Waking the Witch by W. V. Fitz-Simon

Author:W. V. Fitz-Simon [W. V. Fitz-Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dedo Press

28

They reached the coach with barely enough time to spare. Gosha tucked the tweed skirt around her legs as they settled into their seats and ran a finger inside the frilly collar of her blouse in a vain attempt to loosen it. Her reflection in the mirror by the front door on Alder Lane as she put on a shapeless canvas coat handed her by her mother shocked her. Without makeup or gel in her hair and dressed in this dowdy outfit from god-knows-where, she was unrecognizable even as her mother’s daughter.

“Where are we going?” she asked as the half-empty coach pulled out.

Her mother grazed her acorn pendant with her fingertips and whispered a word in her secret language.

“There,” she said. “Now no one will hear us.”

She took an orange out of her handbag and peeled it.

“The Betrayal begins every witch’s journey in the Craft. It has always been this way. It’s the same everywhere. A woman may be born with an affinity for Influence. She may have certain gifts, like you. And yet there’s no real Craft without giving an oath of fealty to a saint, but a witch is a free woman who takes orders from no one, so there is no Craft without the Betrayal.”

As she spoke, she separated the orange into segments and passed half to Gosha.

“I imagine it might be possible for a witch to steal her power from another Sphere, but only one tolerates us: the Sphere of Mystery. There are many stories why, but the true reason is politics. Poland and Britain are the same. The Saints and their servants cannot kill, or they will be cast out by their lords, so they must be devious. Who is more devious than a witch? Our existence must suit the Queen of Secrets. And we serve an important function. Few who sit in my kitchen have not been misused by Influence. Eat your orange. It’s very good.”

Holding forth to a captive audience, her mother was in her element. When Gosha was a girl, she hated these lectures and yearned to get away from them, but who knew what hex her mother might have cast on her if she tried to escape? She always thought her mother to be full of herself, taking advantage of her power over Gosha to drone on, enraptured by the sound of her own voice. But now, as her mother looked through her handbag to find a tissue to mop up the juice that burst over Gosha’s fingers as she bit into the segment of orange, she realized how much love there was behind her mother’s words. This wisdom was a gift freely given, not a demand of obligation.

“Is the Queen of Secrets the lord of the Sphere?”

“No, that’s the Lady of Whispers. The Queen of Secrets is her saint. That’s always the name she takes everywhere in the world. She’s the only saint who claims a special title for herself. When I took my Betrayal, the Queen of Secrets in Poland was a movie star.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.