Wildfire

by Lene Kaaberbøl

There was a pause. I looked up at the ceiling, which was a mesh of tree roots and moss, and felt my whole body growing heavier and heavier with each breath I took. My eyelids started closing.

  “We have the neck iron,” Shanaia persisted. “Surely that must count for something.”

  “Only if Clara gives evidence,” Master Millaconda said.

  “Everything depends on the girl,” Mrs Pommerans declared. “I really hope she’s up to it.”

  So do I, I thought, and drifted off into a restless, nightmarish sleep where Chimera chased me through foggy streets and basement corridors and swooped down on me like a sparrowhawk every time I thought I’d escaped from her.

  In the middle of the night I suddenly felt a furry body next to me, a warm, heavy and purring presence. My cat. My black cat.

  It wasn’t until then that the nightmares stopped.

  CHAPTER 15

  Tooth and Claw

  “Clara. Clara, wake up. She’s already here.”

  Who? What? I surfaced slowly from the depths of a black lake of sleep. Was I late for school again?

  But it wasn’t my mum stroking my shoulder to rouse me. It was Aunt Isa. And I wasn’t in my own soft bed at home, but in one of the guest beds at Raven Kettle.

  Finally I realized who she meant.

  “Chimera? She’s here?”

  “Yes. And she’s demanding that the trial begin within the hour.”

  My head felt fuzzy, my knee hurt.

  “Does she get to decide that?”

  “Yes. It’s her right as we have brought charges against her.”

  After what Thuja had said, I’d expected to have at least three days’ peace. Three days to recover, three days to prepare and find out what would happen and what it meant to bear witness before the Council of Raven Mothers. “I really hope she’s up to it,” Mrs Pommerans had said when she thought I was out of earshot. Everything I knew about court cases I’d learned from TV series and I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be quite the same.

  And it wasn’t. Firstly, there was no courtroom – in fact there was no room at all. Everything took place in the middle of Raven Kettle, within the circle of snow-covered trees. Nor were there smart lawyers leaping to their feet and shouting “objection!” whenever someone badgered the witness. Where I would normally expect to see the judge, I saw seven figures all dressed in black with black headscarves – five women, of which Thuja was one, as well as two men. Most of them had a raven either on their arm or on their shoulder, and several hundred crows, ravens, rooks, and jackdaws were perched in the trees.

  “Those are the Raven Mothers,” whispered Aunt Isa, who was standing behind me.

  “But… some of them are men…?”

  “Yes, it’s all equal opportunity these days.”

  “And some of them are blind?”

  “Yes. In the old days you had to give your eyes to the ravens to become a Raven Mother. We don’t do that any more, fortunately, but many people born blind are drawn to this occupation, and that’s understandable. I trust you’ve noticed how Thuja’s raven is her eyes?”

  I nodded.

  “But… what did they do in the past? How exactly did they… give their eyes to the ravens?”

  “Quite literally, I’m afraid. Their eyeballs would be removed and fed to the ravens. Today it’s purely symbolic – just a little blood and some tears mixed with bird food which the ravens then eat.”

  Yuck. I didn’t fancy the ravens eating any part of me, even if it was just a little blood and a few tears.

  Then I remembered how the cat had licked my blood the first time we met. I couldn’t see with its eyes like Thuja could with her raven’s. But maybe that explained why I could hear it.

  Chimera was nowhere to be seen. An hour had passed and the trial was about to start. The sun was rising and hanging low behind the trees; a great, white mist lingered at the bottom of Raven Kettle. It was so cold that I could see my own breath, but at least it had stopped snowing.

  Having kept me warm all night, the cat had disappeared once more. It was as if it didn’t like Raven Kettle and all the black birds. This made me uneasy, or rather even more uneasy than I already was. Downright scared, in fact. I had a hard, rough lump in my throat as if I’d swallowed a stone.

  No one checked their watches or anything like that. Nevertheless I began to sense a certain impatience among the seven Raven Mothers – the she-mothers as well as the he-mothers – who were waiting among the trees. Aunt Isa was standing behind me, so close that I could feel the warmth of her body, and a little further away stood Mr Malkin, Mrs Pommerans, Master Millaconda and Shanaia. They were witnesses to some of the things Chimera had done, but I think they were there just as much to show support for me. Aunt Isa held the bag with the neck iron in her hand. Kahla wasn’t there, probably because she wasn’t yet a fully-fledged wildwitch, so she had stayed indoors in the guest cave with Star. Lucky so-and-so.

  Then Chimera arrived.

  She was enormous. Or rather her wingspan was. When she unfurled her wings, they seemed to reach from one side of the tree circle to the other.

  “Let’s not waste any more time,” she said, as if we were late and not her. “You all know the ancient law. I demand that you surrender this little liar to my mercy for slander and false accusations.” She pointed a long, golden claw at me.

  What? Surrendered to my mercy?

  “What does that mean?” I whispered to Aunt Isa. “Can she do that?”

  It took a while before Aunt Isa replied. “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s not how we usually do things nowadays, but…”

  I saw the Raven Mothers lean towards each other in consultation. We were too far away to be able to hear what they were whispering. Then they straightened up and Thuja took a step forwards.

  “To which law are you referring, Chimera?”

  Chimera held up an old book.

  “Tooth and Claw,” she said. “The oldest of them all. Bravita Bloodling wrote it down four hundred years ago, but it has existed through all times. And it still applies.”

  Chimera threw the book at Thuja’s feet, but the blind Raven Mother made no attempt to pick it up.

  “First you must prove your case,” she said.

  I turned to Aunt Isa.

  “What does she mean? Does it or does it not apply, this Tooth and Claw stuff?”

  “I hadn’t expected this,” Aunt Isa said, and her lips were now two thin grey lines. “Nobody drags up Bravita Bloodling in court these days, for goodness’ sake.”

  “But what does it mean? That if we lose, then… then she’ll get me?”

  “In the old days being accused in front of the Council was a very serious matter. A lot of crimes carried the death penalty, so it was important that people didn’t start cases out of mischief or make false accusations. The law says that the loser becomes the property of the winner, should the accusation prove to be false.”

  “For how long?”

  “I don’t know. Possibly for the rest of their life.”

  Suddenly my skin felt too tight all over. As if there was no longer room for both my terror and me. I didn’t want to become Chimera’s property. Not even for an hour. And certainly not for the rest of my life!

  Aunt Isa placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

  “That will only happen if the decision of the Council goes against us. And we have a strong case.”

  That was easy for her to say. She wouldn’t become Chimera’s slave if we lost.

  I looked at Chimera. She was standing with her wings folded now – not quite as enormous as when she swept into the circle, but still gigantic. Her face was completely devoid of expression, but she stretched the fingers of one hand – or talons, rather – and clenched them again as if she was looking forward to getting her claws into me.

  “Let us hear the charge,” Thuja said.

  I felt absolutely tiny. I don’t know if it makes sense, but sometimes it feels as if everyone else is at least a head ta
ller than me and a hundred times cleverer, braver and better looking. I’m not very tall, but my height isn’t the real problem here. Sometimes it’s as if I’m smaller on the inside as well. And everyone else is a giant.

  I was a mouse. Or something even smaller – a beetle, an ant. I knew that if I tried to open my mouth, no sound would come out.

  Aunt Isa gently nudged my back.

  “You have to say it,” she said. “You’re the one she’s offended against.”

  But I couldn’t. My tongue was a stone in my mouth, hard, smooth, and unmoving.

  Thuja raised one eyebrow and repeated her command.

  “Clara Ash, let the Council hear your charge!”

  Say it!

  This last voice belonged to the cat. But where was it? I looked around and spotted it just outside the circle of trees. It lay curled up, jet black against the white snow, thrashing its tail as if it wanted to lunge at Chimera’s face and rip her apart with its teeth and claws.

  The stone in my mouth melted. There was something about the cat’s fearless spirit that seemed to rub off on me. It had my blood inside it. And maybe I had a little of the cat inside me now?

  “Just tell them what happened yesterday,” whispered Aunt Isa behind me.

  I nodded.

  “At the moment I’m living with Aunt Isa,” I said.

  “Louder,” one of the male Raven Mothers grunted. “Tell the girl to speak up. It’s impossible to hear her.”

  “Yesterday, while my aunt was out, Chimera came,” I said, desperately trying to speak loudly and clearly.

  “What? What’s she saying?”

  “Be quiet, Valla, and let the girl speak,” Thuja said. “Surely your raven will lend you its ears if your own are no good.”

  The man, apparently called Valla, looked offended, but I was glad that Thuja had come to my defence.

  “She set fire to the stable door to make me go outside,” I said. “And then she attacked me and tied my hands with wire and put this around my neck.”

  Aunt Isa stepped forward and shook the neck iron out of the bag. A murmur rippled through the Raven Mothers when they realized what it was.

  “A neck iron,” Thuja said. “She put cold iron around your neck?”

  “Yes,” I said. “And she nearly killed Bumble!”

  “Bumble?” Valla snarled. “Who on earth is that?”

  “Our dog. She… Aunt Isa, remind me, what’s it called, what she did?”

  “She twisted his life cord,” Aunt Isa said. “We only just managed to save his life. My home. My dog. My sister’s daughter. She has offended against me too!”

  Thuja shook her head.

  “Isa, you can’t speak for your sister-daughter. She’s the accuser here, not you. You can’t speak on her behalf.”

  Aunt Isa bowed her head and fell silent. But her hand remained on my shoulder.

  “Clara, continue. What happened then?”

  “Chimera tried to abduct me. She left Bumble to die and then she dragged me out on the wildways. I don’t know where she would have taken me or what she would have done to me. I made her… go away. And… and in the end Aunt Isa found me.”

  “Still with the iron around her neck,” Aunt Isa said.

  “Isa…”

  “I’m not making an accusation,” Isa said. “I’m merely bearing witness. I saw it with my own eyes.”

  “Very well then. I’ll allow it. So the charge is that Chimera breached Isa’s wildward unlawfully, damaged her house, injured her animals and – this is the most serious charge – put another witch in cold iron.”

  “Yes,” I said as loud as I could. “That’s the charge.”

  Well sung, little sister, whispered the black cat in my mind. Its approval filled me with a fierce, wild heat against the chill of the winter morning.

  But it was too soon to celebrate. Now it was Chimera’s turn.

  She unfurled her wings and slowly closed them again. Even though she didn’t flap them, the snow still whirled up and danced around her feet.

  “If that’s all,” she said, “then why are we even here?”

  “Those are serious charges,” Thuja said.

  “If they were true. And if they were made by a witch.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve come here today because I respect the Council and the law. But since when does the law say that a witch has to allow her honour to be tainted by a pathetic and confused little girl who can’t even summon a mouse? She’s no wildwitch. She shouldn’t be standing here today and her socalled charge is a lie from start to finish. I’ve no idea who set fire to Isa’s stable door – perhaps the girl did it herself? Nor do I know who hurt Isa’s dog. Perhaps the girl is responsible for that, too. But I do know that the honoured mothers of this Council are wise enough to see through her allegation and know it for the lie that it is. Take a look at her. And then look at me. She claims she made me go away – presumably with some incantation, we’re supposed to believe. And all this with cold iron around her neck. That would, in truth, require a wildwitch with extraordinary powers. Look at her, honoured Council – is that plausible?”

  “No,” Valla muttered. “It sounds most peculiar.”

  “Clara isn’t lying,” Isa said. “And she’s a very special kind of wildwitch, she just isn’t—”

  “Isa, I warned you,” Thuja said. “In the witches’ Council it’s not a question of who can afford the most expensive lawyers. Here, each witch speaks her own case.”

  “And those who aren’t witches don’t speak at all,” Valla said. “Perhaps that’s why the girl finds it hard to speak loudly enough for us to hear her. Can we start by clarifying whether she even is a wildwitch? Tell her to call some animal.”

  I stood with my mouth hanging open and a sense that the earth had just disappeared beneath my feet. Chimera had beaten me to the ground, tied me up and abducted me – and yet suddenly I was the accused. Of not being a wildwitch. And perhaps I wasn’t. After all – who had ever heard of a wildwitch who could only shout GOAWAY?

  “A mouse,” Chimera said triumphantly. “Make her call a mouse. If she fails, she’s not a witch and then it will be obvious that the rest of her story can’t be true, either. And then she’s mine!”

  Her eyes glittered with greed and she made that gesture with her claw again.

  My mind went completely blank. I didn’t have one single thought, not one single emotion except undiluted panic and a desperate little voice screaming I can’t do it, I can’t do it. Far away I heard Mrs Pommerans sigh a hopeless little “Oh no…”

  “My sister’s daughter has only just started her training,” Isa said. “She’s better at making animals go away…”

  “Anyone who shouts loud enough can do that,” Valla said. “Now get her to call that mouse so we can proceed.”

  I closed my eyes and tried very hard to use my wildsense, but all I could feel was my own terror. Or so it was until I became aware of something running up my trouser leg. In amazement I opened my eyes and almost forgot to be scared. Something was darting up under my jumper and moving down the sleeve, pressing its tiny, warm claws against my skin. I held out my hand with the palm facing upwards and a thin, little grey mouse ran out of my sleeve.

  I don’t know where it came from. I really don’t.

  It just sat there on the palm of my hand and groomed its pink nose with tiny grey mouse paws. Its whiskers vibrated against my fingers. There was no way it could be the pencil case mouse, but it looked exactly like it.

  “Ah, well,” Valla said, sounding almost disappointed. “At least we know one thing. The girl is a wildwitch. Now all we have to do is find out whether she’s telling the truth.”

  Chimera looked absolutely furious. She hadn’t expected me to be able to do it. And to be honest, I don’t think I did do it. It didn’t feel like I had done anything. But the mouse was there and right now that was all that mattered.

  “Fine,” Chimera said at last. “She might be a witch.
But she’s still a liar. I demand trial by wildfire so that everyone can see who’s telling the truth and who’s lying.”

  “Trial by wildfire?” Thuja said. “That’s a hard test for so young a witch.”

  “If she really is a witch and if she’s telling the truth,” Chimera said, “…then she has nothing to be scared of, does she?”

  CHAPTER 16

  To Run From a Fight

  I guess I’d imagined I would be walking on hot coals or snuffing out a candle with my fingers or carrying something that was burning. But I was wrong.

  “The trial has four parts,” Mrs Pommerans explained while we sat in the guest cave waiting for darkness to fall – because a trial by wildfire has to be undertaken at night, obviously. So that you could see the flames properly, I presumed. “Skyfire, Waterfire, Earthfire and Heartfire.”

  Four trials – surely one was enough?

  “The first part isn’t too bad,” Master Millaconda said, thinking he was being helpful. “It’s Skyfire and they’re only fireflies.”

  Fireflies. That didn’t sound very dangerous.

  “What do I do with them?” I asked, while with one hand I stroked the cat’s back.

  “Every trial is pretty much the same: you need to speak to some creatures and convince them that you’re telling the truth. If you succeed, they’ll let you pass without burning you.”

  “But… I don’t know how to talk to them. I can only make things go away.”

  “Who knows – it might just work,” Mrs Pommerans said with a little smile. “I’ve a feeling you’re capable of more than you think. After all, the mouse came to you, didn’t it?”

  “Yes.” But how could I explain that it hadn’t come because I called it? It had just… appeared. Of its own accord. And possibly because I’d helped the mouse in my pencil case. What did I know? I hadn’t talked to it. And I wouldn’t know how to talk to the fireflies.

  “Do they burn you?” I asked. “The fireflies?”

  “Yes. If you can’t make them stop, then they will. The flames are small, but there are a lot of them.”