Sorceress' Blood

by Carl Purcell

  Rebecca didn't know what the procedure for getting breakfast was. The only thing she could think of was going back to the sitting room where she had eaten dinner. She was surprised to find Lord Sebastian there with Ashley, both of them already eating breakfast.

  "Come and sit down." Lord Sebastian said, not taking his eyes off Ashley. "We've been waiting for you."

  "Has she spoken to you?" Rebecca asked as she came into the room.

  "Not yet. A maid found her wandering around and brought her down here to me. I assumed quite correctly that she would be hungry. What about you?"

  "I am a little hungry." Rebecca told him – but she was more than a little hungry.

  "Then you may eat a little."

  Rebecca took her seat next to Ashley, on the opposite side of the small round table from Lord Sebastian. The maid who was serving this morning immediately served her eggs, bacon, sausages, toast and more. She placed a serviette on Rebecca's lap.

  "You're not outside running with the others?"

  "No. I have some hundred or so knights here in my service. They wake up early, eat and then begin their routine of keeping fit and combat-ready. I oversee management of some business interests that finance our order and, of course, I am the one who decides which knight will undertake what task. You were picked up by Julian yesterday under my instruction to track the movements of some Thralls. We received some intelligence that the Thralls were targeting somebody in your town. Today he will be back to his normal training."

  “Intelligence? From where?”

  “I'm afraid I can't tell you that. You are not a knight and it doesn't concern you.”

  "Well what does concern us? What are we supposed to be doing while we're here?"

  "Well, the girl will begin testing today. Should she pass her tests, she will also begin an apprenticeship under one of the handful of sorcerers here."

  "There are others who can do magic here?"

  "Correct. As for yourself, Ms Williams, you are not bound to anything other than your desires. You may acquaint yourself with the knights or you may visit the library on the third floor. I do ask that, whatever you decide, you do not get too involved with anyone in particular. I wouldn't want any of my people suddenly distracted from their duty. You are also free to leave at any time." Rebecca didn't answer him. She just went on eating.

  When breakfast was done Lord Sebastian stood up and instructed his maids to clear the table. Following this, he told Ashley to accompany him upstairs to where she would be tested. Ashley, as silent as ever, didn't move from her seat. Rebecca placed her hand on Ashley's and said:

  "It's alright. I'll go with you." That seemed to comfort the girl and she stood up. Lord Sebastian did not protest this or, in fact, speak at all. He led them both up the stairs to the second floor and to the back of the house. An old fashioned cage elevator took them up to the third floor from there and opened onto an enormous library. Shelves were stacked with books all around them and the room seemed to go on and on.

  "You must have books on everything," Rebecca said in awe.

  "Yes, I imagine so. Some of these books you won't find another copy of anywhere else in the world, so I do ask you be careful if you read them." The three of them walked through another door from the library into a small, windowless sitting room. Two lounge chairs and a sofa were positioned around a fire and stacked up around these were piles of books. Sitting on one of the chairs, reading a book by the light of the fire, was a skinny, frail looking young man with pale skin, black hair and dark rings beneath his eyes. He didn't seem to notice them as they came in and, even as they stood looking at him, he was too engrossed in his book to acknowledge their presence.

  "This is Benjamin. He is the order’s most dedicated sorcerer. Sometimes a little too dedicated. Would you kindly look up from your book, Benjamin?"

  Benjamin glanced up and a surprised look seized his face. "Lord Sebastian!" He gasped. "I didn't hear you come in."

  "Benjamin, I would like you to meet..." It occurred to Lord Sebastian he still didn't know Ashley's name. "I don't know her name. However, I believe this young girl may be the Sorceress' heir and so we need you to test her."

  "Yes, of course, Lord Sebastian." Benjamin put down his book and stood up. He walked around the table and knelt down in front of Ashley. "What is your name?" Ashley didn't respond. "Can you talk?" There was still no response.

  "She hasn't spoken to anyone since she arrived." Lord Sebastian commented.

  "I see. Well, if you can hear me, I'd like you to do what I say. First: follow me." Benjamin stood up and walked across the room to the back wall. There was a small desk set up there with a solitary, used candlestick sitting on it. Ashley followed him to the table and Rebecca went with her. Lord Sebastian, however, turned and left the room without saying another word.

  “You see this candle?” Benjamin asked. “I want you to light it. This is very easy; I’ll show you.” Benjamin didn’t take his eyes off Ashley and he didn’t move in the slightest. The candle lit up by itself and burned for a few seconds and then the flame was snuffed out as randomly as it lit. Rebecca was expecting it to happen but it still surprised her. The idea that these things could be done were marvellous to say the least. Ashley was watching the candle the whole time but it was as if she wasn’t seeing anything. The girl’s expressionless face looked through things instead of at them and she never reacted.

  “Did you see what I did? You can do it too. You just have to make it happen. I want you to want the candle to light up. You have to need it so much that you’ll explode and you have to tell it to light up. You can use your voice if you want. Say ‘light!’ and make the fire come.” Benjamin was eager to teach Ashley and his voice was filled with enthusiasm when he explained what he wanted her to do. Ashley didn’t seem to share his feelings even a little.

  This went on for about ten minutes. Benjamin showed off some other things he could do, in the hope of encouraging Ashley to try. First he showed how he could not only burn the candle away but reform the wax into a whole new candle without touching it. Then he showed Ashley one of the books in the room and when he opened it a raven flew out and landed on the table by the candle. Nothing got a response out of her and eventually Benjamin threw his hands up in defeat. When he did, the candle melted back down to the way it was when they first came into the room and the book he’d used leapt up onto the table and snapped closed around the bird like a hungry mouth. Benjamin didn’t say a word but sat back down in his chair and started to read. The door creaked open by itself and Rebecca got the message clearly.

  “Come on.” She held out her hand and Ashley took hold. Benjamin looked up with surprise. He opened his mouth to ask a question but Rebecca was already leading the girl back to her room. His eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a smile. He watched them until they were both out of sight and then he picked up a book, still smiling, and waited.

  Back in the Oisin room, Ashley went over to her bed and sat down. Rebecca sat in the chair next to the dresser and watched the girl.

  “So...” Rebecca said and then went silent. She hoped she'd come up with something better to say when Lord Sebastian asked about the test.

  “What happened to the bird?” Ashley's voice came as a relief.

  “I don’t know.” Rebecca answered. “I guess it went back into the book.”

  “Was it a real bird?”

  “I don’t know. I guess it was as real as a bird made with magic can be.”

  “Can I really do something like that?”

  “Maybe. I don’t really know, Ashley. This is all as new to me as it is to you.” There was silence again for a moment. Rebecca thought Ashley looked a little sad and she felt bad. She thought maybe she had spoken with a harsher tone than she meant to and upset her. She did the only thing she could think to do when she’d upset a small child. She tried to pretend it didn’t happen and steer the conversation somewhere else. “Why don’t you talk to anyone else?”

  “I don’t kno
w. I just get scared whenever they’re around.” Rebecca understood that. She had trouble trusting them as well.

  “Do you want to go home?”

  “I don’t have a home.”

  “What about parents?”

  “I don’t have them either.”

  “Well where do you live?”

  “In a house.”

  “Who takes care of you?”

  “No one takes care of me. I live in a house and I take care of myself.” Rebecca got the feeling that it was a sensitive subject. She knew that it wasn’t as simple as what Ashley said but she didn’t push the issue any further.

  “Are you scared of me?”

  “No.” Ashley paused a moment before explaining. “You saved me.”

  “I think you should try and learn what Benjamin is trying to teach you.”

  “Will I be able to make birds, like he did?”

  “I don’t see why there’s anything you can’t do. I don’t think we have to be afraid of these people.” Hearing Ashley talk about how she was afraid and didn’t trust anyone in Lord Sebastian’s castle made Rebecca look on the idea from a different perspective. So far everyone had been hospitable and helpful to them and Benjamin didn’t try to force Ashley into doing anything. When she saw her own paranoia in Ashley, Rebecca realised that it didn’t make as much sense as when they first arrived. They hadn’t been given any reason to remain so guarded. The two of them couldn’t leave but that was for their own good. Once Lord Sebastian showed that he wasn’t lying about magic, everything had changed.

  “Will you stay there with me?”

  “I will.” One thing didn’t change. Rebecca still felt responsible for Ashley.

  “I don’t want to do it now.” Ashley said and Rebecca nodded at her.

  The following day Rebecca and Ashley returned, without invitation, to Benjamin’s study. The door opened for them on arrival and Benjamin was more aware of their presence this time.

  “She wants to learn?” Benjamin asked when they walked in.

  “Yes.” Rebecca answered.

  “Lord Sebastian didn’t send you up here. In fact’ you haven’t even seen him today, have you? Normally, you’d eat breakfast but you decided to bring…” Benjamin paused and looked very thoughtful; he studied Rebecca with squinted eyes and then smiled. “Ashley. You’ve brought Ashley to me without even having breakfast.” Surprise snatched away Rebecca's breath as she opened her mouth to respond.

  “How did you know?” she asked.

  “Your mind is difficult to read; certain things in particular are hidden well. You’re not impossible, though.”

  “What? How dare you go poking into my mind?” Rebecca was furious. “You’ve got no right to do that!” What made her even angrier was that she didn’t even know he was doing it. She couldn’t tell if he was there reading her thoughts, so, if she didn’t know when he was doing it, there was nothing she could do to stop him.

  “That’s not important. What is important is that Ashley needs to be tested now. We’ll begin just as we started yesterday.”

  “What do you mean it’s not important?” Rebecca demanded but Benjamin was ignoring her. She was defeated. She was as powerless as ever in this world where nothing made sense. Rebecca shut her mouth, folded her arms and watched Benjamin from the door, begrudgingly. What happened to treating guests with respect? Who the hell just goes poking into people's minds like that? Fine! She guessed she owed them anyway.

  Benjamin took Ashley over to the table, just as he had the day before, and placed the candle, fully formed, in front of her.

  “Do you know what I want you to do?”

  Ashley looked at Benjamin, who was kneeling down to her level. “No?”

  “It’s alright, Ashley,” Rebecca said soothingly. Benjamin waited a moment and at last Ashley shook her head.

  “Well, that’s something. I want you to look at the string at the top of the candle. That’s called the wick. I want you to look at that and focus on it. I want you to keep looking at that until it’s like there’s nothing else – just the wick and the sound of my voice. Then I want you to tell it to light up. Tell it, with your voice, to ‘light’ and want it to light up. You have to want the wick to light up in a flame. You have to need it like you’ll die without it happening. Then you have to tell it what to do. I want you to put all that need and that order for it to obey you into that one word. Now when you’re ready, tell it what to do.”

  “This sounds very complicated for her.” Rebecca said. Benjamin hushed her with a wave of his hand. Rebecca was sceptical but she let him go on.

  “Light!” Ashley said with a soft voice, lacking in the force she needed. “Light!” she said again. “Light! Light!” Nothing was happening.

  “Take your time, Ashley.” Benjamin told her. “Don’t say it unless you’re sure it’s there. You need to bring it all out in that one word. Use your tone of voice and that word to bring out those feelings I told you. You have to want that fire to come more than anything you’ve ever wanted and then tell it, order it like it's a puppy, to come alight.” Things were quiet for a time and no one seemed to move. The only sounds came from the wood fire that occasionally crackled. Ashley stared intently at the candle and Benjamin stayed kneeling by her side. Rebecca leaned against the wall, her hands in her pockets, watching them both. Nobody moved. Coming into the room at that point would have been like walking into a painting.

  No one knew how long had passed and how many times Ashley had tried to get the candle to light. Rebecca had fallen asleep on the couch. Benjamin tried different approaches to teaching her but there was only so many ways he could reword the same idea for her. Eventually he took a seat and began reading while Ashley kept trying. Eventually, Rebecca lost all sense of time. There was only that room and the lesson. It wasn't until her stomach started growling painfully that Rebecca realised how long they'd been there. She could see Ashley was also getting hungry and losing focus and hope. Benjamin stood up and patted her on the head.

  “Very few actually get it on their first day. It takes a while for people to really find that feeling they need. You also have to believe it can be done and some people never get past that.” He shrugged. Benjamin was satisfied that Ashley wasn’t who they thought she was. “I can tell Lord Sebastian the results of my experiment. You two should go downstairs and get some food. That’s enough for today.”

  “Let me try one more time.” Ashley said. The first full sentence she’d spoken to anyone other than Rebecca came out as a plea. Benjamin looked at her for a second and then nodded.

  “Alright. You already know everything you need to for this, so go ahead. Give it your very best.” Ashley nodded and looked at the candle. She focused hard. Ashley reached deep down inside herself to find the feelings of wanting but what she found was need. What Ashley found, as her gaze sat fixated on the candle, was hunger. Just as if she was starving for food, she starved for a flame. That feeling of emptiness was almost painful but it was right. That feeling was exactly what she’d been looking for and she could feel death creeping on her if she couldn’t light that candle. She had to have it, there was no alternative and she knew there was only one way. With all that hunger swelling in her throat she opened her mouth to speak.

  Benjamin watched her closely. Her mouth was hanging open but nothing was coming out. He glanced at the candle. There was nothing going on. Then he felt a movement in the air. He turned around to see if someone had opened the door but there was no one there. Rebecca still lay sound asleep on the couch. But there was definitely movement. There was wind. He knew there must be wind because the fire was lashing wildly back and forth beneath the chimney. He watched it twist and lick the walls. Benjamin wasn’t confused. Benjamin had been in his job long enough to know magic when it was there. He turned away from the flames and looked back at Ashley.

  “What are you doing?” Ashley was still staring intently at the candle, her eyes narrowed with focus. There was no world to her. The lounge chair
s, the table, Benjamin and even Rebecca were somewhere far away in a forgotten world. Now there was only Ashley and the candle. There was also the fire. Ashley lifted her jaw, not noticing the clack of her teeth. Then dropped it again, flexing the muscles and releasing her will in a single word:

  “Jump!” The word was barely out of her mouth when the fire flared and a flame burst from the fireplace and shot across the room. The flame splashed against the candle’s wick and then the embers vanished. The table and the wall were barely scorched but the candle was burning brightly. Ashley smiled. She looked at Benjamin and her satisfaction overflowed into a smile. Benjamin felt a mix of pride and awe but when he saw Ashley’s little face smiling up at him he smiled back.

  “Amazing,” he said softly. “You really are her. I have never seen anything like it in someone so young and inexperienced.”

  Benjamin had gone directly to Lord Sebastian to report. He could have sent the message to him twenty other ways but he wanted to see the look on Lord Sebastian’s face for himself. Lord Sebastian was in his office, located somewhere in the maze of hallways and rooms that made up the castle. He was poring over some papers and sipping tea. Standing close behind him, as ever, was a maid waiting for his command. Benjamin burst through the door and bowed quickly before starting.

  “She’s amazing!” He proclaimed excitedly. “She must be the Sorceress’ descendant.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “I don’t have any other explanation for her aptitude. No one picks up that sort of magic as quickly as she has. There’s something special about her. Something very special.”

  “Then we will proceed with the plan. Assign Sir Julian to the task and you continue as we’ve planned.”

  “What of the woman?”

  “What do you recommend?”

  “Ashley – the girl – finds her presence comforting. Removing her might make Ashley withdraw even further. She also knows about the castle, which makes her a liability if she’s set free.”