CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
Theodora was patient with Dot and happily used her failures as an opportunity to complain about Lio. She did this the next day as she was teaching Dot the rune for teleportation.
‘It’s not your fault you’ve had no one to teach you. Liutprand, however – have you noticed he dries dishes by hand? I’m convinced he’s forgotten most of the basic runes.’
‘You used chalk for that spell with Rupert,’ said Dot.
‘Very astute,’ said Theodora with a wry smile.
‘Most severance spells are a cinch, but I needed the amplifiers – the chalk, the chanting, the closing of my eyes – because I was juggling various priorities. I had to sever the spell from Rupert without breaking my own wards, and that alone contained myriad elements to juggle.’
‘Such as?’ asked Dot, redrawing the teleportation rune again. She looked up to see Theodora considering her with those discerning eyes.
‘I suppose I can trust you,’ said the witch.
‘The wards are made up of three key elements. The three runes within the tea shop, which are repeated on each of the main floors, as I’m sure you realised the night our Rupert was inspirited.
The runes without, which all lead from the walls of the city all the way back to this dwelling like strings of bulbed lights.
And a third way – the keystone rune – which is strictly between myself and Belchamber. ’
‘Is that ward hidden in your bedroom?’
‘Why do you ask that?’
‘It’s the only room in the house Rupert and I aren’t permitted to enter,’ said Dot.
‘That is a very good guess, Dorothy. But, no, I am not so predictable.’
‘What would have happened if you’d severed the wards by mistake?’ asked Dot, watching the witch.
‘Catastrophe,’ said Theodora. ‘Acanthi would have spilled in and murdered us all.’
‘But why do they—’
‘Dorothy, I’m trying to teach you about wards.’
‘Of course,’ said Dot, setting her pen down. ‘How many wards are out in the city, then?’
‘Hundreds,’ said Theodora. ‘They are far less potent than the wards in the tea shop, but en masse, very useful. They are each a small amplifier for my magic. I will draw on them tomorrow.’
The witch’s expression clouded. Dot took up her pen once more and redrew the portal rune. They were silent some time before the witch said, ‘Tell me about Seafarthing.’
‘Oh, we don’t have to talk about it,’ said Dot. ‘It’s dull.’
‘It’s not,’ said Theodora. ‘Have you friends?’
‘Um,’ said Dot, awkwardly. Rarely was she the one asked a question.
‘I, well, I suppose I was close to my sister when we were small. Celia loves to read, and she has a little book club, and she’s so sociable.
My dad is very taken with her. He thinks she’ll be a teacher too.
’ Theodora was watching Dot curiously. ‘Outside of that, I suppose the people I like never tend to like me back.’
‘Ah,’ said Theodora. ‘I have the same curse.’
Dot snorted. ‘You? In all your cleverness and beauty and—’
She stopped herself. She had revealed too much. Theodora seemed not to notice. Instead, the witch said, ‘Why South Sea cuttlefish? Why didn’t Archie study something closer to home?’
The quarter moon arrived. Dot sat on the cold step by the Ethel Avenue side door.
The blackbirds warbled their pre-dawn chorus and Dot sipped her tonic as she watched Theodora chalk a circle onto the street, muttering snippets of rhyme in the spirit language.
She chalked a flourish in the upper right corner, connecting the spell to the quarter moon and added another flourish in the centre, connecting it to the city wards.
When the witch was done, she laid down several long branches of wood (‘Oak,’ she had explained, ‘of an extremely rare breed’) and brushed over the chalk a powdered concoction of fennel, rosemary and wombat claws (‘clipped, not stolen’).
Finally, Theodora took out the phial of blood that Lio had begrudgingly given her the night before and broke it over the centre of the rune.
A shot of violet magic crackled along the linework and raced out along the street like lit gunpowder.
Theodora glanced around.
‘No one yet,’ she said, coming to Dot. ‘So, I suppose we had better get our bait.’ The witch caught Dot’s change of expression.
‘Don’t look so worried for him. The moment Acanthi set foot here, Lio will be teleported right into the living room.
Not that he deserves my protection, really.
Nor yours. Why have you forgiven him so easily for his betrayal? ’
‘I truly don’t think he meant us any harm,’ said Dot, chin resting on her hand. ‘However silly his reasoning.’
Theodora rolled her eyes.
‘He’s quite unlike the men from Seafarthing, you know. None of them would uproot their entire life to search for their lost first love.’
‘Just wake him and tell him to come down here, Dorothy.’
The witch cast a portal and Dot stumbled through the whirling darkness out onto the landing before Rupert and Lio’s shared room. She steadied herself. She clasped and unclasped her hands. She knocked.
‘Lio? It’s time.’
Dot smelled his cologne before he had even stepped out of the morning gloom.
‘Must you play her errand girl so eagerly?’ Lio asked before trudging down the stairs like a man toward the gallows. Dot was left dizzy and a little dejected as she watched him.
‘It is a bit pathetic,’ said Rupert in pyjamas, pushing past her. He yawned as he, too, climbed down the stairs. Dot wanted to shout after the boy, but had nothing witty to say, so she simply stomped down after them.
When Dot at last came into the living room, Belchamber and Rupert were already looking out of the repaired windows, down at the street below. The morning sky was turning pink. Dot squinted against the glass, and she spotted Lio stood in the Ethel Avenue doorway.
‘What about the motor cars?’ called Lio.
‘I’ve diverted them,’ said Theodora from outside on the street.
‘What if you’ve changed your mind? What if Acanthi take me?’
‘You have little recourse either way,’ said Theodora, raising her hands. Thick tendrils of smoke plumed from her palms, filling the street. This was essential to the deception. ‘You can step into the street like an adult, or I can drag you like a child.’
Lio took a hollow breath, glancing upwards at his audience in the living room. Half obscured by the smoke, he nodded as if in goodbye and stepped out from the protection of the tea shop and onto the rune-chalked street.
That was all it took.
Three violent shots of magic rang out as the witches of Acanthi descended on Ethel Avenue. The very moment they did, Dot heard a thump and a gasp behind them. Lio was now on the living room floor, panting, his white shirt stained with purple ink that read: You’re welcome.
‘Thank the Saints,’ said Lio, shaking. He pulled himself to the window beside Dot.
In between plumes of smoke, they watched Theodora deftly twirl and dodge spell after spell.
Agytha’s magic was tart and flowery; Moira’s was dogged and grizzly; Cate’s was desperate, bloody and bold.
Theodora’s, however, was something different altogether.
She threw out one hand and a beam of golden light toppled Agytha.
She threw out another, and Cate’s red threads turned to worms. Dot finally understood how the witch had built and balanced her empire: here was a woman radiant with magic.
‘Let us end this,’ cried Moira somewhere in the smoke. ‘You’ll hide from us no long—’
Theodora sent another shot of golden light at her. A strangled cry rang out; the spell must have landed. Out of the dark fog leaped a mutt who skittered off down the street.
‘Theodora’s many wards across the city help to amplify her magic,’ said Belchamber, grimacing. ‘But she is not invincible.’
‘She needs to hurry,’ said Lio.
Theodora sent a burst of light at Cate, who was thrown as if struck by a great gust of wind. Moira, still in dog form, leaped to bite Theodora but she too was slapped back with magic. Yet, as Theodora shot this spell, Agytha dove at her and seized her.
‘Theo,’ gasped Dot. ‘Belchamber, can’t you go down there?’
Uncharacteristically, the spirit did not answer her question. They all watched as vines, charmed by Agytha, wound up Theodora’s limbs.
‘Belchamber!’ cried Dot.
‘I must stay here, Miss Dorothy.’
Theodora yelped, and an explosion of magic burst from her. Agytha was thrown to the ground, her skull cracking against the cobbled street.
‘Quick,’ cried Dot.
Somewhere in the fog, Cate cried out for her fallen friend.
Through the smoke, the living room audience glimpsed Agytha’s prone body and Theodora reaching down to collect her blood.
The old woman stirred; she whispered something to Theodora, whose triumphant expression of moments earlier disappeared.
Theodora stared, gaunt, at the old woman. She placed her hand on Agytha’s shoulder. It was a small, consolatory moment, and then it was over. Theodora deftly broke the phial of Agytha’s blood against the rune. A sharp burst of magic shot out. Agytha disappeared.
‘Success!’ cried Belchamber. ‘She has been warded from the city!’
Theodora rose, ready for the final two witches, but as she waded through the fog and at last expelled it from the street, Catherine Weyer and Moira O’Cleary disappeared from Ethel Avenue.