Chapter 6: A New Threat
To call the thing that rose up out of the swamp hideous would have been an understatement. The swamp hag resembled Muriel in many ways. Her skin was a light green and looked like it had been around since the dawn of time. Her head had put a meager remainder of hair on it; all of it white. She was dressed in rags and her arms appeared unusually long, topped off with nails that were several inches past long. But most disturbingly, were her eyes. Or lack there of. Where her eyes should have been were just black hopes leading strait back into her head.
"Can she see?" Seth asked the satyrs.
"Ohhhhhh...She can see all right." Newel replied. "She always knows when someone is near her swamp."
The creature that wad the swamp hag glided through the swamp until it was some feet away from where the trip stood. "Who has called upon me?" The hag rasped. Her voice sounded as if she was choking on nails. It set every fibre of Seth's being on edge.
Seth was not sure if he should answer the hag's question or just straight run. But his courage won out, "I guess I did." he addressed the hag. "I wanted to see if you were as frightening and dangerous as I was told." Seth stammered on. "Having confirmed their warnings we had best be going now." He turned and began walking away. The satyrs were not far behind him.
"I was wondering when our shadow charmer would come for a visit." The hag rasped. "Graulus and my new master said it would not be long. Their wisdom had proved correct once again."
Seth froze in his tracks. "You...you knew Graulus?" He managed to get out.
"Of course!" The creature exclaimed, "all creatures of darkness know of each other and communicate. Especially here, in this prison of sorts. He mentioned that a shadow charmer lived on here last year. And that he would one day come here." She gestured at Seth with one of her arms. "And here you are.
"How would Graulus know I would come here?"
"Master Graulus was quite certain that one day, you would come to me. And that whence you did, I was to train you in the ways of magic."
"Woah...you know magic?"
"I have been trained in the ways of magic for centuries, and have educated some of most powerful witches in the past millennia; including Muriel Taggert." the hag continued on.
The part about Muriel got Seth's attention. He had met the witch three years ago and she had almost destroyed the preserve when she tried to free the demon Bahumat. Had it not been for Kendra and an army of fairies, she would have succeeded and destroyed the preserve. He also remembered Muriel's magical abilities. She had turned most of his family into various animals to stop them from fighting her while she was unleashing the demon. And she even completely destroyed Hugo with just a few words.
Seth had to admit, it would be interesting to learn magic. His shadow charmer abilities could only get him so far. And since the creatures that would obey him were often times incredibly dangerous, he rarely got to try out his abilities. If he learned magic, that would give him some abilities he could use to help out the knights on their missions. Kendra got to go all the time because of her abilities to get around distractor spells, but Seth hardly ever got to go on mission because he didn't have any abilities to further the group. Bur if he became proficient in magic, that would give him a reason to go on more missions.
But then he remembered. This was a swamp hag. Something that everyone had told him to avoid. On what grounds did he think he could trust her to teach him magic. And not kill him out right the second he was alone. Plus, the one magician he had met trained by her turned out to want to destroy the preserve. Seth didn't want to end up like that. Or follow instructions given by Graulus.
"Uhhhh...I don't think I'm interested in learning magic." Seth confessed to the hag. He wanted to leave the swamp now.
"You could become the most powerful shadow charmer in history should you follow my teachings. You would be able to do anything you want. You could rewrite history. And stand as the king of darkness. All of that is yours, should you follow my teachings and learn the ways of magic."
"Ummmm...still no." Seth said as he turned around. He started walking back towards the main path and then to house, but the hag stopped him one more time.
"You would be able to save this preserve from the coming darkness if you learned from me."
Seth turned around slowly. What darkness? Zzyzx had been closed for four months. And since then, nothing even remotely dangerous had happened. Reports were that the Society of the Evening Star had died out completely. And most demons that had been hiding out, away from the preserves, had gone dormant. "What darkness?" he asked.
"A power so great that nothing can stand in its way. Had the events at Zzyzx gone as we had predicted, chaos would have already been unleashed across the world."
"Well we've already stopped that chaos. Those demons will not be breaking out any time soon."
"You know nothing about the ways of chaos. This minute, his power is growing, slowly destroying the realm of light. Should it succeed, you world is next. And the destruction will begin right here. At Fablehaven. There is nothing you can do to stand in the way of chaos, shadow charmer. It will destroy everything in its way. Unless you learn from me. You would have the power to stop the coming chaos if you learned my magic."
That threw Seth for a loop. He straight out sprinted back down the trail he and Satyrs had come down. He didn't know what the hag was talking about, but he knew that it was not good. And he did not want to here one more word about it.
And that was when the roaring began. Their friend the nipsie had returned.
Newel and Doren were already side-by-side with him as they sprinted through the woods. The nipsie right behind them.
"What did she say to you?" Newel asked as they ran.
"You guys didn't here her?"
"Of course not. She speaks in some language we don't understand. Apparently, you speak it too. What did she say?" Doren said.
"She volunteered to teach me magic. And when I refused she said that some darkness was coming to destroy everything." He finished his sentence as they all hit the yard.
Seth passed through the barrier with out problem. But the two satyrs bounced back into the woods, the second they hit the edge of the yard. Newel and Doren jumped back up and ran back to the left, disappearing into the woods.
And not a second too soon. The nipsie crashed through the trees and into the barrier not a couple of seconds after the two satyrs disappeared.
The nipsie continued to beat on the invisible barrier for some minutes before disappearing into the woods again.
"What was that!?" Seth exclaimed.
"What was what?" Warren asked stepping out of the house.
"That giant nipsie attacking the barrier?"
Warren looked at him alarmed. "Well that's definitely not a good thing."
No it was not a good thing. Definitely not a good thing.