The Dark Witch

by Tabitha Scott

  “How many of them?” I ask.

  “Five of the nine.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “Not good at all,” Pulania replies. “Susan’s appointment is on Wednesday, hopefully one of us will still be alive to take her to it.”

  “Bummer if we’re not.”

  Just then, I notice a dark shadow cross the room. I close down angry birds and wait for Samael to coalesce. “He’s here.”

  He looks something like what he did the first time I’d seen him In Mrs. Lesley’s class. Except, he’s wearing a formal suit, with a tie. I guess he’s trying to look his best, though he’s transparent still, so I don’t think Pulania can see him.

  “Can you see him?”

  “No.” Pulania shakes her head. We thought this might happen. He can only really appear in our world when there is death to be collected. My true seeing lets me see a shadow of him in this world, but in reality he’s beyond the veil. We were prepared for this though, hence the white board.

  “What do I say to him?” I ask Pulania.

  “Say hey.”

  I turn to Samael, “hey.” And I give a slight wave. He nods back to me, there’s a bit of a smile on his face.

  “Did Gaea tell you how to get here?” Pulania asks, we have to be sure. He nods his head and points up. I don’t have true hearing, just true seeing, so if he speaks I’m not going to hear what he says.

  “He says yes,” I reply.

  “We’ve got a white board here for you to try and answer with.” I point to the board. I hope he knows what it is. He should, if he’s been paying attention to anything he sees when he’s here in our world.

  He’s actually a good six metres from us, the library, now temporary drawing room, is really quite palatial. If you put some silk wall paper up and threw a few expensive paintings on the wall, it could have given the royal state room a run for its money. As it is some of the book shelves run upwards a good two stories with beautiful old hardwood built into the walls. There’s a hundred plus year old ladder on a runner system to get to the upper shelves. The room has a certain Victorian feel going for it.

  “What are you going to ask him?”

  Pulania looks at me uncertainly. “I don’t know, what do you say after a thousand years? How have you been?”

  “Yeah, good start. How have you been?” I repeat to him.

  Fiery letters streak their way across the white board scorching into the surface the word ‘fine’.

  “Oh hell, that’s ruined that.” I roll my eyes. Pulania is not impressed either. Now we know he hasn’t been paying attention to the world around him.

  I get up and go across to what’s left of the white board, now a smoking hulk with barely enough surface left to spit on. “Look dufus, pay attention, next time, use the marker.” And I quickly dash out the word ‘dufus’ in a little square of unaffected surface. I look at him quite crossly until I get a contrite acknowledgement, and then I wipe the remaining square of board with a rag we had ready.

  “You try it.”

  The marker rises by itself and, in what I can only describe as an ‘unpractised’ scrawl, it writes ‘sorry’.

  “It’s official, I get my smarts from you, Pulania.” I go back and sit beside her on the sofa.

  “Hmm, I would have thought you’d know how to use a whiteboard, Samael,” she calls out to the room.

  Oh great, we’re back to charades, I hate this game. “He’s shrugging, and shaking his head.”

  “You must have seen them?”

  “He’s nodding his head.”

  “Haven’t you seen them being used before?” Pulania asks.

  “He’s thinking, slight shake of head, another shrug.”

  “Okay, well let’s move past that, but really, you should pay more attention to things when you’re down here, there’s a whole world of stuff going on. We’re not going to have an in-depth conversation today. We’ll have to get another whiteboard so we’ll try for a heart to heart another time. Down to brass tacks. Do you know about Susan?”

  “He’s nodding his head,” I relay.

  “Good. Someone in our coven is trying to kill her, we’re planning on confronting her at our Imbolc celebration, tomorrow night. Do you know about that?”

  “He’s shaking his head.”

  “Okay, well, we are. The coven has it’s celebration at Edinburgh Castle. It’ll start at 10:00pm Imbolc eve, and run until morning. There may be many more than one person we have to worry about. Can you be there?”

  “He’s nodding his head again.”

  “Good, that’s more than your Teddy would do.”

  “Yeah, thanks Pulania. And Samael isn’t looking too happy at the mention of Master, either.”

  “Well, there you go, I’ve always said we thought alike.”

  “Humph, he just winked at you.”

  There’s a goofy big grin on Pulania’s face at the moment. It’s at my expense though, so I’m just ignoring it. “Back to the matter at hand, if you don’t mind.”

  “Oh yeah, right, Imbolc.” She looks back across the room to where she imagines Samael to be.

  “He’s over to the right a bit more, in front of that old encyclopedia set,” I tell her.

  “Right. Now here’s the question. Will you be able to help if things get nasty?”

  “He’s staring at the ground.” We wait a minute or so to see if there’s going to be any other response. “He’s trying to mouth something to me, I’m not sure what it is though.”

  Pulania gets up and wipes away the soot from what’s left of the white board. “Try writing it.”

  The marker goes up in the air again, and another scrawl appears. ‘Maybe.’

  “Maybe. Well that’s better than no. Okay, what conditions do you need to have to help us?” Pulania asks.

  “He’s fading away.” I stand up. “He’s gone.”

  Pulania has her arms crossed and looks quite angry. “He probably couldn’t tell us. It’d be another one of those angel things.”

  “Ficketty fecking angels.”

  Chapter 43: Red faces

  We slept in until just after midday having stayed up pretty late last night. The celebrations actually begin today on the thirty first of January, the eve of Imbolc, and run right through until just after sunrise. I think some of the other covens celebrate from just before sunrise, and throughout the day. Mawh, each to their own. Technically, we celebrate the death of the year before Imbolc, the lighter covens probably celebrate the coming of the sun and the onset of spring, or some such.

  Pulania seems in a pretty good mood this morn… this afternoon. I’m not, I’m stuck with plunger coffee, there’s too much to do today, so there isn’t the time for my coffee shop.

  “I saw the little surprise in the washroom, sweetie. I’m so excited!”

  “Huh?” What’s she on about?

  “The test,” she smiles. “It was positive. Congratulations.”

  “What? One of the clap kids isn’t sterile? But what’s that got to do with our washroom?”

  “No sweetie, your pregnancy test. I’m going to be a grandmother.”

  “No you’re not. Or, at least, I haven’t checked to see if you are yet. That wasn’t me.”

  “Well, then who was it?” Pulania asks.

  We look at each other for a second and then in unison we call out “Gil!”

  She was just in the kitchen getting some breakfast.

  “Yeah, what do you want?” she asks at the door between crunches of marmalade toast.

  “Sit down Gil,” Pulania directs.

  Gil does as she’s told, still crunching on her toast. We’re actually in a sitting room just off the kitchen.

  “Is there anything you want to tell us?” I ask.

  She hesitates mid-crunch. “Umm, this marmalade jam is really good?”

  “No, come on. I’m your bestest friend in all the world. You’re my familiar, you have to share.”

  “Okay, it’s really, really
good marmalade jam, we don’t have anything like this in Pennsylvania?”

  Pulania and I look at each other.

  “She either doesn’t know what we mean,” Pulania states the obvious, “or she’s just playing coy.”

  “Hmm, maybe the latter. Come on Gil, out with it, you’re pregnant, aren’t you? Pulania saw the positive test in the washroom. When are you due?”

  Gil has just turned red as a beetroot. “I’m not pregnant, I’m still a virgin.”

  “Really? I thought you and the Raven would have done it by now.”

  “I’m only 17, we’re waiting until I’m of age. He’s a real gentleman that way. We’ve only done some kissing… and stuff. Besides, we’ve only been together a few weeks. I’m not pregnant.”

  “Oh, well that can only mean one thing, I guess.”

  Pulania nods. “There’s only one other female in the house.”

  Pulania and I are on our feet and heading to Susan’s room, Gil is only a step or two behind. We rush upstairs to the hallway where the bedrooms are, and brush open the door to Susan’s room. Whoops. The mound of startled sheets and blankets scrambles for modesty. We’d obviously interrupted something.

  “Hey!”

  But Pulania ignores the yell of protest. “Is that your pregnancy test in the washroom?” she’s got her stern look on, and her arms crossed. She can be pretty intimidating when she wants to be. I wouldn’t be game to question her.

  Susan is looking up from where her sheet is pulled up to cover her naked body. Ardan is looking particularly annoyed, but isn’t game to voice his annoyance to a full throttle Pulania. After a second Susan nods, and raises the sheet to hide a smile, which we can still see at the corners of her eyes.

  “We’ll take that as a yes,” Pulania is actually smiling back.

  “How’s that possible?” I ask aloud. “I mean, she’s probably sterile.”

  “Do you know how far along you are?” Pulania prompts.

  “More than two months, almost three,” she answers.

  “Ah, that explains it. It was from before the demon took Ardan. When was your first time Susan?”

  “About then,” she replies to Pulania.

  Pulania turns to me, “she may still be sterile, but this baby was from their first time together, before the demon took over Ardan. She was already pregnant when the demon infected her, that explains how this happened.”

  We’re all smiles between us. The world has a reprieve. It’s actually a really warm feeling that a new life will be coming into the world. Though, I guess there’s a long way to go yet, and anything could happen between now and his/her birthday.

  “Umm.”

  “Oh yes, sorry.” We fluster around, the realisation of having interrupted a couple having sex finally hitting home.

  “Ah, carry on,” I tell them, as we exit, closing the door behind us. “We’ll see you later for breakfast.” I yell out from the hall. How red are our faces?

  Chapter 44: Imbolc

  We’ve holstered up a waterpistol on to the top of Gil’s thigh. We’re all three of us wearing miniskirts. There are another two small pistols that we’ve slid into her long sleeve top, near her wrists. They’re just held in place by the tightness of the cotton arms. She’s insisted on strapping a water cannon to her back though, and that’s been a bit of a problem.

  “I think if we grow her hair to Susan’s length that will cover the top, then we might be able to hide the rest of it magikally.” It’s a tough call, all the gals at the celebration have different powers, some of them are stronger at some stuff than others, we need to make this disguise really powerful or they’ll see right through it.

  “It helps that we’ve painted it black rather than the fluro colours it originally came in.”

  “Yep, black is the new lime green,” I quip.

  “Are you sure you don’t want a knife, Gil?” I’d feel better if you had one as a fall back.

  “I wouldn’t know what to do with it, if I had it,” she replies to Pulania.

  “I think we’re going to give you one anyway. Everyone there is going to be armed to the hilt. A knife sheaf on your calf is practically a fashion accessory for this gathering.”

  “Yes, be thankful this isn’t Solstice,” I nod to Gil, “for Solstice a calf knife might be about all most of them wear. Not pretty.”

  Gil is practically jumping with excitement. “Stay still, Gil.” Pulania swats her bum in annoyance. “We’re trying to get you ready here, and you’re not helping bouncing around like that.”

  “I can’t help it. It’s my first Imbolc. Will there be other familiars there?” she asks.

  “Yes,” I reply, but we’re going to have to mask your familial scent. You’ll need to stay near us at all times.”

  “I have a familial scent? Ooo, it’s not stinky is it?”

  “Foul as dragon’s breath. Now hold still.” Pulania swats her bum again. She’s putting two fabric ridges along the sides of the water cannon, they look like dragon ridges. It’s a fashion thing from a couple Imbolcs ago. We’re hoping we can get away with it now, as a means of hiding the gun a bit better.

  “I think we should leave her hair blonde,” Pulania suggests. “They’ll be expecting that. They know she’s from a white coven now.

  “Not all white witches have white hair, you know.” Susan comments from the side. “Some of the women in my mother’s coven had brown hair.”

  “Yeah, but we’re going to go with the stereotype for this one. The coven will be expecting it, and you should always give the crowd what they expect. That way they won’t look twice.”

  Susan just shrugs in response.

  “You know, there’s no reason why we can’t have that hair coming right down to her bum. It’s not like any of them have actually seen Susan before, so we can do anything to her we want. The longer hair will hide that gun all the better. We almost wouldn’t need any magik at all.” I suggest.

  “Hmm.” Pulania lengthens the hair, and it almost works. With a bit of magik, it’ll be sweet.

  “High heels, Gil?”

  “Flats,” she replies, probably a wise move, she may need to move fast and she struggles a bit with heels.

  She’s adjusting her bra for the umpteenth time. “I still can’t get used to these bigger boobs, and I’ve got a few more curves on this body. I feel really hot.”

  “Yeah, it’s just as well that Raven isn’t going to be around, otherwise you might not make it to 18.” But then a thought occurs to me. “Oh, he is going to be there, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah, he is.” And there’s a big smile plastered on Gil’s face.

  “Just be careful. Those aren’t your hormones at work, they’re Susan’s. She’s a daughter of Gaea, and that means you’re supercharged with hormones when you take her body,” Pulania explains. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to control yourself?”

  “Ahh…”

  “Susan, can you go up to the washroom. There’s a box of condoms up there. Bring them down, just in case.”

  I can tell Gil is biting back a retort, and the heat is rising in her face, but better safe than sorry. I’ll just put them in her clutch bag when Susan brings them down.

  “So, Ardan,” Pulania, addresses him. We figured since this was Susan’s body rather than Gil’s that he could be in the room while we fixed her up. I’m not sure Gil agreed with that, but whatever.

  “If we don’t come back, you two will be safe in the house. Just stay here. Out there, you won’t know who to trust, and even if we succeed at killing Hexabus and any of her cronies, there’s still a couple of high level demons out there who will want to knock you and Susan off. Maybe some angels too. You can trust Master, but no one else. You’ll only need to go out to get food, and even then I think the garden might provide you a fair bit.”

  “Okay, I can deal with that,” he replies.

  “Good man.”

  “Without you, will the house still be hidden?” I ask Pulania.

 
“Yes, Gaea has tied the house to her daughters, so as long as either Susan or I am alive, it will provide a safe haven. It might even work if it’s just you, sweetie, being a granddaughter and all.”

  Hmm, a nice thought.

  ***

  After another hour or so we were salaciously armed and all tarted up. The castle is actually within easy walking distance, but we’d found a roll for Master to play that was apparently allowable within whatever set of rules he plays with. He was going to be our chauffeur for the night. He could wait for us out at the castle forecourt in case we needed a quick getaway. There’s nothing worse than trying to run along cobbled stone roads in high heels, much better to have a car ready.

  We made our way to the front of the house, where the limo was waiting.

  “Take us around the castle a couple of times please, Master.” We’d cracked a bottle of champagne open, we were in no hurry. Besides, it was traditional to arrive at the Imbolc celebration a bit sloshed. Why break with tradition? It would seem strange to the others if we arrived stone cold sober.

  When we finally got out of the car and headed through the castle gates, Teddy called the Ravens to let them know we were in. We’d asked them to stay well back so that they weren’t spotted by the other coven members, some of whom would be arriving by air. Everyone would be there by about 10:30ish, after that they could close in and wait for our signal.

  It was actually a little ways to the hall that the Imbolc celebration was held at. A number of gothic looking girls followed a set of signs ‘Imbolc, this way’. But those weren’t for us. They were for a pretend coven carrying out their own Imbolc celebration, which distracted any curiosity seekers from ours. We followed the signs saying ‘Daughters in waiting to the King.’ The King being James VI, or at least, what remained of him.

  We came into our hall, which had most of the coven already in attendance, though there was still some time before anything official began. To an outsider it might have seemed that it was a gathering of older and middle aged women in fairly conservative evening clothes. That was compulsion at work, it was actually a group of old sluts dressed like tarts and ready to do evil doing at its worst. We were definitely the youngest of the bunch, by a long shot. A few familiars were running around the place too, some crows, a big raven, and some cats and rats. Nobody from outside the coven would have been able to see those at all.