“Let me see,” Derwin requested, and I held my hands out for him tosee.
Derwin took hold of my wrists and examined the hand and fingers. He nodded slowly and retrieved a few cloths. Carefully, he wrapped my hands and then held the charger up to mylips.
“Drink, River,” he said. “You must keep your hands wrapped until they heal. It might take a few days. The drinks contain a potion to help keep you boys healthy while the weather isbad.”
Merc and I finished our drinks and then laid down in front of the fire. Even though the floor of Derwin’s place was hard, it was much better than sleeping on the cold, wet groundoutside.
“You boys may stay the night, but at sunup, you must be gone. Both of you know that the Carpe Noctem like to move through the forest after a good storm. They will most likely stophere.”
Derwin gave us blankets and dry clothes before he doused the lanterns and went to bed. Merc and I counted our blessings that we were safe under solid shelter for thenight.
By morning, I was warm and felt stronger than I had in days. Derwin had breakfast ready for us when we woke. Merc and I ate hastily as we tried to be out of Derwin’s before the sun came up. Derwin provided us with some supplies and dry burlap to repair ourshelter.
As we walked back to our shelter, I felt sticky as the humidity from the rain hung in the air heavily. Merc and I worked through the day to reinforce our shelter and replace the soaked burlap with the dry one. We were almost finished with fixing our camp when I heard a faint ringing sound in the distance; the bell. Merc and I looked at one another to confirm that both of us had heard it. He lowered his head and then tossed the wet burlap next to the big treetrunk.
The bell was our reason for being alive. Our fathers had Derwin put the Curse of Demons on us when we were babies. The curse deemed that we would lead lives as sin eaters for the town. They called upon us when someone was near death, and we would literally eat theirdemons.
Though from a young age, I had watched Merc carry the tasks, I had yet to perform one myself. I was still learning by watching. I was not afraid of the act of sin eating. We were vampires, and the craving for blood has always been in me. But it was what could happen after that made me uneasy. The demons would surface in the night and give Merc terrible nightmares. Many times, I would wake up to Merc thrashing on his woolcloak.
“Ready?” Merc askedme.
“Merc, let me do this one,” I said as we briskly walked through the forest toStonewald.
“No, not yet,River.”
“Why?” I asked. I was frustrated. “I have been watching you since I was little,” I remindedhim.
“You still are little,” helaughed.
“I amten.”
“You are still little. River, you are going to be doing this your whole damn life. Let me protect you from it as long as Ican.”
“Please, Merc. Let me do this one,” Ibegged.
He sighed and remained quiet for the rest of our walk. As we neared the edge of the forest, I could see that Corbett was waiting for us. Corbett was the man that rang the bell and would give us the information we needed and thelocation.
“Good day, Merc and River,” Corbettgreeted.
“Hello, Corbett,” Mercsaid.
“How did you boys fare in last night’s storm?” Corbettasked.
“Alright. We had to find some new logs this morning. We just need to cut them,” Merc quickly spokeup.
He did not mention Derwin, and I knew better than to bring himup.
“Very well,” Corbett said and then changed the topic to the reason we were there. “Today it is Anne McCormick. She does not have long left. The cold from the storm has made her worse today. She is at her home with herhusband.”
Merc confirmed the directions with Corbett before we tookoff.
“River, Anne McCormick is one of the sweetest old ladies. I cannot imagine anything dark in her life. I know I said that I wanted to protect you from this as long as I could, but if ever there was someone that I thought would be good for your first one, it would be her,” Merc said under his breath as we walked throughtown.
“I can do it!” I eagerly expressed that I would do thisone.
“Alright. Remember the order in which you must do it?” he tested mymemory.
“Yes, I recite the doctrine and then bite thewrist.”
