Team Spirit: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel (Behind the Wall Book 2) by P.S. Power

Author:P.S. Power [Power, P.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orange Cat Publishing
Published: 2023-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter nine

Jake was sickened, and impressed, by the sacrifice of one of the cows that he’d been taking care of for the last ten days. The animal was calm the whole time, right up until its throat was slit from behind. Then, as it screamed and started to kick, Mr. Prentis jumped back, chanting the whole while. In Latin, so it was hard to tell what he was getting at. A lot of it was, he’d been told, instructions for what the life energy of the cow was supposed to be doing.

In this case, that meant moving into the large sacrificial stone, turning the carved sigils a slightly red color. It was hard to tell if that was due to the blood leaking into them, or some magical effect, to be honest. It seemed like it could be either. There was no overt glowing, but the blood also couldn’t be flowing over the stone and into the pores and micro-crevices the way it was doing.

As soon as the bovine stopped kicking, trying to save itself since it was tied off and couldn’t run, Jake sprinted in, and kicked it on the shoulder, pushing it as hard as he could, to send it stumbling into the stone. It needed to actually die on top of the giant, rather flat gray rock, if at all possible.

Doing that, which had seemed like a good idea, did almost nothing at all. As Prentis kept speaking, clearly focusing hard, Jake struggled to push, pull, and finally use the rope around its head and the sacrificial altar itself to shift the thing onto it. Partially. Just as the beast gave up, finally gasping. Pitifully.

The whole thing was sadder than Jake had figured it on being. He’d thought it would be about grossness and disgust, but he felt bad that the cow had to give its life, instead. It was only about halfway on top of the rock, when, about twenty minutes later, the last of the blood stopped flowing. It was being collected in a bucket, off to the side. A sturdy thing made of wood, with a scratchy tan rope handle on the top. It was full and overflowing on to the ground. The cow, however, was empty.

It wasn’t a normal effect at all. Some kind of magic, he thought, but didn’t feel like asking about.

Finally, as the heavy-set man stopped speaking, his red rope splashed lightly with blood, the blood-filled sigils, and cracks in the rock glowed. Red, at first. Then it changed to a golden light, which spread into the entire altar, for about ten seconds or so. The sound of something deep and thrumming took place as well. Not that he could hear it. It was too deep, too grand, for that.

Mr. Prentis smiled.

“Ah! There we go. Very well done. Now, we need to hurry with the meat. You brought a conveyance and some tarps? I have the tools we need.”

The man was efficient then, but it still took both of them

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.