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“He never spoke. Not once,” Big Sha said.
The Auditors mumbled to one another in French while Bishop glanced behind him at the loudly whispering women. Maggie and Beth were in a heated discussion. Bishop connected gazes with Spook and barely nodded toward them. Bishop faced the Auditors when Spook headed to quiet the women before they were kicked out for disruption.
“Let the Seer come forth and see our Sinner,” Grand Oratrice ordered.
Samuel arrived and angled his head at the lowered one before him. He reached out and placed his hand over the crown of his skull, the size difference confirming his young age. The boy began to tremble after a full minute, making Bishop wonder what Seer saw.
He finally withdrew his hand and eyed Bishop with barely a headshake. He faced the Auditors. “I see darkness in the young man but I can’t make out how it’s tied to him.”
“The Sinner will confess or be forced to roll the Fate Dice to discern answers,” Grand Oratrice said.
The boy-man’s silence slowly burned away Bishop’s patience. He nodded at Samuel when they got no answer, and he placed the Fate Dice on the table.
“Roll the dice,” Bishop ordered only to get no answer again. He regarded Samuel then stepped over and grabbed the boy’s jaw, jerking his face up. The empty look in the large brown eyes got hold of him. “How old are you?” Bishop demanded. It wasn’t what he’d wanted to say but it’s what came out. “You need to roll those Fate Dice, boy.”
The boy looked down at the table and slowly picked them up and threw them down.
Samuel stared at the dice then looked at Bishop, his face troubled. Bishop looked at the dice then back at Samuel.
“The boy rolled Gray,” Samuel announced to the Auditors, getting earnest mumbling.
Bishop stepped closer to Samuel. “Remind me what Gray is.”
He leaned and whispered, “Yes and no mean there is sin and there is no sin. It’s as I saw. There’s sin and yet I can’t see how it’s tied to him exactly.”
Bishop locked gazes with him. “The fuck does that mean? He’s Noctambule.”
Samuel leaned, eying the boy before returning his troubled gaze to Bishop. “I know.”
“Excuse me!”
The gavel rang out as Bishop and Samuel turned to find Maggie waving her hand like a student in class.
“Observers are not allowed to speak during court,” Grand Oratrice said.
Bishop and Samuel walked over to her and leaned in to hear what she needed to say.
“I need to touch the boy,” she said, grabbing Samuel’s hand in both of hers.
****
The Seer jolted the moment Maggie touched him, his sight seeming to explode with dark visions all around them. She nodded at him and stood.
“Order!” the Grand Oratrice called with another bang of the gavel.
“Grand Oratrice,” Seer said, keeping hold of Maggie’s hand as he hurried to the front with her. “Maggie is the wife of Spook and she has gifts similar to mine. I can testify personally that her gifts are powerful and accurate as she has used them on me. I would ask that the Auditors permit her to touch the boy and discern what she can.”
The Grand Oratrice whispered to the ladies on her left then right before nodding. “Do as you see fit Seer.”
Seer let go of Maggie’s hand and she went before the boy slowly reaching out with a shaking hand. One hand rested on the right side of his head then she brought the other on the left. Seer stepped back when the darkness he’d seen in the boy rose up all around him, pissed and swirling. Maggie let out a sob as she knelt before him and her hands moved to his face, feeling and tracing the way she’d done to him. Seeing and understanding everything that had been maddening shadows inside him. She wailed and reached a trembling hand behind her toward Samuel. He hurried to her and took hold of it, sucked into a vortex of pain and torture. He dropped to his knees, grabbing Maggie’s shoulder as he saw and understood the darkness and why the dice rolled Gray. There were no sins to confess because the boy was not the perpetrator, he was one of their victims, bound in and by their sins.
“Dear God,” he shot out, heaving as he saw the devastation. Then he saw the thing that cut him the deepest and yanked his hand then Maggie from the boy. He pulled her in his embrace as she screamed and sobbed with the trauma.
“SPOOK!” he yelled, needing him to get her as he stared at the statue still boy.
“What did you see?” Bishop demanded in a harsh whisper.
“Let The Seer speak,” the Grand Oratrice ordered, banging the gavel.
