Death & Magic (The Barefoot Healer, volume I)

Death & Magic chapter 31

What I felt — that was your fear, wasn’t it? Spilling over into me.

Lelsarin nodded and bent over the doll, as though shielding it.

So does that mean this tall, thin, black thing I saw has some connection with the tall, thin, black thing that the servant at the Salmarian Embassy saw? Or are you just afraid of anything tall and thin and black?

Hey! Lelsarin looked up. That’s not fair! You’re the one who decides where your legs take you, and where your eyes point.

Adramal stood up and stomped about, trying hard not to hit things. I didn’t know the blasted thing was there, did I? And I didn’t know it was going to make you want to dig a hole and hide in it.

All right, said Lelsarin. Truce. We need to go to the library.

Now? said Adramal Why?

No, any time before you drop dead of old age will be fine. Of course I want to go now, stupid girl. We need to find a book about the Churches. Ideally, one about all of them.

Well, what harm could reading a book do? Adramal did as Lelsarin asked. Perinar wasn’t there, and she wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved. The catalogue shoehorned every book into one of the five teachers’ subjects. A book about the Churches might be anywhere. Adramal resorted to searching the entire catalogue from the beginning.

Halfway through the History section, she found an entry for a book called simply The Gods. She took it to one of the desks at the front. It felt as though it would fall apart if mishandled.

The first page said the book had been copied in a scriptorium in Salthes, in the three hundred and twentieth year of the realm, or nearly two hundred years ago. It was a copy of an older volume, of unknown age, which had fallen apart.

The book began with a short account of how the Gods had come to Their present arrangement, where each of Them took responsibility for a different aspect of human existence. There followed a section on each God and what He or She oversaw. Each deity had about half a page, including a drawing of the symbol His or Her priests used. None of the symbols was a circle with eight lines.

The Gods were in the familiar order of the days of the fortnight — Tergrith, Arveth, Groll, Nerupar, Rakeloth, Tanshalm, Shadrakh, Mathran, Kharadar, Yisea, Angaris, Pethandril and Sujas. Where she would have expected a statement about the last day of the fortnight being sacred to all Gods, the lower half of that page was missing. As she turned the page, she saw that the edge was straight and neat. Curious, she ran a finger along it, finding it sharp.

Lelsarin screamed, a mixture of rage and fear.

Adramal clapped her hands over her ears. Of course, that made no difference. What’s wrong? She looked around. No one seemed to have noticed her strange behaviour.

Lelsarin gripped her doll in both hands, as though trying to pull it apart. Through clenched teeth, she said, Turn to the back of the book.

Her hands shaking, Adramal obeyed. The remainder of the book gave a more detailed description of each God. Still there was no sign of the symbol. The final pages, after the section on Sujas, God of the sun, had been cut out, in the same manner as the missing half-page at the front.

Adramal closed her eyes and clenched her fists as Lelsarin ran around inside her mind, screaming and hitting things. She slowed her breathing and relaxed her muscles. She couldn’t afford to let Lelsarin’s anger spill over into her, so she built a wall within her mind between Lelsarin and herself. Each time the girl-thing bashed against this, Adramal shuddered, as though someone had kicked the chair she sat on.