The Box Omnibus #1 (The Box, The Journal, The Sword) (23 page)

It doesn’t take long for
Rilla to lead us down a barely visible path through the field and into a patch of trees with a broken stone tower and a few rough looking shacks hiding amongst the foliage.

As we
walk closer to the tower, Farah begins making her eerie whine. I take the sound as a warning. I follow her gaze up to the top of the tower where, although the top two or three stories are gone, a person has climbed to the top, perched with a crossbow, watching us.

There are others watching as well, camouflaged within the bushes and trees surrounding us. No one makes a move to attack, but it’s clear if we weren’t here with
Rilla and the others, Rose and I would already have been taken out.

Rilla
leads us toward the largest and best kept of the shacks. Before we reach the door, a girl barely in her teens runs to Rilla and drags her away. They’re too quiet for us to hear, so instead of standing around like an idiot, I turn to Rose.

“How are you holding up?” I ask.

“I’m fine,” she says, though her hand trembles as she speaks. Rilla claimed to have cleared the spell the best she could, but Rose is obviously suffering more than anyone else hit by my dust. “We shouldn’t be here.”

“I
know.” I turn back to see Rilla wave the girl off and head back over to us. “But at least this trip has finally become interesting.”

Rilla
returns to our side and gestures toward the door to the building. “They’re waiting for you.”

Ominous. I wonder who ‘they’ could be. Only one way to find out.

The building turns out to be a single large room. Twelve hooded figures sit in a semi circle, all facing the door. I can’t see their eyes under their hoods, but I can definitely feel their gazes on me. It’s unnerving.

“Welcome,” a single female says, followed by a chorus of the rest of the
people in the room, repeating the ‘welcome.’

Not creepy at all.

“Hey,” I say. “Nice robes.”

Rilla
leans in to say, “Sin, Rose, meet the Shadow Coven.”

A coven? A real one
full of witches who actually know what they’re doing? Gran was able to teach me a ton and I’ve figured out a bunch more on my own, but I could learn so much more from a real coven. My gut starts doing back flips while I do my best to keep my exterior calm.

“A coven, huh?” I say. “Interesting. Why are we here?”

Rilla smiles at me, but she seems more annoyed than amused. I know the look, I see it a lot.

“I’ve asked you here because I thought it was important the coven met you,” she says. “
It’s not often we have the opportunity to talk to a woman who dresses like a sorceress, but uses magic like a witch.”

The
witch who welcomed us stands and moves through the circle to close the gap between us. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she says. “I am Mariah and the head of this coven.”

If she’s the leader, I wonder what role
Rilla has. She obviously has more power than all of them combined, and the people outside seem to check with her for guidance. If I were her, I’d be bitter at not holding the head title, even if it’s only a label.

“I’m Sin,” I say. “Great place you have here.”

The room is almost empty beyond the circle, a painted pentagram on the floor, a few messy candles and a single chest off to the side I assume holds anything else they might need for spells. The walls are rough wood I’d never want to touch for fear of splinters and there are no windows, making the place unnecessarily gloomy. Not exactly somewhere I’d want to spend much time.

“Sin.” Mariah says my name as though she’s testing it for power. When nothing happens, she pulls her hood back and reveals long dark hair and a
pretty, round face. “May I ask what coven you are from?”

“None,” I say. “Never met another witch before now. At least as far as I know.”

“Never?” She eyes me as though trying to see through a lie. “I’m even more impressed. Though you obviously have had at least one sorceress in your life.”

“My gran
.” After a second’s hesitation I add, “And sister.” Though she doesn’t really count.

Rilla’s
interest is suddenly peaked. “You have a sorceress sister? Is she alive and whole?

That’s a much tougher question to answer th
an she’s intending it to be. Since Gran broke Lou’s magic apart, she won’t be exactly whole until I find the rest of the bags full of her toenails and magic. But what she’s really asking is if her magic has been stolen by a wizard.

“She’s fine,” I say. “She’s sort of in hiding. Gran’s orders.”

“I see.” Rilla’s expression seems more calculating than concerned. As if she’s trying to figure out how she can make my situation benefit her. “And your Gran is no longer with us? Well, I guess we’ll have to simply hope your sister remains safe.”

No one else seems
bothered by the dry tone Rilla has adopted and I wonder if I’m making more of it than I should.

“I must apologize for the treatment you received from our friends on the road.” Maria
h’s smile is sad. Mom gave the same look to many of my teachers and neighbors. I call it the ‘sorry my kid’s such a mess’ expression. “It’s been difficult for us since we’ve made this place our home. Although our goal is to live without the interference of wizards, it can be difficult to find basic necessities. We’ve been forced to use unconventional means to find what we need. You understand.”

“Sure,” I say with a smile. “Take what you want, whatever the cost. Who cares about the people who
are hurt along the way?”

Mariah’s smile fades at my words. “We aren’t proud of what we must do. But it’s necessary.”

“I completely understand.” I refuse to take my eyes off Mariah and she seems to fade under my scrutiny. “The best people to steal from are women and children. They can’t usually fight back so there’s a lot less fuss.”

Rose puts a finger to her chin. “I must say, your philosophy does sound familiar somehow. Where have I heard it before?”

“To be fair,” I say, happy she’s thinking the same thing as me. “It is similar to the way wizards think about magic, but hey. You guys need to do what you need to do.”

It probably isn’t the best move for me to piss off a room full of magic users, but I can’t help myself. It’s obvious these people need
a smack on the head so the idea they can’t keep doing what they’re doing gets through to them. They expect me to accept their pathetic excuse for an apology after nearly killing Farah? No way.

“We’ve never hurt anyone,” Mariah says by way of defending herself. Some of the others straighten at her words, as though they’re sure she’s made everything okay again. “We are not trying to hurt anyone with what we do. In fact, before today, we’ve never had a single injury on either end.”

“And yet today you took on two girls and it ended with your own boy hurt. What if next time you attack it’s a real sorceress or a wizard in disguise? What will you do when someone is killed?”

And there goes our welcome. I guess Mom’s right; I do need to learn
when to shut up.

The coven
is much more visibly shaken than Rilla. In fact, she seems to be enjoying the others’ discomfort in some weird way.

Mariah raises a hand and the murmuring from the rest of the coven stops. “You make an interesting point. One the coven will have to discuss further. For now, please feel free to meet with some of the other residents, and I hope you
will stay and enjoy a meal with us.”

Not
like we have a choice.

“
Sounds great,” I say. “Thanks so much.”

“This is where we gather for meals and training.”
Rilla pauses for us to have a chance to glance around before pointing toward another group of buildings. “And the area over there is our residences.”

When I glance in the direction she points, I find myself balking. People actually live in those pathetic huts. Half of them don’t
even have roofs.

“It’s a lovely sanctuary you’ve built,” Rose says.

I take in the fear and desperation of the kids who watch our every move and say, “Looks more like a prison to me.”

Rose’s elbow digs into my ribs
, causing me to grunt, but I refuse to apologize. I meant what I said, the place is horrible.

“
You’re right,” Rilla says. “It used to be only a handful of us. It was a temporary solution to hide from The Sword which became all too permanent.”

“The Sword?” I think I heard Al mention them before, but I hadn’t had time to ask him more.

Rilla scowls at my corset as though it offends her I could say something so dumb while wearing it. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of them.”

It’s a good thing
Rose steps between us, because I’m about one step from punching the smug jerk in the face, sorceress or not.

“Don’t mind her,” Rose says to
Rilla. “She’s not from around here.”

“I didn’t think there was a place in this world where The Sword wasn’t known.”

I’m not about to tell this stranger I’m from another world. Who knows what she’d do if she knew? I give a casual shrug and scratch Farah’s lion ear as she leans against my leg for my attention. “Gran did her best to keep us away from danger.”

“You’re telling me she couldn’t be bothered to explain to you about her own people’s history?” She makes a noise of disgust and turns her back on me. “No
wonder we’re losing this war.”

No way am I letting her talk about Gran like that. “
She might not have told us everything, but she did what she thought was right. She protected us. I’d say my life was a whole lot better living in ignorance than living in a hellhole like this, stealing from the poor to survive.”

For a second, I’m sure she’s
going to throw some hardcore spell at me. Her face is so red it looks like it’s on fire. Rose actually takes a step away as though to protect herself from being caught in the crossfire.

“Maybe
,” Rilla says in a low, dangerous voice, “if you hadn’t spent your whole life being coddled, your sister would actually be here right now helping the cause instead of running away and hiding.”

I’m not one to sti
ck up for Lou, but in this case I hate Rilla even more. “You know nothing about my sister.”

“And you know nothing about the people who
se colors you wear,” she says. “You want to know about The Sword? Well let me tell you the story most of us have heard since the time we were toddlers.

My voice is flat when I say, “I’m sure it’s fascinating.”

She ignores me. “They started as a
coven
.” From the way she emphasizes the word I know she’s expecting me to protest, but I don’t take the bait, and allow her to continue. “They were an elite group of witches, male and female, who worked to protect the king and queen.”

“Protect them?” I ask. “Why wouldn’t someone more powerful, like sorceresses
, do the job?”

She’s way too smug when she says, “They did. Thousands of sorcerer
s and sorceresses dedicated their lives to protecting King Florin and Queen Verna. And in return they were given positions of power within the kingdom. Every city, town and village had at least one sorcerer as their leader. They could fix everything from a family dispute to a potentially life threatening drought.”

“In other words,” I say, “they meddled in everyone’s lives even more th
an wizards do now?”

She continues
without comment, but some of the wistful expression she had for the good old days seems to fade. 

“Witches would pledge themselves to the king and queen as well, of course,” she says. “But their lack of power made it impossible
for them to be on the same level as sorcerers.”

“Come off it,” I say. “You can’t be seriously trying to tell me there has never been a witch who can manipulate their magic as well as some sorceresses.”

I expected her to start back peddling and mumble some admittance about how I’m right. What she does instead is a lot creepier. She smiles. “It’s true. There were some who could control a great deal of magic. When these people revealed their talents, the king would give them the title of wizard.”

Al’s words
about us being the same come back to me and I’m forced to swallow down a lump in my throat. It can’t be true, can it? Wizards and witches are nothing alike. There’s no way we could all have been part of the same people at one time.

“Let me guess,” I say in order to cover my rising
doubt. “The new wizards became sick of being considered second rate to the sorcerers and rebelled.”

“
Although they were powerful, no matter how hard they tried, wizards were never able to equal sorcerers, and so they sought out new ways to best our people. They turned to physical fighting, favoring the sword above all other weapons.”

“And that’s how they got the name,” I say
with a wave of my hand to tell her I’m bored. “So when you say, The Sword, you mean wizards.”

But apparently
Rilla hasn’t finished her story.

“At first their skills were desired. Sorcerers saw no need to take up such a primitive form of defense, but there were others who meant
our country harm and they used weapons instead of magic. The wizards were the only ones able to protect the country from their attack. They were rewarded for their skills, given more and more prestigious positions within the kingdom. No one suspected their coming betrayal.”

“And then they started sucking the magic out of sorceresses.” I wish I had a watch to check, because t
his story is going on way too long. “Yeah, I understand.”

“It started with secret experiments.”
Rilla’s hands become tight fists as she continues. “Sorcerers would go missing. When their mutilated bodies showed up later, everyone believed it was beasts. After all, what kind of human could do something so horrible?”

“They went from killing to sucking?” A sudden realization hits me in the stomach, almost knocking me back with its force. “Is that why ther
e are no male sorcerers anymore? They killed them off?”

“The experiments took many, and the following battles took the rest.” Her face twists in disgust. “A few may still live in hiding,
but they are only a shadow of the great sorcerers of the past. They leave the fighting to the women and children.”

“Crazy idea to want to live.”

Rose’s elbow meets my ribs again, and I’m sure this time it’s going to leave a mark.

“There is no avoiding this war,”
Rilla says, too loud for only Rose and me.  When I glance over my shoulder, I realize several of the villagers have joined us during her story and now they cautiously watch for Rilla to make a move. “No matter where we hide, we will always be hunted and under the control of The Sword. I say we stop hiding and start fighting back.”

A few of the people watching timidly shout out their agreements, a noise Farah doesn’t like at all. She stands, her tail slapping against the back of my leg as it swings back and forth. At least there’s no fire involved. Yet.

“We must take back our lives,” Rilla continues to rile her growing crowd. “No more hiding ourselves in the shadows, starving ourselves, and stealing from the poor to survive.”

I should have known this speech was leading to something else beyond a lecture. She’s using what happened with us as an excuse to call innocent kids into a war they can’t possibly win
. I knew this woman was trouble.

“It’s
time for us to stand up and say, ‘We’re done being afraid’.”

As the crowd becomes more energetic in their agreement, I notice a group of cloaked figures moving as one
to break through the crowd and join us.

Mariah drops her hood and several of
Rilla’s supporters back off, though surprisingly more stand their ground.

“What is going on?”

Rilla steps up to Mariah and says in a low voice meant for no one else to hear, “I’m done waiting for you to make your move. The coven now follows my commands, as they should have all along.”

Mariah opens her mouth to argue, but no sound comes out. From the way she clutches at her throat, it’s obviously not her nerves keeping her silent.
Rilla is using magic to silence her.

“Together,”
Rilla says to the entire village which has now gathered, “we will take back the lives stolen from us. It is time to rise from the shadows and liberate Ebroe. Who’s with me?”

The crowd roars their agreement and a hint of a smile from
Rilla causes my blood to go cold. As the people surrounding us continue to show their enthusiasm for Rilla’s speech, the sorceress’s attention turns to Mariah. Any feelings of distrust I might have had toward her before are confirmed by the expression of loathing she shows toward the coven leader.

“
Kneel.” The crowd easily drowns out Rilla’s words to Mariah, at least for everyone who’s not as close to them both as me. “Pledge your alliance to your sorceress like a good little witch.”

Mariah struggles, but she can’t fight the
power of Rilla’s magic. As she drops to one knee, my hand reaches out to grab Rose’s arm. I try to back us both out of the crowd, but it’s too late. Once Mariah kneels, the entire village follows suit, making it impossible for us to escape unnoticed.

I drag Rose down before
Rilla decides to turn her wrath on us.

“I think,”
I say, “I should have changed my shirt.”