The Witch's Daughter

by Rae D. Magdon

  “You’re leaving,” I said, a statement instead of a question.

  He nodded. “You are not needin’ me anymore, young witch. I am to be goin’ back home.” My face must have shown concern, because he added, “I will be callin’ the wind to carry me this time.” Although I was relieved that he would not be traveling on foot by himself, I remembered the great wind that had brought Rapunzel and me to his cottage and could not help but be relieved that I did not have to repeat the experience.

  “I will miss you,” I said, sitting up and rubbing my eyes to see him more clearly in the early morning darkness.

  “Cate and Larna will be takin’ good care of you. Do you still have the combs and the scarf that I gave you?” I had forgotten about the scarf, which was still buried somewhere in my pack, but I had used both of the combs to keep Rapunzel’s long hair in some semblance of order. Perhaps it was their magic that had stopped her hair from growing several feet each day.

  “I still have them.”

  He smiled at me. “Good. Keep them close and keep them safe. And you are rememberin’ the trigger word that I taught you to shield yourself?”

  “Yes.” But I hoped that I would not have to use it. My limited practice with Doran had been discouraging to say the least.

  “Magic always comes when we call on it for protection,” he said, reading my doubts. “You can do great things to save the ones you love.”

  “Will I see you again?”

  Doran nodded. “I think so.” And when he gave me his blessing, touching both of my cheeks and speaking a Mark of protection against his forehead, I felt the keen edge of loss. For some reason, this man spoke to me. He had only been my teacher for a short time, but he had already saved our lives more than once. Maybe it was because he had loved my mother once, long ago, and had been another witness to her tragic descent into madness and apathy.

  “Farewell, Acha,” he said, and I smiled because he had called me his student. Perhaps that had been his intention. And when he left, it was not with any great fanfare or a violent burst of magic. He simply walked east, the outline of his figure becoming smaller and smaller as it approached the horizon line, which was beginning to brim over with sunlight. It was all very surreal, and I wondered if I was caught somewhere between dreams until the warm body next to mine stirred.

  “He is gone, isn’t he?” Rapunzel murmured, rubbing a soft patch of skin above the waist of my leggings. I nodded, realized that her eyes were still closed, and voiced my thoughts instead.

  “You were right,” I said sadly.

  “I am sure he will be fine.” I nodded, but I was still concerned. Mogra’s threat still loomed over all of us, and by protecting us from her, the old wizard had made himself a target.

  “Would you like to know a secret?” I whispered.

  My lover opened her eyes. They were beautiful, and for a moment, I was overwhelmed with the sudden desire to kiss her. “What is it?” she asked softly.

  “I wished that he was my father. Doran told me that he loved my mother once, before…” Before greed twisted her heart.

  “Did you ask him?”

  I shook my head. “No. I don’t think he is. I believe he would have told me.” I hoped that he would have told me. He had treated me kindly and called me his student, but there was no reason to believe that we were related in any way, even if he had known my mother in their past.

  From what I knew of Mogra, she might have decided to have a daughter for practical reasons, to continue her line of work and carry on her bloodline. In that case, I could imagine her finding a strong, healthy, intelligent man and purposely trying to conceive with him, hoping that some of his good physical characteristics would be passed down to me. I looked so much like Mogra that I had never really wondered who my father was before. I could not remember asking her, and since I did not see other children interact with their fathers often, isolated as I was in the Forest, I had never felt his absence in my life. Now, I felt that emptiness keenly and with regret.

  “Do you ever wish to find out about your parents?” I asked cautiously, almost afraid of the answer.

  “Sometimes I wonder about them.” I remembered when Rapunzel had first asked about her parents, all those years ago. Mogra had lied to her then. It was entirely possible that, if I had asked the same question about my father, she would have lied to me as well. Perhaps I had known this deep inside, even as a growing child, and that was why I had never bothered. “But you were enough for me. You took care of me. Mother, father, sister, and lover.”

  I smiled weakly. “In some ways, I thought of you as a sister, but not in others. It is hard to explain, and as a child, I had no frame of reference for it. You were just Mine, and I had to watch over you.” I took some comfort in the fact that even though I had considered Rapunzel mine, I had never discounted her feelings or overlooked her humanity. I just hoped that my feelings were different than Mogra’s delusions of ownership.

  “If Doran was your father, do you know what that means?”

  I opened my eyes a little wider. “No, what?”

  “It means your father caught you naked in bed with me and threw clothes on top of your head.” I groaned softly, trying not to disturb the rest of our little campsite.

  …

  Fairytales never tell you the boring parts of going on an adventure. The heroes always seem to skip right to the exciting events in the story. They do not have to worry about rationing food and their feet are never sore from walking. They can travel from one place to another in the blink of an eye.

  Of course, we were not in a fairy tale. Along with everything else came the mundane – traveling, packing and re-packing, sleeping on the ground in temperatures that were either too hot or too cold depending on the location and the time of day. It was not pleasant, but I had already been wandering the plains for a year before this, and I was used to sleeping in the open. Joining up with the party of Liarre warriors made our progress much faster because we were allowed to ride. This surprised me, because all of the literature I had read clearly stated that the Liarre hated being viewed as beasts of burden, and having a human mount them was seen as insulting and demeaning.

  Knowing this, I made sure to thank Hassa profusely when he offered to carry me. Not only was he going against his people’s customs, but he was also sparing my leg muscles the work of walking, and the least I could do was show my gratitude. The other Liarre accepted the decision to let us ride without too much protest, although I heard one or two of the Caniarre, dog-men with wicked looking teeth and bulging, chorded muscles under sleek fur, complaining under their breath.

  Rapunzel was also polite and, fortunately for me, had no objections to riding on Jinale. Although the Arachniarre seemed very likable, she looked fearsome with her large, bulbous body, black tongue, and blue eye-tattoos. The sight of her made me understand why the Liarre were so revered in Amendyrri legends. She looked like something out of a tapestry scene or a painting.

  My lover’s fearlessness surprised me, particularly since her pregnancy was becoming more and more pronounced every day. I questioned her, but I was unable to pin down the exact date of conception any closer than fourteen or fifteen weeks. However, she seemed unusually far along for that amount of time. When she mentioned to me that she could feel the baby moving inside of her, I was even more surprised.

  “Quickening already?” I asked, mostly speaking to myself. I silently asked for permission to touch her stomach, which she granted wordlessly. The curve of her belly was tight and beginning to stretch and harden. It was blatantly obvious to anyone looking at her that she was carrying a child now, even though the shirt she wore was loose around her hips

  “Is something wrong?” she said, sounding concerned.

  “No, nothing serious…” I pressed my lips together. I thought I could feel the position of a head, and once or twice I imagined that I could feel the soft bumps and taps of the baby’s limbs moving underneath her muscles. “Hmm. Are you sure you might not be
farther along than you think? Fifteen weeks is early for me to feel quickening on the outside, especially since this is your first child.”

  Rapunzel shrugged. “Fifteen weeks ago is the closest I can place it,” she said. “There were not that many… opportunities that might have resulted in this.” Despite her awkward wording, I was a little relieved. It still hurt that Rapunzel had shared her body with someone else, even though I was starting to forgive her, and it helped to know that it had only happened a few times. Still, I wrinkled my nose and frowned with distaste.

  The baby kicked again.

  “Stop making that face. You are upsetting him.”

  “Him?” I asked. “How do you know it will be a him?”

  “You call the baby a him all the time, Ailynn. I was just copying you.”

  “I like the idea of a boy,” I admitted cautiously. I did not need to add that my own relationship with my mother had turned out very badly, and I did not have faith that I would be a good example for a girl to follow. I purposely did not use the word ‘daughter’ in my mind because I still had some doubts. It would take time.

  As it turned out, Rapunzel’s pregnancy turned out to be a point in our favor with the Liarre. I was surprised to learn that some of them did not have favorable opinions of human beings, which was understandable considering some of the things our race had tried to do to their people. However, it seemed that even the most belligerent Caniarre or fearsome Arachniarre smiled when they saw my lover and the new life growing inside of her.

  “Humani babies are very tiny,” Jinale commented as Rapunzel rode on her back. “Liarre children are much larger, even inside of their mothers.”

  “Do you have any children?” Rapunzel asked.

  “No, but Hassa does.”

  “My mate and I have two daughters,” he said proudly. I could feel his voice vibrate through the core of his body beneath where I was sitting.

  I wondered if I would ever be able to speak about Rapunzel’s children with such pride in my voice. I already felt more affection for the unborn lives than I had anticipated, but could I accept them as my own despite how they were conceived? I had no part in making them, but perhaps I could shape their young minds as they began to learn and grow. That thought was strangely appealing, but also very frightening, and made me think of my own experiences as a child.

  “Do you worry that they take on your bad qualities as well as the good qualities you try to teach them?” I asked Hassa, curious to hear his opinion as a parent.

  The Liarre considered his answer. “Yes,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Foals learn by example. They copy what they see.”

  “What if the example they were set is a poor one?”

  He seemed to sense the serious nature of the question, because he continued to ponder it for several beats of silence. “Then they must be their own example,” he said. “Some will never know anything else, but the stronger ones are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of their parents.”

  Glancing over my shoulder, I watched Rapunzel riding on Jinale’s curved body, golden hair falling well past her waist and draping over the spider’s side. Even without an example, Rapunzel had not become a selfish, power-hungry creature like Mogra. I gasped as sudden realization dawned. I had been her example. I was the one who taught her, played with her, cared for her. Perhaps that had saved her – saved both of us. There was no way to know for sure.

  Secretly, I was not convinced that I had escaped Mogra’s grip. I shared her blood. I was possessive of what I considered to be mine. Knowing that Byron had tried to steal her made my eyes mist over with a red fog of anger and jealousy. Had my mother passed her curse on to me? Would I always struggle with my greed and selfishness, allowing it to shape my destiny?

  Suddenly, a few of the Liarre beside us froze, their bodies stiffening. A Feliarre nearby crouched down, hackles rising as his ears pricked up to listen. I stiffened too, but for a different reason. A dark shadow was hanging over our heads. As one, the party of ten looked up at the sky. Tiny black dots were circling above us, watching and waiting.

  “Are those Wyvern?” I asked. Hassa did not respond, but he reached for the bow strapped across his back.

  Jinale did the same, reaching to pull an arrow from the quiver that she carried with her. “Get off of my back,” she told Rapunzel, “and climb up with Ailynn. He is faster than the rest of us.” She left the rest of the message unspoken, but it was clear enough. If the Wyvern decided to attack us, she wanted Rapunzel and me to run. My lover obeyed instructions, climbing down from Jinale’s back. I offered her my hand and helped her up in front of me. Hassa did not react to the extra weight, but continued watching the open landscape to our back right. His eyes were positioned closer to the sides of his head than mine or Rapunzel’s and his field of vision was much wider.

  “Look behind you,” he said, and both of us turned. A giant black cloud was rolling towards us from between the walls of the canyons we had left over a day before, crawling over the flat northern plains that we were now crossing. A low, ominous rumbling came with it, echoing through the open air that stretched between us like thunder.

  It was moving fast, impossibly fast, covering the ground that we had already traveled at an alarming speed. “Whatever is in that cloud is enchanted,” I told them. There were creatures now, Kerak and enormous Shadowkin, close enough for us to see their dark forms hulking and crouched against the black, smoky body of the cloud. The Kerak moved swiftly like feral cats, coming at us in waves as the Shadowkin lumbered on giant, trunk-like legs.

  The Liarre all drew their bows, even Hassa, and Rapunzel had to lean back into my chest to avoid his elbow as his muscular arm reached back, drawing an arrow to the point and releasing it into the rapidly darkening air. I saw the reflective coating that covered his eyes, relieved that he could see in the darkness better than me, because the cloud was stretching up to the sky now and blocking out the sunlight.

  The strong, violent trembling of magic was growing stronger, and I recognized its bitter smell as it curled in my nose, burning like smoke. “The witch is coming,” I told Hassa. “I can feel her.”

  To my surprise, the large Shadowkin were falling in great numbers even though they were still a great distance away. I saw one of them topple over as soon as one of Jinale’s arrows grazed its flesh, and I was shocked until I noticed her sucking on the tip of her next arrow. My earlier suspicions were right and her fangs were obviously filled with poison. Although the arrows were wounding the Kerak, it did not stop them. They continued forward in starts and jerks even with the shafts of the arrows sticking out of their bodies. Thirty yards, twenty…

  Fire, I thought, they need fire.

  “Light your arrows,” I shouted, feeling the familiar rush of power as I tugged on the threads of magic surrounding me, rubbing them together and snapping them in a release of energy until my hands were surrounded in balls of flame. Holding out both of my arms, I allowed Hassa to dip one of his arrows in the magical flames until it took hold. This time, when he let his arrow fly, it hit the closest Kerak in the center of its thin chest. The creature howled as it burst into flame, slowly disintegrating into a pile of white ash.

  Although Jinale continued using her poisoned, barbed arrows to shoot the giant black and green dogs bearing down on us, the other Liarre had noticed what Hassa was doing and began using the fire as well. The first wave of Kerak fell, and for a moment, there was nothing but the cloud and the tiny black dots circling overhead. But then another wave came. And another.

  “We are running out of arrows,” Hassa said, lighting one of his last shafts in the emergency fire pit that one of the Caniarre had dug. The Liarre had filled it with anything they could spare, rags and anything wooden that they did not need to keep. Many of the things in my traveling pack had been emptied into it – I only carried the medicine I had brought with me, strips for binding wounds, and Doran’s three gifts. Now the Liarre had plenty of fire, but soon they would only be left with s
hort-ranged weapons.

  “If the witch comes out of that cloud, you need to run with the Humani,” said Jinale around the tip of an arrow. I noticed that it was her last one.

  “I told Rachari I would protect your flank,” the Equiarre protested. The giant spider’s eyes narrowed.

  “You told Cate you would bring her friends to Ardu safely. You are faster than any of us. We will try to buy you some time.”

  “But… ” The rest of Hassa’s argument was interrupted by a loud, high-pitched wail. A massive black Shadowkin, larger than any of the other dogs, exploded out of the cloud’s dark, foul smoke, its heavy paw steps making the ground tremble. On its back was a woman, unnaturally tall, wrapped in black robes and crowned by a ring of green fire. She was like two figures pressed over top of each other. Somehow, I could make out the details of her face in the patches of light that flashed from the fire-arrows, but perhaps my imagination filled in what I could not see from a distance. Her face was old and young at the same time, constantly shifting and changing like a warped reflection in a pool.

  “Run!” Jinale shouted, and Hassa had no time to reason with her. Instead, he turned around and began running, leaving the party of Liarre behind.

  …

  Chapter Seven:

  We bent low over Hassa’s straining back, not daring to look over our shoulders. We knew that Mogra was only yards behind. The gray shadows of the flying Wyverns hovered over us like monstrous birds, swallowing us up as we hurtled over the plains. The Equiarre’s hooves drummed faster over the uneven ground, the heavy walls of his body heaving with deep, quick breaths. Rapunzel’s arms looped around my waist and she pulled closer to me, her long golden hair whipping against our faces.

  There was no time. Doran had warned me not to use his three gifts until the need was greatest, but if Mogra caught us, she would kill us. We had already escaped death once. She would not make the same mistake again.