Witch for Hire

by Conneely, N. E.

  "That just makes you silly. I'd never be so foolish." She giggled.

  The giggle told me she was young; only young girls giggled that way. The only girls I'd seen recently had been at the chicken farm. She had to be from the group of kids keeping the troll at the chicken farm, which one didn't really matter. "How have I been foolish?"

  "You called all of us to you—while you're alone." She paused her forward progress. I needed her to keep moving. "I didn't come alone. I know better than that. Boys, kill her."

  "Of course not. You'd never have been that silly." I muttered as I scanned the area for her boys. Six big shapes loomed up around the edge of the parking lot, arranged to herd me against the police station. At least all the trolls were here.

  "What was that? I want to hear everything you say."

  "Your mother was newt, and your father disowned you!" What did she think I was going to say, 'Please kill me?'

  "You Witch!" she shrieked.

  "Thank you." The trolls had continued to advance, but she hadn't. I moved back, suddenly unsure of the wisdom of this plan. Being someone's dinner was really low on my list of ways to die.

  One of the trolls to my left, the closest one, stepped forward, drooling as he eyed me. My heart beat faster. Nope, I didn't want him to eat me, especially while I was alive (being killed by a troll was bad enough, but I didn't want to know it was snacking on me). The troll shambled forward. Jerking the wand up, I pointed at the ground, forcing power into the circle we'd constructed earlier. It sprang to life around him, imprisoning him inside. I darted closer to the now imprisoned troll as the sorceress screeched with rage. Her yowl served as a rallying call; the trolls lumbered forward. Glancing over my shoulder, I spotted another troll near a circle. Another rush of power and I captured him near the edge of the parking lot.

  "Stop," she commanded, still at the end of the parking lot. It was nice to know she was controlling them. If she was unconscious or dead they might leave me alone. "You booby trapped the parking lot?"

  "Yup."

  "Why?"

  "You didn't actually think I was stupid enough to stand here without a plan, did you?" From the silence and stance, I could tell she had. "I think you're too stupid to be a sorceress. Where's the real one?" I could hear her teeth grind, sending shivers up my spine. Even in this cold I was sweating, and I had a sudden need to pee.

  She stopped destroying her teeth long enough to repeat her previous command, "Kill her. Syed will get you."

  In stories, Syed was known for eating children, and killing pets, but she wasn't the problem right now. Watching the trolls advance, more slowly, I knew this was a stupid plan. All I had on my side was speed and a few spells. I couldn't fight. I had reinforcements, but they weren't here yet.

  I activated another circle, missing the troll, who'd stepped to the left. Narzel's eye. I only had two spare circles now. I raised my right arm, my wand arm, to wipe the sweat off my face.

  Something, something human from the lack of odor and small size, hit me from the side, knocking me on the pavement. The breath whooshed out of my lungs, not returning for precious seconds. Before I could breathe again, I was scrambling up, trying to get away from whoever had tackled me. The trolls picked up the pace, closing the distance. A hand gripped my ankle, nearly pitching me back to the pavement. Frantically, I kicked back, connecting with something hard enough to loosen his grip.

  I gasped in a few desperate breaths before I took off, trying to ignore my aching ribs and wobbly ankle. With the extra guy, I was down to one spare circle. Spreading out my senses, I could feel the barest tingle from circles Jones and I had carefully drawn. I ran through a circle as a troll charged up behind me. Throwing a hand out behind me, I shoved power through the thread, capturing another troll, realizing I'd lost my wand in the struggle. It took more focus to channel power without the wand, and I didn't have focus to spare.

  There were three trolls, one human, and the sorceress left. If nothing changed, I had a spare circle, but I couldn't afford to miss. Rounding the edge of where we'd glued the circles, I eyed the mass of people trying to circle me. I'd managed to get most of them behind me, with the remaining circles between us, but the sorceress was still at the edge of the parking lot. I didn't want to be any closer to her than I already was, even if it put more space between me and the trolls.

  A yowl behind me had me twisting around to see a human tripping over the black cat. He stumbled to a stop, clearly not sure what he should be doing. In fact, everyone had stopped moving. Daughter of Syed indeed; I was out of circles.

  "You ingrate. You can't even sneak up on her properly."

  She continued to yell at him, but I'd noticed a troll standing perfectly inside a circle. Pulsing power through the thread took everyone by surprise, but mostly the troll. Using their confusion, I rolled a ball of clay and oils at the sorceress. She was too busy yelling to notice it stop an inch short of her feet. Surging power through it, I exploded the ball, coating her feet.

  The charm hardened the dirt into a brick-like substance, effectively rooting her to one spot. The magic made the brick impossible to break with physical action. She'd need to unwind the spell, or overload it, to free her feet.

  She blinked stupidly at her feet. "You bitch."

  "I think that's a compliment coming from you." Thus far she hadn't done any spells, just name calling. I could feel power in her, but not as much as I'd expected from the spells on the trolls. I didn't understand her strategy.

  "Why are you standing there? Kill her." Her voice jumped an octave at the end.

  Everyone, including me, had been standing around. It was like they were afraid to do anything without a direct command. I was standing still because I didn't want to draw attention to myself. If they were willing to let me go, I'd be gone. I was still trying to catch my breath, my chest and ankle hurt, but mostly I was furiously trying to formulate a plan than didn't get me eaten.

  With her latest edict, the two remaining trolls lumbered into action, as did the humans. There was nowhere left to go but close to the sorceress. She couldn't grab me, but I'd have to chance her casting spells. Jogging closer to her made it hard to keep an eye on everyone at once. I had enemies on three sides now. I'd learned having enemies on two sides was foolish, three suicidal. I cast a wish to the goddess: please let me get out of this alive.

  My current situation emphasized that this entire plan was from the don't-do handbook. Never fight a battle on more than one front, always have backup plans because no plan survives the first engagement, and don't do anything stupid. That last part was the one I'd mostly ignored. Stupid, stupid me.

  Ten feet from her, I felt a change in one of the circles. Shoving energy into it I found I'd trapped the human who'd tripped over the cat.

  "At least he can't hurt anything," she muttered.

  I snickered, but not quietly enough. She started casting something; I could feel the power filling the air around her. Without my wand, and more time, I couldn't cast a spell that would hold her. The best I could do was to keep her in one place, and that spell would require constant attention. The other circles had been carefully constructed to need activation, but no connection to sustain them.

  Not knowing what else to do, I sprinted for the edge of the parking lot behind the sorceress. Inexperienced casters, like this sorceress, needed visual contact to spell something. If I was behind her she'd have a hard time looking at me. Besides, I was running out of circles on the other side of the parking lot.

  Between the deep shadow I hid in, and being unable to turn, she was having a hard time focusing on me enough to cast. Something tickled my senses. It felt like the human was in a circle, so I flashed power through the dormant spell, catching air. I'd missed him by an inch, leaving one more bad guy than circles to capture them in.

  Hearing shouts in the distance I hoped the police were coming to my rescue. They should've been here by now. They owed me a damn good explanation. The plan had been for me to capture or neutral
ize the sorceress and some of the trolls. The police could mop up the rest of the trolls, and I could deal with the sorceress. The sorceress was neutralized and no one had come to my rescue. I'd like to be rescued before I was eaten.

  The girl got tired of trying to cast at me, turning her attention to her feet. I was studying the combatants very carefully as they made their way across the ground. I'd wasted more circles than I could afford to. If I captured one troll or human in every circle I'd be able to neutralize the last one, but I could only hold so many spells at a time and I still needed to deal with the sorceress.

  This would've been easier if I didn't have a desperate need for the bathroom, a throbbing ankle, blood pounding through my body, and a bruise covering most of my chest. Come to think of it, my face hurt too. My labored breathing and frantic thoughts clearly demonstrated how unsuited I was to this type of thing. If I got through this I was doing exactly my job, magical back up for the police. No more stupid plans out of a misguided sense of duty and justice.

  Shaking off my personal problems, I shot power into a circle a troll had walked in, reducing the combatants to two. The remaining troll and human slowed, clearly trying to figure out how their friends were being captured. Several of the caged trolls were beating at the circle or howling. Understanding magic didn't appear to be their strong point. Other than eating people, I wasn't sure they had a strong point.

  The remaining troll walked into a circle and I closed it before he could escape. Just the human and sorceress were left. I felt the spell around her feet start to crumble as she overwhelmed it with sheer power; effective, but not energy efficient. Before she was completely free I sprinted past her, trying to lure her into a circle.

  Heat singed my legs and a concussive force sent me tumbling forward as she lobed a blast of energy at me. Wheezing, I tried to scramble backwards. Pain was radiating from every inch of my body while the ringing in my ears preventing me from hearing. Syed take me, this was bad.

  I could see her advancing, mouth moving as she said something I couldn't hear. Something thick dripped down my eye. Leaning on one pained arm, I swiped at it, feeling a sting as my hand moved over my eyebrow. I was bleeding. Bleeding hadn't been in the plan.

  She smiled at my crumpled state as she advanced. The barest tingle brushed across my battered senses. Before I could think better of it, I shoved every bit of power I could find, a pitiful amount, at the circle around her.

  I tried to smile—a split lip prevented the action—as I could see her scream in incoherent rage. It would have been a beautiful sound, if I'd been able to hear. Sitting on the pavement I contemplated getting up, but decided against it. I was as comfortable as I was going to be until the police showed up.

  Taking stock of my injuries was depressing, but not horrid. Mild burns laced my calves, hurting far more than the wrenched ankle. I was covered in scrapes, bleeding from my right hand and forehead, and feeling a constricting pain across my torso from being smashed against the ground twice.

  A change in the wind made me realize I'd missed something, but it was too late. I tried to make it to my feet, but my battered body couldn't move that fast. The human, his face twisted in a snarl with blood-shot, dilated eyes, hauled me up by the front of my shirt.

  I'd forgotten about him, not one of my finer moments.

  His lips moved, saying something I couldn't hear and I'd never been able to lip read. His fist pulled back. For a fraction of a second I didn't know what to do, but I puffed power near his face, forcing air into his eyes. Jerking back, he loosened his grip.

  Pulling away, I tried to run. His hand grabbed the back of my shirt, throwing me off balance. I managed to scramble a few feet forward before I hit the ground, breath knocked out of me for the third time, mind swimming from the impact with pavement. My bloody hand landed on a ball of seeds that had fallen out of my belt. I tried to hold it, but my hand slipped off, leaving a trail of blood behind as I slid into darkness.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Forest Spirit

  She lay, hurt and bleeding. The man, if he could still be called such, slowly advanced, wanting to make sure she was as vulnerable as she appeared. Around them the ground, an unnatural black rock, didn't show any signs of the struggles, but the eight people trapped in well-constructed circles of power were not pleased.

  The sorceress was attempting to spell her way out, but lacked the education, reducing her efforts to screaming. The human seemed to be the most sensible. He was sitting the middle, unmoving. However, the trolls were the most fascinating. Two of them were beating at the shimmery barricade, despite the increasing severity of burns along their hands. One was lounging on the ground. One was inspecting the interior near the ground. He was careful to avoid touching the walls, his hands showing signs of burns. The last two were the most amusing, cycling through several behaviors. They looked around, and not seeing rescue, hit or kicked the wall, gazed at the ground as if it would give them answers, and rapidly repeated the cycle.

  The man looked around furiously, his gaze settling on a rock. He turned his back on the girl to retrieve the weapon from the grass at the edge of the pavement.

  The trees swayed, tugging at their roots. They wanted to aid the witch for the kindness she'd shown the forest, and for the elf who'd asked for her safety. The will of the trees reached out to help her.

  Cloth unfurled next to her hand, releasing sprouted seeds. These seeds didn't sprout as a normal seed did. The mix of ivy and briars produced a few fuzzy roots that sat on top of the pavement, not seeking ground. The vines and leaves shot out of the seeds, weaving a braid as they grew. A moment passed; energy, partly fueled by blood, but mostly powered by a few overly active plants from miles away, poured into the plants encircling the prone girl. The roots wound through, around, and merged with the shoots, forming a continuous circle. A little more energy flowed into the living circle, and a pearly haze draped over them.

  The man returned, walked into a barrier, and bounced back. Puzzlement showed in the tilt of his head. He reached out, wincing when his fingers encountered an invisible barrier. Looking around, he noticed the plants. He couldn't move them, or move past them. The man expelled a primal growl when he realized the plants formed a protective circle around his prey. He set to work, trying to hammer through them with his rock. He pounded, smashed, and mashed, but couldn't dent the plants. On his tenth strike, the rock shattered. Resorting to his hands, he tried to tear the vines, earning shredded skin from the briars, but no progress in his hunting.

  When the police and FBI arrived, sometime later, they found the witch unconscious in a ring of plants. The man, hands shredded to the bone, was still trying to break the circle around the witch. Six trolls, one human, and one human sorceress were trapped in circles.

  The police took charge of the two humans, taking one to the hospital, while the FBI's witches bound the sorceress' magic. The trolls were given an FBI escort to a processing center for cleansing and evidence collection before being returned to the preserve.

  One man, known as Jones, cried, his tears falling on the circle. The tears of sorrow, and hope, did what anger could not. The protective circle opened, allowing him access to the witch. He cried harder when they realized she was alive. Two witches stabilized her as paramedics rushed to pick her up. Jones carried the ring of plants to a grassy spot, breaking the ground so they could root.

  Michelle

  "Oh, good, it's you. Do you have my clothes?"

  Jones looked around in confusion. "Um, I guess."

  "I was told you had my clothes. Well, I was told you checked me out of the hotel, and packed my stuff in my car. I want my clothes so I can go home."

  "Michelle, your clothes are in the car. You're in a hospital. I don't think you should be leaving yet."

  "Nonsense, I'm fine. I've been here since last night. The doctors looked at me and the nurses woke me up every hour. My parents called to see how I was, and promised to have a serious talk with me when I was better. Acc
ording to the doctor I have, at worst, a mild concussion, some scrapes, singed spots, a body full of bruises, and no reserve of power."

  "I still don't think you should go home."

  "Jones," I sighed. "I'm going home if I have to walk there in this stupid backless gown. Please bring me clothes."

  "I'll be right back," he said.

  He huffed as he walked out of the room. I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. Other than the police and FBI being a tad late to the scene, it had worked out fine. Not that I remembered them arriving, but they had.

  However, I'd learned my lesson. I wouldn't be repeating the experience any time soon. Without a doubt I wasn't suited to scary, life and death situations, where my life was in peril. My job was to assist the police. Not be a hero. Most heroes died horribly and tragically at a young age. I planned to live a long, boring life.

  I picked at the sheets and the lousy excuse for a robe while he was gone. I hated hospitals. They smelled bad, and lacked the comforts of home. I wanted the trees and gardens around me, Landa's cooking, and even the annoying elf.

  Jones tossed a duffel in, waiting outside as I slipped in to real clothes. Every bit of me was stiff and scraped. The burns weren't bad, though I hadn't gotten a good explanation as to why they hadn't fully healed. Something about how only so much energy should be pulled through tissue at one time. I couldn't find a way to sit or bend without aching. I hadn't looked in a mirror, not wanting to see the scrapes on my face. Pulling my hair back into a pony tail was more difficult than expected. Socks and shoes were also difficult.

  I walked out of the room with my duffel and purse in hand. I was getting out of here.

  Jones followed me. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

  "I'm fine. I want to go home."

  "Let me buy you breakfast."

  Looking at him, I could see the shadowed eyes, and deepened worry lines. "You were worried?"