A Witch's Rite (Witch's Path Series: Book 5)

by N. E. Conneely

  “Last thing I remember, Ned was doing something.” His brow crinkled. “It didn’t feel like magic, but the effects were the same.”

  “That’s my last memory too.” I sighed. “Do you think you can get up? I’d like to look around, see if we could find the rest of our group.”

  He sat up, rubbed his head, and sighed. I wobbled my way onto my feet. Beside me, Patrick was doing the same. Being upright didn’t make my head feel much better, but I would have to live with it since I couldn’t accomplish much sitting on the ground.

  Patrick was on his feet but swaying a little. “What do you want to do?”

  “Let’s check out the rhododendrons. I want to see if I can figure out where we are and where Elron, Gudger, and Wells ended up.”

  “Works for me.”

  I nodded and shuffled over to one of the bushy walls. It was so thick that I couldn’t see anything on the other side. Extending my senses, I searched for some answers. While I could feel magical residue, there wasn’t anything I could identify.

  I huffed. This was the same problem I’d had before. I could find traces of magic, but I couldn’t do anything with what I learned.

  “I can’t find anything,” Patrick said.

  “Nothing useful anyway.” I walked over to a different section of rhododendron. It was the same as the last one. Turning, I surveyed the area. This wasn’t like a maze—this was a maze, one with hedges made of rhododendrons and laced with traces of magic.

  Patrick grabbed his radio. He fiddled with it before looked at me. “It isn’t working. Can I see yours?”

  I unclipped it from my backpack and handed it over. I had a feeling I was about to get bad news.

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I can’t get either of them to work.”

  “That seems a bit odd.” I didn’t have much experience with radios like that, but I had yet to see the police bring equipment into the field if it was faulty.

  Patrick nodded. “I’ve seen one work after being hit with a bullet. We checked the batteries before you and Elron showed up and tested them before we started the hike. They were fine.”

  “Can I see one?” I held out my hand. Patrick handed it over. The display had three short lines on it rather than the channel information. Just to make sure Patrick hadn’t missed anything, I turned it off and back on, checked the channel and any other setting I could find. It still didn’t work.

  Considering the problem, I delicately probed for magic. The entire radio was encased in a spell. Like the other magic I’d encountered in these woods, it wasn’t the type of spell I was accustomed to. However, that didn’t stop me from identifying it as a signal-blocking-and-jamming spell. I probed Patrick’s radio and found the same thing.

  “I suspect the radios themselves are fine, but they’re encased in magic.” I sighed. “Give me a minute. I think I can fix them.”

  Taking a closer look at the spell, I searched for an easy way to unmake it, but I couldn’t find one. The spell was one solid sphere of technological disruption and signal blocking. Since the actual construction of the spell was different than what I was accustomed to working with, I didn’t feel comfortable unmaking the spell without taking precautions that I didn’t have the equipment to set up.

  With my favorite method for dismantling spells out of the question, I did the next best thing. I dug a hook of my magic into the spell and started to drain the power out of it. That was slower than the other method, but it would work. Eventually.

  When I finally finished draining the energy out of the spell, I swapped out the radios and got to work on the second one. It took just as long as the first to drain the energy. It would’ve been nice to be doing this in my workroom where I had the leisure to really investigate these spells. They weren’t the most efficient use of power, but they did their job.

  “The spell is gone.” I handed the radio to Patrick.

  He tinkered with them, and before long they were working again. He tried to communicate with Elron, Wells, and Gudger but couldn’t get an answer. He finally set down his radio. “Odds are the rest of them had their radios magicked, and without either one of us, they won’t be able to remove the spells.”

  “What about talking to someone in town or on patrol?” I asked because I had to, not because I thought it was likely.

  Patrick shook his head. “I tried. If they could hear us, they’d respond.”

  I groaned. “Great. Well, we’ll just have to do this the old-fashioned way.” I took a deep breath. “Elron? Can you hear me? Wells?”

  “Wells? Gudger?” Patrick yelled.

  We shouted a few more times, moving around the area. I was about to give up when Patrick said, “Wait. I think I heard something.”

  I did as I was told. Sure enough, a moment later I heard Wells yelling, “Westmoreland, Michelle, where are you?”

  “Over here.” I jumped, waving my hands in the air. It was a futile gesture; the rhododendrons were more than ten feet tall. Wells wasn’t going to see me jump.

  “Michelle, stop,” Patrick scolded. “I think I can hear Elron.”

  I froze. Why hadn’t I heard Elron?”

  Wells shouted, “I think I’m close, but I can’t get through the plants.”

  “Hold on,” I replied. “Patrick is trying to do something.”

  “Can you repeat that?” Patrick yelled. A moment later he said, “She’s here with me. She isn’t hurt.”

  “Is he okay?” I asked.

  Patrick shouted, “One moment,” and turned to me. “Are you sure you can’t hear Elron?”

  “No. I can only hear Wells. Who can you hear?”

  “Only Elron.”

  I thought for a moment. There was no good reason why we couldn’t all hear each other.

  “Michelle,” Wells shouted. “Are you with Patrick?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “I’m here with Elron, and he says he can hear Patrick but not you.”

  “We’re having the same problem. Do either of you know what’s going on?”

  There was a pause before Wells said, “A little. When I woke up the first time, Ned was tying up Gudger. I tried to stop him, but Ned did magic or something and I couldn’t move. Then he took Gudger and told me that if we got out of the maze he’d release Gudger and let us go home; if we didn’t, then he’d kill Gudger.”

  It felt like the world slowed down. Ned had done more magic or something like it. He had Gudger, and if the maze was supposed to eliminate us so that he didn’t have to release Gudger… Well, there would be lots of traps. Not to mention, the very existence of this maze spoke to a certain level of planning, deviousness, and even magical ability that we hadn’t known about when walking into this. We were woefully unprepared, and our lives depended on us getting out of this place.

  All of those thoughts flashed through my mind in a couple of seconds, but there was one question that needed an answer. “To rescue Gudger, do we all have to get through the maze or just one of us?”

  Beside me, Patrick started. “What?”

  I ignored him, listening for Wells’s reply.

  “He wasn’t clear on that point.”

  “Then we all need to get out of here,” I yelled back.

  “I know.”

  “All right, give me a minute to explain.” I took a deep breath, turned to Patrick, and started relaying the conversation. I guess it wasn’t too hard to believe that Ned wanted the maze to kill us when you considered what had happened so far.

  “That’s why you asked if all of us had to get out.” Patrick cursed. “Well, we’ve got to rescue him.”

  Biting my lip, I tried not to say what was on my mind. While I wanted to rescue Gudger and he was a priority, he wasn’t the foremost issue. More than anything else, we needed to capture Ned. I wasn’t sure we could do that without backup, which changed the priorities. Rescuing Gudger became secondary. We needed a way to neutralize Ned or to get back to town and bring backup so we could take care of him. That was a
ssuming we were still fairly close to town.

  Rather than answering Patrick, I looked at the wall of rhododendrons. “This would be so much easier if we could all talk to each other.”

  I winced as Patrick bellowed, “Do you know why we can’t talk to each other?”

  “Not a clue,” Wells shouted back. Elron must’ve relayed the question to him.

  I probed for magic around Patrick. There was definitely magical residue, but I wasn’t able to get a clear indication of what spells had been placed on him. After checking him, I checked myself. A weight against my chest distracted me, and I rubbed it even though nothing was there. Returning my attention to the probes, I looked for additional spells on either one of us that would explain things, but I came up empty.

  Sighing, I had to agree with him. “We don’t know either.”

  Patrick studied the radio. “What if we give them one of these? It might help, and if they throw over their radios, you could remove the spell.”

  “Go for it.” I really hoped that worked because I was getting tired of shouting.

  He quickly informed Elron of the plan. Then Patrick took a couple of steps forward and hurled the radio into the air. It looked like it was going to clear the hedge. But when it was even with the top edge of the greenery, it hit something and bounced back to our side.

  I blinked. “It just bounced off empty air.”

  Patrick frowned. “I don’t feel any magic.”

  I checked the area over the hedge, coming to the same conclusion as Patrick. “Me either.”

  “I’ll try in a different spot.” He moved a few feet to the right and tried again. The radio bounced back again. We exchanged a puzzled look.

  “Let me see if I can remove the magic from here.” Closing my eyes, I sent out a probe, trying to connect with their radios. My magic spread out, but I couldn’t find anything on the other side of the hedges. It was like there was nothing but empty space over there.

  “Patrick, I can’t.” I swallowed hard. “I can’t reach their radios. Something is blocking me.”

  He thought for a moment. “Can you do anything about it?”

  “No. I’m not sure what it is, though I assume it’s a type of spell, or how it was cast.”

  He swore. “Maybe they could toss one over?”

  “I guess we can ask.” It was a better idea than any I had at the moment. I called out to Wells. “Can you try to throw us a radio?”

  “I thought you were going to send one over to us.”

  “Humor me.” I didn’t feel like yelling the entire course of events to him.

  It wasn’t long before Wells was telling me how they couldn’t get the radio to go over the hedge. After a short discussion, I decided it was time to try a different tactic. I turned to Patrick. “We need a plan, which would be easier if we could all talk to each other, and we would be able to if we were together. I vote we try to get through the bushes. What do you think?”

  “Sounds good to me. We would be better off in one group than in two.”

  “Agreed.” I sucked in some air and shouted, “Wells, can the two of you stand back? I’m going to try to get through the bushes.”

  “Good luck,” Wells replied. “Elron already tried. He said they have some odd properties. He doesn’t know what to make of them, but they wouldn’t move when he asked.”

  “Tell him thanks.” That wasn’t a good sign. If Elron couldn’t get the plants to listen, then the odds of my having success weren’t very good. Maybe brute power and magic would win the battle. Maybe.

  Looking at the rhododendrons, I tried to formulate a plan. Since I needed to get through, getting the plants to bend to the side would be enough. If that didn’t work, I could take more aggressive action.

  Since I didn’t have a specific spell for this, I summoned my wand and pictured the result I wanted in my mind. It would be more power intensive than using runes, but I didn’t feel like piecing something like that together right then.

  The power flowed out of me and around the rhododendrons. For a moment it hovered, not quite touching the rhododendron and not doing its job. I flicked my wand, and my magic surged forward. The plants started to bend. I smiled and fed more energy into the spell. I was going to get through this hedge.

  In a fraction of a second, the plants stopped bending and started pushing back against the magic. I held the spell firm, wanting to make this hole. I halted the rhododendron’s advance, but that was all I could do. I poured more energy into the spell, but I couldn’t force the plants back. Panting, I released the spell. Beside me, Patrick swore. When I got my breath back, I’d join him. That had been the easiest way to get to the men.

  “It’s fighting you.” Patrick’s eyes were wide. “I’ve never seen a nonmagical plant fight back.”

  “I know.” I sucked in more air. “Can you ask Elron if he’s sure these things don’t have magic?”

  Patrick nodded and relayed my question over the fence. He listened for a moment before turning back to me. “Elron said they don’t feel or behave like any magical plant he’s encountered. Wait, that’s not right. He has a sample of this stuff at work. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so he was going to bring it home for you to look at but didn’t get the chance. He tried getting them to let him through, but they won’t. He also said that to resist you like that, they must have some type of defense. It may not be active magic but a resistance to magic.”

  That wasn’t as helpful as I’d hoped, but it was better than what I’d had before. “Tell him I said thank you.”

  I turned back to the hedge. If gentle didn’t work, I could try aggressive. Considering the rhododendrons’ recent show, I wasn’t sure how that would pan out, but it was better than giving up. Or I could try something a little less aggressive first. It would be tricky, but by using Patrick and Wells, Elron and I could coordinate an assault on the plants. That might work even though my solo attempt had failed.

  “Patrick, will you ask Elron if he thinks he can force the plants to retreat? I’m hoping that if we work on them at the same time we’ll be able to do what neither of us can do alone.”

  He nodded and started talking to Elron. I listened to half the conversation, answering questions when needed. What I had in mind shouldn’t be too difficult to synchronize. However, with the hedge between us, we wouldn’t be as powerful as if we were able to touch and link our abilities.

  “He’s not sure this will work, but he’s ready to give it a go when you are.”

  A little more optimism would’ve been nice, but I couldn’t blame him for being skeptical. “Let’s give it a go on the count of three.”

  Patrick relayed the information to Elron. “He’s good to go.”

  I tightened my grip on my wand. “Start the count.”

  “One… Two… Three!”

  I jabbed my wand at the rhododendrons, focusing my power until it had sliced a couple of inches into the plants. Then I worked on expanding the beam of magic, making it push back the rhododendrons as it moved. I got them to move a couple of inches, and then I was able to steadily push them back. The progress wasn’t fast, but it was going better than last time. Whatever Elron was doing was working.

  As soon as that thought crossed my mind, the hole in the rhododendron collapsed. I thrust more power into the spell, but it didn’t help. Branches were regrowing, and little by little they were forcing my magic out of the plant. I could feel the power building, but it simply wasn’t having any effect on the plants.

  Gritting my teeth, I pulled the energy back into myself just as the rhododendrons sent out a pulse of electricity. It crackled across my skin, sending burning pain up every nerve. I opened my mouth to scream but couldn’t even force the air out. Focusing on the energy that accompanied that shock, I absorbed it, pulling it into my body and merging it with my power.

  A strangled cry was torn from my lips, and my vision went dark. I collapsed, landing in a heap. I kept my eyes closed and my jaw clenched as the pain receded and
the fiery feel of the energy subsided as my body made it my own.

  “Michelle!” Patrick demanded. “Michelle, are you okay? Talk to me!”

  I managed to croak, “Elron?”

  “I’ll check.”

  The needles of pain in my nerves were slowly going away. I blinked a few times and got a good view of the ground. I closed my eyes again, waiting to hear how Elron had fared. One of the benefits of being a witch was the ability to manipulate and conduct energy. At the most basic level, magic was simply energy, but that didn’t make absorbing electricity a smart idea. I really didn’t have any idea why I’d done it other than I hadn’t been able to think of another way to deal with the shock. On the bright side, my energy reserves were back up to where they’d been before our first encounter with Ned.

  Patrick knelt down next to me. “He’s fine. There wasn’t a shock on his side. You were the only one to get hit with that. He wants to know how you’re doing.”

  “I’m fine. I just need a moment.” Or an hour.

  “That’s what I told him. He said if you were thinking about doing any other spell to try to get through, you might want to rethink your approach.”

  “No argument out of me.”

  “Can I get you some water?”

  “No, I still feel… tingly.” I pushed myself into a sitting position. “Can you see if Elron has any other helpful ideas?”

  “Sure thing.”

  While Patrick shouted questions at Elron, I sat on the ground with my head between my knees. After a couple of minutes, I felt well enough to stand up. I tracked down my wand, which was unharmed, and started planning my next attack.

  The hedge looked as if nothing had happened. That was hardly encouraging, but I was hoping my elf had some useful information. “So, what did you learn?”

  Patrick sighed. “Not much more. Elron is worried that additional attacks will simply result in more forceful reactions from the hedge, but he doesn’t know where it got the energy.”

  That was a point I hadn’t given much consideration. I examined the bushes again, both visually and with magic. They didn’t give me any new information. “By nature, plants shouldn’t be able to store energy, but it could’ve absorbed some of the power I was throwing at it and created a pulse of electricity. Or I could’ve triggered some sort of trap.”