We are in the woods near Gran’s house. The air is still and damp; the autumn leaves lie thick on the soft, muddy ground. The sky is flat and grey like an old sheet laid out to dry over the black branches of the trees. Jessica is holding a small dagger, her hands flat in front of her. The blade is sharp and bright. Jessica is smirking and trying to catch my eye.
Deborah stands slightly hunched, but she is smiling and calm, her empty cupped hands held out in front of her. In Gran’s hands are a brooch that had been her grandmother’s, my mother’s engagement ring and a cufflink that belonged to Deborah’s father. Gran slowly lowers her hands over Deborah’s. Their hands touch. Gran carefully passes the gifts to Deborah, saying, ‘Deborah, I give you three things so that you can receive one Gift.’ Then Gran takes the knife, cuts the palm of her own hand in the fleshy pad below her left thumb. Blood runs down her wrist; a few drops fall to the ground. She holds her hand out and Deborah bends forward, puts her mouth round the cut, her lips tight on Gran’s skin. Gran leans towards her and whispers the secret words in Deborah’s ear and Deborah’s throat moves as she swallows the blood. I strain to hear the spell, but the words are like the sound of wind rustling leaves.
The spell ends. Deborah, eyes closed, swallows one last time before releasing Gran’s hand and standing straight.
And that is it. Deborah is no longer a whet; she is a true White Witch.
I glance over to Arran. He looks solemn but smiles at me before turning to hug Deborah. I wait my turn to give my congratulations.
I say, ‘I am pleased for you.’ And I am. I hug Deborah, but there is nothing else I can say so I walk off into the woods.
Another Notification arrived that morning before Deborah’s Giving.
Notification of the Resolution of the Council of White Witches of England, Scotland and Wales
It is forbidden to hold a Giving Ceremony for a whet of mixed White Witch and Black Witch parentage (Half Code: W 0.5/B 0.5) or mixed White Witch and Fain parentage (Half Blood: W 0.5/F 0.5) without the permission of the Council of White Witches. Any witch disobeying this Notification will be considered to be working against the Council. Any Half Code accepting gifts or blood without permission of the Council will be considered to be defying the Council and corrupting White Witches. The penalty for all concerned will be imprisonment for life.
Gran read the Notification out and then Jessica started to speak, but I was already heading out of the back door. Arran grabbed at my arm, saying, ‘We’ll get permission, Nathan. We will.’
I couldn’t be bothered arguing with him and I pushed him away. There was an axe by the pile of wood in the garden and I hacked and hacked and hacked until I couldn’t lift the axe any more.
Deborah came to sit with me among all the broken bits of wood. She put her head on my shoulder, resting her cheek on it. I always liked it when she did that.
She said, ‘You’ll find a way, Nathan. Gran will help you and so will I and so will Arran.’
I ripped at the blisters on my hand. ‘How?’
‘I don’t know yet.’
‘You shouldn’t help me. You’d be working against the Council. They’ll lock you up.’
‘But –’
I jolted her off my shoulder and stood up. ‘I don’t want your help, Deborah. Don’t you get it? You’re so bloody clever, but you still don’t understand, do you?’
And I left her there.
And now Deborah has received her three gifts and Gran’s blood, and in three years Arran will go through the same ceremony, but for me … I know the Council won’t let it happen. They are afraid of what I’ll become. And if I don’t become a witch I’ll die. I know it.
I have to be given three gifts and drink the blood of my ancestors, the blood of my parents or grandparents. But apart from Gran there is only one person who can give me three gifts, only one person who can defy the Council, only one person whose blood will turn me from whet to witch.
The woods are silent. It feels like they are waiting and watching. And suddenly I know that my father wants to help me. I know the truth of it so well. My father wants to give me three gifts and let me drink his blood. I know it like I know how to breathe.
I know he’ll come to me.
I wait and I wait.
The silence of the woods goes on and on.
He doesn’t come.
But I realize that it’s too dangerous for him to come to me and take me away. So I must go to him.
I must go and find my father.
I’m eleven. Eleven is a long way off seventeen. And I have no idea how to find Marcus. I don’t have a clue how to begin to find him. But at least now I know what I have to do.
thomas dawes high school
Notification of the Resolution of the Council of White Witches of England, Scotland and Wales
Any contact between Half Codes (W 0.5/B 0.5) and White Whets and White Witches is to be reported to the Council by all concerned. Failure by the Half Code to notify the Council of contact is punishable by removing all contact.
Contact is deemed to have been made if the Half Code is in the same room as a White Whet or White Witch or otherwise within a close enough distance that they are able to speak to each other.