The Green Witch

Chapter Twenty Seven

     The Crone pulled the blanket from her head and glared up at Tala's astral form.  "And now, girl," she said, "you git back to your body and wait for Bronn to come fetch you. I'll be seeing you again very soon. Aye."

     Tala drew back from the other witch, miserable with failure. Why not? If she couldn't bring herself to take a life, not even to save her own, then why not just wait for the inevitable? What else was she going to do? She allowed herself to drift aimlessly, like a cloud at the mercy of the winds, until she found herself in the room where the two circles were drawn on the floor. Gren was there, lying dead on the ground surrounded by a pool of cold blood. The Crone tottered into the room and stared down at him in sorrow.

     "You were a fine servant, Gren," she said. "I'll not forget you. And when your son has avenged your death he'll serve me just as well, as will his children to come." Then she looked up at Tala again. "Why are you still here? Git and be gone with you. I've got no use for your soul. It's your fine young body I want."

     Tala looked at the two circles of blood, needing only a sprinkling of fresh blood to bring them back to life. There was an oil lamp sitting on a shelf. On a sudden impulse, she grabbed the lamp with her invisible hands and threw it hard onto the ground. Burning oil splashed out setting the wooden floorboards alight.

     "NO!" cried the Crone in horror, jumping up from Bron's corpse and staggering back against the wall. "You stupid, wicked girl! What have you done?" Her eyes glowed brightly again, but it wasn't the Eyes that Bite this time. It was something else. Some other magic that Tala didn't know. It caused the flames to dim and shrink as if she was smothering them with dust. She sagged with relief but kept her eyes on the fire, shrinking it still further.

     With a burst of hope, Tala used her invisible hands to bring the blanket from the back room and throw it over the Crone's head again. The older witch screamed with fear and outrage and Tala held it firmly in place as she tried to tear it away again. Freed from the influence of her magic, the flames leapt up again, spreading across the floor towards the two blood circles.

     "No!" cried the Crone again. "You spiteful, horrid girl! Stop the fire! Please let me stop the fire! You don't know what you're doing!"

     Tala truly didn't. She'd assumed the other witch would be able to create another pair of circles with little difficulty but perhaps she'd been wrong about that. "It took you a great deal of effort to create them, didn't it?" she guessed. "How much effort? Did it almost kill you? Have you got the strength to do it again?"

     The flames had reached the first circle now, and with a sense of savage triumph Tala allowed the Crone to pull the blanket from her head. The older witch stared in dismay as the blood caught aflame, turning into a circle of fire that then spread across the dry, dusty floorboards towards the other. Then she cried out in torment and dismay. "You don't know," she accused. "You don't know what it cost me. It would kill me to do it again. I'm too old. I should have found a new body years ago but it took me so long to find you. So long."

     <Everyone dies,> Tala told her, not without sympathy she was surprised to find. <But not today. You've still got a few years ahead of you, I think. Bronn will look after you. You can live your final years in peace and comfort with your loyal...>

     "You bitch!" screamed the Crone in wild fury. "I'll kill you for this! If I'm going to Hell I'll take you with me!"

     She glared up at Tala, her Eyes that Bite blazing into life again, and Tala leapt away as the agony hit her. Her astral form shot up through the thatched roof and hovered above the cottage from where she looked down, hoping to see the Crone making her way out. She grew anxious as the older witch didn't appear, though, and concern drove her to drop back down, passing through the roof like a ghost. She found the Crone lying face down next to Gren's corpse, both figures equally motionless. With a surge of regret Tala drew closer, reaching out with her invisible hands to feel for a pulse. There was nothing, though, and when she reached gently into her chest she found that her heart had stopped. That last attack with her Eyes that Bite must have been too much for her. That, and her dismay at being trapped forever in her ancient body, had killed her.