Son of Secrets

by N. J. Simmonds

  Elien closed her eyes, her bottom lip bleeding from biting down on it so hard. Luci sighed, biding her time. Her stomach churned at the sight of the faces surrounding them, faces distorted in revulsion and sheer delight at the barbaric fate that awaited the pretty blonde girl. The men continued to rip her dress further, her breasts tightening as the cold air hit her bare skin. Bit by bit she was undressed, the heavy layers of fabric dropping to the ground, until she was completely naked except for the sleeves of her arms that now lay gathered around her bound wrists behind her back. She kept her eyes shut, shivering in fear and from the cold as the men poked a stick at her legs and back. They lifted her hair and looked at her neck, shoulders, and under her arms. They ran the stick down her back, making her tremble further.

  ‘Look at her, she likes that. The Devil is certainly inside of her.’

  ‘What are these lines across her stomach?’ one of the hunters said.

  Anke had walked away and her boss, Mr Visser, was looking at her naked, trembling body in disgust.

  ‘They look like the Devil’s claw marks,’ he said with a sneer.

  Marisse pulled against the restraints on her arms. ‘This is ridiculous. She told you that she has carried and lost babies. All women get these marks on their bodies with pregnancy; it is the skin stretching. They mean nothing!’

  ‘And this?’ the hunter cried, jabbing the stick at Elien’s knee. ‘Look at the red welt upon her thigh, a crescent moon. The Devil has branded her! Her body serves as nothing but his plaything!’

  ‘She is just a child,’ Marisse shouted.

  The man with the stick jabbed the old woman in the chest and pushed his face close to hers.

  ‘She is a witch, and she will burn for her sins against God. The more of these tainted women we destroy, the less death and pestilence we will suffer in Roermond.’

  The crowd cheered.

  ‘What about the others?’ a woman from the crowd shouted. She thrust her Bible into the hands of the man speaking. ‘Make her read this. Witches can’t read holy scriptures.’

  He nodded and opened the book before Marisse.

  ‘Read it.’

  A look of panic passed across her face.

  ‘My Dutch isn’t very good. I was educated in Germany.’

  ‘Lies!’ the crowd shouted. ‘Read the words of the Lord.’

  Marisse took a deep breath and blinked back her tears. She squinted at the tiny words on the page before her.

  ‘Onze Vader,’ she whispered, her voice wavering on every word, ‘die in de hemelen zijt, ge… gehei…geheili…’

  ‘She can’t say the word holy,’ the crowd jeered. ‘Satan has her tongue. She can’t do it!’

  The book was taken away and returned to the woman, who hugged it to her chest again. All eyes were on Luci now, who hadn’t said a word throughout the proceedings. Looking up at the three men she smiled.

  ‘So, gentlemen. I presume it’s my turn now?’

  They were frowning at her, clearly confused as to why she was smiling and why she was so calm. She shrugged and turned to Elien. Nodding at the crumpled dress that laid at Elien’s feet, Luci lifted her head and the dress rose slowly and draped itself over the girl’s naked body. The crowd screamed, and a few of the women ran back into their houses, slamming their windows and doors closed. Luci laughed.

  ‘Want to see more?’

  A tabby cat appeared in the clearing before them. Marisse shooed it away, lightly tapping it with her foot, but the cat sat firmly beside Luci.

  ‘The familiars!’ a man cried.

  Luci twitched her fingers behind her back and the cat was joined by a black cat and a scrawny tortoiseshell cat. Each one sat at the feet of one of the accused women. As the witch hunters stepped closer the cats hissed at them, backs arched and claws out, swiping out at the men in tall, black hats.

  ‘Why are you doing this, Luci?’ Marisse cried. ‘You are innocent, too. You will make us all burn!’

  ‘No, I won’t,’ she said, smiling. ‘If they want witches, I’ll give them witches. But you will go free. I always keep my promises.’

  The men stared at one another in alarm. They didn’t need any more evidence.

  ‘Burn the cats, too!’ a woman screamed. ‘The Devil resides within the familiars. Burn the beasts before they eat our young!’

  The men reached for the cats, who hissed and scratched them.

  ‘Go,’ Luci said, and the cats darted through the feet of the onlookers and disappeared into the crowd. ‘You have your three witches now,’ she said. ‘Take us away, if you must.’

  Elien looked at Marisse; both their eyes were wide with fear. They were silently questioning why Luci was leading them to the gallows or, worse, the burning pyres atop Galgeberg Hill.

  The men in black pushed the women through the crowd of onlookers, holding tightly to the ropes around their wrists. Marisse and Elien kept their heads bent low and avoided the stares of their neighbours. The townspeople gathered behind the accused, their faces distorted in grim, gargoyle-like masks of anger and illuminated in dramatic relief by the lit torches they held. A bucket of fish guts and bones was thrown out of a window, the contents landing on Elien and causing her ripped dress to once again drop off her shoulders onto the muddy cobbles. Luci imagined that these people were known to her friend, decent folk who had once lent Marisse a cup of milk or an egg, and yet here they now stood on their doorsteps, shouting abuse at the witches being marched out of town.

  Luci looked each and every one of them in the eye, smiling at the fear her stares instilled in them. She didn’t want anyone to sleep easy tonight.

  V.

  ‘Get in there!’ a young guard growled, pulling open a heavy iron door leading into a damp stone room.

  Luci stumbled as Marisse was pushed into her, and Marisse fell headfirst into Elien’s naked chest. It took a while for the old woman to get back on her feet. The man laughed at the other two women’s feeble attempts to help Marisse while they still had their hands tied behind their back. Marisse wouldn’t look at Luci; it was clear she thought the fallen angel had lied to her. But Luci’s plan was working. The old woman would be free soon.

  ‘You can’t lock us up in here!’ Elien cried. ‘This is nothing more than a dungeon. We need water and blankets. We demand a fair trial!’

  The man laughed again and stepped toward her. He twirled her golden hair around his finger and brought it up to his nose, inhaling deeply with his eyes closed.

  ‘You’re a pretty little thing. Shame you’re nothing but a murdering Devil lover. You can’t work your magic on me.’

  ‘I’m no witch! This is unfair and barbaric. Marisse is old and Luci…she’s innocent, too. I won’t stay here and…’

  Elien yelped as the guard slapped her face hard with the back of his hand. She fell back and hit her head on the stone wall, causing a thin trickle of blood to work its way down her forehead.

  ‘Don’t answer me back, murderer! You won’t be here for long anyway—you’ll be dead by the morning. See that?’ He pointed at a small window above their heads. The hole in the wall had no glass, just two wrought iron bars running through the middle. ‘That, through there, is Galgeberg Hill. They are building the pyres as we speak. This week alone, we’ve caught over sixty witches, and you’ll all burn for the crimes you’ve committed against the Lord. The gallows are too good for you.’

  Elien’s face was now a mess of blood and tears that dripped down onto her shivering, naked body. Marisse pressed herself against the girl’s side so she could wipe the blood on her shoulder. Grateful for her kindness, Elien leant into the woman’s warmth.

  Luci clenched her jaw as she looked at the pitiful sight of the two women. At the click of her fingers, she could snap the guard’s head clean off, and by God she wanted to, but she had to bide her time.

  The guard went to leave, but Luci stepped in front of him.

  ‘You want me to beat you, too?’ he said.

  She stared into his eyes
and spoke quietly.

  ‘You will leave now, but before sunrise I want you to return with the following items: a horse, two blankets, clothes for Elien, water, and food. You will not tell a soul, and you will ensure you are not followed. Is that understood?’

  The man nodded, repeated the list, and left the room. As soon as his footsteps receded into the distance, Luci yawned and then nodded at the wrists of the two women before her. Like two stiff snakes, the thick ropes began to unwind and slide to the ground.

  ‘Untie me,’ she said to Elien, who ran behind her and picked at the rope with swollen, numb fingers.

  As soon as she was free, Marisse removed her apron and wrapped it around Elien, who immediately collapsed to the damp ground and rubbed her wrists.

  ‘Why didn’t you save us!’ the old woman cried at Luci. ‘Why did you let those animals capture us? You could have freed our hands at least!’

  Luci smiled sadly and walked over to the two women, crouching beside them. She laid her hands on Elien’s wrists, and immediately the red, blistered skin returned to normal.

  ‘Firstly, I can only control that which I can see or point my hands at. I don’t know why. I could have made someone untie me, but I couldn’t have made the ropes move without looking at them. Anyway, there would have been no point at that stage. I had to play the game and let them think they were winning.’

  ‘Why?’ Elien whimpered, her teeth chattering.

  Luci sat on the other side of her and draped her long skirt over her legs. Marisse did the same, the two women attempting to keep the young girl warm between them.

  ‘Why? Because I have to see my boy, and you’re going to help me. Every time you’re close to death, he’s there. He can’t help himself. I’ve seen it before.’ She cupped Elien’s face in her hands and stroked away the red swelling the guard’s slap had caused.

  ‘Which boy? I’ve never been close to death before!’

  ‘You don’t know how special you are, Elien. You have lived many times before, and my son has loved you every time. I’ve been looking for him for centuries, and this time I won’t fail. This time, Zadkiel will see me, too.’

  Elien stared at her, silently mouthing Zadkiel’s name over and over again.

  ‘But won’t we be escaping on the horse you just told the guard to bring us?’ Marisse asked.

  ‘You will, but just you. That horrid man will bring you the horse and us blankets and food, and he will accompany you home to collect your money and belongings. The Book of Light is still hidden beneath the flagstones in the basement; I doubt they will find it. Leave it there, and I will collect it at a later date.’

  ‘But how will I escape Roermond?’ Marisse said. ‘I’m wanted for witchcraft!’

  ‘With the guard. No one will question him. I will ensure he slits his own throat once you are safe. That will be my parting gift to you, my friend…his painful demise. I didn’t like him.’

  ‘What about me?’ Elien said. ‘Will I escape with Marisse?’

  Luci took hold of Elien’s chin and brought her face closer to hers. The girl was too sweet and pure for this dark world. Arabella had been the same. Why do the worst of men seek the best in women?

  Elien had a path she had to follow, a date with destiny and death. Luci wasn’t happy about doing what she had to do—but it was her only chance of finding Zadkiel.

  ‘No. You won’t leave with Marisse,’ she answered.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because, my lovely little honey trap, you are going to burn beside me.’

  VI.

  Luci stepped out of the dark cell and into the biting wind. She pushed her hair out of her face and stared at the crowd gathered on the hill. There were women and children jostling for space among angry men and priests, all attempting to get as close to the pyres as possible. Dozens of women were already tied to ladders and poles, dry sticks piled high around their ankles. Even though the tinder hadn’t yet been lit, the pleas of the women were harrowing.

  Elien had tied Luci’s hands behind her back, and Luci had used her powers to do the same to her before the guards had returned to collect them. She looked back at the girl emerging from the dank room, her eyes wide as she noticed the hundreds of people that had gathered to watch her die. She turned full circle. A sob escaped her lips as her eyes settled on the side of the hill where the gallows stood, the carcasses of two decomposed men still swaying in the wind, purple tongues hanging out of their rotting mouths. Crows sat on their heads, pecking at their shrunken eyeballs and ripping at the decaying flesh like it was nothing more than yesterday’s stale bread.

  Marisse had successfully got away, and Luci had then explained to Elien the next stage of the plan. She was clearly confused and still feared Luci, but what choice did the girl have? Her fate was in the hands of a fallen angel.

  When the guards had come for them that morning, Elien was no longer naked. The two of them had eaten and were warm beneath their blankets. Luci had ensured that the guard didn’t question a thing—including where the third prisoner had gone.

  The roar of the townspeople was deafening, growing louder as Elien came into their view. Cries of ‘baby murderer’ and ‘Devil fornicators’ hit her square in the face, and she flinched as if each word were a jagged rock.

  ‘Where’s the old hag?’ one woman shouted as Luci and Elien were led to the three remaining stakes.

  Luci stopped and turned to the crowd. A deathly hush descended as they waited for her to speak.

  ‘Don’t look her in the eye!’ one man shouted out. ‘That’s how they do their magic. That’s how the Devil works through them.’

  Luci laughed, and they fell silent again. ‘Marisse transformed herself into a crow and escaped out of the prison window.’

  A ripple of excitement travelled through the crowd as they gazed up at the grey sky and the black specks circling them. A couple of people left the front of the crowd and sought shelter beneath a nearby tree. Luci laughed again. The guard pulled her away and pushed her in the direction of the unlit bonfires, where the other accused were tied and proclaiming their innocence.

  ‘These are the last of them!’ the guard shouted, pushing Luci again toward a post surrounded by bundles of kindling and branches. Two large men stood beside the pyres, their faces criss-crossed with scars. One man was missing an ear, and both were missing teeth.

  Luci let them tie her up to the post and surround her with piles of branches and splintered wood. It didn’t matter; she wouldn’t be there long. Her son would be in the crowd soon, waiting to take Elien Home. As he always did. Except this time, Luci would be there, too, and he wouldn’t be able to miss her. This time she would be burning beside his one true love, and he would see her. She planned to break free, rescue Elien, and give her boy what he’d always wanted—his two women back.

  The guard with the missing ear leered at Luci, his remaining teeth rotten and brown.

  ‘I’ve heard all about this one,’ he said to the other man beside him as they tied her ankles to the post. ‘Powerful little necromancer.’

  She had hidden her necklace down her top, knowing full well that men like these would happily steal off a woman in her final hour. She still wore the rings, but they were concealed within her bunched-up fists. The men wrapped a rope around her neck and tied it tightly to the post. Luci didn’t care; she was too busy scanning the crowd for Zadkiel. Where was he? She glanced at the empty pyre to her left. Elien wasn’t there, either.

  ‘Where are they taking the girl?’ she shouted at the men beside her.

  ‘Gallows. Her husband suddenly turned kind-hearted and decided to spare her the burn. He begged for quick and painless. Too good for a baby murderer, I say.’

  No! This wouldn’t work! The gallows were on the other side of the hill. Zadkiel would have his back to Luci if he was watching Elien die. He wouldn’t know his mother was there.

  ‘Don’t take her!’ Luci cried out as Elien was led away in the opposite direction.

 
; The girl twisted around and stared at her, her eyes wide circles of fear.

  ‘Shut your mouth, Satan-fucker. I’ve got special orders from on high for you, too,’ the guard whispered in Luci’s ear, his breath like a week-old bucket of rotting vegetables. ‘They say you Devil women have dangerous eyes, so we won’t be staring into them as you burn!’

  He pulled a rough sack over Luci’s head and tied it with string. She struggled to break free, but her cries were muffled beneath the hood. Shit! In sixteen hundred years, this had never happened. Without the use of her eyes or hands, she couldn’t control anything. She wouldn’t die, of course. If she were to burn, she would still rise again from the ashes—she had done it before—but she’d never been unable to free herself like right now.

  The cries of the crowd were reaching a deafening pitch. The burning had begun. Luci could hear every branch around her catch alight, crackling and popping. Beside her, women whimpered and screamed. The air sang with despair. She coughed as a thick smoke began to fill the bag over her head. She couldn’t breathe, and she couldn’t see her boy.

  Was Zadkiel out there? Was Elien still alive?

  She felt the heat before she heard the kindling at her feet catch alight. Her pyre had been lit. She couldn’t afford to wait for the fire to burn through her ropes until she was freed.

  Death or no death, the pain was still going to happen. Despite her ability to heal, she preferred not to burn in the first place.

  She ran her thumb over the rings on her fingers—the rings that she hoped would one day bring forth the demise of Mikhael—and smiled as she thought of her friend Marisse. Had Marisse got away? Was the book still safely hidden?

  She’d never forget the look on the faces of the crowd after she’d told them Marisse had turned into a crow. Fear allowed the stupid to believe anything they were told. It was always easier to blame the unknown, the powerful, and the things they didn’t understand than to search inside themselves and take responsibility for the wrong in their lives.