For years now the harvest has been less than it should be. Last year the people of Oisin's village sacrificed a goat, but their god did not come. Now, in desperation, a human sacrifice has been suggested, and Oisin, recently orphaned and feeling life is not worth living, volunteers. But the god Belinos is not quite what he seems, and Oisin's sacrifice will not be what he expects, for Belinos first came out of the darkness to drink the sacrificial blood not because he was a god, but because he was a vampire. This is just the beginning of the changes to Oisin's life, as he is drawn further and further into a world of gods and magic, where the most unexpected thing is not even his own blossoming talent, but the blossoming feelings he has for Belinos. Love between mortal and immortal is not without its difficulties, though. As outright war among the gods threatens, Oisin will end up making a far greater difference in the conflict than he could ever have dreamed possible.

The Sacrifice

There had to be a sensible way to approach this. First of all he needed a way to know exactly how much of any given thing he was adding. He had a sudden flash of memory, of carrying parcels for his brother’s wife on a visit to town, and the merchants with their scales, weighing out measures of their goods. He smiled.


“Excuse me, sprites? Could I get a small scale and a set of weights, one that’s quite accurate?”


This time he could see little green glows pop into view in front of him, giggling and bobbing up and down. They clustered together and a scale appeared, one pan dipping low beneath the burden of a dozen different weights, going down to a minute one that couldn’t have been bigger than a single grain of wheat. “Perfect! Thank you!” The little blurry glows bobbed up and down more, and their giggles sounded almost as if there were words in them now.


Chapter 11