Part 55

David shuddered... and kept shuddering. His wrists trembled in their restraints.

Then he saw it.

Ahead, the floor leveled out and ran for a short distance into a large chamber carved out of solid rock. The same horrid torches hung to the walls, but the chamber was so wide that their light couldn't penetrate to the center of the room. Instead, a double-row of tall poles bisected the chamber, leading from the single entrance to a small altar two-thirds of the distance to the far wall. Each pole was topped by one of those torches. The far wall was flat, as if some monstrous axe had cleaved it off. It bore a large, amorphous stain that may have been old blood... or may have been something else. The reddish glow of the torches lit enough of the surrounding space for David to catch a glimpse of three robed figures in the room.

He could barely count them before the floor leveled and he found himself staring at the ceiling.

The gray men carried him into the underground room. They paused a few steps inside. The combination of scents that burned David's nose was stronger here... especially the primal, animal smell. Only now there was strong sharp streak of rotting eggs along with it.

And it was hot. Very hot.

Fear coiled and loosened in David's chest like a serpent.

His side itched. Sweat plastered the thin white robe to his skin.

"We Come Through The Darkness," The men pronounced solemnly.

"Come And Bear Tribute." A single male voice responded. The huge empty room with its irregular stone walls transformed Rinius' voice into something inhuman.

David heard shoes crunching on the loose stone, as the men carried him between the double-row of torches.

More shoes followed them. Ten... then dozens... then over a hundred sets of feet filed slowly into the chamber and spread out behind the six gray men.

It was them. It was the town. They had all plunged through that darkness and walked down the stone corridor to this room. They'd all come to watch him die.

How would they do it? WHO would do it? Rinius?

Dad?

"MMMM!" David screamed into the gag.

The lattice rose slightly, and eased forward before lowering onto the stone altar.

The flow of people filing into the room slowed, then stopped. The crunch of feet on stone fell silent.

For many long seconds, there was no sound in the room save for the sputtering of torches and David's own breathing.

"WHO BRINGS THIS TRIBUTE!" Rinius's voice boomed without warning. The response followed at once:

"WE DO!" The two words rose from every throat in unison. David flinched once again as the walls amplified and mutated the sound, turning it into a roar that hammered at David's ears.

The echo faded slowly... but then-

"AND WHO ARE WE!" Rinius asked. The response:

"THE PEOPLE OF THE COVENANT!"

"WHO AMONG US RECEIVES THE HONOR!"

"We do."

This time the response was not a room-wide shout. Only two voices responded; one male and one female.

David knew those voices. He knew them well. He'd heard them every day of his life... heard them crying and laughing and fighting...

"You give this child to the town, abandoning all claims, for Honor and Tribute?"

"We do," Lowell and Rietta Vern answered. There was a tremor in Rietta's voice, but she spoke the words just the same.

The silence that followed was long and terrible.