“How convincing you can be, Master. Are you always as confident as you are now?”
“Yes, especially with the likes of you. Now answer my questions, whore!”
“How passionate! Come closer and I will whisper it into your ears, Master.” The girl with hazelnut brown hair and steel blue eyes was grinning, showing ghost white teeth.
I leaned towards her cautiously, knowing from experience that it was not wise to underestimate witches. It didn’t come as a surprise when she spat on me and laughed out loud.
“Go to hell, you Inquisitor rat. You will not get a word out of me!” she cackled.
I went up to her and punched her in the face, her mouth smacked as I wiped the spit off my face.
“You only dare to hit me when I’m like this, don’t you? While I am helpless, you purulent boil on my arse! If I were unchained, I’d like to see you try and hit me again. Are you man enough to beat me then? A small, delicate women?”
“Shall I get the whip?” I asked.
“Bring it! I like it hard. Give it to me, Master!” the woman was frisking, shaking her chains in an attempt to further annoy me. I hit her again. “Bring me an animal. You surely know which one I am thinking of Funny right?”“I do Master Noan,” he answered and left the room. “Why would such a beauty like yourself join the order of the Shadow Sisters? Why did you choose the most feared coven of the north? You could have done something good in the world,” I was shaking my head in mock disappointment.
“Because they armed me with real power, a power over the weak, and I can do whatever I fancy with these poor devils! If I desire a rich, noble man, I just enchant him and he is mine. If someone hurts me, I curse them and watch them suffer each day, until they end their frail lives with their own hands. There are no rules, I can be whoever I truly wish to be – but I am explaining this to you in vain, Inquisitor. You blindly follow the will of your god. You are nothing but a servant. A simple squire. A piece of sand in the desert that is picked up by the wind and drifted away,” she said, making an exaggerated sad face.
“I can see you speak from the heart, you wench, but I will be there when the flames dance around you. You will feel it as they bite you cravingly, mounting your body until they consume you entirely. Many of your sisters will finish the same way, I can promise you that,” I responded tranquilly. “I’ve met some tough witches in my day, real nasty women, but you know what? When they are standing there, tied the pyre in the town square, and the crowds are watching as the oil is poured and the hay bales are lit, do you know what happens? Everyone of those miserable wenches screamed loud enough to curdle your blood.”
She narrowed her eyes and hesitated, sparks of fury casting in her eyes. “She will come for you, and when she does, I wouldn’t want to be in your place, Inquisitor Master. You will beg her to end your miserable life.”
“Who? Who will come?” I asked.
“You know exactly who I’m thinking of, may the craw gouge your eyes! I will not speak her name!” She turned her head towards the wall.
I was sure that she was referring to the ramador that slipped through our fingers. The door opened and Funny appeared, holding a massive rat by its tail, which was trying to resist wobblingly.
“We’ve just caught it, Master, I suppose it’ll do,” he was grinning.
“Well, what do you know. I was just about to ask you for one of these, brother. You read my mind! Give it to me,” I said, then I looked for an iron bucket in the corner.
“Now you will chirp like a song bird, you damn woman!” Funny leaned towards her.
“Pull up the clothes on her belly!” I ordered my brother, who grabbed the veil and pulled it up to her breasts.
“What are you planning to do with me, you mangy dogs? You will regret this!”
Holding the tail of the rat, I slowly placed it on the belly of the woman and covered it with the bucket. She nervously clenched her fists, she couldn’t do anything else but to wait what would happen. I took one of the torches from the wall and placed it to the side of the bucket.
“What the hell are you doing to me, you son of a bitch?” the woman was cursing furiously, sweat was flowing down her cheek.
“Do you know how animals react to fire?” I asked the woman who was nervously staring at us.
“Sure I do, are you taking me for a fool, you inquisitor bastard?”
“You can insult me as much as you wish. Well, they simply run away from fire, but since our little friend cannot escape anywhere, it has no other choice but to pierce its way through your flesh, sweetheart,” I said with ruthless honesty.
The bucket started to heat up. The rat squeaked in despair and I didn’t have to wait long before it started scraping the woman’s belly. She cried out painfully and started cursing. It wasn’t long now.
“Answer my questions and your agony will be over, I promise you.”
“May the worms feast on your intestines! I wish your bitch mothers were ploughed by a troll!”
The rodent was scraping and biting the flesh of the woman with increasing desperation. She was shouting with tears in her eyes, shaking her head right and left from the unbearable, excruciating pain. I could break anyone with this method of torture, within a very short time. I didn’t have to wait long for the familiar words.
“Enough, take it off me, I will tell you everything, just stop this!” she screamed.
I took the torch and signalled Funny to take the bucket and the rat away. Her belly was horribly scratched and bit, she was bleeding heavily and gasping grievously, her chest rising and sinking like a longboat tumbling on stormy shores.
“I want to know everything about the ramador! How many of you are there still? Who are your minions in the town? Talk, or I will bring the rat back!” I warned her, bending closer to her.
“Fine, may you be eaten by the festers! The name of our leader is Iriana Mulgreth. I do not know her whereabouts. There are no more witches in the town, I swear! We have a shelter in the woods around the town, to the east, about one mile from the northern commercial road. But you will find no one there.”
“We will see about that. How long have you been here? What was your plan?” I asked.
“We arrived in the month of Runova, about four months ago, early in the spring. Our task was to recruit people for the congregation of the Shadow Sisters and spread the views of the sect.”
“Are there any followers in the town? If so, where do they live and who are they?”
“It was only us, who you captured.”
Almost a decade-long experience had taught me to recognize when a tormented person was lying, so I noticed it with the witch as well. She was nervously chewing her lips and avoiding eye-contact, these were all clear signs of someone not telling the truth.
“I don’t believe you. Funny, put the rat back on her belly, let it feast on some more witch-flesh!”
“No, please, have mercy on me!” she shouted, her voice filled with fear.
I didn’t care about her begging, I showed no sign of pity. We placed back the squeaking little animal on her belly, covered it with the bucket, and once again started heating its side with the torch. The rat continued to mercilessly scratch and bite, deepening the wound. The woman cried out loud, with froth flowing from her mouth, she was on the brink of losing consciousness.
“Stop, I’ll tell everything!” she shouted in agonizing pain.
I signalled Funny to take the torch and to remove the bucket and the rat.
“I will reveal their names and where they live, may a hot cauldron fall on you!” she gasped desperately, then swallowed. “There is one at Silverhoof Street. The head of the Melrava family, Madame Fulron and her daughter, Izolda on the Round Shield Road. Finally, Nyrienne, a merchant on Duke Square. This is all of us, I swear!” she was sniffling, fighting back tears.
“Soon, we will find out if the witch speaks the truth. I told you that one way or another, I will get what I need. You will burn on the pyre tomorrow. Embrace the little time you have le
ft. Provided that you didn’t lie, of course.”
“I told you the truth. May I rot here if I didn’t!”
“Funny, you stay here to watch. I will go with the others and the city guards tomorrow before dawn to hunt down the followers. Then, we set off to see the shelter that she mentioned. Keep the rat, we might need it later,” I looked at the woman menacingly, clashing my fists to accentuate what I said.
“As you wish, master,” he nodded.
By the time the rumor of us eliminating the nest of the witches had spread, we were knocking on the followers’ door with the warrant of arrest. They didn’t have time to get away from the town. The guards handcuffed all the suspects and took them to the prisoner wagon.
“Nice catch, Master Noan. We got them all!” Fist said, cheerfully.
“Not bad, but we still have to catch the leader of the coven, for which we have to find the shelter in the woods. Everyone, mount your horses, we are leaving straight away!”
“The witch gave us great tips. What torture did you make her undergo that she revealed all within such a short time?” Stout was asking me while mounting the horse, proudly straightening up.
“The trapped rat, of course. It never fails.”
“Indeed, that’s a cruel one, but it’s highly useful for extorting information,” he responded.
“If we find the ramador in the house, we can immediately set the house on fire, right, Master?” Freckledface asked, excitement gleaming from his eyes.
“You may have the honor of lighting the fire,” I answered.
He grinned, and as I could see, he was already imagining the situation. We left in the middle of the night in the direction of the merchant road leading out of the town. The rain had almost stopped, it was only drizzling slightly, and the wind had drifted the storm clouds towards the western highlands.
“Why don’t we wait until the morning, Noan? We can barely see anything, in the woods we will be blind as moles in the ground,” Father Tero noted.
“If we have the slightest chance to catch this eloping whore, I refuse to wait even one minute. If we have to proceed in the dark, we will do so, I don’t care. Do you?”
“I am merely pointing out the obvious,” Father Tero shook his head.
“Anybody have any objections?” I looked around at my people as we were advancing at foot-pace with our horses.
All remained silent, accepting my decision. Leaving the city gate behind, we rode a mile on the road to the north, then turned towards the east, as the witch explained. We lit our torches and began scouring the forest, leaving a distance of a few steps between us. I whispered a few prayers to our lord to lead us in the right direction.
“Dermeron, guide us to the shelter of guilty soul, so that truth shall reach the guilt-ridden and your merciless fury shall smite them down. Let us serve you as the executers of your sacred will.”
Nearly an hour had passed, when in the midst of darkness my sacred medallion flared up when I passed by a thicket of sumac bush. I whistled to signal to the guys.
“What happened, Master?” Funny asked as he was approaching.
“My symbol is indicating a strong presence of dark magic. Thanks to Dermeron’s guidance, I believe we have found the place,” I pointed ahead.
“Father, come and examine this bush. I can feel the magic of witches around it,” I called over to my experienced Inquisitor friend.
He closed his eyes and concentrated. His symbol also started emitting a flashing, dim light.
“Interesting, I feel it too. There is something exuding magic here, without a doubt.”
“Can you break the spell, Father?”
“I believe I can, just give me a few minutes.”
He uttered a prayer summoning the power of Dermeron, and within a few seconds, the shape of the sumac bush began to alter. The thicket leaves and flowers disappeared and a small cottage emerged, made hastily of deck-planks and a shingled roof.
I signalled the others to surround the house and I kicked the door inside, holding Loomer in my hand. It must have been a while since anyone was here, spider nets covered the furniture. The cottage only had two rooms. There was a hall with a filthy plank-bed, a round table, and a fireplace. The room in the back, however, stored endless tools used for dark practices on shelves ranging from wall to wall. I saw live and deceased animals in cages; rats, cats, birds, lizards and frogs. Vials of doubtful content, boundless rare alchemy ingredients such as mandragora leaf, black bean, and aqua regia. Blood red, olive black, and poison green candles and wax figures used for hexes.
“I believe we have found what we were looking for, lads. This must be the shelter of the witches, without a doubt.”
“There is a bit of everything here,” Father Tero examined the ingredients on the shelves.
“Let’s collect some as proof and leave the others to burn in fire,” I ordered the Inquisitors.
“With pleasure, Master. Come, folks, let’s set this witch nest on fire!” Freckledface shouted with a malicious smile.
He always adored playing with fire, and now his sickly passion could be gratified. We collected some proof candles and alchemy ingredients, set the animals free that were still alive. The small cottage was stubbornly resisting the flames of the torches for a while. I couldn’t decide whether magic was protecting it from the fire, or simply its damp structure couldn’t catch fire after the rain. Following a few attempts, eventually the decks gave in and the fire greedily blazed through the house, consuming everything but the dense, grey smoke it left behind. Freckledface was mesmerized by how the fire spread on the wooden structure of the house. We had to warn him repeatedly to mount his horse when we decided to leave. I suppose he could have watched whole night how the fire scorched everything. It was almost daybreak when we returned to the town. I sent everyone away to have some rest. I paid a visit to a temple to express my gratitude for having Dermeron protect and assist me. I offered a long prayer to him. Afterwards, I returned to the inn where we had been staying since our arrival. We had a rough night behind us which took a lot of my energy, so I had to sleep a bit, even if it was only a couple of hours.
I dozed off quickly, my body craving for a rest. Dreamworld had called me, and not resisting the temptation, I entered its gate. I was standing in the middle of a field, holding my own weapon in my hands. I was surrounded by the corpses of my murdered brothers, fresh blood was dripping from the blade of the sword. I didn’t feel anything, as if I knew none of them. I was standing in a thick fog. A shadow emerged from the darkness and slowly floated towards me. It was singing in a pleasant melody in a woman’s voice, but I couldn’t make out the words. When it appeared from the fog, I could see that it was Iriana, the ice blonde beauty, wearing a ghostly waving, nearly transparent garment, white as snow. Her red lips uttered words in the high pitch of the kestrel’s voice, all familiar to my ears.
“It will be you who commits this, Inquisitor, in the near future. This will be my curse smiting you! And when you are balancing at the brink of madness, I will come for you and thrust you through the door. If you ever cross its threshold, you will be at the point of no return. You will have lost your sanity forever!”
My body didn’t obey my will and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move. The ravishing woman approached me, she came as close as to allow me to smell her scent that resembled spring lilacs. She slowly licked my neck, disgust was clenching my stomach like a vice. She screamed suddenly, emitting an unpleasant, painfully shrill voice, her face rotted within a second and a revolting, decayed face was staring at me. Flesh was peeling off her cheek covered by festering boils, her hair was falling out in patches. Suddenly I opened my eyes and found myself alone in my room, heavily sweating. I rubbed my face and sat up at the side of the bed – I only managed to sleep a few hours.
“Goddamnit, this wench has infiltrated my dreams!” I gave a kick to the table out of anger and rushed my fingers through my sweaty hair, anguished.
She must have great power
s indeed if she could enter my dreamworld. I had to watch out in the future. I must interrogate the captured witch again to learn more about her. I had to find her as soon as possible, before she would kill me.
I washed my face in a bucket of water then poured the water on myself to freshen up. I put on my cuirass, the spaulders and vambraces which I was missing so much during the last battle. I grabbed my knight’s sword and locked the door. I let the others sleep, we had had a tough night. I headed straight to the cell of the captive witch. Funny was dozing beside her on a chair, his arms crossed.
“Wake up, Inquisitor!” I yelled at him.
“I’m awake, I’m awake, Master!” he jumped from his chair.
I grabbed the sleeping woman by the hair and commanded sharply.
“Tell me everything you know of Iriana Mulgreth!”
“Did she visit you in your dreams, Inquisitor?” she was gloating.
I grabbed her hair and hit her head on the table.
“We can put the rat back in your belly, but this time I will wait for it to get to the other side, bitch! Which one do you prefer, to talk or the rat?”
Her smile disappeared. She looked at me grimly and sighed.
“Alright, I will tell you everything that I know of her, may leprosy take you! But make an oath in the name of your god that I will not undergo more torture before I die.”
“This request is easy to complete.” I took my medallion from under my cuirass and took it in my palms. “I swear to Dermeron, the god of fight and courage, that I will not expose this woman to more torture in her life. If I were to break my words, may your fury smite me down. And now it is your turn. Speak!”
“It was a year ago that I met her, during one of our major meetings at the Night of the Constellations. She was presented to us by the heads of the Shadow Sisters. It was that night that she was consecrated as the ramador of our sect. I remember that night was extremely important. The twin moons were shining at us brightly towards a perfect constellation, the sky was cloudless. One could touch the magical energies in the air – it was then that she first fascinated me with her power. She transformed into a wraith leopard and tore the offered sacrifice into pieces. I had never seen anything similar before. Witches can transform to many kinds of animals, but I assume you are aware of that, Master.”
Faceless: The Takeover (The Shapeshifters Book 1) Page 7