The Most Wanted Witch: Tales of Xest

by Donna Augustine

“Why someone else? You don’t think I can handle it? I can handle it.” All her bounce was instantly gone, as if I’d popped a smiley balloon and it was just a sad, saggy piece of yellow flop.

  I looked over at Hawk, wondering why he wasn’t stepping up. Why didn’t he offer to do it? He couldn’t let Bibbi be the bait when he was so much more equipped to handle that kind of situation.

  Oh shit. Maybe he couldn’t. He went out by himself all the time, and nothing ever went near him either. Were the grouslies afraid of him as well? I wanted to groan into my hands. This was why I shouldn’t be contributing. Now maybe he’d learn.

  Hawk was giving me a look like I’d stepped in it. Bibbi was staring as if I’d stabbed her repeatedly in the chest. No one else was stepping up either.

  “I just worry, but I know you’re capable,” I said to her.

  “Good. It’s settled, then. We should do it soon. Maybe tomorrow?”

  Hawk shrugged, as if he’d given up this fight. He never gave up a fight. What was wrong with him?

  The rest of us seemed shell-shocked.

  “I’m going to go pick out an outfit,” Bibbi said, near skipping from the room. The rest of them disappeared in pairs afterward, Zab and Oscar, and then Bertha and Musso, all probably heading out to gossip about how badly I’d messed that up.

  As soon as the room cleared, I headed straight to where Hawk was fixing himself a drink.

  “Why didn’t you intervene? We can’t let Bibbi do this. She could get hurt.”

  “We’ll be there.” He sipped his tea, as if it was another day in the office.

  “I’d rather it be someone else,” I said, not budging.

  “No one else volunteered, and I can’t do it. You’re the one who backed her play. You should’ve considered some of this beforehand.”

  “You didn’t even want this to happen, and now you’re going to let her do it?”

  “Are you admitting that you purposefully ignored me?” Hawk asked.

  “Obviously.” Did that even have to be said? He knew it. I knew it. Now he was going to make a thing of it? “You can’t let this happen just because you’re mad at me.”

  “That’s not the case. But if you want to stop her, you should do that.” He leaned against the counter, saying nothing else.

  I walked out.

  5

  There was a soft rap at my door before Bibbi whispered, “Tippi, you awake?”

  “Yeah, come in.” I sat up, putting Dusty, who’d just gone invisible, to the side.

  She walked in, glancing both ways down the hall before she shut the door softly.

  “What’s wrong? Everything okay?” I asked.

  She pulled a grey piece of paper out of her pocket and held it out to me. “A stealth flash came for you.”

  I took the folded slip that was the color of mist and seemed to almost disappear if you held it a certain way. “What’s a stealth flash?”

  “It’s like a newsflash but secret. Whoever sent it messed up, because it kept banging on my window.” She pointed to my name. “It’s clearly addressed to you.”

  I flipped it open.

  I have important information. Meet me at the tree in the square at quarter past moonrise. Come alone.

  Mertie

  I closed the note. “Bibbi, how soon is quarter past moonrise?”

  She walked over to the window and looked up. “Just a little bit from now. Why? What’s that?” She lifted her head, trying to peek at the note.

  “I’ve got to go meet someone I knew from the factory.”

  “Now?”

  “Yeah, but it’s fine. Totally safe.” I stood and picked up an invisible Dusty with me. “Can you keep Dusty company while I’m gone? He hates being alone.”

  Dusty bit my finger, and I held in the pain. Bibbi liked to put bows on Dusty’s little head and sometimes dress him up. He’d have to take one for the team so I could get out of here in peace. It was going to cost me a lot of cocoas tomorrow, or there might be a massive dust explosion in my room.

  “Oh! I’d love to.” She was all over him, leaving to kidnap him to her room seconds later.

  I slipped on my boots, grabbed my jacket, and made it to the office before anyone else intercepted me.

  “Where are you going?” Oscar said from where he was sitting at Zab’s desk, flipping through slips casually.

  “Nowhere special. Just stretching my legs,” I said, walking a little faster toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Hawk asked from the back door.

  “Nowhere,” Oscar answered.

  “I was going to stretch my legs,” I said, turning to leave.

  Hawk walked in my direction. “I’ll come with you. I wouldn’t mind a little exercise.”

  I stopped at the door. “I really wanted a little quiet.”

  “I won’t talk.” He smiled as he shrugged on his jacket.

  My shoulders slumped. Why was nothing ever easy in this place? Why was nothing ever easy with him?

  “Fine. I have an appointment and need to go alone.”

  “Well, that was surprisingly easy,” Oscar said, laughing as he kicked his heels up onto the desk.

  “With who?” Hawk asked with no humor whatsoever.

  I turned back to Hawk, to the stare that wouldn’t quit and the stance that said he could go all night. “Is it possible for something to not be any of your business?”

  “We’re at war. Everything is my business, especially covert meetings in the middle of the night.”

  In other words, I could come clean now or he’d follow me and find out anyway.

  “Let me ask you something: is this a wartime thing or a Hawk thing?”

  “Hmm. Interesting question. My choice would be that the two are one and the same,” Oscar said from the other side of the room.

  Hawk didn’t bother answering.

  Well, that gave me nothing.

  I glanced at the door, knowing I was running out of time to make my meeting and there was no way I was getting there in peace now.

  Would it really be that bad if I did tell him? What if it was a setup? Hawk would be my best option for backup. Mertie had specifically instructed me not to bring anyone. I was curious enough to follow her to the letter of the note, which hadn’t said anything about not telling anyone.

  “Fine, I’ll tell you, but you need to know I’m sharing this information because it’s a wartime decision, not because I feel you deserve to know everywhere I go.”

  He rolled his hand, as if he didn’t particularly care what my reasoning was. “Who’s the meeting with?”

  “Mertie, and you can’t come.” I’d fight that battle to the end. If he thought he was going to rule every move I made, the ugliest battle I’d be fighting was with him.

  “Go.”

  I put my hands on my hips as I eyed him. “You’re not going to try to come?”

  “No.” He turned and walked back to Oscar. “Come on. Let’s get going. We’ll go out the back.”

  Hawk was already out of the room as Oscar unfolded himself from the chair and followed.

  “Where are you two going?” I asked. What was more important than harassing me?

  “Nowhere,” Oscar said, laughing.

  My crew, the gang I was stuck with and would probably die with, were a bunch of assholes.

  I zipped my coat up until it swallowed the bottom half of my face and pulled my hat out of my pocket. That ate up everything north of my eyeballs, so there was only enough space to breathe and see. It was as covert as I could get.

  It was a great meeting place because it obscured its inhabitants completely. It was a horrible meeting place if someone else happened to schedule a clandestine meeting at the same time or happened to be watching.

  “You’re late.” Mertie was leaning on the trunk, smoking a cigarette.

  “You said a quarter past moonrise. That’s not a precise time.”

  “And what’s with the weird getup?” Her cigarette made rings of smoke as s
he motioned to my apparel.

  “I was trying to be discreet, per request.”

  “That’s not discreet. You look like a weirdo about to rob something.”

  I quickly remembered how she’d never seemed to have any friends at the wish factory.

  “What did you want? You’ve been avoiding me for months, and now I have to sneak around in the middle of the night.”

  “You do realize you’re the most wanted witch in Xest? Of course I’m not going to talk to you in public. It could ruin my entire setup.”

  The most wanted witch. She made it sound like my face was plastered on the side of buildings with the most unflattering picture they could find, and a reward posted below it. The situation wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t like I didn’t see the list of people on the other side of our crusade, but they weren’t against me. They didn’t like our side as a whole. There was also a long list of undecideds. Mertie didn’t know if maybe they secretly agreed with us, and therefore me.

  “There are people that like me too.” There was no reason to make it sound quite so negative. The term “most wanted” might’ve gotten a bad rap from the police, but it could’ve been most wanted in a positive light, like most wanted gift of the year.

  “Fine. You’re so loved.” She took another drag and exhaled on a groan. She blew out a cloud of smoke that would’ve made a city’s smog jealous, flinging ashes all about as she did.

  The way she said it made it hard to argue the point without sounding like a narcissist. Must she always be so unpleasant? I used to think it was a demon thing, but I was beginning to believe it was a Mertie thing.

  “Look, I’m here. What did you want to talk about?” I asked in the most civil tone I could muster, which was pretty decent, because I wanted this conversation done and over with.

  “Just so you know, the people who don’t love you are having dreams of killing you.”

  That was what I got for being civil. Her personality was allergic to polite discourse.

  “Thank you for beating that to death. I appreciate it. Now, what did you want? It’s freezing out, and I’ve got a warm bed waiting.”

  “Considering a lot of important people think you’re the key to saving this world, you’re not being very impressive right now. I just told you why I called you here. They’re all having dreams of killing you. Like synced-up dreams of murder, almost like they’re being brainwashed or goaded by something dark and evil. That’s a problem for you.”

  She gave me jazz hands, as if I needed the ta-da moment emphasized for my feeble mind to grasp the problem.

  She could save the flourishes. It was sinking in just fine, like an iron tack hammered into my skull. They were having dreams of killing me, all together, a horde of them.

  “How do you know? Are you having them too?” I took a harder look at the messenger, retreating a step. I was still underneath the canopy of the tree, but barely.

  The proximity was suddenly a bit suffocating. Why had I insisted Hawk not come? Oh yeah, because I was tough and could handle my own business, and, most of all, I was pissed at him for thinking he knew best all the time.

  She tsked. “No. You think I’d be clustered in with them? Never, but I can’t get away from them. I hear them talking while they work. Most of them don’t shut the hell up. All I’m hearing lately is insistent chatter of how they dream of your blood.” She finished one cigarette and then used the last embers to light the next. She took an unnaturally long drag before she started back up. “At first I thought it was random daydreams, you know, the typical sort you have of stabbing someone to death when they piss you off.”

  If I took another step back, I’d be outside the canopy. As appealing as that was, it was a better plan to get all the details, no matter how much I didn’t want to hear them.

  She took another drag and then continued to speak, the words smoke-laden. “Then I saw a trend: it was happening between groups that didn’t socialize. The dreams all sounded a little too similar, too. You know, not how they killed you exactly, but how they all had this uneasy feeling and agitation that was replaced by this feeling of elation as you lay dead at their feet.

  “They all had slightly different twists to their endings. Some talked of carrying your dead body through the streets and others putting your head on a spike, but that’s not really important.” She took another drag and glanced my way, as if remembering I was listening to her. “Yeah, so I figured you might want to know how Dread is trying to come for you. That’s what you call it, right? Dread? Not the most original, but fitting, I guess.”

  I nodded, taking in deep breaths and then letting them out slowly to calm the racing of my heart.

  “You look a little paler than your normal ghostly self.” Mertie straightened off the tree and waved a hand to the spot she’d been leaning. “You need to relax or something? You’re not gonna throw up, right?” She took a step away from me, as if she were afraid I’d get sick and splatter her hooves.

  “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look it. That little strip of flesh still visible looks near ghostly, and I’ve seen my fair share.”

  “No, I’m good. Just cold.” I jumped around in my spot a bit, as if warming up as I tried to get some blood pumping.

  Mertie went back to leaning in her spot while I tried to stay on my feet as the reality hit. A retired demon was warning me that there was a mass hypnosis going on, plotting my death. Dread couldn’t kill me. Its creatures couldn’t kill me. A few of his top people hadn’t been able to kill me. So was it going to come at me with an army of brainwashed minions? What was I supposed to do with that kind of information? It wasn’t like I could kill half of Xest.

  It was dreams and I was well known. It might mean absolutely nothing.

  “I don’t have anything else, by the way.” Mertie was looking at me, as if wondering why I was still standing there.

  She didn’t have to encourage me to get going. I was ready before I’d gotten there. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

  She lifted her chin a hair.

  I went to leave, but couldn’t stop myself from asking one last question. “Why’d you warn me? I’ve always gotten the impression you didn’t like me.”

  She shrugged again. “I don’t know. I haven’t picked a side yet, and I like having options. If you’re dead, there aren’t as many options left. Don’t think you’re special because I gave you a warning. It doesn’t mean I like you.”

  So happy she’d cleared that up.

  “Yeah, well, thanks.” I walked out from the tree, my tolerance for Mertie hitting its capacity for the night.

  I’d made it halfway home before Hawk was walking beside me.

  “What did she want?”

  If I didn’t tell him, he’d hound me. It wasn’t really a big deal, was it? People dreamt all the time. They didn’t usually turn into homicidal maniacs. Maybe they’d like me a little less, but it wouldn’t make them a bloodthirsty horde. He’d surely agree that it was nothing. Maybe using him as a sounding board wasn’t a bad idea.

  “People are having dreams.”

  “What kind of dreams?” he asked, with no levity at all.

  “Ones where they kill me and have a parade afterward. It’s a little mass hysteria. Nothing to get all up in arms about.” He might need a hint so he realized this wasn’t a big deal.

  I could feel his energy shifting, ratcheting up until it nearly sizzled in the air around us. This wasn’t helping matters. At. All.

  “It’s just dreams,” I said. “It’s not like anything happened or there’s some mass organizing to come kill me tomorrow. I’m fine. You haven’t lost any of your advantages. It’s all good.”

  I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye, but he wasn’t talking. He wouldn’t take my bait to fight. He just let me zig without zagging back. The energy kept building up around him.

  By the time we got back to the building, all I wanted was to get away from him too. It was dreams. People dreamt horrible things all the t
ime. I wasn’t going to blow it up into something catastrophic. Dreams meant nothing. I’d dreamt I went to dinner with no pants. I didn’t turn around and go out with no clothes the next day.

  This wasn’t getting blown up into something it wasn’t, not when I had too many issues that were something.

  6

  Hawk was on the other side of the room talking with Oscar, Zab, Musso, and Bertha.

  Bibbi was zipping up her jacket, getting ready. I’d tried to broach the subject of how being bait wasn’t a good idea all day. She’d shut me down every time until I’d given up. She was going to do this, and I was going to kill anything that got near her. Just the way it was going to go.

  “I’m going to be close by,” I said, not that she seemed to care. I was the one who couldn’t stand still, who had to shove her hands in her pockets to hide the fidgeting.

  She smiled. “I know.”

  “Very close. You’ll never actually be alone.” See? It would be fine. They wouldn’t get anywhere close to her.

  She nodded. “I know.”

  “You tucked those pants into the boots all the way down so they can’t lift?” I stared at her ankles.

  She tugged up a pants leg, displaying the metal underneath that would protect her if they got a nip. It had been Musso’s brilliant idea. It was some weird material the grouslies would have trouble chewing through. Musso had gotten them from an ancestor who’d been a dragon trainer in a past life. Apparently it wasn’t a very good job. Dragons didn’t train well and usually killed their trainer eventually, like Musso’s great-uncle. Musso had inherited the pants but had passed on the occupation.

  “And don’t lean down to pluck them off. They’ll get your hands.”

  “Hawk went over all of this. And Oscar, and Musso too, but at that point I was sort of drifting, so I’m not sure. I’m ready, so don’t worry. I’ve got this.” She didn’t stop smiling.

  Just the fact that she said she had this under control made me feel like we were all standing on quicksand. She was Bibbi. She had nothing under control. She was my age and yet so much younger. She had zero idea of what she was doing.