Beasts and Maidens

by M.E. Timmons

  Chapter 15

  It took Selene a moment to realize where she was after she opened her eyes. She saw that she was home, but she couldn’t remember the journey to get there. The last thing she remembered – well, she didn’t want to think about that. It hurt too much.

  Jenson was sitting on the edge of the couch by her midsection, and he was looking down at her; his blue eyes filled with concern. She tried to smile at him, but her lips didn’t want to cooperate. Still, she was glad that he was there, in her home. She wasn’t happy though.

  “Please tell me that I just had a really crazy nightmare,” she half-whispered.

  Jenson had trouble meeting her eyes, but when he brought his back to hers they were filled with sadness. “I wish I could say that, but I’d be lying. It wasn’t a dream at all.”

  Selene nodded. Her throat ached with the urge to cry, but she held it back. “I knew that, but it hurts to hear it nonetheless. You wouldn’t be here if it was a dream.”

  “True. I’d say I’m glad to be here, but the price that was paid was far too great.”

  “Are you going to be staying here?” Selene asked.

  “Yes. Your parents said that I could. If Wicesla puts a spell around the forest, then I won’t be able to live there anymore anyway.”

  Selene frowned and sat up. There was a blanket covering her, so she pulled it back. When she saw the blood that still stained the dress she was wearing she almost threw up again. She was glad that it was too dry to get on the blanket.

  “I need to change,” she said. “Then I want to go to the forest. I want to know if the spell has been cast. If Wicesla said she would do it then I have no doubt that she did, but I want to know for sure. There’s always the possibility that she didn’t do it yet anyway.”

  Jenson’s eyes were drawn to the bloodstain as well, and a wave of sadness passed over his features, though he was quick to hide it. He also tried to look away from the blood. “Dahlia went to check. We might as well stay here and find out from her. There’s no sense in all of us going, and I’m sure you could use the rest.”

  “Alright,” Selene said. She wanted to go check herself, but she knew it was pointless. Besides, the idea of staying home with Jenson was far more appealing. Being near the forest would bring back a lot of memories. She wanted those memories, but not quite yet. It was still too soon.

  Selene got up and went outside to get some water, and then she headed upstairs to change. She used the water to scrub the blood off of her skin, which wasn’t an easy task. It didn’t want to be removed; almost as if it didn’t want to be forgotten. By the time Selene was dressed and cleaned up she realized that she had been crying. She dried her face and hoped her eyes weren’t red and puffy.

  Jenson wasn’t in the living room when she came back down the stairs. She peered into the kitchen, but he wasn’t in there either. She was starting to worry when he poked his head in through the front door.

  “Sorry, I just went outside for some air,” he explained. “Dahlia’s on her way back. I can see her walking along the road, and she should be here shortly.”

  Selene nodded and walked over. She went outside with him, and looked out at the village around them. She could see people out working, though they seemed to be moving slower than usual, and there were many people standing around together. Selene had no doubt that they were discussing the events of the morning, and it made her heart ache.

  Jenson noticed her expression and took her hand. “What did he say to you, right before he died?” he asked. He hated to remind her of that time, but he wanted to know, and it was better to ask while the memory was fresh.

  She continued looking out at the village for a moment, and Jenson started to think she wouldn’t respond, but then she turned and looked up at him.

  “He told me not to give up, and I promised that I wouldn’t, but I have no idea what I’m going to do.”

  Jenson pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently on the forehead. “I have no doubt that you’ll think of something or find some way to help the beasts. I’m not saying that to put more pressure on you or anything, but I do really believe it. You’re an incredible person.”

  “I’m not a very powerful witch,” Selene murmured, her face resting against his chest. “I’m no match for Wicesla, and I have no idea what to do about her. What if she stays in Spring Meadow?”

  “You have a stronger power of a different kind,” Jenson said. He tapped the middle of her chest lightly with his fingertips. “She doesn’t have the same strength of heart. Surely that gives you some advantage.”

  “Dark magic has always been more powerful than light magic.”

  “Then why doesn’t dark magic rule us all?” Jenson asked.

  “It does,” Selene said sadly. “The curse that was placed upon all men was dark magic, as all curses are. In many ways it holds great power over all of us. It has also been powerful enough to be unbreakable for hundreds of years.”

  Jenson couldn’t think of anything to say to that. In fact, it made him feel angry. Not at Selene, but at dark magic and the witches who used it. It wasn’t fair that they held more power than the witches who used their magic for good.

  Selene felt worn out. She was tired from being up so early, and she was emotionally exhausted as well. Tornado’s death had yet to really hit her, and she wasn’t looking forward to the time when it did.

  “I think I’m going to go lie down,” she said.

  “Alright,” Jenson said, and he kissed her briefly before letting her go.

  He didn’t follow her as she went back inside. He figured she could use a little time on her own. He stayed and waited for Dahlia to return, since he wanted to know about the forest.

  Selene went back to the couch and sat down. She realized that she was shivering, even though she didn’t feel cold. She grabbed the old grey blanket she had thrown off earlier and wrapped herself in it before laying down. She barely even noticed the bumps in the couch, though she also couldn’t fall asleep. She just lay there with her eyes closed instead; trying to keep her mind as blank as possible.

  When over twenty minutes had passed, Selene was surprised that she hadn’t heard Dahlia arrive. She hadn’t come inside, and Selene hadn’t heard anyone outside either.

  She finally heard the door open and someone walked in. She peaked up over the edge of her blanket expecting to see Dahlia, but it was her mother who walked in, and she headed upstairs before Selene had a chance to talk to her. Selene wasn’t even sure if her mother had seen her. She shrugged and tried to relax, listening for anyone else coming in.

  Dahlia came in a minute later, and Jenson followed her into the living room, eagerly awaiting her news. She didn’t look happy.

  “She did put the spell up,” she said once she was sitting down. “I tried walking into the forest and I hit an invisible wall. There was a beast on the other side trying to get through as well, but he couldn’t. Then he tried to say something to me, but I couldn’t hear him at all. The wall blocks out sound, so we can’t even talk to the beasts. The most we could do to communicate would be to write messages.”

  Selene sat up but kept the blanket around her. “How powerful do you think the spell is?” she asked.

  “Well, just think about it. It has to be powerful enough to surround the entire forest. That aspect alone means it could be far too much for you or Mom to handle.”

  Selene agreed that that made sense, but she wasn’t happy about it. She sighed. “I almost wish it was a curse instead of a spell.”

  Dahlia nodded in agreement, but Jenson looked confused. “Why would you wish something like that?”

  “Curses can usually be conquered in some way, but spells have to be reversed,” Dahlia explained.

  “So there could be a way to conquer the curse on the men?”

  Selene shook her head, fighting back tears. “There undoubtedly is, but if no one figured out how in a tho
usand years then there’s a good chance no one ever will. The solution could be quite complicated.”

  They sat in silence for a moment, all pondering that. Selene couldn’t hold her tears back any longer, and she wiped them away with frustration. She hated feeling so powerless, especially after her promise. That promise was almost all she could think about, and the fear of failure was already eating away at her resolve.

  Dahlia suddenly announced that she had to go collect some herbs for her mother’s potions, leaving Selene and Jenson alone.

  “Are you going to look for a job?” Selene asked.

  “Yes. I don’t have much of a choice if I want to continue living here. It’s only fair that I help out as much as I can. In fact, I should get Dahlia to help me, since she has experience from helping Henry. I hope she wouldn’t mind. I should go catch up with her now.”

  Selene was almost hurt. “I should be the one to help you. I don’t mind, you know.”

  Jenson leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. “I know you could help me, but it’s best if you stay here and rest. I’ll be back later.”

  Selene didn’t want to see him go, but she was also glad that he was going to try to get a job. She didn’t want him to be a burden to her parents any more than he did.

  Since she was left alone, Selene laid back and tried to sleep. She longed for some sort of release from the pain that lingered in her heart, but sleep still wouldn’t come.

  She was about to get up to go for a walk to clear her head, but her mother came downstairs. She was holding an ancient-looking wooden box that had metal plates on the corners and a carved flower in the center of the lid. On closer inspection Selene saw that it was a violet, which had been Varla’s symbol.

  Frieda sat down on the end of the couch. Selene had to move her feet to make room for her, so she sat up, looking curiously at the box. She didn’t remember ever seeing it before, but judging by the care with which her mother held it, it had been in the family for some time.

  Frieda confirmed her suspicions. “This box was created shortly after Varla’s death, centuries ago. It has been passed down through the family ever since, though no one has actually used what’s inside. I thought it might help you, though, so I’m passing it on now.”

  She passed the box to Selene. The wood felt soft in her hands from years of wear, and the metal corners were cold. She was almost afraid to open it, especially now that her mother had given her a glimmer of hope that it could be something she needed. She did not want to be disappointed.

  “Go on, open it,” Frieda encouraged.

  Selene was too curious to not open it. She opened the metal clasp and carefully lifted the lid. The hinges creaked as if they hadn’t been moved in a long time, and they put up some resistance. The inside of the wooden box was smaller than she was expecting because the wooden sides were thick. It was lined with violet coloured velvet that was as worn with age as the rest of the box. In the small space was a stone amulet in the shape of a violet that was a little smaller than the size of her palm. She knew immediately what it was, even though she had never seen one before.

  “It’s a spirit amulet, isn’t it?” she said, looking at the stone with a sense of awe. Spirit amulets were incredibly rare and took tremendous magic to make, and Selene hadn’t known that one was made for Varla.

  Frieda nodded. “Varla made it herself when she was alive. I think it took her a few years to store enough power in it for it to work. When she died her daughter sealed the spell so that it could be used in the future. To be honest, I don’t know why it has never been used before, though I don’t think anyone except the members of the family ever knew about it. It could prove dangerous if in the wrong hands, though only in the hands of a witch.”

  Selene didn’t want to touch the stone. She wasn’t repulsed by it or anything, but she was awed by its power. If anything she was drawn to it. It could be the answer to her problems, and it had been sitting in her house the entire time.

  There were words carved in the inside of the lid. Selene had to squint to make them out, but she recognized the words of a spell. It was the incantation to activate the stone. Selene was tempted to read it right then and there, but her mother stopped her.

  “Don’t activate it right now,” she said, as if reading her mind. “That stone has been in our family for many generations, and should only be used if absolutely necessary, since it can only be used once. You should wait until you have no other options.”

  “But I don’t have other options,” Selene pointed out.

  “That isn’t true,” Frieda argued. She took out her spell book. “Shield spells aren’t black magic. They can have complexities woven in to make them specific, but there’s a counter-spell that works for all of them. I have it right here in my book. I had to do a shield spell once to protect the Bluebells’ sheep from a wolf.”

  “Do you think I could do it?” Selene wondered.

  “Not on your own, dear. You are a fairly powerful witch for your age, but you lack the necessary experience and energy. Even I couldn’t do it on my own, but perhaps we could do it together.”

  Selene’s heart leapt. “Would you really do that?”

  “I lost my sons once,” Frieda pointed out. “I’m not about to do it again. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to them.”

  “Can we do it today?”

  “No. I don’t think that would be a good idea. We’ll wait a few days to make sure Wicesla is gone, since she will surely resist us if she’s still here. I don’t want to end up in a duel, since I know I wouldn’t survive.”

  Selene shivered at her mother’s words. She also remembered what Wicesla had said before she had fainted: that she would deal with Selene personally if she tried to do anything again. Selene doubted that she would be unaware of the spell’s reversal no matter how long they waited. She would know about it, and she would react.

  Selene gently shut the lid of the box, even though she didn’t want to. Varla knew how to end the curse, so the stone could truly be all she needed. She just hoped it was that simple. She wasn’t even sure if Varla would help, considering the fact that she started the curse in the first place. Maybe she would rather keep things the way they were like Wicesla did, even though they were enemies.

  Frieda reached over and placed her hand over her daughter’s. “Everything will be alright in the end,” she said. “We’ll at least get the beasts out of the forest, and at best make them human again.”

  “You aren’t including the consequences of those actions,” Selene pointed out. “We could all end up dead for all we know.”

  “Don’t talk like that,” Frieda scolded. “Have a glimmer of hope, at the very least. I know your friend just died, but that doesn’t mean more will follow. Perhaps there will be some way to defeat Wicesla. She really is our only obstacle in this.”

  “That isn’t true. The mayor and whatever followers she has are against us, and that’s just in our village. She’s perfectly capable of getting an army sent in if need be. No, we have more than one enemy.”

  Frieda just sighed and shook her head. She hated seeing her daughter so negative, and yet at the same time she knew Selene was right. They would be very lucky if they managed to accomplish what they wanted to without unleashing the anger of the kingdom.

  Frieda went into the kitchen to prepare the ingredients she needed for her potion, leaving Selene in the living room with the box in her hands. She didn’t even ask for help, which was strange. Selene ran her hands over the soft wood and traced the pattern of the violet with one finger. She was tempted to just open the box and activate the amulet right then, but she didn’t.

  She stashed the box under the couch to get it out of her sight. It wouldn’t be seen there by anyone, for which Selene was grateful. She didn’t want to tell anyone about it; even Jenson. It was best kept as a secret, as it always had been.

  The only person Selene w
anted to tell about the amulet was Tornado. The thought brought back the realization that he was gone, which hit her like a blow to the stomach and left her gasping for air. The breathless feeling reminded her of the dream she had the night before, in which the spiders had tried to close off her airway.

  That was when she realized something. The woman in her dream had been Wicesla. She had never seen the woman before in her life, so she shouldn’t have been dreaming about her at all. It was a scary thought, and it made Selene wonder just how much control Wicesla had over their lives.