The woman looked like she was only a couple of decades old, yet her voice was rich and held the power of someone who had lived much longer. If not for the few gray strands of hair and the knowledge that this had to be the woman Red was waiting for, I would have guessed she wasn’t much older than me. She looked like she was barely of marrying age, yet she was the most potent healer Red knew. It was strange to see an older person in such a young body. I knew she was older than she looked but still I stared in awe at the woman who had just magicked her way into Red’s office.
Red jumped up from her chair and rushed around her paper-heaped desk to hug the woman. The woman opened her arms to Red. They laughed as they hugged.
“Mal, it’s been too long,” Red said into the hair of the woman, getting a mouthful in the process.
Surprisingly, the powerful witch my mother had called for help wasn’t much bigger than my short parent. They both laughed as they pulled back to smile at each other. It was like I was seeing a completely different person. I almost needed Sera to pinch me to be sure. My mother wasn’t the giddy laughing type at all, and here she was smiling and laughing two days in a row.
“You know whose fault that is. I told you any time you wanted; you could come visit me.”
“Sure. I’d rather take my chances with the wolves of Elder than the ogres of Arcadia.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing out on.”
The eyes of our guest twinkled, and I got the feeling that she wasn’t entirely human. My mother didn’t explain precisely who or what her guest Mal was, but I could just sense it. Something was different with the mysterious lady before us.
“So, what was so urgent you couldn’t tell me in a message?” Mal pulled Red to a small two-seat couch against the far wall in the room.
“We’ve run into a bit of a problem with the wolves,” Red replied. “They seemed to be sick, and I was hoping maybe some of you magic could help them out.”
“Sick wolves?” Mal raised an eyebrow like she knew that Red was leaving something out. “I can take a look, but you know my specialty is with two-legged animals, not four.”
“We can arrange for them to be on two legs,” Red replied, and Mal laughed.
Mal seemed to understand completely without Red telling her more. I had a feeling that Red’s explanation that Mal was an old friend wasn’t a comment on Mal’s age but rather that they had been friends for a long time.
“Do you remember that one time,” Mal began, but Red stopped her by placing her hand over the dark-haired woman’s mouth as she began to laugh.
I could see there was a history between the two women. Red had mentioned Mal when I was growing up, but I had never met the woman. She was from Red’s life before she was the Red. I always had a hard time picturing my mother as just a girl. She was younger than Sera when she was chosen to be the Red and start her training, but for some time, she was just a normal girl. Mal knew that version of my mother. If it were any other time, I would have wanted to get some stories out of the healer.
I had a feeling Mal might be the only person that knew the real Red. She knew her from before the power and responsibility. She knew what Red was like before she had to care for everyone else before herself. I wish I knew that Red. By the way the two of them were laughing, I was more than sure Mal might have been one of the only true friends my mother ever had.
Red had spoken of Mal as a healer, but I could see there was more to that. Her long deep red gown almost sparkled on the lady as she tried to take Red’s hands off her mouth. The two of them laughed more as she finally won.
“I’ve never been introduced to your son,” Mal said as she stood and walked towards me. I was still frozen in my spot watching my mother behave very unlike the Red I’d always known
“Mal, this is Castiel,” Red replied with a wave of her hand towards me. Her serious face was falling back into place. “He will escort you to the wolves. They won’t take kindly to you if you just show up, no matter if you are there to help.”
“He can lead me there?” Mal asked, and Red nodded.
“I should go with them,” Sera added from beside Red’s desk, where she stood looking like she was in as much shock as I was at this side of Red.
“No. He will be fine with Mal, and it’s better if just the two of them go. Our energy can mess things up,” Red explained what wasn’t very clear to me or from the look of Sera’s face to her either.
“I suppose you want me to do this sooner rather than later,” Mal raised an eyebrow at Red. “Or I could tell them both some great stories of our youth. There’s the one with us, the elemental lynx, and that young man….”
Red actually blushed.
“Yes, it would be better for you to head off now,” Red interjected before Mal could say more.
“Too bad. I ran into him the other day, and he asked about you.” Mal grinned at my mother’s red cheeks. “I thought about telling him you are available.”
“Castiel, take her to Micco and explain it all to her there.”
I had never seen Red get so flustered. I kind of wanted to stay around for, at least, a little bit more to see something I would probably never see again.
“Young man, if you could take my hand,” Mal held her hand out to me.
I had no idea what the lady wanted but did as she asked.
“Now, think of an exact spot you want us to land.”
“Land?” I asked.
“Think, boy, and I’ll do the rest.”
I gave her a quizzical look, and she just waved her free hand as if to hurry me up.
“Close your eyes if you have to. I can’t travel places I’ve never been to. You have to lead us.”
She still wasn’t making any sense, but I would do whatever she asked if she could heal my friends. As she suggested, I closed my eyes and pictured the village in my head. I thought of standing just inside the wolf village, right where I usually entered when I was coming from my house. I had been there hundreds of times, so it was easy to get a mental image of the place.
“Good enough,” Mal said as I felt a tingle come over my skin.
My eyes shot open, and I went to pull my hand back. She smiled at me with what could almost be described as a predatory grin.
“Tsk, tsk. Too late for that, dear boy. Welcome to how I travel.”
I was standing in the middle of the wolf village. My stomach heaved as the magic she used seemed to slide off me. I knew that some people could travel that way, but I never heard of someone being taken along for the ride. Still feeling the need to puke, I tried my best to suck it up and stood to look around us as Mal gasped.
“The wolves have been sick for only a short time,” I explained as I looked at the nearest person. They were so thin that bones were sticking out where there should have been muscles and fat to hide them. Arms were boney, and collar bones sunken into chests all around me. Everyone we could see looked like they had been starved for moons, not days. The wolves were withering away.
“I swear,” I told her as I looked around for someone that looked healthy.
“Castiel?” someone said quietly as I turned around.
Grace sprinted from the nearest hut and jumped into my arms. Her energy seemed to be back, a little bit, at least.
“Let go of her,” Mal commanded me before I could respond to my friend.
A blond wolf at our feet looked up at Mal and growled.
“Nikkan?” I said as I recognized my friend.
He obviously didn’t like the tone from Mal. His wolf eyes glared at the woman who had indeed come all the way into the forest of Elder to help.
“This is a friend of Red. She’s here to help. She’s a healer and a pretty great one if you ask Red. She came all the way here from Arcadia.”
Nikkan still let out a low growl. Mal was pulling at me to leave the wolves alone.
At least, I hoped she could help. All it took was one meeting, and she was acting like all the other people of Elder. Why was it so hard f
or people to see that the wolves were just humans too? Grace wasn’t going to turn into a wolf and bite my head off right now, at least, not during the day.
Nikkan still didn’t seem to agree that Mal was helping and placed himself between Grace and the healer.
“We need to leave now,” Mal told me as she looked around the camp. Her eyes dashed from one person to another. She began to look frantic at all the people that were now staring at us, but she had to expect that much. If you magically poof into someone’s home, they are going to stare. “This isn’t a disease. This is magic and strong magic at that.”
Mal grabbed my arm, and with more strength than I could imagine a woman of her size having, she dragged me toward the outskirts of the village. It was like I weighed nothing to her.
“We didn’t get to speak to Micco,” I complained as I tried to get my arm out of her grip. I couldn’t even move a finger width. She was strong.
“He can explain this more to you. They are sick and need help. That’s why my mother called you here.”
“Trust me, boy. We need to leave here now before the magic damages us. This isn’t a sickness. It is dark old magic. It will attack any being that has a bit of magic in them, not just your wolf friends.”
Could the curse hurt us? That wasn’t possible. The curse only affected wolves. It had never done a thing to humans. There had never been a single recording of the curse hurting anyone else. The curse was for the wolves. Everyone knew that.
Mal didn’t stop pulling until we were outside the village. Nikkan and Grace followed us but stayed back at the glare Mal was giving them. Nikkan returned her glare with a growl.
“If you value Castiel’s life at all, you'll stay back away from him until this curse is broken,” Mal warned them. Nikkan and Grace stared at me in confusion.
I was confused too. Mal didn’t make any sense. The curse had been affecting the wolves for hundreds of winters before Red broke it. It never once transferred to a human that wasn’t a wolf. Mal wasn’t letting us explain it to her.
“The curse before affected the wolves,” I tried to explain to Mal.
“Because there’s magic in their blood,” Mal replied as she looked back at the village.
More people had followed Grace and Nikkan to where they stood a few saplings away from Mal and me at the edge of the village. Curious eyes looked at Mal. She was a sight to see as she frantically pulled me from the village we’d just popped into.
I could hear the whispers of the people that were following us, the ones that still had the strength to walk. They wanted to know who she was. Some had heard she was a healer. More than one was looking at her with hopeful eyes. They desperately needed help, and here Mal was dragging me away and leaving them to fend for themselves. Not very helpful.
“I can’t fix this kind of magic,” Mal stated to the people that stood there watching her. “But I can protect you from hurting others. I can feel the good in all of you. None of you want to harm people, but the curse will make you do that. What I can offer is protection for you and the rest of Elder.”
I stared at the small woman. How in the world could she protect all the people of Elder if she couldn’t take the curse away? If her magic could protect Elder, then why not remove the curse? I knew very little about magic, but it seemed like they were both on the same scale.
Mal retook my arm and began to pull me back further into the woods. We couldn’t see the village from where she stopped, but Nikkan and Grace were following, just not too closely.
“First, I need to call all the wolves to the villages.”
She took a step in front of me and began to wave her hands in the air like she was swatting at bugs. I had no idea what she was doing, but after a few moments, she seemed satisfied.
“Next, I will erect the wall you’ve been trying to build with magic. It will allow things to go through, like the water from the streams or the animals like deer or birds, but it will stop any wolf or human from crossing.”
The people behind Grace seemed to have hope in their eyes at the description Mal was giving to them. There was actual hope. I knew the wolves didn’t want to hurt anyone, but to be told there was a way to keep everyone safe was something no one could feel until Mal spoke. I wanted to give them hope that the nightmare was all done, but at least this was something. It was a step toward helping all of Elder.
“That will keep both sides from harming each other,” Mal said more quietly to me. Red seemed to have filled her in at least a little bit.
I looked back at my friends. This wall was going to keep us apart. Yes, Nikkan had yet to forgive me, but now I wouldn’t get the chance to win him back. Until we found a cure to the curse, they would be there, and I would be here. Grace seemed to understand as tears began to trickle down her face.
“Step back, children,” Mal said to Grace and Nikkan. They were anything but children, but they knew her order was directed at them.
Mal began to take off her shoes. I had no idea what she was, let alone what she was capable of, but I wasn’t going to argue. She was keeping my friends safe from the tree people that seemed to want to hunt wolves now. Mal hiked up her long maroon skirt and dug her feet into the ground. Luckily, it was spring, and the dirt gave way instead of being frozen like it was only moons ago.
I glanced back at my friends. Nikkan was wrapped around Grace’s feet, and she had a hand on his head. She looked sad, but Nikkan looked more determined than ever.
“I will find a cure,” I told Grace as she didn’t try to hide her tears.
She nodded to me but didn’t respond.
Mal began to chant. I had no idea why, but it was like I could feel the pull. There was something coming to her. I couldn’t see it or smell it, but I could feel it. Mal was pulling more and more of it as she closed her eyes and kept chanting.
“Keep her safe,” I told my wolf friend at Grace’s feet.
The wolf looked up at me. All the hate and mistrust from the past week were gone. It was Nikkan, truly Nikkan, looking back at me. I knew his wolf side as well as I knew his human side. The look he gave me was all I needed. I knew, without a doubt, he would keep Grace safe.
“And you keep safe, too,” I told him.
They were like family to me. I wasn’t going to stop until I helped them, but until then, I needed to know they would be fine.
Wolf Nikkan nipped in the air, his way of agreeing with me.
“I will find an answer,” I told my friends. “I don’t care how long it will take or what I will have to do to find it, but I will help you guys.”
Grace smiled through her tears as the chanting of Mal next to me grew louder. The wind was whipping through the trees overhead and sending gusts down to the ground. I had to pull my hair off my face to still see my friends. Grace was standing holding onto wolf Nikkan as she looked at the lady next to me. The healer was again chanting loud enough to be heard over the wind storm.
I turned to Mal. Her dark, almost black hair was truly sparkling now. I could see hints of red, gold, silver, and bronze in her hair as it stood out from the wind. She didn’t notice it as she had her eyes closed while she waved her arms around in concentric circles in front of her. Her rings grew larger, and her chant grew to a yell. Tipping her head back, she continued to chant, her voice rising to almost a scream now. I refused to close my eyes as the wind brought up sand and small twigs into the air. I stared across the way at my friends.
This wasn’t a solution. It was a bandage on a wound much more significant than my mother wanted to admit days ago, and hence it was out of control. She didn’t have answers, but I wasn’t going to stop trying. Nikkan, Grace, and the wolves were as much family to me as Red. I didn’t leave family behind.
Mal let out a blood-curdling scream from beside me, and I turned back to her. She fell to the ground as the wind instantly stopped, and everything hanging in the air fell to the ground. I reached down to help Mal back to her feet as she struggled to stand again, but she batted my hand away a
nd stopped trying to get up.
“I’ll just rest here,” she said to me, her voice gravelly.
“Is it done?” I asked as I turned back to my friends.
I didn’t need Mal to answer. There was a fog now between them and me. I don’t know how I knew it, but I knew it was magic and the wall Mal had built. It wasn’t completely dense; I could see through it. Grace was still there looking back at me, and now there was a large crowd behind her. It was hard to be entirely sure with the foggy wall, but it looked like relief lined the faces of the crowd. It wasn’t a cure, but it was better than nothing.
5
15th March
After making the wall yesterday, Mal immediately disappeared. I didn’t ask her to drop me off back with Red in Azren. What good would it do? She didn’t have answers. It was better to stay in the forest and let myself think.
Mal didn’t give me much to go with. She said it was a curse and dark magic, not a sickness. So calling any other healers, no matter how insulting to Mal it would be, wouldn’t help. The wolves didn’t need to be healed. They needed to be uncursed. They needed magic. But where was I supposed to get magic? Mal said it was dark magic. Did I need someone who did dark magic to undo it, or did it need another kind of magic?
Magic was a lesson Red didn’t cover when I grew up. Yes, Red had magic. It was what made her the Red, but I never really knew what that meant. It wasn’t like she could do magic; it was more like there was magic inside of her.
No one in Elder studied magic. The few witches we had left all learned in a different kingdom. While some of the stuff we used had been magicked to do what they did, mostly Elder citizens stayed away from anything magic. It was a lot easier to trust what you did with your own two hands rather than magic. I hadn’t been taught much of magic beyond the few books that vaguely mentioned it in my childhood education. And I ignored those as I planned to live my life in Elder where magic wasn’t needed.
I thought I would head home for the night, but I couldn’t. My friends were trapped in an enormous magical bubble with wolves that were going crazy with hunger. I couldn’t help them, but I couldn’t leave either. There had to be an answer; we just weren’t seeing it.
Castiel: Son of Red Riding Hood (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 3) Page 20