Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) (13 page)

“Don’t clap between movements,” Eric reminded her.

Rachel elbowed him again.

Several rows behind them, Karen and Jakob sat together.
Annalisse was elsewhere, with Candice, preparing the ground for Katie’s
arrival. Rachel felt for the thread, the strands of power, emotion and feeling
that her witch nature enabled her to grasp. Katie’s thread was stronger now. Closer
than even an hour ago.

This may be our last night of peace.

Rachel ceased channeling and looked at Eric who was
examining the program.

The curtain opened and the crowd grew silent.

The violinist, a young woman, Helen Kahn, walked to the
center of the stage wearing a blue velour dress, hair tied into a ponytail to
prevent its obstructing her playing. She bowed to the audience, said a few
words about the piece, then raised her violin, adjusted its position on her
shoulder and began. The first movement started dramatically, and Rachel was
reminded of those sports cars that can go from zero to sixty in seconds. The
violinist attacked the strings, like a baker cutting bread.

The sound of her music filled the auditorium. Helen Kahn
bobbed back and forth like a bumblebee, bow moving so rapidly that Rachel half
expected to see sparks fly from the strings.

When this is over, I definitely will take up
the violin. Perhaps Jakob will teach me.

Rachel relaxed further back in her seat as she let the
music pass over her, calming her, inspiring her.

Tonight is mine. Tomorrow is Katie’s.

The Present

Earth

Many in the audience lingered after the performance. There
was a reception in the lobby with pitchers of punch arrayed on tables spread
with white tablecloths. In the corner, a bar served champagne and wine to those
over 21.

Rachel froze.
She is here. In Hawaii. Somehow, Katie had
penetrated Annalisse’s shield.

She grabbed Eric’s arm. “We have to go.”

“Something wrong?” He turned to her but did not move.

“Yes. Katie is here. I sense her.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere near.” On a hunch, Rachel felt for
the emerald Annalisse had used to track her to Pangea. It was warm.

“Let’s go. Now.” Rachel tossed the gem into the bushes and
pulled Eric along.

Karen came beside her. “Jakob is getting the van.”

“You felt her too?”

“No. I felt you. Your anxiety.”

“Katie has turned Annalisse’s magic against us and tracked
me here with Annalisse’s emerald. That must have been why Katie let me keep it
– she knew she could reverse it and use it for her own means.”

“Where is it, the emerald?” Karen asked as the trio moved
towards the street.

“I tossed it into the bushes.”

Karen looked back. “Okay, we can come back for it later. We
may be able to use it.”

“No. Katie will know I discovered it. I don’t know how,
maybe because it left my presence, but I am certain. She will know.”

Jakob cut in front of a BMW sports model and pulled into
the small open place by the curb. The three ran to him. The BMW driver honked
and cursed Jakob as it passed.

“Katie is here,” Karen said without preamble. Queen
Annalisse was in the corner seat; next to her sat an Upper Mountain Witch
scout.

“We can’t go to the hotel,” Candice said.

“No.” Jakob followed the traffic closely with his eyes.

“We’ll have to push this up. To tomorrow morning,” Karen
said.

All turned to Rachel. Even Jakob took his eyes off the road
to look at her.

“I am ready. Is Mr. Edwards?”

“Yes. We’ll have to move you all. You can return for your
luggage after this is over.”

Candice called Dan on his cell and apprised him of their
change in plans. He met them at the curb of the hotel and they sped off. Jakob
didn’t even wait for the stop sign, but looked and, seeing it was clear, ran
it.

They followed Kuhio Highway towards Kilauea.

“I don’t understand. If she’s here, why not just do it now?”
Eric asked.

“Because Queen Annalisse has set up the site. Her witches
are in place. We could not guarantee your father’s safety otherwise,” Candice
said.

***

“We have to lose her!” Karen yelled from the back of the
van.

Overhead, in the distance, Rachel watched a speck hover in
the air. It had been following their van for the past fifteen minutes as they
sped down Kuhio Highway.
Katie is toying with them. With us. To her, this is
just a game of cat-and-mouse.

“Pull over, Jakob,” Karen said.

The vehicle fish-tailed at the abrupt application of the
brakes.

Trudy climbed in through an open side window. Rachel had
not seen her on the roof. Queen Annalisse joined hands with her sisters and a
mist enveloped the van. Outside turned dark. “This will only hold her for a few
moments,” the queen said.

 “Everybody out. Quickly,” Jakob said.

Rachel jumped through the van door the instant Karen opened
it. Dan pushed his son through, then followed.

“What about the queen?” Rachel yelled to Karen as they ran.

“She will catch up with us,” Jakob answered for her. He was
taking up the rear.

Rachel slowed to let him overtake her. If Katie caught up
to them, Rachel wanted to be the first one the sorceress saw. Perhaps if she
went with the sorceress, this would end. Somehow, she didn’t think so, though.
Not this time. Queen Annalisse had thrown up a challenge and Katie, like a
bulldog, would rise to it.

A golf ball sized, gemlike object in Karen’s hands glowed
blue-green in the mist. A magical device of some sort – from the Citadel. The
Citadel witch slowed until all caught up to her. “Join hands.”

Dan seized his son with one hand, Rachel’s arm with the
other. Though accustomed to magical power, Rachel still found his grip strong,
viselike.
He is frightened for his son.

When all hands were joined, Karen channeled into the gem,
now hanging from a necklace around her neck, jostling her blouse as it vibrated
with the Power.

The Power was like a knife cutting through Rachel. The mist
disappeared to be replaced by absolute blackness. Were they not bound together,
they would surely lose their way. After agonizing seconds, the darkness broke
and they arrived at the base of Mount Kilauea. Deep orange fire-light peeked
out from skylights, openings in the rock where the glow of molten lava from
beneath the ground was visible.

Pieces of terrain rose around them, revealing themselves to
be a score of camouflaged Upper Mountain Witches. Several Citadel Witches ran
towards the party. One, in a black robe, red hair, peppered with grey streaks, carried
a staff.

“Eudora,” Karen addressed the witch.

“The plan is still in place. Only the schedule has been
turned up. Right now, our sister, Annalisse, and her forces, are fighting a
running battle with the sorceress. The child-witch’s channeling must lead the
creature here. Quickly.” Eudora gestured to Rachel with her staff.

“I am ready,” Rachel said.

“Now. You must get to Iki and we must return to our places;
hidden in the terrain. It will not be long. Annalisse’s fight with the creature
is not going well. Two of her sisters have already been injured,” Eudora said.

Rachel, Eric, Dan, and Candice raced towards Iki. Jakob ran
ahead of the party, and Karen behind. Karen held the gem in her palm, but
Rachel did not sense channeling from it.

Two Upper Mountain Witches wounded by Katie! A
disaster. There could be no bloodshed on either side. Which of Annalisse’s
sisters were hurt? Was gentle Trudy one of them?

Karen’s words brought Rachel back. “You need to take your
position, Rachel. Annalisse is in a desperate fight in the hillside, and she
cannot hold out for much longer.”

“We need you to channel, now,” Jakob panted between words.
“Eric, you need to come with me. We have prepared a safe hideout for you.”

“I’m not leaving my dad,” Eric said.

“Go!” Dan Edwards barked. “It is safer there.” He added,
softly, “Safer for
both
of us. Katie is going to be disoriented by
seeing me. She may lash out and if there is a fight, these people,” he gestured
to where the Upper Mountain Witches and Citadel Witches were positioned, “…these
people, they need to have a free hand. You cannot be caught in the crossfire.”

Jakob took Eric’s shoulder and the young man, after a final
glance at his father, then at Rachel, followed. The pair disappeared into the
rock.

They have been busy here. Tunnels and hideaways
have been dug throughout this terrain. That is what Karen meant about Queen
Annalisse setting up the ground beforehand. The queen is a chess master, you
must remember that. She will prevail.

“May I go now?” Rachel asked the moment Eric was safely out
of the way. “Annalisse and her people could be killed at any second. I know
Katie’s power. Not even the queen can face her in open battle like this.”

“We are ready,” Karen said.

Rachel knelt and placed her palms to the ground. She didn’t
want to overdraw energy and become too sick to be of any use in the coming
events, yet she wanted no mistakes. Katie would be distracted by the fight; it would
probably take a large amount of Rachel’s channeling to draw the sorceress’s
attention.

Rachel placed an image in her mind of her sisters, Gertrude
and Eustice and the other Lower Mountain Witches; the Edwards, father and son;
Candice, Jakob and Karen; Queen Annalisse and her Upper Mountain Witches. This
strengthened her. Rachel felt for the threads of heat beneath her and, finding
a large one, drew.

The energy seized her, paralyzing her body, as if a large
current of electricity were entering her, shocking her senses.

The lesson of the candle!

Rachel breathed deeply, calming her mind, and remembering
the images of her new family. She could not fail. All depended upon her.

The ground cooled as she removed the energy within. In only
a few moments, she had drawn more than she had ever done at once. More,
probably, than she had drawn in total over the past year.

A strand of the Power reached out to her. Katie. Rachel
collapsed onto the rock ground.

Wisdom
is nothing more than healed pain.

Robert
E. Lee

The Present

Earth

Stars twinkled overhead; the full moon illuminated the
terrain. Rachel stared upwards, breathing slowly. Around her, a battle raged.

Green flame spouted from Eudora’s staff, the color
accenting her red hair and black robe. Several times, Rachel made out the sound
of Annalisse’s musket firing. Streaks of blue plasma passed over the ground,
their flight ending in a crash and burst of flame.

Rachel attempted to rise. Dizziness stopped her. If she
could stop this battle by agreeing to go with the sorceress, she would. But
hadn’t Candice and Karen told her that Katie was destroying worlds with her
“explorations”? This was beyond Rachel’s control to halt.

Dan and Candice huddled by Iki, unprotected from the Power.
Eric crouched behind them, protected both by the crevice the witches had carved
for him as well as by a shield created with the Power. All witches were engaged
in the fight with Katie – a contest no one had to tell Rachel was much fiercer
and going more badly than anticipated. She rolled over, fighting nausea and the
blackness of unconsciousness. On the slopes of Mount Kilauea, Annalisse faced
Katie, the two circling each other. Behind, a score of Upper Mountain Witches
blocked the sorceress’s retreat.

They were pushing Katie towards Iki.
So the plan was
still in effect.

Katie let loose a ball of blue plasma towards the tall
Citadel witch, Eudora.

Eudora captured the ball with her staff and hurled it back
towards the sorceress. Katie jumped to the side as it landed with a crash. An
eruption of fire burned the ground where she had stood.

Katie extended her wrists towards the Citadel Witch. Blue
streaks flew out, forming plasma bombs in each hand. The sorceress laughed and
hurled them, not at Eudora, but turning, she heaved them at the line of Upper Mountain
Witches behind her.

A flash streaked across the side of the mountain as
Annalisse’s musket shot raced to intercept the larger of the two bombs. The
musket round struck the plasma just yards from the Upper Mountain Witch battle
line. Overhead, the two charges collided and dissipated in a cloud of smoke and
fire.

The other bomb landed directly onto the line, but the
witches, utilizing their great speed and mountaineering skills, were no longer
there and the hit was not direct. Still, several of the little witches’ clothes
caught fire from the flash. Volcanic rock and dust showered the area.