An Obstinate Witch

by E M Graham

  ‘No, never unwanted,’ my mother’s soft voice came.

  ‘Show him your power!’ Willem demanded of me, impatience growing in his voice. ‘I tell you, Majesty, I know her magic, have availed of it myself, and then I gave her the gift of the Crystal Charm Stone.’

  Trevor coughed politely but insistently. I could tell by the way that he held his back that he was terrified by the Ice King’s anger, but his greed drove him on. ‘My reward, Majesty? First things first. I was not told to bring Auld Meg, just the fat one. The witch is here, now you must pay the carrier. As promised.’

  ‘Silence, you creature of the night!’ The Ice King turned to him and, furious that he had been played for a fool, took his rage out him. ‘This is not Margaret Forsythe! You’ll receive what is due you, you treacherous thief.’ He banged his fist on the table before him.

  ‘Off with his head!’

  At this, the left-hand troll stepped ponderously towards the goblin. Like a slow motion movie, I saw Trevor turn, disbelievingly first to the guard and then to Willem, looking for assistance which would not be forthcoming. Before the goblin could even squeak with surprise, the troll grabbed the few hairs on his head with one hand and with the other, sliced through the goblin’s skinny neck with his obsidian blade. The bodiless head gaped in his hand, outrage still on its lips before it was tossed aside. Goblin blood oozed onto the ground, thick and the darkest green, almost black. A pack of four-legged beasts woke up from their slumber by the fireplace and rushed to lick it up, then fought amongst themselves for the remains of Trevor’s body.

  My world stood still for a moment in time and I could only stare at the spot where seconds before, Trevor had been living and breathing his horrible little goblin self. It had been a nasty and treacherous kind of life, yes, but the quickness of his death was horrific, and I realized how little value life held here in the terrifying court of the Ice King.

  Willem had moved away from the king, and was almost upon me.

  ‘Show him your powers, Dara!’ Willem was almost screaming with fear by now, his voice high pitched and terrified. He turned to the Ice King. ‘Bind her up. She’ll soon dance for you!’

  The troll wiped his blade on his filthy leather kilt then stepped over and had me in his grasp in a trice. His body was rock hard and unmoving, no matter how hard I squirmed. I had no time to mourn my false friend, for the pain was immense.

  ‘Bind her with the silver chain, then,’ the Ice King agreed, his eyes narrowed. Another troll slipped off the chain surrounding my mother’s waist, and fixed it tightly around me till it almost cut off my middle, and still the first held one arm around my neck and with his other had my hand up behind my back almost to the point of breaking.

  My body was helpless, but I still had my voice and I rained down curses on Willem for his treachery and on the King for his cruelty. Useless, unmagical curses, never mind my intent.

  The sorcerer laughed now, relieved that the Ice King had decided to keep me. His own pathetic head was safe from the troll’s blade for now.

  ‘Come on then, my poppet,’ Willem said, confident of his position again. ‘Show the good King what a treasure you are. He’ll only let you live if you’re valuable, you know. Don’t let me down.’ He mock-pouted at me.

  ‘You promised the other one, the first one,’ the king growled.

  ‘But Majesty, that one is old and hardened,’ Willem cajoled, speaking quickly. ‘This one is young, still with many years ahead of her. We can mold her to your wishes, we can siphon off all that lovely fresh magic for your war schemes. A renewable resource, and she’ll be willing enough when faced with the alternative.’

  He looked at me, so close to me I could see every pore on his face, and he shook his head. ‘Just think, Dara, we could have been equals in this venture, had you simply listened to me that night on Scarp. See what happens when you make the wrong choices?’

  The pain was wracking my arm so much that I couldn’t even think, let alone give a display of my strength. I couldn’t use arm gestures, and I had no flashy talents. Nachtan had made sure of that with his insistence on my learning the boring old basics of the Greek philosophers.

  I stopped struggling, what was the use? The troll was taking pleasure in my desperate fear and panic. I stood still to await my fate. I would not show any power to the king or Willem, let them kill me if they choose. And I glanced up to the heavens to say a quick prayer to the God I was never introduced to, to save my soul. The crystals in the ice sheets still twinkled serenely, washing the colours of the rainbow around the room, and the faintest sound of their music still floated above.

  Willem was desperate now. I could see the sweat on his brow even in the freezing atmosphere of the cavern. ‘Just do it,’ he hissed as he delivered a ringing slap to my face. ‘Show His Majesty that I haven’t done him wrong. Or your fate will be worse than the goblin’s.’

  I heard my mother’s stifled sob. ‘Dara, is that really you? Please just do whatever they ask,’ she whispered. ‘If not, they’ll not hesitate to kill both of us if we’re no use to them.’

  I realized she’d made her way over near me. I glanced over at her and drank in the sight of her. She hadn’t changed over the years, not that much, except the lines around her eyes and the look of despair drawn on her face. The king scowled and looked threateningly toward Willem, who in turn scowled at me.

  I had to do something to save my mother’s life, anything to prove my power to the Ice King, but what could impress him in his terrible majesty? Bound as I was by the troll, I couldn’t move my body to help my spells or direct my magic to save my life. All I could do was to curse uselessly.

  And then it struck me that I did have a weapon, perhaps. I had my voice. I cleared my throat. The king and the sorcerer snapped their heads toward me expectantly. I opened my mouth, and the barest croak emerged, hesitant like the first frog in the morning marsh.

  I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, and listened closely to that faint echo coming from far above my head. I’d never been able to hold a tune, how could I match that pure tone? I opened my mouth and hesitantly, tremulous, I sought the single note that sounded the song of the crystal structure. Desperation drove me, and my voice quavered, but I poured all my concentration on listening to the ice. And then I found it. I opened my mouth loud and sang the song of the ice crystals, that single ringing note.

  22

  IT TOOK EVERY OUNCE of my concentration and power yet I kept the note true, and the very crystal structure within the ice took up the ringing tone, echoing and reverberating throughout the huge chamber that was the Ice King’s throne room.

  ‘Stop!’ The king roared, his hands covering his ears to stop the pain of the terrible noise. The troll who bound me loosened his grip and dropped to the floor in agony, for his eardrums could not withstand the intensity. The doglike creatures whimpered and ran away.

  Still I kept it up, and the note echoed through the round chamber, pulsing and growing till the very matrix of the ice lost its tension and could not hold. I sang for my mom and me, for my future and for that pathetic goblin, disregarded in life and death, and within that music I saw that he’d done the best he could with the choices he had, and I found forgiveness for Trevor, the goblin who’d dared to dream his way out of the gutters. Magnified by the power of the full moon at its zenith, the crystal note like the song of the spheres itself throbbed until the sheets of ice loosened, just a smattering of shards at first falling on our heads like the finest glass dust, then whole sheets began to fall off, slowly crashing to the ground all around us, drowning out the screams of those caught within the range of their terrible smashing.

  ‘Dara!’ I felt my hand grasped tightly. ‘Come quickly, there is little time!’

  ‘Stop them all!’ The Ice King’s thundering voice rang through the echoed crashing and tinkling and smashing of the ice walls. ‘I’ll drink that wizard’s blood for breakfast!’

  And I found myself at
the tunnel entrance with Mom. I risked a glance behind me, and knew I could stop the note now, for the damage was done, and was still happening, with the very ice shearing off the walls of the chamber, and I watched as if in slow motion as the sharpest shard released from the far off ceiling and sailed down through the air, stopping only when it smashed against the king’s chest, crumbling into a million shards of crystal. When he toppled under the impact, I felt the ground shudder with the weight of this awesome creature.

  Fergie was waiting for us within the tunnel entrance, her face green in the reflected light from the disintegrating chamber. ‘This way!’ she shouted, and led us down into the darkness.

  We followed Fergie’s echoed stumblings through the dark, only catching up to her when she paused to light a flare.

  ‘How the hell do we get out of here?’ My voice was hoarse and it hurt to speak. The shadows jumped as tunnels forked off in all directions. I couldn’t remember the route through the twists and the turns. All I knew was that there were dragons down here, and we needed to avoid them. ‘We don’t have Trevor.’

  ‘Are they following us?’ Fergie’s voice was fearful, and her face was still green in the light of the flare.

  ‘I think... I think they’re all dead.’ I whispered because it was less painful that way.

  ‘Good. Then follow me.’ Fergie set off like she knew what she was doing, stumbling though she was, confidently choosing a corridor at each fork in the paths. I clutched Mom close to my side.

  But I was being followed, I could hear a jangle like sleigh bells with every step I took. I looked behind and saw it was only the silver chain still attached to my waist. I grabbed it and tugged, but it was too long to fully take in my hand so I left it to dangle behind me like a tail.

  ‘You sure about this?’ I asked her at one point. I thought I recognized a particular rock jut, but she rushed right by it. ‘I think we were supposed to turn left here.’

  ‘No, trust me,’ she replied, breathing heavily. She held the torch up a little so we could see behind us. ‘I left a trail.’

  In the flickering light, I saw what she meant. There just at our feet at the entrance to this tunnel, shone half a Milky Way bar wrapper, glinting metallic blue. I was totally awed at her foresight.

  ‘And I thought you were stress eating,’ I murmured.

  ‘I didn’t have any breadcrumbs, and I really didn’t want to be stuck here. There was no way in hell I was going to trust the goblin to get us out again,’ she said. ‘I was right, wasn’t I?’

  I nodded in agreement, although she had already turned back to the path and couldn’t see me. We climbed steadily downwards at a quick pace. Mom had been silent so far, but that wasn’t going to last long. Although we hadn’t seen each other for ten years, I knew her well enough to know that she had to take time to process things before she knew what she was feeling. But when she was ready, watch out.

  And sure enough, she soon started her Mom thing.

  ‘I can’t believe you came here,’ she began.

  ‘I had to rescue you, Mom,’ I said.

  ‘Of all the foolhardy, foolish...’

  ‘Mom, I had no choice.’ I turned to her as I hurried her along. ‘Would you have left me there?’

  ‘I told Jon not to let you get mixed up with the Kin and magic and all that,’ she continued bitterly. ‘I knew it would never come to any good. And look at you. What did Willem mean when he said you had burned your boats with the Kin? What have you been doing?’

  ‘Oh, so you tell me off for coming to get you,’ I replied as I stomped through the tunnel, hating how truculent my voice sounded. Hell, I was a full-fledged witch now, the terror of the Kin apparently if you listened to the rumours. I’d just rescued her from a life of slavery, or at least, a very cold place where she had to work hard, and I deserved a bit more respect, even if she was my mother. I was no longer ten years old. ‘But you were also messing in magic,’ I pointed out to her.

  ‘Oh Dara,’ she said, her voice turned all tearful and loving now. ‘You really are so much like me.’ And she took me in her arms and squashed me, putting ten years’ worth of hugs into a single moment.

  The warm touch of her almost made me cry. I leaned into her, as much as I could as we walked fast down past the rocks and boulders in our path. I didn’t even mind the stink of sheep’s wool or the roughness of the cloth coming from her clothing.

  She was silent for a moment after she let me go. ‘Ah, the king mentioned Auld Meg... Wasn’t she a legend?’

  ‘Yeah, but not just that. She exists,’ I admitted.

  ‘Well, we’ll have lots of time to catch up once we get back,’ she said. ‘We’ll get back, and go home, and begin to live our lives again. How is Edna, anyway?’

  ‘She’s fine. She has a boyfriend, Mark. He’s nice. But...’ I babbled as I wracked my brain to think of a way to tell her that there was no going back for me. I wouldn’t be returning to our ramshackle home on the hill, or go back to university. I would never again fight with Dad’s daughter Sasha, or do any of the thousand normal things. I was on the run, but I could see no escape, for I had nowhere to run to. I had to change the subject. ‘How did you get here, anyway?’

  ‘That’s a long story, for another time,’ she said as she squeezed her hand. ‘I thought I was protecting you, but it turned out to be a trap to lure you here. I was so angry at your father and his wife, Cate, that when Willem offered me the chance to do magic, I...’ She broke off.

  She was silent for a few steps before she answered. ‘I got mixed up with things,’ she said. It sounded like a confession. ‘I was overcome with jealousy and spite when Cate laid down the law, and I ... I messed with things I shouldn’t have.’

  She sighed. ‘You know, I blamed Cate, back then, but it was my own fault. Like I said, that’s a story for another day.’

  ‘We don’t actually have another day, Mom,’ I said. ‘When... If we get back, well, I’m afraid there’s going to be a reckoning. I may have to ... go away for a while.’ Like into a dungeon for a hundred years.

  ‘Nonsense,’ she replied, her voice brisk as we followed Fergie through the tunnel. ‘Jon will fix everything up, I’m sure. What have you done that’s so bad, after all?’

  ‘Dad’s back home. We’re going to Scotland, where the Kin don’t much like me. He’s not going to be able to save me even if he wanted to.’

  For I’d made up my mind in that short span of time. If we could reach Scotland again, I had to present myself to the Kin and let them do their worst. In doing so, hopefully I would get Fergie off the hook for anything she’d done. This was the only way that Mom would be able to return home to Canada. Margaret? Well, I’d get her back in that dungeon as fast as I could, and she could rot there with her Chronicle.

  Fergie made a left turn, her light held high. ‘We’re here,’ she said. Finally, we arrived at the exit from the mountain. The small hole glowed with the reflected lights of the Aurora Borealis, marking the way back to reality.

  Fergie had no problem squeezing herself through this time, driven by panic as she was, she simply tackled it at a run and dived through. Mom followed her, and then me. We stood outside, blinking at the brightness of the lights dancing in the sky, the air crisp on our faces.

  ‘This is it,’ I said. I prayed beyond prayer that Margaret was true to her word and would get us back to Scotland, if only for Mom and Fergie’s sake.

  Mom gave a shiver and looked all about her at the flat plain of ice. ‘Where do we go from here?’

  I swallowed. Now was the test. We’d gotten here with Margaret’s help, but she was still over on Tomnahurich. At least I hoped she was. After all the treachery I’d experienced with Trevor, I had no idea who to trust anymore. But how could she help us return, if she was over there?

  And then I did the math. We’d needed three witches to bring us here, but now we were only two.

  I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. She was rig
ht, I had to trust we’d get there, or we never would and then we really would be stuck out here. I cleared my mind, fought against the rising fear of what awaited me in Inverness, and desired to be back. At least for Mom’s sake, if not my own.

  If Margaret was true and meant what she had said about me and her working together for the good of all, then she would somehow help us back. If not, then... I stopped myself. I didn’t need to go back over all that in my thoughts, for that road led nowhere. Literally.

  As before, there was no moon shining here, and no way to tell how much time had passed, just the endless prisms of colour dancing in the sky.

  ‘Okay, let’s hold hands,’ Fergie directed as we stood in the footprints we’d left when landing. Fergie grabbed my hands, and we placed Mom in the center of us, but as I moved, the silver chain around my waist pulled as if it had snagged on something. I tugged on it, but we were in a hurry, and I had to trust it would come with me on the transition to the reality dimension. It had no magic, after all, there were no spells binding it to the Ice Kingdom, it was just a simple chain of forged silver metal.

  The Northern Lights danced all around us, their purples and greens and whites bathing us in colours of this strange, otherworldly rainbow. I had no idea how to get back, but the other two were looking at me expectantly.

  Fergie nodded sharply. ‘Let’s do it, then. Get a move on. I’m freezing m’arse off here.’

  I shut my eyes and reached out through time and space for her, but could get nothing, only ice and the uncaring caress of the Aurora Borealis. Oh, treacherous Margaret, had she abandoned us?

  ‘What’re you waiting for?’

  As we stood there uselessly, anger flared at the witch who had started all this. That she would abandon me, she who had been so tender at times, and had prated on about how we were a team and no one could stop us two, not when we worked together. How our joined forces would enable us to escape the Kin, and force them to change, and how she had so much to teach me.