The Butcher and the Butterfly Read Free Page B

bird itself loom from the east and
whatever stops the normal clouds from leaving the forest has no
control over these black carpets of death. On the third day it
rains and rains and rains; turning the desert a lush green. Aye tis
a sight to behold ya figure.’
    ‘Sounds it.’
Martin said pouring the two men another shot each. The both downed
it simultaneously and it tasted better.
    ‘Aye, so the rains
come every three years and when they do I mark the occasion on the
side of my hut with a single mark.’ Albert pointed over to his hut
and to the opposite wall where “Rag and Bone Man” was written. ‘I
shall leave it as a surprise, Martin. Something to look forward to
in the morning.’ The old loon hacked and laughed; the cigarette
hanging on one lip as if its life depended on it.
    The desert went
quite except for the crackle of the wood. The sky was clear
tonight, the stars bright and Xerxes Flame shone from east to west
filling the sky with a cloudy orange and blue beauty. The night was
getting late and Martin could feel the weariness begin to take
him.
    ‘What else did the
Sorcerer say, Albert?’
    Albert placed the
lid back onto the bottle and heaved a sigh. ‘You remind me of him,
Marksman. It’s the eyes. You have the same gaze, a killers gaze me
old pa would have said. But I can tell you already know that so to
end yer torment and to get ya off to bed I shall tell ya.’
    ‘He didn’t talk
much. It was odd, it was like he was here, but not here. Like he
had other things going on and was watching them as he talked to me.
Occasionally he would say something that I didn’t understand and
had nothing to do with what we were talking about, but I didn’t
make much of it. He had something too, Martin, something hidden
beneath his cloak. He didn’t show me it but I could feel her.’
    ‘We spent the
night like this, under the stars palavering about this and that.
About my life, about his life and about you. He talked about you
and when he did his eyes were fierce, boy oh boy he has some
business with you Martin. Anyways, he put his hand to my chest, he
pressed hard and told me of the cancer that grows there. He showed
me, Martin, images flashed in my head of how I would cough myself
to death. And it would be a hard long drawn out way to go. One I
don’t want. He could see I didn’t want this so he asked for a coin
and a favour.’
    ‘Sounds too good
to be true.’
    Albert smiled and
his face looked younger and a lifetime of worries seemed to
evaporate. ‘It does doesn’t it? But I accepted anyway. He promised
that if I help you he will take my cancer away and I shall live out
the rest of my days here and my passing will be in my sleep. When
you have lived as long as I, Martin, it’s time to call it quits and
take an opportunity when it shows itself. Trust me, Marksman, when
Old Man Time takes a grip of ya, he sucks ya dry and as my old pa
used to say – when you get old and wrinkly never ever, whatever you
do, never trust a fart.’ With that the old loon hacked and laughed
and hacked and laughed and disappeared behind the hut to sleep with
old Fanny.
    Above him Old
Mother and her Nine Daughters sparkled and Martin watched them
until he too stood, stretched and had himself a good night’s sleep
on a creaky old bed in a stinking old hut in the middle of butt
fuck nowhere.
    For the first time
in ages Martins sleep was dreamless and when he awoke he instantly
regretted sleeping so deeply.
    Stood over him,
with a wicked glint in his eye was a man he knew from Ritash. In
his hand he held an ancient gun and that gun was pointed right
between his eyes.

The Book of Stephen -
Just Follow Orders
    1
    The hunting party
had left Ritash numbering ten – many more than usual – in search of
the traitor Martin Doyle. Their hunt had taken them from the lush
green forests of home to the harsh nothing of the Wastelands. The
men had walked for hundreds of miles, their horses long since
carrion for the desert.
    Sat