As a dutiful daughter and the youngest of five sisters, I have six times witnessed the wretched state of a woman in marriage. It is a life wasted in the pretence that children will make him kind, patience will make him sober and forgiveness will make him faithful. So, with this knowledge, I spent my youth in our farming village pleading that my parents might permit me to join the convent. They had no time for my begging and declined my request without consideration. My match, it seemed, had been made in my early childhood. I was to be a wife.
Aside from the nuns, I knew only of one woman who was free of the shackles of marriage. She went by many names, none of them flattering, and lived in the dense forest, just beyond the river that turned the wheel of our mill. They said she had made a deal with a demon, and lived as a sorceress or a fortune-teller or an oracle. They said that men that lay with her never begot sons even when they returned to their wives. They called her a whore and a harlot, but I could tell that even the strongest men were afraid of her. I wanted them to fear me too.
But the forest at night is not a safe place for a slight young girl; such as I was then. In fact, had I known the true dangers that lurked there, perhaps I might never have run there for shelter. I knew of bears, wandering spirits and slithering serpents; but not of were-wolves, or blood shadows or sleepless nymphs. It was not until the morn of my wedding that I fled, tear-stricken into the thick pine forest, bitter with anger towards my family, and terrified to be dragged back home.
I ran breathlessly through the tall, closely packed trees, staying off the path, though always keeping it just in sight through the thin grey mists. I was dressed for the festivities, in white sleeveless dress that came almost to my bare feet and my straw coloured hair braided with wild flowers. Soon the dress was stained with moss and mud as I tripped and fell over on stray roots and hidden stones. The fabric was soon damp with cold fog and trickling sweat. My feet were cut and bruised and encrusted with dirt, the palms of my hands pressed with pine needles that gathered with every fall. But I never stopped to dust myself off or feel my pains; I only got up again and ran faster. Far in the distance behind me I could hear my name being called.
Until the light began to fade, and voices too disappeared. I was exhausted. My whole body screaming that I should stop and rest. I didn't dare. The new sounds of the forest at night were terrifying; shrill howls of creatures in great pain and thin mournful singing in unidentifiable languages. I saw a chink of orange light up ahead. Relief flooded me. I was almost there.
The cottage was low, windowless and built of grey limestone, with a roof of shrivelled bracken and dried heather. Strongly scented smoke rose in wavering coils from the clay chimney pot. The solitary light that I had seen shone from a cast iron lantern fixed above the battered wooden door. A grey mizzling drizzle fell. I made my last shaky steps up to the doorway, almost too weak to stand. I gave a small polite rap on the door - then hearing another ugly animal sound - thumped on it frantically.
"Please let me in!" I cried. Truly cried, tears streamed down my face. I was tired, cold, frightened and thirsty. My body trembled in the now transparent fabric of my wet dress.
The door swung open. But nobody seemed to be there. An empty wooden chair faced a strong smelling fire burning brightly in the hearth. Gingerly, I moved closer to the fire in search of some heat. I eyed the room warily, making out the vague shapes of a kitchen table, a bedframe and a tattered cupboard.
I didn't see her, rather, I sensed her. Although the room appeared empty, it never felt that way. She seeped slowly into my awareness; I knew that she was a woman. I knew that she was very old. I knew that she meant me no harm. I knew all this without having the faintest idea of her location or form. Eventually, after some time, I realised that I had been looking at every spot in the room except the one where she was stood. As if my mind had not been able to understand that that place have existed until she allowed it to.
"Oh!" I exclaimed, as she suddenly came into clear focus. She didn't look old - no more than thirty - and was tall with a proud posture and fullness of figure. A deep red dress clung close to her shapely body and streams of jet-black hair cascaded over her shoulders. Her jewel-like blue eyes glinted through her dark tresses. At her breast hung a pendant made from a carved animal bone.
"Little Bride," her voice was strong, yet kindly, "There is no coven here for you to join. I can't smell a drop of magic on you. I'm sorry, you must go." Desperation filled me and I threw myself on my knees at her feet.
"Please, I need your help, I can not go back now. They will think me a witch even if I am not one. I heard there are deals you can make. Bargains that can be struck with demons."
She looked at me pityingly.
"But do you understand the nature of such exchanges? You only have one thing a demon would want Little Bride, and I am afraid it is not your soul."
I balled my hands into fists and stared straight into her glittering eyes.
"I can loose my purity under my husband and have my power stripped from me, or I can loose my purity under a demon and emerge powerful. That seems like a straightforward enough choice to me."
She smiled in spite of herself.
"You are a bold one Little Bride, perhaps we will make a witch of you yet."
And so I rose from the floor, determined to win my own magic.
***
"Your family will no doubt set off back into the forest to capture you at first light, we must be swift in preparing and performing the ritual, you will need your magic before daybreak." Kasita, the witch, explained the summoning spell to me as she washed the mud from my feet in a large copper pan. She rubbed sweet scented ointment into my many minor injuries.
"What must I do?"
"You will need to draw a pentagram within a circle of salt. I cannot help you with this, you must perform the whole ritual yourself or there is the risk that the powers will partly or wholly transfer to me instead." She gestured for me to stand and I did so. Then she moved to slip my dress over my head - I stopped her.