The Enchantress (Wicked Book 1)

by Blaire Hammond

  Caspian moved away, grasping a hold of his towel and wiping his face and neck, watching as Drew hastily packed the equipment up.

  ‘What do you think of Laura?’ Caspian asked, crossing the room to help.

  Drew shrugged.

  Raising an eyebrow, he pressed on, ‘she’s brave, I’ll give her that. I don’t know how she has managed to pull herself together after losing her father only a few days ago.’

  ‘I guess we all deal with death in different ways.’

  ‘Still, she must be a mess inside. I feel sorry for her. Not knowing what has happened to her mum, especially since her dad is gone. That must be the hardest part.’

  Drew looked up at that, his eyes glazing over as if in a daydream, ‘yeah. It would be hard,’ he said, ‘she is a strong girl. Back at her house, when I found her, she was holding herself together well.’ His head dipped back down and he could hear Caspian chuckling to himself.

  Drew glanced sideways at him, ‘what is it?’

  Caspian looked up, his cheeks dimpled with a smile, ‘she is very curious too. Rightly so, considering she is only just learning about us, but still. It’s very amusing watching her as she takes everything in.’

  Drew paused in the middle of his packing, his eyes flickering away from Caspian’s, ‘I can imagine she would want to know everything she can so she’s prepared to find her mother. It would be very hard.’

  Caspian lifted the basket of weapons from the ground, ‘yeah it really is hard, I’m still learning things that you all know already,’ he said as he headed for the door, ‘I’ll take these back, see you later,’ he called over his shoulder as he moved towards the stairs.

  Drew called back a good bye, ignoring the pang of jealously that hit him.

  After realising that sitting around moping in the library wouldn’t do her any good, Laura had retreated to her bedroom to apply the cream Stella had given her, finding that the cut was indeed healing well, and relax before meeting Drew.

  She was surprisingly excited about training, and she observed her watch anxiously as time moved slowly, until finally the hand ticked over to 9:50am.

  She headed out into the hallway ready to track down Drew, when she noticed that Grace was making her way along the passage to her bedroom with a pile of un-folded and crinkled clothes in her arms. She dropped a shirt from the top and the pile swayed slightly as she tried to grab it before it hit the ground. She managed to hook it onto her foot, and was left hopping about to stay upright.

  ‘Damn,’

  ‘Oh here, let me help you,’ Laura said, grabbing the shirt from Grace’s foot, allowing her to regain her balance.

  ‘Thank you. These are some of my older clothes, they should fit you. And on the bottom is a set of old training gear you can change into. They are much more comfortable, trust me,’ she said as Laura opened the door to her room allowing Grace to drop the pile onto the bed. Grace opened the draws to the dresser and the two of them began folding the clothes and putting them away.

  ‘Thank you for these, I really appreciate you lending them to me,’ Laura said.

  Grace waved it off with a smile, ‘oh, don’t mention it! You can keep them. They don’t fit any me more anyway.’

  They fell into a comfortable silence as they finished putting the clothes away, leaving the training gear on the bed.

  ‘I’ll leave you to get changed. My brother will work you hard, so be prepared.’

  ‘So Drew is your brother! I thought I could see some resemblance between you two.’

  Grace looked grim, ‘yes we are quite alike in looks and actions, but personality-wise, we are very different,’ she frowned as she shook her head, ‘he is incredibly…distant these days.’

  Laura’s eyes flickered up to Grace’s face, ‘whys that?’

  ‘Drew was in a pretty dark place when we first came to the manor. He blamed himself for a lot of things. Part of him still does, I think,’ she headed for the door, ‘a word of advice,’ Laura looked back at Grace, registering her kind tone, ‘don’t challenge him. Trust me, you’ll regret it the next day. I sure did.’

  She allowed a smile to creep onto her face, ‘I will remember that, thanks.’

  Grace laughed lightly, closing the door and leaving Laura to change into the training gear.

  They were typically black. A long-sleeve top, padding in the elbows and along the forearms, a strong leather vest that fastened tightly at the front and plain army-like pants with thick padding in the knees and calves, completed the ensemble. The clothes fit well, and along with the black boots Grace had also dropped off, Laura felt ready for training.

  She took her leave, wandering down the hall, searching for someone who could point her in the direction of the weapons room. She found Leo reading by the fireplace in the Library, and knocked lightly on the door so not to startle him.

  He glanced up with a smile, ‘I see the training gear fits well.’

  Laura glanced down, ‘yes, it’s surprisingly comfortable.’

  ‘It suits you. Are you sure you’re up for this, though?’ He asked kindly.

  Laura gave him a reassuring nod, ‘I am. I need to be. If I want to find my mother then I need to be able to fight. I doubt that these Wicked will go down without one.’

  Leo’s eyes flickered to hers and he gave a short nod of agreement, ‘all right then.’

  ‘I was wondering if you could show me where the weapons room is?’

  ‘Of course!’ He stood, placing the book on the mantel piece and hurried past her, ‘follow me.’

  Leo led her back down the hall and out into the main entrance. To her right was a huge double doorway. Opposite that, was a flight of stairs and beside the stairs was a small corridor that lead to yet another door.

  ‘In here is the weapons room,’ Leo said, leading her to the door and opening it for her.

  Drew was already in there, dressed in the same uniform as herself. He was sharpening a blade that was a good meter long. Laura was horrified.

  ‘Ace! You made it,’ Drew said grinning.

  ‘Take it easy on her Drew,’ Leo said sternly. He turned to Laura, ‘good luck.’ He honestly looked afraid for her.

  She gave him a assuring smile, then, he left, closing the door behind him.

  ‘So, where should we start?’ Laura asked, eyes sweeping across the rows of weapons.

  Daggers and knives of all kinds, swords of every size, throwing stars, chains, whips, bow’s and arrows, shields, and the most frightening of all, guns, covered every inch of space.

  ‘Keen are we?’ Drew was still grinning as he leaned against the bench.

  ‘You’re enjoying this aren’t you?’

  ‘More than you know.’

  ‘All right get on with it then,’ Laura said.

  ‘We will actually be spending the morning in the training room. I just wanted to see your face once you saw this place.’

  Laura glared at him. Drew beamed back.

  Leo passed a worried looking Stella stalking down the hallway, and made a sharp U-turn, following her to their office.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ He questioned her, closing the door behind him

  Stella spun around to face him.

  ‘This,’ she thrust a piece of paper into Leo’s hands with a huff.

  Leo removed his glasses from his pocket and placed them on the bridge of his nose.

  ‘Really Leo, that is truly the best way to break those glasses and we will have to buy yet another pair.’

  Leo looked up at Stella through his lenses.

  She waved a hand, ‘sorry. Just read.’

  Leo read the page, and slowly his blood began to boil, as Estella’s obviously already had.

  ‘How could they be so foolish?’ He was far from happy, ‘what is this?’ he pointed to a line in the letter, ‘not high on our priorities… looks like just another accident… mortals always have affairs with our kind…’ he looked up from the paper and shook his head, furious, ‘in the past year the death of pr
egnant Warlocks has gone up by 40% and at the same time the mother of the one girl who survived just this situation is kidnapped and the father murdered, but we are expected to just brush it off as a ‘strange’ coincidence? They can never be bothered to really take interest in a case that appears to require too much dedication.’

  ‘What do we do now? They’re searching for Cara, but they will never trust what we say until it’s too late and then Laura will never forgive us. Not to mention the horrors that could be unleashed if they actually manage to get their hands on the girl.’

  Leo tore the letter in half, ‘not if I have anything to do with it. Later we will go back to her farm and investigate. Surely there will be clues.’

  Stella huffed, ‘hope so.’

  Laura followed Drew up the staircase, entering through the door behind him. When he finally moved out of her view, her eyes widened. She was standing in one enormous room that covered the whole top floor.

  The training room.

  The floors were wooden, the walls and ceiling white, and the entire wall opposite them was covered by tinted glass windows. Laura could see the farmland reaching out for miles, winding roads separating the grassy land. Pulling her eyes from the window, she noticed the training equipment around the room. Dummies in one corner, gym equipment in another and target practice complete with bullseye’s and a wooden board set up in the third corner. In the last was the only separate room in the entire space. The gun room, Drew told her. Completely bullet and sound proof.

  ‘Wow,’ breathed Laura.

  ‘I know. Leo and Stella really went all out with this place.’

  ‘Why bother training with old fashioned swords when you own guns? That surly is more effective?’ She finally asked after sweeping her eyes across the area another three times.

  Drew shrugged, ‘only silver can kill a Wicked, and only gold can kill an Enchanted. That’s why our swords, daggers and other weapons are all silver. Silver and gold bullets are hard to make, the weight and entity of the metal doesn’t react well with the gunpowder, so they’re hard to come by, making blades more practical.’

  ‘Wouldn’t they be heavy though?’

  ‘Oh they are heavy, indeed, however we train to endure and wield the mass. I believe the fact that they react with our being helps ease the weight somewhat.’

  She nodded in understanding, eyes still wandering, ‘so… how was training with Caspian?’

  He eyed her suspiciously, ‘good, why do you ask?’

  She shrugged, ‘just wondering. What did you guys do? Duel or something.’

  ‘Yes, why?’

  Laura choked on a laugh, taken by surprise.

  ‘What?’ He frowned, drifting to a cupboard and removing two towels, slinging them over a hook.

  ‘Duelling? We aren’t duelling are we?’

  ‘God no, way to advanced stuff for you. Until you reach Caspian and my level – which I doubt will be any time soon – you will be learning the basics.’

  ‘Don’t hold back on me…’

  ‘Okay we will be starting on the floor.’ He said, his deep green eyes watching her.

  ‘On the floor?’ Laura questioned, confused, as she edged towards him.

  ‘Yes, on the floor.’ He moved towards the middle of the room, ‘I thought it would be best if I teach you defence first. Calming yourself enough to think clearly during an attack is very important.’

  She gave a nod of understanding.

  ‘All right, first thing you need to know about defence is that the attacker will want to get the upper hand. Usually, this will be through overpowering you, by shoving you onto the ground, hindering the use of your arms and legs, or disarming you. You have to do everything you can to stay on your feet. Considering your lack of muscle-‘

  She scoffed, ‘harsh,’

  ‘-once you are on the ground, there will be no getting back up, so your best chance is to…basically not be tackled. Now I am going to throw a punch at you. Don’t worry it won’t be a hard one, but I want you to block it.’

  Laura nodded, raising her clenched fists up in front of her chest, ‘I’m ready.’

  Drew threw the punch and Laura reached out, grabbing his hand to stop it. With Drew’s other hand, he grabbed a hold of her arm, twisted it behind her back, forced her into a head lock and pulled her down, straight to the cold hard floor, pinning her there as he did only five days ago.

  ‘Hey! What the hell! I thought you were going to punch me!’ Laura yelled, struggling against his grip and wincing slightly as the strain on her arm became more apparent. It was only a dull ache, but it was enough to annoy her.

  ‘Too easy. You left yourself wide open and your movements are sloppy and slow. You have to be fierce and quick. Too quick for me to grab your arm. See, I’m using your strength against you to force you to the ground. You have to be too fast for me to do that. And you’re making a fist wrong. You’ll break a thumb if you keep clenching them like that.’

  Drew sprung to his feet and held out a hand to Laura. She slapped it away and pushed herself up from the ground, flexing then clenching her fists in front of her face, ‘go.’

  She barely could barely comprehend what had happened, but she knew she was on the ground again.

  ‘Too slow, keep your forearm firm, use it to block my blow and then aim to disarm me.’

  Frustration bubbled in Laura’s veins.

  ‘Get up, come on. We go again.’

  She got into position.

  He threw another punch toward her. Like a flash she blocked his blow and reached out, gripping his wrist. With one quick jerk, spun him around, pushing his arm firmly behind his back.

  ‘That good enough?’ She whispered into his ear, and she could smell his cologne, a sweet metallic scent.

  He cleared his throat, ‘yes that was better.’

  Laura let go and stepped back, pleased. Drew spun around, dived for her and again tackled her to the ground, pinning her down.

  Laura groaned. She felt small flashes of pain shooting up her arm again from underneath the bandage, worse than before, but she once again pushed it from her mind. No way was she going to lose focus.

  ‘You let your guard down. Never let your guard down.’

  The hours ticked by and the rest of the training lesson went much like that, Laura being nearly punched, Laura trying to block the punch, Laura slightly succeeding, Laura being dragged to the ground. By 12 o’clock she had become quite acquainted with the floor, but she had to admit, she felt better in herself knowing she had acquired at least some basic defence strategies.

  As she was walking away, though, she wondered why she was learning defence strategies. The minute the idea was suggested she had agreed instantly, reasoning with herself that it was all for her mother’s sake, that she would have to put up a fight in order to get her back. But those had been just words. Just thoughts.

  Now, they had become real. She could feel it in her gut that something was coming. Something that would require her to fight, and she suddenly realised that she wanted to know how to do just that; fight.

  That realisation shocked her, but beyond that, it scared her. It scared her because she wasn’t sure what she was capable of, or what she would be willing to do to save her mother, and herself. She was afraid of herself. She was afraid of what was to come. She was afraid of the unknown.

  ‘Next lesson is tomorrow, same place - same time.’ Drew said, breaking her out of her trance.

  ‘Sure,’ Laura nodded and worked her way down the stairs, wiping the sweat from her flushed face with her towel.

  Her hair was sticking to her sweaty neck, the prickling beginning to bother her. She had just entered the hallway, intending to head for the shower, when Drew called out to her, ‘hey Ace?’

  She considered questioning him about the nickname, but decided against it.

  ‘Yeah?’ She said turning to face him.

  He stood at the entrance of the weapons room, the door half open and his blazing green eyes watchi
ng her thoughtfully.

  ‘Good work today. You have already made progress.’ With that, he entered the room, closing the door behind him.

  The Harmers farm loomed into sight before Leo and Stella, and they circled around the house, directing their motorbikes towards Wimerack Mountain.

  Taking the long way around the city extended the trip by an hour, but the two were use to long treks. Deciding to go while Laura was occupied was a unanimous decision, both of them believing it would only upset her if she knew the Wicked had come back to her home.

  They slowed their bikes, eventually bringing them to a stop in the bracken by the hillside. Turning them off, they hid them under the trees and snuck through the bush, coming as close to the house as they could without leaving the concealment of the trees.

  They weren’t surprised to find the Wicked were still there, and watched the two Wizards cross the dirt road from the house to the shed. There wasn’t a lot of cover between them and the house, so they waited for the Wicked to enter the shed before they made their move.

  Treading carefully so as not to make any noise, Leo took the lead. They crossed the final paddock and climbed the fence into the house yard. Now the house was between them and the shed, providing them with enough protection to peek around the corner. They couldn’t see the Wicked anymore.

  ‘What do you want to do about them?’ Stella asked her husband.

  ‘Wait for them to go, then search the place. We can’t risk killing them, we don’t want to let the leader of their mission to know we are on to them.’ he replied.

  A gritty voice behind them laughed, ‘it’s a shame you won’t live to do that.’

  Chapter Six

  Two Steps Forward

  Leo didn’t have time to draw the dagger from his belt before he was tackled to the ground, but Stella was there, her blinding purple light latching onto the Wicked’s back, searing his skin as he shot from Leo’s body.

  He landed with a thud in the dirt and staggered to his feet, preparing to fire his Lightening back at Stella.