The Dagger

by Marieke Lexmond

  ‘I’m—’

  Tara cuts her off. ‘She’s my granddaughter.’

  ‘O, I can see that.’ His eyes twinkle. He moves on and tries to touch Freya’s cheek, but she steps back. Now, a wild laugh escapes him. ‘I’ve always liked you Freya. Such a feisty name for a feisty lady.’ He only glances at Ron but leaves him alone.

  ‘One memory and the way is yours.’ He leans around the rest and looks at Tara.

  ‘No payment. You promised me last time I could pass for free.’

  In an instant, he’s right in front of Tara. ‘You already used that pass. Don’t try to trick me, you won’t like it.’

  ‘I would never trick you.’

  ‘Ha! I know you and that nasty sister of yours.’

  ‘Give him a memory, and we can go on our way.’ Says Freya impatient.

  ‘See, Feisty agrees with me. You’re an old lady now, I’m sure you can spare me a juicy memory that you won’t miss.’

  ‘I will not give you any of my memories, and none of my children or grandchildren will do either. I can promise you some herbs from my garden.’

  ‘Don’t insult me! Pay or stay.’ With a snap, he disappears.

  ‘Where did he go?’ Asks Bridget, while she looks around. Freya is frozen, Ferrymaster is now seven inches tall and stands on Freya’s shoulder.

  ‘For the last time, pay or stay.’

  ‘No memories, what else do you fancy?’

  ‘You can take that door.’ He points his tiny finger at the door next to Tara. I’ll take her.’ Before anybody can say anything, the Ferrymaster and Freya disappear.

  Ron frantically looks around ‘No, no, no, no!’

  ‘Come back, you little shit. I did not agree to that!’ shouts Tara. Laughter trails along the hallway, but the Ferrymaster doesn’t return.

  Tara looks from the door to the others. What an impossible choice, going after Freya or Lucy. Damn her sister for putting her in this position. The others watch Tara, waiting. She’s clearly torn and doesn’t know what to do.

  ‘I’ll go after Freya.’ Says Ron while he looks over the railing. Tara grabs his arm. ‘Ron…’

  ‘We can’t leave Freya, and we can’t leave Lucy. I’ll take care of Freya. You take care of the rest. Don’t make this in vain.’ Tara looks at her only son and sees his determination. ‘You’re not called Oberon for nothing. Be careful.’ She kisses him on the cheek. Ceri slides next to Ron. ‘I’ll go with Ron.’ Tara hesitates to say something. Without further delay, Ron jumps over the balustrade followed by Ceri. With a loud splash, they disappear under the surface.

  Bridget is shocked. What just happened here? Tara pulls on her arm and drags her two granddaughters to the door. ‘Come, we need to do our share.’

  She opens the door, and they step out. The wind is blowing furiously, sand swirling all around them, and that temporarily blinds them. When there is a lull in the wind, they finally see that they’re on the top of a hill, north of Santa Fe.

  NEW MEXICO

  Lucy has felt Tara arrive. She is standing on top of ‘Winged Rock’ and has never felt so alive. All her nerve endings are alight with the power of Air. The power focusses her clear thinking, it has never been so easy to see the solutions to her problems. She knew Air ruled the mind, but never in her wildest dreams imagined it would amplify her thoughts. Her hands move and weave around and forming one tornado after another. With her mind, she steers them towards Santa Fe. She had waited for Tara to arrive before she would do some actual damage. Let’s test that moral mind of her sister. With one sweeping move, she sends three tornados down the plains.

  Near Santa Fe, Tara struggles to focus. Bridget and Maeve have a lot of questions, but there’s no time for that now. ‘Quiet! Maeve on my left, Bridget on my right. We need to focus. Put your hand on my shoulder and whatever happens, don’t let go.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Bridget asks, suspicious as always.

  ‘There is no time for questions. Look!’ Tara points towards the fast approaching storms.

  ‘Right.’ Bridget and Maeve position themselves on Tara’s side. One hand on her shoulder. For a moment they look at each other, and no words are needed. They’re worried. Tara centers herself and throws out her feeling. Ripples of her witch sense flow from her through the air to see if she can pinpoint Lucy’s location. ‘Be ready, I’m going to combine our power. So, DON’T LET GO!’

  ‘Do we need to do something?’ asks Maeve.

  ‘Relax and let me in.’ Before she can ask another question, she feels Tara’s power knocking at her door. She can’t find a better word for it. Tara’s power glides around her Aura. Maeve hears Bridget take in a sharp breath, it will be harder for her to surrender, she never liked that. Maeve drops her shield, and she’s engulfed by Tara’s power. Every witch has an affinity with an element. Tara’s is Earth, but the power of the Wand gives her the rule of fire. For both Maeve and Bridget, it has always been fire. The power recognizes her. ‘Drop your shield, Bridget!’ shouts Tara over the wind. ‘NOW!’ Bridget closes her eyes and imagines her shield dissolving. She wasn’t ready for what follows. The warm power of fire flares up in her. Tara seems to take charge of the flow of energy. Sharing, however, goes both ways and Bridget can’t help but throw out a little probe herself to learn more about Tara’s power. Tara shoots her a look, but there is nothing she can do. Tara needs all her attention if she wants to be able to divert this disaster. All three women focus on the coming storm.

  Tara can’t use fire as Air and Fire complement each other, and she doesn’t want to get an out of control fire. Quickly she riffles through her options. The tornados are terribly close, and the roofs of some houses are being caught up in the funnel. Without hesitation she slams a gigantic dome around the storms, Bridget is in awe. She would never think something like this would be possible. But the enormous dome cuts off all air supply, and the tornados vanish.

  ‘Wow! Gran.’

  ‘Don’t get too excited, this will only work once.’

  She’s right. Lucy fumes but is already making a new spell. This time, it’s not as contained as a tornado but more like a storm, with no clear direction where it is coming from. Tara in the meantime feels along the land. As her affinity is naturally with the earth, she follows the pull of power through the soil and is drawn to the Winged Rock on which Lucy stands. With a snap of her finger, she breaks off three branches of a nearby tree. The makeshift brooms dangle in front of the three women. ‘We need to get close to Lucy, we can’t stop everything she’s going to throw at us. If we want to save these people, we need to take the fight to her.’

  ‘We will have to let you go if we want to fly.’

  ‘Yes. Go low, go fast. Stay close to each other and as soon as we land, touch me and the bond will be back.’

  As if on cue, they let go, leap onto their brooms and follow Tara. Soon enough the storm that Lucy sends hit them. It becomes near impossible to fly into the wind. The brooms swing and sway wildly. Maeve has the hardest time, her broom tips and she starts to fall off, barely hanging on. She dangles twenty feet above the ground. A scream escapes her. Bridget tries to turn to help her, a mistake. She loses balance, and her broom is making a dive towards the ground. On her way down, she grazes Maeve and grabs her. Not sure if this improves the situation, she pulls Maeve behind her on the broom, just like they did when they were young, but that didn’t stop the nose dive. The ground quickly comes closer and closer. Bridget pulls on the tip of the branch with all she’s got. Just before they hit the ground the broom tips up and she manages to drag them across the dirt to a grinding halt. They have lost sight of their Grandma. Shit. The storm howls, and it’s hard not to fall over. Clinging to each other for support they find shelter in a cave. ‘We need to find Grandma!’ yells Bridget in Maeve’s ear.

  Unlike the girls, Tara does use her magic and manages to cleave the air and mo
ves steadily towards Lucy. She will miss the extra power the girls provide, but she has to trust her skills and experience. After all, Lucy can only have her powers for about twenty-four hours. And what choice does she have? She partly created this mess.

  The storm has reached Santa Fe and is tearing it apart. Roofs fly off buildings. Anything loose in the streets is airborne. Cars topple over, and powerlines break. People scream, sirens sound, the city is in turmoil.

  Tara needs to hurry up, she might be seventy-five, but she can still fly a broom. Pretty soon she sees Tsé Bit’a’í. Its jagged top is sticking up all alone in the flat desert around it. It’s been sacred ground to the Navajo, and they will not be pleased that two witches are going to battle on top of it. Another mishap that will add to her karma list. Lucy is standing on its highest point; she’ll have the advantage here as the ‘Winged Rock’ is guarded by the element of air. Lucy chose her spot well. No surprise there, her sister has always been a formidable witch and very knowledgeable. If only she had half the patience for research. Ah well, she has other qualities, and hopefully, some that will be useful now. Time to focus, Lucy is waiting for her with open arms, literally. In her head, she searches for the protection spell that will let her land and be immediately protected. The rocks don’t look too inviting, Tara slows down and chooses a place about a hundred feet away from Lucy. Tara drops her protection from the wind and immediately slams a shield in place. Just in time to deflect a fireball that Lucy slings at her.

  ‘Lucy, please, stop! These poor people,’ shouts Tara.

  Lucy only shakes her head and bombards Tara’s shield with a series of icicles. Tara can’t help but duck, her shield is veering inside where the icicles hit. A small tornado funnel picks Tara up. She’s safe within her shield but helpless against the power of air. Lucy maneuvers Tara closer and unceremoniously drops her sister on the ground. Unfortunately, Tara’s shield is not a bouncy ball, so she can’t help it when a little cry of pain escapes her as her butt hits the rock.

  ‘Sucks getting older, doesn’t it?’ Lucy gives her a compassionate smile.

  Tara heaves herself up. ‘Please Lucy, I’m here. Kill the storm. There is no need for innocent people to get hurt.’

  Lucy shrugs. ‘You should have come when I asked.’

  Tara doesn’t answer that she knows however she answers that question her sister will twist it the other way. Silence is generally a good choice in these situations.

  ‘Finally, I have what I deserve. You’ve been holding out though on the amount of power you acquire.’ Lucy walks around her, while she absentmindedly fingers the Dagger. ‘I guess you didn’t bring the Wand.’

  ‘I can’t believe you killed a fellow witch. Karma will—’

  Lucy lashes out, and Tara needs to reinforce her shield not to get squashed.

  ‘Did you at least bring my book?’

  ‘I don’t have it.’ Which technically is true, she’s never even seen the book.

  ‘It is mine, and I will get it back. I saw your daughter and that other young pitiful witch. Give it to me, and I will let you go.’ If only the smile that Lucy was giving her was only remotely genuine, but she seems consumed with the rational power of air, the ruler of the conscience.

  ‘I said, I don’t have it.’

  Lucy turns around and holds her hands up to the sky, she mumbles a spell and the storm in the distance lashes down on Santa Fe with renewed fury.

  ‘I DON’T HAVE IT! STOP IT!’ Tara feels the power of fire stir within her. Fire rules action and movement. Time to put an end to this. Being forced to come through Fairy, has now given Tara an idea. She pushes fire and earth beneath Lucy’s feet. The rock beneath her turns into Lava, which Tara separates into a doorway into Fairy. Before Lucy is aware of what’s happening, Tara rushes forward and simply pushes her sister through the door. With a snap of her finger it closes, but not before Tara sees the surprise on Lucy’s face. As Lucy disappears, the wind suddenly stops, and it’s eerily quiet. Tara sags down to the ground. For a moment she lets the feelings of loss and despair wash over her. She always thought her sister still had good in her, but no longer. It seems as if the power of air compliments her cunning side. She clearly has no conscience. Has she just been too naive to see it? Lucy has actually killed people. She needs to warn the others. Her feeling tells her, that Lucy will not stop with the Dagger. Now her granddaughters land gracefully on the rocks and rush over. Maeve reaches her first while Bridget checks her surroundings. ‘Is it over?’

  ‘She’s gone, for now.’

  ‘Then we need to go, there are some witches down below, she was not alone. Can you fly?’ Asks Bridget, while Maeve helps her up.

  ‘Yes. At least far enough to get out of here.’ Without further delay, they help Tara onto a broom and fly off.

  PART 5

  SIX OF CUPS ‘NOSTALGIA’

  ‘All things truly wicked start from innocence.’

  —Ernest Hemmingway

  FAIRY

  Ceri is wondering why she volunteered for this mission. Fairy is lovely, tempting and terrifying at the same time. She and Ron had plunged through the water surface on blind faith, knowing they will end up somewhere else, and that it would transport them to another part of this unpredictable land unharmed. It did… although this is not what they had in mind. Desert dunes as far as the eyes can see. The hot sun is beating down on them, and they immediately start to sweat. No shelter and no water, but huge wormlike creatures ridden by red skinned people, wearing goggles and top hats and what looks like Victorian frock coats, which must be impossibly hot in this weather. They stand back to back, so they have their whole surroundings covered. You can use magic in Fairy, but you will attract attention, and it’s frowned upon. On top of that, you’re never sure if a particular spell is working or not. Always a gamble and you want to avoid attention at all costs. However, that seems to be too late now. Ceri turns to Ron. ‘One of these worm things is coming our way. Do we run or stay?’ Once again, they look around, running is useless. There is nowhere to go.

  Warily they wait for the creature and its rider to come closer and closer. It’s even bigger than they anticipated. The worm comes to a halt next to them. Its skin is leathery and smells like cow poo. Ron gags involuntarily. Ceri tries to breathe shallowly. The Red Rider bends forward, he looks tiny, but he must be at least fifty feet up.

  ‘Strangers in a strange land. State your purpose, and I will name my price.’ The voice is raspy and dry as the sand. At least they can understand it, and for now, he’s friendly enough.

  Ceri looks at Ron, here we go. Ceri takes in a deep breath and shouts ‘We’re looking for the Ferrymaster.’

  ‘He’s not here.’ Great, they had seen that for themselves. Being patient and very specific is vital in Fairy.

  ‘Can you tell us where we can find the Ferrymaster?’

  ‘Yes.’ That is actually better than they could hope for. But it can’t be this easy to find Freya.

  ‘What are you going to offer me?’ The Red Rider must be some kind of fairy. That is the most dangerous part, the bargain. In a flash, the Red Rider dismounts and stands before them. Without thinking they take several steps back. This makes the red fairy smile, his teeth are pointed and razor sharp, and they look like they’re in desperate need of a dentist. Ceri grimaces, and subtly puts her hand on Ron’s arm. She hopes he’ll get it that she wants to handle this. For once, he doesn’t argue or try to be the man of the family. She understands it must be frustrating to be surrounded by so many headstrong women, that he needs to exert his manhood every now and then. She’s grateful he keeps his mouth shut.

  Without so much as a glance at Ron, she steps forward and curtsies to the fairy. ‘Dear fairy lord, we’re humble humans in search of our sibling. They told us to look for the Ferrymaster.’

  ‘He has no power here. We don’t care about your mission, but if you want to cross ou
r land, you have to pay.’

  ‘We mean no disrespect. Please name your price.’

  ‘You can leave your slave. A year’s work and you can come and pick him up.’

  Ron is ready to open his mouth, but Ceri slides in front of him.

  ‘He’s my brother, so that’s too steep of a price.’

  ‘Why does he let you do the talking?’ The Red Rider cocks his head. His neck bones make an uncomfortable cracking sound.

  ‘He’s a mute.’ Ceri looks at her feet as witches are the worst liars and the fairy can surely see that in her eyes. Ron chokes, he’s surprised by his little sister. He has always felt very protective of her. She was wild and irresponsible, but now he realizes he never really treated her as an adult, although she now has children of her own. With renewed interest he lets her handle the situation.

  The Red Rider bursts out laughing. ‘A month then?’

  ‘No sorry, I need him. But I did bring this.’ From her pocket, Ceri produces a robust ring with a malachite stone in a beautiful setting. Its green waves stand strong like the desert they stand in. The rider bends forward with a twinkle in his alien eyes. Ceri tries to step back, but a claw-like hand snaps around her wrist. This time Ron steps forward, ready to attack.

  ‘It’s nothing.’ With a shove, he pushes Ceri backward into Ron.

  ‘Don’t lie to me Rider. This stone is the Transformer. It will bring you riches. Not of money but the power of the mind and heart.’

  The rider cocks his head to the other side with another crackle of the bones.

  ‘I like you. Maybe you want to stay?’ Ceri holds the ring forward. For a moment they size each other up. Then the rider makes a bow to Ceri. ‘I’ll take your offer. We can take you as far as the Green City. Our protection ends there.’

  ‘Agreed.’ Says Ceri and awkwardly clasps his huge arm to seal the deal. Without further delay, they find themselves on a comfortable seat on top of a giant worm. They’re committed now. She hopes Freya is okay, and that they will find her in time.