The Midnight Moon [ONC 2024]

Chapter 14: Visions from the Scrying Bowl

Once we stepped foot inside the agency, Tomasina went to put the kettle on, while the rest of us headed into my office. I added a couple more logs to the fire, and then directed Vanteray to sit beside it.

'You and Darius seem to be working well together,' the fortune teller observed.

'And you and Darius seem to be close,' I replied, wishing I could take the words back as soon as I had uttered them. They made me sound childish and spiteful.

'We may have been, once. Like with you, it was a long time ago. Unlike with you, it meant very little to either of us.'

She was wrong with her last statement. The look in Darius's eyes as he looked at her in the witch's garden had spoken volumes, only I hadn't been able to tell about what. Her confirming their relationship now, shed more light than I wished on the issue.

She held my gaze for what seemed like an eternity, and I felt myself falling once more. Thankfully Tomasina entered carrying the tea tray, with Jack trailing after her, their timely entrance breaking the spell.

Vanteray studied Tomasina as she poured the tea. 'You know you have a little witch in you. That is why you are drawn to the path you are on, and no matter how hard you try to prevent it from taking hold of you, it won't let go. The blood of the witch is very hard to ignore.'

Tomasina looked nervously at Vanteray. 'I didn't know that, miss. Thank you for telling me.'

Vanteray smiled. 'You have a good heart, young one. Should you ever need my help, Hereward will tell you how you can find me.'

I watched this exchange with curiosity, wondering what it was that Vanteray saw Tomasina needing her help with. Then I reminded myself it wasn't my business.

With us all except Jack, cradling a steaming cup of tea, and sitting around the fire, Vanteray finally explained what had caused her to leave the comfort and safety of her caravan, to come to my aid.

'I was troubled when you left me, Hereward. My heart would not be still. I could not rest. I knew this would not change, and I would not get any sleep, until I tried to discover from where this dread for your welfare had come. It has been many, many years since I stayed awake all night, worrying after you.'

'That, you never did,' I countered.

'I did. Often. Especially after I wounded your heart and you would not speak to me. I worried after you so much then.'

I felt my cheeks colour. I had worked hard to cultivate the persona of a hardworking puzzlesolver, who stopped at nothing to get to the truth. Now Vanteray was talking of me as a lovestruck youth who behaved carelessly after having his heart broken. This was not the sort of publicity I needed.

'However you recollect our past, it differs greatly from my memories. Now, you didn't come here in the dark and cold to fill Tomasina and Jack's heads with fabrications about me, did you?'

Vanteray stared at me long and hard. Her eyes were unreadable. Then she suddenly smiled, and turned to the others. 'He was much easier to love in his youth.' Then to me, 'But you are right, as you so often are,' a wink was offered to the others, 'I came here with news of great importance. As I said, I was disturbed by your trouble and your case, and of course, that the town's witch, on whom so many depend, was missing. And so I turned to my scrying bowl for answers.

'I saw the forest and the moon. I heard chanting. I saw the witch's cottage by daylight, empty, falling into ruin, and the garden overgrown. And then...then...I saw dead bodies in the street. Communities suspicious of one and other. Morteton was going to live up to its name. Town of Death, indeed! I was frightened, Hereward. I've never been scared before, but when I saw these things, I went cold. I saw my garden full of flowers being consumed by shade and shadow. And my home...gone. What does it mean? What is happening here?'

Tomasina pulled her chair over to Vanteray's and took hold of her hand. 'It's all right, miss. Like I said to Jack earlier, there's nothing to fear. "I think we have the two best men in Morteton on the case," that's what I said, and I meant it.'

I began mulling over Vanteray's words of darkness and death. They were not words of comfort.

'An empty witch's cottage suggests this isn't about a new witch in town, echoing what Darius said about a lack of fighting between them on the night of her abduction. Your vision makes this sound like something far bigger is going on here, but what?

'We've managed to determine the culprit, or more likely, the culprits are not local. Pitting Darius and I against each other mirrors what you saw regarding communities fighting against each other. The chanting suggests the reason behind it is magical. Why do they want people dead? The obvious answer is to get them out of the way. But why kidnap the town witch? Because her spells can protect against what they want to do. If she isn't dead, I have a horrible feeling she soon will be. Hence the neglected state of her cottage in your vision, and not even a new witch to take her place and take up the mantle of protecting the town... If this was political, it would be a coup.'

'Perhaps it is,' Tomasina whispered, the horror of my interpretation of Vanteray's scrying etched across her young face. How much had this poor young girl seen in her short life?

'You think it might be political?'

'No. I think it might be a coup. A magical coup.'

Realisation dawned, and all the pieces fell into place. 'They are trying to overhaul how the magical community operates in the town, maybe even further afield and across the kingdom. If Mistaria Heath as the town witch can protect the town from this sort of magical attack, she can't be the only one, can she? Who else in Morteton has that same level of power and influence?'

'Doric Nash, the town astrologer?' Tomasina asked.

'Yes, certainly,' Vanteray whispered. 'He would have seen something amiss in the stars...but...he was supposed to be going on his annual holiday today. If he is missing too, no-one would know.'

'The timing of his absence seems too perfect to ignore. Anyone else?'

'The Steward of the Scrolls, Fletcher Hastings,' Jack said.

'He guards the magical records of the town, its secrets, its history, and its spell archive,' Tomasina enlightened me, when I raised my eyebrows to inquire who he was.

'Does anyone know if he is still in Morteton?'

'I've not heard otherwise,' Vanteray said. 'But I don't see how we can verify he is all right until the morning. Can we?'

'I'll go,' Tomasina announced, standing up. 'I know someone who works in his household. 'I won't be long.'

'You can't go off on your own. Doesn't anyone else realise how dangerous Morteton can be on a normal night, after dark, let alone in the middle of...whatever this is?'

'I'll go with her, Slaine,' Jack said. 'You need to work out where Mistaria, and maybe the others, are being held before things get any further out of hand.'

I had to agree with him.

* * * * *

Chapter word count: 1229

Story word count: 17,174