The Witch and the Bottle of Djinn (The Seaforth Chronicles Book 4)

by B. J. Smash

  “Who knows?” I replied, but I knew it would be on my shoulders to find out.

  Changing the subject, I said, “What I’d like to hear about, is your past life as a pirate.”

  She laughed loudly and said, “Yes. So would I.”

  I could tell by her vacant gaze that she was curious. Could it be that Izadora had been telling us the truth? Had my Aunt Clover been a pirate in a past life? It all sounded too bizarre, and yet, Izadora was not one to tell fanciful stories. She stated the facts. The old woman was like a cold fish when it came to joking around.

  Chapter Five

  We arrived to find the whole family sitting on the front porch. Beautiful whistling music carried in the wind as Ella played her flute. A fog had drifted in, and as she stood on the front lawn she swayed with the melody.

  No one bothered to acknowledge our arrival, and all the while the music captured their full attention. Aunt Clover and I stood by the stairs and watched Ella perform. I had to admit, as snotty as the girl was…she could play the flute like a professional.

  She appeared mysterious with the trees and blooming flowers as her backdrop, and the lingering mist surrounding her body. Her long silky auburn hair cascaded down her shoulders and almost to her waist. The slinky sundress of light blue cotton hit just mid-thigh, while her long toned legs escaped below, and they were the color of creamed milk. To make her appear even more enchanting, she didn’t wear any shoes and reminded me of a forest nymph.

  I knew that if Zinnia were here, she might be jealous of Ella’s beauty. Then again, Ella had always been jealous of Zinnia’s beauty. I think that was the real reason they were rivals. They both wanted to attain the status of the most beautiful woman in the world. To be honest, they probably were. Or close to it anyway.

  She finished one song, and everyone clapped. Only after taking a few breaths of air, and nodding at me, she began again. This time the whistling notes engaged us all, and pulled us in to the point where nothing else mattered.

  This was a true gift she had going on here, but something didn’t seem right. I’d heard this type of melody before. It was just a bit too unnatural to be considered your everyday flute song. The notes reached levels that were not common to human ears. At this point and time, I had no doubt that Ella Seaforth had met the Regal Folk before. Also known as – the Fae.

  In Izadora’s own words: the Fae are cousins to the fairies, but instead of being small, they were tall beings with such grand beauty that they could make you want to weep at their appearance. At least this was true when they “glamoured” themselves; they did this at their gatherings and balls. They were masters of illusion.

  By the time Ella had finished, I noticed she had an audience of a few squirrels and a tan colored rabbit sitting just outside the tree line, but that wasn’t her only visitor. A big black crow had joined us and sat on a limb of a great oak. If I had to guess, I would say that Izadora had just arrived.

  Everyone applauded Ella, and the little animals scurried away. Except for the big black crow.

  “That was wonderful!” Gran called out.

  “Brilliant!” Granddad yelled.

  Even GG Edmund appeared mesmerized as he sat on the porch swing with a huge grin.

  “Ella had been playing since she was but a young girl. Her hard work has paid off.” Uncle Royal sat on a fold out chair, with a toothpick sticking out of his mouth.

  “That was quite beautiful,” Aunt Clover whispered to me.

  “Too beautiful,” I said below my breath.

  “Time for tea!” Gran informed us, and walked into the house.

  “When isn’t it time for tea? She’s always drinking bloody tea,” Aunt Clover muttered over her shoulder while she crutched her way up the stairs. I think the pain in her foot was beginning to make her grouchy.

  I took one last glance in the direction of the big black crow to find that it had disappeared. I had to wonder what was going through Izadora’s mind right about now. Why had she bothered to make an appearance? Or maybe it wasn’t even her? It could have been a regular crow, I suppose.

  We all sat at the kitchen table while Gran prepared the tea. Tonight’s tea cup, saucer and napkin theme were Chinese dragons. Gran went on to explain that this was a new set that she had received in the mail today. It was evident that she couldn’t wait to try it out. She placed a cup and saucer in front of me and walked back to the stove. It was then that I realized my father wasn’t there. I asked no one in particular, “Where is father?”

  GG Edmund answered, “Why, he is with Drumm and the dog. They went for a walk this morning and haven’t returned.”

  “Really? They’ve been gone this whole time?” I asked.

  “I hope they return soon. I have to go home and rest my foot. Besides, Posie will need a nap,” Aunt Clover grumped.

  “Didn’t Izadora fix your foot?” GG Edmund asked.

  “Not yet. She shooed us out,” Aunt Clover said.

  I wanted to bring up the topic of the disappearing town, but I knew better. Ella plopped down beside me, batted her long eyelashes at us, and took over the conversation. She smelled wonderful and I actually wanted to ask her for the name of her perfume. Then again, Ella probably didn’t buy the perfume. She probably brewed it up herself. Either way, she smelled wonderful.

  As she talked on and on about nothing, she started doing that thing again where she touched my arm. A couple of times, she reached over and patted my aunt on the knee. Again, I could noticeably feel my energy deplete with each touch. And then the giggle. Oh my. I wanted to swat her upside the head.

  After a while, GG Edmund, Aunt Clover, Ella and I, sat at the table playing Yahtzee, while Uncle Royal, Gran and Granddad sat at the kitchen island drinking tea.

  “Ivy dear, you know if you actually combed your hair, you’d be so much prettier,” Ella said, while touching my hair.

  GG Edmund rolled his eyes and began to lightly whistle a tune beneath his breath.

  “I do comb my hair,” I said.

  “Mmmm. I don’t think you do. You know what? You should come upstairs and I can fix you up a little. Style your hair, give you some make-up pointers,” she offered.

  I didn’t want Gran to overhear her saying that – she’d make me do it just to be polite!

  “NO!” I screamed a bit too loud. I’d been through that once before! There was no way in heck I would let her give me a make-over. I had to endure a make-over session with Zinnia once and that had been enough. I would not allow my cousin to give me a “re-do.”

  Ella abruptly jolted back in her chair and placed her hand over her chest, a startled expression on her face. What a drama queen.

  Gran who was mid-stride in sipping her tea, dribbled some on her blouse. She sat there mopping it up with a cloth napkin. Uncle Royal was the first one to speak. “What ails you, Ivy? Did you get hurt somehow? Bite your tongue or something?” Uncle Royal was slow in the head sometimes.

  “No. She’s fine. Now let’s get back to the game,” GG Edmund ordered. We all obeyed.

  After sipping my fourth cup of tea, and playing our fifth game of Yahtzee, I began to feel tired and anxious. I wanted to get out of the house and run. Aunt Clover was on edge more than ever from all the knee pats that Ella had been giving her. Ella would say something that she thought to be witty or clever, and then hit, pat, or touch us. “Ivy, it’s been several hours. I’m getting so tired. Can you run out in the woods and find Drumm? I’d like Posie back.”

  “Sure thing,” I said. Halleluiah! I was about to escape. But when I stood to leave, the front door banged open. Seconds later, my father and Drumm walked into the kitchen. The dog walked in beside Drumm, and sat down at his feet. Aunt Clover called the dog but she wouldn’t come. It would seem that Drumm had a new best friend. Finally, and reluctantly, the dog crept over to my aunt.

  During this time, Ella sucked in breath. I followed her gaze to see that she was ogling Drumm. He was a sight to be seen with his golden hair that barely hit his shoul
ders, muscular arms and overly handsome face. He briefly made eye contact with Ella and then turned away. I could tell that it might have been “love at first sight” for Ella, but “dislike at first sight” for Drumm.

  “Well, who are you?” Ella finally said.

  “This is Drumm. Ivy’s friend,” my father said. He tried to sound civil but I could tell that something was bothering him.

  Ella stood up and walked over to Drumm. I could see where she might be a master of seduction with the way her hips swayed, and when she reached him, she literally held her hand out for him to kiss, but all he did was take her finger tips and shake them. “Nice to meet you.”

  She stood there staring at him with bright blue eyes, and a beautiful smile. He peered around her and said to me, “Ivy. You must come with me at once.”

  “Izadora wants you right away. It is urgent,” my father said to me. His face was stern, and his eyebrows furrowed.

  “Ok. Let’s go,” I said.

  “Wait! Take Ella with you,” Uncle Royal said.

  My father and Drumm exchanged looks. I thought I’d try and nip this in the bud right now but Aunt Clover beat me to it.

  “Not a good idea. Izadora is not in the best of moods today,” Aunt Clover said.

  GG Edmund nodded his head, “If Izadora isn’t in a good spirits then it is best you steer clear of her. I know my sister and you don’t go around when she’s angry.” He held up his hand to maximize his point.

  “Okay then. Maybe another time,” Uncle Royal said. He sighed as though defeated in some way.

  Not wasting any time, I jumped up and grabbed Drumm’s hand. We were out the door and running to Izadora’s in no time. The sun had gone down but we could still see with our elven vision. When we did this, it was like the moon was always full. Images and outlines could easily be seen. Tonight the millions of stars sparkled with a white glow, and there were thick bands of them. I fancied that I could jump up and grab one.

  We sped through Ian’s garden and then the gate. Milo and Hansgard—Izadora’s hellhounds—were there to greet us. Both dogs jumped up on me and knocked me to the ground. Almost every encounter with them turned out this way; with me landing on my butt. They acted as though I hadn’t seen them in weeks. I pet their soft, white fluffy fur and then pushed them back and hopped to my feet. “Good dogs,” I said. Both of them sat and perked their blood red ears up. They were the most interesting looking dogs I’d ever seen. White hair all over their bodies, and pointed raving red ears.

  We began to walk again. The forest had a fragrant pine scent, complimented with an earthy, grassy smell. I drew in a deep, long breath and held it for several seconds and let it out.

  “Ivy. I don’t care much for that girl, Ella, but she makes me curious,” he said in his strange accent. He usually kept his opinions to himself, unless asked.

  “Why? What’s up?” I asked. I could tell him a million reasons why I didn’t care for my cousin Ella, but I wanted to hear his opinion.

  “Her aura. I did not even have to try to see it. It is dark, with midnight blue swirls and specks of red,” he said.

  The only other person’s aura that he had described as dark had been Magella’s. He said her aura was nothing but black and grey swirls. Even Zinnia’s aura was different shades of blue with wisps of orange. So, this intrigued me.

  “Really? What does that mean?” I asked.

  “She is full of danger. I see the midnight blue is dark sorcery. Magic surrounds her. The black is not good intention. And the red – she’s lusty,” he said plainly.

  “Lusty? The other two definitions don’t surprise me – but lusty?” I said.

  “Whether it is lust for magic…or whether it is lust for—” he paused as though he were embarrassed to say it, “me. I am not sure. Her personality is overbearing and there is one thing I do know for certain.”

  I recently had not had a chance to talk to Drumm about Ella, and so this was all new to me. “What do you know for certain?”

  “She is a like a blood sucker. Only it is energy she steals,” Drumm explained.

  An icy cold chill ran up the length of my spine and to the top of my head. He had just described exactly what I had been experiencing. “How do you know?”

  “Her eyes. Her lusty mesmerizing eyes. And her fingers had a pulling sensation in them. She thrives on other people’s energy. You need to stay away from her as much as you can. And you – you don’t look so good tonight,” Drumm said pointedly. He pulled me into him as we walked, and placed his arm over my shoulders. Immediately, I felt the heat from his body, and his own energy poured into me - reviving me. He truly had the gift of healing, even without the use of a trees healing energy.

  I couldn’t talk for a moment, and we walked in silence. How was I going to stay away from my cousin? Uncle Royal and Ella were clingy. They always wanted me around. They were nosy, clingy, and bossy.

  Finally, I said, “I know Drumm. She sucks the life right from me.”

  “Shield yourself with the white light,” he said.

  “I do,” I said.

  He went on to tell me that I must not be doing it right, and I must try harder. I told him that I had tried as hard as I could. In the end, he said, “You must get your mother’s elven stone back from Izadora then. You will need its protection.”

  Izadora had taken the stone and placed it with her own crystals for safe keeping. She said I had no use for it right now, and that her very own crystals would give it a grand boost. I agreed and had handed it over to her.

  We walked through the circle path. I called it that because the limbs overhead intertwined and connected causing the walkway to appear circular.

  The treehouse was brightly lit with candlelight. She never used electricity and every evening had hundreds of candles burning. To this day, I don’t know where she stored the candles, or if she just snapped her fingers to make them disappear and reappear. Over the past few months she’d added rooms to her humble abode. I don’t think she ever used them, she just wanted to decorate them. Ian had given her a grand piano, and oftentimes she sat in front of it plucking at the keys.

  Sometimes I wished that I could live in a tree house just like Izadora, and never leave the forest. One time, I told her that. Her response was, “Get out and live life while you can. One day, you just might end up an old hermit like me.”

  I can’t even begin to understand what she meant by that statement, but the way she’d said it had seemed so final. As far as I knew, Izadora loved her life. She enjoyed being an old hermit that could shape-shift into any bird she wanted to. She enjoyed bossing around the family members, and people that were in her circle. Didn’t she? Who wouldn’t want to be an extremely powerful witch, with the forest her everlasting domain?

  Before we climbed the stairs, Drumm removed his arm and grabbed my hand, and moved to stand in front of me. “Just beware. She is in a terrible mood.”

  “She always is, isn’t she?” I said. However, that wasn’t always true. She was usually stoical and you couldn’t tell what mood she was in. I had to give her some credit though… Izadora could actually be fun to be around sometimes, but the fact that Drumm had to warn me meant that she was still really angry at her old enemy, Ish.

  When we reached the front door, it was closed. It was almost as if she were trying to shut the world out. Nine times out of ten, Izadora had her front door open. She didn’t need to close it. The pure golden horseshoe above her entrance was enchanted. No one could enter that wasn’t somehow connected to Izadora. It would be like walking into a wall. I’m sure other witches and wizards might be able to counter this spell, but it wasn’t likely. They’d have to have some trick up their sleeve. The thing is, even if they made it through the doorway, once they got inside, they’d better be prepared for Izadora’s wrath. Not many would want to do that, and so she never had a problem with keeping her front door ajar. I often wondered if she left it open just because she was bored and she wanted someone to just try and get in
her house. The thing is…to my knowledge, no one even came to her forest, let alone her treehouse. That is, until now. This Ish character was ballsy.

  Drumm knocked and the door opened on its own. Izadora stood at the stove. A boiling pot of purple-black smoke sat atop the burner, but no flame came up from below. She didn’t need gas or electric heat to make anything boil. She used her breath. It only took a second for her to heat anything up. The smoke spiraled above and drifted into the living room.

  “It’s about time you got here,” she complained.

  I nodded my head. Drumm held a chair out for me to sit down at the kitchen table, and then sat in the chair opposite me. He placed his elbows on the table, and leaned his face into the palms of his hands. Even he was dreading Izadora’s company at the moment. I should have asked him what this was all about on our walk here, but he had brought up Ella and I didn’t think to ask.

  Several bottles from the tree that sprouted up through her living room floor, were now sitting on her kitchen counter. Izadora threw a few things into the pot and the color of the wisps changed to a deep burgundy. When she tossed the last ingredient in, the contents hissed, and a sulfuric smell filled my nostrils. She then snapped her fingers and the bottles flew into the living room on their own accord and hung in their spots on the tree. She hardly ever used magic to move things around. I was the one who would normally be returning the items to their proper locations.

  She left the pot on the stove to simmer, and threw her oven mitt on the floor with a huff. She faced us and leaned her backside to the counter. “Yes, I know Ivy. I am showing my anger. If I hear you say it again, I will put fly tape over your mouth.”

  “Eww,” I snorted. I was thinking exactly what she’d just said. But the thing is, I hadn’t said it aloud.

  “Now listen up. We have one big problem and only one single solution. If the two of you fail me… we are doomed.” She looked to Drumm and then me. The creases on her face were even more prominent than usual.