The Ether Witch

Slipping her pack on her shoulders, Eli stifled a yawn.

They had gotten up outrageously early to reach the town in good time, and while it had been brutal, particularly as her calf muscles still screamed at her for all the walking they had endured over rough terrain, it was a very good thing, as by the time she and Jeong set foot in the town called Dahg, the stores were only just opening.

It was the ideal time to make purchases while remaining unnoticed.

The first shop they visited was the tea merchant, who did in fact have a couple bags of ground coffee to sell them. Though Eli had tried to talk Jeong down from purchasing both bags, the Zinferan held his ground for both his own and Tam’s sakes.

After that, was the bakery for some traveler’s bread.

Which was why Eli had removed her pack, in order to stock up, their next stop was going to be a local herbalist who allegedly also sold salt, when the first two imperial soldiers meandered by.

Jeong tensed as he stood in front of Eli, blocking her from view as they had just stopped to rest out front of a butcher’s shop. Luckily there was a barrel of fish that Eli could casually crouch behind as she finished loading her bag.

“Do you want to risk getting the salt?” Jeong asked quietly.

The imperial guards didn’t pay him much mind. They looked barely awake as they moved, their shoulders slumped, their spears being used more as walking sticks than weapons.

“If we get a bag of salt we can make it all the way to Noksa if we portion properly,” Eli murmured.

“Then you get back to Tam and Luca, and I’ll go. I’m the least suspicious of any of you,” Jeong responded while moving his lips as little as possible.

“Alright. Where are the soldiers right now?”

“They are almost at the end of the road, and… they’ve just turned left. Leave down by that alley to the right, circle round on the farside, and head back north. I’ll try to get back to you all as soon as possible.”

Eli nodded, pulled the thread to her bag tight, and then smoothly rose and ducked down the nearest alleyway.

She had just reached the back corner of the butcher shop and was going to peek around to see if there were any other patrols, when something out of the corner of her eye stopped her dead in her tracks.

There, on the wall, was a poster.

With her face on it.

Her heart plummeting to her stomach, Eli’s eyes swept across the page.

MISSING

PRINCESS ELISARA TAEJO

REWARD

FOR RETURNING HER HIGHNESS

TO THE PALACE:

$25 000.00 GOLD

Cold sweat prickled along Eli’s back.

The picture that had been used showed her with short hair which was damn close to how she presently looked.

How the hell do they know what I look like now?! Soo Hebin hasn’t seen me in years!

Eli didn’t have a chance to figure this out as from behind her a shout echoed.

“HEY! YOU THERE! COME IDENTIFY YOURSELF!”

Her heart surged into her throat and she jolted into motion.

The voice had come from back near the main road, and so she rounded the corner of the butcher’s hastily, not thinking to check around the corner… Which resulted with her crashing into an imperial soldier who had another partner.

Wiry arms wrapped around her, pinning her in place.

“Sir, you need to–”

Eli was grateful that she had worn pants to the town. It meant that even with her longer hair, at a glimpse she was still thought to be male…

Using this moment of confusion, she kneed the groin of the soldier with his arms around her. When his comrade tried to grab her, she bent herself over and rammed her shoulder into his middle, tackling him over.

She could hear the soldiers running down the alley behind her.

She needed to get into the trees as quickly as possible so she could transform into the beast and outrun them. Or hide.

Barely scrambling to her feet before the other soldiers descended on her, Eli bolted. Panic and adrenaline propelling her forward, her strength surging.

She knew it wasn’t enough though; she could hear two men closing in too quickly. She was weighed down and awkward with her pack, and her muscles were already fatigued.

She was at a severe disadvantage.

“Damnit.” Swinging the pack from her shoulders, Eli tossed it to the right side, lunged to her left to barely avoid getting speared by the soldier that had gotten the nearest to her, then leapt backward just in time for the spear from the second soldier, aimed at her middle, to miss.

She couldn’t wait any longer.

The beast exploded out of her.

The soldiers gave shouts of shock and terror.

Not wasting an instant of their surprise, Eli leapt over the men as they cowered, her new size making this an easy feat. She grabbed her pack in her jaws and galloped into the woods. A rumbling growl in the back of her throat as she moved. The forest blurred around Eli, and yet her eyes, nose, and ears guided her easily through the trees, over hills and rocks.

She ran west for a while to prevent the soldiers from discovering Tam and Luca too easily. When she was certain she couldn’t hear anyone after her for at least a league, she resumed moving northeast. Though to make it even more difficult on anyone tracking her, she made a point of taking massive pounces, then would splash in any river she came across on the way back to the camp.

The smells of the forest were intoxicating, and a thrilling enjoyment started to coarse through her in a way she had never experienced before… Then again she had never run free in this form before either.

By the time Eli could hear Tam and Luca’s voices she slowed down until they were just in sight so that she had time to drop her pack, change back into herself, pick the pack back up and run the rest of the way on her own two legs that resumed their protests against her continued physical exertion.

When she approached Tam, she saw that he had smothered and buried their fire, and was ready to resume traveling with Luca at his side.

“I had to… transform… back in the town. There were soldiers… and there’s… a poster with my face on it offering… a reward if I can be delivered to the palace,” Eli gasped the message.

Ironically it was the last quarter mile running as a human that had winded her the most.

Tam nodded. “I know. Jeong isn’t back yet. We’ll wait only a short while but let’s at least start moving away from the camp.”

“What do you mean you know? How could–” Eli stopped talking, her eyes rounding.

Familiars and witches could share images to one another.

Particularly when there was a stressful or dangerous situation.

Clenching her teeth, Eli battled back another wave of dread and anger.

Apparently it didn’t matter if she didn’t want to be Tam’s familiar, and he agreed to not having that kind of relationship. It seemed that regardless, it would remain fixed in place.

But it was not the time for that. Right now, what was most important, was finding Jeong and deciding what they were going to do from there.

Her heart still pounding in her chest, Eli kept training her ears to listen for sounds of anyone pursuing them from the west, but nothing could be heard.

They waited, while gradually drifting eastward away from the campsite.

Any snapping of twigs or rustling of the underbrush had Tam and Eli’s heads turning every which way to ensure no one was sneaking up on them.

Luca merely held Tam’s hand and kept his eyes trained on the south, as though willing Jeong to appear.

At long last, the Zinferan did come into view, and relief instantly filled Eli from head to toe.

Her biggest worry had been that because of her transformation and fleeing, that anyone who didn’t live in the town would’ve been apprehended.

As soon as Jeong was close enough to speak, Eli noted the heavy perspiration along his brow.

The Zinferan had gone through nothing less of a drastic change since their journey. His round soft middle had shrunk during the two weeks of walking, and even his rounded cheeks had thinned. That said, he was still prone to softness.

“There is a search party looking for Eli. They think she’s either an ancient beast, or the devil,” Jeong explained without even managing a greeting. “What happened?”

“I got cornered while leaving,” Eli returned shortly. “We need to get moving. I went west for a while before coming back here, but if they have horses to follow us we’re in trouble.”

Jeong only paused for long enough to take a deep drink from his waterskin before then saying, “I was lucky. They believed me when I told them I was running an errand for a merchant that was traveling nearby but didn’t want to get off the main road. When I was leaving I overheard that the imperial army has set up checkpoints along all roads to Gondol, and they have regular patrols between all of them–including through the woods or fields.”

“Damn,” Tam cursed, his brows furrowing. “Thank the Gods you were able to learn that.”

Jeong nodded seriously in agreement.

“We’ll have to switch to plan b,” Eli informed them all as they started to move even more quickly at the news.

“What’s your–”

“The imperial soldiers will be even more present in Bani,” Jeong interjected, cutting off Tam worriedly.

“We’ll aim for the town beside the city that Bani hasn’t absorbed by the city yet. It’s called Eusa, and it has its own harbor. We’ll have to sail around Zinfera’s east side to get to the fishing town on the opposite side of Gondol.”

“Hang on, so we are going to take an even longer route?” Tam frowned.

Luca moaned at the mention of their travel plans getting extended.

“Yes. The imperial soldiers are not an infinite resource. If Soo Hebin has a ring around Gondol, and most likely a large number of men still in Junya, that means she is spread thin everywhere else. Eusa is so far away, and seemingly inconsequential, it’s unlikely she’ll send any more than a handful of men.”

“What about the other concubines? What if some of them are persuaded to lend their family’s own reservoirs of fighters?” Tam speculated next.

“Soo Hebin is the most powerful of the concubines, and given the number of children she has taken from the other concubines? She has lost a lot of leverage, and some may be wanting revenge.”

“What about the coven? They are hiding the first witch, and the first witch is allied with the concubine,” the future duke pressed.

“Other than her connections, the first witch herself is powerless, yes?” Eli ventured thoughtfully.

“She is unless she got her hands on the dagger or Chronos. Besides, if the coven is now adding people to search for us–”

Eli looked at Tam sharply. “Do you have a better plan?”

Tam let out a very long breath, his eyes staring blindly ahead of himself as they walked.

“Luca, are you alright?” It was Jeong who asked the question as he glanced over his companions, and noticed the young boy clutching his head.

“I have a bad headache,” Luca replied faintly.

Alarmed, Tam stopped walking and immediately pulled free his waterskin.

“Drink some water. We were playing a lot and you weren’t drinking enough.”

Luca obeyed and took a long, deep draught, but everyone could see by the way he was squinting against the light of the day that it was incredibly painful.

Lifting his hand up, Tam pressed his palm to Luca’s forehead. “Godsdamnit. He’s burning up.”

“That came on so quickly!” Eli dropped to a crouch, her face tensed with concern as Luca closed his eyes with a wince. “Does anything else feel wrong, Luca?”

“Head… And I’m tired…”

“When did you start not feeling well?” Tam persisted, making his voice gentle despite the panic he was visibly seized with.

If they needed a doctor, they were in a world of trouble.

“Just… while we were waiting for… For Jeong.”

“Okay…” Tam took back the waterskin that Luca handed him and placed the cap back on while not looking away from Luca’s pale face for an instant. “Luca, I’m going to carry you on my back.”

“I can take some of the items from your pack to make it a bit lighter,” Jeong offered.

Eli shook her head.

“No. Luca, you will ride me, alright? Just like you wanted to try when we first started walking!”

Tam’s eyes snapped to her. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

Eli nodded. “I can carry my pack in my mouth. I’m a lot stronger than either of you in that form.”

Tam looked at Jeong who nodded at the idea.

“Alright.”

Standing back, Eli shook out her arms, dropped her pack, and for the second time that day, shifted into a beast.

Which wound up revealing how even more serious Luca’s condition was, as he barely managed to crack open an eye to look at her.

Tam carefully lifted Luca onto Eli’s back.

“Ready?” Jeong asked with forced jubilance, as though trying to lighten everyone’s grim moods.

Luca managed to wrap his arms partially around Eli’s thick neck then nod.

“I guess we’ll head to Eusa. We don’t have any other choice. It’s the closest and safest option given Luca’s state,” Tam acquiesced to Eli’s earlier suggestion though the idea still made him visibly uneasy.

“Dad?” Luca asked with a faint croak as they once again began to move.

Eli’s ears perked up at the sound of his voice, already worried about how weak his grasp was around her neck.

“Yeah?”

“What happens to Eli’s clothes when she transforms?”

Eli snorted, which instantly drew Tam’s gaze to her as hearing a giant cat snort was not something one heard everyday, but she didn’t react to his look.

The truth was she didn’t know the answer either. They seemed to just get absorbed in her being, and then reappeared. The only thing that didn’t was her pack.

“Not sure… I guess we’ll ask her when we make our next stop.”

Eli heard the laughter in Tam’s voice, and even spotted Jeong grinning out of the corner of her eye.

Well, at the very least, Luca was not sick enough to stop asking really interesting questions, which had to mean he’d be okay.

Though she knew that she was perhaps leaning into hopeful optimism more out of desperation than sincerely believing everything would be alright.