Most unseelie and seelie land wights cannot cross running water, especially if it flows south.
An ‘awe band’ can be put on mortals to stop them telling what they have seen of wights.
Giving wights a gift or verbal thanks means ‘goodbye’ to them ie, they have been paid therefore their services are no longer required. Some wights take offence at being thanked in any form, and permanently withdraw their services out of sheer indignation. Therefore, thanking wights or the Faêran is taboo.
Warding off Unseelie Wights
Holding Fast, a Steady Look and Silence are three powerful charms against wights.
Conversely (and confusingly), acknowledging their presence by looking at them can be detrimental to them. (Perhaps this is only true outdoors, as The Steady Look has been recorded as being used indoors.)
Having The Last Word is effective in certain cases; also, Rhyme has power over wights.
Many wights are powerless after cock-crow.
To show fear is to give them power over you, to allow them to strike. The ringing of bells is anathema to them. Charms against unseelie wights include ash keys, ground-ivy (‘athair luss’) and daisies.
A Chant to Repel Wights
Hypericum, salt and bread,
Iron cold and berries red,
Self-bored stone and daisy bright,
Save me from unseelie wight.
Red verbena, amber, bell,
Turned-out raiment, ash as well,
Whistle-tunes and rowan-tree,
Running water, succour me.
Rooster with your cock-a-doo,
Banish wights and darkness too.
Shapeshifting
Even shapeshifters must abide by the laws of their own nature. Not all wights are shapeshifters. For example, urisks are not. Spriggans can alter their size but not their shape. Some wights command two forms. Swan-maidens may become damsels or swans. The Each Uisge and all other waterhorses can take the shape of a man or a horse.
Other wights have the power to metamorphose into three different guises. Two of the waterhorse types, brags and phoukas, have a third native shape; brags, that of a calf with a white handkerchief tied around its neck and phoukas, a bat.
Bogey-beasts and their ilk are true shapeshifters; their possible forms are countless. Some examples include the wight which changes into a bundle of sticks, the Trathley Kow (based on the ‘Hedley Kow’) which can imitate the form of a man’s sweetheart, or any other form it chooses, purely for the purpose of mischief-making and a thing called ‘It’, which can turn itself into a variety of strange objects.
Note: shapeshifting should not be confused with glamour. Glamour is an illusion, a spell cast over the senses of mortals so that they see what is not there. True shapeshifting is more powerful.
Books by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
THE BITTERBYNDE TRILOGY
BOOK 1: The Ill-Made Mute
BOOK 2: The Lady of the Sorrows
BOOK 3: The Battle of Evernight
THE CROWTHISTLE CHRONICLES
BOOK 1: The Iron Tree
BOOK 2: The Well of Tears
BOOK 3: Weatherwitch
BOOK 4: Fallowblade
About the Author
Cecilia Dart-Thornton is the author of numerous bestselling fantasy novels, notably the Bitterbynde Trilogy, which includes The Ill-Made Mute, The Lady of the Sorrows, and The Battle of Evernight. The daughter of an architect and an academic, Dart-Thornton holds a bachelor of arts degree and a post-graduate diploma of education from Monash University. Having started out as a schoolteacher, she became a full-time writer in 2000, after her work was “discovered” on the Internet and brought to print by a New York publishing house. She is a strong supporter of animal rights and her interests include music, the fine arts—particularly Pre-Raphaelite paintings—and edible gardening. Visit her website at www.dartthornton.com.
Author photo © Vika Czwetisza
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Ill-Made Mute copyright © 2013 by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
The Lady of the Sorrows copyright © 2013 by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
The Battle of Evernight copyright © 2013 by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Cover designs by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1906-4
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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