Lessoc Fountain - a fairy-creature tale

Ch. 39 What You Love Most

Cocot's other hand closed around the glass vial hidden in her pouch. It hadn't been enough to save Hector in the end.

She would do whatever it took for revenge. "They hate you. The fairies, Daniel, and Jean-Baptist. You know that, don't you? They would tear you to pieces if they could."

"Finish it before I have Jean-Baptist take you to his workshop to bury you alive!" the witch snarled.

Cocot had to move fast. Deep in the water, her hand brushed the surface of the ancient seal. Her mother's magic pulsed within her and also under her palm. The evil roiled, close to breaking the seal.

"To me," she breathed, urging it upward. "To freedom." She pinched her fingers closed and whisked away the seal as if drawing a cobweb from a flower, moving faster than the spiral of evil breaking free. Her mother sacrificed her fairy life to seal it in, Cocot broke it free with the flick of her fingers.

Then she poured the tincture in the basin.

"It's here," she said aloud. "I did it. It's here."

Her words were a clap of thunder on the fairies. They shoved her aside. The faintest tink of glass on stone marked her fall. The changed fairies jostled and fought for a space at the basin. The witch was shouting about the water draining away and the court magician hissed a spell to stop the water flowing from the spigots as well as down the drain.

Cocot drew back, rigid with fear. Soufflé was watching her. Had he seen what she had done?

Several fairies pulled out daggers to fight each other for more room at the basin. Even when the witch ordered them to be still, they kept fighting and drinking the water.

"So you broke the seal?" the witch asked Cocot, approaching.

She nodded. Soufflé flitted to the witch's shoulder. Was he going to tell the witch what she had done? She had used the evil to set her trap. She had to convince the witch to fall in it.

"And now, you will tell me about the bottles that Fanchon collected and hid," she said.

Cocot suddenly pictured her and her mother—they were sitting in front of the great armoire, admiring the old dress. "Oh, it comes from around the bend and under the hill, I suppose," her mother said.

Cocot knew where the bottles were. The only place that would have been safe from the witch's prying eyes or discovery by some evil creature. "Promise me I can go if I tell you. All I want is to leave. I don't care about the creatures you turned."

She told lies.

"That's all you want? Agreed. Tell me where they are and you may go free."

"The other bottles are around the bend and under the hill. They are someplace dark, someplace deep, someplace secret. They won't be easy to find, it could take days, or weeks. I gave you the last one, these others, you'll have to find in the fairy hill."

She broke her promises to her mother.

Cocot paused and licked her lips. "Only a few strands of evil came from the crack, it flows slowly. The fairies will drink it all, and grow stronger. Remember, you have promised me my safety."

The witch huffed with displeasure. "Stand back! Back!" Through her force of will, the witch cleared the fairies from the fountain. They stood in a circle, impatient, their cavernous mouths wide open. Their teeth gleamed, wicked and huge. The witch stepped under the fountain roof, up to the basin. "Why can I not see it? It should be visible," she asked.

"It must be diluted in the water. I saw several lines coming up before the fairies started drinking," Cocot said.

If the witch did not drink the water now, then Cocot would have given her unlimited power to kill and destroy, torture for years to come. She tightened her hands in fists and held perfectly still to not act suspicious.