Last Witch Standing

chapter 10



35 Years Later

October, 2010

Earth

A sensation, a stirring in the Power caused Katie to stop mid-flight and land on one of the well-manicured lawns of the residential district she was passing through. Somebody was channeling. Another witch. This town of Melville had more than its share – this was her fifth find in less than two years. What was attracting them here? Whatever it was, she needed to locate this witch before she stopped channeling and the signal died.

The Power spiked again. This time Katie got a direction – what her navigation book called a line of position. The signal was strong: either this one was more powerful than the rest, or she was very close. Katie followed the line, intent upon intercepting her prey, hopping through the air to gain speed, stopping from time to time to see if she had overstepped the signal.

The strands of power strengthened measurably after Katie passed a neighborhood park, and into even finer and larger houses. The signal came from within a two-story house. Upstairs, she could see the silhouette of a girl through the curtains. Katie knew instantly that was her witch.

Powerful. This was the jackpot! The other four had all been such abject failures, so disappointing —

She leapt onto the yard, using the Power to mute the sounds of her landing. As she knelt beside the front door, Katie put her palms to the wall. The Power. She had to move quickly – this witch, in her ignorance – was channeling enough power to attract the attention of any member of the magical kingdom within hundreds of miles. Even if no other creatures were present to catch the signal, the Citadel witches periodically scanned the worlds for pulses of power. An upper floor of their Academy held rooms with row after row of globes of many worlds, Earth included. These models were linked by the Power to their respective planets or inhabited moons. This foolish girl was channeling enough to show a spike on the Citadel’s Earth model.

If they happened to be looking this way, they would surely come for this child-witch.

Katie followed the yard’s fence and used the storm drain to climb onto the roof. Flying, at this point, would be risky. Here, under the cover of the oak tree, like a sailor climbing a rope ladder up the mast, she scaled the building.

At the roof, she paused and scanned the area. Through her sorceress-heightened senses, she could tell a person was on the bottom floor, stirring. A woman. Across the street, a young man pulled up in a rundown late model Toyota Celica. Katie waited for him to go inside his house before she started towards the upper floor window where the girl was channeling.

The branches of the oak tree provided cover from the street and Katie was glad she did not need to channel to approach unnoticed. First approaches were always the most risky; Katie did not know the witch, the area, or whether or not she was the first to discover this witch.

Katie peered through the gap in the curtains. A dark-haired girl of about sixteen lay upon the bed moving marbles, that were set about the bedspread, with the Power.

Katie rapped against the window. The girl looked up, eyes narrowed, as if caught in the commission of a crime.

Katie tapped the window again, this time gently.

The girl jumped up and faced the bedroom door. For a moment she hesitated, as if trying to decide whether to flee or check out the strange noise.

Katie tapped a third time. The girl turned towards the window and was at it in a few strides. She pulled the curtain back at the corner of the sill and looked out at an angle onto the roof, body shielded. Katie waved. The girl jumped back. A second later, the latch clicked and the window opened. The girl stared at Katie.

“How did you get here, sweetie?” The witch-girl stared down at the sidewalk, probably looking for whoever put the child onto her roof.

“May I come in?”

“What? How did you get here? Are you okay?” The girl put her hands out and lifted Katie into the room.

The things I do for science. This child-witch will have to be taught not to touch me. For the moment I will tolerate it – the potential gain is too large not to.

“I am not a child, witch.” Katie forced a smile and looked up at the girl.

“Pardon?” The girl held the sorceress tightly by the arm, as if afraid she could somehow fall back out the window.

“Please let go of me. I need to speak to you about what you are doing with the marbles. It is very dangerous.”

The girl let go and stepped back. Katie watched as awareness dawned upon the girl that Katie was not a child – at least not a human one – and that the sorceress knew what she was up to.

“I have come to help you.” Katie looked up at the witch, counting upon her blue eyes and baby face to resonate benevolence. She touched the child on the arm. “Let’s take a seat on the bed and we can talk.”

When they were seated, Katie began, "My name is Katie. I am a witch myself. A tiny one." She held out her hand to the girl.

"I'm Rachel."

"You are probably very confused right now. I can help you. Please, ask me anything you want about what is happening to you." Katie glanced down at the marbles the girl had been moving with the Power.

“How did you know what I was doing?”

“Unshielded channeling sends up a signal. You may as well have stood on the roof of your house and fired a flare into the sky that said ‘here lives a witch’.”

“Why is that dangerous?” the girl asked.

“Because, the magical world is filled with malevolent creatures as well as benevolent ones. You are very lucky that I am the first magical creature to find you. I shudder to think of what may have happened to you if I had not found you.”

“How do I shield my channeling?”

“For the moment, you lack the ability. What you need to do is limit your channeling to small amounts. I can help shield you provided you do not exceed a certain threshold. Over time, as you become more proficient, you will learn how to shield yourself.”

The two talked for over an hour, stopping only when Rachel was called to dinner.

"I cannot impress upon you enough how important it is that you not channel unshielded. Right now, you are sending up a signal to any witch in the area that you are here. As I said before, some of them are malevolent." Katie stood up.

"I won't," Rachel answered.

"On my next visit, I will bring you a book about the Power. Reading it will help you understand your new world."

Rachel escorted Katie to the window. Katie waved as she climbed over the sill, onto the roof tiles. Rachel returned the wave, closed the window, and watched Katie until she had scaled the tree branches and dropped out of view.

This is the culmination of many years of work. Soon, I will have my own witch to use and can explore the Cosmos, no longer limited by my inability to store the Power.



***

"I was worried you wouldn't show." Rachel held the window open the next evening and Katie scurried through. “I thought you may have been a dream.”

"Do not worry. I keep my word." Katie set a satchel on the bed, smiled, and withdrew a book. “And I am no dream.”

Rachel hurried over. Katie pushed it to her and the girl opened it.

“Wow. There is so much out there I don’t know. I thought I was alone,” Rachel said.

“No. Not any longer. I will help you.”

“I really thought I was going crazy.” Rachel paused at the section on Mountain Witches. “Oh, my goodness. That’s what you are?”

Katie smiled. “We will be good friends, together.” Katie put her hand out.

Rachel took the sorceress’s hand.

Good. This girl feels in my debt. She is dependent upon me for knowledge and guidance. If I move slowly and carefully, I can maneuver her to my Pangea – by force, if necessary. This one is a keeper.