Witch Queen (5 page)

As far as I knew, there were six high
priests in Arcania, which could only mean that there were six
necromancers.

“And yet,” the high witch
went on, “a
necromancer cannot call forth power without the
use of magic.”

I sighed and wiped the sweat from my
forehead with the back of my hand. “But they have magic. I’ve seen
it. I’ve
felt
it.”

The high witch shook her head. “You
misunderstand. Necromancers aren’t blood witches. They are not born
with magic like you and me. They must
borrow
their
magic.”

I leaned forward, curious.

“Men that can borrow magic? Sounds almost
impossible. Does that mean that anyone can do magic or have magic
powers?”

“Yes. No. It’s not that simple.” A shadow
played on the old witch’s face.

“Most non-magic folks are terrified of
anything that has to do with magic. But there are and will always
be a very small percentage of people who are curious, who are not
afraid. Still, magic in the hands of an untrained person can kill
them. It takes a very special type of person to make the necessary
sacrifices
to borrow magic. They must pay the ultimate price
and sacrifice their humanity and their souls to acquire the power
of magic.”

I let the words sink in, doing my best to
hide the shiver that passed through me.

“So where’s the source of their power? Where
are they borrowing their magic from?”

It occurred to me then that if we could find
the source of this magic and
destroy
it, we might have a
fighting chance to kill the damn priests. If they could be reduced
to men, to normal men without magic, then I could kill them. I
would
kill them.

Ada shook her head, her thin lips pressed
into a hard line.

“We don’t know. All I know for certain is
that it’s here in this world. It has to be from a very powerful
source, perhaps even an unlimited spring of magic. Somewhere there
is a crack in the world where the fountain of power spills to the
surface, where they can easily access it. We know they’ve been
borrowing it for centuries.”

“More like stealing it.”

I pressed one palm to my forehead, feeling a
headache developing behind my eyes. The priests from the Temple of
the Sun had taken everything from this land, from the people. It
didn’t come as a surprise that if they had found a wellspring of
magic from this world, they would take it, too.

“What do they
want?”

“Power,” said Ada. “Above
all else they want to control all life, to bind us to their
will.
The natural balance of light and
dark has already shifted. One cannot exist without the other, not
in this world. But what the necromancers are planning is the total
obliteration of all that is light, of all that is natural and good.
The darkness will spread until it consumes all light. Until there
is nothing left of this glorious green and blue world, until there
is nothing but ash and fire.”

I thought of the meadows
at Gray Havens, the sparkling lake. It was hard to imagine such a
paradise burning, but I did, and my blood throbbed in my veins in
answer.

“The black blight. That’s
what it is, the darkness you speak of.”

Horror and dread twisted
in my gut. I had damned everyone.

“It doesn’t matter what
name you give it,” said the high witch. “It has many names, but the
end result is always the same.”

She took a deep breath
like she was trying to compose herself for what she was about to
reveal. “When shadow and darkness cover most of the world, when the
balance is lost, then the portals to the demon realms will unlock.
And when they open, demons will have free reign over this
world.”

“You’ve only had a glimpse
of such portals when you crossed Death’s Arm,” said Maya. Her
silver eyes had lost a little of their shine, like she was losing
her sight. She ran her fingers over her bald head.

“Trust me, you don’t want
any larger portals from the demon realm opening into ours. The
portal you witnessed was nothing compared to what lurks in the
other realms.”

My breath caught in my
throat. “The bogs. The demons in the bogs. That was a
portal?”

Ice rolled down my back at
the thought of witnessing those creatures again. I wondered if the
missing bodies had been taken back into the demon realm.

Maya nodded with quick
head movements.

“The bogs are not from
this world. They come from another dimension, another plane of
existence, from another, darker world. There is a small splinter in
our world’s veil just in front of the crossing. It is merely a
crack the size of a hand, but it is large enough for demons to
escape from time to time before the fissure heals itself again. The
balance can heal the
smaller
splinters in the veil, but it will be useless
against many larger openings.”

The high witch stared at
me with a bewildered expression as I shook my head. My eyes were
wide and terrified because I feared I already knew what she was
about to reveal.

“With the use of the
stone,” continued the witch, “the necromancers can unlock the other
realms and create vast openings in the veil, all over our world. It
won’t matter if you’re here in Arcania or in Witchdom—the darkness
will spread to us all without exception. Rich or poor, magic or
non-magic, it will not matter.
If they
succeed in opening the portal to the demon realm, then all will be
lost.
”

I stared at the old witch with a mixture of
hate and desperation. My blood pounded in my ears as though I had
just run from Soul City.

Ada closed her eyes for a moment, and when
she opened them again they were filled with a boundless
sadness.

“I feel we are as much to blame as anyone.
We should have acted long ago. If we had, none of this wickedness,
this blackening of the world, would be happening. We should have
done something before it got out of our control.”

I glowered at that. I wouldn’t think about
the black blight as something they couldn’t fix.

“But you
can
stop it, right?” I said.
My fear rose inside me as I stared at Ada without blinking. “You
said it yourself. They’re
not
demons or witches, they’re
men
, men playing with magic. If they bleed, then we can kill
them.”

I straightened up. My hands had balled into
fists of their own volition, and I eyed each witch, one at a
time.

“We can kill them, and you can help us. You
can help us cure this infection. You’re witches. You have magic.
Surely you can figure out a way.”

I stared at their expressionless faces, not
even one of them tried to answer me. I wanted to slap them, but
their united silence spoke volumes.

The blood slowly drained from my face.

“Jon…he’s…” I swallowed hard to fight
against the sob that threatened to overtake me. Pressing my
trembling lips together, I strained to compose myself. I couldn’t
break down. Not now, not in front of the witches. My pride wouldn’t
allow it.

Rose finally met my gaze.

“Where is Jon? Did you find him, Elena?”
asked Rose. Her voice was tight and anxious, and it was my turn to
look away as I blinked the moisture from my eyes.

I shook my head. A throbbing pain seared my
throat, and the words seemed to burn out of me. “He’s in the
temple. He’s been infected. I couldn’t…”

I couldn’t finish. Even then, I had to fight
the tears, but I wouldn’t let the witches see me cry. I felt the
brush of fingers, and Rose leaned over the table and squeezed my
hand. It happened quickly, but it meant the world to me.

“I’m sorry about Jon,” said Ada. “He was a
kind soul and unique among men. But there’s nothing we can do for
him.”

I heard Will and Leo release their breaths
behind me. I didn’t have to turn around to see the horror and
despair that was on their faces. It triggered something wild inside
me.

I slammed my fist on the table, but only
Rose flinched.

“You
have
to help him!” I
bellowed.

I didn’t care if they could burn me on the
spot or turn me into a toad for being so impertinent. All that
mattered to me in that moment was Jon. If they could rid the world
of the blight and fight the black magic, I knew I could get Jon
back again. I would
make
them help me if it was the last
thing I did.

“Please, I’ll do anything you ask,” my voice
cracked, and I didn’t care to hide my desperation. Blood pounded in
my veins as my knees buckled beneath me. “Anything. Whatever it
takes. Please.”

The high witch fixed her eyes on me. The
lines around her eyes seemed to deepen with sadness. “It’s too late
for us,” she said softly. “We don’t have that kind of power, Elena.
None of us do.”

“Not here, at least,” said Maya.

I waited for her to elaborate, but she just
stared into space. Her silver eyes danced with something I couldn’t
see.

“Where? Where can I find this power?” A
spark of hope flickered in me as I turned my attention back to the
high witch. “Tell me. Please tell me what you know.”

Ada leaned forward. “The only way to defeat
the black blight, the only way to defeat magic, is
with
magic.”

Magic
. I knew she wasn’t referring to
my kind of magic. It had already proven to be inadequate against
the necromancers. But the witches had magic, too. I felt a small
spark of hope, but I could see in the deep lines on Ada’s face that
she was holding something back.

“That kind of makes sense,” I said, frowning
at her solemn expression. “What aren’t you saying?”

The high witch took a deep breath.

“You’re going to need an army, a magical
army. Only a great army of witches has a chance to defeat the
necromancers.”

Ada looked me straight in the eyes and said,
“Elena, you need to go to Witchdom.”

CHAPTER 4

I
WAS HOLLOW-EYED and queasy after a
sleepless night, and it wasn’t from drinking cheap wine.

My neck was as stiff as Anglian oak, and my
heart ached. I sat very still in my saddle, cloaked and hooded, and
watched as Ada, Maya, Sylvia, and Rose rode away on four mares as
white and elusive as snow. I was angry that they had forced me on
this fool’s errand and envied them because
they
didn’t have
to go and I did.

Torak shifted beneath me, and I wondered if
he could sense my nerves as we prepared for our ominous and
hopeless journey into the unknown—to Witchdom, the forbidden realm
of the witches.

Legend said that the land was a desert of
flames and ash. If you dared enter, you’d die an excruciating
death, and your soul would be in torment for all eternity. Some
people claimed it was hell on Earth, and its doors opened to the
devil’s realm itself. Others said the witches were the devil’s
children, and they were demons that feasted on the flesh of
children. Once you stepped through into the other realm, there was
no coming back. Even your spirit, your soul, would be trapped
forever once you entered, and you would become a slave to darkness,
to the devil. If there truly were a Creator or a Goddess, it would
make sense that there would be a devil, too.

I just didn’t believe he had claimed
Witchdom as his lair. No. Witchdom was all witch, but it didn’t
make me feel any better.

I knew less about witches than I knew about
my own curious magic. Part of me felt compelled to go to Witchdom
because I wanted answers. I wanted to learn more about my own blood
magic, about what it meant to be a steel maiden.

Was I truly the last of my kind?

I also wanted to know the missing part of my
mother’s story, before she came to Arcania.

Who were her people? And why had she stayed
in a land of witch-haters instead of in the witch sanctuary of Gray
Havens, or even in Witchdom itself?

I wanted to discover the truth about her and
perhaps even discover whether I had any living relatives. There
were so many unanswered questions about my history and about my
mother’s history that I felt I truly didn’t know either of us. Up
until a few weeks ago, I had just been a thief with dreams of
escaping the Pit, and now I was a witch skilled with a blade and
venturing on an impossible mission. It was clear that the only way
I was going to get any answers was to embark on the treacherous
journey into Witchdom.

But what made matters worse was that
I
was the only witch going.

“What do you mean you’re
not
going?”
I had demanded the previous evening. “You cannot be serious? Please
tell me you’re joking. No. You better be joking.”