The Pillars Of The World

Very soon she’ll understand there’s only one way she can end her punishment. And then we can leave this place .
    “Master Adolfo,” the magistrate said, casting an anxious eye toward the other villagers who had been summoned that morning to gather around the pond. “Master, my wife’s cousin is a good woman. She couldn’t have done such malicious things.”
    “Are you saying these people, who look to you as a leader in their community, are liars?” Adolfo asked quietly. “Are you saying that the women who freely confessed in order to unburden their spirits couldn’t name the others who had been drawn into the dreadful snare of the witch’s magic, and became witches themselves?”
    “Witches?” The magistrate sweated. “No, no, Master Adolfo. They weren’t witches .”
    Adolfo looked at the man until fear did its duty and the man’s will crumbled beneath it.
    “I am the Witch’s Hammer,” Adolfo said. “I have spent my life studying these foul creatures, these whores of the Evil One. I know its stench—and theirs—when I smell it. Do you deny the troubles that have come to plague your village? Do you deny that two of my Inquisitors have died here in a matter of days? Two men trained and prepared to deal with the Evil One’s servants were overwhelmed while staying in this place. The only way such a thing could happen is if the Evil One found vessels to give it roots here, vessels who had remained hidden from the good people of this community.”
    He paused long enough to nod to the Inquisitors in the boat. The one holding the rope pulled the woman up to the surface again.

    “Perhaps,” Adolfo continued softly, “you protest this cleansing of evil because you fear what we might be told during a confession. Perhaps you have had lustful thoughts about your wife’s cousin. She is a beautiful woman and bold with her opinions. Perhaps you are close to being ensnared into the Evil One’s service. Perhaps. It is not always as easy to tell with men when the Evil One’s hold on them is still weak.
    Softening the flesh is the only way to discover such things. But you and I have not talked about such things in private, have we?”
    The magistrate turned pale and swayed on his feet. “I didn’t ... I never . . . But . . . can’t you simply let her die?”
    Adolfo could almost smell the man’s fear. It didn’t matter if the magistrate had done nothing more than allow his thoughts to wander or had actually indulged in fornication with his wife’s cousin. Now he simply wanted the woman silenced before the Master Inquisitor found a reason to look at him more closely.
    “She must have a chance to redeem her spirit,” Adolfo said gently. “Otherwise, the Evil One will have her in death as it had her in life, and she will endure unspeakable torment in the Fiery Pit.”
    The Inquisitor in the boat let the woman sink, then pulled her up quickly. After a couple more dunkings, when she didn’t have quite enough time to draw a breath, he pulled her up, let her gasp for a moment, then said, “Do you—”
    “Yes!” the woman screamed. “Yes! I confess. I did what you say I did. I confess!”
    Adolfo nodded.
    The Inquisitor released the rope. The woman sank to the bottom of the pond, weighed down by the sack of stones that had been tied to her legs under her dress.
    Everyone waited. Finally, the oars were set and the Inquisitors began rowing back to the shore.
    Adolfo raised his voice enough to reach the silent crowd. The persuasion magic flowed through him, turning his words into hooks that would capture these people and never quite let them go. “It is done.
    The Evil One’s servants have been cleansed from this village. The foul magic they released on their neighbors may continue a little while longer. There is nothing we can do to prevent that. But it will cease, and then you will be free of it—as long as you men remain vigilant. Look around you carefully and take note of the other honest folk who came to witness the end of evil—and remember who stayed away.
    Keep watch over the women who are beholden to you. Do not shirk in your duty to discipline them. If you do not wield the strap with enough strength to help them remain modest and chaste, you do nothing less than thrust them into the Evil One’s embrace. Beware the sharp-tongued woman and the one who is bold with her opinions. They weaken men. Beware the woman who enjoys the carnal duties of marriage too much.
    She will be tempted too