The Binding

Chapter Twenty-Four

I heard wood slamming against wood as a door swept closed with a loud clack. A swarm of aromas swept over me: garlic, cloves, freshly baked bread, wet dirt, urine, smoke, and above it all the close odor of many bodies. A fire nearby crackled and popped. It wasn't cold, and the heat didn't add much to the room. It must have been for cooking. The walls were wooden and roughly formed together with some kind of mud or plaster smeared between the cracks. A staircase led to a second floor, and rectangular openings along the roofline just below the ceiling allowed a stream of dim sunlight to penetrate the room.

    Dust particles swirled in the light from the door as a man with long wild hair and tattoos covering half his face walked through. It looked like a tavern of some kind. Judging by the long cotton gowns gathered in ripples about the women's torsos and the knee-length tunics the men wore, I guessed I was somewhere during the Roman Empire. Most of the tables were filled with men drinking and playing some sort of dice game. A man was on the floor near the stairs with a woman. She was splayed out on her back, his hand fondling her legs, while another man sat by the fire with two children.

    I finally spotted Ezra sitting alone at the table closest to the fire. A woman stepped through a narrow doorway and headed straight for Ezra. She was short and plump with strawberry red hair piled on top of her head, round rosy cheeks, and thin lips. I followed her and watched her place a steaming wooden bowl and a round loaf of bread in front of him. As she reached across him to set down the food, Ezra turned and locked eyes with her. She looked to be in her fifties or sixties. She gazed back at him for a moment and then walked away.

    Ezra watched her. She settled herself into a chair a few feet away and sifted flour through some sort of mesh. He picked up a spoon and began digging through a thick stew. One of the men playing dice scowled and cursed at another man loudly, and the rest laughed.

    A high-pitched whimper near the fire raised the hairs on the back of my neck. One of the children was crying softly. The boy was older, about twelve or thirteen years old. The girl didn't look much more than ten.

      The man grabbed the boy by the face and bent to pull something from the fire. A finely honed knife blazed white at the tip and faded to a deep scarlet further along the blade. The man seared the blade to the boy's cheek. He screamed, high pitched, and agonizing. The smell of the boy's roasting meat mingled with the garlic and bread odors. The girl trembled and hiccupped helplessly.

    I stared around the room in shock. The men ignored the boy, indifferent to his piercing screams. The man on the floor had positioned himself between the woman's legs and was groping himself while trying to pull up his tunic. Another man spilled a dark liquid across the table, and the other men laughed at him. No one was looking at the children. No one, except Ezra.

    The man shoved the boy away with his free hand and bent to put the knife back into the fire. He turned as he noticed Ezra staring at him.

    "You want something, Friend?"

     "I'm not anyone's friend."

    "Then you better eye that bowl instead of me and my property."

    "It's a pathetic man who harms his children." He reached over and pulled off a hunk of bread from the loaf and popped it into his mouth. "You have to brand them to make them obey. I bet you have to brand your women too just, so you have something to slide your dick into." He grinned and chewed slowly, deliberately. 

    I hardly noticed the man move. Suddenly, a short spear sliced through Ezra's stomach. The spear skewered Ezra, pinning him into a post. Every eye in the room was now riveted on the two men. The man gloated in triumph. Slowly as seconds passed, the muscles in his face contorted, sliding from confusion to fear. Ezra casually glanced down at the spear protruding from his stomach with a look of mild interest. Blood was beginning to spread, soaking through his tunic. Ezra slowly, purposefully looked at the man. Then he calmly grabbed the shaft of the spear and pulled. It popped out of the post and slid through his body with a wet sucking sound. The man's eyes widened.