The Famine Witch by Stephen Black

Author:Stephen Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quill & Crow Publishing House

“Do you see it, Andrew? Do you? The Lord is guiding us, he has looked down upon his people and heard our cry. Hallelujah. Praise be.” The Reverend Edgar punched the cover of his Bible with delight as his long legs devoured the ground.

Andrew Blake and a gaggle of church elders and town officials struggled to keep abreast of him as the preacher forced his way through the crowds gazing at the mesmerizing sight flaring across the sky.

Blake could only nod miserably, a broken man. He realized now that his greed had precipitated the runaway train that was the clergyman’s fanatical zeal. If word were to get out that Jeremiah Morgan had greased his palm to oil the creaking administrative wheels and bypass harbor regulations, his political career was finished. The fever that had disembarked from the Samhara was now spreading through the town like wildfire, and Edgar was seizing on the growing panic and hysteria like a deranged fiend.

After their hurried brandy, the preacher had called an emergency meeting of the church elders, which comprised half the town council. Edgar declared it a call for spiritual guidance, which largely involved him roaring at and badgering his terrified audience until they conceded there must be a spiritual reason for the recent misfortunes that had befallen their once great town. Blake hadn’t uttered a word during the gathering, aware that his deal with Morgan was now imploding before his eyes, and his political career now hung by the finest of threads.

He had sheepishly followed, as Edgar swept around the corner onto Bank Street, his black overcoat billowing outwards like the leathery wings of an avenging demon, his face the color of hellfire. Ahead of them, the crowds parted like a hot knife through butter, for here was a man possessed by a righteous anger that would not be satisfied until justice had been served and the root of this recent devilry was ripped from the heart of the town once and for all. “Get out of my way, you heathens.”

They reached the narrow entry that led onto Carson’s Court. The spindly arm of the Reverend Edgar shoved a brace of curious onlookers aside before plunging into the courtyard, followed by Blake and the remainder of his hesitant entourage. Edgar took one look at the bedlam on all sides before asserting his authority and grabbing the thistle by its thorns.

“Silence!” he boomed. The command reverberated through the courtyard as the residents stopped what they were doing and turned as one to study the new arrival. Edgar’s eyes narrowed and he scanned the crowd before him, before launching into another round of thunderous rhetoric.

“And the Lord sayeth, ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!’”

His words fell on a stunned audience as the sick and the starving battled to process the sight of the tall, gaunt figure, his pale face bathed in the fading light of the starry light passing overhead. The preacher surveyed his new congregation, the Good Book held above his widow’s peak.

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