The Necromancer Read Online Free PDF Page B

Tituba stirred and opened her eyes. Her body ached and was especially sore and stinging where she had been violated. She felt fi lthy and ashamed. His semen was all over her thighs and belly. It was still warm but cooling rapidly as it caked to her skin and pubic hair. The cell spun sickeningly. She found it diffi cult to maintain her balance as she attempted to sit up. She fl opped over onto her side, and tasting the bile in the back of her throat, retched and vomited.
    She looked up at Blayne, who was once again fully dressed, wearing his coat, and nestling the tome to his breast.
    “Heed my words, wench,” he reminded her. “Lest you be hanged by your own hands.”
    Then he left her cell, slamming the door shut behind him, and strode down the hall. He banged on the dungeon door for the guard to open it, and he was gone.
    36
    Witch-Hunt

    *****
As the week wore on, more people fell ill. More
    livestock perished. More talk had spread of the witches held in the town’s prison. Neighbors turned on each other. More people became affl icted, accusations were cast, and arrests were made.
    Tituba had confessed as Blayne had insisted, naming herself and the two Sarahs as witches, and now the three of them were being sent to Boston to await trial. As Hathorne, Corwin, Blayne, and several guards escorted them from the prison, four men dragged two more women and one man down the street toward the prison in shackles.
    The two parties met in the road and stopped briefl y to exchange information.
    “Witchcraft?” Hathorne asked expectantly.
    The men nodded solemnly, then proceeded to the
    prison house.
    One of the captive women held Blayne transfi xed. He thought she was dead. No. He knew she was dead.
    Upon closer scrutiny, however, he realized the woman in question—who could have been no more than twenty years old—wasn’t the woman he thought it was, but someone who bore an overwhelming resemblance to her.
    Still, he couldn’t control the feelings that stirred within him when his gaze fi rst fell upon her. It was at that moment that he resolved to see her again, and at any cost, make her his.
    37
    The Necromancer
    38

CHAPTER FOUR
Susanna
    The day following the departure of Tituba and the two Sarahs—March eighth—Blayne rode out to the prison on horseback from his cottage in Salem Village to visit the woman whose image had moved him so. When he arrived, the guard escorted him to her cell, and Blayne dismissed him.
    The dungeon was more dank than usual and the
    stench of waste and body odor more prevalent. The cells were Spartan at best; each one equipped solely with one bucket for bowel and bladder movements. Prisoners, many of whom were infested with lice, were not allowed to bathe and were given only the minimum amounts of food and water necessary to sustain life. Roaches, rats, and other rodents and insects were given free reign to roam from one cell to another and forage for food...or possibly a little fl esh from a slumbering inmate.
    The conditions were ideal for breeding disease.
    But contracting disease was the least of Susanna Harrington’s concerns. The penalty for being convicted of practicing witchcraft in Salem was death by hanging, and Susanna knew her situation didn’t look promising. Why did the Bromidges accuse her of such a serious and detestable crime?
    39
    The Necromancer
    She attended Meeting more regularly than most of the other villagers and was probably a more fervent believer in the divine grace and powers of the Almighty than many of the reverends.
    All she ever wanted was to lead a quiet, peaceful life, and tread the righteous path of the Lord. Now she was in danger of being branded a witch—a servant of Satan—and condemned to die.
    She mulled the dilemma over continuously in her mind as she lay on the fl oor of her cell facing the wall opposite the cell door with her eyes closed. Even if she were acquitted, there would still be the scandal; she would still feel the shame; she would still