Dragon's Keep (10 page)

liorses
across the drawbridge. We took the road that crossed IVIorgesh Valley and galloped to the base of the mountain.

"Don't worry, Kit!" I called.
"We'll save your mother sure!" But my voice did not sound as sure as
I wished, and I hoped Kit could not hear the fear behind it.

We galloped in the wind, riding up the steep
path, leaping over fallen branches. I was thankful then that I'd taught Kit to
straddle her horse snugly as a man does, to duck her head, and lo center her
weight on the saddle just before a jump.

Partway up the trail I pulled Rollo to a halt
and looked over
my shoulder. Not far below
us the villagers' torches flickered like
star spit. Our mounts were
speedy but those on foot were already swarming up the trail.

"Faster," I called. "They're
heading for Demetra's cave."

I booted poor Rollo, praying all the while to
Saint Hippoly-tus for protection from a sudden fall. We happened on the cave.
I say this because I was lost by the time we
reached it. Dismounting secretly, we hid our horses in the copse to the right
of the trail
and sneaked inside.

We crept through the stony maze in search of
Ali. I prayed Demetra was deep in a cavern bent over an absorbing spell, or
better still, gone altogether. This close to the hag, I could taste the fear in
my mouth. I set my jaw and prayed I wouldn't meet her moonstruck eye.

The
Hag

Stumbling into
A
small room,
I
bumped against a broken
eggshell the size
of Cook's great caldron, spilling bones and dried
herbs onto the floor.
It could not be an egg by all rights. No bird was that big, but I had no time
to wonder at it with the townsfolk on their way. Racing down the hall, I found
Kit leaning over her mother. She wept soundlessly as she kissed her cheeks.

"Child," said Ali.

"Hush," I whispered. "You must
come with us now!" I pulled her up. Ali, obedient to my harsh whisper,
grabbed her cloak and shadowed us out of the cave. Hearing the crowd close by,
I took her hand and tugged her into the shelter of the copse where our horses
hid.

We crouched behind some thick gooseberry
bushes and waited. I rubbed my sore knee and eyed my gloves. Both were filthy
and the right one was torn. Mother would be angry.

"Who comes?" whispered Ali.

"Villagers.
Their blood burns for Demetra."

The crowd wended up the trail and surrounded
the cave,

their
torches and rushlights crowning the stone entrance in
pale
gold.

"Out, witch!" called Brock the
tanner.

In the gap between Brock and Kate the
miller's wife, I saw the entrance of the cave and the low fire within. No sign
of
Demetra. The villagers shuffled their
feet, their shadows dancing
on the stony walls.

"Out, I say!" Brock shouted.

Four men strode into the cave. Then there was
a clattering noise and a scream, and out they came with Demetra, with her hands
bound behind her back.

"You have spelled your last spell,"
shouted Brock.

"Why have you bound me?" cried
Demetra. "I've done nothing untoward. I've been away at herbing these
three days."

"Gathering hex potions!" shouted
Kate. "Wilde Island will not abide a witch!"

"Where have you
hidden the knife you used to murder Tess?"

Demetra narrowed her moonstruck eye.
"Tess murdered? This is the first I've heard of it. I say I've been
up-mountain."

"It's true," whispered Ali.
"She's been gone three days."

"Aye, gone," I said, "but who
is to say where?"

"Unbind me!" snarled Demetra. Just
then I saw her gray cat in the cave behind her. It jumped from the table where
it had been nibbling on sheep bones. Skirting the fire, it scurried outside.

"See her
kith-beast!" called Jossie. "Same as the one we saw
trancing the dogs at the fair!"

"Kill it!" shouted Keith.

Kit fairly leaped out to aid the cat, but I
grabbed her by the cloak and held her back. Arrows flew as the cat darted into
the woods on the other side of the path and disappeared.

"Never
you mind
,"
said Keith. "The kith-beast will die when the witch does."

"I have to help Demetra," whispered
Ali.

"Stay," I hissed, tugging her
behind the bushes. "They'll call you a witch as well, and your neck will
be in the noose!"

Kit pulled her mother closer.

I wished to be away but could not move. Any
sound we
made above a whisper would give our
hiding place away. Tim the
chandler ran into the cave, returning with a
handful of stones, and Demetra's knife.

"I could not find the scroll. My wife
never let me see, but I thought to myself that there might be witchcraft
written on it. Ah, I warned Tess about that, but she wouldn't listen. She
..." His face contorted in the torchlight.
"But
here are coins I found
in the cave and five
magic stones like my own dear wife's!" cried
Tim.
"And
I found the knife she used to do her butchery!"

The crowd roared at the sight of the knife.

"The coins and stones are mine,"
called Demetra. "And the
knife for cutting meat like
any of your tables down in town! You'll
not find a scroll here. I didn't do the deed. Your princess is
cursed!"
she cried. "Ask
the queen who killed Tess!" Demetra's cries were
covered by the
crowd shouting, "Burn her! Burn the witch!"

Fast the rope went round Demetra. She
screamed louder still as the men drove her into the cave. They tied her to the
table, and the people tossed their torches in.

"Oh, come," I moaned. "I
cannot bear to stay."

The villagers howled as flames engulfed the
inner cave.
Smoke filled the air. With all
the shouting and Demetra's scream
ing none heard us mount our horses. We
rode for a secluded trail, putting bushes, boulders, and rowan trees and oak
between us and the burning.

The horses followed Kaydon River down the mountain. Leaning close to Rollo's mane, I tried to shut out Demetra's screams
and clear the smell of death smoke from my nose. My head was still low an hour
later, and I was close to finding sleep when I heard a low strangled sound. I
tensed, sat up, and looked about. The growling increased, wild and menacing as
a mountain lion's. What beast hunted us here so close to home?

The growl changed to a moan, more human now
than animal, and it came from just ahead. Ali turned to me, cheeks pale,
eyes
wide. "Something is wrong with Katinka!"

We dismounted in the high orchard. At the
base of an apple tree Ali held Kit on her lap as she convulsed.

I gasped. "What is wrong with her?"

Ali rocked her. Soon the noise increased.
With a garbled cry a shadow emerged, birthing black from Kit's mouth. My skin
burned even as it went cold. I wanted to run, but love for Kit held me there.

"God!" called Ali. "Help
us!"

I put my arm about Ali's neck as we watched
in muted terror the birthing of the shadow wraith.

How slow and with what pain this howling
wraith escaped my poor friend's mouth. There seemed no end to this writhing

form
that came feet first from her lips. I would have
pulled it from her throat, but there was no touching it. The thing wasn't made
of flesh.

At last it ripped itself from Kit's mouth,
spilled onto the earth, and sank, leaving a black pit that stank of burning
bone.

"Oh, my Katinka!" cried Ali. Kit
looked so small on her mother's lap. I closed her mouth and wiped the drop of
blood from her lip.

"I did not know." Ali wept.
"Demetra must have hexed her."

Ali gripped my cloak. "Katinka had a
voice when she was small. She cooed and cried as any babe. Demetra couldn't
abide the babe's cry. Then one night when her wee mouth opened, no sound came
from my daughter's throat." She stroked Katinka's hair. "But I swear
,
I didn't know Demetra hexed her."

In case the wraith should think to come
again, I said Marn's binding charm over Kit.
"Three
times winding.
Four times bind
ing. I
bind all evil spirits now and cast them from this girl." Tying
the
invisible knots, I kissed my friend's damp forehead, whispering, "There
now," and "You'll feel better soon," with the kindness of a
mother, the way Marn always had with me.

In that dark hour as we held Kit, still as
death and gray, though breathing softly, I thought of Demetra, a woman cruel
enough to stuff a shadow wraith into an infant's throat. The hag was dead now,
a witch's burial set for her bones. She would be
thrice scattered and thrice buried so the villagers could be assured
the
witch would never rise. I was glad of it. Let them dig and scatter the hag's
bones. Ah, let them cast her into unending darkness.

The chill air wrapped about us, and we
thought to move. It would be hard to get back inside the castle unseen at this
late
hour. Yet before we left the orchard I
learned how close joy can
follow on the heels of sorrow, for in the
moonlight Kit stirred in her mother's lap.

"Muth . . . ," she said hoarsely,
then frowned, forming her lips again to strain out the word.
"Mutheer."

"Sweet Katinka."
Ali bent and kissed her brow.

Kit took my arm. "Roosie," she
whispered, her lips forming like a rose as she said my name.

My heart swelled. "Aye, Kit," I
said, embracing her. "I am
your Rosie.
I will always be your Rosie." A quiet jubilation filled
me as I
held her close. My dearest friend and companion
was
released.

I could still feel the
stiffness of my claw beneath my glove. I
was not healed with Demetra's death. But Kit's releasing
gave me
hope that someday I might be
unbound and touch the world like other women.

An owl hooted from above. I wondered as I
stood to untie Rollo what other curses died this eve. How many hellish spells
had gone down with Demetra?

Ali looked at me. "You must return home.
The queen will worry."

"We left in view of no one."

"Getting back inside the castle may be a
different matter."

"You're coming with us," I said
hopefully.

"I cannot. The
villagers know I served Demetra. They'll burn
me for a witch."

I would have argued, but it was true.

"Mother?"
Kit gazed up at her. She'd only just gotten her back
after their year apart.

"Where will you go?" I asked.

"To
Saint Brigid's Abbey.
I went to school there as a girl. The
nuns will shelter me." She looked to the south and worked to hold
her face steady, the night wind blowing back her hair.

My heart pounded. "You're . . .
Aliss," I whispered.

Ali gave a sad smile. "My full name is
Alissandra."

"You were my mother's dearest friend.
She saved you from the frozen marsh." My eyes were brimming.

"That was long ago."

Kit took her mother's hand. I had the power
to order Kit to return to the castle with me, but there was cruelty in that.
Kit had missed her mother this past year. I was fifteen now and strong. I
should bless my friend and let her go.

None spoke. I stared at the castle on the far
hill.

"We are free now," said Aliss.
"The shadow of Demetra is gone."

"Aye."
Kit pulled off her hood.

I could not tell Kit to go. Could not demand
she stay. Torn between kith and kin, Kit fingered Marigold's mane and faced the
road stretching down the hill.

Aliss touched her daughter's cheek where a
smear of dirt rested from her ordeal. "You know my love for you?"

"Aye."

"And you know of
Rosalind's love?"

Kit nodded.

"We both long to have you with us,
but.
. . your place is with Rosalind now." Alissandra
embraced her girl.

"I can't," said Kit, her eyes wet
with tears.

"The princess needs you, and I'll be
safe enough." Aliss
brought her
forehead close to Kits. "I was born near Brigidshire,
and the nuns
will be kind to me." She wiped the damp hair away from Kit's brow.

"Take Marigold," I said, suddenly
generous. "Kit will ride with me."

We mounted our horses.
As we passed the orchard, a flock of
startled
birds flew helter-skelter into the dawning sky.

"Wait,"
called Aliss. Turning Marigold about, she took a sil
ver brooch from her cloak and gave it to Kit.

"It says 'Omnia vincit amor,'" said
Aliss.

I knew the Latin well to mean,
Love
conquers all.

Alissandra turned and rode southward.