Heretic
Jeremiah crossed through town and saw the jailers hammering nails into the final preparations for the scaffold they were building. Erected upon it was a strong mast timber. White pine, Jeremiah knew his masts. Only this timber stake was to be used to tie up an innocent woman for burning at the stake. A crowd of men, women and children had gathered to watch with anticipation.
Harmony jail was an ugly, dirty place. Unclean and muddy with spring rains and horse manuer. His nose picked up the acrid stench of unwashed bodies. Rats scurried through the dark corridors. "Take me to Tabitha Lennox." He demanded of the jailer.
"That is not possible. The prisoner is not allowed any visitors. Strict orders from Alistar Crane." The mild mannered man said.
Jeremiah reached into his pocket and produced a few pound notes which he jammed into the jailer's fist. "I said, take me to Tabitha Lennox! You got that?" He fished around for the last of his meagre pittance of pay that Alistar allowed him for bare sustenance. He slapped the coins into the jailor's greasy palm.
The jailer pocketed the money, then he looked around before leading the sea captain down the corridor. The heavy bolt on the cell clanked and the door swung open.
"Ten minutes...and don't try anything funny."
Jeremiah saw the shadow of a small figure huddled in the corner of the cell on a heap of straw. She said nothing to him as he approached, apparently asleep or in a daze, or having gotten used to the comings and goings of her jailers. "Tabitha?" He walked across the damp straw in her cell. It was a sickening shock to his sensibilities to see her like this! He had seen slaves treated thusly, chained in mass on board Alistar Crane's other business interest, the importation of slave ships from West Africa. He'd met some of the slave ships newly arrived from the Middle Passage. It was the most inhumane, ghastly sight he had ever seen. He knew that the slavers overcrowded men, women and children together in the hull, chained to one another in filth and stench. Half of them died on the passage before they ever made it to land.
He could see that Tabitha's beautiful hair had been shorn to the roots and she wore the rough hewn sack of the accussed heretic. Her hair would grow back, he told himself. There were blood stains on her dress, bruises on her pale face and the flesh on her ankles was raw and oozing cut from the bite of the iron cuffs. Jeremiah knelt down beside her, taking her hand in his. "We don't have much time...."
She said nothing in reply.
From another dark corner of the cell, Hecuba folded her arms across her chest observing the two. She kept herself invisible to them and sighed. If Tabitha were ever to come over to the dark side, these next few hours would be right moment for her to Invoke the Master and gain her full powers. This dashing sea captain could do nothing but persuade Tabitha to die a mortal death. He could do nothing to save her.
"I'm going to get you out of here---can you stand up?" Jeremiah took her by the arms and tried to lift her up. She was so light in weight now, hardly the vision of a heatlhy new mother he expected to find. Her legs were still manacled, so he placed her down again.
"She can't walk." The jailer said from the other side of the cell door. "I think they broke her ankles---trying to get her to confess her crimes."
Jeremiah swore.
"They held their own trial, going by the expert's book on witches written in Popish days. The Magistrates and the Minister didn't know what else to do." The jailer said. "They said, let the accused be stripped and shaved; to search her person for instruments of witchcraft sewn into her clothes, charms that they make out of the limbs of un-baptized children. They thought she might have hidden charms in private areas---"
Hecuba spat at the jailer. "Idiot! Thinks he's an expert on witches does he? I'll see to him later" But no one would hear her words today. Hecuba knew the Inquisition's rictus on witches and heresy. She was far older than Tabitha and had seen the Inquisition in its heyday in 15th century Germany.
"Let the judge take note whether she is able to shed tears, when being tortured, although she will be able to assume a tearful aspect and smear her face with spittle to make it appear that she is weeping. And the judge also should take care that she is never left alone without guards, for fear the devil will cause her to kill herself.
And that her hair should be shaved from every part of her body, the reason for this being that they might hide an object in the hair, or even the most secret parts of the body, which will not be named."
Barbaric times. Hecuba thought. And now these mortals are trying to bring it all back. Hecuba knew they would wait to burn her till she had delivered the next Imperial Wizard. Fools! "When the prisoner is a pregant woman, execution will be delayed until she has given birth." Hecuba felt very badly for Tabitha's suffering, as it reflected the ill-treatment of all fledglings. However, hecuba knew that it was going to take the worst treatment to bring her over to the dark side. Just as Hecuba had predicted, Alistar Crane was satisfied that Tabitha would be executed and die a mortal death. Hecuba had to use this horrible experience to drive Tabitha to save herself, by Invoking the Master.
"They stripped her naked---and examined her." The jailer said with a grin.
"Shut up, you swine!" Jeremiah shouted at the jailer. He turned his back to the cell door and enclosed Tabitha in his arms. She had lost most of her healthy figure in this dungeon at the hands of fools. He brought his lips up to her ear and whispered, just low enough so that the jailer wouldn't overhear. "My sweet angel---what have they done to you? I dreamed about coming back to you. I'm going to get you out of here. We'll leave this hated place and never come back. I promise. Tabitha, won't you speak to me?"
"Sorry, lover." Hecuba admired the sea captain's gallantry toward Tabitha, but she couldn't allow him to alter the inevitable events to come. Tabitha must be brought to the brink of utter despair, to burn at the stake. "Sorry handsome, but that will not happen." Hecuba said to no one's notice.
"Captain-" It was Tabitha's first spoken words. "I can not bear for you to see me like this---" Tabitha turned her face away in shame. "Leave me here and don't look back. You must go before they come after you too. They've taken my child, burned my house---I cannot bear to think of what might happen to you. For pity's sake, my fate is sealed. Leave me here. It is my wish. I have made myself ready. God knows that I am innocent. It is enough."
Hecuba stamped her foot. No! Tabitha! This was not working out the way Hecuba had planned. You shouldn't ally yourself with God! What has God done for you so far? Nothing but suffering and torment. Do not accept his miserable gift of mortal death! Fight it. You must feel the hatred, and Invoke the Master, accept your full Powers. Don't give up so bloody easily. Where is your sense of vengeance? Hecuba chewed on her long fingernails, deep in thought. Tabitha was a hard nut to crack. She didn't think it would take so long for her to come over to the dark side. Hecuba had been convinced that once the Minister turned Tabitha away, and the men had come to take her baby---ugh-how much can fledgling witches endure? Hecuba had had to turn away from that scene.
But perhaps, Hecuba thought, there was still a chance. This dashingly handsome sea captain, who seems to care for Tabitha, might give her some false sense of hope! Yes! Through his obvious affections----and Tabitha is warming to him---Hecuba might have one last card to play.
Hecuba knew there was no way that this one sea captain could halt the execution. But if Tabitha thought he could....Hmmm...and if it turned out that Tabitha were to hear in her last moments that instead the sea captain had betrayed her, and mocked her with the other men....Yes! That's it! That's the answer. Damn, Hecuba, your good.
"Hush-hush now. Everything will be all right, my dearest love." Jeremiah murmured, kissing her bruised cheek, and patting her back like one would comfort a sick child. He could not tell her all that was in his heart, the pleasantries that lovers tell one another. There was no time. That would have to wait for later. From the moment he met Tabitha on the rocks, watching the night sky, he saw something in her that he knew was right and good. He didn't want her out of pity, as Tabitha had justifiably said. Time and Distance had proven to him that it was out of love. He now knew in his heart, that this was the woman for him. He planned to proudly show her off to his crew as his wife, take her to all the foreign seaports like New Orleans and Portugal, to dress her in the finest clothes. He had even planned on raising her child as her own, make a strong brave sailor out of him. And then, night after night in his cabin, his loins burned with longing to make love to her, and for her to make love to him back. He had blushed with his secret thoughts. After all, they had never yet kissed.
"Times up. You'll have to leave, captain." The jailer said.
"You endanger yourself-Jeremiah. Do not torment me with false hopes." Tabitha wept softly.
Jeremiah kissed her softly on her parched lips. "It's not false hope---it's true. Hang on to that. I'll come back to get you. I promise." He hated leaving her there, God, how he hated this treachery.
"Captain-times up." The jailer pointed his pistol at Jeremiah.
"You bloody bastard---" Jeremiah shoved him aside, "If you or anyone ever touches her again, I'll kill you as soon as look at you-take that as a warning, you miserable dog."
Yes, Tabitha. Hecuba mused. Keep the hope alive. She allowed herself to appear to the young prisoner now. "Oh what a brave young man you have there, Tabitha."
"Go away." Tabitha said.
"I'm sure a man of such courageous daring will be able to get you out of here. It's so romantic and sweet. You must be deeply in love with him."
Tabitha didn't trust Hecuba.
"He wants to marry you. And of course you must, once he gets you out of this stink-hole."
Tabitha sighed. "Why can't you get me out of here?"
"Oh-that would be interfering. I have been instructed by the Grand Warlock Crane and the Confederacy of Warlocks not to interfere in this matter. I'm just here as a friend. Besides, it's all up to you, if you would only Invoke the Master." Hecuba smiled. "You must take heart and have faith that your lover will have you out soon, if you don't chose to gain your powers."
"He's not my lover." Tabitha said wistfully.
"No-well, not yet. He surely wishes to be. I couldn't help but read his thoughts,....he's so sweet! I'm swooning with envy. Quite a package of a man...brave, strong, good looking, a fierce fighter and he's passionately in love with you. He wants you, trust me. He wants to raise your boy too---maybe he'll help you get him back. That's a noble fellow. You don't find that type of chivalry in a man these days. Oh, Tabitha if you could have seen the images in his mind---making love to you---it would make you faint. But then, you have no powers, so you cannot see. My dear fledgling sister, take heart. For soon you shall be in the arms of your handsome sea captain."
Tabitha considered Hecuba's honey covered words. Was Hecuba honestly trying to be kind to her? Well, she appreciated it, but did not care for any false hopes. She was ready to die on the morrow. She had withstood the temptation to Invoke the Master and gain her full powers. She had readied herself to die. But what has God done to show her that he understood her suffering? How could God allow this to happen? Oh--Why prolong it with hopeless dreams? She had wanted Jeremiah too, half in love with him already. Should she believe him? Or was he just toying with her, like Alistar Crane? He now worked for Crane. That would be the blackest stroke of all...Could he really save her from this death? Would he risk his life to save her? Who would? It was too good to be true, and yet---she wanted to believe.
Jeremiah crossed through town and saw the jailers hammering nails into the final preparations for the scaffold they were building. Erected upon it was a strong mast timber. White pine, Jeremiah knew his masts. Only this timber stake was to be used to tie up an innocent woman for burning at the stake. A crowd of men, women and children had gathered to watch with anticipation.
Harmony jail was an ugly, dirty place. Unclean and muddy with spring rains and horse manuer. His nose picked up the acrid stench of unwashed bodies. Rats scurried through the dark corridors. "Take me to Tabitha Lennox." He demanded of the jailer.
"That is not possible. The prisoner is not allowed any visitors. Strict orders from Alistar Crane." The mild mannered man said.
Jeremiah reached into his pocket and produced a few pound notes which he jammed into the jailer's fist. "I said, take me to Tabitha Lennox! You got that?" He fished around for the last of his meagre pittance of pay that Alistar allowed him for bare sustenance. He slapped the coins into the jailor's greasy palm.
The jailer pocketed the money, then he looked around before leading the sea captain down the corridor. The heavy bolt on the cell clanked and the door swung open.
"Ten minutes...and don't try anything funny."
Jeremiah saw the shadow of a small figure huddled in the corner of the cell on a heap of straw. She said nothing to him as he approached, apparently asleep or in a daze, or having gotten used to the comings and goings of her jailers. "Tabitha?" He walked across the damp straw in her cell. It was a sickening shock to his sensibilities to see her like this! He had seen slaves treated thusly, chained in mass on board Alistar Crane's other business interest, the importation of slave ships from West Africa. He'd met some of the slave ships newly arrived from the Middle Passage. It was the most inhumane, ghastly sight he had ever seen. He knew that the slavers overcrowded men, women and children together in the hull, chained to one another in filth and stench. Half of them died on the passage before they ever made it to land.
He could see that Tabitha's beautiful hair had been shorn to the roots and she wore the rough hewn sack of the accussed heretic. Her hair would grow back, he told himself. There were blood stains on her dress, bruises on her pale face and the flesh on her ankles was raw and oozing cut from the bite of the iron cuffs. Jeremiah knelt down beside her, taking her hand in his. "We don't have much time...."
She said nothing in reply.
From another dark corner of the cell, Hecuba folded her arms across her chest observing the two. She kept herself invisible to them and sighed. If Tabitha were ever to come over to the dark side, these next few hours would be right moment for her to Invoke the Master and gain her full powers. This dashing sea captain could do nothing but persuade Tabitha to die a mortal death. He could do nothing to save her.
"I'm going to get you out of here---can you stand up?" Jeremiah took her by the arms and tried to lift her up. She was so light in weight now, hardly the vision of a heatlhy new mother he expected to find. Her legs were still manacled, so he placed her down again.
"She can't walk." The jailer said from the other side of the cell door. "I think they broke her ankles---trying to get her to confess her crimes."
Jeremiah swore.
"They held their own trial, going by the expert's book on witches written in Popish days. The Magistrates and the Minister didn't know what else to do." The jailer said. "They said, let the accused be stripped and shaved; to search her person for instruments of witchcraft sewn into her clothes, charms that they make out of the limbs of un-baptized children. They thought she might have hidden charms in private areas---"
Hecuba spat at the jailer. "Idiot! Thinks he's an expert on witches does he? I'll see to him later" But no one would hear her words today. Hecuba knew the Inquisition's rictus on witches and heresy. She was far older than Tabitha and had seen the Inquisition in its heyday in 15th century Germany.
"Let the judge take note whether she is able to shed tears, when being tortured, although she will be able to assume a tearful aspect and smear her face with spittle to make it appear that she is weeping. And the judge also should take care that she is never left alone without guards, for fear the devil will cause her to kill herself.
And that her hair should be shaved from every part of her body, the reason for this being that they might hide an object in the hair, or even the most secret parts of the body, which will not be named."
Barbaric times. Hecuba thought. And now these mortals are trying to bring it all back. Hecuba knew they would wait to burn her till she had delivered the next Imperial Wizard. Fools! "When the prisoner is a pregant woman, execution will be delayed until she has given birth." Hecuba felt very badly for Tabitha's suffering, as it reflected the ill-treatment of all fledglings. However, hecuba knew that it was going to take the worst treatment to bring her over to the dark side. Just as Hecuba had predicted, Alistar Crane was satisfied that Tabitha would be executed and die a mortal death. Hecuba had to use this horrible experience to drive Tabitha to save herself, by Invoking the Master.
"They stripped her naked---and examined her." The jailer said with a grin.
"Shut up, you swine!" Jeremiah shouted at the jailer. He turned his back to the cell door and enclosed Tabitha in his arms. She had lost most of her healthy figure in this dungeon at the hands of fools. He brought his lips up to her ear and whispered, just low enough so that the jailer wouldn't overhear. "My sweet angel---what have they done to you? I dreamed about coming back to you. I'm going to get you out of here. We'll leave this hated place and never come back. I promise. Tabitha, won't you speak to me?"
"Sorry, lover." Hecuba admired the sea captain's gallantry toward Tabitha, but she couldn't allow him to alter the inevitable events to come. Tabitha must be brought to the brink of utter despair, to burn at the stake. "Sorry handsome, but that will not happen." Hecuba said to no one's notice.
"Captain-" It was Tabitha's first spoken words. "I can not bear for you to see me like this---" Tabitha turned her face away in shame. "Leave me here and don't look back. You must go before they come after you too. They've taken my child, burned my house---I cannot bear to think of what might happen to you. For pity's sake, my fate is sealed. Leave me here. It is my wish. I have made myself ready. God knows that I am innocent. It is enough."
Hecuba stamped her foot. No! Tabitha! This was not working out the way Hecuba had planned. You shouldn't ally yourself with God! What has God done for you so far? Nothing but suffering and torment. Do not accept his miserable gift of mortal death! Fight it. You must feel the hatred, and Invoke the Master, accept your full Powers. Don't give up so bloody easily. Where is your sense of vengeance? Hecuba chewed on her long fingernails, deep in thought. Tabitha was a hard nut to crack. She didn't think it would take so long for her to come over to the dark side. Hecuba had been convinced that once the Minister turned Tabitha away, and the men had come to take her baby---ugh-how much can fledgling witches endure? Hecuba had had to turn away from that scene.
But perhaps, Hecuba thought, there was still a chance. This dashingly handsome sea captain, who seems to care for Tabitha, might give her some false sense of hope! Yes! Through his obvious affections----and Tabitha is warming to him---Hecuba might have one last card to play.
Hecuba knew there was no way that this one sea captain could halt the execution. But if Tabitha thought he could....Hmmm...and if it turned out that Tabitha were to hear in her last moments that instead the sea captain had betrayed her, and mocked her with the other men....Yes! That's it! That's the answer. Damn, Hecuba, your good.
"Hush-hush now. Everything will be all right, my dearest love." Jeremiah murmured, kissing her bruised cheek, and patting her back like one would comfort a sick child. He could not tell her all that was in his heart, the pleasantries that lovers tell one another. There was no time. That would have to wait for later. From the moment he met Tabitha on the rocks, watching the night sky, he saw something in her that he knew was right and good. He didn't want her out of pity, as Tabitha had justifiably said. Time and Distance had proven to him that it was out of love. He now knew in his heart, that this was the woman for him. He planned to proudly show her off to his crew as his wife, take her to all the foreign seaports like New Orleans and Portugal, to dress her in the finest clothes. He had even planned on raising her child as her own, make a strong brave sailor out of him. And then, night after night in his cabin, his loins burned with longing to make love to her, and for her to make love to him back. He had blushed with his secret thoughts. After all, they had never yet kissed.
"Times up. You'll have to leave, captain." The jailer said.
"You endanger yourself-Jeremiah. Do not torment me with false hopes." Tabitha wept softly.
Jeremiah kissed her softly on her parched lips. "It's not false hope---it's true. Hang on to that. I'll come back to get you. I promise." He hated leaving her there, God, how he hated this treachery.
"Captain-times up." The jailer pointed his pistol at Jeremiah.
"You bloody bastard---" Jeremiah shoved him aside, "If you or anyone ever touches her again, I'll kill you as soon as look at you-take that as a warning, you miserable dog."
Yes, Tabitha. Hecuba mused. Keep the hope alive. She allowed herself to appear to the young prisoner now. "Oh what a brave young man you have there, Tabitha."
"Go away." Tabitha said.
"I'm sure a man of such courageous daring will be able to get you out of here. It's so romantic and sweet. You must be deeply in love with him."
Tabitha didn't trust Hecuba.
"He wants to marry you. And of course you must, once he gets you out of this stink-hole."
Tabitha sighed. "Why can't you get me out of here?"
"Oh-that would be interfering. I have been instructed by the Grand Warlock Crane and the Confederacy of Warlocks not to interfere in this matter. I'm just here as a friend. Besides, it's all up to you, if you would only Invoke the Master." Hecuba smiled. "You must take heart and have faith that your lover will have you out soon, if you don't chose to gain your powers."
"He's not my lover." Tabitha said wistfully.
"No-well, not yet. He surely wishes to be. I couldn't help but read his thoughts,....he's so sweet! I'm swooning with envy. Quite a package of a man...brave, strong, good looking, a fierce fighter and he's passionately in love with you. He wants you, trust me. He wants to raise your boy too---maybe he'll help you get him back. That's a noble fellow. You don't find that type of chivalry in a man these days. Oh, Tabitha if you could have seen the images in his mind---making love to you---it would make you faint. But then, you have no powers, so you cannot see. My dear fledgling sister, take heart. For soon you shall be in the arms of your handsome sea captain."
Tabitha considered Hecuba's honey covered words. Was Hecuba honestly trying to be kind to her? Well, she appreciated it, but did not care for any false hopes. She was ready to die on the morrow. She had withstood the temptation to Invoke the Master and gain her full powers. She had readied herself to die. But what has God done to show her that he understood her suffering? How could God allow this to happen? Oh--Why prolong it with hopeless dreams? She had wanted Jeremiah too, half in love with him already. Should she believe him? Or was he just toying with her, like Alistar Crane? He now worked for Crane. That would be the blackest stroke of all...Could he really save her from this death? Would he risk his life to save her? Who would? It was too good to be true, and yet---she wanted to believe.