The Underground Witch (Incenaga Trilogy) (31 page)

Emmeline thought back to Demyan’s windowless room. “She said I was useless to her. Why?”

Flora pressed her lips in a line. “But you have met her?”

“Yes.”

“Did she see you use your power?”

“Yes. Why
?”

Flora waved
a hand in front of her face. “Nothing. Let’s begin.”

“No, tell me. What do you know about
Orinda?”

Flora sat on a chair and gestured for Emmeline to follow. “
Orinda is the reason the Incenaga extinction began. She was responsible for half of their deaths.”

Emmeline’s heart quickened. “Why?”

“She wants to break the curse.”

“T
he Incenagas have to be dead for her to do that?”

“She needs three very powerful witches to work together to break the curse and no other Incenaga can
interfere while they work the necessary magic. She believes the Incenaga race has to be drained of their power in order to prevent them from interfering. And as you know, to drain a witch is to kill a witch.”

Emmeline nodded.

“But I’d like to believe that isn’t the case,” Flora said. “I have a theory that the other Incenagas merely have to be in agreement with those trying to break the curse, not necessarily drained. They wouldn’t interfere because they choose not to, not because they no longer existed.

Emmeline nodded, lost in thought.
Everything about her meeting with Orinda began to make sense. She had believed Orinda wanted her for something more, but she hadn’t been able to figure out why. Emmeline knew very little of her power and knew she couldn’t possibly be considered powerful enough to be among the three needed to break the curse. Which meant only one thing.

“She wants to drain me,” Emmeline said. “
She said I was useless to her until I let Tiergan control me.”

The color drained from Flora’s face. “We should begin,” she said. “
Stand up and take hold of this string.”

Emmeline
folded her arms. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Flora
shook the string in her outstretched hand and Emmeline knew she wouldn’t talk anymore on the subject. She took hold of the string and examined the large sewing needle tied to the end.

“
Um, what is the needle for?” Emmeline asked with worry creeping into her tone.

Flora said nothing as she dragged a low stool toward them and pounded a nail into the center. She stopped
the hammer before the nail went all the way down, leaving a fingernail’s length sticking up from the top of the stool.

“
Hold the end of the string above the stool and dangle the point of the needle over the center of the nail,” Flora said.

“That’s it?”

Flora
smiled. “That’s it.”

Using her thumb and forefinger,
Emmeline pinched the string at the end and dangled the needle over the nail head.

“There,” Emmeline said.

Flora leaned over the stool. “The needle is not staying in the center of the nail head. It can’t be moving.”

Emmeline turned her head and focused on the needle. It swung back and forth, left and right, crisscross, and in circles, but never
remained over the nail head. She tightened her arm and tried to hold still, but the needle kept moving. So she held her breath, clenched her hand, flexed her wrist, and waited. The needled swirled around the nail head.

Flora chuckled. “Call me when it isn’t moving.”

Emmeline dropped her arm. “You’re leaving?”

“I have work
to do and it looks like you do as well.”

Emmeline
looked at the string and then back to Flora. “Is this really going to help? It’s just a needle and string.”

“It will help if you want it to.”

Emmeline scowled. Of course she wanted it to help. She faced the stool, held out her arm, and watched the needle swing like a pendulum. She sighed and focused until she went cross-eyed. The needle made the tiniest circle over the nail head. It was close, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough to satisfy Flora.

Emmeline glanced at Flora as she stoked the fire. A surge of flames warmed the room and Emmeline held back a giggle. Of course! She could use
fire. Pulling in a wisp of heat, Emmeline directed it toward the needle, careful to surround it from every side. The needle froze.

“Ha!” Emmeline said. “I did it.”

Flora’s eyebrows raised and then furrowed into confusion. “Already?”

“Come and see.”

Flora waltzed over to the stool, bent down and closed her eyes. She sniffed the air and then stood with a pointing finger and a laughing smile. “You can’t use fire, funny girl.” She clicked her tongue.

“Why not? I’m an Incenaga. That is what I do.”

“The core of your power is not in your chest, although you feel the heat there first. It is in here.” She tapped the side of Emmeline’s head. “If you control the core, you control your power.”

“That doesn’t sound so hard.”

Flora shrugged. “For someone like you, I suppose.”

Emmeline realized her error
. Flora had never learned to control her power.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

Flora waved her hand. “No worries, child. I spent a good deal of my energy looking for your mother and now I’m too old for such things. I’m afraid I couldn’t handle the training at my age anyhow. Now, get to work.”

Emmeline nodded and refocused her efforts. Her eyes narrowed onto the point of the needle and she found herself chanting in her mind.
Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.
But the needle swished left and right. She wanted to hurl it across the room. Instead, she clenched her fist, stiffened her arm, held her breath, and concentrated. Hard.
Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.
Sweat formed on her brow and dripped into her eyes. All the while, the fire crackled, O’fin snored from the other room, and Flora clanged a spoon against a pot. And the needle still moved.

Flora touched her shoulder and Emmeline jumped.

“It’s time to go,” Flora said.

Emmeline looked up
at one of the round windows in the ceiling and her shoulders fell. They sky had gone from black to gray. How had the time passed so quickly? And how had she failed at her first task, especially such a simple one?

Flora rolled the
needle and string into a lump and placed it into Emmeline’s hand. “Here, practice it in the pit until you can return. It may take several days to master this, so try not to get too discouraged.” She winked.

Emmeline
thanked Flora, tucked the bundle into a tie around her waist, and left for the pit. Her body protested the long run, her lungs burning, her legs shaking. Before she made it a quarter of the way across the field, a sharp ache had formed behind her ears. And by the time she reached the pit, it had turned into a pounding headache and zero patience for Tayve’s snores. She pressed her face against the cool stone and the sound of a slow drip caught her attention. Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. It sounded from above her, far out of reach.

Frustrated,
Emmeline pressed her fists over her eyes. How much longer could she endure the pit? It seemed worse having to return to it after hours in the fresh air and comfortable surroundings, and even worse to have to stay after finding a way to escape.

She pulled
the needle and string from the tie around her waist and let it dangle in front of her. Her arm shook from holding it up for hours at Flora’s, but she ignored the ache. She clenched her jaw, determined to master the simple task before she returned to Flora’s house. Better yet, she resolved to master it in the next hour so she could get some sleep.

T
he pit stench invaded her focused breathing. In and out, dirt and mold, grime and rot. It overwhelmed her senses and robbed her concentration. Something in Tayve’s throat gurgled and Emmeline scowled. How was she supposed to concentrate with Tayve making inhuman noises? She closed her eyes and blocked out every sound, every smell, every errant thought. She pushed every ache and pain from her body and narrowed her thoughts to one small point in her mind.

The world seeme
d to disappear around her. Opening her eyes, she shot a glare at the needle. It quivered and then stopped. The needle hung as still as an icicle.

Emmeline grinned and the sounds and smells of
the pit returned in full force, startling her. She dropped the string and covered her ears. How was it possible for one man to make such a ruckus?

Gathering
the string from the ground, she tried again, focusing all her efforts on one point in her mind. She pushed everything from her mind and imagined herself at the very center of it. The needle stopped swinging. She laughed and stopped the needle again, and again.

When her mind
could no longer focus, she leaned against the stone wall and smiled. She’d done it. Flora thought it would take her days, but she had done it in a few hours. She felt strengthened, healed in a way that the fire couldn’t do for her. With her mind focused, what else was she capable of?

Emmeline
let her thoughts wander to Erick, as they often did before she fell asleep. She felt closer to him somehow, as if the silly little task of keeping a needle still had opened a door leading back to him. Until that moment, she had believed she could never return to Erick, even if she killed Demyan, But with the possibility of her learning how to keep from being controlled in her sights, she felt hope for the first time.

Her determination surged and she smiled, glad to be working toward something again
. Never mind that her chances to succeed were minimal. She would beat the odds, even if it took every ounce of strength she had left.

“Very good,” Flora said.”

Emmeline grinned, ignoring her trembling arm. Letting it rest while she slept had been a mistake
, one she’d realized the moment she’d woken up and it wouldn’t move. She’d manage to massage it enough to loosen it some, but after hours of holding it out, her muscles had tightened.

“What’
s next?” Emmeline asked.

One of Flora’s eyebrows lifted
into her hairline. “Don’t you want to take a moment to heal your arm? I can wait.”

Emmeline shook her head.
“I’ll use the other one.” She didn’t want to waste anymore time. The sooner she worked through Flora’s tasks, the sooner she could leave the pit.

“As you wish. Take the string in your other hand and then
I want you to imagine the point of the needle moving in a circle around the nail. Without moving your hand, mind you.”

Emmeline
pinpointed her focus onto the needle and imagined it moving in a circle. To her amazement it broke from its frozen hold and followed her direction. The circles became wider and wider until the point of the needle arced around the entire head of the nail. Her hand was still, her arm unmoving, yet the needle continued to circle.

“Keep your hand still,” Flora whispered, and then
I want you to think about the needle moving in the opposite direction. Imagine it changing direction.”

“Without moving my hand?”

“Yes, do not move it. Use your mind. No fire.”

Emmeline smirked.
The arc of the needle grew smaller and smaller until it began circling in the opposite direction.

“
Very good,” Flora said. “You may drop your hand.”

Emmeline relaxed her arm and smiled.
Perhaps her training wouldn’t be as grueling as she’d thought.

“
This is a little trick anyone can do,” Flora said. “I wanted to demonstrate that you don’t have to physically manipulate something for it to move. Your mind is a powerful tool you need to learn to trust. As you noticed, your fingers, hand, and arm were motionless, yet the needle moved according to your thoughts. Your mind made it happen when your body did not.”

“Anyone can do this?
”

“Yes, it’s child’s play, really.
A simple trick. But do you understand the point of the exercise?”

Emmeline frowned. Child’s play? She’d worn herself
ragged trying to keep the needle still. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so confident. She looked up and found Flora waiting for an answer. Emmeline nodded. She understood the exercise. She needed to trust her mind.

“S
it on the table, dear,” Flora said. “On your hands.”

Emmeline s
at on the edge of a table and tucked her hands underneath her. It seemed awkward to sit on her fingers, but she figured Flora had a purpose and would explain it soon enough. She was wrong.

Flora
walked out of the room and Emmeline waited. And waited. A half hour passed and Emmeline squirmed on her hands, which had gone numb several minutes before. Perhaps Flora hadn’t meant for her to keep her hands underneath her the entire time. Her elbows started to ache and just when her shoulders felt the pull, Flora waltzed into the room