Copyright (c) 2018 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.
By
R. Peterson
“The entire family was
ordered hanged by King Charles the Cruel,” Golif Tremble explained to Ludenia
Bath as she searched the bodies in his cart with bony fingers, “half under the
age of four … for vagrancy among other crimes!” The witch wasn’t interested in why
the riffraff were slain … only the condition of the corpses. She swatted away a
cloud of flies and cursed softly. The parents appeared to be squinting the
instant their necks snapped, an ordinary acceptance of their bad luck. The six
children showed dramatics. Their eyes were literally popping from their sockets
along with their tongues … astonished horror brilliantly caught at the moment
of death.
“I’ll take the lot,”
she hissed.
The merchant was taken aback, wondering how the
witch could carry so many and to what use the bodies would be put to. Ludenia
thrust one skeletal hand into a bag that looked as if it had been sewn from a
snakeskin and dropped coins into the merchant’s palm. “If this isn’t enough …
say now or forever hold your peace,” Golif thought of his wife waiting at home
… both women had murder in their eyes.
“For
another shilling,” he whimpered. “I suppose I could let you the use of my cart
… as long as it is returned.”
“That
won’t be necessary,” Ludenia told him producing a small knife that gleamed in
the gas lights. “I only want the eyes!”
Her hands moved like string-threaded
bones as she cut each eyeball from its socket and dropped it into a glass jar.
“Before the moon rises my kaulakoru
silmät shall speak,” the witch whispered. Golif noticed her tugging on a
long necklace hung around her thick neck with what looked like piano wire. Animal
eyes started just below the pointed ears on each side of her head … bear, wolf,
goat, cat and snake. There looked to be just enough length left in the wire to
add eight pairs of human optics.
“What
of these?” Golif gestured toward his bloody cart.
“Feed
the dogs!” Ludenia smiled. “And hope they don’t want more.”
The witch was disappearing into the nighttime market
crowd when Golif noticed the coins in his hand transforming into beetles. A
large silver one bit his finger. “Stop that witch!” he cried. “I’ve been
cheated!”
Later Golif was explaining his misfortune to the
town constable. “She wanted the eyes for a necklace?” The officer was writing
everything down on a slate board.
“Yes.
She called it a kaulakoru silmät,”
Golif said.
The policeman put the slate away. “We’ll never find
her now.”
“Why
not?” Golif was furious.
“A kaulakoru
silmät makes the wearer invisible,” he said.
-------2-------
She blindly bugged away the merchant’s
price.
No witch has ever bargained very nice.
Weeds for words she deftly grew …
A trick because he wanted few …
Back to a hut bulged out with flies and
lice.
When in the dark the stars began to
rise.
She opened up the jar that held the
eyes.
Untied the string … of note to ring.
Button teeth … close everything.
Then tore her jagged hands to make the
ties.
Softly shining silver slippery scissors.
Watchful waiting waves was wheezing whizzers.
To cut the strings to loops that bind …
Fleshy scraps for crows to find …
And wet the knots between her smiling
kissers.
The moon peeked out now hidden in a
cloud.
With thundering voice words spoken
really loud.
He called her name … a former sane.
No more laughing … in the rain.
Look not upon that hidden by a shroud.
The witch was prowling shadows by a
moat.
To catch a herdsman walking with his
goat.
She cut his throat from ear to ear …
Don’t walk alone you’ll never fear …
To heed this simple warning that I’ve
wrote.
-------3-------
The
gate to the village was bolted with a huge wooden cross to keep out witches.
Lamar Finch was awakened at three AM by an incessant banging. The retired
magistrate and his wife lived in three small rooms above the entrance in return
for their service. In his flannel nightshirt, Finch peeked through a round
porthole in the door, to see who could be disturbing the city at this hour.
“Let us in!” A distraught man driving the team begged as he tried to settle his
terrified animals. “The depths of Hell have cracked open and I fear the agents
of doom are upon us!”
The
banging on the door proved to be the lead horses ramming into it with their
bridle bits and they thundered through the bloody gate when Finch opened it
dragging the wagon behind them.
“Thank
God!” the man jumped from the cottage wagon as soon as Finch closed the heavy
wooden door and secured it with the cross. “It’s been a long journey and with
the full moon we decided to push on through!” The back door to the house on
wheels opened and a cursing woman (no doubt the driver’s wife) and only lacking
a fish-knife in her knobby hands, flung herself to the ground and lunged for
her husband. “I’ve got knots on my head as large as chicken eggs,” she cried.
“Who said we desired to be bounced from our beds and slammed against the walls
in payment for your rash use of a whip?”
“I
never once touched the whip; these animals ran for their lives!”
The village was awake and people stumbled out of
doorways and leaned from windows to hear the man’s tale. After introducing
himself as Herman Baines, and accepting a tankard of ale, the man explained. “She
appeared out of nowhere … standing in the center of the road! She wore a ghastly
robe that looked to be made of human hair and with fleshless hands spreading fire.”
“What
robbers stop wagons at night in this way?” The Mayor pointed an accusing finger
at Baines. “Is this the first drink you’ve had this night?”
“I’m
no drunkard!” Baines grabbed a lantern from one of the villagers and directed
the candle light to the sides of the wagon, “and it was murder not robbery that
she had in mind!” Black handprints made of charcoal were burned into the
outside of the wagon as if some fiery demon had fought to get inside.
Baines’s
wife helped another, younger woman, climb from the wagon. The sun was just
peeking over the eastern horizon. The crowd gasped as the first rays of dawn
showed a stunning maiden with breathtaking eyes and hair golden as the rising
sun. “Where are we mother?” the girl muttered sleepily. The old woman pointed
at the ground and ignored her question, saying only. “Stay here, Elsie.”
All
eyes were on the girl. She looked about without interest until her green eyes
happened upon Golif. She smiled and it took the merchant a moment to catch his
breath. Nowhere in the kingdom was a girl more beautiful or desirous.
“Where
are the others?” Baines’s wife looked about helplessly. “There were three
wagons when we left Leeds.”
Baines pointed to the sky about the village gate.
Plumes of black smoke rose into the sky with blinking embers like stars being
born. “Rising to heaven, I pray,” he said, “and not being dragged into the
depths of Hell.”
-------4-------
The village men were smitten by her
charms.
And Golif vowed to take her in his arms.
He tried his best to make Elsie see…
His heart was filled with misery…
As suitors came from cities towns and
farms.
The Baines retired with the sinking sun.
But Elsie said her day had just begun.
She sang and danced… in taverns bright.
Selling kisses … to the night.
Feeding feeling falling frolic fun
The mayor left his self-appointed
throne.
And bid his clinging wife to stay at
home.
He looked for poisons far and near …
To pour into good morning dear …
To marry twice then he must be alone.
Within a week the mayor’s wife was dead.
Choking on a spoon while still in bed.
While Golif bought … a new red coat.
Suitors sang the … poems they wrote.
To try to turn the lovely’s pretty head.
The town became a reckless burning band.
To try to win the maiden’s lovely hand.
Baines told them all to take her not …
“That shaggy bitch is all we got …”
And hopes poured out like hour glass
ticking sand.
-------5-------
While
the village men were consumed by rollicking nights and sleepy days, the farms
outside were experiencing a time of terror.
A shepherd had a third of his flock butchered in one night and the rest
a week later. Almost every cow in the countryside stopped giving milk and those
who did delivered a foul red liquid that had the look and texture of blood.
There were haystacks ablaze and barns burned almost nightly. It fell to the
women to discover the source of the Devilry … the men’s attention was stolen by
Elsie. A priest was summoned from the city and he determined there was a witch
at work in the realm … and there would be no relief until the thing was
discovered.
The
men of the village seized on the idea as a quick way to end their own marriages
and wives were accused of being witches for things a minor as burnt bread or
mice hiding in cupboards. A stain on a dress became the mark of the beast and a wrinkled shirt a foul curse of old age. There were not enough fingers to point to the
suspects. Many were accused but only a few found innocent. The fires of justice
extracted screaming confessions almost daily. The entire village was poisoned. Wells
were filled and new ones dug but still there remained the bitter taste of contagion.
There were no natural deaths … only dark curses and clever murders.
It was during this time that the
king came to visit with a company of soldiers. He ignored the carnage in this
part of his kingdom and was soon also smitten by Baines exquisite daughter’s
charms. “She has stolen my heart,” the king thundered. “I am no man of justice
if I don’t lock her in my bedroom for her crimes!” Charles the Cruel tried
every trick to capture the young lass’s attention but like with all her other
suitors she had a talent for disappearing just when a promise of romance was
forthcoming. He informed the Baines’s of his intention to take Elsie back to
his castle to be his consort and they were stunned. “His Royal Majesty must be
mad!” Herman muttered to his wife. “I must forbid it … or forever settle my
soul in Hell!”
That
night the Baines’s wagon was burned as well as the loft they rented above the
gatekeeper’s apartment. A company of soldiers stood by and watched. Only Mrs. Baines
survived, running from the flames in a burning nightgown and throwing herself
down the village well. She was pulled out the next morning, singed to a blistered
baldness but lucky to be alive. Her poor husband was no more than a blackened pile
of bones in the charred timbers. The king took pity on the widow because of her
daughter and agreed to take her along with them as a castle’s kitchen helper.
And Mrs. Baines held her tongue against the madness.
-------6-------
The screams came almost nightly in the
town.
Mother pulled from well in sooty gown.
When every single witch is dead …
We’ll finally find our rest in bed …
The lustful men in love all gathered
round.
They watched the king in fury take their
love.
The priest prayed intervention from
above.
When cruel Charles thundered … from
their homes.
The men all gathered … sticks and
stones.
He stopped and vowed he’d finally had
enough.
The soldiers burned the town from spire
to spire.
They sacked the church and set the moat
on fire.
No living thing was let alive …
To listen to the reaper’s scythe …
As village town became a funeral pyre.
The king’s fine carriage rumbled through
the soot.
As soldiers, servants trampled ashes
foot.
Through farm and fields … turned black
from green.
To carry home … a future Queen?
A land where rains of justice wasn’t
put.
The city streets were turned into
parade.
Rubber necks all strained to see the
maid.
Such a lovely sight to see …
The mother filled with misery …
Such a disaster folly love has made.
-------7-------
The exquisite Elsie kindled such
desire in the king that he wasn’t satisfied to have her only as a consort. His
lovely wife was discovered days later at the bottom of a tall stairway with a
broken neck. Charles the Cruel wasted no time in announcing his upcoming
marriage. The entire city was consumed by the elaborate festivities to come.
Mrs. Baines was helping to tidy up
after an elaborate banquet following the wedding ceremony. The king and his new
bride had already retired to the royal bedchamber. “I must say,” one of the
women helping to clean the tables said. “I would have thought that as mother to
the bride you would have been given a higher station!”
“Mother?” Mrs. Baines said. “This
entire realm has gone barmy but that doesn’t mean I have to be part of the madness!
Elsie has always been the family dog …. Nothing more. My poor husband tried to
explain to everyone in the village but no one would listen.”
Upstairs in the King’s bedchamber,
Charles the Cruel watched from under the covers as his lovely new bride removed
her clothing. “What a strange necklace!” the king declared.
“I
don’t believe I’ve ever seen another like it!”
“Oh really?” Ludenia said as she
held up one of the eyes suspended inside a glass ball. “If you look closely you
must see that some of these eyes resemble your own.”
“That thing is ghastly,” the king
declared. “Take it off!”
“It’s called a kaulakoru silmät … to
not see.” Ludenia told him as she loosened her skirts. “It gives the wearer the
power to appear as anything. We are called invisible because people see what
they wish to see. My new family loved their pet so much and I didn’t want to disappoint
them after having rung the poor thing’s neck.” She rolled one of the glass balls
in her fingers. “I’m afraid the human eyes in this necklace are from your poor
brother and his family.”
“My brother was no more than
riffraff,” the king gasped, “the fact that he was older made him and his family
a danger to my throne!”
“My foolish sister was very happy
being married to your poor brother,” Ludenia said, “and they had no desire for
power or riches … still you wisely had the entire family hung.”
The
king was still stricken by her breathtaking image. “Come to bed now,’ he
insisted, “and I will make you forget
about your dear sister!”
“I already have,” Ludenia said as
she fumbled to remove the necklace last. “I worked very hard to get you to come
to the village. You and I are much alike. We crave power and the riches power brings
…” She smiled showing sharpened teeth and a reptilian face. “I do not intend to
share my kingdom with anyone either.”
The watchmen had just blown out the
last lamps when a horrifying scream came from the king’s bedchamber … and it awakened
half the sleeping castle. “Has Elsie bitten the king?” Mrs. Baines muttered. Then
she rolled over and went back to sleep.
-------8------
With thunder’s rumble shaking stony
towers.
The witch Ludenia practices her
powers.
At night with only stars for light …
She flies a broomstick, what a
sight …
To scream above the fields where
reason cowers.
By day she rests as beauty’s breathless
Queen.
By night a phantom better left
unseen.
A wink they sigh … a nod they die.
Tomorrow widows … all will cry.
For selfish rule with terror cruel
and mean.
Ludenia Bath is pleasure for the
eye.
Broken hearts un-mended often die.
To be her king means everything …
And murder is the price of ring …
For spellbound suitors for her hand
do vie.
She dresses from her bed with
sleepy yawn.
To become that which necklace
places on.
kaulakoru silmät … wives smell a
rat.
And wonder what … became of cat.
To mourn the winds of justice ever
gone.
She lies awake with moonlight
streaming in.
The cost of power often sleeps with
sin.
Boney fingers stretch to feel …
Necklace on the window sill …
And waits for morning shadows to
begin.
THE
END?
