Something Wild (Child of the Winter Moon Book 1)

48: A Favor for Yennefer

Juray had felt dark magic all the way in Lofeton as she spoke to the priestess to tell her she'd been able to lift the curse and they had their garden back. They rewarded her handsomely and she quickly made her way back to Freya's Garden. She could feel the energy in her moonstone pendant almost immediately drain as she set foot back in the garden. She made her way back to Geralt and Yennefer. To see her questioning a very dead Craven using necromantic magic. She'd arrived in time to hear him tell her how a mysterious mage had taken Ciri away and he later saw an ugly creature on the beach he woke up on.

"What became of that creature?" Yennefer asked. "Where is he?"

"Stop!" Craven cried.

"What?!"

Juray hadn't expected Yennefer to stoop this low in her search, noticing how the garden was whithering around them.

"Saw him at Donar's. But he sold him."

"To whom?"

"Don't know."

"Begone."

"Tell them! Clear my name!"

"Begone I say!"

Craven screamed before falling back, completely dead once more.

"Fucking hell..." Juray breathed. "What did you do?"

Yennefer was holding her head and looking sick.

"Yen?" Geralt took her arms. "You all right?"

"I'm fine now. The spell..." She shuddered. "Imagine putting wriggling cockroaches in your mouth... Or swimming in manure. That's more or less how it felt."

"We should get out of here before the priestesses arrive and see their garden like this," Juray said.

Yennefer nodded in agreement and turned toward where Juray was standing.

"The garden..." the priestess cried and Juray turned, stepping aside as she and the young woman from the village approached them. "Our garden! How could you...? We helped... and you – Inconceivable."

"Now, now...," Yennefer began.

"Don't you dare try to calm me. We've every right to be furious. Furious! And you..." she pointed at them. "You will pay for this!"

"We had no choice," Geralt said. "We'd never have learned what happened to our—"

"Do you really think you're justified?! That your hunt for a foreign woman gives you the right to destroy our garden?"

"I'm sure it doesn't in your eyes," Yennefer said.

"I shall make sure all of Skellige hears what the three of you did here."

"Wait..." Yennefer interjected. "I did this. I alone. Geralt tried to stop me... I refused to listen. And Juray wasn't even here."

Juray was surprised that Yennefer was shouldering the entirety of the blame.

"I might have known. They warned me about you..."

"Sorceresses..." the other woman spat.

Yennefer had the sense to look dejected.

"None shall open their door to you, none shall feed your hunger, and none shall tend to your wounds," the priestess cursed Yennefer. The women then left.