The Witch And The Other One
Part 4
"I
don't ever want you talking to that kid again," I said. "You've done
enough damage to her as it is."
"She
came and woke me up, so get outta my face with this," Naomi snapped
back at me.
"I
don't care what she does; you can be your same old bitchy self and kick her out
of here. I don't want you around her and that's final!" I retorted.
"Then
you tell her to keep her little nosy butt outta this room!"
I
paced angrily, tired of the game we were playing. It was enough that I had to
take care of this wench, but now that she was more awake and alert, I had to
deal with her attitude, which inevitably bumped heads with mine. "Why
are you here?" I demanded, changing the subject. "What demon of bad
tidings landed you here and when does he come to get you back?" Naomi
maintained a sullen silence, telling me I'd hit a sensitive spot with her, so I
pursued my line of questioning. "I'm serious! How did you even get here
and why did you come?"
"That's
my business," Naomi muttered.
"It's
now my business, too," I snapped. "Remember, you've been
laying around here for 3 days now and all of here belongs to me. Now
unless you want me to kick you back to the curb where you came from, you better
give me a darn good reason to keep you here."
Naomi
looked steadily at me. "Fine, kick me out," she said calmly.
This
was definitely a surprise. I had expected the little coward to start rattling
off information like it was going out of style after that last threat. But I
only looked at her for a moment before I realized this was just as good as
getting information from her. I opened the door and stepped out of her way.
"Fine, go," I said in her same tone.
She
stood up and glared at me sidelong, then began to shuffle toward the door.
"Okay, be sure to explain to Christine that you kicked me out because of
your insane jealousy," she said as she past me.
"What?"
I said, putting a hand on her chest and shoving her back. "What was that?
My jealousy? Of what?"
"Of
the fact that she wants to talk to me and not you." Naomi gave me a straight
and hard look and I felt the guilt rise within me. "Oh, I'm sure it'll do
wonders for your relationship when you tell her that you kicked me out just
because I was talking to her." I faltered a little, but Naomi continued to
stare at me. True, part of me had been worried that Naomi was corrupting
Christine or trying to get her into another clinch wherein Chris was the
bargaining tool, like before. In fact, most of me was worried about that
happening.
But
a tiny part of me was insanely jealous. Jealous of Naomi in that she was
getting to spend more time with Christine than I was; that Christine might
actually like her better.
That
I might actually lose my little sister to Naomi without Christine fighting
back.
Now
she was really starting to tick me off. I knew she saw it in my eyes because
she smirked a little, but I had to cover myself, at any rate.
"Fine,"
I growled. "You say your goodbyes in the morning and you go, no fuss and
no questions asked."
Naomi
smirked at me, then sauntered back into the room. I was so disgusted with the
new low I'd hit, I slammed out of the room...right into Robin.
"Problem?"
she asked me.
I
jumped back in shock. "Jeez, Robin, you're like a leprechaun!" I
gasped, recovering from her sudden appearance.
"Hardly,"
she replied, with haughty fairy disdain. "What's going on between you and
Naomi?"
"Nothing,"
I mumbled. "Just making sure she got into bed okay."
"Oh?"
Robin asked, with the air of someone who knew better.
"Uh,
yeah," I replied, shuffling off down the hall to my room without looking
into her face. "G'night."
"Good
night," she replied.
Naomi
breathed a sigh of relief. That had been too close. She didn't want to admit
that she couldn't remember how she'd ended up here, but she also didn't want to
say why or how badly she wanted to stay. He was still waiting for her
out there and, since he obviously couldn't touch her directly while she was
with Daina, she wanted to stay long enough to get back up to full strength.
She
had to be at her best to stay ahead of him and the spell.
She
could remember basic details, of course. She remembered the deal; that had been
a fairly strong motivator all along since her life had now become part of the
bargain. The spell itself, the one whose power she was trying to escape, had
been part of the deal, too. Naomi had known all about Valorian witches before the
spell had been cast on her. She knew about their hatred for fairy folk from the
wars with them long ago and the enslavement spells that they knew how to cast,
but that had never stopped her from making deals with them. Old hate and
business never mixed. Love and business didn't, either, which was why she,
instead of her sister Fallon, was running from Renil the Valorian now.
She
also remembered turning Fallon over to Renil and then setting her free, the
main reason she was in trouble now. Renil had this thing about saving up enough
magic to be able to kill this future fairy empress before she got to him, so
he'd hired Naomi to capture fairies for him to drain magic from. This had
worked out well until they had started to avoid her as much as they avoided him.
Fallon
had been easy enough, though; she always felt it important to help her big
sister Naomi, no matter what her faults. The whole plan had worked beautifully.
Naomi had told Fallon she'd needed her help to talk a witch out of killing her
(Naomi), then Naomi had delivered her own sister into Renil's hands for his
disposal.
Something
had stopped her, though, whether it was love, guilt or just the horror of
seeing her sister crying desperately in a cage while she waited for Renil to
cast his enslavement spell on her. That, and knowing that at any time, Fallon
could have teleported herself to safety. But for her traitorous big sister, she
was actually staying to be killed. Naomi remembered picking Fallon's lock and
telling her to go, to go anyplace where she could never be found and not to
tell her where. Naomi hadn't ever wanted to feel that way again.
The
last thing she could remember well was when Renil had decided to drain Naomi's
magic instead. That was when they'd begun fighting while he'd tried to cast the
spell and then...she couldn't remember.
She
was certainly spell bound to him, however. The mind probing he was doing to her
and even his being able to find her here to do them said they were connected to
each other at least partially. As far as Naomi knew, that was for life. Of
course, if I avoided him for life, he probably couldn't use the spell on me,
Naomi thought to herself. But that was only a hope, she knew, and a faulty one
at that. If he could sweep her mind with the painful suggestions he'd been
trying to use as of late, he could do that anytime.
You
can't avoid me, Naomi, came Renil's voice in her head. Don't try to
fight me, my dear; it's quite useless. Naomi froze, physically and
mentally, trying to pretend she wasn't there or that she didn't hear him the
way she had been for the past 3 days. She'd been nearly caught by surprise, his
probe had sounded so much like the answer to her thoughts, but she'd realized
just in time that this was another sweep he was doing, a magical spell he'd
been casting out to locate her and not a sign that he actually had. She
retreated mentally, causing her physical body to sleep and the rest of her to
hide behind her mental wall. I can wait forever, the voice continued,
but you...you can't keep this pace up quite as long as you think. I've
already worn you down to this...
The
probe went away, taking its painful mental jabs with it. She wanted to gasp
with relief, but she remained a while longer in her mind, just in case. The
pain of Renil's spell attacking and searching for her magic was getting harder
and harder to withstand, but to let Renil hear her cry out in pain (or hear any
of her thoughts, for that matter) would be the same as letting him know where
she was and then there'd be no escaping him. Right now, he was probing her on
the assumption that she was whom he was looking for, otherwise, she'd be
feeling the effects of him and his spell right now. As long as she continued to
essentially play dead, he'd never suspect that the mind he'd been following and
causing havoc to was really hers.
Or
would he?, she wondered. Does he know right now and just can't reach me
because of being with Daina? Naomi came out of he trancelike state into
full alertness again with this thought on her mind. If that were the case, then
she'd be better off never leaving, maybe even ingratiating herself to Daina to
make a long stay more possible. But then again, she thought, even if
it is, do I really want to sit around here waiting for him to figure out how to
get to me? And even if he never does, do I really want to hide here while he
keeps trying like this?
Naomi
never got to finish this thought because she heard a slight moan in the room
next door. She got up and instinctively reached for her weapon, then after
realizing she was still disarmed, she shook her head as if to rid herself of
the thought, then tiptoed out into the hall and into Christine's room. Like
everyone else, Naomi knew that Christine never had any dreams of her own
because of some drawback from her being human and having Faerie power over
dreams. But right now, the kid was definitely asleep and definitely dreaming
something awful. She was tossing and turning everywhere as if trying not to see
something.
Naomi
was irritated. The last thing she wanted to be worrying about in the middle of
the night was some kid's stupid nightmare. She turned for the door, then
stopped as a thought crossed her mind. I wonder what her first thought was
when she walked into the room and I was looking like this. When Christine had
first tried to talk to her, she'd been trying to fight off a probe Renil had
sent. The kid had helped her through it, she thought, and she knew for a fact
that she couldn't have survived without it.
Help
her, Naomi, came a voice in her head. She needs you and it's the least
you can do. It was not Renil's, but it was familiar enough to make her
catch her breath as if it had been him.
"Fallon..."
Naomi whispered aloud.
Help
her, Naomi, the voice repeated, fading away. She needs you...
Not
knowing why, Naomi turned and rushed to Christine's bedside. She stood looking
down at her for a moment, unsure of what to do, then she sat down and took the
child in her arms. Perhaps she could do what Christine had done and join her in
her dream.
She
tried to concentrate on this, but suddenly Christine screamed out, "No,
Naomi, no!"
Naomi
jumped in surprise. Things began to happen almost faster than she could deal
with them. Christine's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Naomi's
confused and nervous face. "Naomi?" she asked groggily, eyes
beginning to fill with tears. "I had a terrible nightmare about you."
Naomi
started to answer her, but she heard Daina's door fling open.
"Christine?" Naomi heard her say. She heard the door to her own room
open and Daina searching for her, so Naomi quickly set Christine back down on
the bed and headed for the door, hoping to avoid Daina while she looked.
Perhaps she could pretend to be returning from Robin's...
Naomi,
I grow tired of this game, came Renil's voice in her head.
"Get
out of my head!" Naomi said angrily, then gasped, realizing her error.
Gotcha,
he said. Then, as Daina came in, the laughter began to echo through her brain,
dropping her to her knees.
Renil
had found her at last.
She
could barely hear Daina asking Christine what happened and Christine's sobs.
She never felt Daina's foot nudge her body over on its side as she collapsed...
Christine
was still only half awake when Daina first asked her about Naomi's presence in
her room, but she knew that Naomi was in trouble from the dream she'd had.
"Naomi..." she'd murmured, then started to cry. As she became more
alert, however, it became obvious that Daina was under the impression that
Naomi had tried to hurt Christine and that Christine had attacked her back. The
more Christine tried to explain this, the more Daina tried to make her calm
down and go back to sleep.
Marcus
came in with Robin and Target later and while Target carried Naomi back to
their castle, Marcus sat with Christine trying to put her to sleep again.
"Marcus,
please listen to me," Christine begged. "I promise I'll go right back
to sleep if you'll just listen to me!"
He
looked around worriedly, then sighed. "Okay, but make this fast, Chris;
I'm supposed to be making you get some rest."
"I
had a dream, Marcus, a nightmare! This man is going to kill Naomi somehow! He's
a witch, I think, and I think he's put some kind of spell on her that's going
to kill her. That's why she fell down before; he's trying to get her! I
never touched her."
"Christine,
even if you're right, that doesn't explain why she was in your room
tonight," Marcus shrugged. "Maybe Naomi's gotten herself into
something we can't get her out of and it's time she faced up to it."
"But...but
I don't think she's really as bad as everyone thinks she is," Chris
protested.
"I
know," said Marcus, his tone understanding, but condescending.
"That's why she's so dangerous." Christine had no answer for him, so
he sighed. "Get some sleep, okay?"
Christine
turned away from him and didn't answer. "I can go to sleep without
help," she said, coldly.
"Christine,
I'm sorry, but you've got to understand. All this is for your own good..."
Marcus began, but she still remained silent. He sighed and got up without
magically putting her to sleep. "Good night, sprite," he said,
leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
The
minute Marcus left, Christine concentrated. She knew no one would allow her to
go visit Naomi, but that didn't matter, since she probably wasn't awake,
anyway. She'd be back in her mind, fighting the man off...
When
Christine reached Naomi's dream, she found nothing again. But this time there
was no protective wall. It was all torn down and half standing. In the middle
of it, was Naomi's magic flame flickering gently and completely encased in a
crystalline bubble. Outside this bubble on the ground and leaning dejectedly
against the crystal pane, sat Naomi. She sat staring in at it, fingers
outstretched on the bubble as if she were trying to touch the flame without
much effort. She looked completely dejected and lost and her flame looked weak
and discolored.
"Naomi,"
Christine said, her voice echoing strangely in the emptiness. She was surprised
to hear her voice in the space that had previously held no sound, and even more
surprised to hear Naomi's voice.
"Go
away," she said, without feeling. "Haven't you caused me enough
trouble?"
"I
didn't mean to, I was trying to help you," Christine said.
"And
look where that got us both. Didn't I tell you humans and fairies don't
mix?" came the reply.
"And
I still don't believe you," Christine said, striding toward the bubble.
"I helped you once before, I can do it again..." She reached out to
place her hands on the bubble and was thrown backward by a burst of magic from
the crystal that hit her like an electric current.
Naomi's
laughter was raspy and hoarse. "You didn't really think that was gonna do
it, did you? I've been at this for a half an hour now," she chuckled. Her
attitude frightened Christine, who recovered from her shock to scoot closer to
Naomi.
"You're
acting like it's over," she whispered.
"It
is," Naomi said simply. "I belong to Renil now. Always did."
"But
aren't you even gonna try to fight him?" Christine asked.
Naomi
sighed heavily. "Whaddya think I've been doing all this time?"
"Running
away from him," Christine said.
"You are causing me an ungodly amount of
grief, kid." Naomi said, her voice too worn to even back her irritation.
"Don't you know when to quit? I've lost, it's over, so deal with it."
Christine
stood up. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything, Naomi," she
said.
For
the first time since Christine had begun speaking, Naomi looked directly at
her. "Cowardice is the better part of valor," she said.
Taken
aback by such a dramatic answer, Christine was actually startled back into her
own conscious. She was completely worn out from having gone so far to reach
Naomi's dream, but she was seriously worried now. If Naomi had at least
continued to run, Christine might not been so upset. But Naomi wasn't running
or standing her ground; she was just giving up.
Chris
wanted to get up and talk to Daina, but her body was so tired, it wouldn't let
her do anything but go back to sleep...