The Wise Women

Chapter 21

To get to the Castle from the forest, you need to go through the formal gardens. There's a fountain in the middle with a marble statue of a mermaid in it. From the fountain, the path to the right leads to the stables.

From the stables, a colonnade leads to the Castle's North Entrance which opens onto the Great Hall. You go through the Great Hall to get to the Banqueting Hall and then the double doors on the left-hand wall open onto the Throne Room.

The Empress's apartments are in the North Tower. To get there from the North Entrance, you take the first corridor on the left wall of the Great Hall, next to the portrait of King Dagobert on a horse. . .

'Here, drink this!' Leonia's voice interrupted Nesta's revision of the castle layout that Elaine had mapped out for her back at the Village.

She held out a green glass bottle. 'It's a fortifying tonic that Mildred prepared for us. You can finish it.' Nesta took the bottle and drained the contents.

'You should eat something too,' the Burned One said. 'An apple and a piece of cheese at the very least.' Obediently, Nesta bit into the proffered apple even though she didn't feel much like eating. Her stomach was a tight knot.

'How much longer?' she asked even though she knew neither of them would be able to answer, Stag-Ada had left them at daybreak and it was now well past noon.

Just at that moment, the call of a hunting horn echoed through the forest. Distant voices shouted 'Tallyho!' Dogs barked.

Instantly the women were on their feet. As one, they turned towards the sound. Nesta's hair stood on end. Her throat was dry. One on either side of her, Leonia and the Burned One moved their lips, silently mouthing prayers to the Goddess.

Time passed. They listened to the far-off  sounds. Nesta's heart hammered in her chest. Her breath came in quick pants. The energy between them crackled over her skin.

Despite the older women's presence, Nesta felt desperately alone. There was an emptiness in her heart where Theresa should have been. She longed to have her friend there by her side. Or at least to feel her support from afar. A tear welled in her eye. Just to know that Tess was thinking of her and wishing her well, to feel that her friend was with her in spirit, would have meant the world.

Knock, Knock.
Theresa, are you there?

But there was only silence.

She wiped away the tear. The barking was louder now. The call of the hunting horns rung in their ears. The voices sounded closer.

'There! I saw it!'
'Behind that tree! Look!'

Suddenly, with a stomping of hooves, the white stag burst through the undergrowth. It leapt into the clearing, running for its life. Eyelids peeled back to reveal the whites of its terrified eyes, ears flattened against its head, saliva flying from its open mouth. It bounded towards them.

And then, in mid-air, the stag transformed. In the blink of an eye, white fur gave way to flesh and clothes, hooves to outstretched hands, antlers to blonde windswept hair, brown frightened deer eyes to green frighted human eyes. Ada flew through the air, cloak billowing out behind her, arms flailing wildly. Her booted feet hit the ground right in front of them. She fell into Nesta's arms.

Together they helped Ada to her feet, then turned towards the gap in the undergrowth from which she had come. The four women raised their hands, palms facing outwards, heads bowed, facial muscles taut with intensity, knees bent as if braced against impact. Ada was gasping for breath, Leonia and the Burned One muttering incantations under their breath.

If they get close to the stag, Elaine had told them, the rest of the hunting party will hang back. They'll let Sapphira go on ahead and make the kill herself.

The barking had reached a deafening pitch. Now the rhythmic thudding of hooves accompanied it – the hooves of a single horse. All Nesta's senses were trained in the direction of the sound. Her heart was beating fit to burst, her breathing coming faster and faster. She felt like a coiled spring about to release.

All at once, a pack of hunting hounds crashed through into the clearing. Snarling, slavering, lips curled back from pointed teeth, they ran towards the Wise Women. And then, with a thundering of galloping hooves, a jet black stallion broke through the trees. Its rider bent forward in the saddle, one hand clutching the reins, the other raised above its head, fingers wrapped round the shaft of a spear, tip pointing forwards in attack position.

The Empress's face was contorted into a snarl as savage as the dogs' – green eyes blazing, nostrils flared, teeth bared. Her long black hair, loose beneath her diamond tiara, flew out wildly behind her. Mouth stretched wide, she let out an ear-splitting roar. Beneath her, the horse reared up on its hind legs and whinnied, front hooves pawing the air.

'Eg byo per ar haetta!' the Burned One screamed. Torrents of white light streamed out from the palms of her hands. In a heartbeat, the light extended around and over the hunting party, forming a shimmering white dome around horse, rider and hounds, trapping them inside.

And in that instant, they froze.
The dogs stopped mid-bark, the horse mid-leap, the Empress mid-roar. All of them frozen still, silent as statues.

They moved no more.

The Wise Women leapt into action. As one, Leonia, Nesta and Ada ran into the dome and dragged the Empress's rigid body from the saddle. Leonia pressed her palm to Sapphira's forehead,
'Losa sig!' she said, and the Empress went limp in their arms. Her spear dropped to the forest floor with a thud. They lowered her to a sitting position on the ground, Leonia knelt behind her and held her head up.

Nesta knelt beside the Empress, closed her eyes, breathed in deeply to centre herself in her heart. Then she opened her eyes, took Sapphira's face between her hands and gazed into it, imagining she was gazing at her own reflection. The imposing features were slack and expressionless, the heavy-lidded green eyes were blank, drowsy. 

This face is my face.

Nesta opened a door within herself and allowed the Empress's consciousness to flood into her.

Then she jumped across.

It was like jumping into a void, a blank nothingness. There was no happiness, no anger, no fear, no sadness, no emotion whatsoever. Nesta felt like she was inside the mind of a statue.

And then the morphing began. Her fingers tingled as they grew longer. Her stomach swooped as if she was falling while her arms and legs lengthened and her neck extended. Her hair scalp prickled as her hair thickened. A lock fell in front of her face. She watched it darken from brown to black. Her body swelled and filled out the lace-trimmed ivory silk undershirt — the only thing she was wearing. The one that Elaine had stitched for her — an exact replica of the undershirts worn by the Empress.

When the morphing was complete, the Wise Women set to work.

Thank you for reading The Wise Women 😊

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