Elise Runs and Dorothy Falls

Chapter 10

Dorothy awoke with Elise still touching her. The witch prolonged the unexpected situation for a frozen second, unsure what to do until it occurred to her she hadn't any reason to linger on this. She got going.

The suns shone lightly in a windless, just-blue sky when Elise sat up. By this time, Dorothy had been awake a while memorizing her spells. The witch sat cross-legged at the pond's edge, Germón lay curled around her shoulder, and she hadn't been able to study her book not one lick or lump.

"Good morning, Dorothy. How do you feel?"

"Fine," the witch replied, who didn't. "How about you?"

"I had... strange dreams. What is that book you're holding?"

"Me spellbook."

The brown-haired one sat up all the way, looking at the book quizzically. "I don't remember you bringing a book. Where did you get it?"

"A witch never tells where she hides her spellbook. It's the source of all her greatest knowledge and power."

"What do you mean?"

Dorothy had only memorized one of about three spells she could cram into her head. On an ordinary day she would have finished already. "A witch, beyond her ability to perform cantrips—stuffs like levitation and commandin' crockery—has a number of greater spells whose maths are so difficult to retain that she's gotta refresh herself of 'em every so often... I do it every mornin'."

Elise nodded. "So that spell you cast to make the broom go faster..."

"Was a memorized spell, yeah. Once she uses 'em though, they're gone until she has time to recover. I've never managed to cast more than three spells a day without rest. It's just too hard."

"You mean spells are like math problems?" Elise couldn't resist a small laugh. "Math problems so confounding that when you finish a few you have to rest before attempting more?"

"I call 'em maths, but only cos those the closest words human have. The maths got a mystic element, too, which to those who don't conceive the world on a higher plane can't hope to comprehend. For a human, it's like tryin' ta understand God."

Elise snorted, unimpressed—or at least not betraying anything to the contrary. If she and Dorothy were going to be friends, and it seemed they should be considering their predicament, Dorothy would have to stop acting like a super being in a land of mere mortals.

The words of the man in black rose to Elise's mind...

"For a 'god', you certainly don't speak particularly good Wysterian," Elise scoffed as she got up. "The word 'trying' has a 'G', you know, as do all other words ending in 'I N G'!"

Obviously Dorothy had offended Elise, and although she had basically done it on purpose, Dorothy didn't know why she had done it on purpose. "What's that you got?" she asked more conversationally, perhaps to diffuse the situation.

With a curt glance over her shoulder, Elise saw the witch referred to the lavender stone on the ground.

"Oh, you know, just something I came across," said the girl. "Using your superior mind why don't you—brain scan it or something?"

A hateful presence yawned within the witch. Shutting her book with a great thump, she stood up and strode toward the stone. Elise wisely didn't get in her way.

"It's a moonstone," Dorothy said examining it.

"What's a moonstone?" A curious girl, Elise couldn't help but ask.

Dorothy didn't remove the stinger-like golden bangs that had fallen into her eyes. With dexterous fingers she turned the shard end over end, then clenched it tight.