"The depths of our misery
can never fall below the
depths of mercy."

Richard Sibbes

⚖︎⚖︎⚖︎

-Nightingale-

Segenah left Jamestowne by way of the river directly after the Reverend walked away. Now, as he sat in his canoe in the still waters of the Nottoway River at the bridge which led into the settlement, his mind struggled with what he had been taught, and what the Reverend was asking him to do. He had nothing to gain or lose he surmised, by bending his will to that of the Englishman, and he had done that many times over the course of many seasons to keep peace among the tribes and these strangers from across the sea. But he was becoming an old man now, and had seen more than his fair share of death and destruction.

As he sat at the rivers edge and pondered all these things the haunting song of a lone Virginia Nightingale drifted on the wind and it's reverie spoke of the deep sadness the land had suffered from drinking the blood of many souls from the hour of Segenah's birth to this very season of change. The bird's melody drifted past, and disappeared, much like the settlements of his people and a stillness took its place.

Wisdom had kept him alive and humility had become a friend to him when his own people had stubbornly chosen war, he had chosen the education of the English traders and joined them, becoming a valuable asset to their exploration and discovery of these great vast Territories from the rising sun in the east to the setting of the sun in the west.

A flock of night swallows burst from the forest dipping and darting over the mirror smooth surface of the river capturing bugs and slim marbled river trout swam in unison beneath him their invisible paths known only to them. The silence murmured against his ear and he watched as a black moccasin snake slithered from the bank into the river looking for its own type of meal.

Down river several wild turkeys stomped in circles fluffing their feathers to make themselves look much bigger than they were and faced off with one another in mock battles and several deer that had been lurking deeper along the bank popped their heads up and looked in the direction of Pennybacker. Segenah watched them closely.

These small deer were the sentinels of the woodlands, and all at once they exploded to life bounding away only seconds before Segenah heard the screams. He jumped from the canoe and pulled it to shore before he took off running up and across the bridge he had once vowed to never cross.

He kept to the shadows as he ran, not wanting to be seen as he was unsure of what was happening.

A woman's booming voice echoed from somewhere within the walls. It was high-pitched and angry.

Segenah entered the gates at a trotting clip and further in, noticed, with rising degrees of pith, the utter darkness that lived here but he did not have time to amuse himself with the reasons. He doubted any explanation would suit him. Above him at a slight incline sat what he assumed to be the main lodge. It was a huge rock and wood domicile and the basic type of lodging used by the English settlers. Unlike the inhabitants of his people, these dwellings were stationary, as these English were not wont to move about with the seasons.

Segenah stopped just shy of a wooden fence and squatted down beside it to watch the unfolding dispute. He was not keen to interfere as the angry woman held her flint-lock rifle with a steady aim. A young man cowered on the ground at her feet begging for mercy and another woman stood at the door of the enclosure screaming.

He recognized the women but the man was unknown to him. There was not a single other soul around to mitigate what was happening, all unusual behavior in his experience. He was unsure of what he should do if anything. The younger woman's shrieks were becoming increasingly desperate and Segenah was about to throw caution to the wind and intervene when a movement caught the side of his eye. Someone was coming around from the back of the great lodge. Segenah held his ground.

He saw lit torches on long sticks carried by the large group of townsmen and also women some even had their babies carried loosly on their hips. The men advanced aggressively, shouting and one man in particular yelled the womans name, demanding she drop the rifle. He came boldly forward and stood at her left while the other men encircled her. She swung around and around aiming her fire arm here and there as someone grabbed the young man by the shoulder and pulled him free from his imminent death.

"This marks the end of your reign of terror Iris!" The first man yelled. "If you think I am going to stand by and let you kill my son you have indeed gone mad!"

A woman came to stand by the man and she pointed at Iris as tears wet her cheeks. "Iris! Please! Walk away!"

"You hold your tongue Annaliese! You have no part in this." Iris yelled back at her older sister.

"He is my son Iris! What in God's Holy Name are you saying? Cyrus is our son! You have no part in him! Do you hear me Iris! None!"

"He is a devil and a thorn in my side! He should have been tossed to the grave the day he was born!"

Annaliese stormed forward and Iris raised the flint-lock aiming straight for her chest.

In that blink of an instant Segenah stood, pulled his bouy knife and threw it. The people of Pennybacker watched as if from nowhere the knife found it's target, buried in the side of her neck. Iris stood there gaping, never knowing what hit her as her knees buckled and she folded to the ground.

Annaliese screamed and fell at her son's side grasping roughly, pulling him into her arms.

Constance stood in a trance staring straight out beyond the fence. One moment there was a man standing there and the next, he was gone, disappearing into the night. Segenah. Segenah had saved Cyrus' life and she had been the only one who saw him in the confusion of the moment.

Instantly her Aunt Annaliese was helping Cyrus to stand and her husband went to them hugging Cyrus and asking what had happened.

Annaliese looked at her husband. "It was the Bird People, Hanley! I saw them! There!" She pointed toward the fence and everyone turned but there was only darkness.

Constance came down from the porch slowly, making her way over. Hanley hugged her.

Annaliese placed a hand on her check gently. "Did you see them Constance?"

She shook her head. She wasn't lying. She hadn't seen the Bird People. She cast her eyes to the ground and cried. Her shoulders trembled and she felt a great release,

"It's going to be alright Constance. We saw everything that happened. As soon as we heard her yell we came downstairs. We saw and heard what she said. Hanley went to fetch our brothers and I waited in the back."

"I thought she was going to kill him and I, I didn't know what to do," Constance wept. "She said he had to leave. That, he couldn't stay here any longer."

"I know dear," Annaliese said softly. "Iris was having a difficult time. She worried that the Reverend was going to cause trouble. That somehow he was going to disrupt the peace and bring the Bird People back with a vengeance."

"But I didn't want anyone to die," Constance sobbed.

Hanley rested a hand on her shoulder. "Ann, please take Constance and Cyrus inside, while I have your brothers help me here."

Ann took Constance around the shoulder and Cyrus around the waist and helped them to the porch.

Hanley turned to the Pennybacker men. "Did any of you see what Ann spoke of?"

Nobody had, and made it clear, their attentions had been on Iris and trying to difuse the situation. Hanley grimaced. He hadn't either. It had happened so fast. His eyes roamed around the outer edges of where they were but here was nothing to see.

He felt the anxiety of never knowing where or when these devils would appear and his gut told him it was time to end this terror.

1435 words.