Stone of Tears

Sister Verna’s face was by now bright red. “Richard! What do you think… !”

Richard shoved her back. “Be quiet.”

Bow and arrows in hand, he leapt up onto his saddle. The mumbling fell silent.

Richard directed himself to the Queen Mother. “I have spoken with the spirits!”

The back of the Queen Mother’s hand started sliding up the pole, toward the bell’s rope. That was all the sign he needed. She had been offered a chance. The irrevocable commitment had been made.

He loosed the magic within himself.

In one swift motion, Richard nocked an arrow. He drew string to cheek. He called the target. The arrow was away.

The air hissed with the sound of the arrow’s flight. The crowd gasped. Before the arrow reached the target, while the air still sizzled with its sound, Richard had the second arrow nocked and on target.

With a twanging thunk, the first arrow made a solid hit, dead-on where he intended it. The Queen Mother let out a clipped cry of surprise and pain. Penetrating the space between the two bones in her wrist, the arrow pinned her arm to the pole, preventing her hand from reaching the bell’s rope. Her other hand started over toward the rope.

The second arrow sat rock solid in the invisible notch in the air, on target, waiting. “Move toward the bell, and the next arrow goes through your right eye!”

The gaggle of women in black fell to their knees, wailing. The Queen Mother became still. Blood trickled down her arm.

Inside, storms of anger thundered through him. Outside, he was stone. “You will hear what the spirits have commanded!”

Slowly, the Queen Mother let her free hand drop to her side. “speak their words, then.”

Richard still held the bowstring to his cheek, and had no intention of letting it relax. Though the arrow was aimed at one, his ire was directed at all.

Magic burned through him at full fury. The force of rage pounded through his veins. In the past, it had always been focused on an enemy, someone specific. This was different. It was open-ended rage, rage at all those present, at everyone involved in human sacrifice. This was nonspecific wrath.

That made it worse. It drew more magic.

Richard didn’t know if it was the all-encompassing threat that drew more magic, or if it was because of all the practicing he had done with Sister Verna, enabling him to focus, but whatever the reason, he was calling forth more magic from the sword than he ever had before, more than he had known was there. The magic seethed with frightening power. The very air vibrated with it.

The men about stepped back. The wailing women fell into a hush. The Queen Mother’s face was white against the black of her dress. A thousand people stood in silent terror of one.

“The spirits wish no more sacrifices! It does not prove your devotion to them, only that you can kill! From now on, you must show your respect of the spirits by showing respect for the lives of the Baka Ban Mana. If you do not, the spirits will vent their wrath by destroying you! Take their threat to heart, or they will bring starvation and death to the Majendie!”

He spoke to the men as they pressed forward. “If any of you makes a move against me or these two women, the Queen Mother dies.” They all glanced to one another, seeking courage. “You may think to kill me,” he told them, the target not wavering in the slightest, “but you cannot before the Queen Mother dies. You saw the shot I made. My hand is guided by magic. I do not miss.”

The men backed away.

“Let him be!” the Queen Mother called out. “Hear what he has to say!”

“I have told you what the spirits have said! You will obey!”

She was silent a moment. “We will consult the spirits ourselves.”

“You would insult them? You would be admitting you do not heed their words, but your own worldly wishes!”

“But we must…”

“I’m not here to bargain on their behalf! The spirits have ordered I give the sacrificial knife to this woman, so she may carry it back to her people, to show them that the Majendie will no longer hunt them.

“The spirits will warn you of their anger by taking the seed you plant, and only when you send representatives to the Baka Ban Mana and tell them you agree to the wishes of the spirits will you be able to plant your crops. If you do not follow the spirits” wishes, you will all starve to death!

“We are leaving now. I will have your word that we will be granted safe leave of your land, or you will die right now.”

“We must consider…”

“I grant you until the count of three to give me your decision! One, two, three!” The Queen Mother gasped. The women in black gasped. The crowd gasped. “What have you decided!”

The Queen Mother held her free hand up, imploring he hold his arrow. “You may go! You have the word of the Queen Mother that you may leave our land unharmed!”

“A wise decision.”

Her hand closed into a fist, one finger pointing toward them. “But this is a violation of our agreement with the wise-women. The accord is at an end. You must leave our land at once. You are banished.”