By Mistress of Magic
Disclaimer: I don't own the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Phillip Pullman but I'm a big fan. This is my fanfic. Enjoy!!
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Part Three: The Witch Queens/ One day later, Ruta Skadi's territory
"I think it is Serafina Pekkala," Ruta Skadi said firmly as she stood up. Her face was troubled. "I can sense her aura. Oh, Sergi, it is something urgent! I wonder what is wrong? She seems to be shaking---this concerns our witches, too." the witch turned her head to look at her bluethroat daemon, who was currently perched on her shoulder. Her eyes were deeply worried. "She's coming, and she'll be here soon, if nothing prevents her."
"What do you think it is?" Sergi asked.
"I don't know," Ruta Skadi simply replied.
Sergi chose to say nothing in return, but he did not doubt his witch's words in the least. She always seemed to be right about these sort of things. He instead flew into one of the thin, low branches of a youngish cloud-pine tree, the one he and the witch had slept under that night.
The witches were scattered around wherever, the older ones mostly talking near their campfires, and some of the younger witches flying upwards into the clear sky, chasing their bird daemons. The day had dawned cool and of a dreamy sort, and that seemed the thing for them to do. But Ruta Skadi was doing neither of these things; she was with Sergi, under the trees where they liked it best, reasonably away from the other witches, where they could talk without being disturbed for a good while.
"I am going to fly up, and look for her," Ruta said absently, taking hold of her cloud-pine. "I think…I think Serafina Pekkala will want to talk to me. It will be important." The witch suddenly threw her slim branch of cloud-pine into the air, and leaped upwards to meet it. She swung her right leg over, and kicked off the ground hard. Ruta Skadi willed, as all witches do when flying, the cloud-pine to rise, and was off. Sergi followed her.
Serafina Pekkala knew she was there, or almost there. Witches could navigate better than the best birds, and although she had never been anywhere this far away from home, she could tell she was getting nearer. It was in their blood. But the witch was tired; she had not stopped to rest once during the entire time she had been flying. The wind, which was noticeable warmer than the air currents of her own territory, pressed against her face and body as she sped on, on. She squinted her eyes, and strained to see if there were any witches, airborne or earthbound, anywhere nearby. She was so tired. The witch queen could feel a sort of pull at her heart. I should have taken Kasia with me, she thought, painfully thinking of her daemon. I need to rest! Serafina suddenly felt very lightheaded. She bent forward on her cloud-pine, and willed it clumsily downwards. As it sped in a quavering line towards the hard earth below, she did not see the single witch and her bluethroat daemon who watched her fall.
High in the air, Ruta Skadi flew this way and that, turning and looping to see in all directions and between then. There was nothing she or Sergi, who she sent out farther than she herself had gone, near the horizon, where there were large, dark storm clouds beginning to build up. After half and hour, still nothing. But then, just as the witch and her bluethroat daemon were about to give up, she caught sight of what to her looked like a minute black dot, which seemed to be falling like a shooting star out of the corner of her eye.
She gasped, and spun around. "There she is!"
"What's wrong?" Sergi asked, very much alarmed. "Is she falling?" the bluethroat noted the awkward position in witch the other witch was falling.
"I don't think so," Ruta Skadi said, shooting off in the direction the other witch was falling. "But I think she needs us! Quickly, let's catch her! She could be hurt!" the bluethroat chirped twice loudly in agreement, and flew at his witch's side.
"Serafina Pekkala!" Ruta Skadi yelled, putting her hand to her mouth to emphasize her voice. "Sister, hear me! Stop!"
Serafina heard the other witch's cry, and the strong, fast wingbeats of her daemon. She breathed in, hard, as the witch Ruta Skadi, her eyes bright with alarm and some fear, flew forward and stopped the other queen. "Serafina!" she breathed. "What is wrong?"
For a moment, the fair-haired witch blinked at her rescuer uncomprehendingly. Then she whispered something in so soft a voice Ruta Skadi could not hear. Ruta put her hand on Serafina's back to steady the both of them, and said, "Come with me, we will talk after you rest." Serafina said, "Yes, after I rest…Sister, I thank you." she still seemed quite dazed.
"Serafina, tell me, what has happened? What is wrong?" Ruta Skadi inquired after Serafina Pekkala had rested and was safely on the ground. The clan queen of Lake Enara and the Latvian queen were completely alone now, and they could finally speak to one another in peace. The two witches sat together on a great fallen log, which lay heavily over a small stream in the quiet of the deep, green forest.
"Ruta Skadi," Serafina Pekkala said quietly, saying her friend and ally's name slowly. "I came to tell you, about the dream I had."
The Latvian queen listened to Serafina intently. To someone who didn't know Serafina, or any witch well, it would have sounded quite silly, what the clan queen of Lake Enara was about to say. However, Ruta Skadi knew it was something else. What witch with any head on her shoulders would want to spontaneously leave her entire clan only to tell another of some simple dream?
For Serafina Pekkala, this had been no dream at all, but a true nightmare, which had been more vivid than anything she had ever witnessed while she was sleeping.
Ruta knew this would be important, and waited patently for her sister witch to begin.
"The witches' Eve," Serafina Pekkala said softly. "is dead. In my dream, I could see her. Not the little girl we witches rescued from Bolvanger and Svalbard. She had grown up, as all short-lifes eventually do…yes, Lyra Silvertongue was a grown woman, with a child. The child was only a baby. A girl. Something---" It was here she paused for a moment, swallowing hard before going on. "Someone," she corrected herself, "was sent to destroy the both of them. I saw him. The assassin was a man, I think, and an angel from the looks of him…" Serafina's voice suddenly trailed off when she saw Ruta Skadi's mouth open.
"An angel!" she said, shocked. "Why would an angel want to take the lives of a young woman and her child?" she believed Serafina's words. "And a daughter, at that!" Ruta Skadi thought of Lyra, whose spirit was pure witch-oil. Lyra had been Lord Asriel's child, and she should have been her mother. Ruta Skadi had always wanted a daughter to be clan queen after she was gone, but had never had children. The thought of someone—an angel, especially, trying to kill the child who should have been hers and that child's child was…horrifying! Terrible.
"There was something different about this angel," Serafina Pekkala went on. "He was wingless."
"A wingless angel?" Ruta Skadi whispered in amazement. She seemed to hold her breath for no longer than two seconds, and then said, "Yes. I do know what you speak of. This wingless angel must have been a nephilim, a being half angel and half mortal. I have heard tales about these creatures…although I cannot recall if anyone ever mentioned them having wings or not."
"I don't know," was all Serafina Pekkala said in reply. "But this angel-assassin…he held a knife, its blade so mirror-dark and sharp…he stabbed Lyra." Here, Serafina's green eyes filled with tears, although they did not spill over onto her pale cheeks immediately. The last of her words were difficult to say aloud. "He murdered her," the witch said angrily. She said this through clenched teeth.
"And what of her child?" Ruta Skadi said, leaning into the other witch, embracing her, and feeling the hot, salty tears against her bare skin. "Is she dead, too?"
"No," Serafina said, suddenly sitting up straight, defying her anger and utter sorrow. "The child lived, and is still alive, I think. I had not known Lyra had a daughter."
"What happened?" Ruta Skadi wondered.
"There was some kind of force between the knife and the child," Serafina Pekkala replied. "I have not the slightest idea of what it might have been." She shook her head slowly. "But Eve's daughter is alive, hopefully. And I will avenge her mother's death, come what may."
"You will," Ruta Skadi said firmly. "And I will find the angel who killed Lyra. He will pay." She stood up, and pulled Serafina upright. "I also want to know why this wingless angel wanted to kill an innocent woman and a child."
Serafina Pekkala frowned. "The angel is dead. I cannot say exactly how he died, but neither of us will enjoy the pleasure of seeing him die. But all I can tell you, is that he bled, just as we or humans do. When he died, he simply dissaperated. There was not a trace of him left. Only the bright crimson blood."
"He was defiantly one of the nephilim."
And then both the witches stood silent for a while, their eyes on the flow of the stream, and the smooth round stones that lie beneath it.
It was Ruta Skadi who broke the silence, saying, "I will tell the other witch queens about this. They will help me search for this nephilim." She paused, and studied the other witch queen's sad face. "And what will you do, Serafina Pekkala?" she wanted to know.
"I will go to the place Lyra called Oxford," she said. "There are gyptians now who will help me on my way. Some of them know me. I want to find Lyra Silvertongue's daughter, and see for myself what has truly happened. That is my plan."
"When will you leave?" Ruta Skadi asked.
"Now," said Serafina. "And I will return as soon as possible." She looked the Latvian witch in the eye.
"Then go well, my dear," Ruta Skadi said. They embraced one last time, and then Serafina Pekkala reached for her branch of cloud-pine. "Kasia, come to me!" the witch called, and prepared to leave for the place even farther towards the South, Lyra had called Oxford.
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Mistress: Yes! Things are really starting to heat up, weather you people think they are or not! I just can't wait to get to the next chapter, and beyond that!
Catina: What the hell are you talking about? What's going to happen in the next chapter and beyond that?
Mistress: Shit. You think I'm gonna tell you? *downs shotglass in a single gulp*
Catina: Here, then, what're you drinking?!
Mistress: Um… *thinks up quick lie* Rootbeer…?
Catina: It had better be only rootbeer, and nothing else.
Mistress: *hides mysterious green bottle behind typing chair* Don't worry.