Role

Chapter 4

Nouttin knew it was unfair.

He should not judge poor Ixen. The aura of red that yet surrounded the
young giant of thirty years burned in his sight like a bloody promise, but
Ixen was trying so hard! One day, the prelate said, he would be free of it.
They'd taken in the giant as a babe to raise him away from the corrupting
wickedness of his people, and the prelate must know what he was talking
about.

Nouttin knew he should not judge Ixen.

But he still did.

There was just something unnatural about the giant. The way he moved so
deliberately. How every movement had a careful exactingness about it. Only
Ixen could make gardening look malign.

Snip snip went the shears.

"Troubled, Brother Nouttin?"

There was his voice too. Far too soft for such a huge brute. Far too
articulate for a giant born to such barbaric blood.

Snip snip. Fronds fell away.

"I'm... just here to help with the garden, Ixen."

Nouttin had drawn the short straw. Noone wanted to work the gardens with
Ixen. Noone except the Prelate at least, and he was the busiest man in the
Order.

"There is no need. I am fixing it," said the giant. "Soon, the infestation
will be culled. The garden will flourish a new."

Nouttin shivered. Why did he have to be like this?

"Sure you are not troubled, Brother Nouttin?" snip snip. Snip snip. "Wish
to confess a sin to me?"

"I don't like you." Nouttin clapped his hand to his mouth. The words had
just slipped out, a moment of brutal honesty. He instantly regretted it, of
course. It wasn't Ixen's fault he was strange and creepy and made gardening
look evil.

The shears paused. Ixen set down his spade, and with a sick sense of
facination Nouttin realised for the first time ever he was seeing Ixen
smile. A red tongue flicked out to wet those black lips, and Nouttin
shuddered at the sight of what he could only describe as rapture as it
crossed the face of his would-be questioner.

"I accept your confession," murmurred the giant. Then he went back to
gardening, as if nothing had happened. "Be unburdened."

Nouttin left.