My leg itches. Where my leg used to be itches. Scratching my peg leg doesn’t help, and I want to scream at the uncaring heavens. The mule cart bounces me to and fro as it slowly makes its way along the rutted tracks in the earth. The Bishop’s servant Fulke is as stolid, and possibly as intelligent, as the mule he is walking beside. This is the start of the fifth day, however, and I should reach the end of the journey by midday.

Damn politics! There I was in the Carlisle market haggling over supplies for the Cathedral when two mobs of Royalists and Roundheads start fighting. Someone fires a musket and the ball glances off a stone and carries away my left knee. Two weeks later, a surgeon has cut off half my leg to save me from gangrene. Now I must ride in a mule cart, tossed back and forth, rather than riding the mule itself in slightly more comfort.

I still have fevers from time to time, but at the moment I am filled with purpose. I carefully played on the Bishop’s sympathy and got him to approve my return to my home village. I doubt he would have approved my return to the village of Andras Hill, but he doesn’t know that I told Fulke the destination had changed. I know he would have thrown me in chains if he knew that I had stolen the holy relic from the cathedral and replaced it with a finger bone I had found at the surgery. But needs must, and I have a score to settle in the hills above Andras Hill.

It has been a year since I left the ungrateful village, summoned by the Bishop over a complaint about my position as vicar of the church there. A complaint by the “Village Council”. As if a village of 120 needs a council. They had me as vicar!

But they were too cowardly to support me against the shadow of Satan that loomed over them from the hillside. A circle of standing stones not three hours walk away was a gateway to Hell, infecting their minds. I tried to exorcise the demon with Bible, bell, holy water and crucifix, but was not strong enough and the demon threw me down. This time I will return to the stones with the holy relic and the demon will not be able to stand against me.

Finally, we arrive. Those folk who are about stare as Fulke leads the mule cart up to the Vicarage next to the church. One of the women, Mathilda, the petty school teacher, bustles over and helps Fulke get me out of the cart. Balanced on my crutch, I hobble up to the Vicarage door, which Mathilda opens. Fulke follows behind with my case of belongings. The Vicarage seems untouched in the year since I left.

“Have you cleaned?”

“Yes, weekly. We had no idea when you would return and did not receive a message that you were returning now.”

“Well, I’m back. Is Gilbert Blexham still at the inn?”

“Yes”

“Tell him I need him. And get the hunters. Philip Ruderfurd and Hume Valcar.”

“Yes Vicar”

“Fulke, thank you. You are released and can return home.”

“Thank you, Vicar.”

“And Fulke, just tell anyone who asks that you returned me to my home village. You need not tell them where.”

“Yes, Vicar.”

After an hour or two, Gilbert Blexham knocked on the door and was admitted by Mathilda.

“It will take a while to find Ruderfurd and Valcar, but they should be in the inn this evening.”

He looked at my leg, but diplomatically decided not to ask about it.

“What are you planning?”

“I want you to accompany me to the Standing Stones and those two to help me get there.”

“I thought you said the demon was too strong for you last time you opposed it.”

“Yes. But this time I brought the holy relic of Saint Thomas from the Cathedral. The Demon will not be proof against that.”

“You have the holy relic? Here?”

He started to ask one more question, then decided he did not want to know the answer and looked aside. Then said “Why do you want me to climb up there? I’m not like the hunters. I don’t walk the hills.”

“Because you are my best ally in the village. I need you to tell everyone how I bested the demon, and you will need to see it with your own eyes.”

He started to say something else, then changed his mind and looked around again.

“Assuming I see them tonight, I’ll bring them over in the morning. From the looks of your leg, they’ll have to take turns supporting you up the hill.”

He then turned and left.

Tomorrow morning. Yes, best strike as soon as possible. Despite having a bit of a fever, I can’t risk that someone in village warns the demon that I’m back.

All three arrived early the next morning. Ruderfurd and Valcar were as laconic as I remembered them. Blexham was irritated, but tried to hide it. Valcar took my pack. I clumped along up the trail into the hills as best I could. From time to time Ruderfurd or Valcar would take my crutch and put their arm under my shoulder to bear my weight and we would hobble further. I’m not sure who was actually slower, me or Blexham, but what should have been a three-hour hike into the hills took five. Fortunately this was midsummer and the days were long. Still it would be getting dark by the time we were home.

Finally, we topped the third crest and there it was. Twelve standing stones surrounding a black boulder in a small meadow maybe a hundred yards off the trail. The last time I was here, two of the stones had fallen, knocked over by the demon in a show of force and then replaced. All of them were still standing.

I told Valcar to give me my pack and carefully unwrapped the relic, a finger bone of St Thomas. Blexham went down on his knees and blessed himself. Ruderfurd and Valcar merely looked at each other, at the stones, then back at me.

I took my crutch and hobbled through the grass and, coming up to the stones, held the relic aloft in my right hand. Blexham got back up and all three trailed further behind.

There was a sudden feeling that we were not alone in this place. I looked around, but there was nothing but the stones, still and silent.

I walked around the circle, touching the relic to each stone in turn, saying:

“In the name of Jesus Christ and St. Thomas his holy apostle, by the power of the Holy Spirit and this holy relic, I command you to leave this place.”

I walked into the circle and touched the relic to the black boulder in the center.

“In the name of Jesus Christ and St. Thomas his holy apostle, by the power of the Holy Spirit and this holy relic, I command you to leave this place.”

“Why?”

Just like last time, the words just sounded in my mind.

“Creature of Lucifer, you are subject to the power of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This holy relic gives me the power to banish you to the netherhells from which you came!”

I pressed the relic against my own forehead to burn its presence out of my mind, but there was no sense of change. The vague sense that we were not alone remained. The other three had remained outside the circle. Valcar and Ruderfurd had apparently decided to sit down and rest while I dealt with the demon. Blexham was back on his knees praying furiously.

“I told you last time, I am a child of the EverChangingIs. You can make up as many names as you want, you have no ability to make me do anything.”

“What is the EverChangingIs?”

“It is all that is; all the parallel realities. It has always existed, will always exist, and is always changing.”

“You lie. You are a child of Satan, the Father of Lies. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. That is the truth. There are no ‘parallel realities’ or an EverChangingIs.”

“Believe what you want. I’ve been here in this local reality for the last 110 million years. Why do you think you have possessory rights?”

“God gives me the authority as his vicar to order his local affairs.”

“You’ll have to introduce me to this ’God’ sometime so we can have a chat about that.”

Suddenly a crow dropped out of the sky, snatched the relic out of my hands, and flapped to the top of one of the stones.

“Finger bones of dead humans don’t have any power over anything. And your Bishop might be interested in your theft.”

“That is a relic of St. Thomas. Give it back!” I screamed.

The voice in my head chuckled. The crow spread its wings and glided down towards the other three, then dropped the finger bone in front of Blexham, who frantically scrambled backward. Valcar sighed, took a handkerchief out of his pocket, stood up, walked over to where the finger bone had fallen, picked it out of the grass and held it up towards me.

I hobbled as rapidly as I could to him and took the relic, covering it with its original cloth. Was the relic a fake? Could someone else have stolen the real relic and I had stolen a fake and left another fake in its place?

I turned back to the stones. “Maybe I can’t drive you from here, but I order you to stay away from the village.”

“Did someone drop you on your head when you were a child?”

I think my face was starting to turn red. I gritted my teeth. “I will not let you goad me.”

“I think you don’t have much more ability to control yourself than you have to control me.”

“Demon, I will destroy you if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Not a demon. Show me a single evil thing I’ve done.”

“You would lead the villagers away from the true God. You want worshippers. Our God says ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’”

“I’m not your god and have no desire to be your god. Why would I want to listen to your complaints all day? I’m also self-sustaining. I don’t need nor am I looking for worshippers. Keep worshipping your imaginary God or worship what you want. It’s all the same to me.”

“You must bow down to the Son of the Most High.”

“I don’t have to do anything. And if you don’t give up this nonsense pretty soon, you’re not going to get back to the village before dark.”

At that point Valcar said “It’s right. At the rate you and Blexham travel, we need to start back now.”

I realized, to my horror, that the others had heard everything the voice in my mind had said as well as I did. Ruderfurd got up and offered his hand to Blexham, who took it and was assisted to stand. Mentally screaming, I turned my back on the stones, put the relic in my bag and started through the grass towards the path.

The voice cut through my mental screaming. “Different is not evil. Before you start telling stories about me being an evil demon, I suggest you think hard on your own commandment to not bear false witness about your neighbor. And I am a neighbor.”

With that, the sense of presence disappeared.

I screamed at the stones. “You are not a neighbor. Nothing that is not human can be a neighbor.”

We finally stumbled into the village just after dark. Valcar and Ruderfurd had carried me on their backs most of the way.

I thought hard about what my next move should be. I couldn’t admit to the Bishop that I had stolen the relic, but since it was ignored by the demon, it must be a fake and not the real holy relic.

The exertion of yesterday left me exhausted, and I stayed in bed most of the day, which of course meant no Sunday service in the church. Blexham was sure to have told the whole story over ale last night with everyone in the inn. What to do?

My fever and chills have gotten worse. I can’t get out of bed. At least Mathilda brings me food from the inn.

Rev. Walter Sencler died of a fever and was buried in the church cemetery today.

Next - The Publican’s Tale (Gilbert Blexham) (July 10-11, 1643)

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