Elisha Barber: Book One Of The Dark Apostle by E.C. Ambrose Read Free Book Online Page A

rolled his neck from side to side, trying to shake the tension, and caught something out of the corner of his eye. On all fours, he crept to the table and saw beneath it the thing he had noticed: the neglected leather satchel, still seeping blood.

Chapter 5

    W ith cautious hands, Elisha drew the satchel from its hiding place, the weight of the dead child dragging it along the floor. He sat staring at the thing in front of him and thought again of the Bone of Luz, that mystical seed from which he might grow a new man. If he only knew how. The wild hope leapt within him that it might be possible, that some magic could bring it about, undo a little of the harm of this day and restore to Helena part of what she had lost, and with it, bring himself some measure of peace. Again, his heart raced. Yet how could he know if it were true? Who was there to ask without sending them both to the gallows, or worse?
    He had witnessed magic once, when he was yet a boy, the last time a witch had been brought to trial. This was before even the terrible drought which had forced his family into the city to find work. His parents came in from the country to watch the execution, packing lunch for all of them, plus a few leftover vegetables from the garden gone soft and rotten, ripe for the throwing. Nathaniel, judged too young over his protests to the contrary, had been left at a neighbor’s house to sulk.
    The three of them rode in their pony cart, the rangy new colt drawing them onward with the press of country folk all out in a common purpose. A tall pole had been erected outside the city wall in a patch of barren ground. The vivid purple of the royal pavilion, where the king and his two sons could recline in comfort for the festivities, brightened the gray of the city wall. Elisha had never been so close to the royal family, before or since. Nobility and townsfolk occupied the ground nearest to the site, leaving some distance forsafety, so that the country farmers took up the surrounding grass, paying a few pennies to stand atop wagon seats for a better view.
    Vendors wandered the makeshift rows, hawking all manner of sweets and ale from barrels slung upon their backs. Musicians roamed as well, offering songs for the ladies, while a handful of bards tossed off poems with quick wit.
    Elisha begged a penny from his father to buy a little pennant of cloth painted with a hawk. So equipped, he ran about the grass, watching it flutter in the breeze. Dashing down a long slope, he stopped short.
    Heedless of the direction he’d run, the boy found himself surrounded by fine carriages and ladies seated beneath stretched fabric to avoid the sun. He’d just begun to squint into the distance, searching for his parents, when the crowd around him fell silent, then let out a roar. Or so he thought until he turned around.
    Elisha stood in the second rank of witnesses, not ten yards from the stake. Around him stood the king’s archers, keeping a watchful eye for rioters, not caring for a wandering child. From their distant rise, Elisha’s family could make out little but the pillar and its mound of wood. Close-to, he saw the woman bound there, clad in white, the pale ropes wound all about her.
    Her hands writhed against the bindings, and her lips moved faintly. They had shorn her hair, leaving only a rough fringe of red, revealing her terrified face.
    The roar came not from the people gathered round but from a crimson flame licking the piled wood at the woman’s feet.
    Elisha’s mouth hung open, and he shut it with a snap, his mother’s scold sounding inside his head.
    As the flames drew ever nearer to the woman’s bare feet, the movement of her lips became fierce, until she let out a shriek that deafened him for an instant. Then the crowd roared indeed, chanting for her death. Smoke swirled around him, choking him and stinging his eyes. He rubbed them, reluctant to miss any of the spectacle. And it was then that the miracle happened.
    Even as he