Chapter 26
Walking into the Snare
Gottestag, Gotland
Hecate sat upon the throne with Maus at her side. The throne room was empty besides the two of them. It seemed colder than usual, but perhaps it was just the coming winter.
"Are you sure about this, my Queen?" Maus asked.
"Our guests have come all this way to seek an audience with me," Hecate replied. "Let them. I would see these people who mean to upset my domain. I wish to take their measure."
"You place yourself in needless danger."
"Have you so little faith in my power, beloved? We are quite safe."
"Fortune on the battlefield often defies our best calculations, my Queen."
"I have lived a long time, beloved, perhaps not so much in this incarnation, but permit me this gamble."
"I do not wish for you to gamble with your life."
"It is the only kind of gamble that really makes you feel alive, beloved. As a warrior on the battlefield, you should know this."
"I do not have the same taste for blood and war as some."
"And it is a trait I find charming. You have no love of war yet you do it all the same for duty's sake. It is your noble soul I love. That you are fair of face and form is a little added benefit."
She gave him a little smile, the very picture of the word 'bewitching'.
"Long have you fought for my sake, beloved. This day I will fight for myself. Stand fast by me, and we will see the day through."
* * *
You could fill a thimble with all the words that were exchanged since Lys' companions joined up with Prince Wilfried. She may well have had more agreeable travelling companions if she had been taken captive by that one Ork back in Grau and was dragged to Gottestag in chains. Bishop Friedman definitely wanted her dead, Captain Hengist too, most likely, and Kolman and Sir Eckhardt probably would not be all that upset about it. Gudrun was perhaps the only one in the entire company that she could count as a friend, but at least the Prince was willing to give her a chance. She did not imagine she would have long to lament her failure if she did fail, though.
Her other companions were not much better off than she was. Sir Burkhardt was disgraced in the eyes of his peers, even his own brother, and Father Tristram would probably do well to pile up the kindling at his feet to save the good Bishop some time. Sister Ysolde was sure to share in whatever fate awaited her brother, and Corothas was regarded with fear and suspicion as a monster at best, some devil at worst. It was a fine alliance they had made.
Lys could not afford to dwell on such negative feelings, though. It would only disrupt her arts and take away the very slim chance she had of succeeding. She had to focus on the positive. She was going to save Loreley. She was going to save Maus. She was going to save everyone. All she had to do was unbind the Witch Queen from Loreley's soul. If she would focus on that and only that, there might yet be some hope for her.
As she was focusing on setting her mind aright, the Prince spoke up, saying, "We are inside the walls of the castle now, but where should we make our entry?"
Kolman had his eyes closed as he was searching out the powers about them.
"There is one great power in that direction," he said, pointing with his staff. "The throne room, if I am not mistaken."
"What about the other witches?" Sir Eckhardt asked.
"I can only sense the one power," Kolman replied. "Either she is alone or her power is cloaking any sign of the others."
"If I could but breathe the air out of this tunnel, I could tell you," Corothas said.
To support him, Lys said, "His senses are more attuned than any of ours. He could tell us everything we need to know."
"Would you have us risk detection for the sake of this... creature?" Bishop Friedman asked.
"We are going to have to risk coming out at some point," Prince Wilfried said. "The Queen's Garden was lightly patrolled in my father's time. Perhaps it is so now as well."
They followed the Prince to the tunnel entrance at the one inner courtyard known as the Queen's Garden. It was well-loved by the late Queen Adelheidis and many of her predecessors as well. The Prince knew it well from his childhood. Lys could tell it from the memories welling up inside him.
Because Lys was the smallest of them, she went up with Corothas so she could stay out of view while he took in the lay of the land. He was so tall that he was hardly inconspicuous, but Lys could not sense anyone close at hand. Either they were quite well-hidden or Prince Wilfried's guess had been proven correct.
Corothas drew in a slow breath through his nostrils and said, "There are others, but not close. Where your Master Kolman sensed the great power, there are two, a man and woman."
"That's probably Loreley and Maus," Lys said. "Do you think she could be hiding anyone else?"
"This Witch Queen is said to be quite powerful with magic, child, but I would be surprised if she would think to deceive a nose like mine."
Lys ducked back into the tunnel where the others were waiting and told them, "Corothas says he can only sense two people in the throne room, Loreley and Maus, I'm thinking."
"No one else?" the Prince asked.
"Not that he can tell, and I don't imagine the Witch Queen is expecting someone like him."
"But she is expecting someone," Sir Eckhardt said. "Just the two of them, there, waiting? It's a trap."
"Word of what happened in Bergeny must have reached her," the Prince said. "She knows someone is coming, but she does not know who."
"That boy might've guessed," Sir Burkhardt said.
"She could be underestimating us," Lys suggested.
"And you could be underestimating her," Sir Eckhardt replied.
"I need her to be in eyeshot for my arts to work," Lys said. "If we get in there, maybe I can drive the Witch Queen out before she can call on whoever she's got waiting in the wings."
"If this Witch Queen is as powerful as they say, she may not need anyone else," Father Tristram said.
Resolving himself for action, the Prince said, "We gain nothing waiting around like this. There may be plans of the Witch Queen that have not yet been set in motion. We cannot hope for a better opportunity than this. We go in, draw the Witch Queen's attention while Lys works her arts. If she succeeds, we take Loreley and Maus and withdraw back into the tunnels. We will let the Witch Queen's armies tear themselves apart in her absence while we rally our forces to go on the march.
"If Lys fails,we hold her to her word and do what we must. We kill the Witch Queen and her Champion or die trying."
Lys did not want to think about the possibility of her failing, but it was a reality she had to accept, and what would happen if she did fail.
She sighed and said, "That's what I agreed to. We're all agreed, right?"
The looks on the faces of Bishop Friedman, Captain Hengist, Sir Eckhardt and Kolman were hardly encouraging.
"You will have your chance, child," Corothas said, peeking back in. "I will see to that."
"Then let us go forward," the Prince said, "and may God be with us."
"May God be with us," Father Tristram echoed.
Bishop Friedman muttered something that did not quite sound like the same thing, but Lys could not let that bother her.
"These stairs are too steep, the way too narrow," Captain Hengist said. "I will take another way more amenable to my kind. Do not wait for me. I will meet up with you in the throne room."
"Do you want someone to go with you?" Prince Wilfried asked.
The Horseman held up his bow and said, "This is the only companion I need, Your Highness. I will not be long. May Fortune favor you in the meantime."
He wasted no time trotting off to whatever other way favored him better while the rest of them exited the tunnel into the Queen's Garden. Although most of the plants had already dried up and turned brown with the fast-approaching winter, it was clear to see that it had been left to become overgrown in the years since the royal family was made to flee. Prince Wilfried looked somewhat disheartened at the sight of it.
"It would seem that gardening is not one of the Witch Queen's passions," he said.
"God willing, the spring will be a time to put this garden back in order, along with all else in this kingdom," Sir Eckhardt said.
They then made their way out of the garden and into the passageway that would take them to the throne room. Lys trusted Corothas to alert them if anyone were to approach, but she was also stretching out with her own senses to try to detect anything. The Witch Queen's power was suffocating, though. No doubt she normally suppressed it as any trained mage would, but now she was loudly announcing her presence so that anyone with even the slightest touch of magic would know.
Lys imagined that Sir Eckhardt was right when he said it was a trap. How much the Witch Queen knew remained to be seen, but she was expecting someone and this was her way of challenging them. Perhaps she thought she could scare off anyone capable of appreciating her great power. Or perhaps she was spoiling for a fight. As far as Lys knew, the Witch Queen had never taken an active role in any of the battles to conquer the Eight Kingdoms. Could it be that her days had grown tedious and she was hungry for a share of the action?
Such thoughts were not helping Lys prepare for what she needed to do. Everything was riding on this one chance. Her focus needed to be honed to a razor's edge. She had to strike quick, thrust with everything she had and maybe, just maybe, she could break the Witch Queen's hold on Loreley.
In no time they found themselves at the doors to the throne room. There had been no guards, no servants, no sign of any other person so far.
"Are we really just going to walk through the front door?" Kolman asked.
"You rather come in through the back?" Sir Burkhardt asked in turn.
"She is expecting us either way," the Prince said. "Am I right?"
"The way ahead is forward," Gudrun said.
"Can any man plumb the depths of such wisdom?" Kolman sneered. He then refocused himself and held his hand over the door, saying, "We should check for any manner of trap first. It would be a poor thing if there was some death curse upon the door that killed us all the moment we open it."
"There is no such curse here," Corothas said.
"I would judge that for myself, Master Man-Dragon," Kolman said as he continued to search any trace of a curse.
"As you will," Corothas replied.
After a few moments, Kolman said, "There is no magic here that I can trace, but there could still be some trickery at work."
"I shall open the door if it would set your mind at ease," Corothas offered, "Kolman, son of..."
"Never mind who I'm the son of," Kolman said irritably. "Open it then if you insist on it."
Prince Wilfried drew his sword and looked to the others.
"Everyone ready now?"
"We are with you, Your Highness," Sir Eckhardt said.
The Prince nodded.
"Onward then. For Gotland."
"For Gotland," most of their company said in reply, having the good sense not to give a big lusty shout to alert everyone in the area.
Corothas opened the door and they stepped through. There, seated on the King's throne, dressed in a gown of black silk was Loreley, and at her side was the knight in black armor who had saved Lys' life at Luten. Maus. Either it was because they were closer now or because the Witch Queen allowed her power to surge for effect when the door opened, her presence was so great that Lys struggled to stand. It looked like those who were attuned to magic were most affected, but everyone's steps became sluggish as they approached the throne.
Prince Wilfried was making a valiant effort not to let the weakening power of the Witch Queen show as he strode forward.
The Witch Queen spoke. It was Loreley's voice, but it had a cruel, haughty edge to it that was never there in Lys' memories. She had to remind herself that while the outward person was Loreley, the inward person was their enemy.
"And so the troublemakers working mischief in my kingdom show themselves at last. Perhaps I should laud you for having made it this far. I will be interested to know who all helped you along the way. Loyalty is a coin easily spent, but not so easily earned.
"Tell me, who counts himself as leader of this rabble?"
Prince Wilfried stepped forward and said, "I am Wilfried, son of Amalric, the rightful King of these lands, and I have come that justice might be done upon you, Witch Queen."
The Witch Queen smiled.
"Then you can die first."
Something like a black spear enwreathed in brambles appeared before the Witch Queen and struck out at the Prince. There was scarcely a moment to react to it. Surely he would have been dead were it not for a flash of white light smashing the spear into splinters.
Corothas stood with his hand outstretched, then looked up at the throne.
"Is it the custom in your land to break parley with violence, O Queen?"
"They come into my throne room with naked blades and you would call it parley?" the Witch Queen asked in turn. "Who are you, son of Dragons?"
Corothas placed his hand over his heart and half-bowed in his custom of courtesy, saying, "I am called Corothas, son of Ionathas."
"You are not these others," the Witch Queen said. "You are a stranger to these lands. What brings you here?"
Corothas motioned to Lys.
"This child would treat with you."
Lys was actually hoping to have taken the Witch Queen unawares, but she had not told Corothas that. Now the Witch Queen's attention was on her. The Witch Queen smiled as she looked on Lys, with something between the affection a mother bird for her chicks and that of an adder for a cornered mouse.
"Ah, so you must be the little witch that started all the trouble in Hirschsee. If you wished for an audience, there were far easier ways. All witches can find welcome here."
Maus then spoke up, in a low voice but not so low that Lys could not hear it.
"I ask that you spare her, my Queen. She is the daughter of Tancred Half-Elven."
The Witch Queen titled her head as she looked at Lys and said, "My, my, little Lys, is that really you? Goodness, how you have grown. Well, not all that much. You are still rather small."
"How do you know who I am?" Lys asked.
"How could I forget my master's little girl, how I used to hold you to my breast as if you were my own child? You were such a precious little thing."
The Witch Queen's voice sounded more like the Loreley Lys remembered. The memories of the young woman who was more than sister, practically a mother to her, came back to her. She could feel the strength draining from her legs.
"Loreley..."
The Witch Queen looked around at them and said, "Yes, yes, how much you all have changed, and how little. Prince Wilfried, please forgive my little fit of pique. The trouble you have caused me has cast a pall on the coming solemnities and it has put me in an ill temper. You truly have grown in the fashion of your noble father. Tell me, does he live yet?"
"He lives," Prince Wilfried said, "and I will see him seated there where he belongs once more,"
"Save your dreams for when you are sleeping, young Prince. And, dear Gudrun, you truly have blossomed into fine flower, enough to rival even me. What vision brought you here?"
"The path that must be," Gudrun replied coldly.
"There is ice in you words, dear Gudrun. What have I done to offend you?"
The Witch Queen paused, noticing Gudrun's closeness to the Prince, and said, "Ah, I see. Again, I ask your forgiveness. I let ill temper get the better of me. I would hate for such a matter to sour our friendship."
"It is Loreley who was my friend, not you," Gudrun replied.
"Hecate and the witch Loreley are not two but one," the Witch Queen said. "To deny one half is to deny the other. You wound me, Gudrun."
"Enough of your prattle, heathen queen," Bishop Friedman said. "You would play on the memory of the girl Loreley to weaken our resolve. It will not work."
"Certainly not for you, Your Grace," the Witch Queen replied scornfully. "You had no fondness for me to begin with. By the way, your brethren send their regards. I am certain they would love to have you join them."
"Silence, she-devil! I will cast you back into the fires of Hell where you belong!"
"Send me back?" the Witch Queen scoffed. "I would have had to go there first. There were none of the fires and torments you imagine where I was, only darkness and void, a cold, numbing nothingness. But then, our fates in the world beyond may be different between gods and men."
"Your blasphemy ends this day!" the Bishop bellowed. "Fiat voluntas Dei!"
The Witch Queen sighed.
"I will never understand why you churchmen love to speak in the barbarous tongue of those Italian savages." She then asked those arrayed against her, "Would any of you mourn much if I rid myself of this turbulent priest?"
Lys had to bite her tongue so as not to say something she would be made to answer for later. It was Father Tristram who stood between the Witch Queen and the Bishop and said, "Though His Grace has no love for me, I must insist that you go through me first, Witch Queen."
"The curious assembly grows curiouser still," the Witch Queen said. "A man of your kind would find warmer welcome in my camp that the cold stone walls you are shut up in now."
"An earthy prison suits a damnèd soul, Queen."
"I will make you this offer, all of you, and I will only make it once," the Witch Queen said. "Bend the knee and serve me and your lives will be spared. Serve me well and you may find yourselves named great in my kingdom. Refuse my kindness and you shall taste my displeasure. Decide, and be quick about it. I do not have the leisure to play with you much longer."
She allowed her power to surge, such that you would nearly fall to your knees whether you willed it or not. However, none of them, not even one of the common attendants, surrendered themselves to the Witch Queen's demand. Judging from the Witch Queen's expression, though, it was exactly what she was expecting.
"My displeasure then..."
All this while, Lys had been working her arts, pouring her focus into the marks she was scrawling on the flesh of her forearm in her own blood. She knew it would have the most effect if she could make direct contact, but Maus would never permit her to get that close, unless...
"Wait, my Queen," she said. "I will serve you."
"What!?"
"Lys!"
"Damn you, I should have known!"
And other such exclamations assailed her ears, but she kept her attention fixed on the Witch Queen.
"If my Queen would but permit her servant to kiss the royal hand, to seal my oath."
"Lys, what are you doing?" Maus demanded of her.
"What are you doing?" Sir Burkhardt whispered, seemingly undecided between protecting her from the furious Bishop Friedman and bashing her head in himself.
"Taking my chance," Lys replied.
Maus then said to the Witch Queen, "Do not permit her, my Queen. She is plotting something."
"Let her," the Witch Queen replied dismissively, holding out her hand. "Come, child. If your oath be true, I will welcome you as a daughter. If you be false, you will bear your sin."
Lys could feel Corothas' presence behind her, so she did not need to fear her allies who thought the worst of her. She walked forward to the dais upon which the throne was set. She struggled to keep her breath steady as she ascended the stairs. Her heart beat faster and faster with each step, her pulse pounding in her ears.
"Whatever you're planning, Lys, give it up," Maus warned. "Loreley's memory won't be enough to save you if you anger her."
Lys did not answer him, lest she give away more than she should. The Witch Queen's power was matched by her confidence. There was not the slightest hint of fear or concern at anything Lys might do, perhaps rightly so, but this confidence was her greatest weakness. She expected nothing would threaten her and that might just leave her open to the unexpected.
Lys knelt before the Witch Queen, closed her eyes and leaned forward to kiss the proffered hand. The moment her lips touched the Witch Queen's fingers, she seized her arm with both hands and loosed her spirit like an arrow right into the Witch Queen's heart.
The art Lys used combined her abilities as both a spirit caller and a mindwalker. The two powers worked quite differently. What she was doing was like trying to swim through the water as a fish while flying through the air as a bird at the same time. Perhaps it was nothing but her mind doing its best to make sense of it, but it seemed to her much like dreamsharing. She was in the same sort of darkness and had taken on her dreamshape.
She looked out into the distance, not that distance had much meaning in a place like this, and saw a faint white glow. Time did not have much meaning here either, so there was no need for her to rush. She slowly walked forward and that white glow began to take shape. It was Loreley with hair and skin like alabaster that had a cold glow like a midwinter's dawn. Black briars, blacker than black, darker than the darkness around them, were coiled around Loreley's body. The briars were growing out of a great black wolf lying behind her.
"Is this what you imagined, child?" the wolf asked her in many voices speaking as one. "It would be so much easier for you if it were, but it is not so."
The wolf melted away, yet the briars remained. Loreley opened her eyes, eyes as black as the briars, as black as the wolf, and stood up. More so than Loreley in the flesh, in this form she was more beautiful and terrible than anything Lys could imagine. Part of her wanted to flee, part of her wanted to prostrate herself in total submission, and part of her wanted to embrace the goddess before her and never let go.
"I told you," Loreley said in her own voice, "we are not two but one. There is no division of substance or essence. You wanted to separate Hecate from Loreley, but it cannot be done. Either you accept us or you destroy us. There is no other way. Which will it be?"
Lys could not shed tears in this place, in this form, but she could feel her heart being squeezed in her chest. There was no escaping it. She had failed.
* * *
"Lys!" Sir Burkhardt shouted.
Lys was still gripping the Witch Queen's arm, yet her body hung limply as a boned fish.
"Let her go, damn you!" the knight shouted at the Witch Queen.
"She is the one holding on to me, Sir Knight," the Witch Queen replied. "We are in the middle of a conversation, so I am afraid I cannot entertain you at the moment, but fear not, I have prepared some playmates for you."
The Witch Queen lazily waved her free hand and dozens of swirling purple-black vortices appeared throughout the throne room. Emerging from these vortices were the Witch Queen's Empusae and lesser witches of the witches' cult, palace guards both Man and Ork, and a cloaked figure that could only be described as some seafarer's nightmare.
"Now we know where she was keeping everybody," Father Tristram quipped. His voice became more serious as he told his sister, "Stay close tp me, Ysolde."
Kolman then said to Prince Wilfried, "Well, it would seem that damned fool of a girl failed just as we all knew she would. You said we would kill the Witch Queen or die trying, Your Highness. I know which one seems more likely at the moment."
"We should have left you with the women if all you mean to do is quail like one," Sir Eckhardt said. "Find your courage, man."
"We'll see how long your courage holds when that steel in your hands avails you as well as a dry twig, Sir Knight," Kolman snapped back.
Bishop Friedman held his warhammer aloft and bellowed, "Si Deus nobiscum, quis contra nos!? AMEN!"
"AMEN!" his fellow warrior-monks shouted in reply.
"'If God is with us'..." Prince Wilfried muttered to himself. He then kissed the hilt of his sword and said, "Amen." He pointed his sword at the Witch Queen and said, "Your reign ends this day."
The Witch Queen paid little heed to the Prince but did deign to tell him, "If you can survive this little game, young princeling, perhaps I will hear more on your proposal. In the meantime, do try to have a little fun."
