A Witch's Word

A DAY OF PROFIT.

Good to her word, Edith was dressed in plain clothes donated by one of her maids and filled her purse with the lowest value coins that she recalled would be far more appreciated. Exasperated by the cautious warnings of her maids, she had fully intended to ditch them at some point before she left the palace. The only problem that this would cause was that there would be no one to guide her around the city. Retracing her steps from the previous night, she passed the great hall, which was now bare, cold and empty. Edith had always considered the light of day to shed truth on every situation and this was no different, for she had concluded that the court was always so, and the nighttime gave the illusion of what had once been before tragedy had struck Novtexo.

Scraping could be heard at the far end of the hall, and Edith paused her plans. Taking a step into the tomb of hospitality, she saw the boy who had turned the spit sweeping up the ash from the floor. His outfit was dirty and covered in grease, small singes had burnt through the fabric and not a person in the entire castle had thought it necessary to care for him. A lost soul in a lost court. If this was the preferred place for him, then he was potentially the best guide for her today.

“What is your name?”

“Lou,” he answered, continuing his labours.

“Would you like to go on an adventure with me, Lou?”

He slowed down in his task for a moment, a glimmer of contemplation, before he shook his head. Throwing himself into his work once more. Waving her hand, Edith made the evidence of the previous night’s festivities disappear. Lou turned to look at the princess, disbelief imprinted on his face.

“I want to see my new home, Lou. Not the courts, or feasts, or dancing. The real city. I think that is the one you ran from, because this hell is better, and I want to know why.” Edith implored him, softly. “I will make the spit turn without your help and ask you to serve me as my messenger. Would you like that, Lou?”

Lou didn’t reply, but tears brimmed across his eyeline. Abruptly, he flung his arms around his princess, disregarding the risk or impropriety of it because, for the first time in his memory, he felt the fragile whisper of hope. When he pulled away, he realised that his outfit was clean and new.

“I will take you, your highness.” He agreed, but knowing more than she did, he picked up a steak knife from the table and tucked it into the back of his belt.

Lou walked ahead the entire time; the cobbles were slippery with the slick foulness that had Edith covering her face when she first entered the lower town. People seemed unaffected by the stench, as if they were numbed by the sharpness of urine that aggressively attacked the air.

“Don’t cover your face. When you live with something long enough, you don’t notice the evil in it,” Lou advised.

How true that thought was. Edith wondered if there wasn’t some prophesy in those words for her own future.

“Where do people get their water from, Lou?” she asked.

The sickness through the town was evident from the men who sloped down the wall, easily dismissed as drunk if it were not for the sweat on their brow and the rashes on their faces. The children with hollowed cheeks and aching, empty bellies, and the women desperately trying to coax their children to drink water from their fingers as they turned their heads in refusal — even innocence knew that drinking water was the slower way to die. Lou trudged deeper into the town, always alert, ever watchful of the people around him. When Edith thought she could no longer endure the pain of her new people, Lou stopped. Pointing at a rusty pump.

A metal dragon’s head emerged from the wall; an unnatural green coated what seemed to have once been a black pump. Approaching the construct, Edith pulled the claw of the water supply, watching as the brown water spluttered out of its mouth. There was a bitter quality to the smell of the liquid that was pumped out, it was inky in appearance. Edith’s hands tightened into a fist. They had to drink this copper-poisoned water because it was better than dying of thirst, although how a mother had the strength to make that decision for her children Edith couldn’t comprehend. All the pain these people had suffered could have been prevented if these pumps had been maintained. Negligence was the disease that ran through this city.

“Who is responsible for this?” She asked Lou, although he noted the sharp edge to her tone.

“The queen cared for the welfare of the people, but she hasn’t been seen for a long time. Now it is the lords who pocket the money instead of using it for us.”

Turning back to the pump, Edith thrust her hand into its mouth, gripping onto the twisted tongue. The course erosion was rough against her fingertips until her magic ebbed through the system. Slowly at first, almost as if her power was trying to understand the extent of the damage. Then the green copper flaked away, revealing the shiny metal behind the galvanisation. The shape of the dragon scales became prominent as Edith moved her hand away shakily. Lou moved forward and grabbed the claw once more, watching in awe as the pump produced water that was as clear as any he had ever seen in the palace. Needing a moment to compose herself, Edith cupped the water in her hands and drank deeply, soon followed by Lou.

“Take me to every pump in the city Lou. Everyone will have fresh water by tonight,” she vowed.

Edith lent upon Lou’s shoulder as they walked back to the palace that night. She had restored every pump in the city and had established a queuing system so that everyone could have access to the water. Using the money in her pocket, she had paid for the butcher and baker to make as many meat-filled sandwiches as they could and distributed them amongst the people. It was the only task that she had failed to satisfy everyone, but not to be perturbed, she was already planning ways to fill the bellies of her people with more than water and promises. A satisfying ache coursed through her body as her magic had been stretched and used for the best of reasons. She knew she would treat herself to a long hot bath tonight and not feel guilty about the amount of water she used. Upon reaching the steps of the castle, the soldiers were frantic with hurried orders and rushed commands. Reid was shouting at everyone in the vicinity. When she passed the guards, the clattering stopped, and the general stared at her with an anger she hadn’t seen from him before.

“Men…disarm!” He called, and the gathering dispersed with frightening efficiency.

“We have been looking for you all day! Cadmus is soaring the skies looking for any trace of you!” he shouted at her, in disbelief.

As if to emphasise his point, Dex’s claws gouged into the castle’s defenses, before the prince of neglect jumped from his creature’s shoulders.

“Where have you been? I have been flying all afternoon looking for you!” Cadmus bellowed at her, seemingly indifferent to her answer and placing more import on how it had inconvenienced him.

Edith knew she should pretend to be submissive, so that they would trust her sooner and reveal their weaknesses faster, but the idea of these haughty, privileged men looking to take a moment of pride away from her achievement created a force of anger that surprised her.

“I think that might be the problem. You spend so much time in the sky that you are missing the painful truth on the ground. Today I fixed a hundred water pumps in your city. The same water pumps that have been giving copper poisoning to your people. An absolute preventable death that your insistence on looking at things from a long distance is responsible for.” Edith noticed the soldiers, maids and cleaners emerge from the shadows, but if it was a threat she was ready for it. “I fed starving children today. I gave some people hope. Other than flying around looking for a princess who told you where she would be today, what have you done for our people?”

Reid and Cadmus both paused in their judgements. Anger receding from their expression, replaced by astonishment. Had anyone ever spoken to them like that before?

The tension between them thrummed with palpable resentment, but a sharp snap broke their defensive glares. Lou’s palms were parting as he clapped once more, a delayed reaction to all he had seen his princess do that day. For the young boy had no doubt that he would freely give his services to the witch of Novtex for the duration of his life. A kinder and more blessed woman surely didn’t exist. Soon his applause was joined by others, people who worked in the castle repressing their hatred for the royals because their job was one of the few options that kept their families alive.

Cadmus had no words as she stormed passed them. He hadn’t thought that rage could make his wife more beautiful, but the power of her as she dismissed them almost had him begging her for a reprieve from her judgment. Instead, he clapped, joining his people and insisted that Reid did too.

“The advisors aren’t going to like this,” Reid warned.

“Let me worry about that. She has been here less than three days and has achieved what we couldn’t achieve in three decades. The advisors will have to tolerate it. She has just won the love of the people,” Cadmus replied.