The Witch's Patron

Chapter 26

As she dashed into the market, Noori heard the witch Vidonia's voice rising above the crashes and high-pitched whistling that sounded an awful lot like the shooting off of fireworks.

"If it's a fight you want then it's a fight you'll get," Vidonia shrieked over the clamour. "But make no mistake, Keizsa: you may have been strong enough to break my curse but you are no longer the most powerful witch in Fernweh."

Another whistle cut through the air, followed by an explosion. Noori noticed a shadow fall over her path as she ran in through the market. She looked up just in time to see the shattered remains of some unlucky merchant's stall falling from the sky above her. Thinking fast, Noori dove to her right and landed on her side. A tangle of wood and canvas crashed down right where she'd been standing mere seconds before. Noori winced as she got back to her feet, grateful to be walking away from the scene with only a sore shoulder for her troubles.

Being careful to stay out of sight, Noori peered around the closest stall. There, in what had once been the market center, stood Keizsa and Vidonia. Covered in sprays of paint with her dark hair a mess, Keizsa gritted her teeth as she sketched furiously in the tattered sketchbook clutched in her hands. Noori realized she was using it to cast spell. 

How is she still standing? Noori thought, remembering how exhausted Keizsa had been the last time she'd seen her. She could see how Keizsa's uneasy footing was and how hard she fought to keep her knees from buckling. Breaking the curse must have taken almost everything the witch had to give, and yet she was still fighting.

At that same moment, Vidonia raised a hand, summoning the vines that slithered at her feet to attack. 

"Keizsa! Look out!" Noori screamed, darted from her hiding place and into the fray. With a look of surprise, Keizsa managed to twist away just as a vine snapped perilously close.

A large wooden sign, blasted from one of the smoldering stalls nearby, lay discarded on the ground. Noori stooped to pick it up as she ran and hoisted it up to use as a shield against the vines and their thorns. Without a moment to spare, she skidded between Keizsa and another onslaught. Together they huddled behind the sign while the vines whipped against the wood. Noori could feel Keizsa trembling against her, saw the glistening of sweat on her brow that made the smears of paint trickle down her face like rainbow blood from invisible wounds. But for all her exhaustion, Keizsa's expression was firm with resolve — she wasn't out of this fight yet.

"Well, well," Vidonia drawled from across the courtyard, "if it isn't the cockroach beneath my heel."

Noori ignored her and turned to Keizsa instead. "We need fire, now!" 

Before she had even finished speaking, Keizsa's hand was already flying across a page in her sketchbook. While she worked, Noori peered around the sign. On the other side of the courtyard, Vidonia stood with a dark and dangerous scowl on her face. Her features, once so lovely and warm, were twisted with so much rage and distain that she seemed like a completely different person than the bubbly, rosy cheeked herbalist Noori remembered. The witch's monstrous vines gathered and roiled behind her like an ominous storm cloud. Every few seconds rogue tendrils would snap forward from the mass, reaching impatiently for Keizsa, only to recoil back to their mistress's side. Meanwhile, Solanales the mink prowled at her feet with his tiny razor-like teeth bared. At the sight of him, Noori pulled the ice pick from her pocket and gripped it tightly. She hated the idea of hurting an animal — even a vicious one poisoned by dark magic. But the wound from his last attack still stung, and Noori would defend herself and Keizsa if she had to.

"I should have known that Toddrick wouldn't be able to finish the job," Vidonia scoffed. "Even with the benefit of magic, he's still completely useless. How pathetic."