A Throne for Sisters

In another time, it might have been impressive. It was broad and dark, cut from local stone so finely that it seemed to be a natural extrusion from the landscape rather than a man-made structure. It was a broad shell shape, curling up with a statue standing at the center that might have been a woman once, but was now so covered in moss that it was hard to tell.

The fountain wasn’t flowing anymore.

That fact, more that the rest of it, told Kate just how useless her journey now was. Crumbling stonework wasn’t promising, but ultimately, it meant nothing. She’d come for a fountain, though. She’d assumed that there might be something special about the water there, something magical. Now that there was no water, it felt as though she’d let herself get carried away by what Geoffrey had told her. It felt stupid, to spend her time here rather than at the forge, crafting the sword that was currently only wooden.

Kate sat back against the fountain, closing her eyes to push back tears. She’d been so stupid to come here. Stupid to think that she could ever be as strong as the boys from Will’s regiment. It had been an empty dream.

“Why would a fountain make someone strong?” Kate demanded of the forest around her.

“Fountains can’t,” a woman’s voice said. “But if people are looking for a fountain, it makes it easier for me to find them.”

Kate’s eyes snapped open, and she stood, holding her wooden practice sword out in front of her. A woman stood there, wearing a hooded robe of deep, forest green. She had dark hair that appeared to be tangled with ivy, and eyes of a leaf green that seemed to match the plants around her. She was older than Kate, perhaps thirty, but with a look to her that said she might be even older than that.

“I’ve been threatened with many things before,” the woman said. She pushed aside Kate’s practice blade gently. “Never with a stick.”

“I – ” Kate lowered the weapon. “I’m sorry, you caught me by surprise.”

“But you came to this place,” she said. “You came looking for help, or you would not be here.”

“I just didn’t expect…” Kate began. She realized that she must sound like an idiot. “Who are you?”

Instinctively, Kate reached out to read the other woman’s mind, but all that met her was something that felt as solid as a wall. Her attempt to get through just slid off it, and Kate stared at the other woman in shock.

“I am someone who is not so easily read by a gift such as yours,” she replied, although she didn’t seem angry at the intrusion. If anything, she seemed happy about it, which was the one reaction Kate hadn’t expected. “And now you are wondering if we are the same. We are not the same, girl. Mine is a much darker version of your powers. And much more twisted. One you should beware to pry too deeply into.”

Kate suddenly felt a flash of this woman’s mind, as if sent to her, and she involuntarily raised her hands to her ears and shrieked. It was so dark, so awful, a blur of horrific images, all moving too fast to make out, but leaving an impression of incredible horror.

Finally, it stopped.

Kate removed her hands from her ears, breathing hard, staring wide-eyed. Never in her life had someone invaded her mind like that. She had all this time assumed she was impervious. That no one else’s mind was more powerful than hers.

She looked this woman – if that’s what she was – up and down with a new fear, and a new respect. Perhaps she shouldn’t have come here after all.

The woman grinned in return, an ugly, invasive grin.

“Who are you?” Kate asked again.

The woman was silent for a long time. Finally, she spoke.

“Some call me Siobhan,” she said. “But names are merely labels for the weak. You have come here for a reason. Ask for what it is you want, and I will tell you the price.”

Kate blinked.

“I don’t understand,” Kate said.

The woman frowned, and Kate could guess at the disapproval there.

“Don’t waste my time, girl. You came here for a reason. You were looking for something. What is it?”

Kate swallowed, but refused to allow herself to be cowed by Siobhan’s tone. She would be strong.

“I want to be able to fight,” she said. “I want to have enough power that I’m never helpless again.”

The other woman stood there in silence for a few heartbeats. Kate could feel each one thudding against the inside of her chest. What would she do when the other woman said no? What would she do when Siobhan told her that it was impossible, and Kate was wasting her time?

“You have a talent, and I could teach you to build on it. I could teach you to fight in ways that have nothing to do with the crude strength of men. I could teach you to harness powers beyond anything you’ve seen.”

She made it sound so simple, when her whole life, Kate had been told that there were some things that were too evil even to talk about. There was a reason Kate and Sophia had hidden what they could do.

“You wouldn’t have to be afraid of what you are any longer,” Siobhan said. “You could be strong. You could be free. My kind can help yours, if you let us.”

A part of Kate wanted to say yes, but she knew better than to do that. People were rarely so generous.

“And what would you want?” Kate asked.

Siobhan seemed pleased. “In return, two things.”

“Two things?” Kate retorted.

“You ask a great deal of me,” the woman replied. “Two things does not seem unreasonable.”

She made it sound almost playful, as though the whole thing was a game. There was something about the laugh that followed that almost didn’t seem human. It seemed as though the forest itself was laughing.

“What things?” Kate asked, in spite of it.

“Apprentice to me and learn all I wish to teach you.”

That didn’t sound so different from the arrangement she had with Thomas. It didn’t sound so different, in a lot of ways, to the best kind of arrangement that might have resulted from her indenture.

“And the second thing?” Kate asked.

The other woman stepped into the fountain, and for a moment, shimmered. Kate saw an image of it bright and new, filled with water. The statue above shone, and it looked far too similar to the witch there for Kate’s taste.

There came a long silence. Then:

“A favor.”

Kate cocked her head to one side. “What favor?”

Siobhan laughed that worrying laugh again. She seemed to be enjoying this whole thing far too much. “I haven’t decided. But you would do it, whatever it was.”

That was a much bigger thing to ask. Kate wasn’t sure that she could stomach that.

She shook her head. It was too much. It was far too much. She sensed this woman’s darkness, and she sensed that, whatever favor it was, it would be horrific. It would be like selling her soul.

She backed away from the fountain, one step at a time.

“No,” she said, surprised to hear her own words, surprised to hear herself turn down the only thing she’d ever wanted.