Shadowplay

CELL 18

His ancestors had dug the Room, lined it with stone and timber, then laid plaster frescos over the stones, images of rites that excited him desperately when he first saw them and realized what they promised. He found the place by accident of rot and worm, stole money from his father to hire a Tanak tramp to repair the panels and restore the secrecy. Killing the Tanak wasn't very satisfying, he was so ignorant those days, he'd known nothing. He used the frescos as a crude guide and buried the man folded in fetal position beneath the hearth. He hadn't read the books yet, he hadn't heard the Secret God whispering In his ear. He hadn't known about Becoming or Hitsa or how Hitsa could help him Become. He hadn't known who he really was, that he was Nataminaho the Hunter being reborn from the flesh of man.

The EYE followed him, recording his satisfaction as he marked a girlchild as his next sacrifice, recording his impatience as he waited for the proper moment to take her. It was not yet time to move openly. His time would come to him. God's Voice told him she would come. And it was so.

He collected her like a ripe fruit, took her to the Room and followed in loving detail the ritual he had derived from his reading.

When she was at last near her peace, he took her beating heart from her body and ate it, slicing it thin as paper and roasting the slices over the ritual fire, consuming the Hitsa with her heart, drawing into himself her purity and her strength, taking another step toward the Great Transformation. The God Voice had promised him a Pakoseo Year and it was upon them even now. Everything the Voice had promised had come to him. He was very happy.

When the heart was gone, he wrapped the child in a clean sheet, took her out into the night. She was an empty vessel; if he burled her as he had the Tanak, she would begin to draw back into herself the power he had taken from her. He dropped her In the ditch, took the sheet back to the Room and burned it.

It didn't matter what happened to her leavings. She was empty, she had played her destined role and all that was sacred in her lived in him now.