The Mirror Guardian

Chapter Fourty-One: Oh Great Another Name Title.

((Happy Holidays!))

Mailee knew she'd only been out for a few seconds, but it was long enough for Hattie to yank her arms behind her back and get the chain around her wrists. Mailee's head was pounding, and blood slid down the side of her neck, trickling into her tunic. It was nothing too bad--she'd had worse wounds.

She didn't give the witch a chance, not even a heartbeat, to realize she was conscious as she dealt with a snapping Soveliss. With no warning, Mailee surged her shoulders up, throwing back her head as hard as she could.

Bone cracked, and Hattie howled, but Mailee had already twisted, getting her legs beneath her. The small naga still coiled around her upper body. Hattie scrambled for the other end of the chain, fast as a viper. Mailee stomped on the length of the chain between them, her other foot lashing out to meet Hattie's face.

The witch went flying, as though she were made of nothing but dust and wind, tumbling into the shadows between the trees. Taking a quick glance at Soren to check on his well being, she found that he was actually doing a great job at distracting the Blind Thornfang further away near the water of the lake.

Swearing under her breath, Mailee's wrists ached against the cold iron. But she'd been taught to free herself from worse. Her father had bound her up from head to toe and made her learn how to get loose, even if it meant spending two days prostrate on the ground in her own filth, or dislocating her shoulder to get out. So, not all that surprisingly, she had the chains off in a matter of seconds.

"Careful, I saw her fly to the right," Soveliss stopped snapping as he looked around them for the witch. She yanked one of her long daggers from the ground and stood back up. Angling the dagger, Mailee peered into the trees where Hattie had gone flying. Nothing. Just a smear of blood.

"Why don't you come out here and fight me instead of hiding like a coward?!" Mailee shouted out at the trees as she looked all around her.

"Do you know how many I've trapped in this realm in the past five thousand years?" Hattie's voice was everywhere and nowhere. "How many other witches I destroyed? They were warriors, too--such talented, beautiful warriors. They tasted like summer grass and winter water."

Confirming that Hattie was a cannibal Ironteeth witch changed nothing, Mailee then knew she needed to find a bigger weapon. Mailee scanned the trees--for the witch, for anything to use against the crone.

She couldn't find anything to replace her long dagger, but then she smiled faintly as she remembered how to kill a witch. The only ways to kill a witch is to either cut off her head or burn her. Raloric had told her that once.

She felt her magic building up, the spring deeper now. She knew sometimes she had little control over the power, but she had two long daggers--sacred daggers made by the Dragons, capable of withstanding magic.

Not giving herself time to think it through, she threw all her raw power into the one long dagger in her hand. The blade glowing red-hot, its edges crackling with lightning.

Mailee wove between the trees, searching as she went, the outline of the crone vanishing until she stood along the narrow pathway between Mailee and Soren, the chain back in her hands. Mailee hefted her long dagger over a shoulder.

"One more chance," Mailee breathed. "You agree to die easily and I shall end you quickly."

"I can smell and taste your lies," Hattie said. Faster than should be possible, she came for Mailee, scuttling like a spider, the chain swinging from her fingers.

Mailee dodged the first whip of the chain. She heard the second before she saw it, and even though it missed her, it struck a tree and bark exploded everywhere. Mailee had no choice but to shield herself and Soveliss, to look away for one heartbeat.

It was enough. The chain wrapped around her ankle, stinging and bruising, and the yanked. Hattie had pulled her feet right out from under her, and Mailee went crashing to the ground. soveliss ended up being thrown off her shoulder into a bush.

Hattie saw this and rushed for her, but Mailee rolled across the ground, chain tangling around her, clinging to the dagger, until her face brushed against a tree trunk.

There was a firm yank on the chain, and then another whipping sound. Metal slammed into Mailee's forearm, so hard that she lost her grip on her dagger. Marilee flipped onto her back, still tangled in the infernal chain, only to find the iron teeth of Hattie looming above her.

In a flash, the witch slammed Mailee back down into the dirt. The iron nails dug into her skin, drawing blood as the witch pinned her by the shoulder. "Hold still, you irritating girl," Hattie hissed, grabbing for the length of the chain lying near by.

"Trust me, I was an extremely irritating child growing up." The grass scratched against Mailee's fingers as she stretched for the fallen dagger, just inches out of reach. Her arm throbbed mercilessly, her ankle, too. "If I could just get the dagger..." She thought. Hattie lunged for Mailee's neck, her teeth snapping.

Mailee threw herself to the side, narrowly dodging those iron teeth, and grabbed the dagger at last. She hauled it up so hard that its blunt end slammed into the side of the old woman's face.

Hattie was knocked away, collapsing in a heap of billowing brown robes. Mailee scrambled back and raised the hot weapon between them. Pushing to her hands and knees, Hattie spat light blood--silver blood--onto the grass, her eyes blazing.

"I am going to make you wish you'd never been born. Both you and your brother." And then Hattie shot forward so fast Mailee could have sworn she was flying. But she only got as far as Mailee's feet.

Mailee brought the crackling hot dagger down, throwing every bit of strength into her arm. Silver blood sprayed everywhere. There was a smile on Hattie's decapitated head as it thudded to a stop. Quiet fell. Even she couldn't hear Soren's fight anymore. Mailee swallowed as Soveliss made his way back to her shoulder. Once. Twice.

When she at last found the strength to disentangle herself, her pants and boots were stained silver. Another outfit to be burned.

"Witch Slayer, are you? Another lovely title to add to your repertoire." Soren chuckled when he walked up to her side. Mailee raised her eyes behind him looking for the creature, but before she could ask he answered her unspoken question. "Apparently Blind Thornfangs can't swim at all. It drowned itself on accident." Mailee only nodded as she grabbed the witch's head to place into a very thick sack. "Eew, why bring that with us?" Soren asked making a disgusted face.

"If you don't like it, then don't make eye contact with it. Second, it's to show father so he would believe us on what happened in this realm." Mailee stated in a matter of fact tone of voice. "Lets go. After all we need to find a way to make a portal back to Ashia." So all three of them went back to the mansion.