The Dark Witch

by Tabitha Scott

  “A loop hole. The original text is probably in Latin, we think there may be something in the original wording that allows a Fae offspring to be deserted.”

  “Hang on. Are you saying she might be unclaimed? If she’s unclaimed, she can be sacrificed.” I can almost see the evil look of glee that’s cracking across Hexabus’ face.

  “Ah, yeah… didn’t Hatchesput want her to be brought into the coven?”

  Susan is standing right there, aghast, she can hear the conversation, Hexabus doesn’t exactly whisper things. I know how Susan feels, it was me and Pulania in her shoes just a couple of days earlier.

  “So she can be sacrificed,” Hexabus quips.

  “Ahhh well, we won’t know for sure what her status is until we check.”

  “Hmm, yeah, okay. There’s one copy in the Tower of London, but forget about that one, there all sorts of magikal runes protecting that, and the Beef Eaters lace their bullets with silver.”

  “Oh, that doesn’t sound good.”

  “Not if you don’t want to end up dead.”

  “And the second?”

  “Lost. Don’t know where it is.”

  “Well that doesn’t help. How about the third copy?”

  “it’s in the National Library of Scotland, in the medieval manuscripts and documents archive.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, I’ll send you a pass.”

  An unburning bit of paper appears in my hand, care of Hexabus.

  Chapter 23: Daughter of dust

  The easiest way for us to get to the National Library is by traveling along the magikal path to Pulania’s place. The library is in Edinburgh, only a few hundred metres from her front door. I’ve got the others in tow and I’m concentrating to get us there.

  “Are we going to see Pulania?” Susan asks when we arrive, but I don’t think she’d be ready to see us in the state she was in.

  “No.” I turn around from the house and walk out on to the Royal Mile. Gil and Susan are almost sprinting to keep up with me.

  I normally enjoy walking through Edinburgh, I actually don’t look out of place here, there are lots of gothic looking lasses, but I’ve got a lot on my mind. I’m still stewing over Mrs. Lesley, and over Pulania’s reaction to Susan being a daughter of Gaea. I’m also a little bit worried about Hexabus, I know Hatchesput and she had no intention of sacrificing Susan. She’d been serious about bringing her into the coven. What was all this talk of sacrifice anyway? First me, then Pulania and now Susan? It wasn’t as if the coven was pouring over with initiates, from what I could tell there had been a pretty steady decline in our numbers since the end of the witch burnings, and we hadn’t done too well out of that one, either.

  Too many unanswered questions. I don’t like it.

  We’re in front of the Scottish National Library and I’m tapping my foot thinking about everything, except going inside.

  “Ah, we’re here now.” Gil ventures, she can tell that I’m a bit angry and very pre-occupied.

  I tap my foot for a minute or two more, and try and stare the stone building into the ground. “Right.”

  I know my way in, I’ve been here on coven business before. There’s a lot of history of the Fae stored here. Our coven might not have written much down, but others have. The white witches, the Auguries, the Hecatines, some other of the Fae, they’re much better at recording things than we’ve been. Luckily one of the Hecatines works here, and she has a lot to do with hiring the staff. They are all chosen because their minds are easily warped. I can simply ask for the copy of the covenant, and the young fellow attending us in the archive takes us right to it, probably thinking we’re looking at some ladies emancipation document or something. Not that we exactly hide our documents in the archives, or anything…they’re just not made that easy to find.

  The attendant has left us in a stuffy little reading room off one of the archives, we’re somewhere in the lower bowels of the library. I unscroll the ancient vellum the covenant was written on using the gloves that the guy left me. The first thing that strikes me is that it’s not written in Latin at all. Well, some of it is, the rest is written in… everything? There’s Greek, Old Saxon, some Ogham…there must be at least a dozen languages here. It’s a mess, there’s not even a layout, some of it is written sideways, some upside down. There are little patches of scribblings everywhere, there’s no main text. Some of it even starts in one language and ends in another as though someone was changing it as it was written. This is absolute crap.

  “Shite, this is absolute crap.” It’s always better if you say it out loud.

  But as I’m looking at it, the words have started to move. They’re reorganising themselves into straight lines and paragraphs. And to my eye it’s all becoming Scots, the language I was raised with more than a hundred years ago.

  I’m smiling now, I can read this, it’s enchanted so that only the Fae can read it.

  “Where with you of coven blood have come upon this covenant, be it known the words of our agreement.” I read to the others. “Here all is set forth as an ending of the Fae wars, witnessed by death itself,” I hesitate before translating the next words… “embodied here by the most august couple of Pulania, the Daughter of Dust, and Samael, the Bringer of Death.”

  I’m leaning on the desk holding the document, and staring somewhere far away. Pulania? My Pulania? “And Samael?” I say aloud.

  “That’s the angel of death.” Gil replies.

  I look at her. “What?”

  “The angel of death, Samael.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Gil sighs. “My family is Egyptian, we know about the angel of death, he took from us the first born male of every household.”

  “That’s from the Bible, isn’t it?” Susan pipes up.

  Gil looks at her and nods, “And from other writings. The sons and daughters of Bast have remembered that day.” She’s talking about the temple priests that she’s descended from.

  Samael, the angel of death? And then it strikes me.

  “I saw him.”

  “What?” Susan and Gil ask in unison. They’re both staring at me.

  “Well, at least, I think I did. I think that was the guy I could see when Mrs. Leslie died. He had wings, big black ones, and he took Mrs. Leslie’s spirit from her body. She waved at me, she seemed happy.” I’m rambling a bit. “And he winked at me.” I shiver at the memory of the last part, it’s a bit more unnerving now, knowing who he probably was.

  I shake my head, and try to concentrate on the document for a bit longer, but all the rest is as I’d memorised it from the copies I’d seen, apart from the signatures of those who had made the pact, and none of those names meant anything more than a history lesson to me. “You bastard, Master.” It had been the start he had wanted me to see. The bastard.

  Chapter 24: Truths

  We’re sitting outside of Pulania’s. The sun is out, which is odd for Edinburgh, and it’s not too bad a day for the middle of winter. There’s also no snow on the ground, it’s dry, so we’re having an impromptu picnic with fish and chips from a local shop. I want to go in and talk to Pulania, but I need to sort my thoughts out first. I still don’t understand what all this has to do with Susan. Maybe it has nothing to do with her, maybe Master just thought I should know a bit more about Samael?

  No. I shake my head, I’m sure that’s not it. Susan is involved somehow. I didn’t need to know who the heck Samael was at all if it was just a weapon to use against Pulania, no there’s something deeper I have to work out here. I just don’t know what it is.

  Susan and Gil are staring at me, my face is probably showing all sorts of emotion. My ‘inner turmoil’ is playing out. “I want to go in and talk with her, but I’m not sure I’m ready for it.” I take a couple more chips but just keep staring at the front of the stone mansion that is Pulania’s home. I’m biting the inside of my lip, and my grimace is enough to turn day into night.

  “I’ve had enough chips.” G
il picks herself up and goes off towards Pulania’s front door.

  My eyebrows have plucked up, she’s surprised me again, she does that all the time. Whatever she’s about to do, I know I can trust her to do it. But then she goes inside, and I’m not so sure.

  After a few moments Gil and Pulania come out into the front yard, Pulania’s arms are wrapped around herself and she’s staring at the ground. She’s avoiding looking at us. She wanders over and sits down to join our picnic, then finally, she looks up at me. There are dark circles around her eyes.

  “So you’ve seen the covenant.” It’s a statement, not a question. She’s still got her arms crossed, and I don’t like that snippy tone. Two can play at that.

  I cross my arms, and spend a moment looking down my nose at her. “Yes, we have.”

  I don’t need to say anything more, I just have to keep the look of disapproval going.

  “I can read your mind, Amura.” Oh, damn, she’s smirking at me. Well take this.

  “So you and the angel of death were a couple.”

  Ooo, now that worked, her eyes just popped open as wide as wide can be.

  “Ummm, yeah, I guess I’d forgotten that was written there.”

  “You’re only supposed to be a little older than me, Pulania, how can you have been witness to the covenant? It was over a thousand years ago.”

  Time for truths.

  “Humph, I guess it is,” Pulania answers my thought. Damn, how does she pull things out of my mind like that?

  “Do you remember when you were a little girl, Amura?” She’s leaning forward and she’s put her hand on my arm.

  I have to think for a bit, it was a long time ago. “I wasn’t a little girl, I was… older. I don’t remember being very little.”

  “No.” She leans back on her haunches. “I had to take those memories from you, to protect you. Do you remember when we joined the coven?”

  Those are my earliest memories. “Yes, I do, I was a girl, but not so young.”

  “You were about 14… to look at.”

  Oookay. She’s letting that sink in for a bit. “What exactly are you saying?”

  She’s just bitten the front of her lip.

  “You mean… you mean… I was older?”

  She’s nodding her head.

  “How? How much older?”

  She’s crying, there are tears running down Pulania’s cheeks.

  “How much older, Pulania?”

  She’s wiping her eyes, she can’t look at me.

  “You’re hundreds of years old, Amura,” her voice was shaky as she said that, she peeked at me, but she’s squeezed her eyes up now. She’s breaking down.

  Oh, my god, I can’t take that in. How can I be hundreds of years old? I’m only a hundred and fourteen.

  I reach out to Pulania, and put my hand on her to comfort her. “I’m only a very young witch, I’m not that old.”

  Pulania, is going hysterical. In between gulps of air, and wails of what I can only take as remorse, she coughs out words that sound like “You’re not a witch.”

  I’m not sure I heard right, I think that’s what she said. I just sit there for a while, patting Pulania, and staring off into nothing. I’m only a hundred and fourteen.

  Chapter 25: Witches?

  Then it hits me. I pull Pulania up and force her to look right at me. “Are you my mother?”

  I know I had come to the coven with Pulania, but I had no memory before that. She’d just told me that I had dark magik and she would look after me. She always had. Why hadn’t I seen this before? We even look alike.

  She’s still hysterical, so I give her a slight shake, trying to get her attention. “Are you my mother, Pulania?” I say a bit more forcefully.

  I think she heard that, she’s calming down a bit.

  “You are, you are my mother.” And I can’t help myself, I break out into a huge grin as she’s nodding her head in a bewildered but enthusiastic yes. I hug her, my mother. My best friend Pulania, is my mother!

  We just spend the next ten or fifteen minutes rocking back and forth together, as Susan and Gil watch on. “I hope you’re wearing knickers right now.” I eventually whisper into her ear. It’d just be weird if she isn’t.

  She chuckles, and whispers back, “I… I might be.” Hmmm, I take that to mean no. We are so going to Victoria’s Secret when there’s a chance, I’m not having a mother running around in miniskirts with no knickers on. “It’s an ancient Scot thing, Amura, you’ve got to remember, I’m over a thousand years old… knickers, are, well… new.”

  “We’re going shopping someday soon.”

  Then I push Pulania back.

  “What do you mean, I’m not a witch?”

  Pulania blinks her eyes, she’s under control again now, and there’s a smirk there, but it’s hooked on the end of a smile.

  “We’re not witches, Amura, we never were.”

  I still do a double take, even though that was sort of the answer I was expecting.

  “Then what are we?”

  “You’re something different to me, Amura, you take after me, but you also take after your father. Have you seen yourself in a mirror in the last day or so?”

  “That’s a strange question to ask?”

  “But you haven’t, have you? Go look at yourself in the hall mirror, we’ll be here when you’re ready.”

  I have to look at a mirror? What does she mean? But she nods towards the house, so I get up and make my way there.

  When I go inside, the first thing I notice is that the torture chamber is gone, and Ardan is sitting on the floor playing video games. What the…? Okay, have to ask about that one. He’s too absorbed to notice me, which is fine, cause I have no idea what I’d say to him. Hey, how was the torture? I see you’re chilling now.

  The second thing I notice is something very dark when I look in the hall mirror. It’s not that big a mirror, but there are shadows around me. What the ficketty feck are those? Wait a second, I move off to the side to see the end of one of the two shadows that I can see in the mirror, and then I do the same thing on the other side. “Holy crap!!!”

  I absolutely squeal in the largest voice I can! Poor Arden jumps a mile, but I leave him behind as I race out the door.

  “You can see them!” I scream at Pulania. I’m literally bouncing up and down with glee.

  “Can you see them, Gil?”

  Pulania puts her hand on my shoulder to stop my jumping. Gil just looks at me like I’ve gone mad. I guess it must seem like I have.

  “She can’t see them, Amura. You’ve been given gifts. I saw them when you came and told me that Susan is a daughter of Gaea.”

  Whoops.

  “I’m a daughter of what?” Susan asks.

  Pulania and I both swing our heads around to Susan.

  “Whoops,” Gil verbalises.

  “Shite, does the world end now?” I look around, but heaven isn’t collapsing in on us.

  “No,” Pulania pats my shoulder (she seems to do that a lot, now that she’s my mother) “she can know what she is, believe me. I can tell you’re worried about magikal repercussions, but, in this case, there aren’t any.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I’m also a daughter of Gaea, Amura, I’m the Daughter of Dust.”

  “Didn’t see that one coming,” Gil smirks, as my jaw drops open… again.

  “Shite.” Is my only reaction.

  “Helllooo, still here.” Having given us a second or two, Susan starts waving her hand in front of Pulania and my faces. I’m just staring at Pulania in shock. “Don’t know what a daughter of Gaea is.”

  ***

  We sit Susan down and explain her heritage to her. It takes a while, and at the end of it, I think she is in the same sort of shock I was in.

  “So, Pulania and I are sisters?”

  Wooha, hadn’t thought of that. “Oh my gosh, auntie Susan,” I laugh.

  Pulania just sticks her tongue out at me. “Ignore he
r sweetie, but she’s right, you’re Amura’s aunt, and we are sisters.”

  “And if I die…”

  “The world dies.” The three of us answer in unison.

  “But that’s not going to happen,” I tell Susan. “We might be a bit dysfunctional as far as families go, but we’re going to look after each other from here on in.”

  Chapter 26: Daughter of darkness

  My wings! I’d almost forgotten about those. They’re really hard for me to see in the daylight, but I can see a slight shadow even now. Come to think of it, when we went to school …was that only this morning? Hmmm. When we went to school this morning, I could see slight shadows at my side even then.

  “I can see them because of my true seeing. Can’t I?” I ask Pulania. Susan is talking to Gil off to the side, and I’ve been visibly admiring the shadows around my back.

  “I guess so, your wings may have come out at the same time. What happened to you? How did you come into these powers. I guess they’re just latent, do you think it’s from being in the presence of Susan?”

  “No…”

  “It’s because Gaea came and stole some of her blood,” Gil interrupts.

  “What?” Pulania asks.

  “Gaea came by, grew a few plants, and gave Amura some powers.”

  Now, Pulania’s mouth is open, but as she closes it I can see a slight quiver, and then her hand goes up to her eye. Oh, shite, that’s right Gaea is Pulania’s mother, and it’s probably been a very long time since she’s seen her, if she’s ever seen her at all.

  “She said I was to look after her children, both corrupt and pure.”

  There are tears welling in Pulania’s eyes again. “Did she? Did she, really?”

  “Yes, those were her words.”

  “Well, no guesses about who the corrupt one is,” she giggles through her tears.

  But, I grimace at that. “Why? Why is that? Why are we in a dark coven, Pulania? If you’re a daughter of Gaea, shouldn’t we have been white?”

  “Oh sweetie,” she begins, and her hand brushes some hair from my eyes, “don’t take this the wrong way, but it was because of you.”