Call of the Wraith (Blackthorn Key #4) by Kevin Sands

Author:Kevin Sands [Sands, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Children's Books, Juvenile Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Tween Fiction, Grades 5-9, Ages 10-14

CHAPTER

29

SIR EDMUND STOOD. WITH ÁLVARO’S help, he made his way back to the desk.

“What do you know of tests for witches?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Well, there are several of them. Many of the simpler tests require contact between the accused witch and one of her victims: If a person ensorcelled is touched by the witch, the spell will break. So investigators might bring someone having fits to the trial, then force the witch to lay a hand on them. If the fits stop, then this is proof that the witch cast the spell, and she will be found guilty.”

“What if the ‘victim’ is faking?” Sally said. “Couldn’t they just pretend to have a fit until the accused touches them?”

“Yes,” Sir Edmund said. “Which is why I never used a touch test of any kind. There are other, similar examples, but I rejected them, too, as none of them satisfied me as unfalsifiable. No, there are only two tests I know of that cannot be faked.

“The first is called dunking. The accused is stripped, tied with each hand to the opposite foot, and thrown into water. If they are innocent—well, no one can swim when so bound, so they will sink to the bottom. If they are evil, however, then the water, in its purity, will reject them. In other words, the witch will float. If this happens, the accused is proven to be a witch, and will be hanged.”

Sally looked appalled. “But if they’re innocent—”

“They’ll drown, yes. It’s an effective test, but a cruel one, for it condemns the innocent and guilty alike. Many courts have outlawed it for just this reason. Certainly, I never employed it, and fought against its use wherever I could. It was only the second kind of test that I performed.”

He reached into the drawer that held the bag with Saint Benedict’s finger bone. This time, he brought out an engraved, jeweled silver box. Álvaro helped him hobble back to us, where Sir Edmund rested with obvious relief in his chair.

“When a woman becomes a witch,” he said, “she gains a familiar: a demon who comes to her in the shape of an animal, often a cat. To seal their pact, the familiar feeds on the witch’s blood. Where the demon feeds, its polluting evil creates a mark—a witch’s mark—on the body. This mark will be darker than the surrounding skin, and it has the curious property that it cannot feel pain, and will not bleed except when fed upon by the familiar. It is from this fact that we define what is, in my opinion, the only worthy test of a witch.”

Sir Edmund opened the box. “It is known as pricking. A witch is examined by a physician for possible witch’s marks. Once the physician has ruled out all natural blemishes, the questionable ones are tested with this.”

He pulled out a silver cylinder around three inches long. It was hexagonal in shape, with small circles engraved along each side. At one end was a finely detailed silver crown, with six crosses fused to the metal below it.

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