Gunpowder, Magic, and Lead

Chapter 1 The Certainty of Time

"Tobias Martin Cain, in accordance with this court and the verdict of the jury of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, I hereby sentence you to hang by the neck until dead." The rough, grey-haired judge slammed down a gavel to seal his sentencing. "Do you have any final words for the court?"

Tobias cleared his throat and smoothed back his perpetually greasy hair. He cast his steely blue eyes downward. "Just this." He raised his head and looked directly at the judge. "Sacrificium maleformium distancium."

The judge blinked and his eyes appeared to glaze over, then his face contorted into a snarl. "I give you the change to save your condemned soul and you choose to spout gibberish at this court. The hanging is to be carried out two days hence at the completion of the town gallows. Perhaps you can think of something more appropriate to say before the executioner consigns you to oblivion!" The judge slammed down the gavel again. "Court dismissed. Deputies, take this idiot away!" Two deputies moved to shackle Tobias. The condemned man repeated the words with a slight variation on the last. The first deputy clamped the irons tighter. The judge paused for a moment as he left the bench to shake his head at Tobias before he disappeared into his chambers.

"Damn it, I used to know that spell pretty well." Tobias muttered.

"Shut up, you fool." The second deputy said. "Spells and nonsense, I can't wait to see your stupid ass hang."

"Me neither," The other deputy said, "It will be pleasant to hear your neck snap from the hangman's rope." He leaned in closer to emphasize the final two words.

The two deputies sequentially pulled and pushed him out of the front courtroom door and down a flight of stone stairs. Tobias almost lost his footing more than once.

The jail was merely across the dirt laden street from the newly built court house. The deputies threw Tobias Cain into one of the empty cells and made sure it was secure. The second deputy lingered. "Use your spells to get you out of here, dumbass." He jeered, followed by a long stream of brown spit, which connected with Tobias' chest.

"You'll see, you poke fun of me, but I have seen things...there are vampires and all sorts of other frightening creatures out there. As soon as I get out of here I am going to make sure they find you."

He deputy laughed. "You hang in two days? Good luck with that."

"Leave him alone Rusty. Can't you see he's simple minded." The first deputy said as he removed his hat and tossed it to the hat rack to the left of the front door. The one called Rusty also took his hat off revealing a severely receding red hair with tinges of grey at the temples. Cain never quite understood why red-haired people were called Rusty or Red. No one called a brown-headed man Brown, or Poopy. He chuckled at his last thought and Rusty threw something at his cell.

"Don't start your chuckling and laughing tonight or I'll make sure to give you something to shut you up."

"What is all that about?" The first deputy asked.

Rusty spit in the brass spittoon beside the sheriff's desk, "You haven't had to sit with him the past two nights. He chuckles and laughs to himself and makes stupid noises to annoy you. I ignored him the first night, but by the second night it just gets to be too much and you want to stab him in the throat!"

Cain sat down on the narrow bed at the rear of his cell. He chuckled to himself, this time silently. He enjoyed making the deputies as uncomfortable as he was and he liked being called simple minded, it meant he was convincing. Sure, he had a unique way of thinking, but he knew, and his friend knew, he was anything but simple. Maybe he had not been alive long enough to accumulate the knowledge of his friend, but he had been around longer than most of his kind, dwindling in numbers as they were. He eyed the two deputies with an almost sorry feeling in his heart. It was they who were simple minded, especially if they were comfortable with him being behind bars and them being out in the exposed open. It was just the opposite.