Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 3.12

I stride through the forest, mowing down invisible toadstools without apology.

"Bethany!" I shout, but there's no answer. That's okay. I don't need her. I have the map clenched tight in my sweaty hand. I know how to get to the forbidden place.

Onyx is watching Addy. I've told him not to take his eyes off her for even a second. If what I suspect is true, she's is even greater danger than we'd thought.

I stop when I come across the burnt-out tree trunk. Its blackened husk calls to me with a voice like the ghost of bells. I don't go to it. I turn on my heel and resume my march.

I hear the humming first. It's a low, lazy hum that doesn't follow any tune. Every now and then the hum breaks into mumbles. "They regret, they regret. But they made their choice..."

The trees are darker here, their leaves melting seamlessly into the shadows. They have what I assume are large ruby-coloured flowers sitting throughout their canopies.

Something drips onto my forehead. I touch a finger to it. It's blood.

It's dripping from one of the flowers, which isn't a flower at all. My stomach lurches. It's a human heart. They're all human hearts.

I stumble into a small clearing. There's an old woman reaching up into the trees, mumbling and humming and fussing. She barely comes up above my waist, but her arms are unnaturally long, and she taps at the hearts gently with twiglike fingers.

"She has come," she mutters, without turning around. "She came before, but she was not the same then. No, no. Not the same."

I keep my distance. The old woman's eyes are small, round and red. They don't seem to blink.

"Are you Rikamu?" I ask.

She continues to tend to the hearts. "I am Rikamu." One of the hearts has begun to throb. She quietens it with a few tender strokes. It purrs under her touch. "Now, now. You know you must not."

"I need your help," I say. "Someone's life is in danger."

The heart begins to throb again, then stills. Queen Irine stands before me, or a fainter version of her, frayed around the edges. "Is Adamantine alright?" she asks me. "I-" she casts a furtive glance in Rikamu's direction. "I cannot return."

I gulp. My hands are unsteady at my sides. "Are you...are you Queen Irine's heart?"

Rikamu strides forward and ushers her back towards the tree. "You must not speak to those who are whole," she chides.

The image of Queen Irine gives me a rueful smile, then vanishes.

I turn to Rikamu. "You stole Queen Irine's heart," I accuse.

Rikamu turns back to the trees. "Stole, Ri-kamu does not steal," she mutters. "She takes what is given to her. She is called kamu, but words change. Kamu was not thief. No, kamu was keeper. She is the heart keeper."

"You need to give her heart back."

Rikamu's red eyes fix on me. "I cannot give it back. She does not want it."

"She wouldn't have just given her heart to you." I put my hands on my hips. I don't know where this fear is coming from. I'm a witch. I shouldn't be afraid of an old woman in the forest.

Rikamu lowers herself onto a moss-covered log. Her body bends at an odd angle, like a tree that has grown in the wrong direction. "I found her, the poor woman," she says, "by the old tree. She was aching with sorrow. Her daughter, then her husband. Then her daughter. She wanted to make it go away. I took it away for her."

"You can't live without a heart," I protest.

Rikamu smiles. I shudder.

"The organ is still there. But the essence is gone. The pain is gone. All gone." She peers up into the canopy, her red eyes glistening with tears. "Rikamu helps. Yes, she helps them."

I follow her gaze. Queen Irine's heart is still throbbing faintly, but her image doesn't appear again. "Queen Irine's heart wants to return to her body, Rikamu. So does Bethany's."

"They all want to be whole again," Rikamu says sadly.

"Then make them whole, Rikamu. Make them whole again."

Rikamu shakes her head. "I cannot give back what is not wanted."

I clench my fists. Queen Irine was out there without her heart. It makes sense now. The way she suddenly stopped grieving for Lima, how she kept trying to move Addy into her tent. Because Addy wouldn't sign the papers. She wouldn't sign to the fire quartz mining project that would make the tribe rich. And Queen Irine didn't care about tribal customs. She didn't care about infringing on another tribe's happiness. And she didn't care about Addy. She was missing her heart.