A Witch's Rite

by N. E. Conneely

  There was an unspoken but hanging from those words. I was almost afraid to know what it was, but if I was going to help either one of us, I needed to know exactly what I was up against.

  My voice was soft. "This time he asked you to do something else, didn't he?"

  Burly gave a jerky nod. "I don't want to hurt you, but I'm not sure I'll have a choice. Ned will look in on us at some point and decide that I've let things linger for too long. Then he'll make me hurt you. I don't know how to stop it."

  Getting the brand back from Ned would do it, but that wasn't an immediate solution. If I had my pack, I could try a healing charm. I doubted it would do much to a wound that old, but if the scar was healed, that could sever the connection between Burly and the brand. There was just one problem with that plan. I didn't have any healing charms, and I was lousy at healing spells.

  I mean I was so bad at them that my dad had given up on teaching me. Under most circumstances, I was a great witch to have around, but this was one of the few times someone else would've been better suited to the job. Like Mom. She was a great healer. If she were here, Burly would be free in a matter of seconds.

  Since it was just the two of us, I had to find a different answer. "I know how to free you, but I can't do it. It requires spells that I've never been good at."

  Burly sighed and seemed to shrink a few inches. "Just know that I'm sorry. I wish you no harm."

  "Don't give up just yet. I may have a way to dampen the connection, give you a chance to fight back against anything Ned asks you to do."

  He perked up. "Really?"

  "Maybe. I need some time to work on it." I could see him sink back into himself, already afraid of what he would do. "If you were free, not just of Ned, but of anyone controlling you, what would you do?"

  He gave a wistful smile. "I've always wanted to be a farmer."

  "What would you farm?" I examined him magically, which was trickier than it sounded because if I tried to investigate too closely, his natural abilities nullified the probe.

  "I've always wanted a little dairy farm. It wouldn't have to be much, just enough to live off. I'm a simple man." He motioned around him. "I'd like to make my own line of cheeses. I've had some ideas over the years. I like to think I could make a go of it. And if I did well enough, I would find a nice girl, minotaur or humanish, to settle down with."

  It was hard to do magic when I was blinking back tears. "Burly, I will do my best to give you a chance at that dairy farm. No promises, but I'll try my best."

  He shook his head. "I know about the man Ned is holding and that more of your friends are in this maze. You have other priorities."

  "I can still help you."

  "I've been this way for thirty years. Do you think you're the first to promise help? I know it never happens." He turned away.

  "I'm not like the others." My voice was hard. "I keep my word. I will do my very best to help you be free."

  "You will?"

  "I will." There was hope in his eyes, something I thought he hadn't felt in a very long time. No matter what it took to rescue Gudger and defeat Ned, I would do it, and I would come back for this man because he deserved better than this life.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  "Are you sure this will work?" Burly asked for at least the eighth time.

  "No, but I'm good witch, and this is our best shot." I tried to sound reassuring, but the truth was I didn't feel confident. He'd been controlled by the spell for so long that it was difficult to guess how it would go when I tried to unravel it, and there was a chance I couldn't do it without having the branding iron at hand.

  He shifted his weight and sighed. "I know it's a little cut, but be quick about it. I'm not all that fond of the sight of blood."

  I had to be helping the only squeamish minotaur I'd ever heard of. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and tried to squish my flash of irritation. "I will be very gentle."

  Picking up the knife, I held his arm against the table and made a tiny cut just below his elbow. Blood oozed out. I quickly set the knife down, closed my eyes, and pushed my magic into his body.

  Something fought against me, trying to keep me from investigating what the other spell had done to him. At first I couldn't tell if it was his own natural resistance or if it was some attribute of the spell. Then I got enough of my magic in him to get a feel for things.

  Whoever had constructed the spell that was holding him prisoner was an evil genius. The spell had started out small. I could feel the cold knot of magic laced through the brand. However, over time it had fed off his own energy and spread. Now it laced every single part of his body, and there was no easy fix. I started working on walling off the original part of the spell from the metastasized portions.

  I was about to drop the magical wall into place when Burly started shaking me. My eyes popped open. "What the hell are you doing? I was making progress."

  "You have to run." He forced the words through clenched teeth.

  Then I saw it. His eyes had changed. Oh, they were still the same chocolate, but all the kindness was gone and they seemed to have a lusty glint in them.

  He set the knife in my hand. "You may have to use it."

  "I was making progress. What happened?" I quickly probed the area. It only took a second to find the answer. I'd been so distracted by the spell I was creating I hadn't felt the new one spring into existence. There was magic filling the room, and it was focused on him.

  Well, most of it was focused on him. Part of the spell had its eyes on me. I sent out a wave of energy, trying to cancel it out. While that killed the portion of the spell that was focused on me, it did nothing to change the bulk of the magic.

  "Run," he grunted. "Run now. Use the knife if you have to. Don't let me hurt you."

  I pushed back from the table and took one step toward the mouth of the cave. The smart thing would be to run, but there was still a chance I could save him. Save both of us. I turned back, grabbed his arm, and thrust my magic into him. There wasn't much I could do quickly, and anything that was directly opposed to the spell controlling him didn't stand a chance. I set a compulsion on him, commanding him to follow his truest desires.

  "Run!" he screamed. There was nothing kind left in him. The magic had changed Burly into the monster of legend.

  I turned and sprinted, praying that my magic had given both of us a chance to live.

  An infuriated bellow echoed from the cave.

  I started running faster, figuring that tripping and falling on the knife was the least of my concerns. I could hear his hoofbeats as he charged out of the cave. I prayed that I found help.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I ran through the maze, taking turns and darting down paths without any regard for what was ahead of me. Behind me I could hear the minotaur snorting and grunting. I didn't know what Ned had done to Burly, and I didn't want to find out.

  As I slid through another turn, I lost my grip on the knife, and it went spinning into the bushes. I didn't even pause. There wasn't time to find it, and I didn't think it would do me much good anyhow.

  Slipping around another turn, I sprinted down the straight. I risked a glance over my shoulder. I might have the advantage in the narrow turns, but as soon as we hit a straightaway, Burly started to catch up. I needed to do something to slow him down, but I was faced with the same problem I'd had when he captured me. Most magic wouldn't work on a minotaur.

  The ground started to shake under my feet, and I knew this was the time that I had to come up with something or find out just what would happen if he caught me. My hand clenched, forming a fist as I wound my way through a series of turns.

  There was something sticky on my fingers. It was the wrong hand to have been cut by the knife when I slipped. But I had grabbed Burly's wounded arm with this hand, so it had to be his blood. That would give me a way to cast a spell on him. There was no way to know how any magic I placed on him would react with the spells already in his system. The blood would give me
an in, but I might only get one chance. Burly bellowed, and I was sure I could feel his breath reaching me. I was running out of options and time.

  The spell I'd cast back in the cave didn't seem to be helping much. Whatever I did this time had to be different, target him more directly, and give me time to get away.

  Focusing on the blood as the connection between my magic and Burly, I started to cast. I started with a simple stun spell, added a sleep component, and tied it together with a healthy dose of willpower. Sending it through the blood on my hand, I hoped it worked.

  I felt the spell sink into his body. That much had worked, but it wasn't enough. The spell had to slow him down. Glancing over my shoulder, I found him only feet behind me. He was just one long step from being able to grab me.

  Ignoring the burning in my legs, I forced them to move faster. It could take the spell a moment to take effect. While my legs still had some speed left in them, my lungs were a different story. My chest burned and ached every time I took a breath.

  I felt the magic in him start to twist and morph, though I couldn't be sure what it was turning into. Faltering hoofbeats reached my ears, and I risked another look back. Burly was slowing down, first to a walk and then stopping and shaking his head. I slowed to a jog but kept moving, knowing I would need all the distance I could gain if this went wrong.

  I looked back one last time before I rounded the corner. He had his hands over his ears and seemed to be muttering to himself. Hopefully that was a sign the spells were helping him overcome Ned's influence. It cost me a little time, but I attached a tendril of magic to him so I would know roughly where he was and if anything changed.

  As I jogged along the paths, which I could just barely see, I kept thinking I would hear something from Burly. Not only was there silence behind me, but all the magical link between us would tell me was that he hadn't moved much yet. The spells were still in flux, and until they settled down, there wasn't much for me to learn.

  With a shrug, I kept putting distance between the two of us. Now that I was traveling at a more reasonable pace, I started checking for traps, Elron and the officers, and really anything that might be a friend or foe. Considering how things had gone so far, I considered it something of a miracle that I hadn't run afoul of a trick of the maze while I was running away from Burly.

  That was another good point. The flying squirrel had given me enough hints as to how this whole thing was put together that I might be able to break some of the spells. Knowing that the main part of the spell was on my mind was a huge breakthrough even if I didn't have a good plan on how to attack it. Though I couldn't even attempt that until I was sure Burly wasn't going to resume hunting me. Some rest would be good too. The fitful sleep I'd gotten before my abduction hadn't done much to refresh me, and I was running low on all types of energy—physical, mental, and magical.

  As much as I wanted to drop to a walk, I couldn't. The link was giving me the same information I'd gotten before about a swirl of spells, and I didn't trust the lull to last. It would be so much harder to pick up the pace from a walk than a jog if Burly resumed the chase.

  I wanted to be safe. I wanted this to be the turning point where I could go from being the useless witch to the witch who saved everyone, but I didn't see that happening—not yet anyway. Acknowledging that hurt. Elron was out there somewhere, and he needed me. An elf wasn't going to be able to break this spell. Gudger was hurt and needed medical attention, something he wasn't going to get until I could free him from Ned. Then there were Patrick and Wells. They were lost in here too, and I doubted they were having any fun in this wretched place.

  With the pain in my legs and lungs back down to a more acceptable level, I couldn't help but notice how dry my mouth had gotten. Before too long, I was going to need water. Considering that I was lost in rows of rhododendrons, without canteens or a way to purify water, it wasn't looking promising.

  Checking the link with Burly again, I hoped for some good news, but if anything the battle between the spells was getting worse. Cursing, I stopped moving and debated my options. Really, there was only one: try another spell. After all, I couldn't keep moving indefinitely, and I needed to be free of this problem before I could look for water or start removing spells from myself.

  The blood on my hand had dried, but there wasn't much I could do about that other than hope it would still provide a way to get magic into him. This time I selected a very simple spell, basically a compulsion to go home. It didn't take more than a couple of seconds to craft the spell and only a small portion of my remaining power.

  I resumed walking as the spell headed for Burly. Thanks to the link, I could feel it impact with the mass of spells swirling inside him. For an instant things flared up, but then they died down. The spells stopped moving and started to form into something else. From here, it looked like things were finally going to go my way and Burly would return to his cave.

  The spells surged again, making links in places I'd never anticipated. The sleep spell joined with the desire to go home, effectively nullifying that portion of the spell. At the same time, the deepest desire spell joined with the orders Ned was feeding him.

  The roar behind me came after I'd started to run. A moment later the magical link started to shorten. He was catching up. I should've left well enough alone. Why couldn't I ever leave well enough alone?

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Elron

  I was roused from my rest by a tickle in my mind. Someone wanted to communicate with me. Scanning the area, I was relieved to see nothing had changed while I rested. The sensation that someone wanted to speak with me returned.

  I focused on the image. It was the doe I had helped escape the maze.

  "What can I do for you? Are you okay?"

  Fine. Spoke with herd. Have way to help—to pay back.

  "Please tell me more." I refused to get excited. There was every chance that any aid she offered would result in her death.

  Herd mate knows fey… officer? Helps deer. Can take message. If hurry, be there by sunup.

  "Let me think about it for a moment." This was the first real chance I had to get the word out. I had tried reaching out to animals when we were first captured but had been unable to contact any. I suspected it was part of the magic that was holding us here. My efforts would not be difficult for the magic to block since communicating with animals did not come as easily to me as communicating with plants.

  If the deer carried a message for me, it would get them out of the area and away from danger. It should be impossible for Ned to detect something like what the doe proposed as there was no physical component, and most people underestimated what creatures were capable of doing. The only real issue I saw was that I would have to come up with a simple message that would still convey the necessary information.

  "If you could send a message, I would be most grateful. It would also be prudent for your herd to leave this area until Ned has been dealt with."

  Yes.

  "Tell the fey that police officer Westmoreland and his group are trapped by human-controlled magic. We need help, but they must be careful of the magic person. He is very dangerous." I paused to let that sink in. "Now repeat the message back to me."

  The doe did, image by image, with as many attached words as she could manage. I thought it conveyed the point nicely. "May the earth make you fleet of foot and keep you safe."

  You too. Leave now. And that was the last I heard from her.

  I sat there for a few minutes, struggling with the hope that this would result in our rescue yet knowing the odds of that help arriving in a timely manner and avoiding our fate were slim. Part of me regretted sending the message, but my belief that we could escape Ned on our own was fading. However, I didn't want other people to die simply because they did not know what they were up against.

  If the message went to a fey, they should know to pass the information along to the police. While I was unsure if they had other resources that would allow them to re
scue us and capture Ned, I had to admit that the police officers had known the work they were signing up for. Their fate was not under my control.

  However, I could do my part to see this finished before they were in any jeopardy. I started packing away my gear. There was still a chance I could find Michelle or the others and we could get out of this. It was a small chance, but it was better than waiting for Ned to send another monster after me.

  With my gear stowed, I settled the backpack on my shoulders. I had to keep looking. Michelle wouldn't stop searching for me; I could do no less for her. Besides, she would camp for the night. This might be my best chance of locating her since only one of us would be moving.

  Hours passed as I made my way through the maze. While I moved cautiously, knowing the types of dangers that could present themselves, nothing unusual appeared. However, I was beginning to get feelings of what path I should choose when I came to an intersection. While I could not identify the source of the glimmers, they were akin to how my medallion had helped me find Michelle in the past.

  Grunts and outraged roars carried over the maze. The noise sounded roughly ahead of me, so I started jogging. One of our group was over there and in danger. I had to help, had to try to rescue them so we could save Gudger and leave this place.

  As I hurried down the corridor, I wavered between hoping to find Michelle and hoping that wherever Michelle was, she wasn't facing that angry monster. This was one of those times when the outcome would be mixed no matter who I found, if I could find anyone at all. My past attempts to locate Michelle had not gone well.

  Ahead of me the path forked. This was how I had lost Michelle to begin with, and I had no better notion now than I had then of how to choose the correct path. The odds were the same, and nothing recommended one corridor over the other.