Аврам Дэвидсон - Peregrine - primus

As thougfr they were somehow not part of him he felt his

knees feeling the small rocks and twigs pressing into them. Then, suddenly, all the strange congregation rose; and he, perforce, rose with them.

“O heavenly Ram, which leadeth the flock of the Stars . . . O Fleece of Pure Gold . . . O Ram caught in the thicket . . . goat without horns ...” Some phrases, unintelligible to him ... a perceptible change in the rhythm and the tenor of the prayers . . . a pause...

He felt himself moving forward, forward towards that strange, strange, dark, dark altar—and then the phrase which burst in his mind as a dry tree may suddenly burst into flames, scattering sparks

“Take the red knife —

“A nd cut the red bread!”

Swiftly, urgently, they brought him forward. He did not know if he were merely to witness, or, if so, what it was which he was to witness. He did not know if he was to participate, and, if so, in which way he was to participate. He knew only that he was filled with a terror, now, greater than any terror which he had ever felt before in all his life. His heart swelled, his flesh went cold, his mouth opened upon a wordless cry of fear, a cry for help. He heard the wind rushing in his ears, he heard the sound of some bird crying aloud and aloft on and in the wind. He heard the voices of many men crying aloud their own alarm and something more. He felt his bonds slipping, falling away, he felt them no more. He saw the ground and the altar and the hooded figures and the fire all falling away with incredible swiftness.

Fear gave place to an exultation which preceded even understanding. He shrieked his defiance into the wind and the night. The wind took him and he took the wind. Below him, the shrouded earth. Above him the brilliant stars. No boundaries, no borders, the limitations of no road, now held him.

The peregrine falcon sounded once more its call and its cry. It circled once, twice ... a third time.

And then sped away, free, into the limitless night, and all the untrammeled realms of air.

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