The Nostradamus Prophecies by Mario Reading Read Free Book Online Page A

Bulibasha held up a hand for silence, but everybody continued talking. It seemed that the debate about Sabit was already well under way.
    Impatiently, the Bulibasha indicated that the man who had stretched Sabir’s testicles for the knife should come forward.
    ‘That is my cousin. He is going to speak against you.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘He likes you. It is not personal. But he must do this for the family.’
    ‘I suppose they’re going to joint me like a pig if this thing goes against me?’ Sabir tried to sound as though he was joking, but his voice cracked halfway through and gave him away.
    ‘They will kill you, yes.’
    ‘And the upside?’
    ‘What is that?’
    ‘What happens if things go my way?’ Sabir was sweating badly now.
    ‘Then you will become my brother. You will be responsible for me. For my virginity. For my marriage. You will take my brother’s place in everything. ‘
    ‘I don’t understand.’
    Yola sighed impatiently. She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. ‘The only reason you are still alive today is that my brother made you his phral. His blood brother. He also told you to come back here amongst us and ask for a Kriss. You did this. We then had no choice but to honour his dying wish. For what a dying man asks for, he must get. And my brother knew that he would die when he did this thing to you.’
    ‘How can you possibly know that?’
    ‘He hated payos – Frenchmen – more even than he detested gadjes . He would never have asked one to be a brother to him except in the most extreme of circumstances.’
    ‘But I’m not a payo. Okay, my mother’s French, but my father’s American and I was born and brought up in the United States.’
    ‘But you speak perfect French. My brother would have judged you on that.’
    Sabir shook his head in bewilderment.
    Yola’s cousin was now addressing the assembly. But even with his fluent command of French, Sabir was having difficulty making out what was being said.
    ‘What language is that?’
    ‘Sinto.’
    ‘Great. Could you please tell me what he is saying?’
    ‘That you killed my brother. That you have come amongst us to steal something that belongs to our family. That you are an evil man and that God visited this recent illness on you to prove that you are not telling the truth about what happened to Babel. He also says that it is because of you that the police have come amongst us and that you are a disciple of the Devil.’
    ‘And you say he likes me?’
    Yola nodded. ‘Alexi thinks you are telling the truth. He looked into your eyes when you thought that you were about to die and he saw your soul. It seemed white to him, not black.’
    ‘Then why is he saying all this stuff about me?’
    ‘You should be pleased. He is exaggerating terribly. Many of us here feel that you did not kill my brother. They will hope that the Bulibasha gets angry with what is being said and pronounces you innocent.’
    ‘And do you think I killed your brother?’
    ‘I will only know this when the Bulibasha gives his verdict.’

23
    Sabir tried to look away from what was happening in front of him, but couldn’t. Yola’s cousin Alexi was giving a masterclass in applied histrionics. If this was someone secretly on his side, then Sabir decided that he would rather sup with the Devil and have done with it.
    Alexi was on his knees in front of the assembled judges, weeping and tearing at his hair. His face and body were covered with dirt and his shirt was torn open, revealing three gold necklaces and a crucifix.
    Sabir glanced at the Bulibasha’s face for any signs that he was becoming impatient with Alexi’s dramatics, but, to all intents and purposes, he seemed to be drinking the stuff in. One of the younger children, whom Sabir assumed must be one of the Bulibasha’s daughters, had even crept on to his capacious lap and was bouncing up and down in her excitement.
    ‘Do I get to say my piece?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Someone else will talk