A Witch Alone

by James Nicol

  It was darkness and cold – the place where all dark spirits came from. The icy chill of it wrapped around Arianwyn, her damp clothes making her colder still. From the riverbank, she heard a sudden shout from Miss Newam. ‘She’s doing WHAT?’

  Arianwyn ignored the frantic watery sounds of Colin and Miss Newam rushing back across the river. She placed her hand on the stagget’s side once more, its eyes totally black now, like the darkest marble. It growled angrily, fighting the last strands of the stunning spell. Flecks of blood flew from its mouth as it gave a sickening cry that was part scream, part roar.

  ‘I am so sorry,’ Arianwyn said quietly. She took a deep breath, tears blurring her vision. ‘Return to the void, your spirit must not linger here.’ Her throat tightened.

  ‘Stop it at once, you stupid girl!’ Miss Newam screamed.

  ‘Go in peace,’ Arianwyn continued, her voice breaking as the physical form of the stagget began to dissolve away. ‘Return . . . to the darkness.’ Her tears fell into the river.

  Miss Newam snatched at her hand. ‘Stop it! How dare you.’

  But it was already too late. They watched in stunned silence as the stagget dissolved into a swirling mass of dark and light, its golden spirit being sucked through the rift and into the void.

  What have I done?

  The hex-ravaged part of the creature did not dissolve in the same way. As the creature’s physical form vanished, the hex floated down into the river, black spores sliding away in the current.

  Chapter 20

  GIRL-WITH-STAR

  ell, I hope you’re happy with yourself now, Miss Gribble. Both of those spells were illegal, you know that, I suppose?’ Miss Newam said.

  ‘I was trying to help,’ Arianwyn said quickly. She still knelt in the river. Her legs were numb with cold. ‘Who knows what the stagget might have done—’

  ‘No buts! No excuses!’ Miss Newam snapped. ‘I shall report this to the High Elder as soon as we are back in Lull.’

  Arianwyn stared at the river where the stagget had lain just a few minutes before. There was nothing she could say that would make either of them see. She knew that. She heard movement through the water and looked up to see Colin’s and Miss Newam’s retreating backs. Had she been too hasty? Should she have thought it through more? The certainty from moments ago had abandoned her and she hid her face and cried with frustration. There was the sound of more movement in the water and Arianwyn turned back to see she was now face to face with the feyling.

  ‘Oh, hello,’ Arianwyn said, wiping at the tears on her face.

  The grey feyling stared at her quizzically, his head on one side, huge pink eyes blinking. Then he said carefully, ‘Hell-oh.’

  She saw now that though his skin was dark grey, it was covered with swirling black designs. Were they tattoos or his actual skin?

  The feyling pointed to himself and said, ‘Tas.’

  ‘Tas, is that your name?’ Arianwyn asked slowly.

  ‘Am Tas,’ he repeated, pointing again to his chest.

  ‘I’m Arianwyn Gribble.’

  ‘You are girl-with-star!’ Tas beamed proudly, pointing to Arianwyn’s star badge.

  She smiled and nodded.

  ‘All feyling sent away, leave Erraldur,’ he said sadly.

  ‘I know. I’m sorry. Have you hurt your arm?’ There was an angry red cut along his small grey forearm.

  ‘Running from beast. Tas fall. Must find girl-with-star.’ His huge ears twisted this way and that. ‘Found you!’

  ‘What?’ Arianwyn leant forwards, a little unsure that she had heard correctly.

  ‘Miss Gribble, are you coming back to Lull or do you intend to stay here with your new friend?’ Miss Newam’s voice sliced across the river.

  Tas waved at Miss Newam, who flushed and looked away as fast as she could.

  ‘Don’t worry about her,’ Arianwyn said gently. ‘She can’t help it!’ She started to get to her feet. ‘I’m coming!’ she called. The air made her legs feel icier still; her coat was heavy with river water. It was going to be a very long walk back to Lull. ‘We saw some of your people. They were headed to the feyling meeting place at Edda.’ She smiled, looking down at Tas. ‘We’re going back to our town, to Lull.’

  ‘Tas will come also.’ He smiled, his wide eyes unblinking, staring up at Arianwyn.

  ‘Miss Gribble!’ Miss Newam called again. ‘We don’t have all day!’

  The break in the trees high above showed the sky turning a soft pink. The sun was beginning to set, finally, on this day that had seemed to stretch on for ever. It seemed they would be walking most of the way home in the dark. ‘Come on, if we get going we might be back in time for breakfast!’ She turned and headed across the river, Tas close at her side.

  Further down the river the stagget herd were calmly moving back into the woods, their previous panic almost forgotten.

  Colin and Miss Newam waited in silence, their expressions stony.

  ‘We should head straight back to the town hall and inform the mayor!’ Miss Newam said curtly.

  Ahead, Arianwyn could see the trees finally giving away to open ground, and glimpsed the high walls of Lull in the first grey light of dawn. She was full of relief at being home, but at the same time the crushing disappointment of their failed mission lingered. ‘You’ll have to explain our . . . guest, as well!’ Miss Newam eyed Tas with suspicion as she had done countless times on the long tiring walk.

  They had travelled in silence mostly, all night long. Only Tas occasionally asked a question about Lull or the ‘human lands’, which Arianwyn answered quickly and quietly, in no mood for conversation. Colin had avoided talking to Arianwyn at all, and each time they had caught each other’s gaze he had just looked away, his eyes dark and angry.

  By Arianwyn’s estimate it must almost be breakfast time, and they’d been away from Lull for just under twenty-four hours. It had become incredibly cold, their breath misting the air in front of them. Rather chilly for early October, she thought, shivering. She didn’t exactly relish the thought of telling the mayor that the hex had spread further in the wood either and was now closer to town – he really wouldn’t be happy. ‘Can’t we leave our report until later?’ she asked. She glanced at Colin but he didn’t meet her gaze.

  ‘No!’ Miss Newam gasped in horror. ‘We need to report this as soon as possible and not just to the mayor. The C.W.A. will need to be updated as well, you know . . . about everything!’ She glared at Arianwyn.

  Arianwyn sighed. All she wanted was some dry socks and mug of tea. Then perhaps she would be able to face the mayor and the C.W.A.

  ‘Ahem!’ Miss Newam coughed, drawing Arianwyn to one side so Tas couldn’t hear. ‘You’ll need to speak to the High Elder as well, of course, don’t forget. I’m certain she will wish to hear why you haven’t managed to find the book!’

  Arianwyn stared at Miss Newam. ‘You heard the feylings. Erraldur was overrun with dark spirit creatures and hex. It wasn’t safe to carry on. And we couldn’t have got through the blockages of hex, anyway!’ Her words were full of tiredness and frustration and she regretted them at once.

  Miss Newam only sniffed, pursed her lips and raised a single thick black eyebrow. They all tramped silently and slowly through the trees at the very edge of the wood and emerged at last on to the meadow.

  Then stumbled to a halt.

  There, grazing in the middle of the meadow that skirted Lull, was a herd of qered – tall horse-like spirit creatures. Arianwyn could see four of them, moving away as they saw the approaching party, their strange whale-like cries echoing around the meadow. They were massive, their huge bodies covered partly in dark scales, partly in coarse hair. They had long serpentine tails that flowed behind them along with their seemingly never-ending manes. The group of four seemed to be a family, two adults and two younger qered – but there were many more little groups scattered around the field.

  ‘Heavens. Look at that.’ Miss Newam pointed up at the high walls of Lull.
>
  Arianwyn saw a large cocoon-like shape clinging to the stone high up the wall. The fizz of magic filled the air.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Colin breathed.

  There was a sudden shout from someone high up on the town walls. ‘They’re back! Miss Gribble and the others are back!’ There were hurried movements on top of the high wall.

  ‘It is Miss Gribble!’ another voice shouted excitedly.

  ‘Fetch the mayor!’ a third voice called out, echoing off the wall and across the meadow.

  What on earth is going on now? Arianwyn wondered.

  As with your training and time as an apprentice, peer support will be of the utmost importance. You should ensure you have an active network for support and also for friendship, for the position of a witch can oftentimes be a lonely one and you will need the advice and companionship of other witches to help you through.

  These fellow witches will share skills and help to further develop your knowledge but you should also take the opportunity to share your own particular specialisms with others too. These new friendships will nourish you throughout your whole life.

  A WITCH ALONE: A MANUAL FOR THE NEWLY QUALIFIED WITCH

  Chapter 21

  RETURN TO LULL

  iss Gribble?’ Mayor Belcher’s face peeked out through the grille in the gate. ‘Where on earth have you been?’ He looked both relieved and frightened. ‘Open the gates!’ he shouted, and there was a rumbling sound as the gates swung inwards. Mayor Belcher rushed forwards, followed by Lull’s chief of police, Constable Perkins. The mayor seized Arianwyn’s hands.

  She stumbled back a little, shocked by his reaction and the worrying fact that he was still in his pyjamas! ‘Where have you been?’ he gasped.

  ‘In the wood, collecting samples, of course. You knew where we were going, Mayor Belcher,’ she explained slowly. ‘But we had to come back sooner than planned, because of the hex—’

  ‘Sooner than planned? Miss Gribble, is this some kind of joke?’ the mayor asked, his voice husky. He looked at Arianwyn, then at Colin, then at Miss Newam, searching their faces for an answer. Finally he looked at Tas and gave a little squeak of dismay.

  ‘Hell-oh!’ Tas said, waving.

  Just then, Salle came running to join the group under the high arch of the gateway. Bob followed at her heels, speeding up and dancing around Arianwyn until she lifted the moon hare into her arms, a pink velvety nose brushing her cold cheek in welcome.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Salle asked. She studied Arianwyn very carefully.

  ‘Will someone please explain what’s going on?’ Miss Newam snapped. ‘Anyone would think we’d been gone for years, not just a day!’

  Everyone fell silent. Constable Perkins coughed, his eyebrows so arched they looked as though they might lift off from his face and fly into the air.

  ‘But you’ve been gone for over two weeks,’ Salle offered quietly, her eyes wide.

  ‘What?’ Arianwyn asked. She suddenly felt rather sick, tiredness and hunger hitting her along with this bizarre news.

  ‘Oh, dear – I think you’d all better come straight to the town hall,’ Mayor Belcher said softly. But he eyed Tas with suspicion. ‘Ahem, about your . . . companion—’ he began.

  ‘I don’t think you should allow it within the town, Mayor Belcher,’ Miss Newam said quickly. ‘He is a . . . feyling. And for all we know, those creatures could be spreading the hex through the wood. The place was completely crawling with them!’

  ‘But they helped us,’ Arianwyn said, outraged, but simply too tired and too baffled at that moment to say anything further.

  ‘I think we should follow Miss Newam’s guidance. As a C.W.A. official,’ the mayor said. He turned and walked back through the gate before anyone could argue.

  ‘I’m sorry, Tas, wait here and I’ll sort this out in a jiffy. I’ll fetch some food as well. But I just have to—’

  He shook his head. ‘Tas OK.’ But his face remained serious and set. ‘Tas have to go, find others.’ He pointed back to the wood.

  ‘Oh, but I thought—’

  ‘Tas have to give girl-with-star something.’

  ‘Are you coming, Miss Gribble?’ the mayor called from further along the street.

  ‘I’ll be there in a few minutes,’ she replied. She turned back to Tas. His right arm was extended towards her, holding a piece of paper tightly in his fist. The paper was rolled into a small tube and tied with a thick blade of purple grass. ‘Oh. That’s kind, but you really don’t—’

  ‘He said, “Give to girl-with-star.”’

  She frowned. ‘You could have given it to me in the wood; you didn’t have to come all this way—’

  But Tas was shaking his head. ‘No. He said: “Give to girl-with-star in human town by the edge of wood. Must have. Knows what it is. How to use.”’

  Arianwyn chuckled gently at Tas carrying out his orders so diligently. She reached out towards the paper, her hand shaking slightly. She felt the faintest murmur of magic run through her arm, like a small electric current.

  Is it . . . ?

  She took the tube of paper and slipped the grass tie from it. The paper slowly unfurled in her hand like a strange leaf or flower. The page was just like the other one: not really paper at all, something else altogether. And there in its centre, bleeding and blooming across the page as though being drawn before her eyes, there was a symbol.

  It was a glyph. But not a cardinal glyph.

  Her heart raced against her ribs.

  This was different. It was a new quiet glyph.

  ‘Oh . . .’ Arianwyn breathed. She turned the page this way and that, studying the new glyph, her eyes searching every curve, every line. She looked at Tas. ‘Is it . . . from the Book of Quiet Glyphs?’ she asked in a hushed voice.

  Tas smiled. ‘From Estar.’

  ‘Estar?’ She felt a thrill of hope.

  Tas smiled and nodded enthusiastically. ‘Estar bringing book to girl-with-star!’

  Arianwyn felt her heart soar for a moment. But then she remembered the hex, the wood full of unimaginable horrors. What if Estar couldn’t get through?

  ‘OK?’ Tas asked.

  She had a new glyph and Estar was on his way. She had to believe that everything could still work out. She had to keep that hope alive.

  ‘I’m OK. But must you go now?’ Arianwyn asked Tas, taking his hand in her own. ‘What about your arm?’

  He looked back to the wood again. ‘Others not far. Will see girl-with-star again.’

  He smiled his broad toothy smile and then turned and walked slowly back across the meadow. The qered moved towards him and Tas spoke to them in a swooping hooting call that made them dance around him. And suddenly he was sitting on the back of one of the qered, and being transported speedily across the meadow which was once more filled with haunting whale-like cries that seemed to echo through the rustling grass as the rest of the herd called a farewell to Tas and his qered mount.

  She looked down at the glyph again, a million questions rushing through her mind at once.

  Arianwyn raced into the mayor’s parlour. Miss Newam, Colin, the mayor and Salle were already assembled around his desk and in heated discussion, though it was unclear what it was about.

  ‘Where is the feyling?’ Miss Newam asked.

  ‘Gone to find the others,’ Arianwyn explained quickly. Her hand held fast to the page and she was just about to mention it when Miss Newam sniffed and said, ‘Well, that’s one less irritant to deal with, isn’t it?’

  ‘That’s not fair, Miss Newam,’ Arianwyn said, her hand slipping from the page.

  ‘Mayor Belcher, we’ve only been gone from Lull for a day at most,’ Colin explained.

  ‘No, no, no! You left on Thursday the first of October and now it’s Saturday the seventeenth.’ He pointed to the calendar on his desk.

  What is going on? Arianwyn wondered. Her head ached, pain throbbing in her temples and behind her eyes.

  ‘But that’s not possible!’ Mis
s Newam crowed, snatching up the calendar and peering at it closely. ‘Is this some sort of joke?’

  ‘No joke, dear lady!’ the mayor replied, his cheeks flushing quickly before he looked away again.

  The room seemed to spin around Arianwyn. She reached out for the back of a nearby chair to steady herself. Had they really been gone for over two weeks? It really had felt like it had only been a day – albeit a very, very long day. She tried to take a calming, steadying breath. Then, with a slight sense of relief, she recalled something Estar had once told her.

  ‘Time moves differently in the Great Wood,’ she said. ‘And perhaps the hex is magnifying the distortion . . . Oh, the hex!’ Arianwyn exclaimed, suddenly remembering the most important news of all. ‘The hex has spread throughout the wood. Much closer to Lull.’

  ‘Hex?’ the mayor gasped. ‘Oh dear, oh dear.’

  ‘It stopped us getting to . . .’ She stumbled, suddenly realizing she was about to forget the cover story about gathering samples. ‘Further into the wood.’

  The mayor sat heavily into his seat and rested his head in his hands. ‘We thought something wasn’t right when you didn’t return after a week – and other things started emerging from the wood.’ He pulled out his little black notebook, a sure sign of trouble if ever there was one. ‘You saw those things outside, in the meadow?’ he asked.

  ‘The qered, yes. They’re not dangerous, though,’ Arianwyn offered quickly.

  ‘Perhaps not, but they are causing other sorts of problems – as are the things nesting against the town walls. I don’t suppose you know what they are?’

  Arianwyn shook her head. She hadn’t got a very good view of the cocoon.

  ‘Well, as a security measure we’ve been keeping the town gates locked and guarded at all times. And I’d hoped Miss Delafield could help, but she’s been rushed off her feet too, so Gimma has been doing what she can to help at the Spellorium—’

  ‘Oh!’ Arianwyn said, surprised.