Authors: Debra L Martin,David W Small
Gelda rushed over.
“This is getting old, you know.
Do you think you could get through one whole day without getting yourself cut up?”
Jeda chuckled.
“I’ll try, Gelda.
I’ll try.”
After Gelda finished his healing, Jeda and his girls left the council chamber for the last time.
***
Elizabeth walked beside the young healer.
“You know what to do.”
“Yes, sister.
It shall be done,” she said as the two women walked into the healing room and joined their fellow witches.
Jeda held Keisha’s hand while the witches prepared to form their circle and separate the two
life
sparks.
He leaned in and whispered in her ear.
“Keisha, my love, I’m here.
Please, please come back to me.”
Gelda put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to leave now.
We cannot have any distractions while we attempt the separation.”
“Will this work?” Jeda asked, apprehension written all over his face.
“I don’t know.
It has never been done before, but if there is any chance of success, it is here with all of my sisters.
Go and be with the twins while we try to save your wife and child.”
Jeda leaned over and kissed Keisha’s forehead before leaving the room.
His thoughts were in turmoil from everything that had happened in the past few days.
His nemesis Mave was finally dead and gone, but at what cost?
The bastard had killed his father, had beaten him countless times, and had hunted him mercilessly, but Jeda knew he would have taken all that and a hundred times more to have Keisha and his unborn child awake and well.
What would he do if he lost his wife and child?
A life without Keisha was unthinkable and what about the twins?
Keisha was the only mother they had ever known.
What would it do to them to lose her?
Jeda found his way to the coven’s kitchen.
Gelda had told him that the twins were being looked after by one of the initiates.
When he entered the room, Kala was chatting with the other young woman, but Kara was quiet and staring at the plate of food in front of her.
Kala was the first one to notice him.
She jumped off her seat and ran to him.
“Poppy, is Mama going to be OK?”
Jeda hugged the young girl and kissed his daughter’s head.
“I hope so.
Mistress Gelda said there is no better place for her to be than right here.
Come back to the table now and let’s get some food into you two.”
“Kara hasn’t touched her food yet,” Kala said as she took her seat.
Jeda sat down next to Kara.
“You feeling better?”
Kara nodded her head, but did not meet her father’s eyes.
“I’m fine, Da.”
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“No.
Da, I said I was fine.”
Jeda patted Kara’s head.
“OK, I’m here if you want to talk.”
The initiate brought over a plate of food and set it down in front of Jeda.
“You should eat something too.”
“Thank you.
You’ve been most kind.”
***
The circle was formed, including Gelda, Natasha and ten of the strongest healers at the coven.
The women joined hands and began to concentrate on Keisha.
“Seek the life sparks,” Gelda intoned.
“The stronger one is the mother, Keisha.
She has bonded herself to the child to protect him and we must coax her back.
We have to make her understand that her child is safe.
She has to be made aware of what she has done and separate herself willingly from the child.
Right now all she can see is her son.”
Elizabeth stood off to the side watching the healers at work.
This was something she could not do.
Some elemental witches could also perform healings, but she never had the stomach for it.
All that crying and moaning from the patients was not for her.
She was much better at blasting things.
She had confidence that her young healer would do what was necessary.
Even though she was tired of listening to Catherine’s sniveling over the years, she had been shocked when Mave killed her.
She had never wished her sister dead.
Now the twins would inherit the duchy, but not for a number of years.
Being the eldest of the Berkshire family, it would be easy to have herself appointed as Regent until the girls came of age.
A small smile curved her lips.
Sometimes if you wait long enough, things do work out.
Now I will be able to keep them even closer.
Elizabeth acted startled when one of the younger witches collapsed on the floor.
“What’s happening?
Did it work?”
The circle was broken.
Gelda slumped over and put her hands on her knees, drawing in deep breaths.
“She repulsed me.
Did you feel her do it?” the young witch on the floor cried out.
“She almost killed me.”
Natasha’s hand swiped at a bead of sweat rolling down her face.
Her eyes were moist.
“It didn’t work.
We cannot unbind my daughter from her child.”
“Gelda, is that true?” Elizabeth asked.
Gelda stood up and turned towards her.
“Yes, I’m afraid it is.
Even with our circle of power, it is not enough to separate the two.
I don’t think there’s enough power in the entire kingdom to separate them.”
Natasha rubbed Keisha’s brow.
“Keisha, what have you done?
How will we ever save you now?”
It was Elizabeth’s turn to shock the witches.
“There is a way.”
All heads swiveled in her direction.
“Elizabeth, what are you talking about?” Gelda asked.
“We have assembled the most powerful witches in the kingdom and we cannot unbind them.”
“It is not another witch that will help with this problem, but something else.
We need something infinitely stronger.
We need to find the Witch Stone.”
A collective gasp went around the room and the witches whispered amongst
themselves
.
The Witch Stone was more legend than fact, but everyone at the coven knew the legend.
The Witch Stone was an amulet of such power that it nearly tore the fabric of magic apart during the witch wars, but no one had seen it in over a thousand years.
“You must be joking.
The Witch Stone was lost countless years ago,” Gelda said.
“Indeed, you are correct.
It has been lost for eons, but there are clues in the ancient scrolls to its whereabouts.
Do you not wonder why those twins are with us now?
It is clearly a sign that points to the fact that they are the children of prophecy.
Their mother needs great power to save her life and the twins are the only ones who can save her now.”
Gelda continued to stare at Elizabeth.
What are you up to?
Why bring this up now?
Elizabeth stood up taller and walked over to the witches.
“If twelve of the most powerful healers in the kingdom cannot unbind this woman from her child, then the only way to save her is to search for the Witch Stone.
There are no other options.
If we do nothing, Keisha and her child will die.
I don’t think anyone wants that option.”
Natasha’s head swiveled back and forth between Gelda and Elizabeth searching for the truth.
“Gelda, is this true?
Can the Witch Stone be used to separate them?”
Gelda nodded.
“Yes, it can, but it is enormously dangerous as well.
It was at the center of a devastating war that nearly wiped out all of the witches and wizards of its time.”
“But why?” Natasha asked.
“What is so special about this stone?”
Before Gelda could answer, Elizabeth spoke.
“This stone contains immense power and whoever wields it will become all powerful, beyond anyone’s ability to control or influence.
With the stone in hand, a single witch would control the balance of power between white and black magic.
But besides that, it is also the only way to separate your daughter’s spark from her child’s life force.”
“Then we must search for it at once,” Natasha cried.
“I cannot sit here and do nothing and watch my daughter die.
Please Gelda, if the twins can somehow find the stone, we must try.”
Gelda shook her head from side-to-side.
“You don’t understand Natasha.
The stone is dangerous.
It was hidden for a reason.
It nearly killed every healer and elemental witch the last time it was used in that horrendous war.”
“Gelda, that was long ago and now we have you and Elizabeth to protect the stone.
If this is the only way to save my daughter and my grandson, then we must get it and try.”
Gelda was painted into a corner.
How could she deny Natasha the only chance there was to heal Keisha?
Wouldn’t she have done the same if it had been Miriam lying there with the twins?
With a last look at Elizabeth, she finally agreed.
“OK, but first, we must consult the scrolls.
There’s no sense in charging out into the kingdom without a clue of where the stone was hidden.”
Elizabeth took a step back and let Gelda
lay
out the plan for the quest.
Yes, indeed.
Sometimes things do work out.
I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome if I had designed it myself.
“Come on, Kara, let’s play.”
“I said
Leave me alone
.
I don’t want to play silly games with you.”
“But why?
I don’t understand.”
Kara shot her sister an angry glance.
“No, you don’t understand.
It wasn’t you who was kidnapped or drugged, it was
me
.
You weren’t tied up in a dirty dungeon, you didn’t have to listen to him, and you didn’t have to watch as he almost killed Da.
You weren’t there at all!
So just go and leave me ALONE!”
Kala stumbled backwards, shocked at the vehemence in her sister’s words.
They had argued plenty over the years, but Kara had never shouted at her with such cold anger before.
With nothing else to do, she turned and ran in search of her father.
He would know what to do to help Kara.
“Poppy, I’m telling you, there’s something wrong with Kara.
She doesn’t want to do anything anymore.
She won’t play and she won’t talk to me.
Poppy, she won’t even tease me.
All she does is sit and stare off into nothing.”
Jeda looked at his young daughter.
“Kala, you must give Kara time to heal.
She has had a lot happen to her.
She was drugged for so long that it
may
take a while for the effects to completely wear off.
I am sure she is fine, just be patient.”
Kala shook her head from side-to-side.
“No, Poppy.
You’re not listening to me.
She’s not the same.
There’s something wrong with her.”
Jeda took Kala’s hand.
“How about we go find Kara now?”
“OK, but I don’t think she is still where I left her.”
“No worries, we’ll find her,” Jeda said.
It took another thirty minutes of searching before Jeda and Kala found Kara.
They looked everywhere in the coven, but no one had seen the young girl.
That old familiar feeling began to creep up Jeda’s back and his senses were on high alert.
He was preparing to send Kala back into the coven house so he could search for Kara on his own when he saw her sitting under a tree on the far side of the coven grounds.
“See, there she is.
I told you we would find her,” Jeda said.
Kala went running towards her sister, but Jeda stopped in his tracks, shocked at what he saw.
Kara was sitting alone sharpening her knives and staring off into the distance, exactly the same way he remembered Mave doing countless times before.
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he wondered what that bastard had done to his little girl.
He had a bad feeling about this and maybe Kala was right.
What if something was wrong with Kara?
Jeda walked toward his daughter and sat down beside her.
She put her knives down as he sat on the ground, but said nothing.
Kala came and sat on his opposite side.
The three sat quietly for a few minutes, until the silence finally became unbearable.
“Kara, if there is anything you want to talk about, I am here for you.”
“I know Da, I know.”
He reached over and pulled her close to him.
She resisted at first, but finally relented and moved close to him.
He put his other arm around Kala and hugged them both.
He loved his daughters and could still feel the bond between them, but it was changing, getting somehow weaker and more distant.
Gelda had told him this would
happen
as the girls got older.
The bond only held for as long as the girls were young and had not blossomed into womanhood.
He understood all of this, but he still felt like he was losing them.
Gelda had also told them all that the circle had failed to revive Keisha and the only thing left was to find the Witch Stone of power spoken of in the ancient prophecy.
The girls knew of the prophecy and Witch Stone from their studies and that they were the two supposedly spoken about.
Jeda thought it was a huge responsibility to put on two little girls.
Go forth and find the Witch Stone that had been lost for centuries because it was the only way to save their mother and unborn brother.
The whole affair was unfair, but he realized that the twins were the only option that they had left.
The witch circle had been able to put Keisha and the unborn child into a deep sleep of suspension that would keep them safe for months, but the sooner they were able to revive her, the better the chances of saving them both.
If their quest took too long in finding the stone, then the witches could not say if she or the child would survive.
Gelda and Elizabeth were studying the old historic scrolls from the time of the witch wars for any clues on where to start.
As soon as they found something, the journey would begin.
Jeda and the twins had little time to prepare before they would have to leave again.
He could not fathom what the coming months would bring while they searched for this mystical stone, but he vowed that they would find it and make their family whole again.
Prophecy and a lost stone of power,
Jeda thought while he hugged the girls,
damn magic is such a pain in the ass.
###