by Dean Jones
“What are you thinking, we have no chance, leave these poor girls to their fate we cannot take these and the villagers!” he stated.
Seth watched as the witch hunter crouched down in front of one of the girls. They both looked very young from where he hid, probably around nineteen years. The one closest had dark brown hair and was sobbing uncontrollably next to her friend who had long blonde curls. Like Meredith, he thought. She stared at the hunter with determined contempt.
He watched as the girl was struck across her face and heard the angry exchange before he saw the man rip open the blouse of the girl exposing her bare breast. Will watched in awe as Seth glided from their hiding place in a blur across the ground between them and the hunters.
Seth was on the witch hunter before he could draw breath to shout. As the head rolled onto the ground next to the falling body, Seth had moved towards the other men gathering wood and building fires. His sword was like silver lightning as it swung from man to man with each of them falling before they had realised what was happening. It took a matter of moments before Seth was stood over the girls with his bloodied sword held down at his side.
Will quickly ran towards them and reached Seth as he was cutting the girls free and passing his cloak to the blonde with the torn blouse.
The girl took Seth’s cloak and wrapped it tight around herself. Seth looked deep into her eyes…it wasn’t her, he knew it, but she had the same hair and the same determination to be strong. He could not let her be sullied by the likes of the man who carried a cross…not again.
Will checked both girls were OK before quickly pulling Seth’s arm. “We have to go, Seth, remember the fifty or so angry people heading this way, I doubt the sight of these bodies will calm them!” His urgency was clear, but Seth stood for a second thinking.
It would be so easy to just kill all the townspeople too after all these girls were no witches and he could feel no special abilities about them. They were just children.
“Are you from the area?” Seth asked the blonde girl.
“We are. We lived in the village a mile or two down the road, but we will not be going back!” she replied angrily.
Seth smiled “I will not force you to go anywhere, quickly come with us we must get you away from here before they arrive.”
With that, he turned and headed back toward the hill and their camp. The blonde girl followed and grabbed the arm of her friend before dragging her after Seth. Will checked the body of the headless witch hunter quickly for coin and rushed after them without finding anything.
Back at their camp, they could hear the shouts and screams of the townspeople as they discovered the dead hunters and missing girls. Seth knew the girls would now be hunted as witches and he felt sorry for them both, as they looked too young to be wandering the country.
“What are your names?” he asked
The blonde girl looked up at him “I am Gwendolyn, and this is my cousin, Sarah.”
Seth nodded “I am Seth and this fine fellow is William, do not let his looks fool you, what the Gods kept from him in beauty they gave in abundance in heart” Will snorted at this but bowed none the less.
“What will happen to us?” Sarah asked still clearly upset.
Seth thought for a moment and looked back towards the river knowing it wouldn’t be long before the crowd crested the hill in their search.
“We will go with these two gentlemen Sarah, they will keep us safe,” Gwendolyn responded.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea young lady, we are not gentlemen and or work takes us towards danger not away,” Seth said.
“I think you would be better heading towards another village to the south, we passed one two days ago, which seemed friendly and there was a tavern, which I am sure two girls of your beauty would have no trouble finding work”
Gwendolyn was shaking her head before he had finished “there are no villages within five days ride which do not trade with our town. We are known and those who do not know us will surely find out before too long.”
Seth knew she was right, and he nodded towards Will to get the horses.
“Alright, you can come with us today just to get you away from here. We can discuss what plans you should have tonight over a meal.” Will brought the horses and Seth invited the girls to mount.
Once settled they led the horses, with the girls on, out of the camp and made their way east, away from the river and away from Chester.
By the evening, they had covered thirty miles and had set up camp near Northwich knowing even here word would spread soon enough about what had happened.
The meal Will cooked was eaten silently, Sarah had stopped crying two hours after they had left camp and hadn’t said a word since. Gwendolyn, on the other hand, was chatty and had told Seth and Will of her life as the youngest daughter of a local farmer and of how they had been accused of being witches following an argument with two of the Brown brothers, who had taken a shine to them and had tried to have their way.
“It was unfair,” she said. “We hadn’t done anything wrong, but their mother is well respected in our village and she had called us witches, for her sons would never have acted that way unless they had been cursed!”
It was a familiar story and Seth had heard it many times through the years, but he had never heard it from the accused, it gave him comfort knowing he had stopped an injustice occurring and these girls were safe.
As Will cleared away the pots, Seth thought about what needed to be done. He watched Will as he clumsily packed away his cooking things and saw his eye was drawn to Sarah. He smiled and was warmed to see Sarah cast Will the occasional glance in return.
He knew what needed to be done and he waited for the girls to go to sleep before grabbing Will and taking him aside.
“Will my boy, there is no way these two can come along with us, they need to be heading in another direction away from this mess and towards a new life,” he said. Will nodded his agreement and once again Seth noted he looked towards Sarah.
“I don’t think they will be safe alone walking from here to who knows where, but I do know if they headed north then they would find a more…accepting folk…if only we had to time to take them?” Seth mused glancing sideways at Will, “after all we do have this bounty to collect and there's a very good chance Tomas and his friends will hear of this ruckus and make to leave Chester as soon as they can…” Seth left this hanging for a second. “Unless…” he said, “no forget it, it’s a stupid plan!” he paused again and looked up at Will who was still watching Sarah sleep.
Aware he was being watched Will turned quickly and looked back at Seth, his cheeks reddening in the firelight.
“Unless what Seth?”
“Well, I was thinking I could take the girls north and you could head into Chester and capture the group before they make for the Welsh hills?” Seth held his breath slightly and pulsed positive energy into William to increase his confidence.
A moment passed which felt like a full day before Will responded.
“No, that’s a stupid idea. I should take the girls north, after all, I am closer to their age and it would be easier to believe we are related.” Seth smiled a beaming smile and clapped William on the shoulder
“A much better plan William, your thinking is clearer than mine this night,” he passed Will his wineskin and Will took a deep swallow suddenly confused by what he had seemingly just agreed to.
When he lowered the skin from his lips he looked at Seth with a question in his eyes.
“Seth, today I saw you move as fast as lightning and kill with a precision I have never seen before…how did you do this?” The concern was clear in William’s voice as he looked like a man who didn’t really want to know the answer.
“You remember I told you about Spae and how I was trained as a practitioner of this old magic?” William nodded and became more uncomfortable. “Well I didn’t tell you everything, and there are things I can do with my skills which allow me to perform the acti
ons you saw today…do you understand?”
William nodded his head and Seth knew his keen mind would send his imagination racing, but he didn’t have time for discussions about how energy could be channelled, and time slowed to allow him to achieve what he did today.
Seth channelled more soothing energy into Will, knowing this would let him sleep comfortably as he had a long journey ahead of him and Seth wasn’t sure they would meet again.
A Soul Returned
It was mid-morning and Seth was carrying an arm full of firewood from the shed at the bottom of his garden. Behind him rose the hills of the Yorkshire Dales and he walked up the path to his small traditional stone cottage.
The building was set in the secluded landscape of the moors and he had bought it at an auction of a dead farmer’s estate. It was once a hill farmer retreat and the harsh environment and distance from neighbouring dwellings meant that it was the one lot that no one bid upon. Seth had sat quietly in the back of the village hall as the auctioneer began the process of selling this bit of property.
***
To this point, the large balding man had satisfactorily sold off several of the farmer’s buildings on his farm nearer to Glossop, but it was this lot that Seth was waiting for.
“Now ladies and gentlemen we have for you now Lot number one hundred and twenty-seven, a beautiful piece of land totalling five acres with a quaint stone croft in good repair. This land has been in the family of Mr Giddings for several generations, having been bought by the deceased’s great-great-great grandfather in seventeen hundred and forty or thereabouts. Where will we start for this piece of English history?” The auctioneer looked around the room at the people sat looking uninterested.
“Let’s begin at five hundred pounds, who will give me start me off?” Silence greeted the price offered which, in fairness, was within the guide price of between two hundred and eight hundred pounds.
Seth had amassed a tidy fortune over the last few hundred years. He had worked as a bounty hunter for most of that time, which suited him as it gave him the chance to travel inconspicuously and earn good money. Unfortunately, the times changed and opportunities for a man with his skills quickly vanished with the establishment of parliamentary policies giving legal powers to the community watchmen in the seventeen hundred’s. These quickly became free bounty hunters.
He knew he needed to find a better way to make a living and started to collect the trinkets he had left buried or hidden around the country and selling them on to eager people keen to own a piece of history. He had decided that trinkets were good future currency as fashionable antiques would surely be something that would always be wanted by the rich to adorn their homes and provide them with status symbols to show off to their friends and peers. Burying them or putting them somewhere they would gather dust, he felt, would give authenticity to his ‘finds’ as gleaming examples, which had been well kept over the years would be suspicious.
He was right and with guidance from the Mara and his own instincts he had amassed several hundred pieces of art, pottery and jewellery from across Europe, all stored and regularly moved to avoid questions over the longevity of the leaseholder of certain warehouses and buildings.
Seth had become adept at moving not only his personal belongings and assets but also his money, it had become obvious that carrying large sums of money was not in his best interest and he had opened bank accounts for ease in the mid nineteenth century. Unfortunately, having a bank account which was maintained for over one hundred years was not the best way to keep his age or identity secret, so he had holdings and stocks in companies he had financed under a pseudonym all moving between shadow companies he set up just for this task.
And so, it was that he stood in a small village hall watching the auctioneer sweat as the price dropped and dropped without any takers until at last.
“Come now, surely someone is willing to give me one hundred pounds to start? This is, after all, a property with a rich farming history and situated in the beautiful hills of the peak district,” desperation evident in his voice, the auctioneer looked resigned.
“I’ll give you forty pounds.” A voice called from the centre of the room. All turned to see a man with his paddle raised. The stocky man was probably in his fifties and he wore a brown blazer with a blue shirt underneath. He smiled at those looking and tilted his head at the auctioneer who was briefly stunned by the bid.
“Excellent,” he said recovering his salesman’s persona.
“Who will give me fifty?” a quick barrage of bids sent the price up to two hundred and fifty pounds with the man in the brown jacket sat with his paddle raised, confident he had seen off all competition.
“Four hundred!” Came a woman’s voice near the back of the hall. The auctioneer smiled at the woman and pointed his gavel in her direction. She was clearly a businesswoman dressed in a grey power suit with her brown hair neatly tied back in a tight bun.
Seth looked back to the man in the centre of the room and saw sweat beads appearing on his forehead, he was now at his limits and the strain of his calculations was clear on his face.
“The bid is with the lady at the back, would you give me four-fifty, sir?” The auctioneer asked the man. With no response forthcoming. “Four hundred going once…”
The man raised his paddle once more. “Four-twenty,” he said.
“OK, the bid is with the gentleman in the brown jacket, will you give me five hundred, madam?” The auctioneer pointed back the businesswoman at the back who, unflustered, nodded.
Jubilation crossed the auctioneer's face and once again he looked at the now uncomfortable man in the brown jacket.
“Any advance on five hundred sir?” the auctioneer was an experienced man and he knew the bidding had now likely surpassed the financial capabilities of the man and so opened the bidding back up to the room.
“Five fifty anyone, the bid is with the lady at the back…come on ladies and gentlemen this is a great opportunity…I will sell at this,” he scanned the room one more time and settled back on the original bidder who, looking resigned, shook his head.
“Any more for any more?” he called. “Going once...going twice...SOLD! to the lady at the back for five hundred pounds.” The lady raised her paddle and the auctioneer took down the number. Seth watched as she turned and made her way to the clerk to provide details of payment and sign the documents as was required.
Seth smiled to himself and made his way to the exit as lot one hundred and twenty-eight, an old nineteen twenties Crossley car that was ‘in need of some TLC’, was touted by the auctioneer and he could hear the now familiar confidence of the man as he asked for three pounds to start the bidding off.
Seth stood outside and scanned the courtyard of the hall noting the collection of cars and vans waiting for their various owners to return with the possessions they had managed to get their hands on. He couldn’t help but feel a little for this man who had worked the land his entire life and at the end, he had no one to leave his hard-earned possessions to and so it was that the vultures descended on this lonely village hall twenty miles east of Glossop on the fringes of the peak district.
He heard the tapping of heals from behind him and turned to greet the businesswoman as she left the hall.
“All sorted Val?” He asked holding his hands out for the envelope she carried.
“Yes, but I have no idea why you were so insistent to buy this run-down shack in the middle of nowhere… it will cost nearly as much to repair the godforsaken place, so it is habitable.” She passed over the documents and searched her handbag for cigarettes.
Seth smiled as he thumbed through the papers, “it will be a nice distraction for me, my dear lady, I will enjoy the fresh country air and the solitude will be a welcome change from the hustle of London.”
Val shrugged her shoulders as she lit her cigarette, “it’s your money, Mr Garret and I am just here to protect your precious anonymity.” Seth liked Val’s attitude, she wasn’t fazed by his
wealth nor would she suck up to him to keep her job. It was these qualities that had drawn him to her when they first met on Oxford Street five years before.
She was a struggling market trader trying to make her way in a male-dominated world and her determination to attract customers had caught his attention. Soon after he had her in his employ and she was managing his investments and monies showing a real flair for risky purchases and clever sales to increase his already sizable fortune and provide her with the platform she needed to show her skills to all those who doubted a woman could cut it in business.
***
Seth placed the wood into the basket beside the fireplace and settled into his chair watching the flames dancing in the grate. He was proud of his little piece of Yorkshire and even though Val was right, it had cost a huge amount to renovate, it was worth it to him.
He had spent the last five years living almost as a recluse while Val busied herself growing his empire. He knew it would all soon need to be collapsed and transferred somewhere else and he would disappear with it probably leaving some mystery behind him.
He had discovered that with enough money anyone could disappear, and he had become good at tying up any potential loose ends so that he wouldn’t be missed or searched for.
As he relaxed in his chair watching the flames he became aware of an energy around him and he closed his eyes and drifted off into meditation.
“Master, your wait is over…. she has returned!”
Turning A Family
Billy opened the car door and out came Hope wrapped in his jacket followed by her mother. Both looked shaken, but Hope was carrying an air of determination.
She looked back at her mother who was still shaking from their ordeal and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze as she stood beside her.
“It’s OK mum, this will all be over soon,” she said though she didn’t quite understand why she was sure this was the case.
Marcy smiled at her daughter and Hope could see she was beginning to come back from where ever she had been. The fact they had been attacked seemed to have shaken more than her mother’s nerves and she could see a similar look of determination she felt appearing in her eyes.
