by Deirdra Eden
I clenched my teeth together. It was tempting to take the sleeping stone myself and be free of the pain, but Hazella wasn’t going to win this time. I discreetly dropped the turquoise pebble in the bottom of her cup and poured the boiling water over it. I waited until the stone dissolved before straining the tea leaves.
I held out the cup to Hazella. The old witch snatched it from my hand and moaned with exhaustion, like she was the victim of the whipping.
Not needing to exaggerate, I limped weakly to my bed and dropped onto my stomach. I pulled at my tattered dress so the cloth wouldn’t stick to my wounds. My fingers strained as I fought against the pain. I looked through the woodpile at Hazella sipping on her tea. Her head nodded, her eyes closed, and the tea cup fell to the ground. She looked like a lifeless rag doll asleep in her chair.
Finally, I could use my powers to stop the pain. Flames sprang from my clenched hands and danced on my skin like oil on water. The warm blaze from my hands ignited the straw. Perspiration dripped from my face as the soothing blanket of warmth enveloped me and eased my pain.
The fire died around me and I lay naked in the bed of ashes. The pain from the whipping seemed like only an intense memory. I shrugged my shoulders and rubbed my hands over the deep scars on my back. At least the wounds were closed up, and I wasn’t going to die tonight. I pulled a fresh nightgown over my head and wished I had something else to wear.
Cassi sobbed. “Oh, poor Auriella.”
I put my finger to my lips. “I’ll be fine. Let’s get you out of this cage so we can leave this place forever.”
A heavy knock fell on the door. Through the clouded window, the silhouette of the hairy man moved outside the cottage.
I held the cage close to my chest and dove for my ashen bed behind the woodpile.
The knocks on the door rapped faster and louder. “It’s I, Ruburt. Let me in.”
I turned to Cassi and whispered, “Ruburt. He’s the stranger who is making the necklace for Hazella, and he’s just as bad as the witch if he’s her friend.”
The handle on the door clicked. The hinges squealed open, and the stranger tiptoed like a bandit into the cottage.
I peered from behind the pile of wood. The bearded stranger gripped his dagger and searched the room. He noticed Hazella asleep in the chair and shook her. “Hazella! I have the last link of your necklace.”
I bit my lip. Hazella wasn’t going to awaken anytime soon. Those sleeping stones made people sleep for days.
Ruburt wrinkled his face and looked frightened. “What spell is cast on this place?”
“He thinks I’ve cast a spell,” I whispered to Cassi.
Cassi covered her mouth and shook with silent laughter.
Ruburt swung around and faced the pile of wood. He held out his dagger. “Whoever you are, come out and show yourself!”
There was no use in hiding, and I wasn’t going to let him, or anyone, stop me from escaping. I stood firmly and eyed the short man who called himself Ruburt.
He lowered his dagger, but his dark eyes kept a sharp gaze on me. “Who are you?” he demanded.
“Who are you?” I retaliated. “Are you some sort of overgrown hairy pixie?”
He coughed like he was choking back laughter. “I ain’t no pixie. I’m a dwarf. Now, who are you? Some sort of witch in training?”
“Of course not. I am Auriella. I live here, but not for much longer.”
Ruburt scoffed, “I’ve come here many times before, and I’ve never seen you.”
“I’ve seen you and know all about you.” I tilted my head and tried to sound intimidating, especially since he didn’t know anything about me. I glanced at Cassi who smiled and nodded.
Ruburt raised a bushy eyebrow. “If that were true, you would’ve at least had the sense to know I’m not an overgrown pixie. Now, who are you really? What’ve you done to the old witch? What’s wrong with her?”
“She is in a deep sleep and will not awaken for a whole day.”
“You’re a witch too! You’ve cast a spell on her!” The dwarf pointed his dagger at me.
I placed my hands on my hips. “I am not a witch! I’m not anything like Hazella. I won’t ever be like her! I gave her something to make her sleep. In a day or two from now, she will awaken and be fine.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ruburt said quickly. “But you don’t look like a witch. You’re too … pretty.”
“Me?” I gasped in disbelief and braced myself on the woodpile. No one but my parents had ever called me pretty before.
The dwarf frowned and nodded.
“I’m pretty?” I couldn’t believe it. After all that I had been through, someone actually thought I was pretty. I touched my face and brushed back my tangled hair.
“Don’t let it go to your head. You’re absolutely filthy.” The dwarf wrinkled his nose. “And you smell like the old witch too.” Ruburt slid his dagger back into the scabbard.
I clenched my teeth and heat rose from my fingertips. “Who are you? Are you Hazella’s friend?”
“Humph, I wouldn’t be her friend if she was the last breathing creature on this Earth. She’s forcing me to make a new necklace for her. Its finished, and I’m ready to be done with that old hag.”
I softened my face and unclenched my fist, allowing the blood to flow back into my white knuckles.
“My name is Ruburt. I’m a goldsmith from the dwarf village.”
“Dwarf village?”
“Yes, it’s far away from all the other villages.” Ruburt crossed his arms in front of his burly chest. “It’s where people with dwarfism can live in peace.”
“Hmmm.” I tapped my lips with my finger thoughtfully. “I have a friend who is little too. Maybe you can help us escape, and we can come with you.”
Ruburt’s eyes darted around the room. “Another little person? Here?”
I nodded, and using the cloth like an oven mitt, I lifted Cassi’s cage.
Ruburt stepped back and stroked his long beard. “A pixie. So this is how Hazella got the dust.” He scowled and looked disgusted. “Pixie dust was molten into the gold links of the new necklace.” He reached into his pocket and held a thin gold ring pinched between his fingers. “After I give her this last link and get my money, I am never doing work for a witch again.” Ruburt kicked the leg of Hazella’s chair. The witch didn’t stir. “I’m not leaving without my pay.”
“How much did she say she would give you?” I glanced at the fireplace mantel where the witch hid her coins.
“Ten times the weight of the necklace, in gold.”
Hazella would never part with that much gold. Now I knew why Hazella sharpened that old knife—she planned on killing Ruburt. “If you help us escape and lead us away from here, I will pay you what the witch promised.”
Ruburt froze as if holding his breath. He eyed me, then looked at Hazella. “Now, you’ve trapped me.”
“How?” I grimaced again at the thought of being anything like Hazella.
“If I don’t help you, I won’t get paid, and you will tell the old witch I’d been here and left without leaving this last link.” Ruburt shook his head. “If I do help you, the witch will find you and her pixie missing and might suspect I had something to do with it.”
Ruburt put his fingers to his mouth and started gnawing on his nails. His eyes darted from the witch back to me several times. Finally, he dropped his shoulders. “Fine, what do you need me to do?”
I set Cassi’s cage on the table. “I can’t get the pixie out. I’ve pulled at the sticks and looked for a door.”
“Let me examine the cage.” Ruburt picked up the cage with his bare hands, but didn’t react to the magic.
“Oh, Cassi want out!” the pixie pleaded.
Ruburt smiled his first genuine smile. He turned the box in his hands. “It’s simple. Why can’t you figure out how to open the cage?”
“It’s magical,” I informed him.
“It doesn’t seem magical to me. Why doesn’t the pix
ie just fly out?”
“Cassi trapped in cage!” the pixie cried and rattled the stick frame.
“Cage?” Ruburt scoffed, “This is not a cage. It’s a couple of sticks with spiders’ webbing and wolf fur strung between ‘em. If the wind blew hard enough, it could break.”
I shook my head. It certainly looked like a cage, and Cassi couldn’t get out.
“Go on, Auriella. Free the pixie,” Ruburt encouraged.
“But how?” I dropped my arms to my sides. “I want to, but I don’t know how.”
Ruburt raised his eyebrow. “You don’t seem like a half-wit. Why can’t you figure it out?” He picked up the cage and stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Are you afraid of wolves?”
My hands trembled. “How did you know?”
Ruburt let out a hearty chuckle. “And, the pixie must be afraid of spiders.”
Cassi shrieked and huddled in the corner of the cage.
Ruburt placed the cage on the table. “The only thing that’s stopping you is your own fears. All you have to do is tear the wolf’s fur and spider webbing from the stick frame.”
I bit my lip and wrung my hands together. It was too easy. What if one of the wolves really came to life after Cassi was freed and ate us both? I took a deep breath. I didn’t know what would happen, but I had to try something. Ruburt nodded and winked, which gave me encouragement. I lifted my hand and pressed against the cage.
The Shadow Wolf stepped through a pillar of billowing smoke. It’s not real, I reminded myself. The wolf dashed forward. My heart thumped wildly. The ground shook. The beast snarled, revealing a row of glistening teeth. I tightened every muscle in my body and resisted the urge to run.
“You can do it Auriella!” Ruburt shouted.
I had to stand firm and stop these illusions of fear or Cassi and I would be trapped forever. The beast charged forward and sprang toward me. Its mouth opened wide, its claws reached to tear me apart. I swung my fist and sliced through the illusion.
“Cassi be free! Cassi be free!” The pixie flew from the cage and danced in the air.
I caught my breath and turned to Ruburt. “Thank you.”
Ruburt’s lips pulled into a smile. He cleared his throat and regained his solemn expression.
Cassi flew to the fireplace and shouted, “Help! Help, Cassi!”
“What is it now?” Ruburt furrowed his brow. “Is the pixie always getting into trouble like this?”
Cassi put her hands on her hips. “Cassi wants dust back!”
I removed the stone from the fireplace mantel where Hazella had hidden her treasure.
“What’s this?” Ruburt asked and stroked his long beard.
I took the first bag from the hiding spot and dropped it on the tabletop. The unmistakable sound of coins clanked together. My fingers trembled as I struggled to undo the knot in the leather strings.
Ruburt reached across the table and grabbed the bag from me. “Let me do it!” He untied the knot and picked up the bag, pouring the contents on the top of the table. Ruburt licked his lips and ran his fingers through the coins. He raced to the fireplace, brought the other three bags to the table and dumped out their contents. From the last bag, the unfinished necklace fell onto the heap of gold.
Cassi landed on the table next to the treasure. “Necklace made with Cassi’s dust.”
Ruburt looked at me. “I will lead you out of here, but first, I will take my fair price for what the witch owes me.”
The pixie buzzed around his head. “Take Cassi too! Take Cassi too!”
“Of course, I will take both of you. Now gather your things and let’s go. It’s getting late, and we need to be a long way from here before the old witch awakens. She will be furious, especially when she finds you both gone and her treasure missing too.”
Ruburt scooped the coins into the bags, and I put all I could carry into an old bedroll.
My heart welled with excitement for adventure and freedom. Things were going to be better once I reached the dwarf village. I might even get to learn how to read.
Ruburt placed the heavy coin bags over his shoulders. “Then let’s get outta here.”
We stepped out of the cottage into the cold night air. I grabbed the axe and pinned it under the door handle.
“Good idea,” Ruburt said. “That should buy us a little more time before Hazella starts following us.”
“I was thinking,” I started, and hoped Ruburt would take advice from a fourteen-year-old girl, “we should follow the stream instead of the trail so we will be harder to track.”
“Brilliant,” Ruburt said.
I smiled. I was running away with, quite possibly, the two last decent people on Earth.
Cassi and I followed Ruburt along the stream bed. After a few miles, the stream flowed into a meadow pond. Several trails led across a meadow and into the dense woods.
I glanced around the foreign landscape. “Where to now?” I asked.
“North,” Ruburt said and led us onward.
I studied the strange little man from behind. The top of his balding head reflected the moon as he walked with short uneven steps on his stout legs. Ruburt mumbled to himself and bit at his fingernails. He marched a few paces ahead of me. The bags of coins bounced on his back with each step he took. After traveling several miles, I edged closer to hear his mumblings.
“Hazella was asleep when we left her. She won’t know I’d been there … or will she? She’s a witch, and witches have ways of finding things out.” He slowed, adjusted the bags, and resumed his stride. “What am I to do? Should I go home? Drats! The old witch knows where I live. Eventually she will come for me. She might send a plague to my village if she knows I’m there.” He stopped dead in his tracks, and I almost ran into him.
I pretended to be interested in the blue stars overhead and hoped he didn’t notice me eavesdropping. Cassi flew to me, tilted her head, and scrunched her eyebrows. I placed a finger over my lips then pointed at the dwarf. Ruburt continued to hike along the trail. I scuffled behind him.
“That’s what witches do … it is … don’t fool yourself, Ru,” Ruburt said to himself. “Terrible things happen to people who deceive ‘em. Something awful like leprosy, or boils, or heaven forbid–marriage!”
I smiled to myself. Dwarves were indeed strange creatures. My bare foot hit a rock. I stumbled and flew into the back of Ruburt, causing him to drop the bags. He scowled at me.
“I’m sorry.” I helped Ruburt gather the bags.
The anger didn’t last long on his weary face. He looked around the secluded place along the path. “Here,” Ruburt said as he stretched his neck to one side. “We shall rest. Dwarves weren’t made to climb mountains and hills; we were made to dig through ‘em.”
The wind howled. The hair on my arms stood on end. An eerie chill ran down my spine like cold water. I imagined myself awakening to see the witch standing over me with a whip and a red hot knife.
“Let’s go a little farther.” I clenched my bedroll to my chest and scanned the shadowy woods. I couldn’t help but feel that someone or something from the forest watched us.
Ruburt found several large stones and arranged them in a circle for a fire.
I hesitated before dropping my bedroll on the ground. I dove inside and covered my head.
Ruburt chuckled low in amusement. “If you’re really that scared, you can gather some firewood so we can have some light.”
Like a child, I wanted to stay huddled under my bedding.
“Come, Auriella.” Cassi encouraged. “Cassi help Auriella.”
I peered from the covers to see Cassi fluttering through the air like a cheerful star.
A smile tugged at my lips. I pulled myself to my feet and followed Cassi.
The pixie flew back and forth through the woods calling, “Be this good stick for fire? Oh, how about this one?” Cassi held a tiny pixie-size twig.
“No, no, Cassi.” I giggled. “That one would be burnt in a second. We need bigger ones, like thi
s.” I lifted a long, dead branch.
I returned to camp with my arms full of the firewood that we had found. Ruburt gathered a few dead leaves and started the fire.
“Stay here,” Ruburt instructed. He tucked his dagger into the scabbard on his belt.
