The High Priestess of Shadows

Chapter 6

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is David. I assume you know William and Sophie," he gestured to both of them. "That is Clifton and Alfred," two nearly identical men waved at her grinning. They both had shoulder length black hair hanging loose around their faces and warm brown eyes. The only way to tell them apart was the scar running down Clifton's right cheek.

"Nice to meet you," they said in unison. Lilly stared at them, every movement they made was unified. Like they were the same person but by some mistake ended up having separate bodies.

"They always do that," a muscular young man on the other side of the room said. He had a strong Scottish accent. "I'm Thomas, by the way. My family moved here from Scotland a few years ago but my father's been a Knight for years. They have branches all over Europe."

"My name is Cadman," a small man with square shoulders said. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance High Priestess. We've been waiting for an opportunity like this to arise so we can get rid of the Knights for good."

"I'm Hadley," a slight boy said. He looked about fifteen and was easily the youngest person in the room. "It's nice to meet you," he continued timidly barely meeting her eyes. "I've only met one witch before and that's Sophie but I don't think she's evil. Not that I think you're evil. It's just I was always told that-"

"Alright, Hadley," a muscled man stood up. He was shorter than Will but not by much and he looked to be the eldest in the room. "My name is Aaron. I was the first rebel years ago and now in 1695 we have hundreds of members who are working to bring down the Knights from the inside. We are almost equal in number to the Knights themselves. Now that introductions are over we can get down to business."

"I don't believe everyone was introduced," Lilly interrupted sending a pointed glance towards the women in the room who sat awkwardly next to Sophie and Will observing but not contributing anything.

"Them? They're just women but if you insist on knowing their names then so be it," Aaron sighed. He turned to them, "Introduce yourselves," he ordered.

"My name is Abigail. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," a woman with big brown doe eyes said. Her thin brown hair was in a loose bun with some of it escaping near the back. She spoke without ever looking Lilly directly in the eye.

"I'm Catalina, High Priestess. If there's anything you need don't hesitate to ask," the other woman said. She spoke with a little more authority but not much and still wouldn't look at Lilly directly. Her straight jet black hair was tied in a single tight braid going down the back of her simple dress.

"Now introductions are done," Aaron said. "To business. High Priestess, is there some kind of spell you can cast to destroy the Knight's Council at there next meeting?"

"No. Absolutely not," Lilly said putting as much steel in her tone as possible so they would all know that she was serious. "Despite popular belief, witches don't hurt people. It goes agains the Wiccan Rede."

"But, why not?" Hadley asked. "You have so much power and you can't use it to help us defeat our enemy."

"An it harm none do as ye will," Lilly quoted the Rede calmly. "That means that the energy you put out into the universe comes back to you. Karma."

"Then why did witches kill Knights before?" Thomas asked. "I saw with my own eyes the destruction that your witches caused."

"If you look carefully you'll see that no killing blow was struck. It was purely self defense. Not to harm anyone but to keep us alive," Lilly explained.

They all stared at her in shock except Sophie and Will. Sophie had an I told you so kind of expression on and Will looked like he knew this was coming but didn't want to believe it, though he was definitely less shocked than the others.

"Is there anything, anything at all, that you can do?" David asked.

"If I may," Sophie said. "The Rede says that witches can't use their powers to hurt people but we can trick them."

"What do you mean? Like cast a fake spell?" Lilly asked leaning forward slightly.

"We are going to cast a spell but in the Old Tongue and it won't be to destroy them," Sophie said standing. "We can cast a powerful protection spell where they will see us and then when they try to attack the spell will activate and neutralize the threat."

"You're brilliant!" Lilly said. "But," she deflated slightly, "we'd need more witches to cast something like that."

"Including you two there are thirteen here," Will said. "Is that alright?"

"That's perfect!" Lilly and Sophie said in unison.

"You do that too?" Clifton and Alfred asked looking slightly awed.

"It's pretty common," Lilly said.

"For members of the same Coven to be completely in sync," Sophie finished.

"Wow," everyone else said except the twins who were grinning like idiots.

"I think I love you!" they said still grinning.

"Sorry but I'm not interested," Sophie said. The twins looked like kicked puppies before they shrugged it off and went back to their cheery demeanor.

"See you do it too," Lilly said smirking. The fire was slowly dying and she shivered slightly. "So, we have a spell but when and where do we cast it?"

"The next Knight Council meeting. When it ends they have a hunt in the woods so if you start right before they come out you'll be finished by the time they reach you," Will said.

"Great," Sophie yawned. "Now that we're done strategizing I need sleep. I'll see you at the next meeting." She waved a little and walked out the door.

"She's right. Everyone has to rest we only have a few days to plan. Now we all can't leave at once so there has to be at least ten minutes between each person-"

An hour later Lilly and Will were standing in her cell. "Are you sure you can stay here?" he asked. "You can come to my room for tonight and I'm sure we can stage a breakout for you."

"I'll be fine," she said. "Now hurry up and lock the chains do it looks like I never left."

He obeyed her orders quickly and just before he left he sent her a look that seemed like an apology but before Lilly could ask he closed the door locking her in the dark.