Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 81

The storm waited for the villagers to come out of The Hall. The air was charged with its power.

As soon as Roor collapsed Breen knew what would happen. There was a moment where everyone was stunned, then Kena screamed and pointed towards Marcie,

"She killed him, she killed him! Kill her!"

And so all Breen could do was watch helplessly as Marcie was half carried out of the hall on a flood of bodies. He himself was swept along with them.

He tried to reason with the people around him but his voice failed him. Not that his pleas would have been heard anyway.

In front of The Hall a pyre had been raised in preparation for Junca's funeral. And yet Breen could only watch, horrified, as men rushed around and erected a stake in the middle of the mound of branches.

A cheer went up when they had finished and the crowd spread themselves out around the site.

Breen, his family and all those who had stood with Marcie were cruelly thrust to the front of the crowd and held there.

Then Marcie was dragged in front of the pyre.

The villager who had held the knife to her throat grabbed her hair again and lifted her head to show her the pyre,

"Look towards your fate Witch! May you find redemption within the flames" he cackled then threw her onto the piled sticks, she did not resist.

A few of the men climbed onto the pyre and dragged her up onto her knees so her skin and cloths were torn by the sharp twigs. Her shirt ripped and her collarbone and shoulder were bared. The villagers gasped at the swirling flame like pattern that was revealed. It now wrapped round her upper arm.

"There!" Kena shouted, pointing to the black marks, "There is your proof! The Witch carries a mark upon her after all!"

Breen could only stare.

"Do you see now dear brother?" Kena asked him, " Do you now see her true nature?" her tone would seem to all except him to be sad and yet all he could hear was her victory.

He tried to catch Marcie's eye but she was staring at nothing. She raised her hand, the manacles rattling along with her shaking, and tried to pull her shirt closed, to cover the proof of her strangeness, only to have her hands yanked over her head painfully. One of the men produced a large nail and a hammer and he banged the nail into the wood between the chain links of the manacles, securing them to the post. Silent tears of pain fell from Marcie's eyes as each blow of the hammer jarred her arms.

She slumped forward on her knees, her arms pulled on the manacles and Breen saw blood drip slowly down her arm from where the bracelet dug into the skin of her wrist. He wanted to shout at her, to stand up, to take the weight off her wrists and yet he did not. He stood, stunned. He did not know what to do.

Thunder boomed across the sky on the tail of a multi limbed spike of lightning through the sky.

Someone shouted "Get on with it!" and a Perick hurried off, returning shortly with a lit torch.

Kena cleared her throat and spoke loudly so everyone could hear her,

"Marcie No Ones Bride, is there anything you wish to say before you are put to the flame?"

Marcie slowly raised her head, her face half covered by her hair. Her lips moved as though she was saying something but at that moment there was huge crack of thunder and a string of pure white light connected the sky and the ground near the pyre for a split second, momentarily blinding and deafening everyone.