Authors: Axel Blackwell
Something sick and sweet in her head said
of course we can’t help the boy
. It was neither of her voices. Anna shoved the thought aside. “There must be something that can be done for him.”
“Do you have a shovel?” Matilda asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What?”
“A shovel. The boy’s brain has been swelling ever since he was struck. If you start digging now, you should have a nice grave ready for him by the time he needs it.”
Anna groaned and slumped again, intending to lay back beside Donny, but Sarah held her fast. The new stitches in her back pulled, as if someone was using her back as a dartboard.
“Anna,” Matilda said, “I really do not have time for this. Come with us now and answer our questions. You will have plenty of time to mourn the boy once we have gone.”
“Okay,” the copper strawberry voice said, “but…”
Why
? Anna thought,
Why should I help you?
It seemed like too much trouble to ask. She looked around the little clearing, trying to remember something. The syrup was gumming up her mind. Lizzy, Mary, and Joan sat on a log watching. Maybelle lay beside Donny. Then she saw Jane, sitting blank-faced on the ground.
Forming the demand in her mind took a great deal of concentration, but once she had the words, they came easily enough. “Fix her,” Anna said. “Whatever you did, undo it.”
Matilda said, “Jane.”
Immediately, the girl stood. Her sense returned, and her anger. “Anna…”
“It’s okay, Jane, I have to go talk to these ladies,” Anna said. “I’m feeling better. I’ll be right back. Stay with Donny.”
“Anna,” Jane said, but as her cheeks flared, she changed her focus to Matilda, “You’re a witch? Good for you. But you don’t scare me…”
“Jane,” Anna said.
“Shut up, Anna,” Jane said, without looking at her, “I’m talking to the witch. I saw what they did to your
sister
last night. Tied her to a pole and lit her on fire. She would have died if Anna hadn’t gone back and saved her…”
“Yes, yes, we know all that,” Matilda snapped. “So what.”
“So, I know how to kill a witch, that’s what,” Jane said. “Keep that in mind,
Matilda
. You bring Anna back unharmed.”
Matilda raised an eyebrow and slowly lifted her chin, as if considering how to respond. Finally, she said, “I have no intention of harming her.” Then she turned and said to Anna, “But I have no time for any more delays. Shall we?”
Anna smiled at Jane, then followed Matilda and Sarah out of the forest.
The stones of The Saint Frances de Chantal Orphan Asylum littered the beach, as if they had always been there. Beyond the scattered bits of the old fortress, the Pacific rose and fell in gentle swells, like the breathing of some giant sleeping beast. Sunlight flared off its surface, startlingly bright, its glare nearly hiding the ship bobbing at anchor. The clipper’s hull and sails were white, almost silver. It shimmered like a mirage, folding in and out of the sunlight.
A radiant white dinghy rested on the beach, bearing no insignia, no markings of any kind. It occurred to Anna, then, to look for the little steamer she had intended to hijack for their escape. As soon as she thought it, she knew the steamer was gone. Nothing remained of the dock where it had been moored. Not even a single piling jutted from the deceptively calm water. Maybe it had washed inland and was scuttled somewhere in the woods. But, judging by the ruins of the orphanage, it was much more likely that the boat had been torn to bits and buried at sea.
“Are you absolutely sure no one is left in there?” Matilda’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Who?” Anna asked. “The people that tried to burn Dolores?”
“Yes, to whom else could I possibly be referring?”
Anna thought of Noel and Mary Two. It hurt her brain to respond smartly, but she did anyway. “My girls. Two of them died before we left. Why do you care about McCain’s people? I thought this was about Joseph.”
“This is about a lot of things. And you will do well to mind your manners,” Matilda said. “Did any of the witch-hunters survive?”
“Some were still alive when I…”
Died
, is what she thought. “When I fainted.”
Matilda flashed a grave look at Sarah.
“They were hurt real bad, though.”
“Sarah, check for survivors,” Matilda said. Sarah glared at her and stood where she was – just long enough for Anna to wonder whether she would obey – then she turned and headed for what remained of the rotunda.
To Anna, Matilda said, “You would be amazed what one may recover from.”
“Will Dolores recover?” Anna asked.
“Oh, yes, I am sure she will be just fine. She put so much of herself into that storm. I am really quite impressed, but it will take several hours for her to return to herself.”
“Jane said she was shot in the leg.”
“Oh, that is nothing,” Matilda said. “The burns, though, the burns may give us some trouble. Fire can be…difficult for us.” Matilda paused just a tick, then continued. “Enough about Dolores. Tell me about Abbess McCain. Is she one who may have survived?”
“No,” Anna said. “She did not survive.”
Somewhere within the ruins, a pistol cracked. Anna whipped her head around, but saw nothing. Matilda pretended not to notice.
“There is a man named Theodor Stevens,” Matilda asked, “do you know if he was here? Do you know if he survived?”
Anna, still looking toward the ruins said, “Uh, there were a lot of people here, a lot of men, but I never saw them before last night…I never heard any names.”
“Look at me when I speak to you, Anna. This man, right here,” Matilda held out a large, sepia photograph, “Theodor Stevens, did you see him?”
Anna turned slowly back to Matilda, intending to ask about the gunshot, but when she saw the photo, she forgot all about Sarah and the ruins. “Yeah, I saw that man. I, uh…I mean, he tried to grab me. I kicked him in the teeth.”
Matilda smiled, “You kicked Theodor Stevens in the teeth. You are sure it was him?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So he was alive the last time you saw him? Can you tell me where that was?”
“There used to be a balcony there.” Anna pointed into space, past the end of the hanging staircase. “That’s where he was.”
“Hmm,” Matilda nodded. “And what about this person?” She flipped the photo over. Its back was the same as its front, except the photo now showed one of the men who had been working the pump.
“Yes, he was here, he fought with Joseph. I don’t think he lived.”
“Very good, and this person?” Matilda flipped the photo again, this time it showed a picture of a man Anna had not seen.
“I don’t recognize him, but I didn’t see everybody’s face.”
“Hmm,” Matilda flipped the photo again, “and this person?”
The card now showed a picture of Sister Eustace. Anna’s world shifted slightly. Eustace’s face from the previous night, rising out of the fog behind Donny, flashed through her head. The echo of the ax handle cracking across Donny’s skull reverberated in her mind. Anna stood stunned for a moment. At the edges of her vision, the world drifted, rotated.
“Well, yes or no?” Matilda demanded.
Anna blinked. They had been walking as Matilda showed her the photographs, Anna hadn’t noticed until just now. They now stood where the main entrance had been. Before them, only a few yards away, the Pacific gently lapped the shore. Behind them, the forest stood as a green line over a black shadow. On the sand-washed lawn, Jane walked toward them.
“Yes,” Anna said quickly, not wanting Matilda to see Jane’s approach. “Yes, she was here. And yes, she is dead. A six year old shot her in the back with a silver bullet.”
“Really! Well, that is fitting I suppose,” Matilda said. “Speaking of silver bullets, what about this person?” The photo now showed Hattie.
“Ax in the head,” Anna said. “Dolores did it.”
“Wonderful. And Dolores has the pistols, then?”
“She…what? Who? I mean, Maybelle got it from Donny…”
“No, Hattie’s pistols,” Matilda said. “Dolores would have taken them when she killed Hattie. Where are they now?”
Why do you care about the pistols?
Anna said, “I don’t know where they are. Dolores was captured after she killed Hattie. McCain probably took them back.”
“Hmm.” Matilda looked at Anna the way a snake watches a bird. “I do not think you are being entirely honest with me.”
“I don’t think you are being entirely honest with me, either,” Anna said. The coppery taste bubbled up in her throat as she said it. “Why do you care what happened to those pistols? This isn’t about Joseph and Dolores at all, is it?”
Before Matilda could answer, Sarah stepped out of the shell that had been The Saint Frances de Chantal Orphan Asylum. She carried a long, thin blade. As she approached, she sheathed the blade inside her parasol. Small droplets of blood stained the right sleeve of her dress. She spoke, in a voice identical to Matilda’s. “There are no survivors.”
“Hmm, very well,” said Matilda.
Anna noticed a hole in Sarah’s dress, just below the left breast. It had not been there a moment ago. The edges of the hole were darkened, and tiny black specks surrounded it, burn marks.
Matilda saw where Anna was looking and said, “Sarah, you seem to have torn a small hole in your bodice.”
Sarah again glared at Matilda, cool death in her eyes. “It shall be no trouble to mend,” she said. “It looks like our friend is back.” Sarah walked past Matilda, blocking Jane.
Another hole had appeared in Sarah’s dress, this one in the back, a bloodless exit wound.
“Anna, pay attention now,” Matilda said, ignoring Jane. “We still have several photographs for you to identify, and a few objects to locate. I need Hattie’s pistols and…a key? Yes, I believe Dolores gave you a key. We will be needing that, as well. If we can finish up in a timely manner, I can leave you in peace. Do you recognize this man?”
Anna didn’t look at the picture. She was forming her own picture in her mind. It was a dark and ugly picture, with these two women standing at the forefront.
“You didn’t send Dolores to free Joseph. That wasn’t the real reason.” Anna said.” You sent her here to fight McCain.”
“
I
did not send her at all,” Matilda said, “the coven did – to right her wrongs, and to repay her debts. But that is none of your business. Did you see this man or not?”
The strawberry-copper syrup burned in her brain, but Anna still did not look at the picture. “What ‘wrongs’ and ‘debts’? She was orphaned and tortured for your coven. She watched her brother die rather than give you up.”
“Her brother did
not
die. And that
is
the problem,” said Matilda. “We have been very careful, for centuries, to hide our existence. Our enemies had begun to believe they had wiped us out, or that we had never been real at all.
“Before Joseph, McCain had only a handful of nutty fanatics in her order. Once his existence became known, well, McCain had no trouble recruiting an army of witch-hunters. What Dolores did ruined hundreds of years of careful work and planning, and cost several lives.”
“So you sent her here, all by herself, to do battle against your enemies?” Anna asked.
“No. I told you,
I
did not send her, the coven did. Enough, already! Look at the picture and tell…”
“You didn’t even tell her what she was getting into, did you?” Anna asked. She felt the key in her pocket, her anchor, and clutched it tightly, fighting through the copper-strawberry bubbles in her brain. “She had no idea she would have to fight this army.”
“No more questions!” Matilda nearly yelled. “I told you it is not your business, and you would not understand it, anyway. You have seen that we have power, to do good or to harm. I did not want to harm you, or your friends, but you
will
cooperate with my investigation.”
“I will not,” Anna said. “I will answer no more questions until we come to terms. And you will not take Dolores from us. She is
our
sister, not yours.”
“What? What
terms
? What are you babbling about? Of course she is not your sister…”
“Before I answer another question, you will fix Donny, unswell his brain,” Anna said.
“That is quite impossible…”
“You
will
do it,” Anna said again. “You are lying. Somebody just shot your doppelganger, through the heart, and it didn’t hurt her. She stitched up my back and she didn’t even have a needle. I know you have the ability to fix him.”
“No,” said Matilda. “I will not waste my strength or time on an orphan boy.”
“That orphan boy is the only reason Dolores didn’t burn,” Anna said. “But that isn’t what you care about, so let me tell you something else, if not for that orphan boy, McCain would have killed Dolores long before all of her order arrived. None of them would have been killed. The only reason your sadistic little plan worked is because of that orphan boy.”
“Be that as it may,” Matilda said, “his fate is not my concern.”
“Then you may leave now,” Anna said, pointing to the silvery dinghy, “Because you will get nothing else from me. And you will not go anywhere near my girls.”
“You do not want to make me your enemy, Anna,” Matilda said.
“Lady!” Jane interrupted, in a voice that made Anna want to hide under a cot, “are you
blind
as well as stupid? Look around you. There used to be a fortress here. It stood here for a hundred years. It’s gone now. You know why? Because it made Anna its enemy. If anyone ought to be scared, lady, it’s you. There used to be a factory there, now it’s just a hole full of sand and seaweed, because it tried to keep Anna on this island.
“Anna fought off an entire order of evil nuns, an army of mercenary witch-hunters, a pack of wolves and a—a—a Joseph-Thing, to rescue her girls and get us off this island. And now, you are going to just saunter up in your silly white dress and threaten her? I’ve seen a lot of moronic behavior since I’ve lived here, lady, but you take the cake. You are one dumb witch!”
Sarah’s blade made the distinctive
snict
of steel on steel as she drew it. Matilda stayed her with a wave of her hand.
“McCain’s order,” Anna said, speaking as the thoughts came to her, “they didn’t all die here. That’s what you want to know, right? McCain was waiting for reinforcements. She was trying to hold off Joseph’s attack until they arrived. It sounded like that was the larger part of her army. Do you think that rumors of Joseph stirred up trouble for your coven? Just think what this will do. You’ve made a martyr of McCain.”
Matilda and Sarah exchanged troubled glances.
“In fact, the reinforcements are probably on their way as we speak.” Anna made a show of shielding her eyes and looking out to sea. “I’m surprised they haven’t arrived already. It seems to me that you would want to know which of McCain’s order remains alive, to know who is still hunting you. Also, I don’t think you would want them to find us, me and my girls. If you leave us behind, we could provide them with details you may not want them to have.”
“You will tell them nothing,” Sarah hissed.
“No, I won’t,” Anna said, “because you are going to help Donny, and then you are going to take us away from here.”
Matilda studied Anna, then surveyed the horizon. Finally she said, “You are telling the truth.”
Anna nodded.
“Sarah, see to the boy,”
“Matilda!” Sarah said.
“Do it,” Matilda said. “Time is short.”
Sarah whipped her blade from its parasol sheath. White-hot sunlight flared of its steel. She raised it above her left shoulder, then cross body slung it into the sand a Matilda’s feet. “Do not think that I will forget this,” she said. Her voice was ice and needles.