Sorceress' Blood

by Carl Purcell

  "The Sorceress had an army of Thralls. With her magic, she'd made them inhumanly powerful and obedient to the death. Then, in case she should ever be defeated, she had a child with one of them and taught her Thralls a way to use the blood of her family, her child, to bring her back from the dead so that she might again take her place as the terrible ruler of the world. The Order found out about this some time later and managed to stop the ritual just in time and separate the Thralls from the Sorceress' descendants. We have battled over them ever since and, because of that, we separated them from ourselves so that we would not lead the Thralls to those who carry the Sorceress’ blood. Can you see where I'm going with this, Miss Williams?” Rebecca glanced towards the door.

  “No, I have no idea.” She kept him talking. In her mind she tried to retrace the way through the house to the door. Her heart was beating fast, on the edge of a fresh adrenaline dump.

  “If this child was attacked by the Thralls then they believe her to be the latest generation of the Sorceress' family. That is why we must keep her here and find any family she might have. Sir Julian thought you were her mother; that's why he brought you here as well."

  Lord Sebastian opened his eyes again and sipped at his drink. He watched Rebecca, making it clear to her that it was her turn to talk.

  "You don't expect me to believe any of that, do you? I stopped believing in magic when I was eleven years old. I think we should just go now.”

  "You are free to leave, Miss Williams, though, as a witness, the Thralls may still have an interest in you if only to make sure you are silent or to find us through you. However, you're also free to stay; the choice is yours. The child will remain, though, and we will track down her family to bring them here until we ascertain if they are indeed from the Sorceress' blood line and then find a way to keep them safe."

  "I'm not leaving her with you people!" Rebecca stood up. Her chair fell with a clatter behind her. Her leg nearly buckled under the sudden strain. Lord Sebastian didn't even flinch.

  "Then you will be staying. Do not take it the wrong way, Miss Williams, but you have a losing hand. We're far from the world you know, and everyone here works for me; most of them are my knights. That means they are strong and ready for combat against anyone." Rebecca opened her mouth to reply but no words came. She was defeated and now she was trapped. She looked down at the little girl to see how she was taking it. The little girl was sitting quietly in her chair; she had no words, no emotion on her face, nothing at all. Rebecca crossed her arms and looked back at Lord Sebastian expectantly. He smiled with satisfaction but without looking smug; his was a graceful, gentlemanly nature, even in victory.

  "Would you please show these two to their rooms, my dear? “

  “Yes, Lord Sebastian," the maid replied and walked around to the side of the table. "Please follow me." Rebecca took the girl by the hand and followed her back through to the entrance hall.

  They were led up the stairs to the second floor. A long, wide corridor stretched the length of the house with a row of doors along both walls. Each room had a name, written on its wooden door in beautiful, flowing, golden writing. One such door had the word ‘Beira’ written on it. They stopped outside this room and the maid turned to Rebecca and said:

  “This will be your room for the duration of your stay. Please try not to lose your key.”

  “What about her?” Rebecca asked, looking down at the little girl.

  “She is to use the Oisin room next to yours.” The maid took the little girl by the hand, instructed her to follow and guided her to the next door along the hallway. Rebecca watched her being led into the room and then went quietly into her own. The room was as elegant as the rest of Lord Sebastian’s castle. The carpet was a rich, dark scarlet; white silk sheets were spread over the varnished, wooden double bed. No expense had been spared in decorating the room with beautiful, classical landscape paintings and a magnificently designed, curving dresser with six drawers and a large round mirror in a golden frame on the top of it. Next to the dresser, on the left side of the room, was a door leading to a full bathroom with marble surfaces; the right wall had a sliding door to a wardrobe built into the wall. Rebecca had never seen a room like it, except in hotel brochures for places she could never afford to stay at. Everything around here was the finest money could buy and there were some items she didn’t imagine you even could buy any more. When she sat down on the bed she felt herself sink a little as the mattress and the sheets moulded to fit her body with the utmost comfort.

  Rebecca began to examine the cut on her leg. The bleeding had stopped, after staining her stockings, and had begun to scab over. Her hands were also looking fine but she still felt a few bruises here and there. Rebecca was fortunate in that she had a faster metabolism than most and her body put itself back together quickly because of it. The downside was that it made her hungrier and more often – like at that very moment, as she examined herself in the Beira room on the second floor of Lord Sebastian’s castle. There were troublesome aches in her body and the only formal clothes she had were scuffed and torn and all-together ruined by the day’s events; being hungry just made that seem even worse. A clock on the wall confirmed her suspicions that it was getting close to dinner time and she wondered what protocol for eating was. Before meeting Lord Sebastian they’d walked by the biggest dining room she’d ever seen with room enough for two hundred people to feast. She wondered if she’d eat there with the other people she’d seen briefly as she was led around the castle.

  Rebecca’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Rebecca answered it and was greeted by a maid.

  “Lord Sebastian thought you may be in need of a change of clothes. He also requests that when you’re ready, you and the young lady should join him downstairs again for dinner.” The maid handed her a small stack of clothing. She then left Rebecca to change. Right then Rebecca noticed that the small girl had been standing behind the maid the whole time. The two stared at each other with uncertainty for a moment before Rebecca broke the silence.

  “Would you like to come in?” Without responding, the little girl walked into the room and sat down on a chair by the dresser. She didn’t say anything and just stared at her feet. Rebecca watched expectantly for a while and, when the girl didn’t say anything, she took her new clothes over to the bed and examined them. The top was a black polo shirt a size too big for her and with it were loose fitting navy jeans; a belt was already threaded through the waist with an empty holster hanging on the hip. These pants, like the shirt, looked as if they were too big for her as well. Both articles were men's cuts. She sighed and shrugged, figuring it was better than what she had on now. She looked over her shoulder at the little girl – nothing had changed – and then she went to the bathroom to change her clothes. The belt held her jeans up fine but the pants were too long and she had to roll them up at the ankles. Rebecca came out of the bathroom and looked over at the girl with as friendly a smile as he could manage.

  “What do you think?” The little girl looked up from her feet at Rebecca but when she didn’t say anything, Rebecca’s smile faded. “They’re pretty big. I wonder what this writing is on the shirt. It's not English.”

  “You're not going to hurt me, are you?”

  Rebecca looked at her in wide eyed surprise.“No. Of course I'm not. Why would I?”

  “My name is Ashley.”

  “Ashley?” She repeated and the little girl nodded. Rebecca walked over to the little black-haired girl and knelt down. “Hi Ashley, my name is Rebecca.” Ashley just nodded. “I was starting to wonder if you could talk. Why have you been so quiet?” There was no response from Ashley this time. She wasn’t looking at Rebecca any more either, but at her hands resting in her lap. “Alright Ashley, you just say something when you want to. Are you hungry?” Ashley nodded. “So am I. Starving, in fact. Let’s go downstairs and meet Lord Sebastian for something to eat.” Ashley nodded again and slid off the chair and onto her feet.

  Lord S
ebastian was waiting for them, where they had first met him. The tablecloth had been changed and a second maid was standing by his chair. When Rebecca and Ashley came into the room he stood up and, without looking, gestured to his maids. Both of them went around the table and pulled out the chairs for Rebecca and Ashley. The girls took their seats and the maids immediately began to serve dinner. Lord Sebastian sat and, when his glass had been filled with red wine, he took a sip and then seemed to ponder over the taste of it. Ashley prodded the food on her plate a little. Rebecca watched Sebastian’s behaviour with the same curiosity she felt when she watched exotic animals at the zoo – was this how the wealthy lived, spending too much time thinking about wine? Unfortunately, there was no information on display about Lord Sebastian, and the way he treated her with stand-offish indifference didn’t help. Lord Sebastian wasn't a snake that came close to the glass to inspect the onlookers. Lord Sebastian was more like a lion that just didn't care that people were looking and children were making faces. Lord Sebastian hadn’t said a word to either of his guests since they came downstairs and now he began to eat his food quietly and in small bites. Rebecca gave up waiting for him to talk and began to eat. She was so surprised when she tasted it that she could not stop herself from comment.

  “Wow, this is really good.”

  “Yes. I made sure that the head chef personally cooked his speciality for this meal. I see even the young lady is enjoying herself. I am pleased she is more active than she was when you first arrived. How do you like my castle?”

  “The rooms are very nice,” Rebecca said politely. Everything had been exceptional since her arrival as Lord Sebastian’s guest, but she still felt like a glorified prisoner of a madman and his personal army.

  “Has she spoken yet?” Lord Sebastian asked. He had yet to look up from his meal and when it was Rebecca’s turn to talk he would eat a little more and sip his wine. Rebecca looked down at Ashley. She wasn’t smiling and she didn’t move any more than she had to in order to eat. The little girl had remained quiet since they left Rebecca’s bedroom and showed no desire to say anything.

  “No. She hasn’t said a word since I met her.” Rebecca looked back up at Sebastian.

  “No matter.” he said. “Should her condition persist I will bring a psychologist to my castle to help her. That is unlikely to be necessary, however. When the tests begin tomorrow she will not need to speak, only to listen and follow along with what she is told.”

  “Tests? What tests?” Rebecca placed one hand on Ashley and tensed her muscles. She wondered if her legs were up to running yet.

  “We must discover if she is indeed the Sorceress’ heir that the Thralls believe she is. Therefore, we must test her.”

  “Like a blood test?”

  “No. We have no record or sample of the Sorceress’ blood to compare her with.”

  “Then how?”

  “Ms Williams, you are unlikely to know this but it is, in fact, true that the majority of people on earth are capable of learning magic.” Lord Sebastian put down his knife and fork and for the first time looked up at his guests. Rebecca went to say something but he began talking again before she could. “Let me finish. Children in particular are adept at picking up the arts of magic. That is why, in ages past, a sorcerer or sorceress would take an apprentice at a young age. You see, as we grow older, we begin to develop certain mental blocks either in what we call rational thinking or in our confidence. This is especially true in today's so-called age of information and science.” His tone was almost mocking at the mention of science. “Once a person does begin to master the arts, a change takes place in them. Now, that change might be a genetic change or perhaps it is deeper than that, we don't really know. But what we do know is that the change gets passed on through the generations almost indefinitely. This trait makes that person even more able to perform magic – even beyond child hood. You’d be surprised how many people in today’s world have this potential sitting untapped in them. The majority of them will go unnoticed.”

  “So…” Rebecca smiled at her host. As dangerous as Lord Sebastian was with his own personal army, Rebecca couldn’t help but be amused by this wealthy, grown man’s childish and innocent devotion to his fantasies. Lord Sebastian and his knights hadn’t been nice enough for her to be sympathetic towards the clearly delusional man. Instead, he sounded, to her, just like a child. His age only made his rambling make him look idiotic. A powerful, dangerous idiot but still an idiot. That was reason enough to politely indulge him for now. At least until she could escape. “You’re telling me that the only way to find out if she’s what these Thralls want is to test if she can do magic. You expect me to believe any of this?”

  “Yes. I expect you to believe it because it’s true. All magic requires is belief, determination, intent and, most of all, willpower.”

  “So if I wanted to make this salt shaker float, all I’d need to do is believe hard enough and say ‘abra kadabra!’ and it would happen?” Rebecca asked as she picked up the salt shaker. Lord Sebastian smiled, lifted a hand from his lap and splayed his fingers out towards Rebecca. She was expecting him to say something but he didn’t. Just then she felt the salt shaker begin to move in her hand. Rebecca jumped and in her fright, let it go, whipping her hand away. The salt shaker didn’t fall but instead drifted over the table towards Lord Sebastian and he caught it in his hand.

  “Abra kadabra, Ms Williams,” he said with a victorious smile and salted his meal. Rebecca’s mouth fell open and she stared, speechless.

  Chapter 2

  Rebecca spent most of the night sitting up in bed. She wasn’t sure if she couldn’t sleep or didn’t want to sleep, and it didn’t seem important. Dinner had put her mind a little at ease. She now knew that Lord Sebastian wasn’t entirely crazy, after all. But now she didn't know where she stood. Was he her captor or her saviour? Rebecca searched and searched her mind for answers to how Lord Sebastian had moved the salt shaker. The only answer she could come to, though, was magic. Real, true, no smoke and mirrors, honest to God magic. That meant that maybe his story was true and maybe this Sorceress had really lived. Maybe Ashley was the latest generation of the Sorceress’ bloodline. The night had torn down all her ideas about where she was and who the people around her were. Now she thought that maybe they really were out to protect her. Rebecca shook her head, trying to throw the ideas from her mind. She could only be sure that she was still a prisoner to a man with a lot of power. They were nice strangers and if the dinner had been intended to poison her she’d probably have died by now. But they were still strangers and she didn’t have any reason to trust these people. She was a woman set in her ways and her way wasn’t just to hand out trust.

  The last time Rebecca trusted anyone was when she decided to move in with Arthur Short. They’d been dating for six months when he got evicted from his apartment. Arthur suggested that together they could afford a nicer, bigger place than either of them could afford alone. Rebecca was convinced – Arthur could have convinced her of anything. Arthur could have told her that watering the grass with orange juice would turn it bright purple and grow it into palm trees and she’d have believed him. There was just something about the way he spoke and the way he smiled that convinced her. Rebecca had trusted Arthur and they moved in together. Three weeks later Arthur didn’t come home from work. Rebecca waited for him and when he wasn’t home by nine she went to call him. There, by the telephone, she saw a note waiting for her.

  To Rebecca

  I won’t be coming home tonight or any other night. I met a girl two months ago and now me and her are going to go live in America. She’s hoping to become an actress and you know how I’ve always wanted to live there so I have to go. The flight is about noon so this is the only way I could say good-bye.

  Arthur

  P.S We’re out of milk.

  They say hind-sight is twenty-twenty vision and Rebecca knew she should have seen the signs before it happened. She didn’t, though, because she trusted Arthu
r. She had been stupid and that’s what happens when you’re stupid. Rebecca didn’t feel sad for long; she just felt angry. Getting over Arthur hadn’t taken her long either but she’d learnt her lesson: People have to earn your trust. You don’t trust them and you don’t make friends with them until they’ve earned it. No one in Lord Sebastian’s castle had earned her trust yet.

  Rebecca eventually fell asleep but she tossed and turned uncomfortably before she finally woke up at dawn. The first thing she did was sit up, yawn, rub her eyes and fall back on her pillow. She didn’t remember dreaming anything and what little sleep she'd managed, hadn’t rejuvenated her. Rebecca was still tired but she didn’t feel as though she could get back to sleep. For a while she just lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Finally her body began to crave movement and she pulled herself out of bed and went to the shower. She didn’t hear anyone come in while she was showering but there was a fresh set of clothing on the bed waiting for her when she got out. They looked exactly the same as the clothes she’d been given the previous day. The idea of someone coming into the room made her uneasy.

  The light outside her window said the sun had risen well above the horizon which meant it was some time in the late morning. She checked the clock and then left her room. She paused in the corridor and took a step towards Ashley's door. Then she stopped, turned around and headed downstairs as she'd intended – there was no reason to wake the little girl. Rebecca passed by a window on her way downstairs and saw a large group of uniformed men running through the courtyard. These were Sebastian's knights. Rebecca wondered how long they had been awake and working themselves into a sweat. She saw one of them stop and shout back down the line but there was no sound. She couldn't hear anything from outside the house. A chill ran down her spine. Sebastian's castle truly was either an impenetrable fortress or an inescapable prison. She thought the house was too nice to be a prison but it wasn't very homey either.