Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 6.9

ADDY

"I wish I could burn this whole library down," Ruby grumbles.

Maya sinks her teeth into a jellub berry. "You'd better not let Eamonn hear you say that."

Addy doesn't blame Ruby for her frustration. How many books had they been through now? Sure, they hadn't read every single line, but they'd been through anything that looked even slightly promising. The clock was ticking for Lily, and they had nothing to go on.

Ruby turns her glare on a pile of poetry books. "Look at this drivel," she seethes. "Who wants to read this weepy stuff? Would it kill someone, anyone, to write an actual account of the Dark Ages with all the important bits included?"

Maya frowns. "Poetry isn't drivel - " she starts, but Ruby's already yanked the top book open.

She flails her arms around, imitating a damsel in distress. "My heart thunders for you...oh, look - fire lilies pale in comparison to your eyes..."

"Wait," Maya interrupts. "Go back."

"Why, you want to hear about this guy's thundering heart?"

"Go back to the one you skipped. The one without a title."

"Why?"

"Just do it." Maya's voice is terse.

When Ruby doesn't obey, Maya grabs the book out of her hands and does it herself. All three huddle close to read the words on the page.

'T'was a heart she kept, hidden inside
A heart of milk
and butterflies

And round and round, it wanders still
And waits and waits
And waits

That which was not wanted, cast aside
and forgotten
in a dream of leaves
a dream of peace
a dream that burned with sorrow

The soul too burned
in blood-fire
Burned and bled
through lives once merry
Burned and bled
its path to a smile
Until the heart could take no more

And round and round, it wanders still
In the shadows, it weeps still
And waits and waits
And waits

The soul wandered into a dream
Eyes closed, eyes closed
The forbidden gift
that wept and waited
that did not belong
waited no more

What was once broken could not be whole,
What was not wanted could not return,
No more did the blood-fire burn
in veins that had run cold

Darkness was no more

But the heart wanders still
Round and round, it ponders still
And waits
And waits
And waits. '

*

A pregnant silence fills the room.

"The Dark Witch gave her heart away," Maya says finally, "to Rikamu in the Forest of Sorrows."

Ruby, sobered, pushes her spectacles up her nose. "Anyone reading would assume the poet was speaking metaphorically, but knowing what we know? I don't think they are."

"It's so sad," Addy whispers, "the part about the heart waiting."

"It perfectly describes the situation though," Ruby responds. Her amethyst eyes have hardened into a hundred glinting shards. "Bethany's heart still waits for her in the Forest of Sorrows."

"The last part," Maya says quietly.

What was once broken could not be whole...darkness was no more.

"You understand, don't you?"

Addy's mind is spinning with the knowledge, but she faces Maya with what she hopes is a look of determination. "It means," she says, "that Rikamu tried to give the Dark Witch her heart back, even though she didn't want it. And it killed her."