Snow: The White Crow (7 page)

I re-centered myself then asked, “These gypsy witches, how dangerous are they, and what do they want?”  Could this be what had drawn me there and not the kidnappings?

She looked up at the sun, low on the horizon, and sniffed the air then at me.  “We can talk after Daria changes.  I smell at least ten ferals in the area, can you defend against werewolves or do we need to move?”

I blinked, I had been sensing the feral movements by disturbances in nature around us.  Since they were not animals I could feel, it had to be humans.  I shrugged. “Weres give me no pause.”  She smiled at that.

She looked at the sun again then at Fluffy then asked the wolf, “Umm... need some privacy?  I know you hate doing this around people.”  The wolf nodded, a very human gesture then Maireni sat up so the wolf could stand and trot off behind the bushes again.

Moments before the last rays of the sun disappeared, a howl came from behind the bush.  It was no normal wolf howl, it was filled with power and compulsion.  It was a warning like it was telling the animals of the forest to be on guard, that something evil was coming.  She was warning the world of the full moon?  About the werewolves?  I could feel the forest coming alive, listening to the warning, as the animals around us went to ground.

I was amazed because even I felt on guard.  Was that like the power of an Alpha I had heard so much about?  Then the sun extinguished over the horizon and the yellow and orange light of the sun was replaced by the silver light of the full moon.

I saw Maireni's hands ball tightly into fists and her fingernails dig into her skin and the anguished, yelping and whimpering of a canine in extreme pain came from behind the bushes.  It turned into the screams of a woman who sounded like her flesh was being flayed from her bones.  I started to run toward the screams, but the Red Hood placed a hand on my arm and shook her head sadly.  “There is nothing you can do.  It is almost done.”

I smelled blood and looked down as she removed her hand.  There was blood on her palm where she had cut her own skin with her fingernails.  It was obvious she didn't like what was happening behind the bush.  The four cuts healed in seconds and the screaming stopped.  I heard some rustling and Maireni sat down to wait and I followed suit.

A minute later a medium height woman with long shiny black hair pulled up into a ponytail came walking out from behind the bush, carrying the wolf's pack.  Her tight t-shirt and jeans clung to her muscular form, she reminded me a lot of Rachel.  Her dark eyes sparkled in the moonlight as she silently sat beside Maireni and snuggled against her and gave her a warm kiss.  The Red Hood murmured, “Hi love.”

The mystery woman melted into her and held her, “Hi yourself hot stuff.”  Then she looked over at me and held her hand out. “Hello Gretta.”

Was this the wolf?  My God!
  I shook her hand tentatively. “Fluffy?”

The woman actually produced a wolf growl and said, “Call me that and I'll pee on your shoes.”

Maireni chuckled and warned, “She'll do it too.  Trust me.”  She wrinkled her face like she had tasted something sour.  Then she grinned and said, “Gretta Snow, meet the love of my life, Daria McQueen.  Also known as Fluffy in her wolf form.”

I blinked again. “Daria.”

She nodded once at me then looked at her woman. “Shall we get on the trail before they get too far ahead?”

Red nodded and stood.  As I stood, she pulled a card out of somewhere and handed it to me.  “We'd like to talk when this mess is sorted out.  That's our answering service since cell phones don't work around us.  Just call and we'll find you.”

Daria was grinning at me and I couldn't stop grinning back.  “What?”

She crinkled her nose cutely. “Nothing... just...”  She motioned a hand between Red and I and said, “Red Riding Hood and Snow White.  Just how weird is my life?”  I snorted then froze.  We all were cocking our heads, listening.  I could feel and hear something approaching.

Daria took a step toward the bush she had been behind.  I started pulling magic to me, but Maireni didn't seem concerned at all.  With a snarl, a werewolf dove over the bush at Daria's throat.  Before I could lash out at the beast, Daria caught the wolf by the throat.  It dangled in mid-air, thrashing and snarling.  I could smell the acrid stench of silver burn of pelt and skin from where her hand touched the wolf.  Was her touch silver?  She head butted the wolf.  I kid you not, who the hell head butts a werewolf?  She dropped it to the ground, it was dazed but snapped at her again.

She seemed to sigh in resignation and with wolf speed she dropped under it as it leaped at her and kicked it in the groin as it passed harmlessly by.  It yelped, landed funny, and limped like its rear legs weren't working correctly.  I hear that getting hit in the groin is an excruciating thing for males.  Then she said in a voice that was filled with the same power of her previous howl like a wolf, “Now get out of here before I kill you!”

I had the urge to leave but knew it was just the compulsion in her voice. 
Wow!
  The wolf lowered his eyes, flattened his ears to his head and tucked his tail between his legs in total submission and skittered away from us in a limping run.

She turned to us with an almost innocent smile.  I snorted at the look then glanced at Red and said, “She actually head-butted a werewolf, then kicked him in the crotch.”

Maireni scratched her head, squinted one eye, and scrunched up her face. “Yeahhhh, she does that.”  Daria joined her and their hands instantly found each others.  They shared a quick peck on the lips that I had to smile at.  They were possibly the two most dangerous predators I had ever met, and they were so cute together.

Then Red cocked an eyebrow at me and spoke like there hadn't just been a wolf attack, “So, you really can bend nature to your will?  Just plants, or animals too?  Like in the whisperings we have heard?”  Her eyes were focused behind me, I glanced back at the almost solid wall of trees and vines at my back that had gathered when I prepared to strike.

I grinned and relaxed and the forest seemed to relax behind me and thin back out.  “Both.  Though I can't seem to touch werewolves, or apparently Daria.”  I didn't tell her that I could almost feel something from both of them, something primal and animalistic that my magics could almost touch.

Daria started to smirk and opened her mouth and I stopped her with a wicked grin of my own. “No I don't sing and the fluffy creatures come scurrying.  Don't even ask it.”  We all shared a chuckle.

Then Red put on her game face and her smoky voice was firm as she asked gravely, “Can you handle the eastern group?  They have left a trail of death and carnage behind them.  They are powerful magic users and are almost as deadly as the druids that were sent, who we can't seem to locate.  They are all looking for something for the remaining brothers Marcus.  They've been in the area for weeks now.  We just arrived on a ship earlier today.”  Then she added, “If not, we can hunt together.”

I shook my head.  “No, I can handle it.  The forest is my domain.  If these witches are as dangerous as you say, we need to take care of this quickly.”  Had I just readily accepted to be part of their hunt?

They nodded and offered their hands and we grasped arms.  Daria said, “Good hunting.  And please contact us soon.”  I nodded in agreement and noticed the look of excitement for the hunt on her face and in her eyes.  I could smell her wolf musk from where I stood and I wondered just how much of the beast she really was.

I nodded and they both dashed off at wolf-like speeds, almost silent to all of my senses.  I turned east and shook my head in disbelief, I had just met the Red Hood and her hellhound, who was actually her lover.

I started east as fast as I could travel.  Reaching out with my senses and my magic as far as I could extend them.  At the very fringes of my abilities, almost three miles away, I detected movement through the forest.  They seemed to be moving in a methodical sweeping pattern like they were searching for something, like Maireni had said.

I called out to the wildlife, to the birds and bats, anything that could show me what I was following as I ran.  I passed a black pelted werewolf at a full sprint and it started to give chase, but roots kept rising up to cause it to stumble.  It gave up the chase to find easier prey.  They normally won't do that, but they sense the predator in me as well, a kindred spirit.

As I went, I felt fear in the back of my mind.  I felt the frightened, dying girl from so long ago.  I was going after gypsy witches, lamias.  Like the one who had poisoned a whole village of women just to kill me.  Like the one who cost me, my dear Snow.

I gritted my teeth and continued on.  A raven swooped down and landed on my shoulder as I ran.  I looked at it. “Show me, please.” I was hit with a bunch of impressions, some that didn't make sense.  But in the chaos I saw a group of women led by an old crone.

Then I understood the bird's confusion.  They were chanting, but the bird didn't have the capacity to give me the impressions of the words.  Whatever they were doing was throwing out ripples of magic that were touching everything around them, causing distortions that were confusing the wildlife.  I coupled that with what Red had said and the methodical pattern the lamias were moving in.  What were they searching for?

I almost thanked the bird when I got a glimpse of dark shapes moving near the group.  They were on the fringes of the rippling magic so I couldn't make them out, but the overall impression from the bird was, danger, and predator.  They had some sort of guards.

A few minutes later I could make out chanting over the next rise.  I could feel more than nine disturbances moving through the forest.  There were thirteen.  There were four circling the others, their guards.  They had to be human because I couldn't touch them with my senses.  I thanked the raven with some dried fruit and it flew off.

I crept forward to observe, that's when I realized I was wrong about my assumption... partially.  They had guards, but they were werewolves. 
Why weren't the wolves attacking them?
  I had to distract them so I could get at the witches.  I reached out and found what I needed.  I asked the buck hiding in a little hollow a few hundred yards away for help. I pushed some of my life force into him and asked a favor.

A moment later I heard a ruckus in the direction of the hollow then the sound of something noisily running away from the witches.  I grinned, the buck was making as much noise as possible, he was so full of energy now, he could run for hours.  The crone held up a small talisman that glinted red in the moonlight and she hissed in Romanian, “Pleaca acum. Ucide oricine a fost spionat.”  My Romanian was rusty, but I believe it was something like, “Go now.  Kill whoever was spying.”

Then the werewolves bounded off, growling and snarling as the women all moved into a loose circle, all staring out into the forest.  That talisman gave her power over the wolves!  I grinned, the wolves would never catch that buck, he had the energy of two deer now, it would be morning before my boost wore off.

The witches were all peering into the darkness in different directions.  They were no strangers to possible threats and they worked seamlessly together.  I watched for a couple minutes, but they were patient.  I let my power ripple out and watched as roots silently rose around their feet, encapsulating them.  Then I made a fist and the roots responded, suddenly tightening.

The witches started making noises of surprise and anger.  The crone held the talisman up to the moon and I saw it glint red again before she let it hang around her neck on the string it was on.  I stepped out into the open on the opposite side of the crone towards one of the struggling witches.

They all turned toward me as one and started chanting. I think I was wrong about them working seamlessly together because they truly did move as one and their chanting was as one.  I think the Crone was controlling them like she controlled the wolves in some way.

I spoke with as much authority as I could draw to me, “What business do you have in MY forest?”

They finished the chant and the roots rotted away from their feet and they moved into a line between the crone and me.  I felt the death of the roots and it burned me and the forest like a dagger in my side.  I bit my tongue and stopped myself from wavering and showing any weakness.

The crone was examining me, her eyes bloodshot and yellow with age.  Her wrinkled face drawn up in a sneer.  Then she spoke in her croaking tones, “We do not recognize this as your forest.  Is not nature the dominion of all?”

I narrowed my eyes.  “At this time, this forest and all in it are under my protection.  I ask again, what business do you have here?”  She smiled and I caught her eyes flicker to one of the other witches.  Without that tell, I wouldn't have been fast enough to stop it.

The other witch had gone to throw a twig at me, but I had a mound of moss heave up beneath one of her feet and she almost fell.  The twig struck the ground off to my left and it erupted into a cage of thorns, with huge thorns growing into the center of the cage.  Good lord, had that stuck me I would have been impaled from all directions!

I hissed at the crone, “I do not wish to harm you or your puppets here.  Do not force me to.”

Her eyes narrowed and she pulled her hand out of a shoulder bag and threw a handful of mushrooms at me.  They landed near my feet as I backpedaled quickly and they released a cloud of spores that moved quickly toward me, blackening the underbrush, killing everything in their wake, and I felt it all.  I screamed in defiance and grasped empty air in front of me, pulling all I could feel from below. I tore my hands upward and the groundwater erupted from below my feet to form a blanket of water that crashed down on the cloud of spores, knocking them to the ground and washing them away.

I gasped, that was a huge effort and draw on my magics.  If it were gradual, it wouldn't have taken much from me, but to do it all at once and in such an explosive manner, it was a strain.

I glared at the woman.  “I tried to be civil.  Now I set an ultimatum to you.  Leave my forest now, go back to Europe, or I will make you wish you had!”

The crone laughed and said, “How do they say in America?  Do your worst, little forest fairy.”

All of the witches raised their hands, energy crackling between them.  Oh shit.  I slammed my arms together, clapping my hands like thunder.  The trees around me slammed in front of me, leaving furrows and twisted roots in the ground in their wake as raw black magic stuck my wooden shield.

The trees exploded into splinters and shrapnel hit me all over.  My leathers stopped most of it, but wood splinters were embedded in my hands and face.  It hurt like hell.  I staggered, then felt the slivers pushing out of my skin and the feel of the wounds knitting themselves back together.  I looked at my hands, covered in my own blood, with undamaged skin beneath.  My shoulder was so hot I swear it was burning.  I hadn't used so much power, so quickly before, and my crow brand was pulsating pain in warning to me.

I had to end this fast.  I thrust out my hands, palms up, fingers splayed, then cupped my fingers upward and pulled in everything I had left. I thrust my hands upward and the entire line of witches between us let out startled gasps as saplings sprang from the earth in such violence they impaled the eight witches.  I dropped to a knee from the effort and my skin felt as if it were on fire, like thousands of things were trying to push out from the inside.  My head ached at two points, but I kept my focus on the crone.

She grabbed another talisman hanging on a string around her neck, it was a wolf's tooth and a silver nugget tied together with what looked like wolf hair.  She said, as she held it out toward me, “This was not for you, this was for the Red Hood.  My group was the bait as the others liked for our prize.  But you are no normal forest fairy and I shall have to waste this on you if I am to survive.”

She uttered a single syllable that echoed all around us and seemed to get sucked into the talisman and raw power erupted from it and washed over me in fire and agony.  I could see magic weavings and constructs drifting through the torrent.  I... understood.  My eyes shot wide through the excruciating pain.  This spell was meant to destroy one with the wolf curse.  If this was supposed to be for her, did Maireni somehow share their curse?  Was that where she derived her power?

A hot wave inside me pushed back at the energy that was consuming me and then I realized it was so simple, of course, the Red Hood and the wolves were linked.  They must for the balance to be achieved.  White feathers erupted from my skin, and brilliant white light shot out from them to battle the black magics.  I am balance.  For every evil, there must be a balance.

Everything seemed so simple to me now.  I stood as my antlers grew from my skull.  I felt like me but not.  I was more than I had been.  I was afraid but I told myself not to be that I would not consume me, I am nature, but I am Gretta.  I could feel the forest around me, and I smiled as it greeted me.  I have always been, but I was also a simple girl from an Alpine village.  I understood now, I understood my sweet Snow.  I was Perchta, but I was Gretta.  I loved the child, so I am now the child I saved

I was starting to get confused with two personalities in my head, but they were both me, weren't they?  I concentrated on fighting off the cascade of black magic.  I had used so much energy before I changed to my true form, I was foolish.  This was going to be difficult.  I pushed all the pain aside and simply welcomed the world around me into myself.

My power of light, of right, pushed out farther from me, wild energies from the collision of our two magics were wreaking havoc in the clearing around us. They destroyed trees and vaporizing the bodies of the other witches, who I now knew were sacrifices that willfully bound themselves to the crone to multiply her power, to be her familiars, her focus.  I smiled inwardly at my Gretta self, she, I, had done well.

I knelt and slapped my palm upon the ground, bringing life back into the death the black magics had caused.  Moss and flowers budded and bloomed and the talisman disappeared in an explosion of flame and smoke as it's energies were overwhelmed.  I frowned.  It was the magics of demons and corruption, it was the same magics that brought the curse of the lycanthropes by the brothers Marcus.

I exhaled, I was at my limit.  I mentally caressed my Gretta self and told her, “I must sleep, you finish up here.”  I blinked as my feathers retracted back into my skin and I felt my antlers pull back into me.  I was confused but realized it was no dream as I saw the crone fall to her knees.  I realized that all of that had occurred in but a single moment.  I still felt echos of all the pain.

She looked at the ashes in her hand then at me and croaked out as she forced herself to her feet again, “You are no fairy!”

I swayed to my feet and bared my teeth and told her the truth about myself that I had just learned.  “I am a Queen of Nature, born of Perchta and one with Perchta.”  I raised a hand and tried to pull nature forth, it had been so simple a moment ago, I was that nature, but I was so tired.  I staggered.

She cackled.  “You are no Queen of Nature, look at you.  You can barely stand.”

I chuckled.  “Have you looked at yourself lately?”  I don't know if she realized how badly burned she was from our magical standoff.

She sneered and reached for her neck and pulled out the red wolf talisman.  My sense of smell has always been better than human, but I realized at that moment that I could smell werewolf blood and hair from where I stood and I could hear the world around me better than ever.  Had my transformation done something to me?  Enhanced my senses even further?

Her talisman was made of that wolf blood and hair, and I could taste the tang of power emanating from it. Something old, something with the sulfur of demon.  Was it made from the blood and hair of an Alpha?  From one of the Marcus brothers?  That would explain why she was able to control werewolves... it was a compulsion.

She said with a wicked smile, “You see, false Queen, I have called for help.”  I heard the werewolves returning at breakneck speeds.  I took a deep breath and with the very last of the energy I could feel inside... I asked a favor.

I heard the reply and smirked at her as the werewolves appeared behind her.  I replied, “So have I.” And the sky grew black as thousands of birds in the sky blotted out the moon and the stars.  They swarmed her.

She flailed around, protecting her eyes, then they were gone, and so was the talisman.  She screeched in anger then hissed, “It is no matter they have their orders.  A few little birds are no match for werewolves.”

I'm sure the grin I gave her was just as wicked as hers as I felt my friends arrive.  I said in a low voice full of menace, “Oh I had something a little bigger, and more deadly in mind.”  As three huge bull moose stepped out of the forest behind me and moved in front of me.

The biggest, in the center, huffed out a challenge, the heat of his breath steaming the air from his nostrils.  The wolves dropped into crouches, their ears flattening to their heads and their lips curling back to expose their dripping fangs in terrifying snarls.  Then they charged.