Beyond hearing

Crimes

The cries from around sent shivers down Kull’s spine.  Pain they wanted, his pain they got.  Kull’s first warning  .. … a shrill yelp from Katz nearby, tied at another stake probably.  Then something struck him too, across the chest.  Hard.   Smarting.  Caught unawares, he jumped, he yelled.  Katz was crying out again too.  Another burning slash tore into Kull’s front.  He was getting whipped.  He jerked against the post, pain hissed out of his throat.  In anticipation, Kull twisted away  ..  taking the next smarting burn painfully across his ribs.  He jerked away, shocked, the stinging pain burst from his eyes under the hood.  Again, again.

 A stinging slash contorted his torso, Kull gasped out loud, jerked his head away.  He cracked the back of his skull against the stake.  And again.  Burning lashes again tore into his chest. He was sweating inside the thick hood.  Twisting, evading what he could not see, dodging pain as best he could.  Close-by he heard Katz again ..  though he couldn’t give him a fuck.  A stinging burn tore across his unsuspecting midriff.  Automatically he tried to double up, he couldn’t, stopped by the ropes. He heard jeers,mocking laughter, cheers from the mob.  Mixed-in he heard Katz. Bellowing.  Bawling out. With pain.  Or did that sound like rage?

The stinging slash whipped agonisingly across the twin hard plates of Kull’s chest driving his back into the stake.  Bursting right on top of earlier red-raw welts.  Kull’s head cracked back hard against the post. He hissed, he grunted,  Again, seizing advantage, searing lashes burned across his ribs. Repeatedly scorching its brand onto the same small area of burning skin.  Raw welts beaten till his flesh swelled and burned.  With each searing lash Kull was twisted painfully in his bonds.  He yelped, he twisted off a hard blow slashed across his belly.  Air burst from his lungs into his hood.

Kull jumped again  ..  this time at a sudden loud blaring sound.  Were they going to burst into song?  Mocking his pain?  It sounded grating, crude.  But it was loud.  Loud long blaring notes from some ancient instrument, trumpet-like.  The beatings stopped.  Suddenly.  The jeering from the mob died away.  Mysteriously.  Halted by another long attention-grabbing blaring that you could not miss.  The screams for his pain died away.  Eerily everything suddenly fell silent, the whipping stopped.  Then two more times the blaring blasted out, echoing off walls.

It stopped.  But the echoes seemed to hang in the air.
“The Sorceress.”
The gang leader’s voice broke the heavy silence.
“Attend Mohlog’s bride.”
What the ….!  Kull’s head went into overdrive  ..  trying to piece together what was happening here. But nothing made sense  ..  there was no more blaring, no more jeering from onlookers.  The thrashing had stopped.  Nothing to hear, nothing to see.  But something was happening.

Konto approached his sister.  Respectfully he remained at the foot of the steps to her shrine.
“Stop that.  Immediately.”
Kanta was not looking at him.  Her eyes were directed at the pair of violators tied to their stakes.
“Well?”
She WAS glaring down at him now.  Angered at her brother’s lack of response.
“Stop it!”

The people’s punishment had already stopped, on the sounding of her horn.  But still she scowled down at her brother.  Slowly, as a token of the respect in which the people held his sister’s powers, Konto approached, he mounted the steps.  Close up, he spoke quietly so the people could not listen in.
“They have desecrated Mohlog’s sacred terrain.  The people fear his wrath.  They demand punishment.  Their death.”

Kanta looked at her brother with scorn in her eyes.
“You do not understand.”
She scoffed.
“How could you? It is to me that Mohlog speaks.  He has made his desires known to me.”
Disparaging she looked away from him.  Her gaze turned on the two prisoners.
”You, little brother, have got it all wrong.”

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