Half Magic | Book 2

Twenty Two: The Witches

The birds of light flew through the cavern under my touch. I could reveal seven of them before the old ones began to fade away. Small birds, all in the same pose and no bigger than my thumb.

Nassir tried to detect them before I uncovered them, but he couldn't. Puko was now content to sit in Schula's arms and offered no new help. Now it was up to me, and the birds.

We had to watch our footing, but the cave opened up surprisingly wide after the first few moments of walking. But while the cave was spacious, it was dark and eerie. Things slithered at the edge of my hearing. Water dripped, and other things splashed and crawled and clicked their way around. I couldn't decide if I'd rather be able to see, or if I should be happy in the little vision my elven eyes gave me down here.

It was a blessing that the birds kept leading us along, because once we were into the wider parts of the cave, tunnels and chutes opened up everywhere. It would have been a labyrinth without guidance, and as I looked down the wrong paths I had a pretty bad feeling about what waited for lost travelers there.

The scarf I had used to keep the sun off of my head in the sands was now tied around my bag strap at one end. Schula and Nassir held onto it. I didn't think we'd be separated just from the darkness, but the feeling of something in the air was strong. If magics were afoot, we had a physical attachment keeping us from straying into an illusion. I faced the Mist walker once, and none of us was so keen to fall for a similar trick again.

The night had just begun when Puko spurred us into action, but by now it must be nearly sunrise. I kept placing my palms on the rocky walls, and they kept revealing more birds. They had all been the same, and I almost didn't notice when they began to change. Thankfully, someone else did.

"Is that one bigger?" Schula asked.

I looked behind me at the last bird I had revealed, then the one before it.

"It is," I said. "I wonder why."

"Try the next one," she suggested.

I placed my hand ahead where the next bird would be, and sure enough it was bigger than the first ones but no larger then the last and biggest bird. I uncovered two more. All the same new size.

"What do you suppose it means?" Schula asked.

"I hope it means we're getting closer," Nassir said. "We have been walking all night after all. If my sleep schedule wasn't out of order before, it certainly is now."

We kept going, and this time I was paying close attention to the sizes of the birds. After a bit they grew another size. A bit after that they grew again. I was starting to get excited when a tug at the scarf on my bag had me stop.

"W-"

"Shh." Schula tapped her ear. I could just make out the motion in the dark, but I under stood. She wanted me to listen.

I tilted my head and waited. The eerie slithers and scrapes of the life in the cave were no longer quite so frighting, and I was able to look past them. Or listen, I suppose.

Laughter. So faint even I could barely catch it. How Schula did was a mystery. I sucked in a breath and turned to my friends.

"Now what?" I said, barely audibly.

"It could be the witches," Nassir said. "Let's go on."

We kept going, a little more cautious of our noise now, but we kept going. The birds got bigger one last time, and we began to see light bouncing in the cave. The familiar moving flicker of yellow flame.

More sounds came to me when I stopped to listen for them. I could now easily hear conversation, though not clearly enough to decipher with all the echoing of the walls. There were people, fires, dishes, spinning wheels, animals, creaking wood, and shuffling straw.