Shyshaker Princess

Chapter Two - Into the Blizzard

Part One - Snows Fall

Chapter Two - Into the Blizzard

POV - Imogen Pendle

As Imogen Pendle looked out on the falling snow, she concluded that she hated Queen Lilianna of Ellesmere. Sure, it was a little ill-mannered of her to say, considering that the Queen was now dying, but Imogen still felt her hatred deeply.

From her perch on the windowsill of her dingy cottage home in the Witch Quarters of Glencar City at the feet of Hawmere Castle, Imogen could smell the death. But the reek wasn't coming from the Ellesmere Palace where the Hawmere Queen may well be taking her last breaths.

The stench of decay and decomposition was coming from the little cot bed in the corner of the cottage's one room. They had moved her bed closer to the window during these last days. Imogen's mother had always preferred how the slanted morning light caught her eye at dawn. Imogen had taken to sleeping on the hearth before the fire with herbs stuffed along her sleeves to dowse the rotting smell her heightened senses magnified.

The High Witch of Ellesmere was sleeping fitfully. Everything, her every breath and thought would be linked with the Queen's now. As it had been since the Queen's Skyshaker abilities had settled upon her just over twenty years ago.

Imogen wasn't sulking.

Or at least that's what she told herself.

In truth, she was processing.

She fiddled mindlessly with one of her small braids, caught amidst the rest of her typically chaotic dark hair as she breathed deeply. While her mother and the Queen were dying simultaneously – as they always knew it would be – Imogen could feel her very veins recognising that she was soon to be the new High Witch, bound by an oath that spanned centuries to serve the resident Skyshaker.

Imogen was thankful that the leather of her boots had softened thoroughly over the last year or so as she padded along the floor, over to her mother's bed. Imogen stared dismally at the unlit candles on her mother's bedside table, surrounded by dozens of her favourite crystals.

It occurred to Imogen that if she was truly in any kind of fit condition to take over High Witch Selene's position, she would be able to light the candles before her with a single thought.

It seemed her mother was thinking the same because when Imogen lit a match and began lighting the candles one by one, she stirred for the first time in hours. Well, elemental magic had never been her strong suit.

"Mother?" Imogen's voice cracked hoarsely. 

Foolish. If her mother was well she would have chastised her for being so emotional. Imogen swiped at the tear on her cheek. She was acting like a baby, not the heir to not only the last High Witch – the last witch – of Ellesmere.

But at that moment, foolishness be damned, Imogen was just a girl, losing her mother.

"My daughter," The High Witch's voice was faint as if she was speaking from the other end of a long pipe. Selene Pendle twitched a hand at her side, gesturing her to come close. Despite her frailty, the motion was laced with the formidable command Imogen was accustomed to.

As Imogen perched lightly on the side of the bed, she took a blue lace agate crystal from the bedside table and clutched it tightly in one palm. With her other, she took her mother's hand. It had been years since she had held her hand like this. As if she was truly scared.

That thought alone was enough to have Imogen's heart beating hard enough that it might burst through her chest as she let go of her mother's hand only briefly and lay down beside her mother. This time when she took her hand, the crystal rested between their interlinked palms.

"I'm frightened," Imogen whispered.

Her hand began to throb with the energy – the raw magic – shared between their bloodline as Pendle witches. As mother and daughter. Two generations of power combined.

"There is another out there who is also very frightened," Selene whispered.

Her voice sounded parched, but when Imogen reached for the pitcher of water by the bed Selene only gripped her daughter's hand harder than Imogen believed possible.

"Listen to me," Selene begged, her magic giving a single powerful pulse directly into Imogen's veins. Her mother's eyes were full of an intensity that seemed to mirror the waves her wilting magic.

"Mother," Imogen pleaded. She didn't want to spend her last minutes with her only family member to be riddled with resentments for the royal family of Ellesmere. "I know that Prince Daimos is scared."

She sounded petulant. She knew it – but for some reason, it didn't matter to her that the Crowned Prince was posed to control the entire kingdom of Ellesmere's environment with his moods alone. And she was going to bound by blood to him, as his High Witch.

"Find who needs you," Selene whisper, a flicker of pain present only by the slight furrow between her brows.

A sharp rod of panic shot down Imogen's spine as the magic between their hands and channeled through the crystal began to wane. As though the outside temperature was dropping more and more each second, Imogen knew that the end was truly approaching.

Imogen took her free hand to her mother's face, so like her own. They shared everything. Dark, golden skin, dark, gold-flecked eyes and high cheekbones. Her mother, with whom she had shared everything, was in the prime of her adult life – too young to die.

They had shared everything and been each other's only partners in this kingdom. But now, Imogen was alone.

"Find them," The High Witch of Ellesmere said, speaking for the last time. Her last breath a command, as she would have liked.

For a long while, Imogen, after feeling the second strand of life, energy and raw magic from her mother's palm fade away, could not let go.

It was only when another thrumming energy in her very blood began to trickle that she stood from the bed and moved to the door.

Drawn in a trance, hooked like a fishing line to another soul who felt both close and far away, Imogen stepped outside into the awaiting blizzard.  

A/N

I hope all of you darlings enjoyed this chapter. I know it's early, but Imogen has always been a favourite character of mine, she's so much fun to write. I can't wait to show you all how badass she is!

Jen xx

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