As I plied my evil magiks, I be sure, once or twice, I saw Hatchesput spying on me, but what could I do but just smile at her from the distance, as I carried on creating little bits of havoc. I think I actually caught her smiling back at me too, laughing at the trouble I caused, though she tried hard not to let me see. I had such fun. Stonehaven be an excellent place to visit.
Heading home, I fall asleep on the pony cart that I commandeer for my travel, though in this case the cart driver was on his way to Aberdeen anyway, so I only compulsed him not to notice me. I do not even bother hexing him at the end of the trip, as I am excited to see Pulania and tell her of my travels. I arrive back in the town early enough that it only takes me to the early evening to find my way back on the magical path to my house in the willow wood.
I am so eager that on seeing the gas-light on, I run up to the porch, pushing the front door open so that it bangs against the backboard.
“I have spoken to Hatchesput, and she did not kill me!” I blurt out to Pulania.
Pulania has found a bottle of wine I had hidden from her, and pauses with a glass to her lips. “No indeed, you seem live enough to me,” she pans.
“How did you find that bottle? It be mine.”
“I am a witch, Amura, but you may have a glass.”
“Of my wine?”
Pulania just smirks in reply to me. I am annoyed that she has almost finished my bottle of wine, however, as she suggests I help myself to the final glass.
When I settle down beside her, Pulania strokes my hair, as she be wont to do, as we are truly like sisters. “Tell me of your adventures little one,” she asks. “You have taken a great risk in approaching this coven, they are known to be extremely dangerous, particularly to other dark witches. Tis no accident that there be only one dark coven left in Scotland.”
Over the next hour I relate what had transpired. I even reveal a second bottle of wine, which Pulania had not yet found, for more wine was needed to continue the story.
“You are an impish sprite when it comes to evil doing,” Pulania comments when I have finished my tale. “I be glad that you sought advice from the Hecatine though, she gave you sound consultation.”
“I do not see how this Hatchesput will contact us, we are hidden here, are we not?”
“Indeed,” Pulania confirms. “However, you have told her of Charlotte, she may contact us through her when we go to the library… or, we might be tracked through our contact with her. Either be possible. When I am better, one of us will go to the library to exchange books, the other will watch from a distance for spies or ambush. It may be that they hope to kill two, and not just one.”
“Hatchesput would not have killed me, I would not have let her.”
“She be a wily, old creature, sly and devious. She may have seen an opportunity to kill us both.”
It is a sobering thought. We settle into our own imaginings, each relaxing into the evening.
“How are you recovering?” I eventually ask.
“I fair well. The pain resides, and I am able to move more freely. Another week, and I shall be much myself.”
“Oh, so I have you as a guest for a week more? You will drink all my wine.”
“Undoubtedly,” Pulania replies.
I lean back, against Pulania. “Tell me again about when you first found me.”
She strokes my brow. “You had forgotten everything. I do not know where you were from, or who you had been, though your clothes betrayed you to be of the Borderlands. I found you doing minor evils, tormenting other children who had tried to torment you. We were, and are, alike, I recognised that then, and it still holds true to this day. We are both dark, but we are not like the dark witches of times gone past, we are different, but the same. You were living on the street, an urchin, not knowing that your power set you apart. I immediately recognised you as a sister, and stole you away from the Glasgow streets where I found you. The rest, you well know.”
I nod my head, it be a story I have heard many times before. “Will we survive Hatchesput and her coven? I be not sure that we will.”
“We will be careful, and cautious. We will not be trusting, it be good that you did not give Hatchesput your dagger. We will not make any such mistake.”
“I will carry another weapon though from this point on. She be right on that mark. I should always have a second blade.”
“And because she said that, we can have some hope that they will not just try to kill us. Time will tell.” But there be darkness in Pulania’s voice.
Chapter 7: The Trip to the Library
Pulania be better, and be able to act as look out. This be our second trip to the library. For the first, our roles were reversed – I were the lookout, and Pulania were the bait. However, I may have been distracted, and started hexing other children I had come upon along the way, for it be a game for me, and I may even have been so engrossed in my own doings that I totally forgot about Pulania. Sigh. I guess I am punished for being unreliable. I am saddened and despondent as I carry out this chore.
“I have finished Wuthering Heights, I am ready for Sir Walter Scott now,” I tell Charlotte.
“Oh, I am sorry Amura. Did you not enjoy it?”
She says this because I am so down cast.
“I enjoyed it most completely, but I be punished for other transgressions.”
“Oh,” Charlotte smiles at me. “I be sorry for your situation, but take heart, I have books that will raise your spirits.” She introduces me to the works of the Waverly novels, so known because Sir Walter Scott did not, apparently, use his own name, but only the title of ‘the Author of Waverly’ and like authorship. They are novels that depict life in Scotland, and I am immediately enthralled.
“But here, Amura, I had almost forgotten, there be a letter for you and Pulania.”
I put the pile of books I had gathered for the next month’s reading aside on a tabletop, and take the letter Charolotte has retrieved from behind one of the administration desks. To be honest, I be quite anxious to read the letter, which be boldly addressed from ‘The Scottish black coven’.
I quickly peruse the writing, and smile to Charlotte, who has been waiting with curiosity on her brow.
“We are accepted into the coven!” I tell her. She must realise that for Pulania and I this letter means life or death, she embraces me as I break down in tears, for I am but fourteen, and am easily affected by tensions I had not known I had. The emotion of it be so strong, that I cannot control myself. I had not realised it meant so much for me, and Charlotte be caught in my relief.
When I am myself again. I kiss Charlotte on her cheek, and taking my books, with the letter, I turn to make my way home.
“Amura!”
I turn back to Charlotte.
“Blessed be, my sister.”
I nod my head, but can only look at the ground as the tears come and I rush from the library.
Outside, I settle down to walking the route that Pulania and I had pre-determined. The path I walk does not lead back to Pulania’s, which be only a block or so away, as it were too great a risk to reveal that way to any spy. There be another entrance to the magikal paths near Edinburgh castle, and I go there, too overcome to note the happenings around me, though undoubtedly my shadow, Pulania, watches over me.
When I get to my house amongst the willows, I reread the letter, and then, when Pulania arrives behind me, I read it yet again, silently to myself, because I can hardly believe what it says.
I clutch the paper to my chest, too overcome for words. But Pulania waits patiently for me until, finally, I read aloud.
“To Amura and Pulania, you two ‘pretties’ will be the first to join our coven in over a hundred years, do not mess it up, elsewise, we will have to kill you. You will be on probation with the coven for twenty five years, if you fail your probation, you will be killed,” I read. “As probationary members, you are invited to join us for our summer solstice celebration this year at Hermitage Castle. Clothing: none,
weapons and weapon holsters only. This year the sacrifice will be the Bailiff of Stonehaven. RSVP Scottish black coven, care of Stonehaven City Council.”
Tears stream down my face as I crumple the paper back to my chest, Pulania hugs me, and she be crying too. We be part of a coven! The last dark coven in Scotland.
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The Series to date
The Dark Witch: Evil Rising
A prequel in short story format
The Dark Witch: Time for Evil Doing
The first novel of the series
The Dark Witch and the Ruby Slippers
The second novel of the series
The Dark Witch and the Elemental
The third novel of the series
And a fourth novel in the series is on the way.
Evil Rising Page 3