by Katie M John
Violet threw her hands up in the air with exasperation. “For the sake of the Goddess, does anybody else have an ancient, and possibly dark-art, object lurking about their person, which they’ve happened to forget to share?”
Prim and Rose shared a look that tried to look contrite but that couldn’t quite hide a subversive smile. Violet held out her hand to inspect the ring.
“And this would work?” she asked. “Prim could carry us in the mirror and be invisible by wearing this?”
“That’s pretty much how it would go,” Rose confirmed.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I carried the mirror?” Bunny asked.
The rest of them turned to her with surprise. The very last person they all thought best for the job was Bunny. It wasn’t just that she was the youngest, but she’d hardly earned the reputation of being sensible and responsible over the last few years. She noted their look before they each replaced it with a patronising smile. Now wasn’t the time for sulking and so she sucked in her breath and said,
“Nobody else here has the gift of shield breaking, do they?”
They each looked at each other, hating to admit Bunny had a point. Nobody knew for certain exactly how the mirror worked but they all guessed that a Witch’s power could not operate from within it.
“Well, I guess that settles it then,” Bunny said. “Jump in. I promise to be careful.” Her smile left each of them with a slight feeling of mistrust.
Fox eyed up the innocuous little mirror in much the same way you might a potentially deadly snake. Nothing about it felt good; not the silent, creepy little mirror, or the thought of having her soul shattered. And what about the million questions? What’s going to happen to your physical body? What if you can’t get out? Will it hurt? Surely it will hurt; all that molecule warping, or whatever it is that is going to happen.
Swan glanced at her with heavy eyes, which communicated a shared anxiety. There was only so much time they could afford to waste on weighing up all the possible consequences, and being that nobody really knew the answers, worrying about them was a waste of time.
“You will be extra careful won’t you, Bunny? You know how things have a habit of…” Swan’s sentence trailed off. It wasn’t a smart idea to wind Bunny up when she had your life literally in her hands.
“Of course, I’ll be bloody careful! Just get in and stop dithering. If that little girl is dead by the time we get there, it will probably be the result of wasting these minutes.”
Fox wasn’t entirely convinced Bunny had intended her rhetoric to be so motivating, but it did the trick nevertheless. Prim stepped forward and reached out her boot-clad foot. Where the toe made contact with the glass, it buckled and liquefied. Fox couldn’t take her eyes off it. Prim pressed her weight down through her foot and gasped as the mirror swallowed it up. Within the blink of an eye and a swirl of her cloak, Prim had completely disappeared. Fox leaned forward and looked down into the glass where she saw Prim standing perfectly unscathed, smiling and waving as if nothing more weird was happening than she was beckoning her reluctant cousins into a slightly chilly swimming pool.
Swan took a deep breath and exclaimed, “Here goes!”
Just before she fully slipped through the glass, she gave Bunny a warning shot that dared her to mess it up. Bunny ignored it. Rose and Violet followed, leaving Fox to last. A position she’d really hoped not to find herself in.
“Well, I guess this is bye for now!” Fox said, stepping her right foot onto the glass.
The sensation was just like plunging into cold water. It didn’t hurt but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either. She was very pleased when she hit the bottom and the feeling passed. Inside, the mirror was a surreal but surprisingly boring space; nothing like Alice in Through the Looking Glass. There was a slight swaying sensation and Fox guessed it was the motion of Bunny picking up the mirror and walking with it. It wasn’t a comfortable thought, despite the reassurances that had been given.
Bunny slipped the mirror into her coat pocket, plunging the Meadowsweets into darkness. Now all they could do was wait for Bunny to navigate her way through the snowy woods, break down the shield and release them, hopefully, still giving them the advantage of surprise. Swan was in no doubt that once through the shield, they would not be afforded the gift of time to plan a fail-safe plan. Their attack needed to be swift and aggressive – the highest-risk approach. She felt inside her pocket for her crystal pendant and looped it around her neck. The action drew the curious but silent question of her fellow passengers.
A ripple effect went around the seated circle as each of the Meadowsweets checked their personal arsenal of weapons and protective talisman. Each one knew that despite the crystals, metals and magic charms, it would ultimately all come down to the use of their wits.
*
The way through the woods was difficult and Jeremiah was beginning to regret ever starting such a foolish trip. A voice in his head growled that there was absolutely no reason for him to be getting involved in any of this head-screw shit. Only, alongside this voice was another; it told him the reason for ignoring his uncle’s warnings and for walking towards a life threatening situation was Fox Meadowsweet. That quirky little creature had somehow got under his skin. He now understood that although his love for Rachel had seemed very real at the time, he had simply been playing at being in love.
Every footstep in the snow of Raven Woods was another point of learning for Jeremiah. He would be a much wiser man by the time he arrived.
*
It was with a huge sigh of relief that each of the Meadowsweets stepped out from the confines of the glass. Bunny flashed them a large told-you-so grin of triumph.
“Did you do it? Did you break the shield?” Swan asked anxiously.
Bunny cocked her eyebrow. “Of course.”
“Do you think they know we’re here?”
Prim closed her eyes. She was concentrating hard.
“Is she seeking?” Swan asked.
Violet responded by lifting her finger to her lips and instructing them to be silent. They all obeyed, except for Fox, who had been plunged into her own vision.
The Ravenhearts were far too preoccupied to notice the arrival of the Meadowsweets. They were in the middle of a terrible row. Fox couldn’t make out exactly what it was they were arguing about, but Nigella was in a red and dangerous rage.
“No,” Fox answered, pulling away from the vision. “They don’t know we are here yet but we need to act quickly.”
Primrose opened her eyes. “The child is still alive and unharmed. She’s sleeping peacefully in a cradle, although we haven’t got much time – they’ve already dressed her in white linens and got her ready for the ritual.”
The thought of it sent a shiver through each of them.
“Plan?” Fox asked.
Violet spoke. “I think we should split into pairs.” She raised her arms and offered instructions like an airhostess. “A pair should approach each side of the barn in flanking motion and then Swan and I will head straight forward. The weather is in our favour; it will obscure us until we’re close enough to gain their attention.” She took her athema from inside her pocket and crouched down close to the soft snow, using it to draw out the battle plans. Each of them huddled in closer to see. “They’ll see the two of us approaching and hopefully assume, that as we are the eldest, we’ve come alone. We’ll lure them out and then you guys can cut in from behind. Circling them like this.” Almost as fast as she drew the line, the falling snow obscured it.
“Bunny,” she looked directly at her, “I’d like you to wear the ring and sneak into the barn. Get the baby and place her into the mirror, then take the door at the far end of the barn that leads out onto the moors and then down into the woods. Move swift and quiet. Head back to Wren. She’ll be waiting for you.”
Bunny nodded. It was evident was enjoying her new status and responsibilities.
“What if only two of the sisters come out?” Swan asked.
&nb
sp; “Then Prim will go in with Bunny. That will ensure we outnumber each point two to one, giving us good odds.”
“Okay,” Swan said. There was little else they could do in the time they had and with the minimum resources they held.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Swan said, sighing heavily.
Violet divided them up so that Prim and Bunny headed off in the eastern direction and Fox was paired with Rose to head off in the western, leaving, as planned, the two eldest to head straight on.
Just as they were about to move forward, the snow, which had until this point been an unwelcome hindrance but now promised to be useful, eased until there was barely a flurry, dramatically exposing the three pairs of black-clad Meadowsweets.
“Great!” Fox muttered under her breath. “Anything you can do about that, Swan?”
Before Swan could answer, a large raven settled on top of the barn and distracted them all. He ruffled his feathers and cawed out across the bleak landscape. It was a very bad omen. Rose and Fox huddled down and made their way swiftly into position. She watched Violet and Swan stride towards the barn. They looked magnificent and proud with their chins held high. For the first time, Fox truly began to understand the power that ran through their veins.
From behind them, a large flock of birds burst out of the treetops. Something in the woods had disturbed them. Fox refused to be spooked. It was probably just a deer or a wild pig. The distance to the barn was not far in reality, but in Fox’s imagination, waiting with every breath for something terrible to emerge from its doors, it seemed to take forever.
As Fox looked towards her advancing sisters, her heart fell. There were three clear tracks in the snow betraying their battle tactics. The Ravenhearts would see them immediately. Fox stepped out from the side of the barn, and took up position in full view of the door. When Violet turned to her and threw her a questioning look, Fox just nodded to the tracks. The message was clear. Plan B then – only they hadn’t discussed what plan B might be.
Just then, Fox had an idea. Admittedly it was a little bit crazy, but it might just work in disguising the tracks made by Bunny and Prim who were taking position on the other side of the barn. She turned to Rose and said, “Follow my lead and dance!”
Fox danced across the snow, swerving and diving so that the string of footprints created a dazed and higgled path. It took Rose a moment to understand what on earth Fox was doing, but once she caught on, she too danced across the snow, zig-zagging and weaving so that the overall effect was that a hundred people had just passed through the area.
Fox returned to position and looked at the mess they’d made in the snow. It would do. Because Fox knew the path Prim and Bunny had travelled, she was convinced their tracks were still glaringly obvious, but they might just get away with it; especially if they could keep the Ravenheart sisters busy. Fox slinked back into shadows of the barn and waited.
The dreadful raven perched on top of the roof, cried out again. Fox wished she had a stone to hurl at the disgusting creature. That would teach it to shut its nasty little beak.
They all stood for a moment not knowing what to do. They’d all perhaps envisaged the Ravenhearts would hear them coming and open the door in greeting, then charge out in force to face the foe, but nothing happened, which left them in the rather puzzling predicament of how to get the action going.
Violet glanced at Swan and flashed a smile. “Do you think we should just walk up and knock on the door?”
Swan snorted a nervous little laugh. “Maybe we should have called ahead and made sure they were home.”
“Oh, they’re home all right; I can smell the cheap trashy perfume from here,” Violet sneered. Swan was surprised to hear her otherwise incredibly tolerant cousin emit a hint of bitchiness and cracked a wry smile.
“I guess we could go for something a little more Hollywood.”
“What have you got in mind?”
Swan pulled her rowan-wood wand from her back pocket. “I’ve been experimenting lately with some quite delightful tricks.” Her sentence was punctuated by the spectacle unfolding in front of them. A channel of snow rose up out of the ground, giving the strange impression of an albino snake. As the energy pulsed down the length of its body, the mass swelled until the shape became a large fist ready for knocking. When it came within distance of the door, the snow rose up and the snow-fist rapped hard three times on the door before collapsing into a shower of fluffy snowflakes.
Violet nodded her head and twisted her lips in appreciation. “Classy!”
Holy shit! Fox shook her head to make sure she hadn’t been hallucinating. It seemed everybody had been doing some secret magic studies, everyone that was except for her. Whilst Swan and Bunny had obviously been secretly practicing their wand magic, Fox had been… Yes, what have you been doing? Playing the clichéd love-triangle with Jeremiah Chase and William Harrington, that’s how you’ve been spending your time.
“Ridiculous,” she muttered.
“Pardon?” asked Rose, who like Fox, was still a little shocked from Swan’s display.
“Nothing,” Fox mumbled.
There wasn’t time for Rose to press her further because just as expected, the doors flew open and out came the eldest of the Ravenheart sisters followed by Thalia and the middle sister, Nigella, completing the arrow-head.
They paced forward a couple of steps and then stood their ground, clearly, they were pretty pissed at having been interrupted. The eldest, Lilith stared Violet and Swan down with little success.
“How did you get through?” Lilith asked, scanning the area to work out the extent of the threat. She seemed satisfied there was little to worry about.
“Sorry, I guessed your powers were strong enough to see us coming,” Violet taunted.
Nigella put her hand on her hip and pouted. “What do you want?”
“Don’t play games, Lilith. You know exactly what we want.”
“Well I’m afraid, we can’t oblige.”
The middle sister, Nigella stepped forward, cocking her head and threw her chin out defiantly. “Why don’t you just turn around and head on home before one of you gets hurt or… worse.” She flicked a vicious little smile that reminded Fox of sharp pins. “We’re happy to let this one go, for old times’ sake, but we shall not be giving you a second chance.”
Violet stepped forward, her right hand tucked into her coat. “That’s not the way this is going to happen.” She drew her wand out and held it straight in front of her as if it were a gun. Swan followed suit, lifting hers so that both tips pointed in the direction of the Ravenhearts. Thalia let out a tinkling, sarcastic laugh,
“Aw bless them, they’ve clearly been swatting up by watching episodes of Charmed, how sweet!”
Fox saw Swan’s wand waver ever so slightly. Swan was hopeless when being mocked. Feelings of humiliation crippled her on the inside. Fox wondered whether if Thalia had seen the monstrous snow-hand she would be mocking the power of the Meadowsweet wands.
“All we want is the child, and then we’ll walk away,” Violet said with a voice as steady as rock.
“We all know that isn’t the way it’s going to be,” Lilith replied. “Even if we give you this child, we’ll harvest another, and then you’ll be back here making the same impudent demands, and so on and so on, until one of us snaps with the banality of it all and zaps somebody, causing all hell to break out and every Meadowsweet girl to be crushed under a Ravenheart heel.”
“In your dreams,” Swan retorted.
Fox rolled her eyes; this was turning into a farce. Then she was hit by a vision clear and sharp.
Bunny had the child in her arms and was heading towards the back door. So that was what all the schlock dialogue has been about - keeping the Ravenhearts talking. Prim was behind Bunny, searching out the door handle but it was locked. Moving the child had disturbed her and she let out a small animal-like mewl. Thalia’s attention snapped behind her,
“What the hell?” she shouted. The o
ther two sisters allowed their eyes to flit momentarily to the events behind them but they were not foolish enough to let their eyes leave the Meadowsweet sisters for longer than necessary.
Fox’s attention moved from the vision to the scene in front of her. It was as if some cosmic scissors had suddenly severed the threads which had been holding them all in a position of sanity.
Thalia flew round, heading off towards Bunny and Prim. Just as Nigella was about to turn heels and head off to support her sister’s attack, a bright beam of light flew out of Swan’s wand. As the light travelled out across to Nigella, it turned into a length of binding chord, which wrapped its way tighter and tighter around Nigella’s ankles until eventually, she fell to the floor.
“You’ve done it now, bitch!” Lilith screamed as her hand flew forward. A large bolt of bright blue energy flew across the distance, hitting Swan full force in the chest. It was enough to cause her to fly backwards and hit the ground in an undignified heap. Fox could see the pain etched across Swan’s face, despite the fact she was struggling back to her feet and trying to pretend it was nothing.
Nigella, now free from the ropes, was raging. She marched up to Violet and Swan, uttering a whole stream of obscenities. Unsure of what to do with no physical weapon being brandished, Swan and Violet held fast and waited. A foolish mistake, for as Nigella charged forward, something solid formed in her shadow. By the time she traversed the space between them, a snarling black panther slinked alongside her, with its head nestled close to its mistress’ thigh. Nigella’s hand patted the beast on top of its head, and then urged it forward into attack with the command,
“Devour!”
The beast lunged at Violet, causing her to stagger and swerve. She had been too quick, and the panther’s jaws clamped around air. In the next vicious leap, it went straight to her shoulder and sunk its teeth in. Realising it had missed the prize of the jugular, the panther snarled and gnashed, lunging forward in another attempt. This time it hit closer to home and Violet felt the mixture of hot saliva and warm blood mix with the hard enamel of fangs. The pain was blinding. A scream tunneled through her. As the panther started to shake its head and tear out Violet’s soft flesh, Swan struck the beast with a spell, causing it to momentarily spasm and yelp before lunging into another frenzied attack. Violet’s cries grew weaker.