Page 106 of Moon Chosen

“Is this canine so important to you?” Dead Eye said.

The man’s eyes flashed with barely controlled rage. “You seem to be leader of these mutants, so I’m going to assume you have more brains than they do and you know the importance of a bonded canine-Companion pair. So, yes, Odysseus is so important to me that I would make many sacrifices to save him.”

“Interesting…” Dead Eye mused. Then he lowered his voice and whispered to Dove. “You were right, my precious one. We needed to capture the canine with the man. This will be perfect.”

She smiled serenely and stroked his arm. “Continue with our plan, Champion. I will make sure the God is with you. The People will follow your lead—now and always.” She turned to face the crowd that waited with almost palpable excitement. “This will not be the type of sacrifice you are used to, but the God has shown me what must be done to please Her, and your Champion will make it so.”

There was a stirring among the People, and then the Harvesters dropped to their knees, followed by the Hunters, and finally the older men and women who had begun to emerge from the shadows surrounding the Temple.

“They show reverence,” Dead Eye whispered to her.

She nodded almost imperceptibly, and then she lifted the ritual trident from its sheath at her slender waist and shouted, “Let the sacrifice begin!”

“Let the sacrifice begin!” the People echoed.

Dead Eye took the trident from her, bowing reverently to Dove. Then he motioned for Iron Fist to join him on the platform. Flanked by the Harvester who held the canine on one side, and the eyeless Oracle on the other, Dead Eye approached the bound man.

“I would have your name before I begin,” Dead Eye said.

“Will you free Odysseus?”

“I will. You have my word that your canine will be allowed to leave the City alive.”

The man seemed to deflate with relief. “My name is Thaddeus.”

“Thaddeus, I am the Champion, and I honor you for what you will bring to my People.” Then Dead Eye reached out, grasped the front of Thaddeus’s soaked tunic, and ripped it from his body.

Dead Eye stared at the man’s naked torso, hardly believing what he was seeing, and then he threw back his head and began to laugh. Behind him the People stirred restlessly, questioning murmurs spreading throughout the crowd. Dead Eye stepped aside, so that the People could get a clear view of Thaddeus. There were gasps of shock and cries of amazement as the People saw the cracked, shedding skin that decorated his arms and torso.

“He is one of us!” Dead Eye shouted, then he turned back to Thaddeus, who was watching him with hard, cold eyes. “So, you ate the meat of the stag.” He hadn’t framed the sentence as a question, but the Other answered anyway.

“I didn’t eat it. Its blood got in my eyes and my mouth.”

“Then your skin began to crack and shed,” Dead Eye said, unable to stop smiling.

“Yes. Look, enough of this useless chitchat. Let Odysseus go and get on with it. I’m actually looking forward to getting this fucking disgusting skin off my body and being rid of this pain-in-the-ass world.”

Dead Eye laughed again. “Oh, no! No! You misunderstand. I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to save you.” He gestured at Iron Fist. “Bring the canine to me.”

Iron Fist came to him, holding out the little Terrier. Dead Eye took the canine, flipped him over, so that his side and belly were exposed. With a motion so smooth and practiced that Odysseus did not begin to scream or struggle until the first strip of bloody flesh had been sliced cleanly from his body, Dead Eye made the first cut.

“No! Fucking stop hurting him, you bastard! You swore to let him go!” Thaddeus shrieked and struggled against his shackles.

“And I will keep my oath, but only after I complete the sacrifice.” With the same dexterity, Dead Eye cut two more slender, bloody strips from the struggling canine, handing each to Dove, who held them reverently in her soft, white hands. Finally, he told Iron Fist, “Bind the canine’s wounds.”

Then he turned to Thaddeus, who was sobbing and shrieking with the same hysteria the canine had been showing.

“Ssssh,” Dead Eye soothed. “Your Odysseus will recover. He has served my purpose. And you will recover, too.” Then he took the ribbons of scarlet flesh from Dove, one at a time, carefully shaping them into smaller pieces before he began packing them into the angry cracks in Thaddeus’s skin.

“What are you doing?” Thaddeus said between teeth gritted against anger and pain.

“Saving you,” Dead Eye said.

Meticulously, Dead Eye packed each of the cracks in Thaddeus’s skin with the Terrier’s still warm flesh. When he was finished, Dove called her Attendants to wrap strips of cloth over the wounds, and then, once more, Dead Eye turned to face the People.

“Now you see what the God has shown Dove. Bring Thaddeus water and his canine. They are free to return to their city in the trees!” Dead Eye unshackled Thaddeus, so that the man slumped to the floor of the bloody platform. Iron Fist returned then with the bandaged Odysseus, whom Dead Eye took from the Harvester and gave to Thaddeus. The man clutched the little canine to his bloody chest, rocking back and forth and staring through pain-slitted, wary eyes at him.

There was a restless silence, and then one of the senior Hunters, a man known as Serpent, spoke. “Champion, we hear and will obey the will of the God, but we do not understand.”