I grabbed the crystal ball that sat neglected on a shelf and looked into its perfect, polished surface hopefully. But the only thing I saw in its depths was my own reflection. I lifted it off the stand and hurdled it across the room, shattering the heavy sphere into a million shards of useless glass.
“Why have you deserted me, Goddess. Have I not always worshipped you faithfully? Have I not devoted my life to singing your praises and lighting your alters?” The voice remained silent, and I screamed into the night.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Matthew
Finishing early with Mary felt like such a relief. I was so worried about Taryn that I was having a great deal of trouble concentrating on transcribing trying everything that happened during the woman's interrogation accurately, in a way that proved her guilt. The way I wrote things would be imperative once we reached the trial stage, and I needed to be mentally present to do so effectively. But today, my mind was just not on my work.
Taryn had been so scared when the men accosted her. And for very good reasons. All it took was one person to point a finger at you and you could find yourself in shackles. It was getting more and more dangerous for her to be seen. I hated to leave her by herself while I went to work. Even though Harold’s wife, Martha, was looking out for her, what could one woman alone really do if a mob came for her? My guess was close to nothing. I also didn’t really know the woman either. I trusted her husband, but wives often do not hold the same views as their husbands. I had a nagging feeling in my gut that something was wrong, and I needed to get back to Taryn as quickly as possible.
I exited the tower as calmly as I could manage. I didn’t want to put anyone on alert. Especially when the guards assigned to this place for the interrogations were already afraid they would be cursed by what they guarded, or that their families would suffer for them being here.
The men crossed themselves every time they entered or exited the building. They all carried rosary beads in their pockets and cold iron amulets around their necks with a pinch of salt inside to protect them from evil. Due to its proximity to the castle, the Thorn itself had mistletoe hanging from the rafters due to traveling merchants claiming witches couldn’t go near the plant.
I told John I would return after I had checked on Taryn. He didn’t try to hide the dismay in his eyes and I was more than aware that he was not happy with me. But what could I do? I didn’t know how to comfort him with his recent admission to me. Any attention I gave him could be perceived as meaning something more and I did not want to lead him on. I had always cared for John, but he had taken my affection for him to a dangerous place. My friend seemed to be slowly sliding into insanity, perhaps possessed by the very evil we sought to destroy.
The stable boy came at my whistle and brought Jezebel to me. He quickly saddled her and prepared her to be ridden. I jumped into the saddle and put my heels in her sides to get her moving and we were off. The wind whipped my face and her hooves sent the dried leaves flying as we took the road at a full-on gallop.
As I neared the inn, I was struck by how many people were outside the homes and shops. It was the most activity I had seen since arriving here. People were pointing at me and whispering. I was fairly used to that though as my reputation usually preceded me.
At the last town we visited, a woman brought her baby girl to my room and asked me to check to see if the toddler was a witch or not. She was very distraught when I informed her that was not how it worked and asked her to leave. I wasn’t at all surprised when the woman herself was named as a witch, by her own husband, and later hung in the town square before our departure. She was the last to be tried and found guilty by us there.
The number of people milling about became more and more alarming. I managed to push through them to get to the inn and tied Jezebel to the post outside since I did not see Henry about. I gave her a pat and headed inside.
Harold’s familiar face greeted me from behind the bar. The old man must have been feeling better. His wife was hovering near him, taking the rag from his hands and wiping down the bar he had started on. He nodded to me as I approached.
“You are back early, Sir,” Martha said to me.
“I was unsettled. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.” My body was shaking with some unknown terror although I didn’t know why.
“The town has been very fidgety today as well, Sir. Everyone was talking in the streets about witchcraft and such. I do hope you have made progress on those eight so we can see this scourge vanquished. Their presence is setting everyone on edge. I fear they may take matters in their own hands soon,” Harold spoke to me around his wife and she stopped to listen.
“Yes, Sir, the patrons have been reporting cats and bats stalking their homes and attacking their children. There are three cats strung up just at the end of the street. The people are scared.”
Her eyes were wide and she shivered. “We are doing the best we can, Madam, I promise you. I’m hoping for a quick resolution so we may leave you all in peace.”
“You are a good man,” Harold smiled at me and put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. She smiled and patted his hand affectionately.
“I need to see to Taryn. She has not left the inn has she?” I asked.
“No, Sir. Elizabeth brought her vitals earlier and she has remained upstairs.”
I felt overwhelming relief. At least Taryn was safe. So, the disquiet I had been experiencing today was not caused by harm coming to her. Thank God. “I must go to her then. Thank you both.”
The couple went back to their duties and I rushed up the stairs as fast as my boots would carry me. I was even more relieved when I came to our shared door and found it intact and locked.
I rapped my knuckles three times over the smooth wood and heard Taryn’s response from within.
“Hello?” she sounded meek. She wasn’t expecting me back so soon and Elizabeth had already been by. No one should be knocking on the door.
“It is me, love. I couldn’t bear being away from you today. Something is off in the town.”
A click and the lock was turned. The door swung open and Taryn clung to it sleepily. Her hair was disheveled and she wore nothing but my nightshirt. She looked stunning.
“I heard men talking about me in the tavern earlier. I went down to find Elizabeth, but when they looked at me, there was so much hate in their eyes I just ran back up here and locked the door.” She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her lips against mine, “I’m so glad you came back. I don’t think I am safe here any longer.”
I lifted her body off the floor and she wrapped her long legs around my body, clinging to me like a child. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I would protect you from anything.”
She lowered herself to the floor, “Matthew, if anyone does decide that I am a witch, they will come. There won’t be any stopping them. I’ve read many accounts of women being ripped from their homes while their husbands are powerless to help them. How many women have you personally removed for witchcraft, and how many of their men were able to stop you?”
“We had the law on our side “
“If the law said I was guilty, would you fight for me?”
“Of course, I would. How could you ask such a thing? I would die to protect you.”
“You say that, but if it came down to it, you would be forced to stand and watch just like the other men,” She looked so frightened. “You wouldn’t have the power to fight for me.”
I kissed her again and let my lips linger on hers, savoring her taste. “I wish you didn’t know so much about what is happening here. I fear it hurts you worse having the knowledge beforehand. Everyone else can pretend not to see it, but you know. It must be terrible for you.”
She sat down on the bed. She looked so small, so precious.
“You’re not leaving again today, are you?”
“I told John I would return to the castle once I had ensured your safety,” I told her.
“How wi
ll you know I’m still safe once you leave?” she looked at me perplexed. “If you leave, I will be undefended.”
She was right. I could not, in good conscience, leave her here while the townspeople were on the verge of forming a mob. They already suspected her. It wasn’t a far leap to assume that they would try to hurt her in my absence.
“I won’t go back today. John can carry on in my absence.”
She laid back and I cuddled in beside her.
“Thank you.”
I kissed her head and breathed in her scent, filling my lungs with her.
“Matthew?”
“Yes, love?”
“I think you should know, before anything happens, I love you. I dreamed of you before I ever met you, and when I finally made it to you, it was like I’ve always known you. I believe you may be my soulmate.”
My heart skipped a beat and my stomach felt exceptionally warm inside. I pulled her closer to me and kissed her warm neck. “I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you and before. I knew you in my dreams. I believe you are right. My soul knows no one other than you.”
No more words were needed. Before long she fell asleep protected in my arms. I vowed to myself that I would never allow anyone to take her from me. I didn’t care if it was a royal decree or not. They would have to kill me first.
I don’t know how much time had passed, but I was abruptly awakened by our door being ripped off the hinges. Men began filling the small room and John was leading them.
John, my friend of all these years. John, who professed his love for me now came to destroy me, all in the same day. I jumped up, positioning myself over Taryn protectively as she shielded herself with the blanket. I was seized by a group of men and forced to the floor, held by more hands than I could fight off.
“Why, my friend? Why are you doing this to us?” I implored my friend, desperate for him to look at me and see the pain he was causing me. “What has she done to you that is so atrocious that you would see her dead?”
Taryn was screaming for me, fighting her captors but they were all much stronger than her. I watched from the floor as they wrapped a cord around her head and through her mouth, stifling her screams.
I bucked against the hands that held me, but I made no progress against them. The mob that had attacked us was bloodthirsty. Cries of innocence did not slow them, A foot struck me hard in the gut, and I was breathless. The words I had been desperately trying to summon would not come forth.
Without warning, a small wooden stool flew through the broken doorway. Elizabeth stormed in yelling at John. I tried to tell her to run, that there was no hope. She was only endangering herself, but I couldn’t catch my breath.
They seized her and tied her up alongside Taryn.
“You will be back to yourself once this witch is dead,” John said, staring down at me. Some of his hate had melted away and he looked at me sympathetically. “I know this hurts, but it’s not true love you feel, it is only the spell she has cast upon you. She tried to keep me from this room with magic, but my love for you was stronger than anything she could conjure.” John looked at Taryn and the heat in his eyes returned with a vengeance.
“If you truly love me, you would stop this madness. Let them go, John. They are innocent. Do not make them victims of your jealousy.” The men ignored our exchange, focused as they were, on the women.
John just smiled at me, “You will forgive me, and all will be well once their influence is severed. You will realize it has always been me for you, and life will be as it should be.”
“You have lost your mind!”
“No friend, it is you that has fallen under a spell, not me,” he looked at each of the men in turn. “Take the women away. There is no need for a trial. You all saw what they are capable of. It’s better to get rid of them as quickly as possible. We must break their hold on him at once. His immortal soul is in peril. We must save him.”
“Come on you bitches,” Taryn and Elizabeth were dragged away. They both fought hard, but they were no match for the mob.
“What are you going to do with them?” I pleaded for answers that I knew would destroy me.
“We have already prepared stakes for them. For all of them actually. This town needs to be purged. It is far tighter in the Devil’s grasp than any city you and I have ever travelled to before. A simple hanging will not suffice here. The evil must be burned away to prevent it from rising up again.”
I could see the flames reflected in his pupils. He was excited by the prospect of killing all the women. He no longer cared who was guilty and who was innocent, if he had ever cared in the first place.
“We don’t burn witches anymore. That is barbaric. The only humane way to dispose of a condemned witch is by hanging. You know that! That is a royal order, you would be hanged yourself if you defied a royal decree. Besides, Taryn and Elizabeth are innocent. The women at the castle have never had a trial. You are neither judge, jury, nor executioner. You cannot make those decisions on your own.”
“I’m doing this for you, Matthew. I wish you could see that now. It makes my heart hurt that you cannot see how badly I want to save you. You are in no position to question me. Your mind has been clouded by evil. But I promise you, with all that I am, I will save you.”
The men had disappeared with Taryn and Elizabeth. John and I were alone now. They tied my arms behind my back before their departure to ensure I could not follow. I struggled against the rope trying to break free, burning away flesh beneath the rough bindings. I desperately wanted to get my hands around John's throat.
I calmed myself and laid still, hoping that my sudden lack of fight would draw him in. He leaned down to me and brought his lips close to mine. “You have no idea how much I desire you,” he whispered. “You don’t know how many times I have imagined you in my bed while I pleasured myself, how much I have imagined pleasuring you. I would do anything for you, Matthew.”
I spit in his face, the fight renewed in my body. “You would do anything for me that was convenient for you. The only thing I desire is her safety, and you can’t grant that to me out of your own selfishness. I loathe you.”
John pulled back as if hurt. He licked his lips where my saliva had settled. “Delicious,” he whispered.
“You disgust me.”
“I will be back for you,” he braced himself against his knees and pushed off the floor. He left me there on the floorboards. He stepped through the wreckage of the doorway and didn’t look back.
A gentle rain began to fall outside. I could hear the drops soft pitter patter striking the windows. The sky had been a gloomy shade of grey all day long, grieving with me by shedding its tears. The air was wintry cold however, so those sorrowful tears would soon be icy, frozen in testament to the day’s events. Frozen like my heart felt at this moment not knowing if she still lived or if she was at this moment, being committed to the flames.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Taryn
Staying in bed all day was all I had resigned myself to. I had no desire to take a meal or be checked on by anyone. I knew the history. I knew what happened to a woman after someone declared her to be a witch. Accusations had already flown at me from multiple directions. That meant people already believed I was a witch. It also meant my days were numbered. I was nauseous and afraid. I could taste the bile on the back of my tongue. The burning time was over, so it gave me a little optimism that I would not be burned at the stake, as hundreds of women had been, only years before. The Christians thought the practice of burning was barbaric, so they implemented hanging to take its place. You still die either way, but hanging seemed like a much more humane way to go. At least it was if your neck broke on the drop. If it didn’t, you would hang there while you slowly asphyxiated. Nope, and nope. Not on my list of things to experience, thank you very much.
I had ventured downstairs briefly, unable to stand my isolation any longer. The looks I received from those milling about was enough to send me right back to my r
oom. The air was heavy with hate and fear. One could cut through the tension with a knife if it were indeed a tangible object. My room was the safest place for me to be during this time.
Getting comfortable was tricky and I was failing at it. Maybe it was my anxiety talking, but my skin felt prickly everywhere. Like that feeling you get when your foot falls asleep, except it was my whole body not just a limb.
I looked up at the ceiling, I traced the lines in the wood beams, I counted the seams where slats came together. It did not keep my attention long. Giving up on sulking, I sat up. I meandered around the room, truly aimless and settled for looking out the window. A flock of birds flew in formation, floating nimbly across the grey sky. If only I really were a witch, then maybe I could jump on a broom and take myself far away from here, or even take myself home.
Thinking of home felt strange to me now. It hadn’t been that long, but already felt alien, as if I had dreamed up my life prior to this. I was losing touch with the faces of my mother and father, and even with Sam. Their presence in my life was being eclipsed with the new people and relationships I was forming here. I didn’t even know if I was the same girl anymore that I had been then. Would my family even recognize me now?
Hours passed as I paced the room. I must have worn a track into the floor. I began wondering if I hadn’t made a bad decision staying behind. I would have been safe enough with Matthew and John. Hell, I would have been in a fortress, with armed guards. I was mostly just a sitting duck here. What in the world had I been thinking?
I knew what I had been thinking though. Hide. Stay out of sight and out of mind. But I of all people should have known better. The witch hunts had thrived on hysteria. I was not out of mind. Far from it in fact. Once one person decided I was guilty, that one person told another person, and the amount of people would keep growing, the stories of my misdeeds would be repeated and recreated. Details would be added, more fictional stories about me would arise until all the people were whipped up into a frenzy of fear. Then they would come for me with torches and pitchforks. Well, maybe not that last part, but they would come. There was no doubt about it.
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