by Lisa E Parry
Warwick was scouting the forest - he was the least likely to get killed. Those who didn’t know what he was thought he was extremely courageous, borderline adrenaline-seeking. I knew better. He was looking for a bandit to feed off and in all honesty I hoped he found one so we didn’t have to deal with his dietary requirements.
I heard something to my right and Dorian caught it too. I only saw the back of his head as he peered through the trees. I was holding onto magic to intensify my sight. That’s when I saw a flash of white head straight for my face. It was so quick that I didn’t have time to respond, but Dorian caught the dagger in mid-flight, by the blade, and threw it back into the woods.
“Attack!” he yelled at the top of his voice. A shield sprang up around me and I saw the other magic users do the same. Men quickly emerged from the woods nearby, screaming and yelling. Daggers flew and swords unsheathed. Our warriors dismounted in one fluid motion and ran at the approaching band of men. I saw Cheri throw stunning spells at some of the men and to my horror I saw the King was with the bodyguards. He was fast with that giant sword and had taken two down already; to my horror, one was almost cleaved in two.
Daisy danced on the spot, but I reined her in. The others were having the same trouble with their own mounts. I sent comforting thoughts to Daisy and decided to begin my attack. I pushed my shield out to encompass the horse and then released the energy I had dammed up inside me.
Green fire shot forth from my hands and I aimed for men that were still pouring out of the trees. All the bodyguards were in their own battles and I knew they couldn’t handle any more. Some of the bandits faltered when they saw my attack. Assessing me as the worst threat they targeted me instead. I had to get off my horse so I could properly attack them.
I turned in time to see Viola using battle magic at her best and I saw many a man turn to brown sludge. Viola was particularly good at attacking a particular gene in a human and mutilating it. I was shocked when a man swung out of the trees and knocked her off her horse though.
I ran to her aid and screamed her name. Aidan, no longer the royal King but the attentive bodyguard, ran through his opponent and then darted towards Viola. I heard a galloping horse and then felt a whoosh of air as a horse flew by me and someone else swept her up.
Ignoring daggers that bounced off my shield I yelled. “No!” For some ridiculous reason, I ran after them and put all my strength into my limbs. Aidan was running beside me. He turned and looked at me.
“Help her!” I gave him a questioning look before he stopped to engage in an attack from a number of men I hadn’t realised had followed us. I looked ahead to find it was no good. We were backtracking the way we had come so the trees had thinned out.
“Daisy!” I called to my chestnut horse and pictured her in my mind. It’s strange the things that run through your mind when in danger. My legs were killing me and my chest was heaving and aching with the strain. Of all people, Anarch popped into my head. He could turn into animals, and of the ones I had seen, a panther right now would be most beneficial. I began to slow as I struggled for breath.
Thundering hooves reached my ears and I spun to see Daisy burst from the trees, followed by Dorian on his dark stallion. He had known to follow Daisy and I thanked God for the sight of him. Daisy ran up beside me and without faltering I drew in power and thrust it down into my legs. The energy was so profound that I pressed it into the floor through my legs and bounced high, landing very clumsily on Daisy’s back. She slowed so I could get my bearings and Dorian caught up.
“I see them!” he shouted and drove his horse to follow. The stallion leapt forwards, as did my heart when I saw them ahead. I felt helpless though. What could I do? If I stopped the horse then Viola could fall and break her neck, and the same could happen if I attacked the man who held her upright as she struggled against him.
I decided to appeal to the horse, as I had Daisy. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind. “Stop, slow, you’re tired, stop.” I chanted in my head to the horse and it did slow enough for Dorian to catch up.
“Viola, duck…!”
He had surprised the bandit and with a swing of his sword took the man’s head off before snatching Viola off the horse. The man’s body fell to the ground with a thud. The horse continued on, relieved of its burden.
I stopped my horse and tried to get my breath back. My heart was thundering in my chest and I took deep breaths to try and get it under control. When they approached I saw Viola clinging to Dorian and crying into his chest. I reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. When she saw it was me, she took my hand. “I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t attack him, I just blanked,” she cried fervently, her huge purple eyes looking haunted and otherworldly in the now dim light.
“It’s okay, you panicked, and you’re in shock. We have you now so don’t worry.” I continued to reassure her with soothing words, so by the time we got back to the others the sobs had ceased.
Aidan was impatiently standing watch when we approached the others. On catching sight of us, he rushed in our direction. He helped Viola down and steadied her. “Thank the gods,” he said and pulled her into a hug. This shocked her, as it did me and many other onlookers. He pulled away and then looked over her face and body. “Are you hurt anywhere?” He paused at a bruise purpling above her right eyebrow and touched it tentatively. She rubbed her arm and lifted her sleeve to reveal bruises in the shape of a hand. They guy had gripped her so tightly to yank her up onto the horse that I was surprised he hadn’t dislocated her shoulder.
I tore my eyes away from the touching scene as he fussed over her. Viola looked a little shy at his attentiveness. Aidan had taken it hard; I knew he would. We had almost lost her, and he would have taken full responsibility, as he had with his previous witch, Eda.
We decided to make camp to recoup and tend any wounds. Dorian came around Daisy and helped me down. Pain shot through my legs as my feet touched the floor and I yelled out. Dorian held me up and then tried to put me down again, but I screamed out as mind-numbing pain shot up my legs to my hips.
“No, no! I can’t walk, I can’t walk.” I cried. Tears filled my eyes and I almost passed out. Dorian threw me over his shoulder instead and took me to the centre of the campsite. He gently laid me down on the floor with my back propped up against a log.
“What’s wrong? Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?” With concern on his face he began squeezing my legs to find the source of the pain. Adhelm came over and others gathered around.
“I think it was when I jumped onto the horse.” I looked at Adhelm: he would understand. “I pushed the power down through my legs and then into the ground. I was projected off the ground to Daisy’s saddle.”
“That would do it, child.” Adhelm’s blue eyes took in my appearance. “Too much, you used too much for your body to deal with. Your feet are glowing.”
Alarmed I looked down but saw nothing. The old sorcerer took my shoes off and inspected my feet. My ankles were swollen and black. When he touched them I screamed out and spots spread across my vision.
“Oh dear, I think you’ve broken them,” he looked up. “Let it go.”
“What?”
“The magic.”
I wasn’t even aware I was still holding onto it. “Oh.”
“The pain will be there when you let it go. Your feet are glowing because magic is numbing the pain for you. It’s a subconscious reaction.”
“Then why should I let it go?”
“Because you will be fatigued enough as it is.” He was a little stern now and I felt like a student disobeying the teacher. I nodded and pain shot through my ankles as I released it. My eyes rolled back in my head and I blacked out.
Chapter 7
When I awoke the first thing I registered was a dull throbbing in both of my ankles. I moaned a little and opened my eyes. To my surprise, Cheri was sitting beside me. It was dark and the fire in the middle of the camp provided the only source of light. It was trying to push the darkness
away, meantime casting flickering shadows, making the trees look like they were hiding haunting, inquisitive eyes. At least it provided enough heat to keep the cold night at bay. I was lying down with a thick blanket covering me, and another under my head.
I pulled myself up groggily, propped on one elbow and rubbing grainy eyes. Cheri hadn’t even looked at me before she broke the silence. “What am I going to do with you?” she asked despairingly, the flames of the fire dancing in those secretive eyes.
“What do you mean?” I looked around to find others asleep under blankets and cloaks. Someone was awake and sitting apart from the group: the bodyguards must be taking shifts on the watch. “Why are we camped here? Won’t we be attacked again? Is everyone else okay?”
“Minor cuts and bruises; we did very well. Bandits never attack the same group of people twice, especially if they failed the first time around. We killed nearly all of them, but unfortunately some got away. They were ill equipped and lacked any sort of strategy.”
The memory of Dorian decapitating Viola’s captor plagued my mind and I winced. What is it with him and taking people’s heads off?
Cheri looked at me. “Warwick is scouting the perimeter with Oliver.” I relaxed a little. “Who do you suppose closed the portal?” she mused.
Sudden change in subject aside, I thought about it and someone did spring to mind. “I don’t know everyone on the Council as well as you do, so motives to me would be a big question mark. However…” I paused, and her eyes narrowed at me. I was momentarily taken aback: my opinion mattered. I didn’t know whether to feel honoured that her opinion of me had changed for the better or disgruntled that she was possibly asking me as a last resort. She must have been mulling over the problem since she had discovered the portal was closed - and come up with nothing. That concerned me. Cheri normally had answers for everything.
I spoke my mind anyway. “I didn’t like the way the youngest warlock snatched the book from my hands, way back when.” I bit my lip, hoping I hadn’t overstepped the mark. Cheri was very protective of the Council’s reputation.
Cheri frowned and turned away. “No, I didn’t like it either. William was the warlock I gave the necromancer’s letter to; but it was also addressed to Violet and Stephanie...” She watched me from the corner of her eye.
I sat bolt upright and searched the camp for the woman I knew nothing about. Then I stared incredulously at Cheri, but she knew my thoughts. “At the time I investigated all three. I left Dorian to look after you so I could find out anything I could. If anyone discovered I was investigating two Council members then I would have been expelled from the Coven and forbidden to join any other.” She looked off to her right and I followed her casual gaze. Stephanie’s form lay on the ground under a blanket - hopefully asleep and unable to hear us. “Her breathing is even - she is asleep.”
“Cheri,” I uttered in a harsh whisper, “…how could you let her come along?”
“I didn’t. It was the order of the Coven and no one questions an order from the Council.” She said the words with such venom that she surprised me yet again. Cheri rarely revealed her true feelings on anything. This was definitely knocking her around.
“Violet’s order?” I asked and she nodded gravely.
“Bugger. Did you find anything on any of them?” I glanced at Stephanie’s form to check she wasn’t stirring. It was hard to tell with shadows dancing around us; everything looked like it moved.
“Nothing, they were all clean. They have covered their tracks surprisingly well, so I am none the wiser as to who betrayed us. Why is Stephanie here? Will she sabotage our mission? I have no answers.” She sighed and looked at me. Her black hair was snatched up into a bun, making her face look all the more severe, but the firelight glistened on strands of white. I watched her face and waited for her to continue.
“I’m going to need your help. I can’t trust her, but I trust you. Please look for anything out of the ordinary from her. The problem may arise when she starts making decisions for us or tries to convince us to go against our primary goal.” She paused in thought. “For all I know, her name was only on the letter to take it to Will and Violet, but she knows that I have handled it. She may be suspicious of me.”
“Do you think she was sent to make sure you wouldn’t discover a way back home?”
“It’s possible. That’s why I gave Nick that task and had him stay behind. She can’t hurt him there if he gets close to an answer. If she is working for Anarch, then she will need to stay with us; so I know Nick is safe.”
“Can’t we all join together and make a new portal?” I couldn’t tell her that I could create them. However, mine didn’t cross realities.
“It’s not that simple.”
“Why?”
Cheri took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “The portal we used was not created by anyone now living. Leah created it.”
“Leah?”
“The greatest Coven leader we’ve had for eons. She was young when Coven members found her. They had sensed the magnitude of power used to create it and went in search of its source. She had created the portal and came through from this side. No one from our world knows how to create a permanent portal like that. The weakness between realities was there. She tore the fabric. All we had to do was trigger it. Nick is searching for any texts of the spell she or anyone else may have used.”
My shoulders slumped.
“Leah was the witch who was killed by Henrik at her home on Dartmoor,” Cheri added. I looked sharply at her. “Yes, she had kept the Magia Ater secret and safe from enemies. Then you happened across it.” Cheri waited for me to register the implications. There were too many coincidences. The Magia Ater had passed from Leah to me. She was from this world and here I was. I couldn’t mention it, but we both had an affinity for creating portals. Did Cheri suspect I could do it? Could I entrust her with this secret? I decided against it - for now.
“Oh God. This all just got way too complicated for me: bloody Coven politics.” That earned me a sharp look. “Whatever.” I couldn’t deal with treading on eggshells as well as all this crap.
“Melissa, we needed you and you came here of your own free will to help us. I am personally asking you for help because you are neutral; you are detached from our politics and unbiased. Will you help me? I have no one else to confide in.”
I didn’t know what to say. This turn of events had taken me off guard. I now knew there was someone with us who couldn’t be trusted, and I already had serious trust issues. Cheri looked desperate though. She no longer had Dorian to talk to, so I agreed to help.
“Do we have a plan of action?”
“Just watch her for now. If she does anything unusual or out of place then report it to me.” Cheri looked relieved. I nodded and then my stomach growled. “I’ll get you some food we cooked earlier and replace the salve on your ankles.
I watched her approach the fire and I tentatively wriggled my feet. They weren’t painful, and I wondered if Viola had fixed them. They still hurt a little though and Viola was the best healer here - or anywhere in fact. I ate some cold cooked meat Cheri had provided. I didn’t ask if it was rabbit or deer - I didn’t want to know. She then began rubbing a new salve onto my ankles.
“Did Viola heal them?” I asked.
Cheri turned pensive. “No, I did. But I’m afraid I do not have such an affinity, hence the salve. They are no longer broken but they are still swollen and inflamed.” It may have taken me a while, but I finally noticed that Cheri looked bone-tired.
“Thank you. What’s wrong with Viola? She said earlier that she blanked and couldn’t fight back with magic.”
“I know. Adhelm has spoken with her. She was petrified, and that fear put a wall up between her and her magic. She couldn’t summon a spell for the barrier she kept hitting. Adhelm thinks it’s because of her past and that it will be difficult for her to recover.”
“Can that really happen? She may never recover?” I couldn’t even beg
in to imagine how vulnerable and incomplete I would feel without magic. I shuddered. “She’s our best healer!”
“Yes, it’s a problem,” Cheri conceded as she wrapped thin bandages around my ankles.
“Damn right it’s a problem with these bandit attacks. We haven’t even got to Anarch and what if Etheldreda finds us along the way?”
“Adhelm is going to help her. He is an accomplished teacher, as you know.”
“Cheri, that woman has massive powers, I saw it within her. She’s a good match for me.” Cheri looked up from her work. “I could defeat her but I’m not sure what would be left of me.
“She is a sorceress, Melissa. There would be nothing left of me if I took her on.”
“Anarch… it will take a number of us to take him down.”
“I know. Don’t forget that we aren’t without our own tricks up our sleeves.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as a headache slowly set in. “I could do with some pain killers.” I opened my eyes again and scanned the camp. My heart melted when I saw Viola asleep, closest to the fire with Aidan awake and watching over her. It looked like he was trying to memorise her face in case she was stolen away again. I studied that look: I had only ever seen that expression on Dorian’s face when I caught him looking at me just before he turned away.
I glanced at Cheri, who was also watching them, and we shared a knowing look. More complications…
At some point I had fallen back into a deep sleep and when I awoke I felt refreshed. My ankles ached and felt hot, but only a little. Cheri had done a good job considering she didn’t have Viola’s abilities.
My conversation with Cheri last night replayed in my head and I shuddered at how complicated this journey had just become. Will Stephanie tip Anarch off when we are almost upon them? Will she turn on us at some point? Is she harmless? Has she told him where we are? What is her purpose? The mind boggled. I could do with a coffee.
“Tried bouncing to the moon, did you?” Oliver asked cheerfully, and I almost crapped myself. “Bit of a risky trick if you ask me.”