Witchfinder, Free Novel — Chatper 25

This time I really MUST apologize because today’s chapter is little more than a teaser.  As an apology it must serve that I am on the very last phase of a difficult rewrite and that I’m just recovering (at least hopefully recovering) from a weird wobble in health.  I WILL try to post a little more either today or tomorrow evening (Tomorrow I have a guest post by Dave Freer, and trust me, you don’t want to miss that.)  However the choice is to post this afternoon and spend the whole day trying to do this, or to deal with the pressing things interfering with my writing more Witchfinder and then coming back to it, fully refreshed.  So, for now, have the very small chapter 25.  More cake later or on Sunday (or late tomorrow) I promise.

*This is the Fantasy novel I’m posting here for free, one chapter every Friday.   If your conscience troubles you getting something for free, do hit the donate button on the right side.  Anyone donating more than $6 will get a non-drm electronic copy of Witchfinder in its final version, when it’s published.
There is a compilation of previous chapters here  all in one big lump, which makes it easier to read and I will compile each new chapter there, a week after I post.  When the novel is completed and about to be edited the compilation page will probably be deleted.

Oh, this is in pre-arc format, meaning you’ll find the occasional spelling mistake and sentence that makes no sense.  It’s not exactly first draft, but it’s not at the level I’d send to a publisher, yet. *

For previous chapters, look here:  https://accordingtohoyt.com/witchfinder/

Dangerous Roads
“In here, Mama,” Caroline whispered, her warm hand on her mother’s arm, pulling her close and into a dark space between buildings.  For a moment the dowager saw nothing, then, in front of her like the landscapes one sees in a dream, a doorway opened, filled with something like twinkling lights.
The impression of twinkling lights was a moment, nothing more, and then they were on a vast meadow, under the moonlight.  It smelled like a dream, too, except of course one didn’t normally smell in dreams.  But what surrounded Barbara was a warm scent of hay and flowers and of water running nearby, all of it untinted by smoke or any sign of human habitation.  Also, all the smells were heightened, stronger, the sort of smell one remembers from childhood, when the world is fresh and new.
She stood rooted to the spot a moment, as the warm breezes of the meadow wound around her, thinking that she didn’t remember fairyland being like this.  Perhaps they’d come somewhere else all together.  But in her mind she was remembering what her rescuers had done to find her and bring her out – everything that she’d ever heard about bringing people out of fairyland.  She hesitated before speaking.  If she told them to Caroline she reached offending her daughter.
It had become clear to Barbara over the last few moments that her daughter knew far more than Barbara herself about some things: those things being for instance how to go into fairyland and how to defend oneself from elf magic.  Crossing over into fairyland was a major working.  It required not only a susceptible location, where a portal could be opened, but also preparing the magical spell and working it for about half an hour, before the portal became obvious.  Barbara realized that Caroline must have been saying the spell under her breath the whole while they walked down the street, and wondered if this too was something Gabriel had taught her.  She wouldn’t ask.
But there was a good chance, she thought, that neither Gabriel nor any of her teachers had taught the girl what she must do, to come safe out of fairyland.  She’d risk offending her daughter, then, because if they should get separated, what Caroline didn’t know could kill her.
Just then Caroline pulled at her, but the first rule, Barbara remembered, was to stay on the road.  And they were not on the road but on the grass next to it.  She resisted Caroline’s pull forward, upon the grassy rolling hill and instead spoke in measured accents, in a little more than a whisper, “No, my dear.  The first rule you must remember,” she said, while she in turn pulled Caroline sideways and a little back, until their feet were firmly planted on a brick-paved road.  “Is that you must always stay upon the road.  It will change as you walk, but the road is your only measure of safety.  It exists only for visitors to fairyland, and, as such, it is part of a pact between our people and elves.  They cannot hurt visitors who are on the path and we, in turn, undertake not to deviate from the path, and to stay on it whilst in fairyland.  Do you know the other rules?  I hesitate to ask, but what did Gabriel tell you?”
“That I should not eat anything any elf ever offered me.”  Caroline paused.  “Other than himself, I presume, because that would make it very difficult particularly when I was little and he gave me candy.”
“I don’t think that Gabriel counts as an elf.  Not a true one.”  She paused in turn, as an odd thought occurred to her.  “At least not unless he wants to be one.”
Caroline seemed to understand this, as she nodded a little.  “I assume this applies to anything in fairyland.”
“Yes,” Barbara said.  “I very much believe so.  But there are other rules.”
“Such as?”
“You must help three people you encounter.  You must remain loyal and pure and impervious to temptation, and you must do your best to help those who need you, while refusing to either leave the path or eat anything.  This might include performing feats that would otherwise be impossible.  In these tasks, you will usually find three helpers.  These are not always wholly good, and usually they want something in return, but you must accept their help nonetheless, and count on being able to defeat their wiles, later.”
“And?”
“And you must under no circumstances accept an offer to live in fairyland.  Oh, it won’t be presented that way.  It’s usually presented as great riches, a palace, anything you care to own.”
Caroline looked at her mother curiously, her head tilted a little to the side, as though evaluating something.  “How very odd.  But you’ll be with me and able to remind me of these rules, will you not.”
“I don’t know,” Barbara said.  “What you have to understand is that fairyland works in ways that our world doesn’t.  The same rules of logic do not apply to both.  I wasn’t with the people who came to rescue me, but I know that they got separated, and never found out how.  So, if you get separated, do remember those rules.  They should be enough to keep you safe.  And now let us walk.”
“Which way do we walk on the road?” Caroline said, confused, looking behind her, and then ahead.
“It doesn’t much signify,” Barbara said.  “Direction also doesn’t mean in fairyland what it means in our world.  Instead of north and south, they have deeper and out.  Whichever way we walk in fairyland, while in pursuit of our goal of finding your brother, we will be penetrating deeper into the lands of magic.”
“But how do we leave then?” Caroline asked, as the two walked the way they were facing, along the genty rolling road, amid a meadow so beautiful it looked like an illustration from a child’s book.  In fact, everything from the too-green grass, to the intense scents of summer, to the rolling hills gave the landscape the impression of being too beautiful to exist – something not even out of a real dream, but out of a story.
“We leave when we’ve found your brother and we’ve fulfilled all the conditions of our coming here, such as our agreeing to render help to three unfortunates.  That is,” she said, as another thing occurred to her.  “When those are done, we are automatically ejected from fairyland and into the real world.  That is unless…”
“Unless?”
“The king of fairyland objects to our going,” Barbara said.
“And then we’re prisoners here forever?” Caroline asked, her eyes very wide and for the first time the hint of fear in them.
“No.  We’re here,” Barbara said.  Until we can find a champion to fight for our freedom.  She paused.  Somewhere ahead, something or someone was crying desolately.

For more witchfinder, look here