8. The Spider and the Sword
The Spider and the Sword
Rumor Malefic
Dream was a witch I’d seldom spoken to. I wasn’t close with any of the coven, really.
Dream, with some sort of aquamarine hued crystal, enveloped our circle in orange smoke.
Through the smoke, an image made itself clear.
The banging continued, along with thrashing and wailing, as the beast pounded against the walls of our wards.
“It’s a…” a voice somewhere in the coven started.
Charm shook her head, perplexed. “A horse? Why would a horse be beating down the walls of our protections?”
Oh… I recognized that horse. I glared at Birch as he rose on his hind legs and beat against our barrier with his hooves.
Empath furrowed her brow, stepping closer to the wall between us and assessing the stallion, though Birch couldn’t see her.
He must have followed me and knew it was our solstice night.
The Viper brothers knew a little too much about our witch practices for my comfort.
And now Birch-the-horse was getting on my nerves.
Our crone skimmed her fingers over the ward slowly… suddenly she jerked her hand away as if electrocuted. Turning on her heels, she looked straight at me. “That is the soul of your sister’s betrothed within that animal.”
The eyes of every coven member burned into me. I crossed my arms and lifted a shoulder. “So what if it is?”
What, did they expect me to feel guilt? Sympathy? Hell no. In fact, if I hadn’t found the mystery grimoire, Birch would still be on two legs going about his merry way and the coven, obviously, didn’t give a shit.
Charm covered her mouth with her hand, raising her eyebrows. “It is dark magic.”
Empath noted the cat at my side and met my gaze again, replying to Charm. “It isn’t dark magic, it is gray magic, though still uncomfortably close to darkness.”
The coven was silent still, save for a few hushed gasps.
“Maybe gray, white, pink, dark… magic is what’s needed to deploy a bit of justice,” I replied.
More gasps.
Tune huffed from her spot by the bonfire. “Rumor acts as if she’s the only one who has lost someone. We’ve all lost people we love.”
“Yet Rumor’s the only one storming into the solstice circle demanding attention on her and her loss,” Memoir added as another boom from the horse’s hooves shook our wards.
“Keep talking about me like I’m not standing right here, and we’ll see how you two like the taste of hay next, shall we?” I quipped, fisting my hands at my sides.
“Enough,” Empath interrupted. “Rumor, how did you come to learn such a spell to do such a thing?”
I lifted a shoulder and dared to ignore my crone. “What can I do to get Prism back? Since no one seems willing to help me.”
More gasps. I was sure Charm was close to fainting at my disrespect. However, Emp simply knelt and gave my cat a scratch behind the ear. “Seems my bakery cat has found its person finally. Or finally worked up the nerve to follow you home.”
“I’ll march into the woods for her. I’ll die by the claws of the withers before I sit idly by and do nothing.”
Empath stood, the wrinkles around her eyes creased with fatigue.
The scent of flour and butter was still heavy on her clothing.
“Life is about acceptance, Rumor. As witches, we don’t dole out justice as we see fit.
We work in harmony with nature and her cycles.
Life, death, and rebirth flow. I am sorry for what happened to your sister.
However, child, I would strongly advise as your crone that you stay far from the dark woods—physically and magically speaking. ”
I opened my mouth to respond when Empath’s voice resounded in my mind, though her lips weren’t moving. “ There would be two paths, two wicked and treacherous paths toward retrieving Prism, should she still be alive .”
My eyes widened and I glanced around at the coven. Most of my coven sisters looked on with a mixture of condemnation and pity. I didn’t know which was worse. But none of them could hear what Empath spoke directly into my mind. It was my first glimmer of hope.
“What is it?” I whispered. “Tell me.” I meant to only reply with thoughts, but my heart was beating so fast it pushed my words out as a hoarse whisper.
Birch beat against the enclosure wards and neighed, finally kicking up dirt against our walls and breaking into a slow pace back and forth.
Empath looked after him and back at me, speaking out loud this time for all the coven to hear.
“The rite needed a wedding for the town or a maiden for the monsters. You’ve shirked your responsibility for too long, Rumor.
It is why, I believe, the town’s rulership wards have punished you near monthly. ”
“We all figured as much.” I raised an eyebrow and, with my mind, responded. “ But what does that have to do with getting my sister back ?”
“You’re betrothed, Rumor. In the absence of your mothers, Charm and I have secured your rite. It should please the Willowspire rulership wards and settle the forest.”
“What?” I screeched. “You can’t do that. You can’t just marry me off to… to who even?”
Empath sucked in a bracing breath. “Adder Viper. Your mothers liked him.”
My eyes widened and heat rose in my chest. “Hell. No.”
“The Viper brothers are a path to retrieving your sister. You marrying one of them would not only please the town’s ruleship magic and harmonize our decrees, but it would mean you and your sister are under their protection.”
“A Viper Brother is why my sister is in this mess to begin with!” My voice rose. “I will not.”
“ Adder Viper is the most skilled hunter I’ve known in my years on this earth. He can find her, he can find anyone. ” My crone’s voice implored me within my mind as the coven chattered around me, taking in the spectacle of my fate.
“No,” I repeated. “ What is the second option? You mentioned two. ”
“Something far worse than a Viper brother… however… as wary as I am about gray magic, we have not had a gray witch in our coven for many a generation. You, and your magic, are capable of… bending the rules.”
“How so?”
Empath looked to Charm as if to check and make sure she couldn’t hear us. The high priestess busied herself with packing away her harp and unused flutes.
“The only people more powerful and vicious that could aid not only Prism but all of Willowspire would be… The Blackthorne Boys.”
Fear struck my heart like a lightning bolt and radiated through my body, igniting both intrigue and fury with every charge of its electricity.
“The Blackthorne Boys? What—how—what could I do?”
“Persuade them… by whatever means necessary. We already know you can get past their gates because you’re pulled into their cemetery every month. Go further, child. Go to them. Make them help you… help all of us.”
“I-I don’t know how I could.”
“How did you trade the souls of Birch Viper and the stallion? Gray magic runs through your veins… you have always been one foot in the shadows, Rumor Malefic. This is your chance to use that for good, for your coven, your town, and for Prism. Gray witches of old could do much more than force a man to atone for his sins by spending a fortnight as a beast. Your magic is made for enticing others to do your bidding.”
I shook my head, processing the onslaught of horrific information. “What do you suggest? I-I-I don’t know, hex them or something? Force them to do as I say?”
“Hexes are a nasty and unpredictable business… but with the bloodlines of both your mother and your matri flowing through you… if anyone can manage, I believe you can.”
Saga touched my elbow, startling me, bringing my awareness back to the coven who watched on. “Your mothers would want you to proceed with your marriage rite. It is written in the cosmos.”
I rolled my eyes. “Convenient, being that you are a cosmic witch. I’d like for everyone here to stop pretending they know what my mother and matri would want for me.”
The coven seemed sated by the offering of drama at my expense.
Stallion-Birch trotted off, and many of the sisters disappeared past the wards.
Back to Willowspire, to hang up their crystal dreams and hopeful potions and return to hushed and practical magic behind shades of beige and feelings of fear.
I stayed by the fire as the last of its embers popped.
Tossing in a stone, I watched the ash flutter.
A gray witch? Was I really a gray witch?
My soul, if I had one, didn’t answer. Did Matri always know she was a sea witch?
I touched my sea glass necklace at my chest, my thumb dancing over the imprint of mother’s six leaf clover.
Both of my mothers with me—yet so far and unreachable at the same time.
What would they have me do? Marry a Viper and hope he’d keep me safe and retrieve my sister?
Live a life of servitude as a farmer and hunter’s wife?
Or would they hope I’d take the risk of walking past the thorn covered iron gates, past the scattered graves, and into an entirely different den of snakes? One no one had ever ventured into before, let alone do so and lived to tell the tale.
My crone’s presence was that of realizing a wise owl was staring at you from the trees.
She regarded me with untold stories behind her gaze as she joined me by the fire.
Soot curled on a patch of grass, watching us with slitted eyes.
Empath cupped my face, forcing me to stare into her wise eyes.
“What will it be, Rumor Malefic? What do you choose on this sacred solstice? One path is of the light, of the witches in front of you. Will you walk forward into a life with Adder, fulfilling your rite and your duty to your town and its magic? The next path is one of shadow only a few witches behind you have traversed. Will you choose the gray? To leave all that you know in pursuit of answers to questions you’ve yet known to even ask? ”
I glanced over at the huge stump of the broken willow. How mighty and majestic it must have once been. The solstices that my ancestry of witches must have enjoyed under its healing branches now another ghost that haunted the field.
Another thing taken from us.
Prism’s scream echoed in my mind.
The feeling of my mothers’ glaring absence.
Doom lingered, pressing on my shoulders like a phantom in the dark. When would the spider return? When would I be buried beneath the earth again? When would the next rapture be, and who would it take from us then?
The feeling of my mothers’ glaring absence hollowed my chest.
Prism’s scream echoed in my mind.
My head throbbed, punctuating my silent fear as if I were a frightened little child. When would the spider come back? My whole life was spent waiting for the next bad thing to happen. For once I wanted to be the bad thing.
The spider.
The grave.
The monster.
The omen.
The hex.
The fire within me stirred as I made my decision. “I’m going to hex the Blackthorne Boys.”