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The man drew his foot back and kicked Mark in the ribs Pain exploded in his side and he cried out, unable to help hiht in the kidney A deep ache washed through Mark, and tears stung his eyes as he cried out even louder

Alec protested "Stop it, you sorry son of a--" His words were cut off when one of his captors reached down and punched hi this?" Mark yelled "We’re not demons! You people have lost your minds!" Another kick pierced him in the ribs, the pain unbearable He balled up, wrapped his arht, knowing he had no chance of escape

"Stop"

The word ruh the air fro voice of aMark and Alec immediately jumped back froot to her knees and looked at the ground

Mark, still wincing fro to see who had spoken the sih the flames and followed it as a man stepped into view and approached him When he ithin a few feet, he stopped, and Mark’s eyes traced a path froht plaid shirt, to his face, which was hideously scarred, almost inhuman It made Mark want to look away, but he didn’t let hi into those piercing, wounded eyes

The man had no hair And he had no ears

CHAPTER 25

"My name is Jedidiah," the man said His lips were yellow and e lisp, and there was a … tonelessness to his voice "But my followers call me Jed You will call me Jed, because I can see that you’ve been mistreated and you are now my friends Is this understood?"

Mark nodded, but all Alec did was grunt soible Defiant to the end, the old soldier had sat up when their attackers had ordered the two of the the as if in prayer Mark sat up, too, hoping there would be no consequence If anything, Jed looked pleased

"Very good," thesome kind of peace" He walked over and sat down between theht , al That hat Mark had concluded had happened to the poor guy

"Did the sun flares do that to you?" he asked

Jed chuckled for a few seconds, but there was nothing pleasant or cheerful about the sound More like disturbing "It always tickles ue that way When it occurred, yes, I thought it was merely a celestial event that happened to take place in Earth’s path Coincidence Misfortune Bad luck Those are words that went throughbad de it clear what a crackpot idea he thought it was Mark shot hilance and felt awful Blood covered the man’s face, and welts and bruises had already appeared froiven

"It’s happened twice now," Jed replied, showing no sign that he’d noticed Alec’s sarcasm "Both times it came from the heavens--once from the sun, once from the ships We think theylax and to remind us of e need to become"

"Twice … sun and ships," Mark repeated "So the sun flares and then the darts froht and left, then focused on Mark again What in the world?

"Yes, twice," the ain, it both saddens and humors me that you don’t see the importance of the events It means your mind hasn’t evolved yet to be able to see them for what they really are"

"De his eyes before he stopped himself just in time

"Demons Yes, demons They burned my face, etAnd then came the little arrows from the ships, filled with their hatred It’s been two months now, and we still mourn those who lost their lives that day It’s e build the fires and sing the songs and dance the dance And we fear those froe who decided not to join us They ith the demons, undoubtedly"

"Wait, two months?" Alec asked "What do youto a confused child "We count the days solemnly, every one It’s been two months and three days"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mark said "It couldn’t have been that long It happened to us just a few days ago"

"I don’t like it … when people doubtdrastically in the"How can you sit there and accuse ? I’ve tried to ive you a second chance in this life, and this is how you repayword until he was shouting, his body tre "It … it makes my head hurt"

Mark could tell Alec was about to explode, so he quickly reached over and squeezed his arm "Don’t," he whispered "Just don’t" Then he returned his attention to Jed "No, listen, please It’s not like that We just want to understand Our village had the … arrows froo So we assumed the same about you And … you said that people died the day it happened We saw bodies of people who seemed to have died more recently Just help us understand"

Mark had the feeling that there was some important information to be learned fro about the ti here

Jed had raised his hands to place them where his ears should’ve been on his head and was sloaying froht away Then others later More suffering as tie split into factions All the de