Apprentice in extispicy

Kari was no stranger to hunting and cooking game, and had thought little of it when she traveled to study under the witch, Arathine. From what little she knew of reading the entrails of animals, it would be little more than looking for signs and portents in what was pulled from the beasts before they were cooked and eaten. Truthfully, that was all that most readings ever entailed.


Arathine was a specialist though, and was always experimenting and honing her skills. She had learned to read the future from far more than the inedible parts of her meal. Nestled far back in a wooded valley, her home was a mass of cages and pens, holding everything from common pigeons and rats to horses and monkeys. The witch studied what types of animals gave better answers to certain questions, killing them whenever it suited her rather than when she needed to eat. Fortunately, Arathine kept several carnivores as well, and the bodies of the slain creatures rarely went to waste.

In her studies, the witch had found that the more familiar she was with the creature, the better she was able to interpret the signs she saw when she slaughtered it. As part of Kari’s apprenticeship, Arathine had given her responsibility over two animals. A cat and a goat.

Pay attention to their moods and habits when you feed and exercise them, Arathine had told her. Kari did her best not to become attached to the animals as she cared for them, knowing what their eventual fate would be. She refrained from giving them names, and studiously kept notes on their behavior. Kari’s natural sensitivity to the thoughts and emotions of others worked against her though, and she came to know and understand her charges on more than just a clinical level. She still didn't give them real names, but the goat came to be called Goat and the cat was named Cat.

Kari thought she had resigned herself to their inevitable deaths. They would be killed, and Arathine would emotionlessly demonstrate the signs and possibilities that could be seen in their internal organs. Kari had never expected Arathine to make her kill her charges herself.

Thinking back, she realized that Arathine’s gruesome lessons in the preceding weeks had focused on goats and cats. Kari always did her best not to watch as Arathine lay a struggling animal out on the low table and wielded the gleaming knife. She would stand directly behind Arathine or watch the woman’s face, or just let her eyes unfocus and stare past the dying animal. She should have realized what the next step would be in her education. But it wasn’t until Arathine handed her the long, curved blade that Kari truely realized what the witch expected of her.

Vision blurred by unshed tears, she helped Goat up onto the table. Forcing him to lie down, she tied his hind legs with a stained strip of leather to keep him from kicking. With her left hand, Kari held his trembling forelegs and could feel Goat’s nervousness at the strange room and the smell of stale blood. Even though it was Kari who was holding him down, Goat was still waiting for her to let go and take him back to his pen. Mechanically, Kari grasped the knife blade-down in her right hand, just as she had watched Arathine do dozens of times before.

A part of Kari was amazed that her hand didn’t tremble at all as she slid the blade into Goat’s sternum and sliced downward. The rest of her was screaming at the hand to stop. Pain and terror stabbed through Kari up through her left hand and arm as blood flowed across the tabletop. Bleating weakly, Goat kicked only once before the shock and blood loss made him unable to move.

From somewhere far off, Arathine’s voice reached her. “What do you see?”

Staring at the tangle of white intestines and dark red organs, Kari listened to her own voice relating the information they gave. She listed far more than Arathine ever had during the demonstrations, detailing the weather in the valley well into the next month. It was only information though. What she saw was Goat’s heart beating slower until he lay still and the life faded from his dark eyes. When Kari had related all she could, she fell silent. Arathine and the rest of the room returned around her.

“Excellent,” Arathine said in a voice that sounded approving. Kari nodded, numbly accepting the compliment. The rest was a routine she knew well. She retrieved a shallow cart from the corner and slid the dead goat onto it from the table. One of her chores tonight would be to butcher it and either salt the meat for themselves or throw it to the other animals tomorrow. With a bucket of water and a brush, she washed the blood from the table and wiped it dry.

“Well done,” Arathine said when Kari had finished. “There’s still just enough sun left for the other one.”

Kari started and looked fearfully at the forgotten cage by the door. Still inside, Cat saw her looking at him and mewed his discomfort. Desperately, she tried to think of something. She could argue there wasn’t enough light left to see clearly. She could pretend to faint from exhaustion. She could grab the cage and Cat and run out of the room into the forest.

Arathine’s hand fell on her shoulder and the witch’s terrible calm flowed through Kari’s mind again, drowning her fear in tranquility. “Hurry now. The goat was just a warm-up. Cats are very difficult to interpret correctly, and I want you to show me how much you’ve learned.”

Calm suffocating her mind, Kari walked to the cage. Run! she thought at him as she opened the latch. Run away, Cat! Instead, Cat leapt out of the cage and into her arms. Bite! she pleaded silently. Claw out my eyes and get away! Didn’t you watch me kill Goat? she screamed in her head as she carried him back to the table.  I just killed Goat for a warm-up!

She couldn’t hold the tears back this time as she laid Cat down on the table where she had killed Goat. Purring, Cat rolled onto his back and stretched, happy to finally be freed from the confines of the cage. Get out of here! Run! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU IF YOU DON’T GET AWAY!

Kari picked up leather strap again, but Arathine immediately reached out and took it from her. “Pay attention, Kari,” she said in an admonishing voice. “You can’t tie down a cat like a goat. It would start struggling and probably get away before you even secured it.” Kari choked back a sob as Arathine pressed the knife into her hand.