Chapter 4 - Death's Shroud

Tansy Paxton stood at the door of The Murky Cauldron, staring out at the darkening sky. The store had been busy that Thursday, the holidays right around the corner. As Halloween neared, people would start thinking of witchcraft and demons, faeries and magic. The Murky Cauldron would be filled with looky-loos with a curiosity but no passion for the reality behind their search. Today was just the beginning, and Tansy had to remind herself to be patient, that not everyone was in the know like herself and her coven, a coven that suffered tremendous loss over the last few weeks, first with Rose Tillery and then Alex Barrister, with three members of her coven being possessed by demons and taken to the Summerlands. The people entering her store would never know the sacrifice made to protect them from annihilation. However, it was something Tansy would never forget, an image that replayed in her mind since she returned to the Land Above with a devastated Kayla Lewell, an image that haunted her sleep as well as her waking hours.

Rose Tillery joined them, her arms wrapped around herself as she walked, bent over slightly. “The red coils vanished,” she said, glancing down at herself as well as Kayla and Wanda, their possessions by the demons severed, broken more than likely by most of the demons being back in the Nether and the fifth broken when Baltabek entered the Land Above. “It’s not going to do us much good if cracks still exist in the barrier to the Nether,” the Warrior said. “The demons can just get out again.”

“Not if there is a great sacrifice,” Pux, one of the gnomes sent to protect the Warrior’s Blade, said as he dropped from Renny’s shoulder to the ground. “Lives created it and lives must repair it.”

Everyone stared at the tiny gnome, not understanding what he meant.

“What the hell are you talking about? Someone must die in order to fix the holes?” Rhychard asked.

Pux shrugged. “The magic of the spell requires it.”

“I’m not asking anyone to die,” Rhychard snapped. “There has to be another way.”

“But we’re already dead,” Alex said as he turned to Rose, determination masking his face. “We can do it.”

“No,” Kayla whined. “Alex, you’ll be giving up your next journey. You can’t do that. This one was cut way too short. You need to live.”

Alex turned back to Kayla, kissing her forehead. “I have lived thanks to you. I need to do this.” He glanced down at the gnome. “Will that suffice?”

Pux pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded once. “It will.”

Alex turned to Rose. “What do you say? Wanna keep the baddies in their cage?”

Rose took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

Tansy just stood there, lost as to what to do to stop what needed to happen, but also knowing there was no other way. In order to protect all the realms, especially the Land Above, this had to occur.

Pux instructed Renny to open a bridge to the barrier of the Nether, and Laci stood beside the Warrior’s Blade, the two women clasping hands as Laci lent her power with auras to Renny’s power to focus on the barrier. The Warriors whom Renny Saunders had brought out of Rhychard’s Guardian Sword stood in a line between the two women and the portal to the barrier, their swords held in front of them, points raised. Their cosheys, the elven hounds bonded to a Warrior, stood beside them, backs straight, heads high as each waited to pay homage to the sacrifice of Rose and Alex.

Tansy and Wanda hugged them both, Tansy apologizing for not being strong enough to save them. Then both witches took their place beside the Warriors.

Rhychard and Kree took their spots, and even the gnomes stood in the lines.

Kayla held on to Alex one more time, each telling the other how much they meant to the other, and at that moment, Tansy almost called it all off, the agony of what she witnessed overwhelming. Alex kissed Kayla’s forehead. “I will always be right here.”

Kayla held his hand until they reached the line of Warriors, and then she went and stood beside Tansy, the older woman sliding an arm around the younger woman’s waist to show her support.

Alex brushed his lanky bangs out of his eyes as he turned to Rose. “Ready to be a hero?”

They clasped hands and started toward the barrier. As one, they held up their other arms, palms out toward the Nether, and willed their spirits into the barrier.

Tansy watched as the two witches started to dissolve, their spirits fading into white light as it flowed down the bridge and became absorbed by the wall that kept the worst of the Unseelie trapped. The barrier pulsed with new light, and Tansy witnessed the pieces fall back into place, holes sealing up, protecting the rest of the realms once more, sealing all the Gateways from the Nether to any of the other realms.

Everyone stood in place until the two witches completely disappeared, and then Kayla collapsed on the ground in tears that shook her shoulders. Tansy could only kneel beside her, holding the young witch as her life took another drastic turn.

Tansy sucked in a deep breath as the image faded from her mind. She hadn’t just lost Alex and Rose at that moment, but also Kayla and Laci, as well. Her coven was down to three witches, and those three were exhausted.

“This is just...amazing,” the energetic voice shouted from the display of books. “How did the Land Above ever acquire so much information on the faerie realm?”

Oh, and one elf. Tansy smiled as she turned to face Famallumi who sat in a chair he had dragged over to her bookshelf display, his long blond hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. To anyone who walked into The Murky Cauldron, he would appear as just another young man, eagerly absorbed in his reading. To those in the know, Famallumi was an elf, more to the point, a Lore Master Apprentice, sent to do a ballad or something on Rhychard Bartlett, the only human Warrior of the Way in existence. The elf, however, had yet to find his way back home, which was good for them since they had required his help on a number of occasions to fight the evil that threatened Harbor City.

Wanda Patterson glided through the bead curtain that separated the back room and the main store, a box of stock in her arms, giggling at the elf. “Magic tends to find magic,” the older, portly woman said as she shook her head at the elf. “I thought a Lore Master Apprentice would know that.” She moved to the front counter, setting her box down on the glass top. Wanda had been an extreme help since the beginning of the coven’s entrance into the world of the faeries, not allowing her age or desire to travel to keep her from pitching in to the fight and saving a few lives herself. She pushed her wire-rimmed glasses back up on her nose as she opened the box and started to pull out statues of small faeries sitting on rocks and small mushrooms. She had stepped into Rose’s position, not wanting anyone else put in the middle of the chaos that suddenly swarmed their shop as of late, and Tansy knew she would be lost without the older woman’s help and encouragement.

Wanda glanced over at Tansy, shaking her head at the leader of the Cauldron Coven. “You stand there every day. You need to relax. I made some nice orange spice tea. It’s back there in the kettle. You should go fix yourself a cup. Have one of those butter cookies I made this morning, as well. Definitely the thing to perk you right up.” She stared at Tansy as if her suggestion wasn’t really a suggestion, but more of an order.

Tansy just smiled at the other woman as she nodded once. “Sounds perfect. Thank you.” She didn’t, however, move to the back room. Instead, she moved over to the counter and helped pull the tiny statues from the box. “Have you heard from Kayla? I’ve tried calling her, but she’s not answering me. Probably hates me right now, blaming me for getting them all into this.”

Wanda reached over, placing her hand on Tansy’s arm. “She’ll come back around,” the older woman said. “Just give her time. She doesn’t blame you as much she blames herself. It was her hand that killed Alex after all. That’s a shock one doesn’t recover from easily.”

“I know,” Tansy said with a sigh. “I just wish she’d let me help her. Grief needs company.”

Wanda gave her a sympathetic smile. “She’ll come around. I know she will. Just give her time, love.”

Tansy just nodded. “I think I’ll get some of that tea now.”

Wanda smiled at her. “That’s a marvelous idea.”

Tansy turned to make her way to the back of the store, not sure if she’d actually fix a cup of tea or not, but just wanting to be alone with her guilt. These were her people, her coven. The responsibility to take care of them remained hers, and she failed them miserably. Now, she just wanted to fix everything, but saw no way to accomplish that.

She pushed her way into the back room, sliding the beaded curtain to the side, the thought of tea suddenly twisting her stomach.