A Girl Beyond (War of the Witches Book 2)

by Marjorie Weismantel

  I paused and stared at Belinda and Mercy before adding, “I know it sounds weird, to recognize a person by seeing their soul through their eyes but you have to believe me. There were many others there that I felt familiar with but I wasn’t sure why. And did you hear me talk about the old crone? You know who she was? It was Miss Cassie. She was there, too.”

  Belinda leaned in before asking gently, “Did you see your father there?”

  I smiled, widely, my eyes shining. “Yes, he was there. It was the green-hooded man. I looked in his soul and I knew it was him. I could feel it. I don’t know if he knew who I was, though.”

  I looked away and sighed. “There’s one more thing.”

  “What’s that?” Belinda asked.

  “Remember when I wanted to stay in Trier after I was condemned to die? I wasn’t ready to leave that life, even though I was afraid of my death by fire. I wanted to see who was watching me, even as I burned. I just had a feeling.” I gazed back at Mercy and Belinda and moaned, “Well, I wish I never did. I wish I never saw who it was.”

  I felt a tear run down my cheek before I quietly added, “It was Ian. He was there, watching me. I knew that he was one of them, for he had the same countenance and dress of the archbishop who had condemned me to die. I saw the darkness of his spirit as he was viewing me with such cold detachment. After a while, I became blinded from the smoke and my tearing eyes, but I knew he was still there, watching me. Even as I burned, I could feel the icy fingers of despair close around my heart.”

  52. Aftermath

  Belinda sighed, “Tess, we’re almost done. You’ve been through a great deal today between the regression and all of these questions. We still have to know how the 14th century Karmic Apocalypse of the Wiccans went.

  “I know,” I sighed, while leaning my head back and closing my eyes.

  “So, Tessie, what happened with the De Morneys and that corrupt bishop? Did they figure out what was really going on?” Mercy asked.

  I loosened my shoulders and sat up before finally answering. “It was after we did something to the Bishop of Reims. My mama caused his property and his manor house to be affected by a terrible whirlwind. It ruined most of his vineyards and killed a number of his sheep. The wind also destroyed his entire barn and part of his house. By then, we knew that Lord De Morney and the bishop were getting suspicious so we packed up and left.”

  “Where could you go in those days without a male escort?” inquired Belinda.

  “Mama and I walked all night to the monastery that was in the mountains. Mama had sold herbal remedies to the Saint Maurice monks in the past and she thought they wouldn’t mind helping us. We were lucky because they were bringing their wool and cheese to Paris within a few days and we were able to travel with them.”

  Mercy’s ears perked up. “So, what’d you do in Paris?”

  “Paris was scary for us at first. After all, we’d never been out of our village before. Mama had to go around selling some of her herbal concoctions to the city apothecaries. She ended up meeting some old guy who owned one of those places. His wife had died and he was desperate for someone to care for his children. They ended up making an arrangement. She married him and he took us in. We felt safe there because we could hide ourselves away in a large town like Paris, unlike the small village we had come from.

  Belinda asked, “What happened to the rest of the good witches who had followed through with the plan?”

  “We had been hearing things from witches and commoners who were traveling throughout the region. They talked about grave personal troubles affecting some of the highborn and the corrupt religious leaders. The troubles seemed to be scattered randomly throughout the continent because not all of the lords and priests were affected. After a time, it did appear that many luminars had to flee from their homes because they were concerned about eventual retribution.”

  “It appears that your plan to torment the bad ones was working,” Mercy noted with a slow smile.

  “Yes, it did work, at least for a time. Our primary goal was to stop the diaboles from destroying the good witches. We punished them for their evil deeds AND we managed to keep them very busy, so busy that they didn’t have time to create all the typical witch hysteria.

  Belinda asked, “What caused it to eventually change?”

  “After some years of suffering these misfortunes, a small group of the diaboles finally got together. They looked around and saw that the commoners and the good witches weren’t having the same bad luck that the diaboles were experiencing. That’s when they started to become suspicious and connect the dots. They finally captured a young witch from the Germanic territories and tortured her into a confession. She revealed our plan, not that I blame her. It was bound to come out, sooner or later.”

  “So, THEN what?”

  I explained, shaking my head, “All hell broke loose. The diaboles couldn’t believe what the luminars had done to them. They went back to their fancy homes and manors with plans to arrest and torture any good witch in sight. Fortunately, we had managed to spread the word. The luminars weren’t going to sit around, waiting to get arrested and thrown into the dungeon. They would put up a fight for that’s what they had learned to do. The diaboles, on the other hand, had gotten lazy. They had more ‘things’ and more money, but their magical power had waned. It takes effort and practice to keep up the magic. Because of their wealth, all they had to do was to pay someone to do their bidding. For the first time, the diaboles and the luminars were on equal footing.”

  Belinda asked, “So the magical powers of the bad ones had diminished?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, like the old saying goes, ‘Use it or lose it’. The fighting between the diaboles and luminars went on for a couple of decades. The diaboles did become more fearful about accusing witches, for they would find that their house would mysteriously burn down, or their children would come down with an unexplained illness. You could say that we learned how to keep things in check, that is, until the year 1348.”

  “That year sounds familiar to me,” Mercy commented with a frown.

  Belinda answered, “It’s the beginning of the Bubonic Plague in Europe.”

  I grimaced, “Yes, otherwise known as, ‘the Black Death’.”

  I sighed, “We should have known that it would be impossible to keep the diaboles in check for very long. After all, until the recent past, the bad ones had kept control over the commoners and the luminars through brutal intimidation. Resentment over their loss of control had been simmering for a long time. They desperately wanted their power back. A diabole from the Kingdom of Naples was believed to have brought a cage full of infected rats back from China. They were infected with the Yersinia Pestis bacterium, otherwise known as the Bubonic Plague.”

  “Why would someone do that? Didn’t they know that the plague bacteria would be deadly for anyone who was exposed?” Mercy inquired.

  “It is said that a female diabole named Narcissa was driven to madness by the death of her husband, Brando. Narcissa and Brando were nobles with a large estate in the Kingdom of Naples that ran their lands with an iron fist. Both husband and wife were known far and wide as very evil witches. The rebellion between the luminars that worked the estate and Narcissa and her husband was fierce. The estate manor had burned down under mysterious circumstances and Brando died in the fire.”

  “Are you saying that Narcissa did this evil deed out of grief?” Belinda asked.

  “Mad grief I would say. The day before the fire, an execution had been carried out. Two good witches, a mother and a daughter, had been burned at the stake right in front of the estate manor. It is believed that Narcissa blamed the relatives of those witches for the death of her beloved Brando. Her final act of revenge was to bring the plague germs here. She wanted all luminars to die. She didn’t care about anything else.”

  Mercy leaned back in her chair. “I know the devastation of the plague was horrible. What happened between the diaboles and the luminars during that time?�
��

  “Millions of people who lived on the continent of Europe and the English lands died, including commoners and witches alike. No one could halt the advance of the Black Death. It did stop the fighting between the diaboles and the luminars; after all, who was left to fight? Everyone was nursing the sick or burying the dead.”

  Belinda asked, “What happened to you, Tess?”

  I pursed my lips. “The Black Death eventually came to Paris as you would expect. After all, it was everywhere. There was no escape. My mama and I managed to survive; however, it killed my husband and my infant son.”

  53. Weather Day

  I started to gather my things to leave and Mercy touched my arm. “Hey, Tess, listen up. Will’s on the phone. He’s checking to see if we want to go sliding with him and some friends. He has a new sled called ‘speed demon’ and he wants to check it out.”

  “Like downhill sliding? Don’t you need some snow for that?” I asked, frowning.

  Mercy looked at me, “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?”

  “Look out the window,” Mercy directed with a grin.

  I glanced outside. “Wow! How long has it been snowing? It looks pretty deep.”

  Mercy answered, “I don’t know when it started because we were in here. So, you wanna go? Will’s waiting.”

  “Sure, why not? As long as you don’t think it’s too late. It would be a great way to get my mind off of my family dying of the plague,” I responded with a grimace. “By the way, it’s still October. Do you always get snow this early?”

  Belinda laughed, “Never in MY lifetime. This is very unusual. There’s bound to be even more outages because the snow weighs down the leaves, the trees weigh down the power lines …. you get the picture. We’re really lucky here. One advantage to living in a trailer is that you’re more likely to have a generator.”

  I listened for a minute. “Is that what I hear running?”

  Belinda nodded her head. “While you were under we lost power. I just had to flick a switch to turn it on.”

  “I wonder if we’re having problems at home,” I lamented.

  “Tess, I’ve got stuff you can borrow to go sliding. In fact, you can stay here until your electricity returns if you want.” Mercy turned to Belinda, “Isn’t that right, mom?”

  “Of course, otherwise you’d end up going to a dark freezing house with your wet clothes,” Belinda remarked. “Just call your aunt and make sure it’s OK.”

  “Sure,” I responded, standing there, absently wringing my hands.

  Mercy glanced over at me, frowning. “Tessie, what’s up? You’re doing what your aunt always does, wringing your hands. Is something bothering you?”

  I deliberately crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Something’s nagging at me, something I should remember from the regression. It’s related to the weather and I know it’s important. Every time someone mentions the words snow, or sleet, or ice, little bells go off in my head.”

  “Tess, go sliding with your friends and get your mind off all this. It won’t come to you if you force it, believe me. It’ll just pop into your head when you’re not thinking about it,” Belinda responded.

  Mercy looked at the clock. “Will’s gonna pick us up in fifteen minutes. We have to get ready.”

  An hour later, Mercy and I were trudging up a long steep hill with Will and his ‘speed demon’. Nathan, Sam and Doug were there too, with a saucer, a huge tire tube and some homemade contraption made out of a rickety chair nailed onto old wooden cross country skis. “Someone’s gonna get killed on that thing,” Will commented while staring at the chairski.

  Sam laughed, “This’ll be great. I had nothing to go sliding with so I threw this together from crap we had in our garage. Then I sprayed the skis with silicone. Does anyone want to try it before I do?”

  “No,” answered five people at once.

  “I’ll go after YOU Sam,” Doug yelled.

  It was great fun while it lasted. Other people showed up to slide so it got a little crowded. I ended up trying every contraption we had, even the chairski thing. Instead of going straight down the hill, it would cut across, either swerving off to the right or left. Sliders that were walking back up the hill had to dodge it or they’d get wacked. For a while, the snow was sporadic, but as the day wore on it became heavier.

  “Tess, I’m spraying some of Doug’s silicon on ‘speed demon’. You want to check it out with me?” Will asked. At that moment, we were the only ones on the top of the hill.

  “Yeah, sure. I LOVE speed!” I responded.

  Will proceeded to clean off the bottom of his sled and spray it with the silicone. “We’re gonna fly down this hill so I suggest you sit in front and I’ll hold onto you,” Will explained with a teasing glint in his eye. “I don’t want you to get scared.”

  “Anything you say, Will,” I answered with a condescending smile. I climbed onto his sled and settled in front. He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me close. Next thing I knew, we were flying down the hill and beyond. We were going so fast I heard myself scream. The sled kept on going, right through some trees and into the woods, way beyond all the other sliders. We finally stopped when we ran up against a bush and the ‘speed demon’ tipped over on its side. We lay there laughing while catching our breath.

  Will still had his arms wrapped around my waist. “You OK, Tess?” he asked softly in my ear.

  “Yeah, I’m OK Will, and you?”

  “At this particular moment, I’m doing fine,” Will whispered as he started to kiss the back of my neck.

  I was surprised at first, but then I decided to relax. Will’s arms pulled me closer and he kissed near my ear. “Hope you don’t mind, Tess,” he murmured. “I’ve wanted to do this since I first met you.”

  “You have?” I breathed.

  “Yeah,” he responded, while continuing to move his lips closer to my mouth.

  “Why don’t I join you?” I asked as I twisted my body around and caught his lips on mine. I think I took Will by surprise because he paused for a second. Then he went crazy, kissing me all over, my lips, my jaw, my eyes and my neck.

  “I love you, Tess.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. You don’t have to say anything. This must be new to you, but I’ve known it since, well, for a while.”

  I squinted my eyes at him. “You did? I figured you thought I was a dummy.”

  “NO,” he laughed. “My sarcasm was probably just a defense mechanism. I figured you’d think I was a geek.”

  “Yeah, but you’re a handsome geek,” I teased, and then I became more serious. “Look, Will, I’ve gotten to know you. You are a bit of a geek and you’re also super smart, courageous, and very funny. I like you. I mean, I really like you.”

  “How about that other guy?” Will inquired.

  I shifted back a little and stared at him. “I presume you’re referring to Ian? I don’t know what’s going on with him. There’re things I’m just beginning to understand.”

  “Really? Care to explain?”

  “No,” I answered. “I’d rather do this.” I smiled and kissed him again. Will sighed and pressed his lips on mine.

  All of a sudden I started feeling an unpleasant buzzing sensation at the back of my neck. Then, a voice. THAT voice! “So there you are!

  “Will, did you hear that?”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “I’m speaking to you, GIRL. He can’t hear me ‘cause I’m directing this to you. He’ll hear me only too soon.”

  I struggled to shift back from Will and pushed up on my elbow. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but notice how isolated we were. Mercy and the guys were far away on the top of the hill. The only way I could see them was to lean over and look around a tree. The darkness was descending and the snow was piling on.

  I grabbed Will’s arm. “Will, we’ve gotta get out of here. Something’s not right.”

  “Well, well, look who’s here,” said a mocking
voice.

  I turned to see several people streaming in our direction from the woods. Their evil intentions were obvious because they were immersed in a red and black fog. Their angry, whipped up auras were even visible through the snow and imminent darkness. I quickly tried to stand but some nasty character loomed over me, the toe of his boot on my chest. I turned to see two other guys practically stomping on Will. I gasped when I realized why they looked familiar. They were part of the gang that was in the lobby of the school the other day.

  “So, it’s YOU again!” Tonya stalked up to Will, stepping on his neck with her high pointy boot. “I don’t like you. You’re always getting in my way and I’m sick of it.” Then she turned her pale, blue gaze on me. “And if it’s not my old pal, Tess. What are we gonna do with you? Stacy, what do you think? What should we do?”

  A pimply faced girl with the streaked purple hair sneered, “Why don’t we build them a nice, cozy snow fort? After all, it looks like they wanna be alone together.”

  Tonya flashed a cold smile at me. “You have any last words, Tess?”

  “Yeah, I do. Thanks for asking. That new bald look you’re going for, I just don’t think it’s gonna cut it.”

  “What was that?” Tonya lifted her book off Will and put it on my throat. Suddenly, I was finding it hard to breath.

  She pointed at me with her shiny dagger nails. “I want you and your kind to be gone, and I’m starting with you and your friend here.” She gestured toward Will.

  I tried to answer her but I could only grunt.

  Tonya, along with the others, started moving their arms and fingers in a peculiar circular motion. It was as if they were conducting an orchestra of wind and snow. I couldn’t help but notice that their movements coincided directly with an alarming uptick in the wind.