“Large group,” remarked the shopkeeper at the store Zephyr and Arianna entered. “Are you here on pleasure or business?”

  “You have groups come here on business?” Zephyr asked.

  “Oh yes yes.” The woman nodded rapidly. She had long blonde loosely plaited hair and was wearing a floor-length brown dress covered in patterns of flowers. The attire reminded Zephyr of clothes from the late 70s.

  It was a strange sort of town with an eclectic sort of style. Nothing fancy, nothing body-hugging or revealing, but apart from that, anything seemed to go. Although it did not appear to Zephyr that the townsfolk wore what they wore for style purposes. Everything they wore screamed comfort or practicality first.

  He’d noticed some of the scowls from people passing by in the street. They had been aimed more at Arianna rather than himself and he’d wondered if that was because of her hair colour. Neither of them were particularly exogenously dressed. Perhaps their style was a little more refined than the locals but it was subtle and they could have passed for residents. Unlike Cat, who was still wearing mid-rift revealing clothing, or Kass who was dressed for a modern outdoor hike, or Falco, who liked his shirts tight. Amanda probably fitted in here the best, with her plaid shirt and farm jeans.

  This shopkeeper continued talking, her tone a friendlier one than the looks they’d received in the streets. “We often trade with the outside world. It’s honest work, although not everything the people in town trade for is always quite so honest.” She gave a brief disapproving frown.

  As Arianna wandered into the shop further, Zephyr took the opportunity to ask a few more questions. The shopkeeper seemed receptive enough. He got the sense she wanted to talk more. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Oh, well, I don’t mean to point fingers, but I’ve heard some people have been smuggling in movies and tobacco.” She spoke in a low whisper as if she were talking about things far far worse. “And one of the local councillors is rumoured to have been caught reading a naughty magazine.”

  Zephyr resisted the urge to suggest that maybe he just liked the articles. “How do they play them?” he asked of the movies instead.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I think someone smuggled in a err, what do they call it?... an electricity generator.”

  “And you’re not supposed to watch movies?”

  She looked genuinely horrified at the idea of it. “No. Electricity is unnatural. It’s black magic. A temptation by the devil. A lot of the wares that come through here are temptations, but not all. We’ll trade for clothes and tools and food well enough. Anything natural is good.”

  “Black magic?” Zephyr pondered. “Does that mean there’s white magic?”

  She nodded. “Anything God creates is white magic, the good kind. It’s not for people though.”

  “And tobacco? That’s bad?”

  “Oh, as bad as drink I’d say. Purity is a clean and clear head. But not all agree. The men mostly. They’re not as pure as women after all. They’re much more prone to temptation. But, what can you do but forgive them. There are worse sins than the drink or the smoke, and God is a forgiving man.”

  Zephyr frowned in thought but nodded. “It is good to be forgiving yes,” he said, although he did not believe that was true for everything in life. He’d met too many people whose main troubles arose from them being too forgiving. But he was on holiday right now, sort of, so he didn’t want to to think of work.

  He wasn’t feeling particularly useful with the Lily situation, but Arianna was in a good mood so he was trying to enjoy her company. She made it very easy to do.

  “Zeph,” she called in that sing-song voice of hers. “Come look at this.”

  He found her looking at some chairs. They were fully wooden with a red cushion and the backs of each of them had been intricately carved into the shapes of lots of tiny forest animals.

  “Aren’t they beautiful?”

  He nodded.

  They were. So was she. He loved they way her eyes sparkled, the way she moved, they way she whispered conspiratorially, “How do you suppose people get them out of Witchaven if there’s no magic and no cars?”

  But the shopkeeper had the answer and even though Zephyr was pretty sure she hadn’t heard them, she joined them and said, “If you’re interested we can arrange to have them transported to the edge of the town or even the next town over, if you like?”

  ‘Oh, yes please,” said Arianna.

  She organised a pick up and payment date for eight chairs and a matching table. When the shopkeeper told her there were only six chairs, she asked if they could make another two. Then she bought a set of plates, some aquamarine and black speckled glazed coffee mugs, and just when Zephyr thought they were done she spotted a fox shaped door stop and a rather large painting.

  “Are you fitting out a whole house?” he asked jokingly on their way back out into the street.

  “Maybe, she replied seriously. “I was thinking about possibly keeping that one in the Rainbow Valley. It might be nice to have something a little closer to Little Rock.”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  He couldn’t help the smile that lit up his face. “Is that so?”

  She grinned back at him. Then suddenly her eyes went wide and she pointed at something further up the street.

  “Look!”

  “ What?” He turned to see what it was but he could see nothing except for a few more buildings, a little bit of green grass and a pine forest.

  Arianna didn’t answer. Instead, she started off toward the forest.

  Zephyr followed.

  She didn’t go far before she stopped and then she pointed. “See! There!”

  At first Zephyr could not see anything but then he noticed movement among the trees, a flash of white.

  And then a white fox-like head poked it nose out from behind one tree and looked at them.

  “Is that a Fynxara?” Zephyr asked. “Surely not the same one from your house?” He couldn’t have said precisely what it was about it, but it looked awfully familiar.

  “I think it is,” said Arianna in a voice of awe. “Look, it’s right ear is slightly bent at the tip. The other one had the same feature.”

  “Did it?”

  She nodded. “I’m sure of it.”

  It was looking right at them. For several seconds, none of them moved, then quick as a flash, it darted off into the woods again, leaving both of them wondering if they’d just imagined the entire thing.

  Kass looked out of the barn door. The grass in the surrounding field was long and had yet to be grazed. It waved gently in the light breeze. She couldn't see anyone else nearby, nor any suspicious movement from further away. The soldier had probably been alone. Probably.

  It was too bad the spell had consumed the body. It would have been good to search the woman's pockets and figure out who she was. Had she been staying in town or had she come from the forest in the hills?

  Lily's voice made her turn.

  "How come he's not healing?"

  Amanda held her hands pressed tight against Sirius's side. The blood had still been flowing from his knife wound when the healing magic had run out. She had kept her hands pressed against his wound, hoping the pressure would at least make it clot. It did seem to be slowing at least but she dare not remove her hands just yet.

  “He will,” she said in answer to Lily’s question but the remark was more for her own benefit.

  Sirius put his hands gently over hers. “Hey,” he said. “I got it.”

  “It’s gonna need stitches.” She considered cauterising it but she didn’t think it was bleeding enough for that. It was always a risky call.

  Sirius nodded.

  “How bad is it?” Kass asked.

  Amanda turned to look at her. She didn’t look at Lily just yet. Amanda had just killed someone in front of her. Not an animal. A person. Lily probably needed comforting but Sirius had been hurt and right now Amanda was just trying to deal with one thing at a time. “Do you have a first aid kit?”

  Kass shook her head. “Don’t you have one?”

  “I packed light. Wasn’t expecting to need one. Cat usually has one in the car.” Amanda glanced at Sirius. His hands didn’t appear to be getting any bloodier. He was looking behind her, in Lily’s direction, mouthing something she interpreted as, ‘it’s okay.’

  Finally, she turned to look at Lily, feeling guilty for not doing so already.

  The girl was standing there with wide eyes looking stricken and lost. The guilt doubled. “Lily. It’s okay,” she said repeating Sirius’s words out loud.

  “We need to find the boy,” Kass said, sounding far too calm for the situation.

  Amanda knew calm was good,. She knew Kass was right. But all the same, she wished the woman would show a speck of emotion. She gave Kass a look that could have melted steel. She got some satisfaction when Kass ducked her eyes, bit her lip, and retreated into herself.

  But then Sirius added matter-of-factly, “We need to clean in here too.”

  Amanda’s anger deflated. Sirius agreed with Kass. Of course he did. They were both practical people and Kass was right. But both of them were still looking to her for the final say. She had to be practical too.

  She gave a nod and surveyed the barn. There was blood on everything. Nothing a little fire couldn’t fix. But there was an awful lot of hay. She’d just have to be careful.

  “Hold still,” Amanda told everyone in the room.

  No one moved.

  Sirius had been watching Lily closely. He didn’t want her to run away again. They’d been lucky finding her the first time. He would have told Amanda to stop if he thought Lily might move. He could guess what Amanda was about to do. But Lily seemed unsure and frozen in place.

  His side throbbed where the knife had cut him and he knew moving would only make it worse so he stayed where he was. He tried to appear calm, for Lily’s sake and Amanda’s. Truth was, he’d never been good at panicking, not when there was real danger. It was always as if time moved slowly.

  Fire was fast. It could consume in seconds. But in the seconds that followed, as Amanda gave the barest lift of a finger and the fire coated the barn, Sirius felt like an eternity passed and he was watching a beautiful show of red and gold. It flowed over everything like a fluid that didn’t obey gravity. Everything except them. They stood in an inferno, surrounded on all sides. The heat came and was gone much quicker.Pieces of hay were set alight. They rose up and burned like spectres. And then they vanished.

  That fire was like Amanda in a way. Impulsive and passionate but restrained, only every briefly out of control. Her core was solid, grounded. Only the edges flickered.

  Then there was Kass, who stood unmoving like ice in the middle of it. Cooler and calmer, at least on the outside. Inside, she was lost beneath an ocean and more like him in many ways. But different too. He’d never wanted the ocean to swallow him whole. The way Kass looked at the flames, as if she were meeting her maker, as if she welcomed them, it worried Sirius. Kass needed someone to pull her out of the ocean, out of the fire, the way Amanda had pulled him up. Maybe he was the wrong person? But if not him then who?

  Lily saw the flames and for a moment she thought they were coming for her. That was her bright future. Then they were gone again and the barn looked different. The blood was gone, gone so fast that Lily wondered if it had ever been there at all, just like her dreams. Only charred hay remained now. The wood of the barn looked untouched beneath the soot.

  Lily could still smell it though. The metallic tang. And when she looked down she realised she was still coated in the stuff. Blood covered them all. It no longer made her hungry though. Instead, it made her feel sick. She twisted around and vomited onto the ground. Her vomit was dark red.

  “Lily!”

  Amanda’s gentle hands pulled her hair back out of the way. They stroked her head and her back. They made Lily feel better. She had been afraid. Afraid that it had not worked, and that was why Amanda hadn’t been looking at her.

  “You should burn the wood,” Kass remarked.

  Lily turned to look at Kass. So did Amanda, although she left one hand on Lily’s shoulder.

  Kass had taken off the new brown skirt and top that Lily thought had made her look softer and she was back in her sports clothes.

  Kass looked at Amanda and not at Lily. Kass never looked at Lily when Lily was looking at her.

  “The wood,” Kass repeated a little quieter, as she glanced toward it more than Amanda. “It looks untouched. It looks like magic.”

  Amanda nodded. Her hand slipped from Lily’s shoulder and she straightened up.

  Another flame swept through the barn, encircling them like a serpent. This time Lily wasn’t afraid. This time she found the flames strangely beautiful. They lasted as long as they had last time and this time when they vanished, the barn felt much darker. The walls and floor were black. Everything was black with soot.

  “We need to find the boy she bit,” Kass repeated.