Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 3.8

I'm having a nightmare about glochas when a scream cuts through my thoughts. I stumble out of the hammock, bleary-eyed. Onyx is on Addy's bed, hissing. His tail is raised.

"What?" I demand. "What happened?"

"It's...nothing," Addy gasps. She's clutching her right leg. A spot of blood blossoms on the sheets over her shin.

Nothing? It was a snake!

"A snake?!"

I rush over to Addy's hammock. "Show me your leg," I snap.

She lifts the sheets. It's a snake bite alright. A bad one.

Lily, do you have any bottled snake venom antidote?

As if I'd come to this accursed place without it. I scramble to get the bottle from under my hammock, and let a few drops fall into Addy's open mouth. She closes her eyes and shudders.

Lily, hurry. You must find the snake.

While Onyx sits on his butt, I use my witch powers to send out a rope of icy mist. It curls around a spot of bubbling energy between the floorboards. I pull the snake up in a cloud of pale blue mist.

The culprit is a metallic silver, with spots of blue dotting its body. Its eyes are cloudy white.

It's a silver spotted tree snake. Onyx comes up beside me. Its venom is fatal within the hour. If we did not have that antidote...

I shiver. Addy gives a groan from her hammock.

The snake is eerily quiet. It doesn't fight my magic at all. I study it, wary. Its eyes stare past me, unseeing. It isn't dead, but...

"Onyx," I whisper.

The snake's energy signature is...dirty. I don't know how else to put it. There are spots of something else in there, something bitterly dark, as if its aura had been soiled.

Without a cauldron or any fire quartz, I know what it is.

"Onyx," I say again, my voice still a whisper, "this snake has been hexed."

*

"You were supposed to be taking care of her." Queen Irine fixes me with a burning glare. Bronna's beside her, also glaring daggers at me.

"I was," I protest, to absolutely no effect.

"That was a poisonous snake," Queen Irine continues, as if I hadn't said anything at all. "It kills within the hour. Did you know that?"

Yes, I know that. I don't have a talking cat for nothing. Besides, what did she expect me to do? Check Addy's bed every five minutes for snakes?

"I'm fine, hami." Addy's voice is weak. She forces a smile, but it's a pale shadow of her usual one.

Queen Irine stands up. "As soon as you regain your strength I want you moved into my tent, Adamantine. You are not safe here."

She strides out the door without even the slightest nod in my direction.

As soon as she leaves, Bronna rounds on me. "Do you have any idea what kind of memories you have stirred up in the hamima? She lost a daughter to the snake sickness. How could you be so careless?"

Me? She's acting like I gave the snake a welcome basket and let it slither right on in.

Also, I'm a pretty darned good sport for not mentioning that the snake sickness Lima died from was probably not caused by a snake bite. The sufferers' skin turned scaly, but no connection to actual snakes has ever been found.

"That snake was hexed," I say tiredly. "Someone wanted Addy dead."

"And they almost succeeded." Hostility drips from Bronna's words. "I shall not leave the sharima's side again."

Addy squeaks in protest. "No one's trying to kill me!"

Bronna places a hand on her bedsheets. "It is better to be safe, sharima. You are the leader of this tribe. Not all people will wish you well."

The snake was definitely hexed. Me and Onyx cooked up the indicator spell and dipped one of its scales in. Small orange fireworks rumbled out of the cauldron, indicating the presence of a hex.

Addy thinks it's just some of the tribe kids playing around. Some of the more rebellious ones have been known to experiment with spells behind their parents' backs. According to Addy, it wouldn't be the first time fire quartz has secretly traded hands.

I'm not buying the explanation, to be honest. First the poisoned beetles, and now this? It can't be a coincidence.

Someone knew that Addy liked sautéed beetles. Someone who wanted her dead.

Me, Addy, Onyx and Bronna are in the tree tent, keeping a close eye on Addy. Onyx is cured up in her lap, purring. I'm adding seasoning to a bowl of steaming fire-lily soup. The contents blaze orange and green with every addition.

Bronna takes every opportunity to give me the fish eye. I don't know why she thinks she's above suspicion. She's the one who collected the beetles, after all. She ought to be suspect number one.

There is something that bothers me though. There was someone at that party, someone who definitely didn't belong there. Someone who might have been an assassin. And someone, though I'd never confess it to Bronna, who I let slip right past.

"I'm going to go find the girl with the red hair," I tell Onyx when we're out of earshot of Bronna.

Onyx looks up from his fire-lily soup. What girl?

I roll my eyes. "Didn't I tell you?"

You certainly did not tell me.

"Fine. But you probably just have a bad memory. There was a girl - Bethany. She's been hanging around lately. She was by the dinner cauldrons at the party, watching us."

An odd look has come over Onyx's face. He looks remarkably human all of a sudden, as if his cat face were simply a mask that had slipped. Did you speak to her?

"Well yes, I wouldn't know that her name was Bethany otherwise, would I? She didn't make much sense, but she did say she was from the village."

Onyx keeps his gaze fixed on me. You think she is the one trying to kill Adamantine?

I shrug. "Maybe. She didn't seem like she had it in her, but who knows. She was there, and I'm still not entirely sure why."

You will ask for her in the village.

"That's the plan."

Onyx turns back to his soup. Do not spend too much time away. Adamantine needs you here. He licks up some soup and regards me with something like apprehension. Lily, he says. Do not be surprised if you cannot find her. There are many wanderers in this forest, and not all wish to be found.