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.Kitts.'Gislane looked at him more closely.Here was power, only thinly disguised beneath his so obvious youth; she doubted he was any older than she.And he was also English?'Our people will not wait,' she said.'You have heard?''Of your master's sport,' Henry said.'We have heard.But the time is not yet.The prophecy has not yet been fulfilled.''Prophecy?' she asked.'It was given on this very plantation,' Henry said.'By Celeste,' Gislane said.'But Celeste is dead.How may a mamaloi truly die? Where is the value of this prophecy?''Yet will our friends wait upon it,' Henry insisted.'And our people?' Gislane demanded.They will not wait forever, while they are slaughtered to suit the whim of a madman.Nor will they listen to an Englishman.''Then call me Christophe,' Henry said.'It is the name given to me by my new master.Yet must it be your responsibility to have them wait.If they do not, they will have us all slaughtered, and by the soldiers.'The drummer had reached the appointed place, a clearing in the canefield, and here he halted, without ceasing his rhythmical beat.The devotees, every man and every woman a person of note in the Negro community, walked round the clearing, to form a wall of humanity, much as the Negroes in Nevis had formed a wall around the clearing on the first occasion she had attended a voodoo ceremony, and thought that she had discovered the secret of all secrets, without understanding that the slaves of Nevis, in their poverty of mind no less than imagination, had no more than aped a memory.But that was an eternity ago, and now she must persuade these people that they obeyed the dictates of their god, by patiently waiting for the day of blood.She knew how she would do this, as she had arranged this evening, the moment she had learned of Corbeau's determination to visit Cap Francois.She knew, but she was not sure she believed.And the moment was at hand.The drugged Negro had taken his place in the centre of the clearing, sitting cross-legged immediately in the centre of a shaft of moonlight, shoulders square and head erect, body a gleaming testimony to the magnificence that can be man.On either side of him waited a young woman, each holding a palm leaf, bodies rigid with tense expectation.And the drum-beat had altered, perhaps insensibly, reaching ever deeper into the senses, summoning all the powers of belief it possessed.So then, did she believe? Would she be able to fulfil her sacred mission, as taught her by Boukman?She walked away from the men, and into the centre of the circle, stood next to the young man.Her head spun with the rhythm of the drum; she knew the frenzied tearing at her self-control which was coming ever closer to the surface.And the drum was getting louder.She threw her arms to heaven, and shouted.'Hear me, O mighty one.Hear me, O Serpent, Damballah Oueddo.Hear my prayer, and promise me deliverance for my people.' She paused, and breathed, and listened to the moaning chant which arose from around her.She filled her lungs with air.'How long, great Agone, Master of all the Oceans of the World, must we wait? Hear me, O mighty lord.Speak to me, great Loco, Lord of the Trees.Grant me and my people thy sign of deliverance.Come to me, Gentle Ezilee, sweet maitresse, and take from my mind, from my body, the very last weakness.' Once again she paused, and now the chant had grown louder.And now sweat ran down her arms and body and legs as if it were raining.And once again her lungs were full.'Come to me, O mighty Ogone Badagris.Come to my people, O Dreadful One.Lead us to war, as is thy purpose.Grant us an end to all white people.Grant us the mood of hate and cruelty, that their destruction may be known throughout the world, and forever.Grant us revenge, O Dreadful One, for the wrongs that are daily committed upon us.Grant us now a sign, my lords, that our prayers are heeded.'She gasped, and fell to her knees, exhausted.She felt rather than saw Boukman leave the circle of devotees, knew rather than observed the machete he carried, blade honed to a razor-sharp perfection.She wanted to get up again.She wanted to scream, no, no, no, I did not mean a word of it, I do not understand what power I set in motion here, I do not know.and now I am afraid, O Mighty Serpent.But she moved nothing, save her head, which slowly came upright, to watch Boukman before the young man, neither man even blinking his eyes, as the hougan threw back his head and screamed to his gods in an unknown tongue, and then whirled the cutlass around his own head, and with a single unbelievable sweep of the razor-sharp sword swept through the neck of the victim.The head fell forward, and the machete had been dropped.Boukman caught the head, his great hands immediately smeared with blood, while the two girls hastily fanned the still upright, blood-spouting neck with vigorous anxiety; should but a speck of dirt, a single insect, settle on the tortured flesh, the sacrifice would be a failure.She forced herself to watch.Because I am not seeing, she told herself.I am dreaming, as I surely dreamed that first night on Hodges, as I have surely dreamed ever since.But the blood spurting from the severed arteries held her spellbound.And now Boukman was advancing again, having held the dripping head high to present it to the worshippers.Slowly he advanced, and slowly he replaced the head, carefully, exactly, while in that moment another young woman threw a large piece of red cloth over the dead man.The dead man? Within seconds his feet began to move, and then his arms, and the throbbing of the drum had resumed command over all their senses.The young man's mask was taken away, and he was unchanged, but shuffling and posturing immediately in front of her, calling her to her feet, calling her to discard her gown, calling her to take his sex as he would take hers.And the drum was reaching a crescendo, even as she was impaled
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Tematy
IndexChristine Amsden [Cassie Scot Cassie Scot ParaNormal Detecti
Christine Wood [Life Plan 01] A Life Plan Without You (epub)
Christie Craig [Divorced, Des Divorced, Desperate
Moore Christopher Ssij, mała, ssij (II)
Christine Cody [Bloodlands 01 Bloodlands (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 3 (epub)
Christian Fletcher [The Left Left on the Brink (epub)
Stasheff, Christopher Wizard in Rhyme 6 Haunted Wizard
Christopher G Nuttall [Royal The Royal Sorceress (epub)
Christine Feehan Mroczna Seri Mroczny Demon