Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) (10 page)

At the pool, Rachel glanced around. Nobody was outside and
the lights were off in all the rooms facing the pool. She could see the motel
office, but it was at an angle and they would not be able to see her from
there.

She sat on the edge of one of the reclining lawn chairs that
lined the wrought iron fence enclosing the swim area and untied her shoes. Then
she chucked off her shirt and slipped off her pants. Now in her underwear, Rachel
looked around again, hoping nobody would see her. Yes, she could mask herself
from view of any passing motorists or pedestrians by channeling, but that could
summon Katie.

The water warmed her foot as she stepped onto the first
concrete pool step. The water shimmered around her, reflecting the streetlights
and motel sign and the occasional headlights from a passing car.

Rachel slipped fully into the water; it came up to her
chest. Ten to fifteen degrees of heat should do it. Any more and the pool might
not reheat before morning, when other guests might use it.  For an instant, she
contemplated taking enough energy to make the pool ice cold, but not frozen –
the motel managers would just think the heater turned off accidentally, or was
faulty. No. She might not be the only nocturnal swimmer and water did not have
to be freezing to present a grave threat of hypothermia to someone jumping into
it unaware.

The Power coursed through Rachel as she swam laps across
the pool. Freedom! While she didn’t think it was over with Katie – not by a
longshot – for the moment, at least, she was free. Soon she could return to her
sisters in the Kingdom of the Mountain Witches.

At the edge of the motel roof, above the skylights, a
small, round face peered down at her. Rachel stopped swimming and look directly
at the creature.

The Present

Earth

Rachel started, prepared to jump from the water and run,
although that would be useless against a flying creature such as Katie. She
willed herself to calm down, breathing as Queen Annalisse had taught her what
seemed so long ago. This wasn’t hopeless – she wasn’t entirely defenseless
against the sorceress.

The figure stood up; its burlap-covered outfit illuminated
by a street lamp. Trudy. Of course, Queen Annalisse would not leave her or
Candice unguarded – not on this night.

The Upper Mountain Witch waved. Rachel returned it with a
blush and faint smile. Should she continue swimming? No, better to call it a
night. She had already taken her share of kinetic energy from the pool.

Candice was still asleep when Rachel entered the motel
room. After changing, for Candice and Dan Edwards had brought new clothes for
her, she went to bed. Above, a ceiling fan turned silently and Rachel occupied
herself by counting each revolution. Since leaving her mortal, earthly body, four
hours of sleep a night was generally more than ample, and such sleep had more
to do with quieting her mind than resting her body.

Rachel considered her situation. She was proficient enough
in the Power to make it difficult – but not impossible – for Katie to hold her.

The light of passing headlights came through the curtain of
their motel room. It was past midnight. Reluctantly, Rachel settled under the
covers. Tomorrow, she would think over these matters. Tomorrow, when she was
refreshed and the idea of freedom from Katie had more fully set in. Now she
would sleep.

The room was awash with daylight when Rachel opened her
eyes. Candice’s bed was already made; the detective was on the telephone.
Rachel went to the bathroom to wash and change into day clothes.

Steam formed on the mirror as Rachel ran the hot shower water.
The temperature was high enough to scald a person, but her body was nearly
indestructible now, so took as much kinetic energy from it as she could.

“Queen Annalisse will meet us for breakfast.” Candice
looked up from the room’s desk, a laptop open before her.

“Good. I need to ask her some things,” Rachel replied as
she dressed.

A shadow crossed the drapes as a van pulled into the
parking space in front of their motel room. A moment later there was a knock at
the door.

Candice opened it to admit Dan Edwards and Queen Annalisse,
along with Karen and Jakob.

“Good morning, ladies. I trust you had a good night’s
sleep?”

“Yes, thank you,” Rachel said.

Candice smiled.

***

“Thank you for rescuing me,” Rachel said to the party when
they were seated at the motel’s coffee shop. The smell of hot coffee and
blueberry pancakes filled the restaurant and green-aproned waitresses hustled
to serve the morning rush of customers.

“We waited a year before making the attempt. You needed
more practice in the use of the Power. We did not know if there would be a
fight, or whether we could take you away as we did, with Katie unaware,” Karen
said.

“Where do I go from here? If I return to the Mountain Witch
Kingdom, she will find me there.”

“Yes. However, we have a plan to corral and tame her. Once
that is accomplished, you will be safe to return to your sisters. In truth, you
must return. You are a witch, not a sorceress, and it is crucial to your health
and development that you return from time to time to the world of your second
birth,” Karen said.

“So that’s what Karen meant when she told Katie I would not
live if she took me away?”

“Yes. Katie, as a sorceress, was unaware of this, and may
not believe us,” Karen said.

She
had
felt the longing for the Mountain Witch Kingdom
– beyond simply wishing to see her sisters – a physical need. Rachel pondered
for a moment.  “How are my sisters?”

“They are well, child-witch. Worried for thee, but well.”
Annalisse took a letter from her satchel and handed it to Rachel.

Rachel jostled the carafe of coffee reaching for the letter
and it would have fallen had Jakob not grabbed it. The front of the envelope
simply said “Rachel,” but she knew it was from Gertrude and Eustice. She was
careful not to damage the envelope as she opened it.

Inside was a neatly folded letter on pink stationary,
written in fine calligraphy, the letters forming the branches and leaves of a
tree. Rachel removed it, opened it and read.

Dearest Rachel,

If you have received this, it means you are now free of
that hideous creature’s power. We are glad. Your gifts are safe in our cottage
and awaiting your return. Leroy is well, and anticipates your return. Agnes and
the rest of our sisters send their regards.

“Thank you, Queen Annalisse,” Rachel looked into the
queen’s eyes as she spoke.

“I have been absent from Earth for centuries. Katie will
have more power in this world than, I. Yet, we must tether her there. She is
too powerful to defeat in a pitched battle,” Queen Annalisse said.

A shadow passed over them, and Rachel looked up to Karen
and Jakob.

“Rachel, this is more serious than you know. Katie is
tearing holes in the fabric of the Cosmos with her ‘explorations’. Not all her
travel through space is safely done. Also, she loves to watch supernovas – the
explosion of stars – and uses the Power to cause them, by accelerating fusion
to the point where hydrogen, helium and other elements give way to iron. Iron is
the death of stars and worlds,” Karen said.

“Like a child playing with high explosives, thinking they
are only fireworks, she is leaving a trail of destruction in her wake,” Jakob
added.

“Interstellar nuclear weapons.” Candice leaned forward.

“I understand. I knew she was endangering young witches,
but I did not know the extent of the upset she was causing,” Rachel said.

“Katie can throw bomblets of ionized matter – plasma. At
some point in her first year of development, on the Citadel world, we believe
she came across an old tablet demonstrating this. This is a very dangerous
skill to have. Worse, we now believe she has mastered anti-matter.”

“She has,” Rachel spoke up. “I have seen her. Once, she
tried to teach me how to use it, but I could not handle the material and it
blew a hole in one of the cliffs on Pangea. Had I been human, the blast would
have killed me. As it was, I was disoriented for several weeks.”

The Present

Earth

“The father lacks a grounding in the Power,” Karen said
after Dan Edwards left the table to call home. Rachel accompanied him.

“Is that a problem?” Candice asked.

“Not an insurmountable one. The Gift is dormant within him,
unused and untaught, but it
is
there. Even a small amount of Power will
provide a second or two of buffer between him and Katie. If we act quickly, while
she is disoriented, that should be enough,” Karen said.

“Sometimes a family member with the Gift can provide the
support necessary,” Jakob said.

“What about the wife?” Candice asked. She wished she had
surveiled the woman more carefully and had a better fix on her character.

“Barren. Not a hint of the Power. She married into this
family and her lineage holds no strands of it,” Karen said.

“Then we will definitely need the boy?” Candice asked.

“Yes. Problem is: would the father allow his son to become
involved?”  Jakob asked.

“I don’t think so. Not as presented to him, so far,”
Candice replied.
Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

“If we do not prevail, the sorceress may come after the lad
next. The instant he begins to channel…” Queen Annalisse said.

“If we presented it to Mr. Edwards in that light, and were
able to assure him that his son would not be directly involved in hostilities,
he may allow it. You know him best, Candice. What do you think?” Karen said.

“He’s still getting used to all this. Too much more
information, too quickly, will lead him into overload – and shutdown. It is a
defense mechanism I’ve seen time after time in investigations,” Candice said.

“Yes, I agree,” Karen said.

“We will go slowly then. Let him know what she has been up
to, and that his son is vulnerable. Do not broach the subject of the child’s
involvement until you are made certain of his response,” Annalisse said.

“I will do that. Let me choose my time and place, though.
I’ll need to pick just the right moment,” Candice said.

“We trust your judgment, Candice Strong. That is why you
are here,” Annalisse reassured her.

“And the girl?” Candice asked.

“She must remain ignorant of her full role. If the
child-witch knows what is required, her ambivalence towards Katie could lead
her subconscious to block the Power,” Annalisse said.

“Afterwards?” Candice asked.

“Rachel will go to the Citadel. It is long overdue. The
mountain witches taught her much, and Katie some, also, but the girl is more
wildling than trained witch,” Karen replied.

“A wildling?” Candice asked.

“One with the Gift, but without the training and discipline
necessary to use it safely and responsibly. Rachel’s entrance has already been
delayed by nearly two years. A crucial time,” Karen said.

“It is best to ferret out and secure child-witches within
weeks of their first channeling. The earlier the better. Yet, wildlings do ofttimes
develop in unique directions. Dangerous paths are not kept from them, and
sometimes one succeeds where we don’t risk going for fear of the hazard,” Queen
Annalisse said.

***

Karen and Annalisse arranged that Rachel stay with the
detective. However, Karen wanted them to switch motels to one outside Melville
for security.

“I will help you with your sensitivity to the Power,” Karen
said to Rachel after they had checked into their new room. “There are many
things you need to know. You are bonded to her, and will be able to sense her
before any of us – if you know how to feel it out.”

“I hope so,” Rachel sighed.

“Mary-Beth always regretted the way she handled her.
Patronizing when she should have been guiding, is what she told me once.
Personally, I don’t see what else she could have done. None of us had any idea
that Katie could read or that she was a burgeoning sorceress,” Karen said.

“Did you think she was a Mountain Witch?” Rachel asked.

“No. We thought she was a common garden gnome. One of above
average intelligence, but not a witch and certainly not a sorceress.”

“Certainly, I
had
no idea. When she produced that
ball of plasma, I almost wet my pants,” Jakob said.

“We were all surprised. I ran just as fast as you did.”
Karen looked at Jakob.

“Have you tried anything before this?” Rachel asked.

“Many things. We tried to bind her ability to channel, but
she broke off the yoke easily,” Karen said.

“We tried to trap her in space, where she has little power
to channel, but she had this device, like a kite’s tail, trailing after her. It
collected energy from the stars and nebulae,” Jakob said.