Cyberwitch Academy: Learn or Burn

Chapter 73

Of course, they are late.

The Sirens arrive, forty-five minutes after the agreed time. Walking through the woods like they own the place. Bes Kyteller and her coterie of most senior high Sighs. With them maybe a dozen other middle ranking witches and another dozen hired thugs, adoring ghouls, bewitched ex-soldiers.

The Weavers face off on the other side of the clearing, similar in number. The Queen Aspirant of the Silks, Rhiannon and her own seniors. And with them the Spiders, a smaller but more dangerous team of bodyguards.

And we, the outcasts, the clanless coven, the expelled, we stand in the centre of the clearing waiting to be slaughtered for our impudence. Standing between two warring factions, waiting to die in the crossfire. No bodyguards for us, just Mel. Although I'm sure she wouldn't go down without making somebody pay for it.

They must be desperate. I think to myself. If they're all willing to come here, IRL, because I asked them to. They must have run so very far out of ideas that they're willing to risk it all to talk to me.

"Under the ancient and sisterly rules of war I claim a Truce for these talks. We're on neutral ground."

"This is Crone land." The Siren Queen wrinkles her nose in disgust, somehow attractively. "Yes, it passes for neutral I suppose."

This is a scrap of woodland separating a stretch of the London orbital road from a residential zone.

The kind of place where old mattresses crawl to die in peace, the kind of place where the local juvenile delinquents lose their virginity. There is a century of old flattened rusting beer cans falling to pieces within the bushes and the shrubs. Plastic bags like fruits on the trees. Carved declarations of love and hate on the tree trunks. A single shoe.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Ursula Loveless?"

The woman who addresses me is playing the master of ceremonies, temporarily a neutral figure. Rhiannon looks at me not unkindly. Bess has a face of blank terror.

"I know what Marketta is. And I know how to switch her off. But I cannot get close enough to her without your help. All of your help." I'm putting on a good show of calm, confidence. Underneath I'm squirming.

A flurry of whispered discussion. Rhiannon speaks.

"You have not once proven yourself worthy of our trust. We would be fools sending more innocents to the slaughterhouse of your ambitions. You have inherited your mother's fanaticism. The Sirens were right to expel you."

Amazing how there is still compassion in her face as she speaks these words to me. Feels like a knife to the heart. The one Weaver I thought would always forgive me. But I'm still angry enough to fight my corner.

"The Sirens engineered my catastrophes to their own ends. I was a child when you brought me into the Secret School and a child I remain. It is a shame on both your houses that I have been so abused. Who would ask a child to take the risks, to make the decisions?"

They're shocked. They weren't expecting this line of argument.

"It was child abuse plain and simple. Even when you treated me like a monster I never once reported any of you to the authorities. You think I betrayed Sadie? The Sirens gave Sadie away to the hunters and they used me to do it. You were wrong to let them steal the Secret School from under your feet. Bess Kyteller betrayed you all to Marketta herself."

And I am making a formal accusation. I've been reading the old laws. I point my finger at her and the world erupts into furious wailing and screaming. A cacophony of voices, two armies a hair's breadth away from war.

"Silence!" Cries Bess

"I was forced to parlay with Marketta La Fey by your overreach. We never asked you to make any decisions. We told you time and time again to leave that to the adults. You forced me into a position where I had to negotiate with the enemy."

This wins her back some support, there are voices backing her up on both sides now.

"I offered the hunters Sadie in return for peace. I did not know they were going to kill her. I don't believe that Marketta intended for that to happen, even herself. It was her twisted demon of a brat, a boy we underestimated, did not pay enough attention to."

"I believe you." I reply.

Shock. Stunned silence.

"I was connected to her before she died, our Rhizomes entangled. We became one. And I felt every comment of her death agony. And yet I believe you. I believe you were only trying to protect the people you loved the most."

And I realise as I am saying it that it is true. Ideas are tumbling out of my mind, born out of the collision with Sadie's inner world.

"I have seen the Secret School without the Weavers, it is chaotic. There is no power in Siren magic alone, no power in Weaver magic alone. Look at the Weavers without the Sirens, all the plans in the world won't help you if you don't know what you want. All the desire in the world won't help you if you have no power to weave the world to your will. You are both faces of the same god. We cannot end the witch hunt until you put aside your grievances and work together again."

Rhiannon speaks.

"Many laws have been broken. But now is not the time for justice. We need a temporary alliance to free the prisoners and to give Ursula her opportunity to bring down Marketta. The evidence is clear, the Hunters are no longer content to keep our girls locked up, they are handing them over to the mob to be burned alive. We cannot allow this to happen again."

And my own voice comes again.

"They are planning the mother of all witch nights, a new official holiday, sanctioned by the Republic itself. And it will happen in conjunction with the biggest show trial yet conducted. A televised trial of all the prisoners on HMS Belfast. It is no coincidence that these trials will be followed by bonfires across the city. We do not have time for infighting."

Bess lets out a long dramatic sigh. Several hearts break before she speaks. She draws herself up to her most powerful stance, a vision of a wild eyed revolutionary, with the hem of her exquisite dress thick with mud.

"Then let it be done. Bring forth the contracts. We will ride together again for one wild night. We will remind them who they are dealing with. We will bring our girls safely home. And then we will settle our differences in the shadows, returning to the safety of the hidden corners of this world. We must disappear forever from the world stage. The Secret School must be Secret."

"We the Weavers agree to this deal."

Mel puts her hands on my shoulders. Ty and Vash bundle into me in a messy group hug. We've done it. The Witch Clans are united again. We have an army on our side.

We're going to get the twins back. We're going to end the witch hunt.