The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1) (5 page)

The hideous woman continued her maniacal laughing, head thrown back, mouth open wide to expose two long fangs instead of teeth. Bright red fresh blood, Jak’s blood, was dripping from the fangs and from the corners of her mouth. Finally, she stopped her cackling and looked down at him.

“I told you boy, you have saved me, and for that I give you a gift, and I grant you life,” there was undoubtedly a special meaning in the word life.

“For that, and the pretty little sacrifice that you brought to me as well,” her voice was grating and dry, no longer melodic and enticing.

Gift….… Sacrifice? What was the old woman saying
? Jak couldn’t think straight and his thoughts were hazy. His vision was still a little blurry, and for that, he was thankful. Not being able to see this horrible creature clearly was a blessing.

The veil over his mind drifted and floated like a fog that was thicker for a moment, then thinning to almost understanding. He struggled to break through the fog, to break free. Suddenly, clarity came to him for a moment and Brigette drifted across his thoughts. Did this old woman intend to harm Brigette? The old woman was bound to the wall by the large chains, but Jak was still frightened of her.

“What do you mean the sacrifice I brought you?” Jak asked, unable to meet the old woman’s eyes. “I didn’t bring you anything.”

“Oh but you did,” the hag cackled. “Not only did you free me; you brought me that pretty little thing sleeping above. She will do for me nicely.”

“Brigette?? No!! Leave her alone!” Jak cried in impotence, unable to do much of anything at the moment.

“Don’t worry boy. I’ll take good care of her,” the old woman laughed again, and as the shrill laughter echoed off the walls of the cavern the old woman began to fade away to mist and dust, the manacles clattering loudly as they fell limply against the stone wall.

Jak struggled futilely to get to his feet but only fell back to the hard ground of the cave floor. He needed to get to Brigette to make sure she was safe, but he felt extremely strange and weak, worse than the next morning after he had drunk all the wine at feast day. His head was pounding and his vision cloudy and getting worse. All his strength was gone from him. He tried desperately again to stand, and this time he almost made it to his feet before the world went black and he fell to the damp floor.

Chapter 2

Jak awoke to the musty dank smell of the cavern. His mind was oddly cloudy, and he had no idea how long he had been here. At first he didn’t even know where he was. The last thing he remembered clearly was lying down by the fire next to Brigette, but things were a bit hazy after that. Recalling a horrible nightmare that he had during the night was enough to make his stomach turn.

Shaking off the terrible feeling, he rolled over to see if Brigette was awake yet, but he couldn’t see anything in the total darkness of the cave.
Was it still night time?
If the sun was up there should have been at least some light coming through the mouth of the cave to illuminate his surroundings.

He sat up slowly but his head felt packed with wool. His thoughts were quite fuzzy, so he sat there for a moment to try and gather his senses and figure out what was going on.

As Jak looked around, even though he couldn’t really see anything, his skin began to crawl and panic rose in his stomach. This was not the same cave, or at least not the same part of the cave where he went to sleep next to Brigette. For one thing, there was no cave opening anywhere to be found.

Tense moments crept by before finally, very faint, dim shadowy outlines of shapes within the cave started to come into focus. This was strange and unsettling to Jak since it shouldn’t be possible for him to see anything, considering there was no light at all where he was sitting in the cavern. He couldn’t see very clearly, only faint shapes but enough to make out general features. Clear thought was difficult, and he struggled to remember how he had even gotten here. Icy cold tendrils of fear snaked their way down his spine to entangle his stomach in their grip, as the realization of the nights events began to sink in. Maybe all of it had not been a nightmare.

Jumping to his feet, he nearly landed back on his face when his head and stomach lurched in protest. Grasping the wall of the cavern with his hand for support he steadied himself to keep from falling. The dim outlines and shapes that he struggled to bring into focus provided nothing to tell him where he was, or even which way led out of the cave.

As Jak began to tediously make a complete circuit around the small chamber which confined him; his hands passed over something that disturbed him more than the darkness and unfamiliar surroundings. From the feel of the objects and the dim images that his eyes could make out in the dark, it told him they were large chains attached to the wall.
Had the whole thing really been a nightmare? Or had it all actually happened?
The chains didn’t really prove anything, but the possibility that it had all really occurred gave him a sense of dread. But then again, maybe he had somehow wandered down here in the night and dreamt the rest of it. He didn’t want to think about it now. Right now he just needed to find his way out of here and get to Brigette to make sure she was okay.

After systematically making his way around the entire room, Jak found there was only one pathway that led out of this chamber. This set his mind at ease and gave him some relief, since at least he wouldn’t have to make a choice that led him deeper into the cave where he might get lost for good.

As he was making his way carefully through the blackness back to the only opening, his foot caught on something and he fell to the ground, receiving an acute pain that jabbed him hard in the ribs. He instinctively grabbed for the source of the pain and found that thankfully it had not pierced his skin. Lifting the object in front of his face, he tried to make out what it was that had given him the painful jab. Still not able to identify it, he raised his other hand to the object, and received a sharp pain in his palm in return. The end of the object he was holding was sharp and pointed, and he then realized it was a knife. The handle had been upright when he fell and it was what had poked him in the ribs with the painful jab.
What was a knife doing here in this cave?
It was a question for later, if ever.

He tucked the knife behind his belt, thankful that it was only the handle that had jabbed him and not the blade. He then tried to stand up, but when he placed his hands on the ground to help push himself to his feet, he felt something odd beneath them where the knife had been. He groped around until his hands came to something round and hard and he tried to lift it, but it was attached in some way that wouldn’t allow it to move but just a few inches off the cave floor. His vision began to focus a little more clearly and abruptly he realized what it was that he was sitting atop. It was a human skeleton, and he was holding the decayed skull in his hands.

Quickly dropping the skull and leaping to his feet, he backed away from the severely decaying corpse. It was apparent now that the knife had been protruding from the skeleton’s chest. From the amount of decay, it was clear that the body had been there in the dark cave for an extremely long time, but all the same, it was creepy and it made Jak eager to get out of this place as swiftly as possible.

As quickly as he could manage, Jak followed the pathway that led out of the chamber, stumbling over debris and rocks in the process. The presence of the debris on the floor was puzzling in itself. He faintly remembered a vast hall with polished stone floors and large marble columns. It must have all been a nightmare. Well, the first part with the magnificent hall and beautiful lady was more of a dream than a nightmare, but the rest was either a nightmare or some sort of illusion or magic. But Jak knew that magic was all just a myth, only children’s stories about wizards and witches. None of that really existed. Nevertheless, he was somehow certain that if the woman from the previous night was real and not just his imagination, that she had done something unnatural to him.

Jak’s face flushed hotly when he thought of the woman. She had been so beautiful and alluring; it still made his heart race to think about her. But then, she had bit him on the neck and turned into a terrible beast. Instinctively he reached for his neck and found a tender spot.
Why had the woman bitten him? Was the beautiful lady an illusion? Or was the hag an illusion? Or were they both illusions?
Hopefully, it was just a bad dream. The wound on his neck however, was not an illusion, perhaps it was just a scrape or cut that he had taken in the fall from the ledge during the earth shaking. Jak could only hope that was what it was.

As he continued down the path, he was surprised to feel his strength returning quickly. After the long hike the day before, the fall from the ledge, and sleeping on the cave floor all night, he expected that his muscles would be so tight and sore he would have trouble walking. Instead, he felt unusually energetic, with no hint of sore aching muscles. The bruises and scratches he had taken in the terrible fall from the ledge didn’t even hurt; none but the one on his neck. He also realized he could see more clearly now even though the cave was still completely dark. Everything was in shades of black and dark grey but he could see objects fairly clearly, and almost instinctively he knew which way to go to get out of the dark cavern. It was all a little too strange and he couldn’t puzzle out what it meant, if anything. But he didn’t have time to think about that now; he just needed to get out of here and find Brigette before she started to worry.

A few more turns up the winding pathway and Jak began to see light filtering in up ahead in the corridor. The closer he got the brighter and more unnaturally intense the light appeared. By the time he stood in the chamber where he had built the fire the night before, the light was so brilliant that it was almost too much for his eyes to take. He squinted and shielded his eyes with his upraised hand from the peculiarly bright light. It would take some time for his eyes to fully adjust after being in the total blackness of the deeper cave.

A quick look around the cavern revealed the remains of the fire from the night before and his pack lying to one side, but Brigette was not there. Perhaps she was waiting outside in the fresh air, so he grabbed his shoulder pack and burst out of the cave.

Blinding, searing pain greeted Jak the moment he was clear of the cave. It felt like his eyes were going to burn out of their sockets, even with his eyelids tightly closed. Falling to his knees, he scrambled to cover his eyes with both hands to shield them from the piercing light. Even after being in the darkness of the cave for so long, his eyes shouldn’t have this much trouble adjusting to the daylight.

He knelt there covering his eyes and frantically calling out for Brigette, but there was no answer. He called again…. nothing…. only the normal sounds of the forest. With a great effort, he struggled to open his eyes so he could look around. He blinked furiously and his eyes began to tear, streams running down his cheeks.
What was wrong with him?
It shouldn’t take this long for his eyes to adjust to the light, but the sun was somehow much brighter and more intense than he ever remembered it to be.

After an eternity of needle sharp pain shooting through his eyes, Jak was finally able to look around through squinted eyes without too much pain. Everything around him seemed to be in shades of white and light grey, as if all the color had been white washed out of the world. When he would blink, purple shapes would dance across his vision, but Brigette was nowhere to be found.

After many more long moments, Jak slowly became able to make out some faint colors from the sea of white and grey. Searching around for signs of Brigette, he eventually found fresh tracks leading in the direction of the Elsdon.
Why had she left him?
Then it hit Jak, she must have woken to find
him
gone. She probably thought that he had left her to go get help from Elsdon. Brigette being as stubborn as she was and so strong headed, was probably was trying to make it back to Elsdon on her own. But her leg was injured pretty badly so she couldn’t have made it very far. He should be able to catch up to her soon, and they would make it back to the farms before mid-day.

Things were starting to look up a bit. Maybe it had all just been a nightmare brought on by the previous night events with the earth shaking. The encounter with the ridge cat and all the blood probably didn’t help much either. It was enough to give anyone nightmares.

Jak soon found himself trotting and whistling to himself as he made his way through the trees and grass. He did feel surprisingly good; better than he remembered feeling in a long time.

Life on the farm was hard since there were always chores and lots of hard work that never seemed to end. There was seldom ever a time that he didn’t go to sleep at night weary from the days work. Rare too were the mornings that he didn’t wake up with sore aching muscles or blisters from all the previous day’s hard work. But now he felt completely refreshed and invigorated, so much so that he even felt as if he could run all the way back to Elsdon.

Before Jak knew it, he was running. He ran and ran, leaping over fallen logs and even jumping up to smack a low hanging branch with his hand. Before now, he had never been able to run this fast or far without getting winded. At that moment doubt and uncertainty crept over him and he had to wonder,
was he still dreaming?
He didn’t trust himself anymore after all the strange events. The lady in the cave had been so real at the time…..
but it had to be a dream
. Once again, his fingertips found their way to his neck and he felt the tender spot. Something wasn’t right, but he was doubtful that he would ever really know the truth. Right now he just wanted to catch up with Brigette and get back home to his family and a hot home cooked meal. His stomach was growling loudly and he realized he was famished. He supposed it was the fact that he didn’t have much to eat the previous day, but he never remembered being this fiercely hungry before today.