Suffer a Witch

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by Claudia Hall Christian


  “Why did you have dried human hands in your freezer?” William asked.

  Em grinned. She took another sip of her tea and set it down.

  “They were Hands of Glory,” Em said. “The most powerful magical object in the world if taken from a hanging convict, particularly one convicted of witchcraft. I found them when I was cleaning out our basement. I stuck them in the freezer so I’d know where they were if I needed them.”

  “It’s very. . . revolting. Primitive,” William sneered. “Whose hands did you have in the freezer? Yours?”

  “No,” Em said. “One was George’s. It was taken in Salem, as payment of his debt, while he hanged.”

  “And you got it. . .”

  “Tortured the executioner to find out where it was,” Em said. “My husband Isaac killed the couple who had demanded George’s hand as payment on the imaginary debt. Isacc loaded them into a wagon to make it look like an unfortunate wagon accident. While he was busy, I spent some time with their daughter.”

  “Ann Putnam, Junior?” William asked. “The one who testified against you? Started the whole thing in Salem?”

  “She saw her way to tell me where George’s hand was kept,” Em said.

  “I bet she did!” William said with a laugh. “What did you do?”

  Em grinned but said nothing. William laughed.

  “And the other one?” William asked.

  “East India Trading Company hanged John Willard as a pirate,” Em said.

  “Close your ears, son,” William whispered to the baby. He kissed the baby’s cheek. “Why would they do that?”

  “Because John was a pirate,” Em said with a grin. “They liked to hang pirates and leave them to rot on the rope. They felt it deterred people from being pirates. You can imagine what happened with John.”

  “He’d have awoken and died over and over again,” William said.

  “They took his hand,” Em said, “and left him to hang. I knew of it immediately, but it took me months to get there. By the time I arrived, he’d been hanging for almost six months.”

  “God, how awful,” William said. His hand instinctively went to his throat. “What did you do?”

  “I got him down,” Em said. “He found his hand. We may or may not have burned the entire island to the ground. I won’t burden you with that story.”

  “You sound quite a bit like a pirate yourself!” William said.

  Em grinned. Realizing she was out of tea, she went to the kitchen to make a pot. Still carrying the baby, her father followed her into the kitchen.

  “Your wife?” Em asked. “Justine?”

  “She’s passed,” William said. “Turns out she had a slow-growing tumor. That’s why she was blind. My efforts to heal her caused the tumor to grow. They couldn’t operate, so we lived out our days here. She’s buried in the back.”

  “Near mother?” Em asked.

  “Oh, no,” William said. “I didn’t want your mother to know I married again. She could tolerate other women but not another marriage.”

  Em chuckled in agreement.

  “Do you have other questions?” Em asked.

  William nodded. Em poured the hot water into a pot. He gave her the child so that he could carry the tea to the couch near the fire. Em checked her child before sitting down near the fire. William took the baby from her.

  “Does my grandson have a name?” William asked.

  “I was waiting for you to ask,” Em said with a grin.

  “You are your mother’s daughter,” William said with a laugh. “Please introduce us, Em.”

  “Nathaniel William Burroughs, meet William Panon,” Em said. “He’s named after George’s father and you, of course. We call him Nate.”

  “They’ve landed.” William looked in the direction of the ferry landing.

  Em nodded. She could feel that her witches had landed on Rousay.

  “I have questions, but I’m not even sure how to form the questions,” William said.

  “Just take a stab at it,” Em said.

  “Why did you listen to the serpent?” William asked.

  “Paul tells the Colossians that ‘all things were created by him.’ God, of course.” Em gave a nod.

  “And that means?” William asked. Em grinned.

  “If God is in everything, than the serpent is of God,” Em said. “That simple thought is what changed my mind about everything.”

  “How so?” William asked.

  “If the serpent is of God, then God was in the act of convincing Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” Em said. “That meant that God wanted humans to be both light and dark.”

  “And to have knowledge of Good and Evil,” William said.

  “To be capable of choosing for themselves,” Em said.

  Em nodded. She poured tea into the mugs. They were silent as they prepared their individual mugs.

  “I didn’t see it for a long time,” Em said.

  Her father looked up at her intense interest.

  “The bible says, ‘Thou shall not suffer a witch to live,’” Em said. “Of course, I’d heard the phrase all of my life. I’d always believed the passage was a mistranslation. It wasn’t actually ‘witch’ but ‘poisoner’ — someone dangerous to the tribes of Israel.”

  “The passage was used as the reason to destroy the earth based religions during the Inquisitions,” William said. “Our kind lost a lot of people to that very phrase.”

  “Certainly, the very next passage says you should kill anyone making a sacrifice to other Gods,” Em said. “So there’s plenty of reason to believe that the passage was mistranslated.”

  “What do you believe now?” William asked.

  “I believe the passage is a pointer straight to us,” Em said. “We are not descendants of Adam and Eve.”

  “We should not live,” William said.

  Em nodded.

  “Argos got it wrong,” William said.

  “He was five when he ate fruit from the Tree of Life,” Em said. “He lived a long time, but his mind remained very primitive. He was afraid of the demons, so he assumed they were chasing him to do him harm.”

  “He knew abominations were dangerous,” William said.

  “Because they were both light and dark,” Em said. “Descendants of Adam and Eve. We were the true abominations because we were only one side — light or dark — depending on how you think of it. I will tell you that the demon, or dark side, of me was terrified of the witches.”

  William nodded.

  “How did you survive?” William asked.

  “The fire,” Em said. “I set the hands ablaze. I’m told that the fire burned like a pyre. Someone saw it and called Emergency Response. We were taken to the hospital. We stayed about a week. They kept me, Bridget, and Mary Eastey a little longer because we were pregnant.”

  “Your dying wish to restore your witches turned the hands into a pyre?” William asked.

  Em nodded.

  “So you’re still a witch,” William said.

  “Aren’t you?” Em asked.

  “No,” William said. “I have some senses — intuition — but our family has always been strong in that. You probably would have lost your skill if you hadn’t had the hands.”

  “Huh,” Em said. “Maybe. The others still have their powers, too.”

  William nodded.

  “It’s always possible that yours will come back,” Em said.

  “The technology available now is like having magical powers,” William said with a shrug. “I haven’t missed it much.”

  Em watched his face. When he looked up at her, they laughed.

  “Sure,” Em said, and he smiled. “Maybe it will return.”

  “Maybe,” William said. “Do you think the hands did it?”

  “Brought us back to life?” Em asked. “I have no idea. Maybe. We were revived at the hospital after they slowly warmed us up. We were frozen.”

  She shrugged, and he nodded tha
t there was no way to know.

  “How were you restored?” Em asked.

  “I’m not sure,” William said. “I found myself wandering the fields of Rousay. Naked, of course. And it was February, no less.”

  He grinned, and she smiled.

  “I was alone for only a few moments before I came upon the others,” William said. “They were confused and frightened, but. . .”

  He gave her a look filled with love.

  “Every one of us was restored,” William said. “My parents. Argos. Weni. As always, there were some who preferred to return to their rest, which was taken care of. There are about a hundred of us left. Everyone else. . . Well, we invited you and your witches to Rousay for a celebration of our rebirth.”

  “We can all be in the same space and time?” Em asked.

  “Amazing,” he said with a nod.

  Em smiled.

  “You did really well, Martha,” William said. “How do you feel?”

  “Good, different,” Em said. “How do you feel now that you’ve combined with your other half?”

  “Strong,” William said with a nod. “Different, yes. Whole.”

  “Whole,” Em said with a nod.

  “And your witches?” William asked. “How are they?”

  “They are happy,” Em said. “They’ve been released from the curse of being barren. A few women are pregnant, which makes them very happy. The others are exploring modern birth control. I assume that’s true in the elder group as well.”

  William gave a curt nod.

  “We don’t know if we’re still immortal,” Em said. “No one’s wanted to risk it.”

  “We are,” William said. “At least you and I are.”

  “Then they would be, too,” Em said.

  “Possibly,” William said.

  “How would you know?” Em asked

  “We had the usual trouble putting to sleep those who wanted to rest,” William said with a grin. “We aren’t as fragile as humans.”

  “Ah,” Em said. “The Tree of Life flows through our veins. Good to know.”

  They fell silent as they finished their tea. Outside, they heard the sound of a few SUVs coming toward the house.

  “We don’t know how long it will last,” Em said.

  “Why not forever?” William asked.

  “I just don’t know,” Em said.

  “Time will tell,” William said.

  He stood from his chair. Em followed him to the door of the cottage. In the distance, she saw a row of five Land Cruisers coming toward them.

  “One more thing,” William asked.

  “Yes?” Em asked.

  “Why were you convinced that the demons would kill all the humans?” William asked.

  “Your demon killed hundreds of thousands of humans in the Great Plague and the Great Fire,” Em said.

  “Yes, but it wasn’t all of them,” William said.

  “It’s something I felt from my other half,” Em said. “As you’ve said, our family is strong in intuition. And I felt that he felt cheated that he hadn’t had a chance to live on this wonderful planet — to eat, love, and procreate. He and his tribe were willing to give me a chance because I was ‘different.’ If I failed, they were going to return the world to primitive living and take over.”

  “Why did they give you this chance?” William asked.

  “I don’t think we’ll ever know,” Em said. “George believes that they, like us, know God — uh, the Creator. They knew the Creator wanted us to be whole and not to live as separate halves. In all likelihood, they knew that, eventually, we would return and that they would have to deal with us. It’s even likely that this cycle has happened many times before.”

  “You think that they’ve reset time and taken over only to be deposed by us?” William asked.

  “It’s possible,” Em said. “How many children ate from the Tree of Life before the serpent convinced Eve to eat the apple?”

  “The serpent? You mean ‘God’?” William asked.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Em said. “It’s a mystery, even to us witches.”

  William looked off into the distance.

  “Do you believe they were acting on our Creator’s wishes?” William said.

  “Godly demons,” Em said.

  William shivered.

  “What?” Em asked.

  “Don’t mention that to the others,” William said.

  “Why?” Em asked.

  “Just don’t,” William said.

  “I must ask. . .” Em turned to her father. “Are you going to burn my friends and family alive?”

  “No,” William said with a laugh. “We’re celebrating our return to life. We chose September 22, because it’s the day you were hanged. The day you were reborn. The day your witches were created. It is now our most sacred day.”

  Em blushed and looked away.

  “Plus, that was Argos’s thing,” William said. “You’ll be happy to know that he’s retired as the head of our people.”

  “Who’s in charge now?” Em asked.

  “They’re hoping you will take over,” William said.

  “No,” Em said. “I have enough trouble keeping my witches on track.”

  “I told them you’d say that,” William said.

  The SUVs pulled up near the house. William started forward to greet the witches. He got only a few feet before the baby awoke. He scowled at William and squawked. William turned to look at Em.

  “He doesn’t like to be away from me,” Em said.

  Her father jogged back to return the child. Em slipped him into the baby sling, and Nate fell back to sleep. Em stayed where she was to watch her friends’ arrival. As always, Martha Carrier was out of the vehicle first. She was on her own after breaking up with Bruce, the coworker. Ann Pudeator slipped out of the vehicle behind Martha Carrier. Clearly pregnant, she waited a moment for her husband. A surgeon, Ann’s human husband had something to say to John Willard about his driving. John was laughing when he stepped out from the driver’s seat. He caught Em’s eye and nodded toward Ann’s husband. She smiled, and John went around the front of the car to get his son from his car seat in back. Mary Eastey took the child from John, and they started toward the house.

  A very pregnant Susannah got out of the front seat of the vehicle that George had been driving. She waved to Em while clearly singing. Sarah Wildes’ voice carried when she got out of the SUV. They were singing the Psalms. Em smiled. Alice’s client-turned-boyfriend got out of the SUV. When turned to help Alice out of the back, Em scowled. Em had never heard Alice mention the boyfriend’s name. Before she could ask, Mary Ayer and her boyfriend, Detective Shane Donnell, got out of the SUV. George’s deep singing voice was heard until her father reached him. The women continued their song without him. Wilmot climbed out of the back of the SUV. She called to Em and waved.

  Em scowled. No one had gotten out of the SUV that Giles had been driving. She was about to make her way there when George jogged to the car. Sam Wardwell got out of the back.

  “We were locked in,” Sam yelled to Em with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. Em laughed.

  Sam’s husband got out behind him. Both men helped a clearly pregnant Elizabeth from the back. Margaret Scott got out after Elizabeth. She waved at Em and went to the back for suitcases. Giles got out from behind the driver’s seat. He went around the front of the vehicle to help Bridget out. They embraced and went back around the SUV to retrieve their infant daughter. Sarah Good was talking on her phone as she got out of the SUV. She waved to Em before turning away from the house to finish her phone call.

  There they were. The sixteen people who’d been hanged with Em in the Salem Witch Trials. As of today, they’d lived through the ups and downs of the last three hundred and twenty-three years. They were the finest people Em had ever known. They were her family. They were her friends. Em beamed with love for each of them.

  George ran across the field to her. He twirled her around and kissed her hard. He
slipped Nate from the sling. He kissed the baby’s cheeks before setting him back in the sling.

  “Your father — he’s. . .” George started.

  “Yeah,” Em said.

  George laughed.

  “Come on,” George said. “Show me around. I’m not sure why, but I’ve never been to Scotland.”

  “It is a mystery,” Em said with a laugh.

  “I want to see everything,” Giles said.

  “As you wish,” Em said.

  Suffer a Witch is written by Claudia Hall Christian. While subscribers of Suffer a Witch serial have already asked for another book, there is nothing in the works so far.

  Claudia is the author of the Alex the Fey Thrillers, the Seth and Ava Mysteries, and Jornada del Muerto. She also writes traditional serial fiction including the long running Denver Cereal, the Queen of Cool, set in Fort Worth, Texas, and Suffer a Witch. Claudia keeps bees, dogs, and a husband in Denver, Colorado

  To find out more, go to ClaudiaHallChristian.com.

  You can find her on Twitter and Facebook.

  She’s a middle child and would love to say “Hello”.

  Thank you for reading.

 

 

 


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