The Night Sorceresses

by Erica Griswold

  “Oh, thank you so much! That is very kind of you!” Angelina said.

  The man got off the cart, and he, Christabel, and Angelina lifted Willow and Riordan onto the hay.

  D”o you have a piece of paper?” Willow asked. “I have remedies for blindness and stomach ulcers in my shop. I need to give you directions to it.”

  “With what quill will she write them down with?” Riordan asked.

  “I have a map here,” Angelina said. She pulled out her map, opened it, and located the village of Fernhollow. She pulled her pen out of her purse.

  “Look for a shop that says Fernhollow Apothecary on it,” Willow said.

  Angelina asked, “What is the street address?”

  “406 Durham Street.”

  Riordan chimed, “Knowledge Sorcerers removed the inventory. Instructions to where they hid it are written in fairy runes on the back wall. I had no part in deciding where it was to be placed for protection until Willow could return, so I don’t know where it is.”

  “I don’t know how to read fairy runes,” Angelina said.

  Riordan replied, “All magical people have a natural ability to read fairy runes. You will be able to read them.”

  Angelina wrote down the address, memorized the map to Fernhollow, and put it in her pocket.

  “Go quickly!” Willow hissed. She coughed up a second mouthful of blood.

  Angelina knew that she did not have much time to help her friends. She found a back alley and imagined what kind of bird she should transform into. She wondered what kind of bird was the absolute fastest. Angelina felt herself grow feathers and begin shrinking. When she was finished transforming, she looked in a puddle, and saw that she had transformed herself into a falcon.

  She flapped her wings and lifted off the ground. Angelina flew high into the air, but not so high that she lost sight of the road. She felt the wind blow hard in her face as she flapped her wings furiously.

  She saw one fairy ring outside Ethermoor City, but she wasn’t certain that she could get to Fernhollow quick enough if she used it. According to the map, there were two villages between Ethermoor and Fernhollow. She passed over the other villages and finally saw the rooftops of Fernhollow. Angelina flew through the streets and saw a sign above a doorway that read Fernhollow Apothecary.

  Angelina looked through the window and saw that the store was empty save for a few empty store fixtures. She felt a stab of pain in her heart when she realized that this was a store that had been in Willow’s family for generations, and that Willow would probably never be able to return to it. She was glad to see a chimney poking out of the top of the roof. Angelina flew down the chimney and into the shop.

  She turned back into a human and began searching everywhere for the writing Riordan told her to look for. Her heart raced as she thought of her friend dying from internal bleeding. Angelina turned and saw odd writing scrawled on the wall behind the desk. Please visit me at 249 Angoral Avenue in Seaside. Angelina had no idea how she read it.

  These must be the fairy runes Riordan told me about, she thought. Angelina looked for Seaside on the map and found it. She took a pen out of her bag and wrote the address on it. She put the pen and map away, turned into a bird, and flew up the chimney.

  It took her very little time to find the next town. Once she arrived, she found the address quickly. Angelina flew into a garden behind the two-story house, hid amongst some trees, and transformed back into a human. Angelina knocked on the door. An elderly woman opened the door and poked her head out.

  “Hi, I was at the Fernhollow Apothecary, and—”

  The woman suddenly grabbed Angelina’s arm and pulled her inside. “My granddaughter was a Sea Sorceress, and she died three months ago,” the woman hissed.

  W”illow, the woman whose family owned the shop, was poisoned with Thornflower poison, and she needs ulcer medication. Our friend also accidentally ingested it, and needs her medication to cure blindness,” Angelina said.

  “One moment. I have all her things in my basement,” the elderly woman said.

  She disappeared through a door and returned moments later with three bottles of potion. “I think this might be what you are looking for. One of these is a blood-restoring potion since you said that she is vomiting blood,” the woman said as she handed the bottles to Angelina.

  “How come the Knowledge Sorcerers told you to take care of her things?” Angelina asked.

  “My granddaughter was an apothecary just like Willow. They did not meet each other during her lifetime. When the police caught Willow’s family, some sorcerers gave her things to me for safekeeping,” the woman said.

  “What is your name? I will have to bring Willow back to visit you sometime.”

  “My name is Cecilia. I met her parents on the day of their arrest,” the woman said.

  Angelina was unhappy that she couldn’t stay and visit with the woman. “My name is Angelina Nightengale. I must go now. Thank you so much,” Angelina said as she shook Cecilia’s hand.

  “You’re welcome, Angelina.” Cecilia walked Angelina to the door, and the two said goodbye. Angelina found the trees again, hid behind them, transformed back into a bird, and flew to Ethermoor City.

  She found the hospital, which wasn’t hard because it was a huge structure that was as big as any of the government buildings in Ethermoor City. Angelina flew behind the hospital and transformed back into a human. She walked inside and to the front desk of the hospital. “I am here to see Willow Nightshade and Riordan Firedorn,” she said to the woman.

  “We are waiting for a doctor to be able to attend to them. Come with me,” the nurse said.

  Angelina followed the nurse to a room. She saw Willow lying in bed, obviously unconscious, and Riordan was lying in a bed beside her, sobbing. She saw a doctor giving Willow some kind of blood transfusion. Christabel sat in a chair, lips pursed together in obvious worry. Angelina read the instructions on the bottle. The doctor began attending to Riordan. When the doctor turned his back toward Willow, Angelina poured the ulcer liquid into Willow’s mouth.

  “I’m sorry, but you can’t give those things to patients,” a woman said. Angelina turned and saw a nurse standing behind her. She pointed her hand at the floor. A vine suddenly shot out of the floor and wrapped itself around the woman’s legs and hips, pinning her right in that spot. She shrieked in terror. Another vine shot out of the ground and wrapped itself around the doctor. Angelina walked over to where Riordan sat crying and poured the sight-restoring potion over his eyes. Foam bubbled up from them.

  “Leave the foam on for five minutes,” Angelina instructed.

  “You . . . what are you?” the nurse asked, voice trembling with fear. Her finger shook violently as she pointed at Angelina.

  She decided to tell the woman the truth. “I am a sorceress.”

  The nurse’s eyes widened. “Let me go!” she screamed as she squirmed around in her timber prison.

  “I can see color!” Riordan shouted. He blinked and wiped his eyes with his hand.

  “Promise me you won’t tell anyone about what you saw,” Angelina said to the nurse.

  “You instantly grew vines out of the ground by just pointing! How do you expect me to be quiet about that?” the woman wailed.

  Y”ou should probably drink this too. The woman who had your potions gave me this one as well,” Angelina said as she handed Willow the bottle of blood-restoring potion.

  She took one gulp of the medicine, and the color slightly began returning to her cheeks. She still felt frail and knew she was going to be in no shape to leave the hospital at the moment. Willow sat up in bed, threw her arms around Angelina thankfully, and said, “Thank you so much!”

  “Well, you two are my friends!” Angelina replied, smiling. She hugged Riordan, and he cried into her shoulder.

  “Would someone like to explain what is going on here?” the doctor hollered.

  Willow said, “Those potions are to heal stomach ulcers and blindness. I promise that if
you don’t say anything to anyone about this, I will do business with this hospital and provide you all with my medications.”

  The doctor and the nurse nodded their heads vigorously. “Oh, I will definitely keep my mouth shut!” the nurse said.

  Angelina released the two of them from the vine, and they ran out of the room. “Do you think we can trust them to keep quiet about it?” Angelina asked.

  “Does it matter? I plan on providing this hospital with medications anyway once Tareth is gone,” Willow said.

  “Speaking of Tareth, I no longer have the charcoal. I used it to take the poison out of your body,” Angelina said.

  “What?”

  Chapter Tweleve

  Angelina said, “Yes, I had to use the clump of charcoal to save you and Riordan!”

  Willow was humbled, but she knew that they didn’t have any more charcoal left for Angelina to perform her trick. “What do we do now?”

  “We allow ourselves to get caught,” Christabel said.

  “After I’ve made some more Forever Burning Charcoal, that is,” Riordan said.

  “How do you make that?” Willow asked.

  “Well, Willow, doesn’t lightning start fires? We just need to get a piece of wood. You can start the fire, and I will recite the words to the spell to make Forever Burning Charcoal.”

  “What are we going to do if the guards take our weapons and inject us full of iron?” Willow asked.

  Riordan grinned and said, “Well, again, that’s where you come in. You turn into a cloud and find whatever it is they use to make people unconscious in these hospitals.”

  Back at the palace, Tareth waited for his cut-off limbs to reattach themselves. He was so livid that he could hardly contain his anger. That woman had his world-turner ring and the belt! “Guards!” he screamed. Seven palace guards ran into the room. They looked around in total confusion when they saw Tareth covered in blood and a large pool of blood on the floor. Tareth thought of a lie to tell the soldiers to get them to bring Christabel back to him. “Go find Princess Christabel and bring her back to the castle. She has committed treason by aiding Willow Nightshade! Also, her court jester stole a ring of mine!”

  The guards left the castle and began searching the city for Christabel, Willow, Angelina, and Riordan.

  Willow turned into a cloud of smoke and floated out the door of the room. She hoped that no one would see her. She heard a horrible clatter, like metal falling on the floor. She turned and saw a nurse staring at her wide-eyed in fear. Willow decided that she might have some fun scaring the hospital staff. She screamed and shot toward the nurse, sending her running down the hall, screaming at the top of her lungs. Willow looked at the contents of the dropped tray and saw several scalpels and a bottle of Valerian juice, which she recognized as a sedative. She picked up the scalpels and the juice and floated back into the room.

  “You gonna find some Valerian juice for the rest of us?” Christabel asked.

  “I will try to.” Again, she turned into a cloud and floated out of the room.

  She had the most fun scaring hospital staff as she floated through the hallways, looking for something that might be a supply closet. She saw a doctor panic and open a door behind a nurses’ station. Willow floated in, and the man slammed the door behind her.

  “I caught the ghost! It’s inside!” the doctor yelled. She quickly turned back into her human form and put on a doctor’s coat that was hanging on a peg. She lit her hand up and read the contents of the medication bottles. She stuffed three Valerian bottles and several small towels into the pocket of her lab coat.

  The door swung open, and Willow saw three doctors standing outside. “Where’s the ghost?” one asked.

  “What ghost? It’s just me in here,” Willow said. Willow remembered that she was going to be doing business with the hospital as a pharmacist.

  “Do you work here?” one doctor asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I do. Today is my first day. I am a new pharmacist,” Willow said. One of the doctors looked at his clipboard. “What is your name?” he asked.

  “Willow Nightshade,” Willow said.

  “It says you’re a . . . oh yes, I see here. You were immediately hired as a pharmacist upon admittance to the hospital,” the doctor replied, nodding his head.

  “Now, if you will excuse me, I have to finish getting acquainted with this place,” Willow said.

  “Oh yes! Absolutely!” the doctor said as he and his colleagues moved out of the doorway. Willow walked back to the hospital room and gave the bottles of Valerian to her friends.

  “I should try to increase the potency of the Valerian in the bottles so that it will put someone out upon smelling its scent,” Angelina said. She opened each bottle, stuck her finger in, and increased the potency of the herb. Each of them tied a scalpel and a Valerian bottle to one of their legs with the small towels.

  Riordan decided that it was time to make the charcoal. “Angelina, do you know how to make charcoal?”

  “No,” she replied.

  “Can you grow a small tree in your hand that we could use for wood to make it?”

  “I’ll try. I’ve never just grown a plant in my hand before.”

  She held her left hand out in front of her and waved her right hand over it. A small tree grew in the palm of her left hand.

  “Hand the tree to Willow. Willow, you zap the tree and cause it to catch fire,” Riordan said.

  “I saw a bucket of mop water sitting out in the hallway. I’m not doing this without water to put the fire out,” Willow said.

  “But the tree has to be burning when I recite the spell.”

  “I don’t care! I will hold my hand in the water so that I won’t catch fire!”

  She stood up and walked out of the room. She returned seconds later with a bucket of murky water. Angelina cringed at the thought of Willow sticking her hand in it, but she guessed sticking her hand in filthy water was better than getting burned.

  Angelina handed the tree to Willow. Willow submerged the tree halfway in the water. She zapped the top of the tree, and it began to burn. Riordan held his hands over the tree and quickly said, “Wood burning brightly, darken your flame to keep your firelight for more than one night. Healing medicine come to life.” The firelight suddenly went out.

  “That’s it,” Riordan said as he broke the burned piece of charcoal off the tree and handed it to Angelina.

  “Healing medicine?” Willow asked.

  “Yes, we always activate the charcoal’s healing properties in case we need to use it for our health. It’s why Angelina was able to heal us. Charcoal is a wonderful absorbent for poison,” he replied.

  By that time, night had fallen. The doctor came in and examined Willow and Riordan. He determined that they were healthy enough to be discharged in the morning. Angelina and Christabel slept in chairs in Willow and Riordan’s room because they did not want to leave their friends alone at night.

  Willow was awakened that night by the sound of people walking through the halls. Someone opened their door. Willow slowly became aware that the footsteps were entering their room.

  “You’re coming with us!” one person hollered.

  She felt a needle pierce her skin. She looked up and saw the palace guards standing over her.

  Angelina heard all the commotion and woke up as well. She felt herself getting poked with a needle. She felt someone pull something off her left ring finger and realized the guards were pulling off her world-turner ring! She looked up and saw the palace guards standing over her. Then, everything went dark.

  “What are you doing? Let go of me!” Christabel shouted as some of the guards handcuffed her. The four of them were loaded into jail carts and taken back to the castle. Angelina did not realize that the bag fell out of her pocket as they were being loaded into the cart. One of the guards opened the little bag and saw its contents.

  As they were riding through the city, Christabel saw a long line of around two hundred people standing
outside the bank. Most of them had frustrated expressions on their faces.

  Tareth sat in bed, waiting for the servants to deliver his breakfast to him. A young woman walked into his room, carrying a tray with his breakfast on it. She looked strangely nervous as she placed the breakfast tray on the bed.

  “Here is your morning paper, sir,” she said as she handed him the paper. The headline read “ECONOMY HAS WORST DAY IN 30 YEARS!” in large and all capital letters. Tareth seethed with anger as he read the rest of the article, which detailed how the stock market had gone so high that businesses began hiring people, but then just plummeted. The new jobs were no longer there, and more jobs were lost overnight.

  I have to get that belt back somehow! Tareth thought as he slammed the paper down on the bed.

  “I know, sir, it’s terrible, isn’t it? It’s only your first week leading the country, and already a recession may be in our near future,” the woman said.

  Tareth fought back nervousness. He forced a smile and said, “Yes, but you don’t have to worry about it. Everything will be okay.”

  The girl smiled weakly. “I hope so. When my oldest sister was a baby, my mother lost her job in the last recession. She, my sister, and my father had to live on the street. They still have nightmares about it.”

  Tareth tried to calm himself down. After all, it was only one piece of bad news for one day. He would have his belt back soon, and all would be fine. “You will always have a job here,” Tareth said to the servant girl. She smiled and walked out of the room.

  “I wonder what is going on there?” Christabel wondered aloud as she looked at the crowd standing by the bank. Someone was reading the morning paper. The headline read “ECONOMY HAS WORST DAY IN 30 YEARS!” They continued riding through the streets, and it seemed like hours before they came to the bridge over the castle moat.

  Christabel was yanked out of the cage by three guards. They dragged her through the front door of the castle. The others were carried off somewhere else. Christabel’s heart pounded as she realized Angelina wasn’t going into the castle with her, and that she might have to face Tareth by herself.