“The woman continued on until she came to an ox that looked strong and well fed. It lowed softly when she held out a handful of hay, readily accepting the gift. But no sooner had it passed the beast’s gullet than the creature began to waste away. Before my eyes, the ox collapsed at the woman’s feet, reduced to a carcass of skin and bones.”
Nathan paused dramatically. Not a soul moved, and silence pervaded beneath the sound of his labored breath. Red splotches marred his cheeks, hinting to the effort of this performance. Though everyone else seemed entranced by his lies, I fumed with silent hatred.
“After witnessing two such horrors,” Nathan said after a moment, “dread filled me when she came next to a woman heavy with child. Fearing the worst, I tried to turn away, but the spirit held fast, forced me to watch as the young woman placed a hand on the mother’s swollen belly. Crying out, the mother stumbled back, her womb now empty, and the baby lying still in the young woman’s embrace.”
A spattering of anguished protests went through the meetinghouse. It isn’t real! I wanted to scream. He’s just making it up! Needing reassurance that not everyone had fallen for these lies, I glanced up at Henry. His face was blank, but his eyes burned with such fury I half expected Nathan to disintegrate on the spot.
“Three victims had already fallen under her touch,” Nathan said, his voice cracking with grief. “Yet I could do nothing other than witness her heinous crimes. Once again the woman went on until she came to a large rectangular stone, black and smooth as polished onyx. Only when she placed the baby on the stone and knelt before it, did I see it for an altar. Chanting evil words, she plucked a knife from the night air and plunged it into the innocent heart.”
Several women cried out for the imaginary infant. To my amazement, tears glistened on Nathan’s cheeks. Was he such an accomplished actor or did he really believe his own lies? Anne squeezed my hand as Nathan brushed the wetness from his face.
“A fire sprang up from the baby’s lifeless form, and the woman stepped onto the altar into the engulfing flames. No mere human could ever survive such an ordeal, and I began to think her dead, consumed by her own evil deeds. But when the flames receded, she stepped unharmed from the stone, even then keeping her face concealed from me.
“The fire had burned her clothes away and she stood entirely naked, except for the serpent still entwined around her arm. It hissed softly, and she bent down as though by command to let it slither into the grass. The long body began to convulse and the stench of sulfur filled my nose from the Devil that rose up in its place. With a fiery finger, the Devil scorched the woman’s flesh right below her left breast, marking her as his own.”
Nathan’s arms went rigid. In stunned silence, I watched his head rock back and his face contort with pain. “All of this time,” he spat savagely, “I had been prohibited from speaking, or making my presence known. But at last the spirit freed my tongue, and I cried, ‘Get thee hence, Satan!’ The demon howled and vanished in a dark vapor. Having lost her protector, the woman turned, and for the first time, revealed her identity.”
Thomas Dowling nearly tumbled from the bench on the men’s side. The crowd around the perimeter edged forward, drawn closer by the gruesome details of Nathan’s vision. The room had grown so still I could hear my own heart beating.
“Who is it?” a man called from the doorway. “Tell us her name!” A soft murmur rose up as other people began to speak.
The madness cleared from Nathan’s face and he raised a hand to quiet the crowd. “My friends, though this woman sits among us tonight, I have been commanded first to give you warning. For days after the vision, I was deprived of both sleep and appetite as I pondered the meaning of what I had seen. Then late one night while walking through my sodden wheat fields, the vision became clear to me. This summer, many of our crops have suffered from heavy rain. A quarter of my land lies under water. To the detriment of her neighbors, this witch has commanded the weather for her own gain. By destroying our crops she will reap the benefit of higher prices at the harvest.”
I seethed from the charge. Irrespective of the power that seeped through the altar, Brighmor’s wheat was still subject to nature, and it didn’t take a weather expert to see that the same rain had fallen on every farm. My fields just happened to be on higher ground and drained better than the lower lying farms, which Nathan owned. It wasn’t my fault that he had purchased cheaper land.
“What of the ox then?” someone called out.
“Once the witch has prospered from our ruin, the Devil will demand payment. Our livestock will be sacrificed to appease his lust for blood.”
“And the child?” Rachel Dowling asked from my far left.