The Dark Witch and the Elemental

by Tabitha Scott

  “Can you do that again?” Hatchesput asks.

  “Yeah, I can.”

  “Good. You’re sealing these tunnels if and when we get back to the entrance. We’d need an explosive charge to do it otherwise, the walls are too well built to blast them with our wands. ” Then the old bitch starts back. Gotta admit, Hatchesput is a practical sort, and the old gal’s got grit, she certainly never shows any fear – I think she lives on the adrenalin, like me.

  Hatchesput runs back to the corner where the group that had attacked us from behind had retreated to, she doesn’t even hesitate when she gets there, but just starts blasting again. The rest of us follow suit, a feebly aimed blast or two is shot our way, but it’s our turn to take them by surprise. They were further back than I expected, but they weren’t ready and have retreated again. We follow at a run, blasting as we go. There aren’t many of them left. When we get back to the first branch of the tunnels, the retreating Fae head down it.

  “Seal this branch too,” Hatchesput yells at me. “We’ll go ahead and see how the other group is doing.”

  “Pretty,” Hatchesput spits at Bríghe, “you stay with Amura and watch her back.” Then she looks to the two of us. “Our girls down there are already dead so don’t worry about them. When you’re finished follow us. If needs be, you seal these tunnels regardless of who’s down here, or the castle will fall.”

  As Hatchesput leads the two other survivors down the main passage, I work to seal the branch entrance.

  “That’s really powerful magik,” Bríghe comments as I work.

  I ignore her, I’m trying to do this as quickly as possible. “The tree roots will make this stronger than the original earth. They won’t get past it.” I stand to stretch when I finish, it might be powerful magik, but it doesn’t come without cost. I feel a bit sluggish now. I wonder whether the demon will be able to blast his way through the first barrier I created, but if he does, it’ll take him some time to do it: I made that blockage a good twenty five feet or more deep. It would almost be easier to dig a tunnel around it.

  “Right, let’s go.” I turn and start to leave, I’m just going at a quick walk though, my energy has been sapped by the creation magiks. I’m not up to running any marathons at the moment.

  The way ahead of us has been cleared right up to the first branch of the tunnels. But as we near the branch, a group of the enemy witches come out from there, heading toward the castle.

  “Go get the rest, this tunnel is clear, it’s our way in.” One of the attacking Fae heads back along that tunnel, while the rest race on toward the castle not having noticed us. Up ahead I can hear blasts from a fight going on there. I can only think that Hatchesput and the others are holding them back.

  “We need to seal this branch so their reinforcements can’t make it through,” I tell Bríghe. For a moment, I’m not sure on which side of the barrier we should be. I’m not going to have much power left when I’m finished, it might actually be easier to try and slip by the other Fae out the far exit of the tunnel. No, if we hit the group ahead of us from behind, we might do some good there.

  I begin to seal that entrance, and then as the work tires me, a thought comes to mind. “Bríghe, lend me your arm.”

  I take hold of Bríghe’s arm, and use some of her magiks to help strengthen my own. It’s something I learned from the Seelie healers I met during a previous battle. When we’re finished, I don’t feel too bad at all. I’m well enough to do some damage to the enemies ahead.

  “What did you do to me?” Bríghe asks. “I feel so weak.”

  “I’ve borrowed some of your magiks, I didn’t have enough to do that party trick without you. You won’t feel quite as strong for an hour or so, but you’ll recover soon enough.”

  I can tell that Bríghe isn’t impressed, but there’s nothing I can do about that now.

  “Are you ready? We can attack that group from behind, and help our sisters.”

  She nods, and we move together down the tunnel, ready to do our darnedest. I actually feel better now than before I blocked that last tunnel entrance, I must have taken a fair bit from Bríghe. Neither of us are going forward very quickly though, it’s more of a congenial walk. I’m not sure what we’ll meet in the next few seconds, but we won’t be racing in. At least we’ll have the element of surprise. The sounds of fighting get closer at every step. Soon, there are sprays of light coming from ahead, but as we near where the back of the fight should have been, Hatchesput is there tapping her foot.

  “Are the tunnels sealed?” she asks me. I guess the fighting down here is over.

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  One of the Irish girls has survived by Hatchesput’s side, but out of the twenty or so of us that came down here, I guess there are only four of us who will manage to walk out.

  “You took your time getting back here.” There’s some accusation in Hatchesput’s voice, but I think she can see that we’re pretty spent.

  “Sealing tunnels takes it out of you,” I answer. “I had to borrow some magiks from Bríghe to do the last one.”

  “Humph, fine,” her words are laced with sarcasm. “Let’s see what’s happening topside. Be ready, it could be just as bad up there as down here.”

  I don’t think Hatchesput is angry with us, just with the way things turned out down here. Our attackers turned the tables on us, and we came off the worse for it. In fact, I may have blocked the tunnels, for now, but if they’re persistent, the other side could break through one of those branches again in a few hours.

  We follow Hatchesput up the stairs, but at the top our way is blocked by someone with a lighter than white aura. Shite, it’s a White witch. My hand shoots out to blast her with the blade I use as a wand, but Hatchesput knocks my arm aside deflecting the blast into the wall.

  “Take it easy, Egghead. She’s one of ours,” Hatchesput admonishes me.

  “But she’s white?” I look again, the light from her aura was so strong that coming out of the darkness of the tunnels I couldn’t make out the witch herself, but there is something familiar about that aura.

  “Kathleen? Kathleen Whyte? What are you doing here?” It’s Susan’s aunt. I haven’t seen her in ages, not since she warned us that Susan was a daughter of Gaea. That was months ago.

  “Yes, we’ve taken her and some solitaries, as well as the Irish. We needed to bolster our numbers, Kathleen is with us now,” Hatchesput answers. “She’s an associate coven member. Full medical and retirement plans.”

  “My own sisters are all gone, it’s no fun waiting all alone for someone to blast you from behind when no one’s got your back. Besides, how could I turn down an offer to protect Susan? Even if it is with a coven of dark witches?” There’s a smirk on Kathleen’s face that I can only now make out as my eyes adjust to the light of the courtyard. “Not a bad retirement plan either.”

  “How have things been going up here?” Hatchesput asks Kathleen.

  “All quiet so far, we were waiting for your signal, but I heard the blasting and saw lights from the tunnels, so I came down to see what was happening.”

  “We ran into some trouble. We had to block the way behind us. I think we’d better find Pulania and get those drones in the air.”

  “Drones?” I ask.

  “Yes, drones,” Hatchesput replies.

  Chapter 30: Drones

  Bríghe, Kathleen and myself follow Hatchesput to one of the small rooms in the Hermitage that still has a roof. Inside, holy cow! There are seven high tech remote interfaces with state of the art virtual reality interface stations including remote sensing and control. I must admit, I’m absolutely drooling over the tech. Swearing in goodness seems almost mundane in the face of so much technology.

  “Ouch!’ Having read my thoughts, Pulania clips me on the back of the head.

  “Don’t swear in goodness.” I didn’t even notice she was here, but I guess she’s supervising this. Huh, some of her coven duties are covetous. I wish she’d clued me in on this,
but I guess Susan is my main duty nowadays.

  As I scratch the small welt raising on the back of head, I can’t help thinking double standards are being applied. Especially since I’m standing beside a White witch who has just been let into the coven. But ooo, those shiny lights!

  “Feck!” I exclaim. “Where did all this come from?” Because, really, I am a bit blown away by it all. There are seven of our remaining coven members crewing some of the most high-tech simulation stations I’ve ever seen.

  “We’ve struck up a bit of a relationship with the alternate royals,” Hatchesput deadpans. “They’ve supplied this tech to help protect Susan.”

  By ‘alternate royals’ I assume Hatchesput means the British royal family, the same one that has been around since the Battle of Hastings.

  “Have we launched yet?” she asks Pulania.

  “The drones are in the air and they’re coming around in two waves.”

  “There’s something coming over the hills to our south-east.” It’s Hilda, one of the radar operators, who’s shouting out from a lower alcove of the small stone walled hall we’re standing in.

  “How far out are they? How many?” Pulania asks.

  “Maybe a hundred or so small echoes, ten miles out.” Hilda turns to us from her screen, the green glow lending an eerie glare to her aged features. “They could be brooms.” Meaning witches on brooms.

  “Break off the second wave of drones to intercept to the south-east,” Pulania yells to the drone pilots.

  “First wave in intercept range.” One of the girl pilots calls out.

  “Ground attack maneuver, rack them with the cannons,” Pulania directs.

  “The survey drone confirms, twenty seven downed targets!” Another of the girls calls out a few seconds later. A yell of triumph echoes from some of the coven.

  “Well, that will teach them to play around with us,” Hatchesput gloats. I can’t help thinking it’s a wee bit of revenge for the girls who died in the tunnels.

  “Do we have eyes on the bogeys to the south-east?” Pulania interrupts the celebratory babble.

  “Witches on brooms, confirmed.”

  “Do we know if they’re friend or foe? Do a pass by without firing until we confirm.”

  “The witches are sending blasts out at the drones, our eyes in the sky show some witches we’ve labelled as suspect.”

  “Bring the second wave around, and rack them with the cannon,” Pulania calls.

  But as we’re standing there, the lights and the drone monitors flicker, and die. For a second or two we’re standing there in total darkness, until the reddish glow of the emergency lighting comes on.

  “Shit. That’s not good, is it?” Gil asks.

  “The generator is gone, what’s happened to our generator?” Hatchesput yells out.

  “Where was it placed?” Pulania calls back.

  “In the dungeon,” Hilda answers.

  “Quick some of you go down there and get it going,” her Evality commands, but Pulania and my eyes meet, we have the same thought.

  “Don’t go down there,” I yell out as a couple of the girls start toward the doors.

  “Did you put any ventilation in?” Pulania questions one of the coven who had started toward the generator, having grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around to ask.

  “What? Ventilation, no. Why would it need ventilation?”

  “Because, the exhaust is heavier than air, if you run the generator long enough down there without ventilation, it’ll displace the air and eventually the generator will be smothered because all the oxygen is gone. That’s what’s happened. Anybody who goes down there now is going to die as soon as they enter the room,” I answer.

  “Oh shite, never thought of that,” Hatchesput answers.

  Somewhere outside the room, the coven’s automatic Gatling guns have sprung into action. The ricochet the electric round ignitions cause can be clearly heard, thankfully they have their own power supply.

  “We should evacuate, Your Majesty,” Pulania suggests.

  “Yes, number two evality, you’re right. We’ll go to the other sets of tunnels and make our way out. We’ll be swamped if we stay here, without our hi-tech weaponry we’re no match for them.”

  “Hilda, call in a bomb strike by the RAF. We’re out of here. To the tunnels, girls! Evacuate everyone! We’ll rendezvous in… Dublin, at the Irish girls’ pub! Everyone out.”

  Oh, no, that won’t be good. The Seelie’s won’t like that at all, but no time to think about it now. “We can cover their escape from the courtyard, and then take the Faerie paths out ourselves,” I suggest to Pulania.

  “Good idea. Kathleen and Bríghe, you’re with us.” Pulania turns to Hatchesput who is screaming at everyone to get out through the tunnels. “We’ll cover the withdrawal, Your Majesty.”

  “Fine, but don’t get yourselves killed.”

  We file out of the room with everyone else, outside the Gatling guns are ringing tracer bullets into the night air. Overhead I can see the shadows of our enemies, and flashes as they send bolts and blasts against the castle walls. Hatchesput was right about this place, the walls are good and thick. Nice and high too, it’s hard for the other side to get a good shot at us.

  From the shadows our girls make their way down from the castle walls and out of the few remaining rooms, down to the lower doorways that lead to whatever tunnels Hatchesput has had built into the place. Kathleen, Bríghe, Pulania and myself pay them no mind, we’re watching the skies and sending our blasts upwards as our girls make their exit. Gil is there too, razing the other side with an automatic hand gun that someone has given her. I don’t think she’s hitting much though, she’s better at the closer range that you need for a water pistol.

  Our guns go silent as the last girls who manned the Gatlings make their way out.

  “The gun placements are rigged to blow from my cell phone,” Pulania yells to us. “Once they’re gone we’re out of here.”

  But something is happening, I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise. The stillness of the night air is broken by rushes of wind. It’s my sister, she’s coming.

  Chapter 31: Sisters

  Pulania is typing something into her cell phone, probably the code that will blow our ordinance, but I lower her hand away from the push buttons. “No need.” Is all I say.

  The air is thickening, I can feel my sister’s power as the wind rises. I start walking toward the gate house, there’s an exit door that bypasses the actual gate, which had been closed to protect the castle.

  Curious, Pulania and the others follow behind me. Something sharpens in the air as my hands undo the bolts that brace the door, and I pause to take in the change. Looking behind, I can tell that the others can feel her now.

  “An Elemental,” Kathleen whispers, and I can see there’s a fear in her eyes which hadn’t been there during the battle.

  Looking overhead, the shadows in the air belonging to our enemies have all but gone. At their greater altitude they probably felt her approach first.

  “It’s safe to go out”. Well, it’s safe from those other witches, what I’m doing now may not be ‘safe’ at all. I push away the final bolt, and lean against the ancient iron frame to shove the door open. Its hinges complain, but the door opens to let me pass. From behind, Pulania’s hand comes to my shoulder.

  “I’ll be alright.” Well, I don’t know that for sure, but I don’t feel any fear.

  Above us a heavy fog is rolling in over the rise. It’s like a giant wave being pushed by the elemental wind blowing in from the west. I take a few steps forward onto the earthen mounds that cover some long collapsed outer fortification. The others continue to follow, but I turn and wave them back. A few steps more and I’m engulfed by the fog. It slews around me; it’s so heavy that the castle has disappeared from view. A few steps more and the murmur of voices I could hear behind is gone, I think Pulania yelled something about calling off the RAF air-strike. In the fog, even
the wind has stilled, it’s as though the winds only purpose was to encompass me in mist, and now, that being accomplished, it has abated. I have no doubt that was exactly its purpose.

  This isn’t like before when she came to Dunnottar Castle, back then, she had come with power and fury. This time she has made her power felt, but the wind was not a maelstrom, it has a different purpose.

  Ahead of me, I see some movement. My feet continue on. There in the distance is a figure grayed by the fog between us. It’s her, I can feel her.

  “Hello, Amura.”

  “Hello…” I don’t know her name. I might have once, but it would have been one of the memories taken from me by the dual compulsion placed on me by Pulania and Ruby.

  An awkward silence ensues. “I… I don’t know your name, my memories before the first world war have all been taken from me.”

  I can see the figure’s head cocking to the side as she considers me.

  “You never came, you stayed behind.” Is it an accusation? If so I have no answer for it.

  “No, I guess I didn’t.” I think she means when she left Pulania’s womb, that’s the only thing that makes sense.

  “Are you coming now?” she asks.

  Curiosity overcomes me, I need to see her face. She’s not like I had anticipated, she doesn’t sound wild and soulless, on the contrary, she sounds careful, reserved. I approach a few steps more, peering to see an image I expect to be something like my own. The brief glance I had in Dublin gave me the impression of my own face, but it’s her expressions I want to see. I want to know what she’s thinking. If I can see her face I can get some measure of her.

  As I approach, the mists between us thin and I find myself only a few feet from my sister.

  “You are with child.”

  “Yes,” I reply, “I am.”

  Her lips are pursed. How do I read her? Her aura is rolling with power, which is effectively hiding the nuisance of emotion.