Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga)

by Jonathan Grimm

  Rachel walked down the path. Pumpkin-orange lichen and earth-green moss grew along the ledge and rocks that lined the trail. When she hit the first plateau, trees, similar to the pines of Rachel’s home, Earth, greeted her.

  At least Katie chose a planet similar to Earth to hold me captive on.

  At the far edge of the ledge stood the corral where Katie kept her llamas. The animals moved toward the fence to greet her.

  “Hello, sweeties.” Rachel walked up to the fence and stroked the neck of the first one. Several more huddled around, waiting their turn for affection.

  Six months earlier, Rachel had helped Katie to enlarge the corral and build a stable for the animals. As she stroked the llamas’ necks, she surveyed the handiwork that went into building the structure. Her time with the Mountain Witches had taught her much about craftsmanship and what makes a good building. Katie had helped cut rocks and fell trees for the stable, but the design was Rachel’s. It was built into the side of the cliff, protected from wind and rain. A roof of pine, even and tightly caulked, sloped down, supported by porphyry columns, quarried from the slope of an inactive volcano miles away. Gray, granite blocks, fitted to a tolerance measured in millimeters, made up the sides. Rachel wished her Mountain Witch friends, Gertrude and Eustice could see it.

  She opened the gate and entered the corral. The llamas crowded her, hungry for further affection. One lowered its head and nuzzled her shoulder. Katie had already fed them, but Rachel went into the stable, anyway, eager to further admire her architectural craftsmanship.

  All was well inside. Katie used the Power to keep the stone floor pristine. Each individual stall had fresh grass bedding. Water trickled into a trough Katie had cut from the wall and linked to an underground well. The smell of llama, fresh cut grass, and rock wetted by fresh spring water pleased Rachel.

  Should she channel here? Katie would have a much more difficult time sneaking up on her than in the cave, and Rachel did need the practice. Her skill with the Power was many, many times greater than it had been when Katie took her from the Mountain Witch village, but it was not enough to make a bolt for freedom. Plus, she didn’t know where she was within the universe or how to get home.

  Home? Where was home? Not on Earth with her adoptive parents. The closest thing to home was the Mountain Witch village, and that would be the first place Katie would search for Rachel if she fled.

  Rachel returned the latch to the corral gate to exit. A hike would do her good. Further down the path away from their cave home, fields of tall grassland were punctuated by an occasional pine.

  Rachel noticed movement out of the corner of her eye as she walked. To the right, deep in the grassland, a small figure moved. Katie? Was the little sorceress following her? Surely, Katie could be more circumspect than that.

  Rachel moved towards the area where she had seen the movement. When she reached the first tree, a head peered out from the stalks of grass. The creature was a tiny woman with closely cropped hair and a simple, burlap-colored dress tied with a cord.

  Trudy. An Upper Mountain Witch! The one who had accompanied Queen Annalisse on their expedition into the Upper Mountain Witch Kingdom and later attended Rachel’s “Witch Got Better” party, on Rachel’s last day in the village before Katie kidnapped her. How did she get here?

  The grass fluttered and a large cat came into view. Sophie. Queen Annalisse’s mountain lion friend.

  Rachel smiled. They had found her.

  Chapter 16

  The Present Day

  Pangea

  Rachel checked herself before entering the cave. Katie was adept at picking up on feelings and Rachel couldn’t telegraph the new optimism Trudy and Sophie’s arrival filled her with.

  “They are here.” Katie, at her place by the hearth, looked up from her book. “I sense them. We will have to go. They think they are clever, but they are not. I was already planning on leaving here, anyway.”

  “Maybe they just want to talk.” Rachel didn’t want to leave Pangea, not unless it was to return to her sisters among the Mountain Witches.

  “Where will we go?”

  “Earth.”

  “Earth? How can we do that? Why?”

  “I go there now and again for books. It is time for me to return. Find out what the scientists on Earth are up to. Pack your bags, we’ll leave tonight.”

  “What about the llamas?”

  “I created a machine that will feed them automatically. I’ve left them for long periods before. You know that.

  They will be fine.”

  Rachel went to her sleeping bag and gathered her belongings. She put the books Katie had given her into a suitcase, then folded her bedding over them and shut the case. Not much to pack. Perhaps once on Earth she could make a bolt for freedom.

  “What do I do once we’re there, Katie? I’m dead on that world.”

  “You will have to shield your appearance, at least when around those who could recognize you from your earthly life. You know how.”

  Rachel wanted to continue raising objections, but with Katie it would be no use. Once the sorceress decided upon something, she would not be deterred. Maybe this move wouldn’t be so bad – it would stir things up a bit and her chance for escape might come. Perhaps the Citadel would rescue her? Pangea was Katie’s home turf. Things might be different on Earth.

  Katie packed her own satchel and came up to Rachel as she sat on a boulder in the front of the cave, looking down at the valley below. The sunset was a brilliant crimson and orange, with streaks of purple and purple-blue.

  “Don’t worry, I will not let them run me off my Pangea. We will return,” Katie said.

  From their position on the cliff, they could see a line of torches headed their way up the mountain path. Across the valley, on the cliff opposite Katie and Rachel, Annalisse, Karen and Jakob appeared.

  Katie slung her satchel over her shoulder and grabbed Rachel’s arm. The bond between the two snapped into place, sending sparks up around them. Katie rose into the air, Rachel with her. Then fell back down.

  .Annalisse’s gazed at Katie from across the distance.

  “The little thing is blocking my flying! No matter. We will take the back route. Her tricks will not work once we are further away.”

  Crash!

  A flame of fire emerged from Annalisse’s musket. Next to where Katie stood, the large rock, the one she liked to rest upon and read in the evenings, evaporated in a ball of dust and fire.

  Katie ran inside and to the back of their cave, balls of blue plasma in her palms.

  Rachel couldn’t be certain, but it seemed that Annalisse had missed purposefully! She had not been able to control her own channeling, and the heightened awareness the Power always brought allowed Rachel to notice the last-second jerking up of the barrel before Annalisse fired.

  Chapter 17

  Katie led Rachel through the brush behind their cave. The sorceress held her hand tightly, the bond as strong as ever. But it didn’t matter to Rachel – she wasn’t risking a battle by dashing for freedom now.

  Brambles tore at their clothing as they ran down the path. At a turn, when the valley came into view, Katie halted. The cave wall was between them and Annalisse’s witches; below them Citadel Witches. Rachel did not see them, but she felt their presence. If they went forward they would encounter them; if they went back, they would encounter Queen Annalisse and her forces.

  Katie grasped Rachel’s hand tighter and the pair rose in the air. Here we go again.

  They went quickly, without interference from Queen Annalisse, who now had a mountain barrier between her and them. Katie exited and entered multiple universes, leapfrogging past empty space. Bonded to Rachel, taking energy from her store, Katie didn’t need to stay near star clusters and could move with great speed.

  When they reached a nebula with its jellyfish mosaic of gold, greens, blues, earth colors and luminescent center, Rachel recognized it as the the one Katie had taken her through the year before. Thi
s nebula marked a gateway between Earth’s universe and the universe of the Kingdom of the Mountain Witches and the Citadel.

  She wondered where on the planet Earth Katie would set them down. There wasn’t much time to ponder as a forest valley appeared below them. It was the forest where Rachel had set her tent in the months before her earthly death.

  Katie slowed when they reached the boulder that Rachel had backed her tent up to the year before. The two were suspended over it, like a hovercraft as Katie gently brought them into port.

  The instant Katie released the bond, Rachel hopped onto the forest floor. She was no longer alive in this world and could not be easily hurt.

  The ground where her tent had stood was cleared, as well as a path in front of it. Much of the foliage was gone and the sticks she had set outside her tent to provide alarm of intruders were gone. The area looked bare and sterile without Rachel’s camp.

  The sorceress had made her way down silently. I wonder how many times this creature watched me when I was unaware. How long did she stalk me prior to taking me away?

  “Okay, we’re home, Katie. What’s next?”

  “We hit up university libraries.” Katie smiled so broadly, Rachel expected a frog’s tongue to shoot out and capture a fly.

  “Where do we stay?” Rachel asked.

  “Why here, of course.”

  “Here? This is the first place anyone will look for us.”

  “Perhaps it is.” Katie grinned again.

  “We’ll need a tent.”

  “No, we won’t. I hollowed out this boulder.” Katie tapped the rock near where Rachel’s tent had been.

  “When did you do that?”

  “While you were out getting water from the stream for your camp.”

  Rachel didn’t answer. So, the sorceress was right next to me as I slept. As I slept and worried about her.

  “First, let’s go to the bookstore. I want to get the newest issue of Scientific American.” Katie started walking up the path that led out of Rachel’s valley. The year before, there had been no trail at the spot they took. Police and rescue personnel must have carved one out. Rachel’s much more narrow path was overgrown and barely visible.

  She was glad the sorceress didn’t want to fly to the store. The walk did Rachel good and allowed her to slowly and peacefully re-acclimate herself to this world. The air was not so clean as it was on Pangea – not even in the forest and foothills they passed through, retracing the steps Rachel had taken so long before, but it was refreshing, nevertheless.

  When they reached the freeway, Katie grabbed Rachel’s hand and they hopped onto the back of a truck headed towards Melville. The driver didn’t notice – their mass on Earth was negligible and the landing made little noise. In any case, Katie used the power to mirror the background behind their silhouettes, making them effectively invisible.

  The wind whipped their hair as the truck sped down the freeway. Rachel stared at the vehicles around them, no longer used to the noise and pollution from their exhaust. Nobody could see her – thanks to Katie’s sorcery – so Rachel stood up as far as she could in the truck’s bed. Beside them, potted plants tied together, price tags attached to their stems, vibrated gently from the truck’s movement. Either the driver was returning from a nursery or was going to one to make a delivery. Rachel breathed in the scent of white roses. If Katie kept her prisoner and they returned to Pangea, she would ask the sorceress if they could start a flower garden.

  The pair jumped off when they reached the Melville exit. Rachel looked left and right as they made their way into town. It was the same, she knew, but she wasn’t the same. How trivial her problems with her adoptive parents seemed now!

  The Melville Barnes and Noble bookstore was two stories and contained a coffee shop. Katie left her at the front and went straight to the science periodicals while Rachel browsed the discount tables, glancing at the other customers from time to time to see if there were any she recognized from her time in Melville. She had no money on her –- no Earth money. This wouldn’t bother Katie, as the sorceress would simply take what she wanted, using the Power to mask her theft, but Rachel would not do this. Maybe if she found something she really liked, the sorceress would produce the necessary greenbacks.

  At the corner of one of the discount tables sat a stack of large, coffee table books on roses. Rachel went to these and thumbed through them. She had forgotten the delightful and promising new book smell. How she had missed bookstores and libraries during her captivity!

  After satiating herself with pictures of roses; white, red and pink, Rachel went upstairs to the math and science section. A child struggled to reach a book on the top shelf. Rachel turned to help the little girl with the volume.

  “Here, I’ll get it for you.” Rachel looked down at the child. The figure looked up at her. It was Annalisse. Annalisse, Queen of the Upper Mountain Witches.

  Rachel froze.

  “Come with me, child-witch,” Annalisse spoke softly. “It is time for you to make your escape from that being. My sisters are here and we are prepared for your escape.”

  Chapter 18

  The Present

  Earth

  Queen Annalisse led Rachel to the back of the store. Several Upper Mountain Witches were gathered by the window; all dressed crudely in burlap dresses. One carried a sack, which she opened upon seeing Rachel, and pulled a woven hemp ladder from.

  I will shield you from the Power while my sisters lead you down the ladder. We will meet up later. Follow the instructions of my sisters. Queen Annalisse spoke directly into Rachel’s mind.

  Rachel nodded.

  Trudy, the Upper Mountain Witch who had found Rachel on Pangea, cut a hole through the large, plate glass window. When the opening was large enough for Rachel, two Upper Mountain Witches secured the line to the window ledge with stakes from the burlap bag.

  Trudy went first to test the line. When she reached the bottom, Lissette and Cossette –those witches had spoken their own names directly into Rachel’s mind so she would know them – motioned for Rachel to follow.

  She tested the line. It was thin and she did not see how the green jumping jack shaped stakes could hold – they were smaller than her thumb – but she did as instructed. These witches had their ways and they would certainly take her size into account.

  The outdoor air greeted her as she climbed out the window. She forced herself not to look down – though she thought it crazy to fear heights after all the flying she had done with Katie.

  At the bottom, she released the line and the two witches pulled the line bit back up. How were they going to get down?

  A moment later, Lissette climbed down the side of the building, like a supernatural mountain climber, Dracula scaling the walls of his castle. When she was halfway down, Cossette stood on the rail. She held the cut windowpane in her hands. Rachel watched as she fit it into the hole and taped the edges, circling around. It stuck and no seam was visible from below. Once done, Cossette likewise scaled the wall.

  These witches respect private property.

  With Rachel in tow, they ran through the parking lot, avoiding areas where they could be seen from inside the bookstore. Katie would probably still be upfront – whenever she got hold of a new copy of Scientific American, she usually sat mesmerized, reading the issue cover to cover, noticing nothing in her surroundings. Nevertheless, she was a very powerful sorceress and Rachel, not taking any chances, ran as fast as she could – barely keeping up with the little witches.

  They reached the curb outside the shopping center and a van pulled up beside them. Rachel recognized the driver – she was the police officer Rachel encountered the year before in the Melville coffee shop. In the seat beside her, the man who Rachel had encountered, with his son, at Walmart on the day she fled her home, moved to the back and opened the sliding door for them.

  They are with Queen Annalisse; I must trust them. It is strange to see them here, but what about this whole affair hasn’t been strange
?

  Nobody said anything. Lissette and Cossette pushed Rachel in. They followed behind and Dan shut the door. What about Trudy?

  Rachel didn’t have to wonder long, for as the van started from the curb, she heard taps on the roof. Trudy was on top, probably keeping lookout.

  Rachel breathed slowly, making sure not to channel – even subconsciously. Their escape depended upon Katie not picking up a signal of her whereabouts. What about Annalisse? Had she been going to fight Katie at the bookstore?

  The police officer turned her head towards Rachel. “Well, hello young lady. I have been wanting to find you for over a year, now.”

  “Hello.” Rachel paused for a moment, then said, “You obviously must know about Mountain Witches and the Power?”

  “Yes. Queen Annalisse summoned me to her world the day Katie abducted you.”

  Rachel turned to Dan Edwards.

  “This is all new to me. I still don’t know how much of it I believe,” Dan said.

  “I’m sorry I got you involved in this,” Rachel said.

  “It is not you who involved me. It is Katie. She was my sister.”

  Chapter 19

  The Present

  Earth

  Candice drove them to a discount motel on the outskirts of Melville and parked in the back lot. “This is where we will be staying. It’s not much, I know, but you’ll be safe here. Queen Annalisse and the Citadel Witches have shielded it from Katie.”

  The asphalt parking lot radiated heat from the summer sun. Crabgrass grew in the sparsely watered lawn in front of the motel office. The plate glass windows reflected the freeway and the sign from a Taco Bell restaurant on the corner.