Chapter Two
Constance Hardbroom sat rigidly in her seat, watching Mistress Broomhead with a strange combination of admiration and trepidation. Constance Hardbroom had suffered more than her fair share of disappointment and loneliness in her young life but she had never before come across someone who displayed such a relentless and almost cruel sense of purpose as the woman now stood before her. Constance knew what was said about Mistress Broomhead; the most talented witch of the age but also one of the most formidable. She had been at the college for less than 24 hours and already she was longing for the quiet and comforting solitude of her old school library.
"The second task" Mistress Broomhead continued "is simple. You must merely maintain the light for as long as possible. The girl who can continue for the longest amount of time shall come under my tuition"
She gave a quick flick of her index and little finger and a large silver hourglass appeared on the desk behind her.
"You may begin" she said as she turned around to begin the hour glass.
Constance and the other two girls immediately conjured the white light once again but the girl along the row from Constance produced just a spark. She opened her mouth to repeat the incantation but Mistress Broomhead without turning around flicked her hand towards the door.
"Out" she ordered.
The girl gave a nonchalant wink at Constance as she slung her book bag over her shoulder and headed for the door. Constance risked a look at the two remaining girls. The girl at the front had produced a perfect pure white sphere of light about the size of a tangerine which floated steadily above her hand. The red haired girl's sphere had a slightly golden, yellow quality to it – like dappled sunlight, and it was swelling bigger and smaller rather like a sunflower opening and closing its petals. Her own light she knew well - it appeared spherical at first glance but when you examined it more closely it was more like a star with a bright white centre that extended outwards in four peaks surround by a haze of slightly paler white light.
Mistress Broomhead loomed at the front of the classroom surveying the girls over her tightly folded arms as the black grains of sand slid softly through the hour glass indicating the passing seconds. After about two minutes, the red haired girl's light suddenly swelled to twice the normal size before just as suddenly shrinking smaller and smaller until the tiny remaining seed of light shrank itself to nothing. Mistress Broomhead waved the girl from the room without comment, her stare never wavering from the remaining two witches before her.
After six minutes had passed in silence, Constance was beginning to tire slightly. Her hand ached from being held outstretched for so long and the concentration of producing the light was causing a slight headache to begin behind her eyes. She wondered how long she could persevere when she was distracted by Dorothy's light, which was beginning to waver slightly, she saw the back of her classmates shoulder stiffen as she pushed to maintain the light but within another thirty seconds the light had fallen onto the girl's palm and gone out.
"It seems, Dorothy, that this is another occasion when you have almost succeeded. Please collect your things quickly, I wish to speak with my new student alone."
Constance let her own light extinguish as Dorothy, her face flushed with anger, gathered up her things. She flexed her tired hand as she watched the other girl leave the classroom rapidly, her blonde ponytail swinging indignantly behind her.
Mistress Broomhead closed the door with a rapid wave of her hand and Constance found herself alone with Hecate Broomhead for the first time.