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...
Bella could no longer see Bryony's Witch-light when she took to the air after Titus. She had no idea where Daphne had run to, either, but Titus seemed to know where he was going, so they must have coordinated. Bella strained to keep the cat in sight as he sprinted through the forest, bounding over logs and off trees when obstacles blocked his way. Bryony's bog-fire had burned off the mist on this side of the bog, then died down far enough that the forest was nearly dark again. Familiarity had its perks, but a cat's night-eyes were not one of them.
Then they peeled away from the bog, and Bella was left with no choice but to listen for the patter of Titus's paws through the leaf litter in order to follow him. They cut a path through the forest and burst out onto the road just as heavier footsteps pounded up it. Bella wheeled just in time to see a dark figure running towards them. Tall and no Witch-light—it was Daphne.
"Quick, over here," she panted when she reached them. Titus reached her shoulder in a flying leap and clung on as Daphne forged back into the forest. When they stopped, it was in a small, grassy clearing with soil soft enough to swallow even Daphne's footsteps. She fumbled in the darkness, then startled violently as Bella landed nearby.
"I'm here to help," said Bella quickly.
"He told me. Titus, more Wights keep arriving. We need to stop them from reaching the bog. Are you okay with heading them off? I'll need to put the lure-potion on something for you to carry with you. A leaf or—
"Just put it on me."
"I don't know if it washes out."
"I'll shed it eventually. It's better than losing the lure at this point."
Daphne nodded stiffly. Titus jumped off her shoulder and stood braced, flinching only a little as Daphne doused him from a potion-bottle she'd been carrying.
"See if you can gather them off the bog-edges," she said. "I don't want to risk Bryony lighting another fire on the bog's other side."
Titus nodded and sped off. Daphne turned to Bella next, extracting a pouch from her pants-pocket—she didn't have her coat anymore. "Bella, I need you to fly this over the bog and sprinkle it as far as you can where the fire is spreading. It should stop the spread."
Bella stared at her. "You made a counter-potion already?"
"I had Bryony's reaction maps. There was enough Alchemy in them for me to figure out how to deactivate the poison before it burns, and I already tested on part of the bog. I can't neutralize the parts that have already burned, but this should be enough to stop more parts from becoming toxic." She thrust the pouch at Bella. "Go."
Bella took the pouch and took off for the bog. The ache in her wings meant nothing now. Bryony's fire had spread over half the peatland already, its tail end burned down to darkness again, contrasting the bright green flames on the front line. Bella made for these. A quick roll in mid-air let her snatch the pouch in her claws, pulling it open far enough to begin releasing the salt-like powder inside. There was a five-second delay while the first grains rained down to the ground. Bella held her breath.
Nothing happened. The flames remained the same shape, size, and color. Bella circled in mounting panic until she realized she'd missed the actual impact the powder had: on either side of her sprinkled area, the fire maintained its slow advance, but the flames directly below her had stopped moving.
Daphne said she'd found a way to stop the spread. Bella banked hard and shot back to the bog's edge, where the flames' farthest ends began. She began to fly parallel to their front line, tipping the pouch in her beak to loose a steady stream of powder just ahead of the flames. It took less than a minute to cross the bog. A little powder still remained, so Bella circled back to survey her handiwork and catch any escaping flames.
This was working. Most of the fire's line had stopped, though a few tenacious spots still struggled onward. Bella added more powder to these, then patrolled back and forth until the whole line was held. On the side where she'd started, the flames were beginning to weaken. They were running out of fuel. Bella scattered the last of Daphne's antidote in front of the strongest remaining patch, then flew back the way she'd come. If Titus could submit himself to acting as a Wight-lure, she could ask Daphne to do the same to her.
Finding Daphne might be an issue, though. Bella found the grass-patch again, but the young Witch had disappeared. Bella circled above the trees, searching for any sign of either Witch. On the bog's far side, the forest glowed with Wights. Most still clustered where Daphne had first smashed her lure-potion bottles, but a number seemed to be moving further into the trees. Following Titus, maybe. Bella flew in that direction. She was halfway across the bog—her fire-wall still held—when a different light in the forest caught her eye.
Ahead of the moving Wight-cloud bobbed a solitary purple light, moving too fast to be a Wight. Bella's breath hissed. Bryony had dimmed her lantern, and the direction she was moving confirmed her intent to intercept the Wights. Bella shot after her. Bryony might have more potions up her sleeves. Until confirmed otherwise, she couldn't be allowed to reach the Wights.
She wasn't headed for the Wights.
Even as Bella flew, the Witch-light's path curved until it ran parallel with the Wight-cloud. Maybe Bryony had thought better of placing herself in its path. Bella was about to slow her flight when the light went out. She pulled up abruptly. Seconds dragged on, into a minute, then two. Maybe Bryony had finally given up the chase and was hiding until morning came. Maybe she had realized the error of tonight's attack. Maybe Daphne had caught up to her and stolen the lantern to paralyze her in the darkness.
All those thoughts were cut short by a shrill cat's scream. The Witch-light flared again. Bella plunged towards it, but it moved again, sprinting around the bog. Bryony had Titus with her. Another yowl was cut short as though muffled, followed by a curse in Bryony's voice and another feline screech. The light stopped at the bog's edge. Bella plunged through the trees after it, arriving on the scene at the same time as Daphne, who must have been in hot pursuit. Both of them froze at what they found.
Bryony had Titus by the scruff, gripped tight enough that even his writing couldn't free him. Locking eyes with Daphne, she thrust the cat out over the residual bog-flames.
"Hand over the book, or he goes in the poison," she said.
"You're bluffing," panted Daphne, but even she sounded unsure.
Bryony's smile could freeze a midsummer river. "Want to find out?"
Daphne's fear-stricken eyes found Bella in the darkness. Bryony matched the look, and her smile vanished into a look like stone.
"Bella," she said. "Come here. Now."
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