The Kingdom of Shadows
“They had all submitted to their genitals being swabbed with a fluid the bright orange color of iodine, a bored-looking male nurse dipping a rag on a stick into the bucket beside his wooden stool. No resistance or jokes had been made, not even by the younger men; the echo of the rifle shot from out in the woods, faded except from memory, still oppressed the group. His brother Matthi had taken advantage of the milling about that had followed the men’s emergence from the tiled washroom, to come c...lose to him and lay a hand on his bare shoulder. “Are you all right?” Matthi whispered close to his ear. Pavli nodded. “I’m fine. There’s nothing to worry about . . .” He was trying to be comforting in turn. He craned his neck, trying to look past Matthi and the other Lazarene men, back to where they had left the little mounds of their folded clothes near the entrance to the showers. Something did indeed worry him: a secret treasure tucked inside the lining of his boots, a precious thing of paper curved against the worn leather.MoreLess
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