When Bryony -- herbalist extraordinaire -- goes missing, Bella knows one suspect stands above the rest. The village's aspiring second witch, Daphne, comes from a family that's tried to take Bryony down before, and Daphne seems determined to carry on...
Evening fell faster than Bella thought it should that day. By now, the air had thickened with more than mist. The deep musk of the bog itself dominated, acidic overtones spicing the scent of centuries—even millennia—of decay. It was impossible to forget that underneath the bog's red and green surface, underneath its hum of insect life, underneath that peaty perfume, more than plants lay buried.
"It's getting dark soon," remarked Titus as the sun neared the trees. "We shouldn't approach the bog at night."
"Is there anywhere to camp?" said Daphne.
"We should move back up the road a little. It'll be safer. And I saw grass there."
Still too close to the bog for comfort, but Daphne said she'd brought Wight-warding potions, at least. Whether the ground out here already had enough Wight magic soaked into it to neutralize those was another matter.
They retreated back up the road to pitch camp. Daphne had a tent up and a fire burning by the time the sun brushed the hidden horizon, turning the sky a bright palette mirroring the autumn-dusted forest. Bella shivered and edged closer to the fire as Wight-lights began to flicker in the forest. She scarcely ate as Daphne melted cheese over travel biscuits and passed them around. She'd brought dried fish for Titus, too. He took it and retreated to the tent.
Daphne was next to get up. Bella retreated after Titus as Daphne scattered the fire and slung her coat over a tear in the tent's flank before joining the familiars inside. She bundled into her sleeping bag and scooched to the doorway beside Bella. Darkness was settling over the forest. With it rose the mist. With that, the Wights emerged from hiding.
The three of them sat at the tent's entrance, just watching the forest and its haunting lights. Bella had expected to see them moving towards Baneberry Bog already, but they seemed content with hanging out throughout the forest instead, flickering to one another, sometimes chasing each other through the trees. From this vantage point, the bog itself—and thus the Wight concentration in that direction—wasn't visible, and Bella wasn't too keen on leaving the tent to investigate. Daphne, true to form, had spilled Wight-warding potion on it while sprinkling that around, and being inside felt safest right now.
Bella startled hard as something beside Daphne shifted. A piece of shadow detached and snuck up beside the young Witch, where it settled again. Only Titus's eyes were visible in the darkness, reflecting the sparkles outside. These didn't grow in number, but the longer Bella watched, the more she began to see them move.
The Wights' bogward migration, in the end, was a rather anticlimactic affair. If Bella watched one Wight long enough, a few minutes would see it drift a wingspan or so towards the bog before hovering again, or moving in another direction. Unfocusing her eyes revealed the whole forest of them shifting slowly, wafting towards Baneberry Bog at a pace that would have them there by Wightnight tomorrow and no sooner.
None of the Wights seemed interested in the little tent at the edge of the road, nor in the road itself, for that matter. Bella startled as Daphne stirred. She'd only shifted position, but a portion of her sleeping bag seemed to have disappeared. It took Bella several long moments to realize Titus had snuck quietly into Daphne's lap and curled up there. He must be cold, though the night was still temperate. He wouldn't be snuggling if he wasn't cold.
The forest's light show eventually lost its novelty. Daphne closed the tent flap, then shifted again, dislodging Titus long enough to caterpillar to her sleeping mat and lie down. Titus hesitated for a long moment, then crawled up beside her again and lay down.
Bella remained by the tent doorway for a long time. Her intense fear from earlier had faded, but not entirely gone away. Bryony was smart. Bella had always trusted her in difficult situations before. That self-reminder calmed her enough to defer the need to fly ahead. Traveling through this part of the forest would be dangerous alone, especially for a bird. The electric Enigma Wights flew especially high during their Wightnight gatherings.
Bryony would know what she was doing. She wouldn't have a whole notebook planning a journey there if she didn't. She hadn't told Bella about that notebook, but maybe that too was for the best. There was no way Bella wouldn't worry if she knew her keeper was planning to visit Baneberry Bog. Bryony would have known that. Hiding it, then, had likely spared Bella such undue worrying, until Daphne had gone digging and unearthed something she shouldn't.
Maybe they should never have come along on this trip in the first place. Bryony clearly hadn't wanted anyone to follow her. If she'd hidden things from Bella to keep her from worrying, that had now failed, making Bella feel a new and different kind of guilty. Maybe she should have trusted Bryony more from the start. Then she wouldn't have flown into such a hysteria when her keeper's alibi proved to be a cover story, and launched an investigation into the very thing Bryony had gone to such lengths to hide. Bryony deserved her privacy.
Bella dropped her head, rubbing it against the tent's canvas. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine the feeling was Bryony's hand, stroking her feathers the last night they had seen each other. She just wanted that moment back again.
Maybe she should just go home. Wait out Wightnight, and trust Bryony to carry through on her promise to be back the day after. Then this would all be over. But they were here now, and Bella didn't trust Titus or Daphne to conduct this search the way it ought to be conducted. Bryony deserved better.
Bella was sure she woke every half-hour that night, startled by small sounds outside, or Bryony's voice in her dreams. This only got louder as the night wore on. A Wight-light flashed. Bella shocked awake, gasping. The tent around her remained still and silent, dark except for the faintest gray of predawn peeking through the tent flap. Bella was about to put her head back beneath her wing when something through that crack flashed again.
Dreams and memories vanished like smoke. Bella fixed her gaze on the backside of the canvas. There had been no signs of rain the day before, but it didn't matter anyway. No thunder followed. Bella's ribcage shrank around her suddenly pounding heart. Maybe the Enigma Wights were just doing their thing above the trees as they made their leisurely way towards the bog.
Another flash followed. This one was definitely closer.
Bella parted her beak to quiet her nervous panting. She should wake Daphne and Titus. But that would cause one of them to ask what she was doing up, and she didn't want to answer. This might also be nothing. Who was she to judge the pre-Wightnight behaviors of the creatures Wightnight was designed to protect humans and familiars from?
Against her better judgment, Bella steeled her nerves and peeked outside. Her blood ran cold.
Wights—dozens of them—surrounded the tent like they'd flocked around Bryony's house just days before. None moved towards the bog, no matter how long Bella watched them, frozen with fear. Even as she did, more joined, thickening the crowd. These couldn't be the same Wights from Hyacinth. They couldn't have gotten here fast enough. But that meant something worse: that something else was attracting them.
It had to be Daphne. Had her warding potion failed? Had she lured them by accident? Or was there something more sinister going on?
A yellow Wight by the tent door drifted upward, clearing Bella's view. All breath in her lungs abandoned her. Standing at the forest's edge, just watching her, was Bryony.
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