by Victor Poole
Ajalia felt so angry, and so disgusted, that she thought she might explode. She wished that she could get out safely from behind the net. She knew that the witches would kill her if they could, but she vastly preferred the now-six women, with their sinister expressions, and hateful eyes, to the sanctimonious frowns of the priests.
"They have always been filthy men," Coren told Ajalia under his breath. She saw that his eyes were turned towards the priests, and his face was full of hatred. "My mother said it was our duty to fight them, and to kill them, if we could," the boy said.
Ajalia looked over the wide hall, and she tried to think of what to do. The priests were on edge now that blood had been spilt; they eyed the six witches, and Ajalia saw that the two priests whose weapons now ran with blood were crazed for more. With a tightening of her lips, she sent her mind deep within the earth, and gathered up the thickest cord of red-gold magic that she could put her hand around. Ajalia was beginning to feel as though life was growing more and more chaotic by the minute; she had expected that Coren would have settled down; she had planned on going to bed. I could have been asleep right now, Ajalia told herself, and a surge of anger filled her, as she thought of the stars above, and began to gather threads of silver.
The energy in the hall was strange, and tense. Blood had been spilled, and with the death of the witch had come a wild, ugly energy. The priests, who had, when first the pillars blazed with light, looked about with some chagrin, now raised their eyes with boldness to the six remaining witches. Ajalia could see at once that it would be no good speaking to them. The priests, she saw, were thoroughly under the control of Thell, and Thell, she saw, was the worst kind of man, a man who looks like a good man, and kills like an evil man in the darkness of secrecy.
"Thell is a bad man," Ajalia said in a low voice, just for the witches to hear. the witches, who had been staring in blind terror around at the priests who ringed them, turned a little, and looked back at Ajalia. Ajalia had gathered now sufficient starlight and earth light in her hands, and was mashing the power together. The six witches, who had been thoroughly alarmed by the death of their sister, stared now in shock at the power that Ajalia could see they felt radiated around her. "I am going to protect you from the priests," Ajalia told the six witches. "If you run away from me," she said in a low voice, "I think you will die."
Vinna looked at Ajalia, and Ajalia saw that the brown-haired servant-witch believed her. Vinna put out both of her hands, and grasped the fat blond witch, and another thin witch, one of the witches with short hair, hard around the waists.
"Stay still with me," Vinna hissed at them both, and the short-haired witch reached out, and grasped two other witches hard. Charm was the only witch whom no one reached out to hold. Charm regarded Ajalia suspiciously, and turned with angry lips, and flared nostrils to the other five.
"You will be destroyed by this foreigner, if you trust her," Charm snapped at them. Ajalia began to weave a second, much thicker net of the dancing ocean lights all around herself and Coren, this time enclosing round the witches as well. Thell saw what she was doing, and cried out.
"Get the witches!" Thell screamed, and flung himself forward. Ajalia squeezed out the mass of magic she held in her hands, and formed it into a blank wall all around herself and the withes. Charm, with a snarl of hideous anger, flung herself away from Ajalia, and from the power that radiated like a small blue sun out of her hands. Ajalia knew that Charm could not see the flickering blue lights, but she saw that all of the witches, like Ossa, could feel the movement of the power so near them.
Charm, as she flung herself away, was caught in the flow and ebb of the strong blue magic, and her body was cut all in two. Her physical body was unharmed, and fell with a slap to the floor just outside the blue wall, but her spirit, Ajalia saw, was sliced in half. Just as Ajalia had cut through Lilleth's neck, and severed the connection between that woman's head and shoulders, and just as she had cut off Beryl's head from her shoulders, before stabbing the woman's body through the heart, so now Charm's soul was split in twain, and Ajalia saw her eyes go dim and blank, before her legs gave out, and she fell to the floor. The priests were upon the fallen witch at once, like rabid dogs. Ajalia, without thinking, put her hands out, and smashed Coren's face against her body, so that he would not see.
The blood from the priests' attack splashed violently against the blue wall, and hissed into steam against the mixed star and earth magic. The five remaining witches clung to each other, afraid to move, and gazing with horror at the mangling of Charm's body. Ajalia closed her eyes as soon as the priests moved to attack. She held Coren hard against her orange gown, and she felt the dregs of blue magic that clung still to her hands and fingers sinking, like gossamer threads of fire, into the boy's head where she held him.
Coren, whom she had wanted only to protect from the sight of the priests' barbarism, began to shake, as though he were undergoing some awful shock. Ajalia did not dare release him; she felt the blue magic seeping into his flesh, and she was afraid that if she let go of him, his cheeks would peel away in her hands. A burning sensation seemed to glue her hands to the boy; she felt attached to him. Her soul, she saw, was not going into the boy, but now that her hands were stuck to his head, and his face was smashed against her body, she saw his soul. She had not looked closely at the colored lights inside Coren; she had not wanted to see what was inside of him. She had looked once, when she had cut out the piece of Bain that Lilleth had stitched into her son, but she had not lingered there. Now that her hands held fast to his face, and his body trembled like a leaf in a hurricane, she saw his soul up close, and plain.
Coren's soul was blackened; there were colors, but they were so dark, and so drenched with shadow, that there seemed to be none of the original boy left. He was a person who was a shell full of darkness. Ajalia watched the darkness, and she saw the blackness in Coren seeping towards her hands. When the black reached her skin, it turned white, and then retreated back into the boy's body. His shaking gradually stopped, and the streaming of the shadows continued.
Ajalia felt Coren breathe in deeply against her body; she felt his shoulders lift, as though a great burden was being cut away from his flesh. She felt his skin grow taut and feverish, and then almost at once grow smooth and cool. She felt as if the boy was undergoing a great sickness in the measure of a few seconds. His breath came deeper, and stronger, until his whole torso seemed to be expanding in great sobs of air. He was not crying; he seemed never to have gotten a proper breath before, and was trying now to catch up for his whole life.
The priests, who had mangled Charm's body almost past the recognition of its original human form, backed now away, and ringed the witches. Some of their faces were spread with blood, and their cheeks were hollow, and gruesome with naked bloodlust. Ajalia saw that they had ceased, in their minds, to be human. She did not look around at Thell; she knew that she would be angry if she saw that priest, and she wanted to keep her wits about her. She wondered, briefly, if it was likely that Delmar would show up here tonight. He had said he would be back in three days, and Ajalia was fairly certain that he had meant to take a journey to see his grandfather in Talbos, but she would have liked to have help with Thell.
"What is going on here?" Ocher's deep voice boomed out over the brilliantly-shining hall. Ajalia's heart swelled in relief; she kept Coren grasped close against her body, and turned to see Ocher, who was just coming down the last of the stairs. She remembered now that he had said he would come to visit Clare again. Thank all that is holy, Ajalia told herself, for Ocher.
Coren had wrapped his arms around Ajalia's waist; he clung to her like a baby, and his naked shoulders, where the black marks still shone, were streaked with sweat. His skin, Ajalia saw suddenly, was smoking gently. She had thought at first that the streams of smoke were reflections of the light from the double wall of blue light that stretched all around herself and Coren, but she saw, when she looked down at the boy, that his skin was letting out a noxious b
lack steam. The black marks, she saw, on his shoulders and back, were beginning to shrink.
Thell, who had stayed apart from the bloodbath, stepped forward now towards Ocher. Ocher came farther into the hall; Ajalia saw his eyes, furious and bright, and his cheeks, which were exceedingly hard under his thick brown beard.
"I am very happy to see you, Ocher," Thell said, hurrying forward towards the man. Thell glanced back at Ajalia, and a small smile was on his face. Ajalia was sure that Thell was going to tell Ocher some story about her being a witch, and conspiring with the visiting witches over the boy, Coren. Ajalia felt a settling rage in her heart. She wanted to laugh at Thell. If Ocher fell for Thell's story, she told herself, she would slap the bearded man silly. But, she told herself confidently, Ocher would not believe Thell.
"I came with my brothers," Thell told Ocher, who continued past the priest, and came towards Ajalia in a straight light, "to offer asylum to this poor foreigner, and she not only rebuffed my courtesy, but she threw these witches in my face. The foreign woman conspires with witches!" Thell said excitedly. He was almost running to keep up with Ocher, who was striding quickly through the hall, and had not so much as paused to greet the priest. "We were able to kill two of them," Thell shouted, running beside Ocher, who was walking more quickly still, Ajalia thought, to avoid the priest. "But they fought ferociously," Thell said, his voice a little flat.
Ocher reached Ajalia. The bearded man stepped without pausing into the first thick wall of blue light, and then through the smaller mesh dome of the same blue light. Ocher's soul gave a little flash of white when he stepped through both walls of light, but he did not make any sign that the lights gave him any obstruction. Ocher stopped when he came to Ajalia, and his eyes swept around the hall. He took in the hideous carnage that had been Charm, and the still form of the first witch who had fallen, who was surrounded now by a wide and spreading pool of red blood.
Ocher looked at the boy, who was wrapped still, like a terrorized baby, in Ajalia's arms, and she saw Ocher's mouth go down grimly at the corners. Ocher put a large hand around Ajalia's elbow. His touch was warm, and like the embrace of a friend.
"Are you all right?" Ocher asked her, in a quiet voice. Ajalia met Ocher's eyes, and she wanted to cry with relief. She had been angry, and then she had begun to go numb, when the priests had begun in earnest the tear into Charm's still body.
"They will try to kill the others," Ajalia told Ocher, nodding towards the five witches who clung with white hands to each other within the wall of blue. "I don't know if you can see it," she said, "but I've put a wall up. I don't know if the priests can get through."
"I can feel it," Ocher told her, "but I can't see it. Stay here for a bit," he said, smiling tightly at her, and he released her elbow. Ajalia wanted to sink down to the floor in relief; she had not realized how afraid the sudden blood had made her. She tightened her hold on Coren, whose skin was yet letting out thick clouds of what seemed, to her, to be dark gray smoke. Ocher did not seem able to see the dark clouds; he did not blink, or struggle to see Ajalia, when he looked at her. Coren, who had shaken at first, and then become slick with sweat, hung onto her now as if she had been his only way to stay alive. His arms were like the grasping arms of a newborn child, who clings with surprising might to his mother's finger.
Ocher stepped out towards the witches, who flinched away from him, but huddled still away from the blue wall. Ajalia saw Ocher speak quietly to them, in a voice she could not hear, and she saw Vinna and one of the others reply in shaking voices. They glanced often at her; she saw that the five witches were transfixed with terror. Two of the witches were crying silent tears, while the other three had faces that were as white as if they been drained of all their life. Their eyes were like the eyes of haunted souls. Ocher touched Vinna's arm gingerly, as though reassuring her. Ajalia could not hear what he said. Ocher turned away from the witches, and stepped out towards the priests. He stepped carefully around the scattered and bloodied remains of Charm, and looked imperiously around.
"Come to me," Ocher commanded, in a voice that billowed like fire through the long temple hall, "and hear me speak."
The priests, who had been glancing at each other with eager smiles throughout Ocher's time with Ajalia and with the witches, gathered now, eagerly, their bloodied spears and clumsy swords in their hands. Many of them were covered in blood; they looked as though they had bathed themselves in the body of the dead witch, and their fingers were grotesque with crimson gore. Ajalia was sure, from their faces, that the priests fully expected Ocher to set them loose upon the last five witches, and upon Ajalia herself. She saw them glancing, and licking their bloodied lips, at the witches. She thought she saw a few of the priests casting lewd looks of appraisal at herself and the handsomer of the witches, and she felt a curl of disgust in her gut.
Ocher waited until the priests had gathered into a tight bundle before him; their backs were at an angle to Ajalia, and Ocher was facing the priests, so that he could see both them and Ajalia clearly. Ocher raised his hand into the air, and then looked around for Thell.
"Thell," Ocher commanded. "I need you." Thell, bursting now with importance, and looking as though he had been sure Ocher's previous neglect of him had been a mistake, rushed forward, his brown cloak flapping in the bright light given off by the two pillars that Ajalia had imbued with light.
Thell came and stood beside Ocher.
"Please," Ocher said, nodding his head with elaborate civility. "I desire to see your face clearly, my brother," he said, and Thell, smiling with pleasure, nodded agreeably, mimicking Ocher's motion, and went to stand at the head of the gathering of priests.
Ajalia counted over the priests in their brown and bloodied robes; there were exactly twenty, she found, and the three who could see the shimmering blue lights were gathered at the very front, behind Thell.
"I wish to speak to you now, my brothers," Ocher said loudly. His voice echoed through the chamber. Ajalia looked the stairs, and saw Daniel's face for a moment, before he vanished again around the wall. She was sure that he and Clare, at least, were behind the wall that lay near the stairs, listening to what passed. The five witches, their arms linked around each other as though by holding each other they could stave off death, had begun, very slowly to vibrate. Ajalia watched the witches as Ocher began to speak, and she saw a great wire of black, like the root of a large tree, forming. Each of the five witches had a black vine spreading out from their chests, and growing together into a thick cord. The black lines joined into the thick trunk of black, and spun very slowly towards the wall of blue light that Ajalia had flung up to protect the witches from the priests. Ajalia listened to Ocher speak, and she watched the gradual progress of this length of black. She wanted to see if the witches, together, would be able to overcome the blue light, or if the blue light would trump the power of all five witches.
"My brothers," Ocher said, and Ajalia saw then, as he glanced towards her, that Ocher was trying to catch her eye. She stopped looking at the witches, and stared at Ocher, trying to discern what he wanted. "We have, for many years," Ocher said, "battled the malignant evil of the witches in our midst. I know that you have formed an important part of the barrier against their evil." Ocher looked again at Ajalia, without moving his head. His eyes went to her, and then he frowned, and looked again at the priests. Ajalia tried to think of what she would be wanting, if she had been Ocher, and Ocher had been in her position.
She smiled, and began, for the third time, to gather the red-gold lights from deep within the earth. The first time Ajalia had gathered lights from below the earth, she had not known what she was doing. Delmar had read out from the slim leather book, and she had sent her mind deep into the earth without thinking. The second time, she had reached only for the lights that ran in chaotic streams just below the surface of the ground. Now, as she reached deep, she found that her mind was growing more adept. She could feel the different thicknesses and vibrancies of the lights. Some were weak
, or thin, or of colors not suited to her purpose. She went straight down, deep within the bowels of the earth, and when she felt a great, thick cord of the hot gold power, she dug her fingers through it, and carried it whole towards her.
THE
WALL OF OCEAN-BLUE
"We have fought together, my brothers," Ocher said, his voice filling up the hall; many of the priests shouted out, or raised their bloodied weapons. "We have spilled the blood of many witches, and each time we have done so, we have kept our city safe."
"Yes! Yes!" the priests shouted, pumping their fists into the air, and glancing with open desire at the five witches who clung to each other near Ajalia. Ajalia wondered why the priests had not thought the five witches would run away; the priests had all gone over to stand near Ocher, and he had seemed to do nothing to reassure the priests that the witches would stay put. It seemed very strange to Ajalia. If she had been one of the priests, she would have left a watch over the witches, before traipsing toward Ocher, and gazing up at him with opened mouths and blood-hungry eyes. Perhaps, she thought, the priests were all stupid, or perhaps they had grown so bold that they thought the witches would not dare to run away.
She had gathered, by now, several winding cords of silver light from the stars above, and she now made a swift weaving of the cords, fitting them together in her mind's eye, and casting them in a curved wall around the back of the priests. She knew that Thell and his three minions would be able to see the wall; she sent it high above them, and deep into the stone behind them, and then put the curving lines around their backs, until they were penned in. She then gathered more of the magic, and began to imagine a great semicircle; she meant to make the last enclosure of the magic in her mind, and then cast it, all at once, around the front of the priests, so that Thell and his three helpers would have no time to escape. The priests' eyes were all fixed eagerly on Ocher; she saw that they were sure he was on their side. He spoke on, retelling the priests' greatest victories, and promising them greater transcendence in the future.