An Enigmatic Witch, page 22
I turned to Margaret, my mouth full of apologies, ready to grovel and ask her to take me with her to her endless beaches and life of freedom.
‘It’s time for me to say good-bye, too.’ Margaret glanced in the direction of the noise, then her face drew back in an aristocratic sneer. She reached over and with a flash of her elegantly manicured hand snatched the jewelled dragonfly brooch from my jean jacket.
I gasped at the action, the loss, and clutched at the empty space where it had been. More than ever before, I needed the company of this witch, this role model. ‘Margaret, no,’ I cried. ‘You can’t... I need you...’
‘I hope you enjoy this life of yours that you’ve built, Dara. You made your choices, and I’ll thank you not to call on me again.’
With that, she disappeared from the glade. From my life. Back to her beach side hut and margaritas and Kin-free life. Leaving me ankle deep in the muck of the hole I’d dug of my life.
Cate smiled at me again, a genuine one this time. ‘They’ll be arresting your elf friend right about now. I may have the evidence to prove it wasn’t him who set off the explosion of the line, but then again... maybe I don’t. That will all depend on how you handle the coming days.
‘And I really do want to thank you again for all you’ve done,’ she said sincerely. ‘You’ve given me the gift of almost immortal youth, and my power will rival your own. And the best of it is, I know you won’t say a word. It’s our little secret.’ She tapped the side of her nose with her clean hand as she said it, then looked with disgust at her other one.
She met my eyes and shrugged. ‘Oh, well, sometimes you have to get a little dirty to get the job done, right?’
Then she too, was gone, her glowing form receding into the trees as she silently made her exit, leaving me standing alone in the small forest glade, my body muddied and my soul irrevocably stained.
25
Had Cate had set me up, right from the beginning, before I’d even gotten on the plane to come home from Scotland? I tried to comprehend this fact, to wrap my head around the extent of this deceit. Had the whole thing, the explosion of the ley lines, the rebellion of the elves, the consequent saving of the seams by me been engineered by the wife of my father? All of it?
And why?
I allowed Hugh and Dad to hug me and exclaim and make a big fuss over me as they led me back the twisty path to the Temple, a haven of light and bodies after the horror I’d just experienced. I let them comfort me and allowed Hugh to place Mom’s heavy leather jacket over my shoulders again.
‘I can’t believe you did that,’ Dad said as he embraced me again. His face was white with strain and relief. ‘Do you know the danger you put yourself through?’
‘And who helped you?’ Hugh had distanced himself a little, allowing Dad his turn to claim me. ‘You didn’t wait for me.’
Was that jealousy creeping back into his voice? I sighed and turned to him. As Cate said, I was going to claim much of the glory for this night’s work, and I realized this might be hard for Hugh. ‘Cate,’ I told them. ‘We did it.’
‘Where is Cate?’ Dad interrupted. He sounded worried still. ‘Is she okay?’
I nodded, then forced myself to say the words she’d told me to say. Brin’s future was at stake. ‘She had to... had to leave, she was overcome.’
‘Was she harmed?’
‘No, no, not at all.’ I summoned up the energy to press this home. Cate may have been changed forever by what she’d done, but she didn’t consider herself injured. Far from it. ‘She’s good, she’ll be fine.’
The drama of the night still continued in the parking lot of the Temple. Elders stood all around in a loose circle, speaking grimly in their official dark robes, shaking their heads. One figure stood out a whole head above the others. They surrounded him, had shackled his hands and feet to prevent him from fleeing on those long elven legs of his. He looked up from his terror and cried to me.
‘Dara?’ Brin said. ‘What’s happening?’
I came to life as I mustered the energy to spring towards my friend, but Dad kept me firmly in his grasp. I struggled against him but to no avail.
‘What’s going on?’ I screamed as I saw Brin being led away to the back of a huge black SUV. ‘Let him go!’
‘No, Dara,’ Jon said sadly. ‘I’m afraid, I’m afraid we’ve all been betrayed by him. He had us fooled.’
‘Brin didn’t do anything, he couldn’t have!’ There was no way Brin, silly Brin could have laid the adamantite bomb. He didn’t have the magical strength, he didn’t even want to be a part of Eldric’s plan anymore. He would have refused, even on pain of death.
‘Kin should never trust an elf,’ Dad said, shaking his head. ‘I truly thought this one was different. Yet he had the evidence on him.’
But Brin was different. I saw the uncomprehending terror in his eyes before they stuffed his head down into the vehicle and slammed the door. This elf couldn’t have done the deed. And I remembered the presence of Trevor, my erstwhile goblin companion, as he flew off with the Elven brigade and I caught a sharp breath. My body sagged with this new realization, and I was held up only by Dad’s arms.
‘What evidence?’
My father’s mouth was set in a grim line. ‘A box of adamantite,’ he said. ‘All packaged up.’
The package Brin needed to give to me. Bad, he’d said. It hadn’t made sense. Nothing about this evening made sense.
Until the little wheels began to whir in my mind, the gears began grinding and suddenly, click by click, I connected the dots and everything made terrible, awful sense, in a horrible way. I flinched away from that vision, but the dawning light in my mind was too bright. I helplessly followed the whole trail to the bitter end.
Trevor gave Brin a package, and told him it was for me. Brin tried his best to deliver like it was a hot potato, but I’d ignored his attempts to contact me. Trevor had somehow known I would, and that Brin would be left holding the bag, literally. My friend wouldn’t have told anyone it was mine, and so he’d been arrested for having the magical metal on him at the site of the explosion.
Even if he tried to explain to the Kin, they wouldn’t believe him, for he was an elf and a known political activist. Whereas I... I had just saved the day, I was the hero.
And Trevor was safely out of harm’s way, for I’d seen him being flown back to the Wilderness right after the bomb had been set off.
It was Trevor who had planted the bomb, it had to be. He would have had the assistance of Cate in overcoming the wards of the leys. Yet the goblin was never a major player in this drama, he was merely a foot soldier of the powers behind the scheme, Cate and Eldric together.
She’d been false with the Dark Elf kin too, I realized, playing both sides and pretending to be sympathetic to his cause to remove the Veil in order to increase her own personal power. To drink from the lines. I still couldn’t believe she’d done such a terrible thing.
Even more since with her actions, she risked the life of her very home land, and mine. If I hadn’t been able to call on Margaret’s help and save the day, the island as we knew it would have withered, the greenery would have died and shrivelled, the plentiful waters would have dried and become salt. Her own home, her children’s heritage, all gone because of her greed.
A month ago, I would have had no problem believing in the depths of her treachery. But she had reached out to me, nurtured me and used my own pride against me. Yes, because of Cate I now had everything I’d dreamed of achieving. That only made my devastation all the worse.
I reached out toward Brin, but Hugh blocked my way. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘We have it all under control now.’
‘It wasn’t him,’ I called out weakly as the SUV drove away, red tails lights glowing in the mist which still clung to the Temple environs, before I collapsed in a heap at Dad’s feet.
My last conscious thought was that through it all, through all her machinations and schemes, Cate had had the ultimate trust that I would be able to pull off the impossible, the mending of the lines, to heal the damage she’d purposefully wrought. It was almost a compliment.
Almost.
26
Mom told me later that Hugh had picked me up off the ground and carried me to Dad’s SUV, and followed us back to the house on his Harley. It was all a little fuzzy to me, but I did remember coming to as he brought me inside the kitchen, and sitting at the table while Mom’s voice rushed all around me with worry.
Dad and Hugh spoke tersely, and then I heard them leave again, and I hadn’t seen either of them since. They were busy with the Kin business of investigations and reports into this unprecedented occurrence.
More than twenty-four hours passed, during which I kept silent about Cate’s machinations concerning the events that night. Hugh and Dad were nowhere to be found, they were tied up with the inevitable crises management conferences in the aftermath of the Elven treachery, and I had no way to reach them, to tell them about Brin’s innocence. The whole time my friend remained in the ancient Penitentiary by the lake. He was heavily guarded, I learned when I tried to get in to see him, being accused of terrorist action and all the authorities took that threat seriously. I wandered the perimeter of the old stone and concrete walls topped with barbed wire rolls, trying to peer into windows far above my head, but I couldn’t even reach him through my thoughts. I recognized the imprint of Kin wards all around the building.
Yet my silence wasn’t enough, it turned out, not enough for Cate to free my friend. Cate had lied to me. Was I surprised? She had no intentions of setting Brin free. I should have known better than to believe her in that last promise, and time was running out.
I was a hero now, to the Kin. I ignored all the invitations that poured in. Summer barbeques, hang outs with Sasha and her crowd, Tiki parties with people I didn’t even know, people who had never previously acknowledged my existence.
‘What happened the other night?’ Mom finally had enough. She sat me down at the kitchen table, brandishing a slice of her signature chocolate cake, made especially for me even though it wasn’t a special occasion. ‘All the Kin suddenly love you, I’ve been fielding calls for you all day. But you’re not happy. Speak to me!’
I cut off a tiny corner of my piece of cake, and stared at it. Not even the cream icing was appealing. I couldn’t tell her, even though I now knew she had her own magic running through her veins, because there was still a smidgeon of hope flaring inside, hope that Cate would do the right thing for Brin. I mushed the soft cake back onto the plate, mixing it with the icing.
Seeing that I wasn’t going to answer her, Mom changed tack and attempted to insert some normality by carrying on a conversation, I guess in the hope that she could put me at ease.
‘I also had a call from Lady Sabarin,’ she continued. ‘Hugh’s mother. She told me of your plans – I can’t believe you never mentioned a word to me! This is so exciting. When is the wedding? And where? She’s pushing for Scarp, of course, and I have to admit that would be fun, seeing my one and only getting married in a castle.’
Mom bustled around the kitchen, acting as though I was participating in the discussion. ‘So romantic, isn’t it? That’s the Martin blood in you, all or nothing when it comes to love, eh?’
Yes. Love, if you could call it that. I had wanted the future Hugh was offering, and part of me still yearned for it, the comfort to be found in his strong arms and the security of knowing that he was my partner for life. Yet...
Yet I wanted to practice magic, it was what I was born to do, either within the Kin or without.
My heart ached for the loss of Margaret from my life. Now she had removed herself, I could see her value to me, how I could have learned so much with her. But - to renounce everything for the kind of freedom she offered?
No. I stood firm on that decision. I wanted, I needed, to make my own way. Be my own version of a powerful witch, perhaps be a role model and a beacon of hope for all the scorned half blood girls who came behind me.
I couldn’t stand being in this limbo anymore. I needed Brin freed from his prison for he was innocent, blatantly framed by Cate’s greed, and I needed to know what more she wanted from me, if my silence wasn’t enough.
‘I have to talk with Cate,’ I said, interrupting Mom’s flow. I’d made my decision and had to act now, before I could convince myself to back down.
Mom started back, as if I’d lashed out at her.
I knew the witch couldn’t be too far away, for with the infusion of magic still fresh in her veins, she wouldn’t chance getting on a plane or helicopter. Not yet. The most likely place for Cate to be hiding was at the summer home, the large estate built out around Conception Bay back in the time before the trains and highways. It had once been a half day’s carriage ride away from the town over a rough gravelled road, but nowadays the old beach house found itself surrounded by suburbia on all sides. With the new highways in place and at the right time of day, it could take a fast car less than half an hour to reach the gates.
But I didn’t have a car, or a license. I glanced out the window. Hugh had left his precious Harley here the night I’d been brought back after the whole bomb episode, and I could see his keys neatly hung up on the key rack by the back door, waiting for him to reclaim them.
A motorcycle driven by an inexpert driver would take longer, but it was doable. Wasn’t it?
Today was bright and sunny and the pavements were dry, and I had confidence that if I drove over the old highway, I could make it out to the summer house. Mom didn’t realize what I was doing until she heard the Harley’s throaty roar in the driveway, and I saw her in the side mirror as she watched me going up the hill, leaving only blue exhaust in my wake.
My thoughts whirled again around the events of that fateful night, trying to make sense of them. Yes, Cate had gotten her darkest desire fulfilled, but what of Eldric? How had he profited from the bomb?
I stayed to the old road which hugged the bays, too nervous to go at the great speed demanded by the newer Autobahn-like scar which ripped across the high lands. It took me a full hour this way, around the twisty old roads and through each community which over the years had grown and spread to become one mass of urbanity, until I reached the oasis of ancient trees and stone walls which signified their summer estate. I stopped the bike outside the iron gates. They were firmly closed and locked against visitors.
My butt was stiff and sore and numb at the same time, and I had to stretch largely before I entered through the pedestrian gate that led into the summer garden. It was a whole different mini-biosphere here, with the heritage roses already in bloom, the garden in a riot of color that would rival a Monet painting. Clematis covered the archways, even a mimosa tree was in full flower. I took a deep nourishing breath of the spicy and green smells. Such a beautiful spot that harbored the viper Cate.
I reached into my pocket and took out my phone, setting it to record before I casually placed it back.
The heavy front door was firmly locked. I peered through the prisms of bevelled glass, but could see no movement within, so I quietly stepped along the covered wooden porch that wrapped around the ground floor. Around the corner, the ocean gleamed blue and glittery, so close I could almost touch it. And there she was.
She sat in the shade at a delicate wrought iron table painted white, a tray with fine china in front of her. Cate looked up when I approached, though I knew I hadn’t made a sound. She was dressed in a long white cotton sundress.
‘Welcome, Dara,’ she said, her eyes hidden by the large sunglasses, discreetly branded with a designer logo. ‘I’ve been waiting. What took you so long?’
I took a seat opposite her and merely looked at the witch. In these shadows, I could tell her skin still held the glow of the magic she had deliberately infused into her body. Even through the expertly applied layer of makeup, the sickly green hue of her face shimmered.
‘You haven’t kept up your side of the bargain,’ I began. My voice was harsh and whispery after the long ride on the Harley.
She inclined her head as if in thought. ‘Bargain?’
‘Brin.’
She laughed, tinkling and puzzled and light all at the same time. ‘Your so-called friend who betrayed you and Jon? I believe that elf is safely locked away under the care of Her Majesty’s Penitentiary. Treason and terrorism, oh my.’
‘You know what I mean.’ I was beginning to sweat in the afternoon heat. The weight of Mom’s thick leather jacket wasn’t helping.
Cate’s smile was saccharin as she calmly lowered her sunglasses. The cool depths of her black eyes were empty voids. How had I ever thought this witch was on my side?
‘Phone on the table.’ She tapped the iron table top before her. ‘I know you only have the one on you.’
Reluctantly, I drew it out of my pocket and placed it before me. With a single tap of her red nail I heard it fizzle and saw a small spark leap from it.
‘Oops,’ she said as her mouth formed a perfect moue of surprise and she placed her hand over her red lips. ‘You’re right, the electronics don’t stand a chance around me. I’m still trying to get a handle on all this glorious new power you helped me achieve. Never mind. You do go through your phones quickly, don’t you?’
‘Brin.’
‘Hmmm. Now that we can speak honestly without fear of recording, I think you still have to prove to me that you’re trustworthy.’
‘What? What more do you want me to do? I haven’t said a word about what you did, how you endangered all of us by your scheming. How you ... you drank from the line behind my back.’
