Kvenna and Roshen had hidden their trail well, I’d give them that. Not quite as well as I had, but then, I only had the one witch to hide, not two. As I hunted them down I wondered when and how they’d managed to fall in love. Because surely that was the only reason to have disappeared as they’d done- together. It was rare for two witches to fall in love- we tend to be a self-centered lot, and having to take the feelings of another into consideration often seemed to be a great deal more trouble than it was worth- but I imagine that, having done so, they’d be both more and less dangerous. More, because they’d show no mercy in trying to protect the other. Less, because having something you care about more than yourself is a weakness easily exploited: just look at the state I was in.
In the end I found them- passing themselves off as a pair of ordinary humans, perhaps with a touch of the hedgewitch about Kvenna, but nothing to arouse the suspicions of their neighbors, or the interest of any passing witch. I recognized Kvenna’s subtle touch in the alert-charms they had scattered about the road leading to the village where they lived. Charms made to give them notice of the level of power approaching individuals might possess or- and I was impressed with this one- might be carrying on them. I approached in deepest night, beneath the thinnest sliver of a crone-moon, and chose not to let the charms notice me- or the contents of my pack. A simple spell, carried in a piece of goose down I had tucked in one of my mittens, put the humans and animals of the village to sleep, although I wasn’t fool enough to try it on anything within the walls of Kvenna and Roshen’s cottage. Unless they were complete idiots (which they were not) they’d have charms set to detect any spells trying to breach their perimeter. With that in mind, I planned to breach it the old-fashioned way: through a window. The charms they’d have set against ordinary thieves would be easier to overcome, by far.
When I came to the frost-etched window, however, I paused: it was glowing with a golden light, indicating Kvenna and Roshen were still awake. I peered in and saw that indeed they were, the two of them sitting in front of the fire, bundled in blankets, with a handful of candles lit about the room. It was nearly three hours past midnight- why were they awake? It wasn’t necessarily a reason to abandon my plan, but it did complicate matters a bit.
And then the blankets around Roshen stirred, and Kvenna shifted, the two of them sharing tired smiles, and I realized what I was seeing: a small child was sleeping in Roshen’s arms, and an infant was nursing at Kvenna’s breast.
I froze. It had not occurred to me, that others might choose the same path I had- might choose parenthood. Why would that not occur to me? Ofrse had a son, why not these two?
I stared harder at the child in Roshen’s arms: it could not have more years than my Thomelisa, although she, of course, appeared fully grown, while this child was still baby-round in the face, and gangly through the limbs.
For a brief, terrible moment, the darkest, coldest voice in my heart pointed out that here was something fortunate: four witches for the price of two.
I jerked back, violently. No. I am not that wicked.
I crouched in the snow beneath the window, and chewed on my thumb. I would not kill children, not for the miniscule amount of power they might hold. My mind went to my own child, alone in the frozen wilderness, with no-one to look after her, and my will solidified. I would not leave these children orphans, either. I could only take Kvenna, or Roshen. Not both.
And then another voice pointed out that, strictly speaking, I didn’t have to kill either of them, to take their power. Just because I’d always done it didn’t mean I had to do it this time. They weren’t likely to chase me down- they’d known they’d been drained, but they’d also know that whoever had done it could have killed them, and chosen not to. They might move, they might create better defenses once they’d rebuilt their power stores, but they were unlikely to go looking for me. And if they did? Well, I’d deal with that when the time came.
No comments:
Post a Comment