Page 200 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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but he managed to keep the still centre of his mind on the need to overcome the

anguish.
They had told him that the buffalo skulls were very old, and had remained
with some of the tribes for many years. Though old they were still heavy. He
suspected they were also weighted w
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Brokenclaw had made no sound as they were piercing his body, and Bond
knew that but for a quick intake of breath at the first penetration, he had also
kept from crying out. He kept his eyes to the front, feeling the sweat run down
from his forehead, bubbling over his eyes.

From far away he heard the Medicine Man give a long shout which seemed
to rise and fall, then merge into the chanting. A second later his brain reacted to
the knowledge that this was the signal for the slack to be taken up on the
rawhide ropes. He thought the whole of his back was going to be ripped apart
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as his body took the strain once his feet were off the ground. Then his back
became one blazing area of fire, and as he was lifted higher, he felt the
unbearable weight on the pegs in his calves. Pain seemed to saturate his entire
being then stab out in great eruptions from the points where the four pegs had

been driven, so that, while the agony was complete and in unison from toe to
head, even worse, sharper, knife-like stabs shot through him.
The drag on the calf pegs became stronger, and he realised that there was
added agony because his body had started to oscillate slightly. It was as if the

pegs in his legs were razor sharp and being slowly drawn down, as though they
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were knives being sliced through the butter of his flesh.
Again and again he had to force his mind away from what his body was
telling him, that he was being rent and ravaged by the pegs. The sense of total

suffering seemed to be without end. He could see, or feel, no relief, no solace,
just the raging fires consuming him. Twice he managed to bring himself back
from the brink of unconsciousness, and once he tried to see how Brokenclaw
was holding up, but the sweat ran in small waterfalls from his hairline down

across his eyes.
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Nausea gripped his stomach, then the cramps began, shouting above the
harsh, slashing explosions of torment which came from the pegs.
Then, without warning, he heard, as though from far away, the drum beats

taking on a new and faster rhythm and there was movement. The hanging was
over, and they were slowly lowering him to the ground.
The weight came off his legs, and the strain from the ropes attached to the

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