Romana nodded, and set Bettie down next to Kate’s bonsai, watering the little tree with utmost care, before hanging the little stone pendant around her neck.
“Would you tell me how to perform the last rites?” Romana requested.
“Of course.” Kate replied. “But first, I must visit Joanna. I will be back with your dress.”
Romana nodded, knowing that Joanna was a thread wytch, with the ability to create masterpieces of fabric with her mind.
Sure enough, when Kate came back, in her arms was a dress of silken beauty, more perfect than anything Romana had worn before.
“There is a room upstairs where you may wash and change.” Kate informed her, just as the water moved to form a staircase. “Make yourself as clean as you can be. It is important that you be as free from dirt as possible.”
Romana took the silk parcel and climbed the stairs amazed to find that above the fountain, the ceiling gave way to several doors. One of which her staircase led to.
When she’d entered through the door, the water followed, passing through the elaborate dressing room with its mirrors and closets and landing in the large bathtub, before proceeding to begin steaming on its own.
Kate was wonderful sometimes, Romana thought, laying the dress down on a chair and proceeding to enter the bath finding it to be the perfect temperature.
She scrubbed all the dirt she could from her body, and washed her hair twice before donning the dress.
It was ankle length and backless, with a halter neck. The material was supple and beautiful, conforming to her body before flaring slightly at the bottom. It was white, as was the tradition for the wytch leading the last rite. Joanna had created a scarf that functioned as a belt made of a unique and stunning copper net that shone under the torchlight in the room, making it look like flames danced around her waist till the belt was tied in a knot and the ends fluttered downwards in small fiery rivers with sequins glittering at the ends.
Romana looked at herself in the mirror and brushed her hair to remove the knots before adding Sarah’s pendant. It was a beautiful dress, and she was glad Joanna had made it so, because her mentor deserved a showy send off.
When she left the room she jumped from the door, using air currents to slow her descent and keep her skirts from flying upwards. When she landed gracefully on the side of the fountain, it was to find Kate wearing a long sleeved black mourning gown, with a tight corset top and a short black ruffled skirt. She wore boots that came up to her knees exposing an inch of one tattooed and one not tattooed thigh that made the dress into a party outfit rather than a mourning gown.
At Romana’s questioning glance Kate said “Tonight is about celebrating Sarah’s life, before we mourn her passing. Now, come here, I can put what you must do directly into your mind to save the time of explaining. Time that we don’t really have, the rite begins in five minutes.”
Romana moved closer, and Kate placed her thumb in the centre of Romana’s forehead, drawing it out into a spiral and ending the line with a flick.
Suddenly Romana knew everything she would need to do tonight, how to speak, what would happen. Magic had its uses, she supposed.
Kate teleported them to the outside of the glade where the other wytches awaited them, all dressed in black, but all completely calm. Tonight was a night of ritual and celebration. Many of them carried lanterns sealed shut with small candles burning inside. They all knew of Sarah’s fear of fire hurting the trees. Romana looked at them and bowed her head with her hands raised as if in prayer. They returned the gesture as she led them past the trees and into the clearing, as they entered, each wytch held out her right hand to the sky, and in it materialised her wand. Romana had discovered hers a few nights ago, and she looked at it once more.
It was long, with grooves for her fingers. Sarah had told her that it was made of cedar, and that it would serve her well, she hoped that was true tonight. Sarah’s own wand had been made of juniper, and as Romana held up her left hand it materialised there, but that was only because Sarah was dead. Summoning another wytch’s wand outside the last or first rites was impossible.
The wytches filed in, forming a ring around the glade, the lantern holders spaced out evenly, while food and drinks were left in the centre next to the juniper.
She stood in the centre and began the chant.
“A wytch is dead, a wytch has passed,” She told the wytches, who repeated her words, continuing the magic. “Our tears flow, our hearts break.” The phrase was repeated back to her. “Let the world know, let our magic flow.” The magic was tangible in the air as the phrase was echoed back to her. “They shall hear our pain, they shall know our anguish.” Magic was cloying the glade now even as the words became faster, exchanging between her and her sisters, almost like a dance of words. “We mourn her, we shall celebrate her.” The excitement grew tangible as the last line was begun, but this time they all spoke as one. “The world shall know of her passing.”
And then the shrieks of joy and pain began, each wytch releasing her magic through sound which then built and built, weaving into the magic from the chant until the clearing could hold no more. As one each wytch raised her wand as the sound built to an inevitable crescendo.
The moon glowed brighter, the stars shone like diamonds, the clouds across the world disappeared, and their pain was echoed across the earth, down into the deepest ocean. When the shrieks finally subsided, everyone on the planet knew of the death of a wytch. Of their sister.
“Sisters!” She addressed them as their sound died away, “One of us has died today, but tonight, we remember her life. Who was our beloved sister?” She asked of the circle.
“Sarah Gooding!” The circle cried.
“What do we give her as we send her on her way to her new life?” She yelled.
“Our love and our joy!” They cried over and over until she held her hand up for silence.
“How will we give her this?” She shouted.
“Through celebration.” They yelled back.
“Then let us revel in this night, as our sister travels towards her new life.”
There was a loud whoop from everyone there, as Romana held Sarah’s wand up to the sky, bringing a shaft of moonlight directly upon the clearing, lighting the way as they celebrated, dancing to music of instruments that had been brought along with the food. By the time the dawn came, Romana had given her friend all the joy, love and happiness she had been able to summon.
“Sisters!” She cried once more, and everyone stopped what they were doing to re-join their place in the circle. “Dawn is upon us.”
“Our celebration is at its end.” They replied as one
“Our sister has left this life for the next.” She continued, holding up the wand to the rising dawn.
“We gave her our love and our joy.”
“Now we shall give her our respect.” Romana finished with the traditional words of the wytch leading the ceremony. “Now each of us shall return to our homes, and none shall speak our words to the air till the dusk is upon us.” Sarah’s wand began to smoke.
“We shall remember her in our thoughts not our words.” They completed the chant together, each waiting for the wand to disintegrate completely before silently gathering their things and leaving. Kate extended a hand, and they left the glade on foot, as did everyone else, giving Sarah the respect she deserved and watching the trees close for the last time before Kate teleported them to the top of the mountain.
No one would leave their homes for the rest of the day, no one would eat until the dusk came and babies would be given a sleeping spell so as not to disturb the silence with their crying.
The door closed behind them with a quiet snick.
You were wonderful Kate told her, using mental contact. But Prince Marten and Prince Endis worry that it was you who died last night. I have contacted them to tell them otherwise, however.
Thank-you.
You should read the journal now. I will be meditating by the fountain.
Romana nodded, and fetched the journal from its place by Bettie.
Chapter Five
RESPONSIBILITIES
When dusk came Romana shook herself free of the book and glanced at the cover with new admiration in her eyes. Sarah had not just been a dragon priestess; she’d been the dragon high priestess. At her birth the dragons had deemed her mind compatible with the dragon queen’s and from the moment she’d been able to talk she’d begun work. But when she was twenty five, she’d begun hearing the whispers, the trees had told her why she was being well fed, and they’d told her where she needed to go. She’d run from place to place for ten years before she used an oak tree to get to the Sorceress’ Isle and Kate had taken her in. It had taken her a year to stop fearing her past would catch up with her, and by then she’d found Bettie.
Her last entry described in detail what she wanted Romana to do to the two eggs that Kate owned, and then exactly what she should do to train and care for the baby dragons.
“Are you alright?” Kate asked, her voice rusty from remaining unused for so long.
“I’ll be fine.” Romana replied.
“You need to leave that for a little while. Tonight we take vengeance against Sarah’s killer.”
“Good.” Romana replied. “But don’t I need to learn to fly first.”
“It won’t be hard. Here.”
Kate did the spiral thumb thing again, and suddenly Romana knew exactly how to fly.
“That’s handy.” Romana commented, commanding the air currents to lift her with a wave of her hand.
“You’ll have to use one of the brooms for this journey though, you’ll be exhausted otherwise. And it’s ceremonial.”
“What happened to Marten and Endis?”
“They’re going back to Morendor to make sure Katelyn doesn’t get away again. They plan to be back in three weeks. And then, they plan to demand you return with them.”
“Should I?”
“I think not.” Kate replied. “But we shall see when the time comes. But for now, Sarah did not enchant these branches so we could use them to sweep floors. As we leave the isle I will stabilise your magic, I know you wouldn’t want to miss out on this.”
Romana nodded and mounted her broom, still wearing her white gown, just as the other wytches would be wearing their own black clothes. However, this time they all wore masks to hide their identity and red and purple scarves were attached to the tops of their brooms so the people they flew over would know that they were avenging their sister.
They met with the others at the top of the mountain.
“We shall attack their palace in the mountains.” Romana informed them; still drawing on the information that Kate had given her last night. “It will be a quick strike, and we will gain no casualties. We gave our sister our love, our joy, our respect, and now we shall give her, her revenge.”
“Her revenge.” The wytches shouted as one.
Not everyone was here of course. This was a small strike team of the strongest wytches, with only twenty-eight people here besides herself and Kate. The wytches here were those with combat powers, of the twenty-eight, seven were shields, able to use their magic to shield from physical attacks, two were experts in mental combat and would kill using their minds alone. Several were able to use their powers for attack and defence and Romana was one of these, but the majority were only able to use their powers to attack.
They flew up and past the mist veil before turning northeast, the brooms travelled faster than elvenspeed, but they slowed down over towns and villages belching out a cackling laughter to spread the news. The wytches were on their quest for revenge.
It took them half an hour to cross the human realms. When they reached the first signs of mountains they moved silently into formation, two arrows one after another.
They took the dragons by surprise, flying straight to the palace and proceeding to cause havoc. Romana threw bolts of fire at the huge stone building, rage for her friend overtaking rational thought. At her signal, her sisters began their attack. Kate took water from a bottle kept on the underside of her broom and used it to make a watery whip that she wielded against any dragon that got to close. Soon, weapons of all kinds were drawn and magic filled the air as bolts of power soared past. Some of the women were natural predators, not requiring their magic for this, and soon enough Romana began to see Cassandra’s victims get swarmed with bats and then suddenly drop from the sky, bloodless, before the bats reassembled to form Cass’s fanged form. Others were sung to their deaths by Leanne, a siren who released her voice in full force against the male dragons, forcing them to fight each other for her love.
For the first time Romana saw why people truly feared the sorceress’ Isle, because while the races could be deadly in wars against each other, together and with magic they were devastating, and the Isle of the Gifted was the only place where that union was made.
When the palace was nothing more than rubble, and many of the dragons had begun to leave them alone in favour of saving their wounded, they left, flying back across the world with no lives lost on their side, and their sister’s spirit avenged. They laughed and joked for the entire way back this time, taking their time dropping dragon heads in each town even on small travelling parties.
Then she saw the royal guard, the princes and Katelyn easily discernible at the head of the group even from this distance. The laughs of her sisters grew louder, and before she could stop them, her sisters swooped down and dropped a head in their way. Flicking a hand in its direction the head caught fire just seconds after it hit the ground, but had it been fast enough she wondered. Would Katelyn have seen it?
Kate threw her a penetrating glance, but didn’t question her, even as they descended towards the mist veil of the isle.
When they passed the veil, they looped around the base of the mountain, laughing loudly, and hearing the others join in. They were all at peace now; their sister was avenged with no deaths of their own.
Romana landed with Kate, who led her inside.
“You now know everything you need to, and are ready for your familiars. Do you know what to do?”
“I surround them in fire for two days straight and then cool the fire down to the embers while they hatch, when they’re out of their eggs they will need to be washed down in cool water to harden their scales.”
“How do you care for them?”
“They need blood and raw meat every few hours for the first few days, and then less often as time progresses. By the end of their first week they should be able to hunt with me and then after their third or fourth week they should be able to go out alone.”
“Good. Now, I have something for you. Grab your things.” Kate replied.
Romana did as she was told, packing the book and two eggs into a satchel and picking up Bettie. She looked around afterwards to find that there was nothing else that she actually owned; now that Sarah’s house was history. Everything she’d had, all her clothes, all her weapons and her combat gear. Her maps, her every possession.
“It can be replaced.” Kate told her. “But for now, fly with me.”
She felt the air currents floating around her practically begging to carry her along the wind, so she let them, conjuring a strong wind, but localising it to around her, and using it to force herself in her chosen direction.
Kate used a broom, but instead of piercing the veil as they had last time they’d flown, this time Kate took them around to the other side of the mountain, where the grassy hills of the other side gave way to a sheer cliff face. Around halfway up the immense sheer drop of the cliff, they turned inwards heading for a ledge that protruded only slightly from the face giving them just enough space to land.
When they were down Romana was forced to use her magic to create a barrier against the winds that threatened to blow them off, even as she leaned against the cliff wall and surveyed her surroundings.
“What’s this?” She asked Kate.
“It’s the least
accessible place on the island.” Kate replied. “There is no way of getting up here without magic or wings, so it’s perfect for you.”
“It’s a ledge in the middle of nowhere.” Romana pointed out. “How is it perfect for me?”
“You see that rock jutting out to the left of your hand; hit it with a gust of air or fire.”
Romana did and the rock sank inwards. Then the rock she was leaning on disappeared, causing her to fall through into a… what exactly was this?
“It’s a hangar.” Kate explained. “It was hidden by a physical illusion, one tied to that rock; hit it again from this side.”
She did and the cliff face returned, but this time with her on the inside, in a room large enough to hold not one, but two dragons.
“Have you guessed it yet?” Kate asked.
“My house?” She presumed.
“Yes. An eyrie big enough for dragons to live in with you. It took us a while to get the logistics right, but apart from that we had no troubles. Sarah made you a little surprise as well. She was going to be the one to show it to you, but now you’re stuck with me.”
Romana looked around the hangar. It was basically a large cave, easily as large as two or three houses, with a shower space to her left and a set of doors to her right.
“The shower is for if they come in straight from hunting. We didn’t think you’d appreciate blood and mud all over your house. We stole the technology from the dragons, so they’ll be able to operate it.” Kate finished with a sheepish look.
“What’s through here?” Romana asked while looking pointedly at the massive set of double doors, with a smaller door carved into the left hand side one.
“That would be the way into the house.” Kate replied, “Do you want to see?”
“Yes,” she replied, heading for the door, and pushing it open to reveal a cavernous room, with two large doors taking up the entire of one side, while the right hand side contained only one human sized door. She walked over to one of the larger doors first, and blew it open with her air magic.
Kate's Legacy (Soul Merge Saga Book 2) Page 4
