Sorceress' Blood

by Carl Purcell

  “Another one?” She looked at Jin with frightful hatred. “Are there any more of you lurking about? I don't want any more surprises before I destroy you all.”

  “We are the Order of the Witch-Hunter. For one thousand years we have guarded against your return and I am vowed to destroy you.”

  “That's nice. Now you die.” The ground beneath Jin went soft and moulded around his ankles. Then it began to snake up his body and wrap around his wrists. “Yours will be the most agonising. Little boys should know better than to play with weapons.” Rebecca, desperate and out of options, threw her gun at the Sorceress. The weapon had only gone a short distance before it changed direction and flung straight back at Rebecca. The pistol struck her in the stomach. She fell, winded, to the ground. “Because I have you to thank for my return, I'll kill you last.” The creeping, slimy stone had wrapped Jin up to his waist now and its tendrils were crawling towards his mouth. Before long he would be choked to death by the very ground he walked on.

  Then the Sorceress turned to face Ashley. The small, weakened girl had picked herself up to her knees and tried with all her might to cast another spell. She tried to summon a flame like she had with the candle but she couldn't call so much as a spark. She tried to lift the rubble and cast it at the Sorceress but it was useless. She couldn't focus while she was in so much pain. The Sorceress lowered herself to the ground and stood by her coffin.

  “It's over, you little bitch. For someone so young you have so much potential. But you're still nothing compared to what I was and what I am. I have no use for you. It's time you died. I think I'm going to rip that pretty little face right off your head.” The Sorceress erupted in a hideous, evil cackle again.

  Rebecca looked around hopelessly for anything that she could use. There was nothing but corpses and tiny rubble around her and Jin slowly being eaten by the earth. Then she saw the body of Pan Wĕi. A pool of blood dripped from the hole in his head and in his hand he still held his gun. Rebecca snatched it as quickly as she could and turned to the Sorceress. She gripped the hilt with unsteady and desperate hands as poorly as any amateur. But her heart was in those hands and she swung it forward with the impassioned fury of a protective lioness. She pulled the trigger and fired again and again at the Sorceress. She fired without hesitation until there was nothing left to fire. Rebecca fired until the Sorceress, ridden with holes, had dropped back into her own coffin and Rebecca's bullets just struck the wall. She didn't stop until Jin, freed from his prison, put his hand on her shoulder and soothingly told her what she needed to know.

  “She's dead.” Rebecca was shaking all over and the gun fell from her hands. Jin knelt down and embraced her. “She's dead, Rebecca. You did it.”

  Ashley ran across the courtyard and wrapped her arms around Rebecca. Jin left them and went over to the Sorceress' body. He approached it cautiously and when he was by it he took his sword and fired one more time into her head. While he stared at the corpse he thought of the legend. Two brothers had come together to end the evil reign of the Sorceress. Only together could anyone triumph over her. Jin looked over at Rebecca and Ashley and a proud smile came over his face. He lifted the lid back onto the coffin and sealed away the evil once again.

  “Well, you two did it. You've saved the whole world. Now let's get out of here.” Rebecca nodded at Jin and stood up. With Ashley in her arms, she followed Jin back into the meadows of Scotland and at last she felt truly at ease and knew that soon she would be living her own life again.

  “What about the castle?” Rebecca asked. “For that matter, what about us?”

  “Someone will get us. There's no way the Thralls will be able to handle so many knights at once.”

  “So you think they'll win?”

  “Sure. I bet once things get bad the police will show up and take care of things.”

  “Won't the police arrest the knights as well?”

  “You don't know much about the knights. We can handle just about everything.”

  Rebecca stopped and put Ashley down.

  “Hold on, Jin. I need to rest a moment.” Rebecca sat and Jin sat with her.

  “What are you going to do now that it's over?”

  “I don't know. It's not really over, is it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well the body is still there and I have plenty of blood left in me. Maybe we'll kill most of the Thralls here but they're all over the world, aren't they?”

  “You're right. Then you will stay with the Order?”

  “I don't think so. No offence but I don't like those castles very much. I just don't think I could live like that the rest of my life. I don't want to be a knight, and if you're not a knight or a servant, then there's nothing to do.”

  “Then what are you going to do?”

  “Well, I can't go home. Maybe I'll go back to London with some of the knights and find somewhere to live there.”

  “I'm sure the Order will help you.”

  “I hope so. I don't think there's any way we can do it legally.”

  “We?”

  “Ashley and I. She still hasn't told me anything about where she came from but I don't think she wants to go back there.”

  “Then you'll take care of her?”

  “I think that's best for her.”

  Ashley had stumbled her way a few metres from the group and was staring at the castle. She wanted to make the whole, horrid thing explode if she could. She knew that she didn't have the strength left in her to lift a pebble, let alone destroy a whole castle but that wasn't going to stop her trying. She continued to focus all her mind on the castle and had become oblivious to everything else.

  “Yeah. I'll move to London, get a job. Change my name and just live the rest of my life relaxed.”

  “Now that the Thralls here have been defeated, the Order might be able to rebuild.”

  “Maybe. I don't think I'll keep in touch, though. This whole thing has been horrible and the sooner I can forget it, the better.”

  “I understand.” They were both quiet. There was one more question Jin wanted to ask her but he didn't know how to say it. Unknowingly, Rebecca was also thinking about the exact same thing. She broke the silence, only half aware that she had begun to think out loud.

  “I can never have children of my own.”

  “You can if you want. No one will stop you.”

  “No. I don't mean to put the Order out of a job but it's too dangerous. The Thralls found me, what's to stop them finding my children or my grandchildren? I wouldn't want them to live in a world where they're in constant danger like that. Things are dangerous enough without being the sole target of a psychotic ancient cult.” Rebecca turned her gaze towards Ashley and then back to the rolling meadows stretching out in front of her. “But I think it's okay. I've got Ashley; what do I need more children for?”

  “So you'll give up being a mother for the sake of the world?”

  “Maybe. No. That's not quite true.”

  “I understand. That's very... very? ... I've forgotten the word,” Jin admitted.

  “I don't know. It is what it is.”

  The conversation came to another pause. Rebecca let herself fall back and looked up at the sky. Suddenly, and mostly to Ashley's surprise, the castle caved in on itself.

  “I think Scotland can do with one less ruin, don't you?” Ashley, Rebecca and Jin all looked to see who it was that had just arrived. Jin instinctively reached for his sword but relaxed when he saw the newcomer wearing the crest of The Order on his brown blazer. “I take it everything went well for you?”

  “Yes.” Rebecca answered. “You too, Lord Sebastian?”

  “Things went considerably worse for me. I find myself less one castle and I only had one to begin with. So while that's being rebuilt I've come to personally get the three of you and bring you back to safety.”

  “I'm glad you made it out of there alive.”

  “Yes. Well, let's not dawdle.”

  “Alright.” Re
becca picked Ashley up into her arms and took one final look around her. With the castle gone and now sinking into the ground the fields looked much nicer. She imagined there might be cows or sheep grazing here one day in the future. Then Rebecca looked at Ashley and smiled. She saw the little girl’s face smiling back at her and in that moment everything seemed like it would be okay. Rebecca was certain of everything, now. She would be the last person to ever carry the Sorceress' blood.

  About The Author

  Carl Purcell was born in and still lives in Australia. He started writing at an early age and has aspired his whole life to be either an author or Jackie Chan. Because the job of Jackie Chan is already taken, Carl eventually decided to become an author.

  Carl's first publication was as the co-writer of the comic series Winter City, which began in early 2012 and has been met with critical acclaim. Sorceress blood is his second release and is the result of years of practice, hard work and learning everything the hard way.

  Carl is an active member of the website deviantArt. He also keeps a blog on the topic of writing and being a writer. Carl loves to hear from people who have been reading his work. You can contact Carl or find out more about him at these places:

  http://neomerlin.deviantart.com/

  http://www.winter-city.com

  http://www.carlpurcell.blogspot.com.au/