Last Witch Standing

chapter 26



Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.

Robert E. Lee



The Present

Earth



Stars twinkled overhead; the full moon illuminated the terrain. Rachel stared upwards, breathing slowly. Around her, a battle raged.

Green flame spouted from Eudora’s staff, the color accenting her red hair and black robe. Several times, Rachel made out the sound of Annalisse’s musket firing. Streaks of blue plasma passed over the ground, their flight ending in a crash and burst of flame.

Rachel attempted to rise. Dizziness stopped her. If she could stop this battle by agreeing to go with the sorceress, she would. But hadn’t Candice and Karen told her that Katie was destroying worlds with her “explorations”? This was beyond Rachel’s control to halt.

Dan and Candice huddled by Iki, unprotected from the Power. Eric crouched behind them, protected both by the crevice the witches had carved for him as well as by a shield created with the Power. All witches were engaged in the fight with Katie – a contest no one had to tell Rachel was much fiercer and going more badly than anticipated. She rolled over, fighting nausea and the blackness of unconsciousness. On the slopes of Mount Kilauea, Annalisse faced Katie, the two circling each other. Behind, a score of Upper Mountain Witches blocked the sorceress’s retreat.

They were pushing Katie towards Iki. So the plan was still in effect.

Katie let loose a ball of blue plasma towards the tall Citadel witch, Eudora.

Eudora captured the ball with her staff and hurled it back towards the sorceress. Katie jumped to the side as it landed with a crash. An eruption of fire burned the ground where she had stood.

Katie extended her wrists towards the Citadel Witch. Blue streaks flew out, forming plasma bombs in each hand. The sorceress laughed and hurled them, not at Eudora, but turning, she heaved them at the line of Upper Mountain Witches behind her.

A flash streaked across the side of the mountain as Annalisse’s musket shot raced to intercept the larger of the two bombs. The musket round struck the plasma just yards from the Upper Mountain Witch battle line. Overhead, the two charges collided and dissipated in a cloud of smoke and fire.

The other bomb landed directly onto the line, but the witches, utilizing their great speed and mountaineering skills, were no longer there and the hit was not direct. Still, several of the little witches’ clothes caught fire from the flash. Volcanic rock and dust showered the area.

Katie advanced towards Iki, as if no longer concerned about the threat behind her. Seemingly absentmindedly, she tossed a splinter of light into the air.

The witches behind her moved away, like the parting of a sea. Antimatter! Katie was using an antimatter weapon.

Eudora’s staff flashed blue-green. Annalisse’s musket fired. Both musket round and streak of the Power raced towards the antimatter. Eudora’s bolt reached it first, pushing it further into the air, then Annalisse’s round impacted. The ground shook and Rachel’s ears popped as a massive explosion rent the space around the antimatter, which, having its shield pierced by Annalisse’s mini-ball, reacted with the matter around it, causing mutual annihilation of matter and anti-matter in a grand explosion of color and sound.

The sky lit up like the Aurora Borealis.

How can this apocalypse possibly escape human attention?

As if in answer, several helicopters, blades whirling came into view, the sound of their rotors drowned by the sounds of the battle below.

This event will rupture the status quo between worlds. Not even the Citadel can put this genii back in the bottle.

Flames cackled and hissed around them. The energy from the weapons was intense enough to burn rock and earth.

The humans! They cannot breathe this in, and the temperature will kill them.

Rachel turned towards the trio of humans huddled against Iki. They hugged the volcanic rock wall with their bodies, Dan Edwards and Candice shielding Eric, who must have had to leave his place of protection. The area behind them was charred from a direct hit.

Rachel squinted, forcing her vision to clear. They were uninjured. The detective held Queen Annalisse’s emerald, which glittered with the Power.

The queen has put a second shield around these humans. One so well-crafted that even I cannot see it.

Of course. Provided they do not invite direct attack from Katie, they are protected from the elements and the inferno surrounding them. But Dan Edwards would have to leave the protection of the shield to approach Katie and complete the task before him.

Rachel returned her focus to the scene. Katie was now much closer to Iki – the witches’ line pushing her before them.

Then, Katie turned to face her pursuers. The sorceress halted and raised her arms.

She is preparing double antimatter bombs. The witches cannot defend against two at once!

Annalisse rushed forward and thrust towards Katie with her musket, now crowned with a bayonet that glittered in the moonlight. Katie lowered her arms, her preparations interrupted. She dodged, hurling small plasma bombs and electrical bolts at the Upper Mountain Witch queen. The distance was so close, the fight so quick, Katie was unable to charge and deploy her most powerful weapons. In this, at least, the Mountain Witch queen held a slight advantage, as she, a witch, could store power while Katie had to draw it from her surroundings.

Annalisse was holding her own, for the moment, but it was not an equal contest – even with her slight advantage in channeling.

I must get up and join the fight. Annalisse is going to be killed if this continues. The amount of Power I have stored is greater than any I have ever had possession of before. Katie chose me for a reason – I am an exceptionally powerful witch. But, not even she would expect me to be able to release such energy as I have stored at this moment.

Rachel forced herself to sit, holding a palm to her head to quiet the spinning. After several false starts, she was up. Could she fire from here? No. Candice and the Edwards would be in the line of any return fire.

A bolt from Katie struck Eudora and sent her sprawling.

The smell of fire and singed rock hung strongly in the air as Rachel rose and staggered towards the battle. She raised her palms and willed the Power into her extremities. The air in front of her flashed as strands of energy arced from her hands.

Ahead, Katie increased her rate of fire, shoots of power emanating from both palms. The Upper Mountain Witch fire diminished as they were forced to take cover. Also, with Annalisse forced into a close-quarters fight with Katie to prevent the sorceress from firing more anti-matter projectiles, they dared not fire indiscriminately for fear of hitting their queen.

A hundred meters. Then I will be in range –

Annalisse fell backward, stunned by a plasma bomb. Rachel raised her hands to fire at Katie. The sorceress stood over the Upper Mountain Witch queen. Annalisse turned on the ground to face Katie, but did not rise.

Rachel took aim. As she prepared to release the bolt of energy swelling in her palms and up through her shoulders, a mist appeared beside Annalisse.

A creature hopped through. Katie was occupied with the queen, preparing a final shot, when the sorceress was toppled by the charge of a goat. Rachel recognized it as the beast she had stalked over a year ago with Annalisse and her Upper Mountain Witches.

Annalisse took the opportunity to rise. She got behind Katie, who was sprawled on the ground, the beast facing her, hot breath steaming from its nose.

The Upper Mountain Witches regained their formation and formed a V heading towards where the sorceress lay. Katie spun on the ground and jumped over the beast, escaping its second charge. Behind her Annalisse and her witches advanced.

Katie ran ahead, directly into Rachel’s path – and towards Iki. The sorceress barely glanced at her as she overtook Rachel.



***

Katie did not look back after passing Rachel, her child-witch. These little Mountain Witches were herding her! How precious. That goat had been a true surprise, an unpleasant one, indeed, but what could they hope to do against her mastery of the secrets of the Cosmos?

Ahead was a rise in the landscape she could scale and fire down upon her pursuers. Several life forms were huddled against it. Humans. Stupid. The Citadel Witches had brought civilians to a fight. Well, she wouldn’t be the one to harm them. If they were caught in the crossfire, that wasn’t Katie’s fault, was it?

The ground around Katie vibrated, as from an earthquake and she felt herself paralyzed and falling to the ground. Something powerful had struck her. She stared at the sky, unable to fly to safety while so bound by the Power.

Rachel? Rachel had shot her with the Power! Where had the child-witch gotten such strength? It didn’t matter.

Katie rose, drawing power from both the air and hot ground and turned to face the pursuing Annalisse.

Time to finish this.

Katie’s palms filled with blue plasma as the Power reached a crescendo.

Annalisse set down her musket and retreated several steps. Katie raised her fist to the sky in triumph.

Before her, the humans huddled against the rocks.

Katie looked at Rachel. “Let’s go! We have more to do.”

Rachel did not answer. In front of her, a scene opened: a family room from a house of forty years before.

“If you cannot defeat me with your musket, Queen, how can you hope to do so with illusions!”

Dan Edwards stepped forward, morphing into a younger image of himself.

Images flooded through. Katie was being propelled through a dark tunnel, spiraling into the past. She was watching Earth, not understanding what those things were people talked into. Like telephones, but there was no cord, no outlet. She was discovering Pangea. In the Citadel’s library, after her defeat of Headmistress, learning about science and philosophy. Running through the undergrowth in the fields by the lake, unsure of who she was. In bed screaming in pain. At the park with her brother, flying his airplane. At Christmas.

Her last Christmas. With her brother on the staircase.

She was home. At long last. Home.

Katie Edwards raised her arms toward Dan. He picked her up and clutched her against his chest, his right hand cradling the back of her head, which rested on his shoulder.



***

“Is it over,” Rachel said. Around her, Upper Mountain Witches and Citadel witches converged.

“Yes, I think so,” Karen said.

“I control the bond, now.” Rachel stood up straight. “She relaxed it when her brother stepped forward, and I locked it down, inside me. She cannot fight while I hold it.”

“I expected as much.” Queen Annalisse’s dress was torn and blackened from fire, her hair was matted, the musket slung over her shoulder. “I could not tell thee what was required from you, or your mind may have set up blocks against it. Necessity brought out your full potential.”

“Where do we go from here?” Rachel asked.

“We must get Katie away. Humans are on their way here. Our little battle was witnessed by scores of campers. More aircraft are headed here to check on the disturbance.” The red-haired Citadel witch gestured towards the sky with her shaft. Her left hand was in a sling, the left side of her face covered with a makeshift bandage of a yellow handkerchief with the Citadel’s green and gold crest imprinted upon it.

The party began their hike down the slope. Annalisse and her Upper Mountain Witches disappeared into the terrain. They must be handling cleanup, Rachel thought. This must have been a spectacular fireworks show to the people camped in the park.

“Wait!” Rachel said. In front of her, she sensed a gap in the fabric of space. “We can go through this tunnel between worlds and emerge nearer to the parking lot.”

Good work, child-witch. You shall be discovering more and greater powers in the days ahead. Now, you too can move between worlds, at will, as your sorceress once did. She is now one of ours and must come to our Kingdom – where she belongs. You must go to the Citadel and be trained by the Sisters there. First, you may see your sisters among the lower Mountain Witches.

Annalisse had spoken directly into her mind, once again. The old queen had planned all this from the beginning. She had always known Rachel’s strength would be required to bring Katie to heel.

“Follow Rachel,” Karen instructed the party.

They formed a line behind Rachel, Eric closest, followed by Dan, who was still holding his little sister, who was sucking her thumb.

Rachel took Eric’s hand. I think you will be coming with me – eventually, at least – though you do not know this, yet. As Karen and Jakob are partners, so shall we be.