Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 126547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“The celebrations are interesting. When you think about it, people are naturally afraid of fire and deep water, but on this night our ancestors were willing to break many taboos. Swim after dark, even though they believed there were monsters lurking under the surface. Jump over fire… I don’t believe anything you all did back there can bring luck, but it did feel special. Despite Nowak constantly yapping as if he were the most embarrassing master of ceremony on the planet.”
Emil laughed out loud, walking without haste with the torch in one hand and Adam’s fingers in the other. “There are no monsters left after you blessed the water. But I wouldn’t there jump in before that. No one wants a drowner grabbing their ankle.”
Adam smiled at him as they neared a dense thatch of evergreen trees. “If that flower is so hard to find, we should look in places that are less accessible. Everyone will be busy pushing tongues down one another’s throats, which leaves us to take the cream.”
Emil had no idea if Adam realized how suggestive his words were, but as his balls tingled, he headed for the trees, looking for an opening.
He found it at last—a space between two bladdernuts, which lured him in with the sweet scent of their blossom.
“There’s something in there,” Adam said and pushed through the barrier of greenery, as if for this one night, he’d shed all his fears.
Unease clutched at Emil’s throat though, when he realized that beyond a wall of three rows of densely-growing thuyas was a clearing that seemed to not only resemble a rough circle the size of a small church, but was also devoid of young trees, which must have been weeded out on purpose.
His shoulders relaxed though when he faced a steep rocky wall as tall as his house and an oval-shaped boulder laid out in front of it like an altar pointing away from the cliff. Evergreen bushes grew on both sides like natural decorations, and a small path led up the side of the steep hill. “Damn. I think Grandpa brought me here a few times when I was young. I barely remember, but I think he called it Devil’s Rock or something like that,” he whispered, and when he approached the ancient stone with the torch, he couldn’t help but notice the smooth surface at the top, or the dark stains that reminded him of oxidized blood—a silly notion he quickly dismissed.
At the narrow end of the altar, right under the rock face, stood a wicker bull. Its horns spiraled upwards, and its front carried more weight than the back, but it was standing proudly nevertheless, just above the traces of lives extinguished in its honor.
Or so Emil’s imagination told him.
There was a sense of calm radiating off Adam’s handsome features, but fire danced in his pale eyes as he placed his palm on the stains left behind by blood and took a whole lungful of air.
A cold shudder danced down Emil’s back, and for a moment he feared the demon was back, but then Adam’s lips spread into a wide smile. “Wow, okay… is this what I think it is? A sacred grove?”
Emil relaxed but could only offer him a shrug. “Seems like it. Someone must still come here from time to time,” he said, pointing at the wicker figurine.
“Looks like the wicker hen I’ve seen in Mrs. Janina’s kitchen,” Adam said without a care, but Emil instantly imagined the pastor’s nag of a housekeeper bleeding geese out to honor the old gods every full moon.
“The site is well kept,” Emil noted and took Adam’s wrist, leading him back. He felt calm, almost unnaturally so, which was what made his brain decide to retreat. Anyone should’ve been even the tiniest bit worried by a hidden pagan altar, which was still in use, but he didn’t want to think about the implications—not on a night he shared with someone important. “Who knows, maybe a group of people comes here to have orgies. And tonight’s the perfect time. We better go.”
Adam was hesitant at first, but in the end let Emil pull him out of the clearing. They walked on, sharing comments about the nature around them and the people of Dybukowo, though mostly they enjoyed a comfortable silence. This sense of easy companionship was something very rare in Emil’s life, something he had only previously shared with Radek, and the longer he walked holding on to Adam’s warm hand, the more he longed to get lost in those woods.
Even Adam seemed free of his God tonight, as if the dense forest protected him from judgment and took away the meaning of his thick cassock. Tonight, they were just two men, and as the woods opened up to the glow of the torch, it was easy to believe that if they chose not to leave by sunrise, the forest would accept them as its own. Forever.