiantlycheerful) down the mineshaft. Though geared up to applying the final boot overthe edge himself, in the end he delegated the task to the nearest soldier. Sofar in his quest Trevan hadn't killed; though doubtless that would come. He wasready and willing - but this just seemed a poor place to start.

'Helen of Troy,' he thought, 'and Melissa of Lewes. The things love makes us do….'

Theyheard the man impact against the sides two or three times, prior to a longdelayed splash. Justice was appeased. They had sent him back to his Maker - andhis makers.

************

Thepigeon flew from the camp like an arrow, free at last from imprisonment andthen Samuel's ungentle hands.

Animalseconds can be endless, unsullied by spoilsport past or future. It enjoyed thefaithful power of huge breast muscles, the warm bath of the sun and the glitterof the distant Bristol Channel. Those pleasures were experienced for anequivalence of eternity. Likewise, alas, the subsequent insertion of talons andthe stab-pause-stab of the hawk's beak. Pain and terror also went on likeforever, and then so did death.

Thebird of prey knew fear in one limited respect only: via the displeasure of itsrearer. Therefore it did not directly rend and feed, but took the coolingdead-food back to base. 'Base' was one particular black gauntlet; protectionfor the feeble flesh of ‘rearer’. Rearer gave pain and praise and permission toobey instinct. Rearer was both the beginning and end of life; each was in hispower.

Thepigeon's leg - and the message attached to it - were torn off and then hawk hadthe rest. She had done well and every strip of meat peeled away tasted thebetter for it.

Ittook some while but Samuel's code was eventually broken. Interested partiesnoted that 'the time was too soon' and 'the unknown too great'for him to proceed. They smiled.

Thenwhat hawk didn’t want was gathered and reassembled, re-united with leg andmessage, and magically raised to un-life. Fleshed out by other bird donors itwould last long