Daughter of the Witch Wood

Author's note: this chapter is one of a series, and does not contain erotic elements.

-rb

11.

Confrontations

Now that they held the Basin, the wolves made the risky decision of dividing their forces in two: a small contingent of warriors would accompany the human women who were unable to fight, as well as the younger children, and seek shelter elsewhere. The rest began checking every single den to confirm that the caves were empty and that the children of Bhalot weren't waiting for a moment when the wolf-men let their guard down.

In the meantime, Min was permitted to accompany her mate, her mother and grandmother, as well as Sait and Erkin as they made for the shelter of the nearest den. Min heard the sounds of crying babes near the base of the falls, and saw a collection of nearly two-dozen women huddled with another half as many young, scrawny younglings, all sitting under a craggy rock formation shielding them from the water's cold spray. Several wolves sat nearby on their haunches, alert but not threatening.

"Who speaks for this group?" Erkin said.

One woman stood up. She held a newborn so small it was feeding at her breast. The woman looked tired, dirt-streaked and weary, with stringy black hair, but her eyes were hard as flint. "I do."

"Who are you?"

"I am Olgun, mother of Saut, Isit, and Unlem. I speak for these women and our cubs." Two of the children, their dark eyes wide yet unafraid, huddled behind Olgun, hugging about the woman's legs while then stared up at Erkin.

"What of your mates?"

Olgun's laugh was bitter. "We don't use that word, Wolf Chieftain." The woman spat onto the stone at her feet. "One bear-man who fancied me whelped these two pups on me; another gave me this youngest mouth to feed. Many of the women here are the same way."

None of the bear-men's women spoke, but they all looked back with quiet defiance, save for a couple who stared at the floor, their spirits shattered beyond repair. It was enough to make Min's heart break.

"We have no 'mates', Great Wolf," Olgun said, "only men who see fit to bury their cocks in our bellies and leave us to deal with what comes after." Her eyes were as cold as the water roaring behind them. "The bear-men are gone—off hunting

you

people." She looked away. "I'm sure they'll be along soon. Do you intend to kill us?" Most of the women had sense enough to look afraid at that question, as did their young, but none of them made a sound.

Min looked at Erden, then Ilay. The thought of killing defenseless women and children was a cold one. Sergen's hand tightened on her shoulder.

Erkin narrowed his eyes. "Are there any bear-blooded in your number, woman?"

Olgun showed a hint of resistance on her face, but it melted away, beaten down under the force of the Chieftain's stare. "Only the children. We women are outcasts, abducted, or just unlucky. You'll find no threat to your ilk with us."

"Then I'll grant you all a more tender mercy than what your masters would give us—those who wish to take their young and go: go. If you try and harm my people, we will pay you back in kind." Erkin turned and shouted orders to his warriors to stand aside and let the women and children pass.

Ilay stepped closer, reaching a hand towards Olgun; the other woman flinched and pulled away. Ilay let her hand fall. "The humans have a settlement not far from this place—look for the setting sun and follow it. Once you escape the Wood, their village isn't far."

Olgun gave another bitter smile. "What humans would take in a bunch of ragged wanderers and their beast-born brats, witch woman?" With that question lingering in the air, Olgun led the way, her young right behind her. All the women, save two, and the children all followed, hurrying as fast as they could into the trees to the west and disappearing.

The two that remained were both young women of similar age, pale and frightened-looking; their breasts were small, their bodies thin and dirty, yet they clung to each other for some small bit of comfort or strength. One was pale-haired, while the other's head was as dark as a raven's underbelly.

"You choose to stay?" Erkin said, an eyebrow raised. "Why?"

Both women flinched in unison, shrinking under his gaze.

"Erkin, please." Ilay laid a hand on her mate's arm, looking up at the grey-haired chieftain. They shared a long look, then he nodded. Ilay stepped around him, towards the young women; they looked even younger than Min, and they beheld the old witch woman with some lingering fear in their eyes. "What are your names?" Ilay said.

"Asra," said the one on the left.

"Arke," said the one on the right.

"And why did you not go with the others?"

The two shared a look, licked their lips almost in unison. "We were stolen by the children of Bhalot—"

"—but haven't whelped any cubs for them—"

"—at least, not yet." The young women took turns speaking, as though trying to finish one another's sentences.

Ilay opened her mouth, then closed it again, as though considering her words for carefully. "You both are sisters?"

They nodded, speaking as one: "Yes."

"You said 'stolen.' From a human village?"

Asra shook her head, speaking first. "We lived alone—"

"—with our family; our mother was dead."

"The bears killed the men—"

"—our father and brothers—"

"—and

kept

us." When Asra said that particular word, both she and her twin shuddered.

Ilay gave a tight nod, looking back at her mate again. "These two shouldn't pose any sort of threat to us."

The Chieftain gave a small, amused smirk. "Adopting more foundlings, Ilay?"

The witch woman stuck out her bare chest and gave a small huff. "Why not? Until certain grown pups start blessing me with new cubs to care for, anyway." Ilay gave her son and his mate a hard, pointed look that made Min want to laugh, especially when Erden looked ready to start squirming.

Erkin led the way back towards the rest of the tribe, with his mate leading the twins, followed by the rest. Min kept looking for signs of distress—smoke, fire, something that would make the magic in her sit up and pay attention—but she saw nothing.

"This doesn't make any sense," she said, mostly to herself. She was frowning, hugging both arms around her belly.

"What's that, darling?" Erden said.

"What about my dream, Mother? Where are the rest of them? Why did they let us come to this place, and then just disappear?" Min shook her head, hugging herself even tighter. "It's wrong. It feels wrong."

"But you don't know why." Her mother nodded, reaching over to hug Min tight about the shoulders. Her body felt good, a reminder of their old life together—how strange it was, to have come so far in such a short time. "Just listen to yourself, Yasemin, listen to that voice—if it tells you something is wrong, only

you

can find out why." She lowered her voice, but had to know that their mates would hear: "The wolves are nervous, and I don't blame them. Something is amiss, so...just stay close to me and your grandmother."

"I will." Min kissed her mother's cheek, an impulsive thing that made the other woman smile. After another short squeeze, they pulled apart again.

When she offered her hand to her mate, Sergen took it without argument. Min felt a tension in his hand when he squeezed hers tight. "Are you worried?" she asked him.

"As your mother says—our people are nervous." He didn't smile, but his voice had the same timbre it always did: quiet and honest to a fault.

Min started to answer, but something stopped her—she felt a rush, a sense of dread and sudden terror that made her freeze in mid-step.

Aku

flowed into her body, and her vision went blue.

"I smell smoke," she whispered.

The sound of a heavy bellow broke over the falls, the noise of many beasts roaring in unison. Huge, hulking shadows, both bear and man alike, appeared at the top of the falls, climbing onto the rocks or standing up amidst the splashing waters as their angry shouts thundered to the heavens. At the same time, a fireball exploded in the direction of the trees to the south near the river, hard enough to shake the ground under Min's feet and nearly knock her down.

"They're here!" shouted a man's voice—just who it was, and who he was shouting about, she couldn't say. Other voices called out as well, and chaos fell over them.

The bears had arrived.

"I have to go," Sergen said, his voice tight and tense in her ear.

"Go," Min answered, looking at his face. "Fight. Live."

He smiled, bones already snapping and breaking, his body reforming right before her eyes. In seconds, he was a hulking beast with a wolf's head and a murderous shine in his eyes before he took off running, following the other wolf warriors towards the waterfall.

"Where do we go?" Min said, looking at her mother and grandmother. Their eyes were dark, gone black, which made her heart flutter in her chest.

"Towards the fire," Ilay said.

"You two will need to find somewhere to hide," Erden told the twins. "It's not safe where we're going."

Asra and Arke shared a look, then turned back. The twins blinked in unison, and their eyes went pure white; Min could sense their shared mind, almost like they were a single person in separate bodies. "We will—"

"—go with you."

"With your permission," Asra added.

Ilay gave a short, surprised laugh. "

Rou

magic? Did the bear-men know you were witches, children?"

They shook their heads. "The bears that took us—"

"—weren't interested in our

gift

." Arke merely wrinkled her nose, while Asra narrowed her eyes in anger.

"No wonder you both talk that way. Fine, you may come, but stay close to Min. And all three of you—keep a careful eye out." With that order given, Ilay started running in the direction of the bright light and bounding flames, almost as fast if she were a wolf herself. Erden was nearly as quick, but kept a close watch on the three younger witches trailing behind.

Min had never experienced such a feeling of excitement and absolute terror at the same time. Perhaps the closest comparison was when she fled from the mad bear near her mother's hut, the inciting event that had brought her and her mother to this moment, but there wasn't time to contemplate such things: the trees were thick and close together, forcing her to focus on finding proper footing and not to crash into anything.

She heard a wild roar and saw a bear come rushing in their direction, but the twins stood between her and the beast. "Watch out!" she shouted, looking frantically for something she could use as a weapon, or to use as a makeshift defense.

But Erden was faster. The witch ran right at the crazed beast with such speed that her body was a mocha-colored blur. She wrapped her arms around the animal's neck, digging her bare feet into the earth as she screamed and heaved with all her unnatural strength, throwing the bear end-over-end to flip it onto its back. "Go!" she shouted, trying to avoid the maddened swipes of the animal as she squeezed, either to snap its neck or choke it into submission.

But there were more roars, more screams and sounds of fighting. Ilay had picked up a large stone, completely uprooting a set of smaller saplings as she did so, and threw it at another bear that got too close. The sound of it connecting was of breaking bones and a choked-off snarl as the animal's skull was smashed to pieces.

Min spotted another four bears rushing towards them, mountains of brown and black fur, fangs bared, claws tearing and throwing great clods of black earth behind them. Erden was still struggling against her opponent; she'd stomped onto one of the beast's paws and managed to avoid the other, but the animal had scored a hit somewhere, and half of her face was sticky with blood. Ilay was standing ready with one of the thick saplings she'd pulled up, but the odds of her managing to stop all four bears was slim. Furthermore, the air stank of smoke by that time; overhead it was a ruddy haze of red and orange light, with the barest hints of blue sky peeking through.

"Get behind me!" Min told the twins, opening her hands wide, arms outstretched in the direction of the running bears.

Aku

roared in her head like the rushing waters of the Basin; the pain almost drove her to her knees, and she felt her legs trembling. Clenching her teeth through the red haze that flashed at the edges of her eyes, Min spread her consciousness outwards, touching the mind of the bear her mother was wrestling, and she just...shut it off.

It was similar to what she'd done to Selin, but that mind was all animal, the same as the beast killed at the waterfall—it had nothing human, nothing of a higher consciousness in it. But in the beast she sensed a

darkness

, a filth or corruption so obscene that touching it made Min scream and fall to her knees, holding her head in both hands. Her tattooed shoulder began to throb, muscles tightening and burning around a cold center of numb nothingness.

The power of

aku

inside of Min meant she could sense herself, sense the terrified twins crouching behind her, sense her mother and grandmother, sense the bears still running towards them. Like squeezing sand in her fingers, Min snuffed all of the bear's minds at once, like pinching out a candle's flames; their bodies tumbled and spilled to the forest floor, rolling over and falling like puppets with cut strings. But again, the corruption inside of them burned Min like the flames she'd just blown out and she fell to the ground, squeezing her head tight in both arms, screaming from the pressure inside her skull trying to get out.

"Yasemin! Yasemin!" Erden's voice was next to her ear—Min hadn't even noticed her approaching. Somewhere inside her swollen brain, Min could feel the four of them leaning over her—two white lights, two spots of black darkness.

"Hurts, Mother," Min whispered, her voice so tight it felt like something in her throat was ready to break. "It hurts!"

"You've drawn in too much power, sweetling," Erden said. It struck Min as strange to hear her mother cooing to her while the air was full of smoke and fire cracked around them. "Let it out, Yasemin, just like I taught you—deep, slow breaths, remember?"

Min sobbed and couldn't answer.

"She touched their minds," Asra said.

"The beasts were corrupted," Arke added.

"Now Yasemin—"

"—is also infected."

"Infected?" Ilay's voice was sharp, even angry. "Infected how?"

Min fought through the pain, trying to follow her mother's instruction, the same instructions she'd given so long ago: breathe in, breathe out; breathe in, breathe out. She still had her eyes shut tight, listening the sound of her hard, panicked breathing.

"We don't know," the twins said in unison.

Then Min sensed something that made her open her eyes. The pain was a beating drum inside her skull. "Coming," she whispered. "Someone is coming." Min forced herself to turn her head to one side, looking past where Erden knelt beside her in the dirt, into the glowering firelight and the heat that was creeping towards them.

Just like in her dream, she saw a dark figure amongst the flames. Unlike her dream, there was only one: a small, single shadow that approached, walking through the fire in their direction. Even from a distance, Min could see that the eyes were a burning, sickly green.

"Look out!" Erden shouted, picking Min up and throwing her to one side. Ilay grabbed the twins and pulled them to the other side as the ground erupted in a belch of green and orange flame, hot enough that Min felt the searing power of it against her shoulders and bare back as she went tumbling through the air.

Min hit the ground hard and rolled to the base of a nearby tree. Limp, sick to her stomach and still tense with the pain in her head, she felt like she was watching through someone else's eyes as the four witches crouched, shielding themselves from the rain of dry earth and clods of scorched growth that fell over their heads. Just trying to draw

aku

into her again made Min gasp in pain and release the magic again—she was too broken, too weak.

The green-eyed witch was close enough that Min could see her now. She looked dark-skinned in the ruddy light, dark haired with a girlish body: narrow hips, small breasts, smooth, hairless body. A

kollik

hung about her neck. Shadows flickered across her face.

"The Kelash witches!" The slender woman gave a wide, pleased-looking grin as she gestured to the burning trees around them. "Do you like my fire? I worked very hard on it."

"Who are you?" Ilay said, shielding her face with one hand.

"I am San," she said. "And I am your death.

Akyan

!" San held out both hands, and bright, green fire spread from fingertips to wrists with a gesture, but it never seemed to harm her. The light reflected on the bright, white teeth of her tiny grin.

Both twins pointed at San, as though in accusation.

"Evil!" Asra shouted.

"Deep magic!" Arke added.

Min had never seen

rou

magic before—a bright, blinding light burst from the girls' extended figures, shooting across the distance to San so fast Min's eyes couldn't follow it, and it enveloped the tiny witch in an orb of white light.

For a brief moment, it seemed that whatever spell the single-minded twins had cast was enough to overwhelm San, but then green fire exploded from inside of it—the light broke apart and shattered, leaving San standing unharmed, but her eyes were wild, and the look on her face had changed from wicked delight to vicious anger.

"How

dare

you?!" she shrieked, her tiny voice rising in anger.

"Deep magic," Ilay said, her face taut, eyes angry. "You're the bear-men's pet witch—why are you doing this? What did the wolves ever do to you?"

"It's what the children of Kelash are going to do

because

of me," San said. "Which is die horribly—all of you." The green-eyed witch scanned their faces, lips pulled back in a snarl. "Which of you old crones is Erden? My father says I get to kill her last."

"Your father?" Erden said, sounding alarmed.

San showed her teeth. "Ozan has plans for her. But fine, don't tell me—I'll just finish you

all

off." Her snarl changed back to a grin as she moved forward, flaming hands extended as green claws. "

Midyar iben, Ninyadun Sritan!

"