Thirty Five: The Gathering

Witches poured into the valley, bringing with them strange sights, smells, and animals. If it wasn't clear before that the witches were from all walks of life, then it certainly was now. Some of them didn't even speak the common tongue. There were all manner of dress, some with face paints, many were adorned with bones and feathers and teeth.

They can't have been too far away, because they all arrived within that day. But they came from all the different caves that spilled into the valley, making me wonder even more where all those tunnels went to.

But what bore down on me the most, was their eyes. I could see them thinking it, assessing me. Lark's girl was here. I looked just like my mother, it was obvious at first glance who I am. I had finally gotten used to the witches in the valley looking at me. The novelty of my lineage had finally worn off and now they looked at me to greet me or simply to see who passed by. The new arrivals set me back to the first day I had found the valley all over again.

Schula smacked my shoulders. "Too tense."

I jumped when she smacked me. We were sitting outside Mila's cabin, and Schula was braiding my hair. I had stopped trying to hide my ears months ago, but now she was purposfly braiding my hair away from them for all to see and know that I was not Lark, but a different person. I had to stand strong today if I was going to convince them to help us.

I relaxed my shoulders and looked over to Schula sheepishly. "I can't help it. I'm nervous."

"Well don't tell them that," she said. "There, all done."

I reached up to touch her handiwork. My usual two braids were long gone, replaced by a couple dozen smaller ones that began at the back of my head in a knot, then flowed downward. I wore the decorative ear jewelry that Schula had given to me in the desert, drawing attention to my elven heratige.

"Thank you, Schula." I stood and stretched.

"Of course." She leaned over and hugged me tight. "It's nearly time. Let's go see how Nassir is doing and wait for the events to happen."

We walked down the slope to the bottom of the valley. The courtyard was already filled to the brim. More benches had been brought from nearby porches, and makeshift seating like upside down buckets and overturned feeding troughs were scattered in there as well. But few of the witches were actually seated yet. Too many felt the urgency and excitement in the air. Old friends were reuniting, curious young witches were being told about the gathering and why it would be called early, and the elder witches were trying to coral the whole mess.

To the side of the courtyard, a goat pen had been comendeered and the goats safely moved away so that Nassir could keep the captured fae captive. He was now up to his neck in rock as thick as my arm was long. That fae was going nowhere.

We walked up to the pen to see a smiling Nassir, leaning against the rail while the fae spat profanities at him from the pen.

"Good evening," Nassir said merrily.

I couldn't help myself from smirking at the fae in the pen. "Good evening, Nassir."

"I believe the gathering will begin soon. Mila told me as much, and Puko went off with her." Nassir nodded in the direction of the gathering.

"I guess we just wait then," Schula said, joining Nassir at the fence.

We watched the group of witches that milled about nearby. Mila was in there, with Puko on her shoulder. Noda was trying to pull together some kind of order as well. Purda was there next to Gelwyn. Several of the other witches who had patrolled for the intruder were around as well. But the final thing that triggered the gathering to settle, was when Gelwyn raised a hand and lit the dimming courtyard with purple flames.

"Daughters of the Mother! It is time again to gather under her hidden moon." Gelwyn's voice carried farther than one would naturally, leading me to believe that magic was involved. "As the keeper of the valley, I have called you together early to uncover a threat to our ways."

Schula snorted. "Like hell she called the gathering. That Noda did it."

"As the keeper, I have uncovered a plot of infiltration in our valley!" Gelwyn said, dramatically.

Murmurs and gasps rippled through the witches. Fingers were pointed, heads turned our way. Obviously we were the outsiders, but the captured fae in the pen behind us was a pretty obvious statement of someone who shouldn't be here.

"It began a moon ago, when the daughter of one of our lost sisters came back to us. Wren, daughter of Lark, please come forward to greet your sisters." Gelwyn gestured kindly to me. I frowned. She was only being nice now to make herself look good. But I obliged anyway, walking over the the center of the square where Gelwyn, Purda, Noda, and Mila stood. Puko cawed as I approached, and flew from Mila to land on my shoulder.

I walked to stand near Gelwyn, but stood closer to Mila than anyone else. Puko kept his blind eye trained on Gelwyn the whole time. Gelwyn opened her mouth to speak again, but Mila cut her off.

"Wren has traveled far. As you can see, she is Lark's daughter, and the daughter of an elf," Mila said. "So with her, she has two companions from the Wyldes."

Eyes darted from me to Schula and Nassir.

"Wren," Mila said quietly. "Any more you wish to reveal about yourself is up to you. I am the only one here that knows you are triquetram, and what Nassir was to Lark."

I nodded. It was no secret, but I didn't need to drag this out either. The witches deserved an explanation of the threat that had crept in behind us, but then I wanted to move on to my own purpose for coming here.

"If she has two companions from the Wyldes, what is that third one doing here?" someone demanded.

"That is our threat!" Gelwyn took over once again. "An intruder from the Wyldes has followed poor Wren and her companions here. By deceit and magic he has come into our valley, and cursed several of our sisters, myself included."

Gelwyn probably got the reactions she was looking for between the gasps and outcries. She looked pleased enough, anyway.

"How did it get in?" someone cried out.

"When did Wren get here?" asked another.

Questions started flying as the elder witches tried to calm down the crowd.

"Sisters!" Noda snapped. "Questions will be asked in an orderly manner. Form a line if you have a question and we will answer them in order."

The line formed quickly at Noda's feet. Gelwyn's expression faltered for a moment, but she didn't speak up about it. I was ready for a few questions to be directed toward me, but I didn't expect it to be nearly all of them.

Where had I been until now?

What happened to Lark?

Who was my father?

Did we know the intruder?

What was the curse?

It took a lot of sorting out, and I was glad to have Mila and Noda on my side. Even Purda stepped up and described the sleeping curse and emphasized that Nassir cured all of the affected witches. Some of the answers I didn't have yet. What happened to Lark exactly? Who was my father? I still hadn't encountered the elves, and I wasn't comfortable giving out the little information I had on them just yet.

And then the big question was asked when Jana reached the front of the line. I knew she would have a personal investment in the intruder, but I wasn't ready to hear her ask it with such venom in her tone.

"What, will we do with him?" Her hand flew in the direction of the trapped fae. Her finger pointing at him, a threatening tone in her actions.

Heads turned to the fae in question. He looked ready to shoot fire from his eyes, he was so furious. "My king will ruin all of you!"

"The ones that captured him were not of our sisterhood," Noda said. "As for his fate, we must consult the other fae present."

Schula looked surprised, Nassir didn't. They both came up to the center of the courtyard with us while a couple witches took up a post at the pen to keep an eye on the prisoner.

Schula and Nassir were given a wider berth than I was. But then, I was one of the witches now so being a stranger might not matter as much to them when it came to other witches.

Once Nassir and Schula took up a position with us, the questions started all over again. They didn't even have to be told to form a line, it just appeared and the words started pouring out.

Who were they exactly?

Where had they come from?

Why did they travel with Wren?

We ended up revealing our relationships as triquetram and Lark's triquetram. That endeered them both to the witches pretty quickly. They may not have much experience with triquetram themselves, but it's not unheard of and it seemed to be a respected bond to them. I was relieved.

"So what will we do with the intruder?" Jana asked again.

Some heads turned to Nassir, who had taken a bit of a lead so Schula didn't have to step forward much. Nassir nodded his head slowly, scratching his chin. "Since he is trailing us, we need to ensure he looses our trail. And since you clearly want some kind of retribution, I think the best solution is for you to keep him here and do as you will while we make our way out of the valley."

Nassir got a lot of agreement for it. Witches with hungry anger looked more than pleased with his assessment.

"But I worry," Nassir continued. "He said he left trails. Markers. Can these be found and cleansed? I would not want more to come here after us."

Mila chuckled. "That will be no trouble, Nassir. Now that we know what to look for, it shall be done."

He smiled at that. "Very well. Then I think our part in this is finished."

Nassir and Schula took up their post by the pen again, leaving the elder witches with the center of the courtyard once more.

"Wren," Noda said. "You say you are leaving the valley?"

"Yes." I took a deep breath. "I came to find my mother's people. My people. I am more than pleased to have joined you sisters."

Many heads nodded in approval. "But I am also on an important journey. I found a home. A home in the Wyldes. There are people I care about there, and they are in danger. I must continue my journey after this gathering, but I must ask you. Do any among you know of the creation of the barrier to the Wyldes?"

The crowd was large, but even with their numbers they stood deadly still. None moved, none had an answer. Panic tightened my chest.

"The barrier is breaking down," I went on to explain. "Things that should not cross into the human lands are moving freely. You'll see them soon. Some of you may have already seen them. I am on a journey to find out how to repair or restore it."

Still, I was met with silence.

"Please," I said weakly. "Anyone."

A hand settled on my shoulder. I looked down to see Mila with a grim expression. "The ones who helped the fae build their borders are centuries dead, child. It is possible that their ways have not been passed down."

"Something at that barrier killed a very strong old fae," I choked out, refusing to cry. "If something like that gets out into the human cities, it will kill everyone in it's path!"

"I am sorry, Wren," Mila said. "I can try to come with you and have a look, but I cannot promise I will know how to fix it."

I swallowed my frustration and nodded. "Thank you, Mila."

"Just tell Puko to find me when you make your way there," she said softly.

"Wait."

A glimmer of hope clung to my heart as I looked up, scanning the crowd for the witch who spoke.

A proud witch with golden hair raised an arm. "What about the forbidden tomes?"

My lips parted in surprise. The forbidden tomes, what Purda used to discover that we could wake the witches with our meditation.

"Absolutely not," Gelwyn spoke up.

"They hold wisdom long gone," Mila argued.

"And foolishness," Noda hummed. "They are forbidden for a reason. Do not forget the magics in there we wish to erase."

"But surely we keep the tomes for a reason," the witch from the crowd spoke up again. "If such a barrier is keeping dark things from the rest of the Mother's lands, is it not our responsibility to repair it?"

That gained several nods, but the crowd still had mixed feelings.

"The barrier can't be the natural order of things," someone argued. "What if the Mother intended this?"

"But we should still look," someone else argued.

"A fledgling witch like Wren cannot be granted the forgotten tomes," Gelwyn said, reigning in the crowd. "There are barely a handful of witches who can access them, and she has been among us for only one moon."

"But the barrier!" someone shouted.

"Enough." Purda spoke calmly, but she silenced the crowd in an instant. She raised a hand to the moon and looked at me with those piercing eyes.

"Wren, daughter of Lark. If you wish access to the tomes, you must accept a burden I am about to bestow upon you."

A chill ran down my spine, but I didn't blink. I just stared at Purda.

"Wren. I name you now, under the Mother's sleeping moon, my heir and apprentice."

The witches erupted in shouting.

Even Mila looked shocked. Gelwyn looked furious.

I didn't yet know what it would entail, but if it gained me what I needed then I would take it. Over the roar of the crowd, I looked to Purda and let her read my mouth clearly as I spoke calmly.

"I accept."