The Ransom Child

A good vedun can do a lot: put down a vampire, drive away a wraith, remove toothache with an incantation, summon rain, bewitch a beloved, and make sure an enemy runs out of provisions. And if in a family for years errors, illnesses, misfortunes, and a vile temper have been piling up, then the vedun will smoke the herbs, whisper the necessary words, set feathers alight, and mark the bride’s belly with pig’s blood.

That is how an “offer-child,” a child taken as payment to set things right, is brought into the world. The vedun will take it, go from house to house, and begin chanting: take her boldness from here, and her “hare-lip” from there; take her laziness from here, and her barrenness from there—take away her weak eyesight, and take away his heavy belly—take it, take it, take it. And then the vedun will carry the offer-child into the forest, and no one knows what awaits it next.

And I will tell you.