The Dark Witch and the Elemental

by Tabitha Scott

  I turn around to Master, a gleeful smile across my face, Master’s not affected by time charms either, and he winks at me. Turning back, the kiss is long and drawn. When Eppy finally pulls away, Arawan takes a long breath, the air having been pushed from his lungs by the slam against the wall. He manages to whisper two words when he lets out his breath again.

  “An Elemental.”

  Chapter 43: Human flesh

  “It was a monster kiss. I wish I had her technique. She almost killed the guy, he had so little air left.” I’m giving Pulania a blow by blow, as she was frozen with everyone else when Eppy went all air and spirit.

  “Well, that was all very well, except she broke several of his ribs when she slammed him into the wall,” Pulania is tapping her foot, she’s worried about what happened to Arawan, after all, we have a deal with the Seelie Queen, not to harm him… he may have been harmed, though thankfully, not by us.

  “Who was to know that he was constitutionally so weak. I guess that was from the Seelie… Unseelie sleep. I checked his blood levels, he’s low on calcium.”

  “We didn’t leave him like that for very long, I can’t see that affecting him so quickly. Maybe the Faerie people have an unnaturally low calcium level?”

  Hmm, she might be right about that. “Yeah, they’re not human, we could test Jimmy and maybe a few others to get a baseline?”

  “Probably a good idea,” Pulania sighs. “It was good that you were there to use your creation magik to fix him, he would have been in trouble otherwise. He could possibly have died.”

  “A Faerie death, he would have been fine by morning,” I reply.

  “Yeah, maybe.” Pulania turns to me, she’d been staring at the floor before this. “I wonder though, that calcium deficiency, it just doesn’t seem right to me. We need to look into it.”

  Over at the wall, where I’d fixed Arawan, Eppy is comforting him with a gin and tonic. He’s just sitting there on the floor taking it easy. A few of the non-Fae patrons (who’d thought they’d been through an earthquake, when they were eventually unfrozen) asked if they should phone the paramedics, but we waved them off, explaining that Pulania was a doctor. Well… it is true, though she’d gotten her degree some time ago, in the early 1900s. I take a second to look more closely at Arawan. I’d always thought he looked a bit effeminate, but now, I’m thinking that he actually looks emaciated.

  I wander over toward him, and kneel down to where he and Eppy seem to be bonding. “Why are you starving? What’s going on with you? You shouldn’t be like this, you’re a Faerie, you’re immortal, you should be healthy, but… you’re not. Your ribs broke far too easily.”

  He just looks at me, and his chin is set such that I can tell that he’s not going to answer me.

  Eppy runs her hand down his face. “You’re too thin. Amura is right. You shouldn’t be this way. Tell us why you’re like this, we might be able to help.”

  He’s looking at her and his face is much softer than it was when I had his attention. Ahh, but it’s not just that they’ve formed a connection, there’s a very subtle compulsion at work. Ficketty feck! Eppy has bewitched the King of the Unseelie! That’s something no Earthbound creature should have the power to do, but apparently, Eppy has that power. Impressive. Although, perhaps Arawan doesn’t mind being compulsed by Eppy, that might be part of it too.

  “We of the Faerie who live in the Unseelie world were originally banished, for various ‘acts’. The Unseelie world is not a healthy world, even for the creatures we share our court with. After many millennia, even an immortal can show the effects of an unhealthy environment.”

  A sobering thought.

  “Is that part of the reason why you want to kill everyone on Earth?” I ask. “So that you can move in to somewhere a little more healthy?”

  He nods his head at me. “That is part of the reason. Faerie kind can move amongst humans with little trouble, but as you may have noticed, not so the others of the Unseelie court. Humans have always tried to kill the unFaerie kind, sometimes with success.” Very pointedly, his eyes go down to the obsidian blade I still have clasped in my palm.

  “Before me?” I ask.

  “Even before you. The others of the Unseelie court have also been weakened by the world we live in. We are not truly immortal, there has always been the means of killing us, though difficult it may be. If we were true immortals we would not be able to have children, not even with human females.”

  “You hate humans, but you have children with them?” Eppy asks.

  Arawan shakes his head and sighs. “Hate is a strong word. I have my duty to the Unseelie court, and the game we play is a long one. We cannot live in our world forever, as it will eventually kill us. We cannot live in this world while humankind is here, a part of humankind will always hate anything different to themselves, the history of humans is one of not being able to even tolerate each other. They have never, and will never, accept the Unseelies. We play a game of us or them.”

  “Have never?” I ask.

  “Yes, there was a time when humans were small in number, back then we lived openly in your world. We were strong, but as humankind grew in numbers and technology, we have been less able to spend time here.”

  “Sooo, if the ‘others’ of your court were here before, wouldn’t there be human records of that?” I observe.

  “Have you heard of trolls and goblins? There are human legends, I am sure,”Arawan replies.

  “Hello, hello, hello. The legends I remember speak of trolls and goblins eating humankind,” my eyes are narrowed at Arawan.

  “Well, there may have been some eating of humans, but aside from that, trolls and goblins can be quite civilised. Once their need for living flesh is met, they can even be sociable.”

  “Yeah right.” I’m not in the least bit impressed, though thinking about it, I guess, being a dark witch, I can feel a modicum of sympathy for a people that aren’t quite aligned to normal human practice – despite the flesh eating thing, which actually isn’t that far removed from normal dark witch inclinations. I mean, human flesh is a bit overrated. I only really see it as an eating the heart of your enemy type of thing, so, no biggie, except that I guess it hasn’t enamoured the Unseelie to humankind.

  “So apart from trying to eat humans, so long as the humans don’t try and totally wipe you out, you’re not averse to living peacefully?” I ask.

  Arawan seems a bit taken aback by the question. “Well, now that you put it that way, well, no, I guess not.”

  “I think we can do something for you then.” I reply.

  Chapter 44: It’s a bit shite

  The Two Witches inaugural ball has ended, I think it was a success, it kind of rocked, though in an annoyingly 1950s way. The punters seemed to like it, the shuffling of the whole building by an internal cyclone was just seen as interesting turn to the night. That’s by the by, right now I’m taking off the magikal bracelet I’d made for Arawan. He’s not back in his cell though, we’re still up in the pub. I have an idea of how we might solve this age old problem of sickly Unseelies and I don’t want to accidentally blow him up while we’re trying it. I also have an idea of how to trade for this solution, because it won’t be for free. Well, truth be it known, I have no idea at all how we might solve this, but I do know who to see about it - Grandma.

  I’ve taken the Angel of the Year cup from our mantelpiece at home, and brought it back here with a set of gloves.

  “Right.” After undoing the bracelet I set it down on the pub table near the cup, and then take off my gloves. “The one person who can solve this mess is a god. And, as it happens, we have limited access to one.”

  “I thought you weren’t meant to use that thing frivolously,” Pulania interrupts.

  “Who says this is me using it frivolously? I’m to use it whenever I have the urge, Grandma said so, and I’ve got the urge.”

  Pulania shrugs in reply. Okay, I guess that objection is dealt with.

  “So what we’re going t
o do here is all hold hands. I’m hoping that if we do that, we all get dragged along to wherever Gaea is when I touch the cup.”

  “You’re telling me that we’re going to visit the goddess Gaea?” Arawan asks. He seems a little unsettled by that prospect, but also, dubious.

  “Yeah,” I answer. “Problem?”

  “Well, she’s a god.”

  Ficketty feck, that doesn’t really explain any of his discomfort, I’m just going to ignore him. “Right, everyone hold hands, Eppy, you hold Arawan’s hand at the end of the train, if we lose him on the way I’m going to assume it was your fault.”

  The look of terror on Arawan’s face was to die for. Eppy’s eyes bulged open for a moment too, though really, it’s not that bad a trip. In the past I’d just felt a bit of nausea, I haven’t even thrown up, not once.

  We’re all holding hands now, it’s very Kumbaya. “Right, everyone hold tight, here we go.” I note that Eppy and Arawan’s hands have squeezed very tight, good, another together moment. Now I touch the cup with my ungloved hand. Instant vertigo.

  It’s actually a very disorientating trip, and there was a small chance that we might lose someone along the way, after all, I’ve really only done this once before with other people, and it didn’t really work that time. I mean, that time it was only me that went to visit Gaea, and she didn’t actually do a lot to help back then. Thinking about it, I’m not sure why I knew that this time would be different, but I do, and looking around, the others have followed me to the forest. Success!

  I stagger to my feet, because it always takes a moment or two to get over the dizziness. The giant sequoia-like trees surround us in Gaea’s ancient forest, though Gaea herself isn’t initially in sight, but there are four stone pedestals nearby. I think they’re meant to be seats, so I sit on one. The others, Eppy, Pulania and Arawan, do the same, and then we wait, quietly going through our own thoughts as we hang there. It’s actually very peaceful, there is never any wind in this forest, it has a huge canopy of green that dapples and diffuses the light that reaches us. There are some chirpings of insects, and the occasional bird, but not much else.

  When she approaches, it is an aspect of Gaea I had never seen before, she’s not the nice old lady I’d grown used to, or the young child I’d once seen, this is a powerful women in the prime of life, with flames and air exuding from her every movement, fierce and frightening. I almost wet my pants when I see her.

  “What is your purpose here, Arawan of the Unseelie?”

  Thank Gaea, I’m kind of relieved she’s not paying me any attention, looking across at Pulania, I can see that she’s equally relieved. Then my eyes divert back to Arawan, who is speechless. Oh shite, maybe I should speak for him.

  I put up my hand. “Ahh, can I speak for Arawan of the Unseelie?”

  The flame and wind Gaea looks at me in a very neutral, non-familiar way, it’s as though she’s never met me before today, and yet, I’m sure we’re related. She actually doesn’t reply to me, she doesn’t say yes, but she doesn’t say no, either. I think she’s looking at me expectantly, so I stand to address her.

  “Um, hi. We were hoping you could help with the problem of the Unseelies? Apparently their own world is a bit shite, it’s sort of killing them. Can you help fix it?”

  The flaming persona of Gaea is looking at me silently for some time, I’m not even sure she’s so much looking at me, as through me. It’s intimidating really, and then she turns to Arawan, and is doing exactly the same to him.

  “There is no solution to your world that I can help with. I have no power there.”

  Well, that sounds a bit final…

  “Can you help with their living in this world?” I ask. “Is there some place where they can exist without being hunted down and killed by humans?”

  She doesn’t reply to me for a while, she doesn’t even look at me, she just seems to be looking through Arawan. Then flames erupt from her sides, is she angry?

  “There is a place.” Her voice is high and condescending, but she has the power to do that. “A volcanic caldera, raised high on an island in the Pacific Ocean. It is inaccessible by sea due to the cliffs of its ancient volcano - now long extinct. However, inside the ancient cone are several square miles of tropical highland, fertile and without a single human. It also contains hundreds of acres of underworld, which may be more to the like of many of your brethren. I can place upon that island protections that would keep it from the knowledge of men. This could be made available to you.”

  “At what price?” A meek Arawan asks.

  “Peace,” Gaea replies.

  Chapter 45: Unseelie regents

  It’s not so bad, it’s not as hot as I expected for a South Pacific island, I guess that has to do with the altitude of the plateau, not quite nose bleed height, but high enough that the temperatures are pretty moderate, at least, for this time of year.

  “Can we see the underworld?” Arawan asks.

  We’ve actually forged a new Faerie path to get here. I think Arawan was impressed that Pulania and I have that ability. There are only the four of us here, Arawan, Pulania, Eppy and myself. Gaea returned us to the pub after we’d spoken to her, but had implanted in my mind and Pulania’s the directions we needed to get here. After we’d changed from our ball gowns, we’d forged the way to the island. The new Faerie path links this to both the Seelie and Unseelie worlds, so it will now be accessible by both courts.

  The entrance we’d made came out in a rich forest, it has some similarity to Gaea’s ancient forest, perhaps this was another garden of hers, one she’s willing to give the Unseelies for a lasting peace. There’s a large cliff face nearby with ancient volcanic tubes that lead into the depths of the island’s igneous base. We begin walking down the largest of the tubes, fully four or five times my height, and rounded out by some long past lava flow. This tube actually leads downward toward the edge of the island, which I guess makes sense, since the lava that carved it out would have been travelling downhill. Within only a hundred metres it widens out to a massive cavern, of the sort I had seen the Seelie Court appear in.

  “This will be acceptable,” Arawan comments. There’s a subtle smile on his face.

  “It seems fairly healthy, as far as underground tunnels go.” I wave the light I have around illuminating the far walls of the cavern, which are several hundred metres away. “You could move right in.”

  “Gaea said that there is wild boar on the island, so plenty of meat for your people. No need to eat any humans here. We can also arrange for cattle to be brought in, or other livestock,” Pulania suggests.

  “We will make this deal then?” Arawan asks. Gaea had empowered us to negotiate the finer points of the agreement. We had to strike the deal with Arawan, or it was a no go.

  Pulania, Eppy and I look at each other, we need something else from this deal, we all know what it is, but Pulania and I nod to Eppy urging her to ask.

  Eppy’s hand runs down Arawan’s jowl, and I can see him shiver in response, oh isn’t Unseelie love adorable?

  “Arawan dear, we need something else for this deal, something that you have in your possession.”

  “Ah, you wish to have back the copy of the covenant that we took so long ago.”

  Ooo, he’s not a silly boy, I can see why Arawan is King. We’re duly impressed that he could make that intellectual leap.

  “Clever boy,” I comment.

  “Not so clever,” he replies. “We stole the covenant long ago, in preparation for the return of a daughter of Gaea. We knew that her protectors might turn to the covenant to bring to heel your own. Humans are easily misled. When desperate, they will believe any charlatan story. We knew we could subvert some of your number to our side.”

  A sobering thought.

  “We also knew that a war might be needed to end a daughter of Gaea,” he continues. “For a war you need soldiers. The Unseelie are too few, and the demon hordes are largely imprisoned in other worlds. A Fae army was our obvious choice, b
ut the covenant was a weapon that could be used against such an army. We had to neutralise that possibility. It only stands to reason that if you seek an accommodation with the Unseelie, the covenant would be a chip to bargain.”

  “It would be an even trade, this island gives you all you want, all you need. You really didn’t have any need of the whole world, and I know you have children of your own in the human world. Would you have truly sacrificed them to save your people?” Eppy asks.

  “I would have brought our children to the Unseelie world prior to the destruction of this one.”

  “And what life would they have had?” I counter. “The destruction of life on this world would have been total, not just the humans, but all the animals on the land, and all the fish in the sea. The only meat available for the Unseelie host would be the Seelies, and each other. Your children would have been saved for a short, nightmarish existence.”

  Arawan’s face flushes, but not with anger, his mouth is slightly aghast. He hadn’t foreseen the loss of the Unseelie food supply.

  “Will you give us the covenant, in exchange for the island?” Eppy presses him.

  His face contorts in thought, there are emotions running through his eyes as I watch him. Then he answers.

  “No.”

  “No?” A startled Eppy replies.

  “No, I would have one thing more as part of this bargain.”

  We all look at each other, what more could Arawan want? The island is everything his people could need.

  “What else is there?” Eppy asks.

  “Yourself,” Arwan replies. “You must be Queen of the Unseelie.”