Appensus Es in Statera

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CONVERSATIONS WITH A MAGE parallels the CARTER BROTHERS series. Pat DeVallera has retired from the New Orleans Police Department and convinced Lucius Carter and Lucius' wife Astrid to tell him the truth about the magic and supernatural events that surrounded the Carters in the Twentieth Century.

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER: NO GRAPHIC SEX. If violence offends you please stop reading and go to another story. This story is fiction. The last report of the ethnic group known as "Kennites" in the English language was published in 1832 (Source: Joseph S. Exell, THE BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, copyright 1973, Baker Book House, Volume 9, page 193). No character described here is under the age of eighteen. Any resemblance to real persons is coincidental. The writer does not condone or encourage the administration of "justice" in the manner described. Keep telling yourself "It's just a story. It's just a story. It's just a story." On the other hand, it COULD happen in New Orleans.

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PROLOGUE

Lucius poured three glasses of red wine and handed two to Astrid who in turn handed one to DeVallera before seating herself on the couch, drawing her legs up under her modestly. Her "Mona Lisa" smile was gone and when Lucius sat next to her it occurred to Pat that Astrid looked like a she-wolf, ready to defend her den if her mate was unable to vanquish the intruder alone. Lucius was as inscrutable as ever.

"What are you, Lucius?" Pat began. "I know you have influence in the religious community, but you're not a Catholic or a Jew or any other..."

"I'm a Kennite, Pat" Lucius interrupted. "My people were priests of the Most High God before Abram became Abra-ham."

"So, what does that make you, Lucius?"

"I like the title 'mage,' in the context of 'wise man,' but others call me other things."

"Like 'murderer?'" said Pat.

Lucius' face never changed expression. Astrid's eyes were fixed on him as he set down his empty glass.

"I never MURDERED anyone. On God's orders I have executed.... many of his enemies."

"How many, Lu?"

"I quit counting at twelve." Astrid put her hand around his forearm to support him but directed her eyes to the floor at Pat's feet. Lucius' head hung forward. His eyes pointed upward to stare directly at his old nemesis. "Who do you want to know about first?" he asked.

"OK, can you tell me about the first person you, uh, executed?" said Pat.

"A Catholic deacon who robbed the poor" Lucius said, placing his free hand on top of Astrid's. "Later that night I killed a priest who liked altar boys. They were an embarrassment to the Archbishop, but he couldn't go through the usual process to remove them."

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APPENSUS ES IN STATERA ET INVENTUS ES MINUS HABENS

"You have been weighed on the scales and found lacking. "

Daniel 5:27 Latin Vulgate Bible

CONVERSATIONS WITH A MAGE

CHAPTER 1

Father Reich thought he had a hangover, but realized that he was standing up. As his mind cleared he also realized he was tied to something, arms spread wide, ankles tied together. The chill made him aware that he was at least partially naked.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was not alone. Chained hand and foot was Charley Roussell, Reich's head deacon and partner in crime. He hung as limply in his chains as the widows he had despoiled of their life savings. Unlike the priest, Roussell was gagged.

"Charley!" Reich called. Roussell's eyes fluttered, but the flickering torchlight seemed too much for the drugged man and he closed them again.

Reich heard a creaking noise behind him, the opening and closing of a door, and footsteps. He tried to turn to his left to see who had entered and was surprised to see Lucius Carter.

"Carter? What is going on?" the priest demanded as if he had authority. In fact, he knew that Carter was not a man to trifle with in anything. The Carters were "old money," and knew how to use power in business, politics and religion. They built synagogues and churches but never worshiped in any of them. The archbishop occasionally mentioned them in letters he ordered read in all parishes, but when priests asked him about the Carters his face would turn white. None of this was lost on Reich, who now realized the gravity of his situation.

Lucius stood directly in front of the priest. His baritone voice and what he said sent chills up Reich's spine: "Appensus es in statera... et inventus es minus habens."

"Who are you to judge me?" Reich demanded, consciously trying to be brave.

Lucius didn't even blink when he answered. "I have not judged you. I'm just the executioner." He turned to Roussell without a word, grabbed his hair with his left hand and with his right placed a knife on the left side of the man's neck.

"Stop!" the old priest shouted. "We'll do anything you say, just let us live!"

Lucius turned his head only, still holding the knife at the man's throat. "Will you restore the fortunes you stole, priest?"

"Yes! Anything!"

"Will you repay tenfold all those you wronged?"

"Ye', yes! Anything you say, Mr. Carter!"

"And the lives, priest. What about the lives you two destroyed?"

"Lives?" Reich was trembling in his shackles, knowing full well what Carter was going to do.

"Yes, Father." Lucius continued. "The live of the widows who starved to death because of the two of you. The women who took their own lives, the ones you wouldn't even bury in St. Genesius' cemetery because they committed suicide. Will you restore them? How about the boys you..."

"Carter, I... I'll do anything you say only let me, I mean US, live!"

Lucius looked back at the deacon. "I'm afraid there is no pardon for your friend," he said. In one swift move he slashed the man's carotid artery. A jet of blood shot three feet into the air, arching across the room to splash on Reich's bare feet.

"For the love of God, Carter!" shouted Reich. "Please let me go! I won't tell anyone what I saw!"

"Really?" Lucius asked as he turned and leaned within inches of Reich's face. "No, Father, because I love God I'm afraid I can't do that. The orders were quite clear concerning you. Your life is forfeit, but I am authorized to tell you this: If you can refrain from screaming for the next hour I will bring another priest here to listen to your confession and give you absolution before you die."

Reich was now thoroughly terrified but managed to stammer "Next hour?"

"Our orders were to kill Roussell like a Passover lamb" said Lucius. "You, on the other hand must die more slowly."

Lucius stepped out of view and Reich heard the door open and close again.

"One more thing, Father" Carter said from behind Reich. "You're not fit to die in the same position as the Christ."

Reich realized that he was strapped to a table as it swung backwards, dropping his head downward so that he hung by his hands and feet upside down. From this position he could see that an elderly Native American woman had joined Lucius. Her white hair hung to her waist, framing her gaunt face, and she was dressed in a white buffalo skin robe. Around her waist a wide leather band held the robe tight and the handle of what appeared to be a very large knife protruded from the front of her gown.

Lucius leaned down to look into the eyes of his prisoner. "Remember:" he said, "if you don't scream I bring a priest to hear your confession before you die. Considering all I know you've done, if I were in your place I would not want to die unshriven."

Lucius turned and opened the door. As he did the old woman slowly drew he knife out of her robe. Reich felt himself urinate in sheer terror as he realized the knife was not steel but flint, chipped to a serrated edge as sharp as a razor. Lucius closed the door behind himself.

In the room Lucius entered a young man of about eighteen waited with a puzzled look on his face. Lucius looked directly at him and offered, "You have a question?"

"Yeah" said the younger man. "Aren't you afraid a priest would turn us over to the police? I mean, where the heck are you gonna get..."

Lucius raised his hand, gesturing the boy to silence. "When Monsignor gave me this assignment he told me he would come himself if I wanted him here. I declined; one less witness, you know. I only said that to Reich to give him HOPE. A man will live longer under torture if he has hope."

At that instant Reich's scream filled the air like the wail of a banshee. Lucius smiled. "Besides" he said, "The point is moot now. So... what about you, my young accomplice?"

The young man looked squarely at the mage and spoke without emotion: "I leave for Loyola in the morning."

Lucius wasn't surprised, but asked out of curiosity "After all that pig did to you, you still want to be a priest like he was?"

"No, sir." Said the boy. "BECAUSE of what that pig did to me I want to be a priest who is NOTHING like him."

*****

Lucius paused from his story, then added "After an hour I went back in and sent Reich to meet God. After she was finished with him, well, it was mercy."

Pat began breathing again as he said "Who was SHE?"

"Oddly enough her given name was 'Ruth Big Knife,' and she was one of the most powerful shamans I've ever known." Lucius saw no point, at least not yet, in telling Patrick the whole story of his relationship with Ruth's daughter, Bloodmoon Aberdeen, or how he fathered her child.

"And your young accomplice: Who was he?" Patrick asked.

Lucius and Astrid looked at each other and smiled.

"He's done quite well in the priesthood," Lucius said, looking back at his guest. "You know him. He's now the Archbishop."