Nature of the Witch

by Helen T. Norwood

  Kitto was right. There was no answer from Mags on the phone. Kiera put the phone down feeling frustrated.

  “Try her again later,” Jack said as he passed her in the hallway, “what are you going to do today?”

  “I thought I'd work on protecting the house,” Kiera told him, “I have some spells I can use.”

  “I thought protection was my job,” Jack grinned.

  Kiera felt herself relax at Jack's smile. It was nonsense. Of course, she could trust the Gwithiaz. Of course, she could trust Jack.

  “Yes well, you know what they say, the wand is mightier than the sword,” Kiera smirked.

  “No-one says that Kiera,”Jack said dryly, “and you don't have a wand, you're not Harry Potter.”

  Kiera laughed, “Yes, why don't I have a wand? I need a wand.”

  “Because you have hands,” Kitto joined in from behind her, “come Jack, fetch your staff and I'll meet you outside. Why on earth do you need a wand when you have hands?”

  “Because they look cool!” Kiera called after him and then she headed upstairs. When she reached her bedroom she filed the paper away in a drawer. Jack and Kitto were her friends. In fact they were more than that, they were like family. They would never hurt her. Then she retrieved her books and started her protection spells.

  By the time Kiera had finished, the house was like a fortress; a fortress without high walls or turrets, or any other form of physical protection. But in terms of magic they were now living in Fort Knox. She had even sprinkled a little salt across the window sills, she hadn't read that in her books, but she had seen it in a film once.

  For the first time she used crystals in her work. Mags had given her some a while back but she hadn't practiced with them. She hoped she had done it right. She had used amethyst, which was supposed to offer protection and healing and keep people cool-headed (unless you were Greek, in which case you believed it prevented drunkenness. Kiera was hoping the Greeks were wrong and the pagans were right).

  By lunchtime she was exhausted. Kitto and Jack were still training. They hadn't stopped for a break all morning. As Kiera made herself a sandwich she thought back to the note. Kitto was the only one who had survived. She shook her head. She couldn't let herself question Kitto. All she had was Kitto, Jack and Mags. She had to trust them or she was left with nothing.

  As she thought of Mags she picked up the phone and tried calling her again. There was still no answer. She frowned. If Mags wouldn't come and stay with them then she would have to go over and fortify Mags's home, magically speaking. She had more charms and crystals and she could take her books with her.

  She made Jack and Kitto a sandwich and took it out to them. They nodded their gratitude but they didn't stop to speak. It was chilly and a fine drizzle had started to fall but they were bathed in sweat.

  “I'm going to meditate,” Kiera told them.

  “Stay where I can see you,” Jack told her sharply.

  Sometimes he was so bossy.

  She sat down on a patch of grass some distance away, with her back to them but making sure she was still in view, and closed her eyes. She rested her hands on her knees and took some deep breaths. With each exhalation she emptied her mind and let go of all thoughts. She felt calm and relaxed.

  She became aware of the breeze on her cheek, of the soft grass beneath her and the odd raindrop as it alighted on her hair and face. She felt a presence, and when she quickly opened her eyes Bersaba was sitting in front of her.

  Kiera's mouth fell open in shock. She held her hand out but she couldn't touch her.

  “You're not real,” Kiera whispered.

  “No, I'm not real,” Barsaba's voice was light and soft, like the gentle breeze around them, “I'm dead.”

  “How is this possible?” Kiera breathed.

  “You still ask that?” Bersaba looked amused. “You should know by now that anything is possible.”

  Bersaba was as beautiful as Kiera remembered from her vision. Her long golden hair seemed to glow against her flawless pale skin. She wore the same white nightdress. For a moment Bersaba stared past her to where Jack and Kitto were training.

  “Kitto,” she said wistfully.

  Kiera hesitated, she felt afraid to ask but eventually she said, “What is it that you want to tell me?”

  Bersaba leant forward and touched Kiera's forehead, “I'll show you.”

  The action made Kiera's eyes close and when she opened them she was somewhere else entirely. She was in a room. The room was sparsely decorated with only a table and two chairs in the centre and a double bed in the corner.

  The stone walls of the room were cracked and parts had chipped away. Bersaba was standing in front of her. Her arms were folded and she was shivering in her nightdress. She seemed to be in distress, she was shaking her head and pacing across the floor.

  “How could you?” Her voice was raw with emotion. “How could you do it?”

  For a moment Kiera was confused and thought Bersaba was talking to her, but then a familiar voice spoke from behind her and made her jump.

  “I had to do it, we can't keep living like this.”

  It was Kitto. Kiera spun round. She recognised him straight away even though he looked very different. He was younger. His hair, although still long, wasn't quite as unruly. He had boyish good looks, his skin had a tan and his eyes had a lost sparkle. He was sitting in a chair by the door.

  You can't see me, Kiera realised.

  She turned back to Bersaba. This was one of Bersaba's memories.

  Kitto jumped up from his chair. He strode across the room to Bersaba and gripped her shoulders, “Why can't you see that it needed to be done?”

  Bersaba moved away from him. Her face was full of pain and confusion.

  “Needed to be done?” She repeated. “What are you talking about? You betrayed us all!”

  “No!” Kitto protested vehemently, “I have never and would never betray you. I love you. Everything I have ever done has been for you. You are the greatest witch this world has ever seen. You shouldn't be hiding away in a house that is falling apart, in some small, forgotten village. Your talents should be recognised.”

  “They were my sisters,” Bersaba's voice quivered, “they were your sisters. You grew up alongside them.”

  “And I mourn them,” Kitto said flatly, “but their deaths were necessary. They were holding you back. All the other witches are dead. Together we can come out of hiding and, with your powers, you can change the world for the better. Things have to be sacrificed for a greater good.”

  “Things?” Bersaba's voice was incredulous. “You mean people Kitto! You sacrificed human beings, our sisters, your brother Gwithiaz, you sacrificed an entire village!”

  Bersaba's head sank into her hands, “The children, you let them kill innocent children.”

  Kitto's expression remained unmoved. He stepped towards her but she moved further away. He seemed frustrated, “Don't you remember what it was like? The time when people travelled for miles just to glimpse you? Your powers were revered and you were respected. I want that back for you.”

  “I don't care about any of that,” Bersaba whispered.

  “How can you not?” Kitto frowned, he waved his hand at the room around them. “We grew up living like this, in this kind of squalor. But we got away from all that. I can't go back to it. I want better for you.”

  Bersaba shook her head sadly and tears began to flow, “I don't know who you are. All the centuries together and I don't know you anymore.”

  She sank to the ground and Kitto crouched down and took hold of her hands, “I am your husband just as I have always been and I will look after you just as I have always done. I'm sorry, but now we can start afresh. There is nothing to hold us back. There is only one Creature left and I control it. We can use it or we can kill it, but the future is ours now.”

  Bersaba tried to move away but Kitto pulled her in and forced her into his arms, “I love you more than anything. And you love me.
You will forgive me in time.”

  Suddenly Kiera had the overwhelming urge to close her eyes. When she opened them with a jolt she was standing on the clifftops at Tintagel. It was a scene she had witnessed before. Bersaba was standing on the edge looking out. Her eyes were full of pain and now Kiera knew why.

  Kitto approached; he was running towards her. Kiera watched as Bersaba gave him one last look before stretching out her arms and dropping forward. Kitto sank to his knees and wept. Kiera stared at Kitto and shook her head. This couldn't be real.

  Then her eyes closed again and when she opened them she was back with reality, except it was a warped view of reality because the ghost of Bersaba was still sitting in front of her.

  Kiera was frozen, unable to process what she had just seen, “No…no” she stuttered, “Kitto wouldn't do that.”

  Bersaba looked at her and her crystal blue eyes were filled with the hurt and betrayal from all those years ago.

  “I would have said that too once,” she said quietly.

  Kiera's eyes flickered from Bersaba and then behind her to Jack and Kitto, “You're saying Kitto controls the Creatures?”

  Bersaba nodded, “He found a way and then he used them to kill any other Daughter of the Earth,” Bersaba reached over and touched her hand, “our sisters.”

  Kiera felt panic-stricken, “I have to speak to Jack.”

  “No,” Bersaba looked at her beseechingly, “there is a flaw in the way the Gwithiaz were created Kiera. You can't trust them.”

  Kiera shook her head, “A flaw? No, I can trust Jack.”

  “They were created to devote their lives to the protection of one witch,” Bersaba told her, “I didn't realise until it was too late but this devotion is all powerful, eventually it overrides everything else, even their humanity. They are dangerous. Jack will betray you, just as Kitto did, it is their flaw, they cannot help themselves.”

  Bersaba reached over and stroked Kiera's cheek before fading away, “Trust me sister. Take care.”

  For a moment Kiera didn't move. She was shaking as she slowly rose to her feet. She tried to gather herself together as she made her way back to the house. Once inside she grabbed Jack's car keys. She had to speak to Mags.

  Chapter Thirty One

  I've taken Jack's sports car without his permission. He is going to kill me.

  Kiera tried to keep her attention on the road but she couldn't stop thinking about what she had just witnessed. She had felt a connection to Bersaba right from the start. At Tintagel she had witnessed her jumping to her death and now she knew the truth of the story behind it. She had been betrayed by her own husband, a man she had loved for centuries. He had killed her coven, her sisters and an entire village of innocent people. Maybe he hadn't killed them directly but he had set the Creatures upon them, which was the same as cutting them down himself.

  She thought about Jack. Jack would never do that. Could there really be a flaw in the Gwithiaz? Could their devotion to their cause really override their humanity? It all seemed so crazy. She knew Kitto as a lovable, slightly eccentric old man. She couldn't imagine him as a person who would do such terrible things.

  She drove to Mags's house in a daze, but as she pulled up outside she felt some relief. She would tell Mags everything. Mags would know what to do. She jumped out of the car and began to sprint up the path, but stopped dead in her tracks when she caught sight of Mags's front door. It lay on the pathway in front of her, ripped from its hinges.

  For a split second she stared at it numbly.

  “No!” She cried and raced to the house. She burst through the doorway and looked around in horror. The place was completely trashed. Furniture was overturned and books were scattered everywhere, their pages torn and blowing about in the wind that entered through the empty doorway.

  She stepped over the mess and reached the bottom of the stairs.

  She found her voice.

  “Mags!” She called out, panic rising inside her.

  She looked through to the kitchen. It was in the same state. Plates and cups were smashed into pieces on the floor.

  She noticed scratch marks in the wall. They seemed to start at the bottom of the hallway and led to the stairs and up towards the landing.

  She traced one of the lines with her finger.

  “Claw marks,” she breathed.

  Slowly, she placed a foot on the first step and apprehensively began to climb.

  “Mags?” She called out again, even though her heart told her there would be no response.

  The silence in the house was eerie. She reached the top and the floorboard beneath her creaked, causing her to jump so much that she nearly fell back down the stairs.

  “Get it together Kiera,” she whispered to herself firmly.

  The scratch marks followed the wall on to the landing and then turned into something else; something that trickled down the walls and stained the carpet beneath. It was blood. Her legs began to shake beneath her but she followed the blood along the wall to Mags's bedroom door. She stood and stared at the door. She knew she had to go in but her whole body was shaking and tears began to stream down her cheeks.

  “Oh Mags,” she sobbed.

  Just as she held out her hand to push the door open there was a sound in the hallway below. She wasn't alone in the house. She froze, unable to move and hardly daring to breathe. There was another footstep from below. She turned and moved back across the landing to the top of the stairs. She stood on the same floorboard and it creaked. The breath caught in her throat. Whoever was downstairs would know she was there.

  She was looking around frantically for somewhere to hide or something to fight with when someone jumped over the bannister and landed on the stairs in front of her. She screamed and then relief flooded through her. It was Jack.

  He was brandishing his staff but upon seeing Kiera he lowered it.

  “Kiera, you're okay,” he mirrored her relief and stepped towards her.

  Then her relief turned to fear as Kitto appeared at the bottom of the stairs. As Jack reached out to her she moved away.

  Jack frowned, “Kiera, what's wrong?”

  Kitto began to climb the stairs towards them.

  “Jack I…” she stammered. How could she tell him that the man he loved like a father was not who he thought he was? How could she tell him that she had it on good authority that there was a flaw in the Gwithiaz and he was destined to lose his humanity? She just shook her head sadly, “I don't know who to trust.”

  Jack couldn't hide his hurt, “Why wouldn't you trust me? Kiera, you're in shock, we need to get you out of here and to someplace safe.”

  He stepped towards her again but again she moved away. Kitto appeared behind Jack and Kiera glared at him, “Did you do this?”

  Kitto was taken aback, “Kiera, what are you talking about?”

  Kiera tried to support herself against the wall and put her hand in the blood. She pulled it away quickly and more tears came, “I know what you did! Bersaba showed me everything!”

  Kitto was frowning at her, “Bersaba? Kiera, you're talking nonsense. Jack, we need to get her out of her.”

  “No!” Kiera exclaimed and began to move along the wall away from them. “You betrayed her, you killed them all, you set the Creature on Mags!”

  Jack was staring at her as though she had grown an extra head. Kitto's eyes hardened and he spoke angrily, “Jack, we don't have time for this. Just get her out of here.”

  Jack looked from Kiera to Kitto and then hesitantly moved closer to Kiera. When she tried to run he grabbed her and pinned her arms. She tried to struggle but he pulled her flat against him and she couldn't break free. As he carried her down the stairs she considered using her magic, but it was Jack. She couldn't bring herself to hurt Jack.

  Jack felt as though he had entered a strange dream. How could Kiera say such cruel things to Kitto? Why would she turn on them like that? Didn't she know they were trying to protect her?

  “Put her in the ca
r,” Kitto ordered him calmly.

  “Let me speak with her,” Jack said.

  Kitto nodded, “I'm going back into the house. I'll see if I can find Mags.”

  Jack bundled Kiera into the back seat of the Land Rover then he climbed in beside her.

  She could see the hurt in his eyes and she sighed, “Jack, I know this sounds crazy but you have to believe me. I had a vision, except it wasn't really a vision because she was there, except she was a ghost…”

  “Who was a ghost?” Jack asked, his face completely bewildered.

  “Bersaba,” Kiera replied, the words all tumbling out in a mix of emotions, “and she told me, well she didn't just tell me, she showed me what happened. All those years ago, Kitto controlled the Creatures. He used them to kill the other witches and the Gwithiaz and now he's…” her voice wavered “…he's killed Mags.”

  Jack shook his head and looked away from her, “How can you say that? How can you even think that? This is Kitto we're talking about. Why would he do that?”

  “Jack, she showed me,” Kiera said, imploring him to believe her, “I saw it with my own eyes. I didn't want to believe it either. But Kitto said himself there was no explanation why Daughters of the Earth began to die. Don't you see, HE'S the explanation. He betrayed them. That also means that it was Kitto who killed your parents. He set the Creature on your mother.”

  When Jack faced her again his eyes were blazing, “You haven't answered why. Why would he do that?”

  “He was devoted to Bersaba. He wanted her to be a great witch and he thought the others were holding her back. They were poor and he wanted them to be rich, he thought he was doing it out of love but…but…” Kiera bit her lip, “you see, Bersaba says there is a flaw in the way…well, in Gwithiaz.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow. She could tell he was seething but he kept his voice steady, “I'm flawed? Please enlighten me Kiera, what exactly are my flaws?”

  “None yet,” Kiera wiped her eyes and felt defeated. Jack was never going to believe her, “But eventually your devotion to your job will block out everything else and you'll change.”