Down the Road

Blurb: How will the Longbourn Coven complete all five trials on the Witches' Road after one of them died? A JaOctGoHoNo challenge (prompt: enchantment)

Yes, totally borrowed from Agatha All Along.

Down the Road

Of course, Mary thought, it had only been a matter of time before one of them died. This had been a monumentally stupid idea and she should have never agreed to this doomed quest. With Kitty now dead, the rest of them wouldn't survive for much longer.

“I did it!” Lydia whooped and jumped around with excitement. “I passed my trial! Who's the baddest spirit witch you know?”

“Lydia,” Elizabeth nearly shouted to be heard over the racket. “Kitty is dead thanks to you.”

“We don't know that,” Lydia countered, still in denial.

“I know it,” said Jane, which shut down any further argument that Lydia could make. “She is gone. I can feel her absence. Besides, I had a vision of it in my trial.”

“Why didn't you warn us?”

“Because that's not how divination works.” Jane rubbed her temples as if trying to untangle the thoughts in her head. “The signs are crystal clear in hindsight but harder to interpret in foresight, especially when I didn't want to believe what they were trying to show me.”

Lydia looked sullen, caught between the realization that she had lost her best friend in the coven and the knowledge that the others would blame everything on her rather than Jane. Before she could think of a rejoinder, Mary cut in.

“I suppose foreknowledge doesn't matter, in the end. Even if you had warned us, it wouldn't have saved Kitty, not for long. But without a fire witch, we cannot hope to pass that trial. And then we'll be dead or trapped on the Witches’ Road forever.”

“Mary,” Jane tried to check her defeatist attitude but Elizabeth glared murderously in agreement.

“Look, no, not necessarily true,” Lydia looked for a way to salvage this situation. “Who's got a copy of the rules? There has to be a loophole.”

“Loophole!” Elizabeth scoffed. “We can't cheat the Road. We can only cheat each other.”

Lydia ignored that. “Why do we still need to complete a witch’s challenge when the witch is dead? That isn't fair.”

“It isn't fair that our fire witch was killed in the trial meant for our spirit witch,” Mary grit out, “yet here we are.”

“The rules are all very clear: our coven must complete all five trials -- water, air, spirit, earth, and fire -- before we reach the end of the Road,” Elizabeth explained. “We can't escape until we're done.”

“Okay, but do we really need a fire witch to complete the fire trial?” Lydia tried to bargain. “Maybe it's one of those tricks where it makes us think we need something but we really don't, or the real thing we need is something we already have but just overlooked or misinterpreted? You know, the power was inside us all along?”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes so hard that her head leaned back, her opinion bitingly clear.

“Oh, fine! Let's just get Mary to do it then,” said Lydia in a way that was infuriatingly ignorant and condescending. “The water trial is done and dusted; what else is she here for? She's always chomping at the bit to grow her magic.”

“It doesn't work like that,” Mary threw up her hands. “I'm a water witch. I can't just decide to practice fire magic on a whim.”

“As you already said, the alternative is being trapped on the Road until we die, so what do you have to lose?” Lydia shot back.

“We don't have to…” began Jane. “I mean, maybe the Road knows. Maybe we won't even be presented with the trial by fire now that Kitty is gone.”

“But we have to complete all five trials before this thing ends,” said Elizabeth. “If we don't do the fire trial then we can't go home.”

“Maybe Lizzy can fail her trial so miserably that the rest of us all end up dead, save us the trouble of being stuck here forever,” muttered Lydia darkly.

“Maybe we should just replace you with someone who won't get the rest of the coven killed,” Elizabeth snapped back.

“That's it!” Jane exclaimed in triumph.

At three quizzical sets of eyes, she explained, “We can't be the first coven to lose a member on the Road. There must be others like us, trapped and incomplete. If we could find another fire witch, invite her to join our coven --”

“Jane, it's brilliant!” said Elizabeth.

Lydia was quick to agree. Anything to brainstorm a way out. The Witches' Road had sounded like a funny lark when she and Kitty had first heard of it, but she wasn't having fun anymore.

“Are we sure that's going to work? What if adding a new witch is really making a new coven and we have to start over with five new trials?” complained Mary.

“So what?” challenged Lydia. “You want to stay here forever and pout because Kitty isn't here anymore, Mary? Kitty didn't even like you that much, and she certainly wouldn't throw her whole life away if you had failed your water trial.”

For a moment, Mary saw red. She probably would have done something the whole coven would regret except that Elizabeth intervened by grabbing Lydia by the shoulders and shoving her back.

“How dare you,” Elizabeth practically spat. “None of us would be stuck here if not for you and your impulsiveness.”

She would have said more but Jane held up a hand. “Quiet. I think I hear something.” This might have been true or Jane might merely feel that she was about to hear something. As an air witch, she sometimes got confused about what was past, present, and future.

They all fell silent and strained their ears before they could detect the sounds of others.

“We saved,” Lydia grinned maniacally. “Hey!” she called out loudly. “Hey!”

She would have kept shouting except Elizabeth and Mary had both tackled her.

“We don't know who that is,” Elizabeth whispered in warning. “They might not be friendly. They might not even be witches.” After facing three of the five mythical trials, it was hard to recognize when something wasn't trying to kill them.

“Get off me,” Lydia said, squirming. “We're never getting another fire witch with that attitude. We have to take chances.”

The three of them were still tussling on the dusty surface of the Road when Jane's bright and cheery, “Hello!” sent them scrambling to stand up and brush dirt from their hair and faces.

“Hello,” came the friendly response, “and what have we found?”

“How do you do?” Jane greeted. “I'm Jane, and this is Elizabeth, Lydia, and Mary of the Longbourn Coven. Merrily met.”

“There's only four of you,” one of the other witches counted.

“There's only four of you too,” Mary accused them.

“Forgive our manners,” said the first. “We've been on the Road too long. I'm Marie, and this is Julie, Henrietta, and Louisa of the Stornaway Coven. Very merrily met. We were beginning to wonder if we'd ever see another soul.”

The others fell silent as Jane and Marie acted as spokesperson for each coven. The Longbourn Coven had completed three of the trials -- water, air, and spirit -- but had lost their fire witch. The Stornaway Coven had completed four trials -- water, air, earth, and fire -- and were only looking for a spirit witch to lead them safely through their last trial before the enchantment of the Witches’ Road would reveal a reward and allow them to finally go home.

“Forgive me for asking, but how did you lose your fire witch?” asked Marie.

“How did you lose your spirit witch?” Mary didn't ask for forgiveness.

Marie smiled tightly. “It was right after we arrived. We were all a little disoriented and Samantha stepped off the path, and that was that.”

“Same,” said Mary with just as much honesty.

“Well, friends, perhaps we can travel some of the way together,” Jane suggested.

Marie agreed and they started walking together in the same direction as the Stornaway Coven had been previously headed. Lydia quickly latched onto the other Stornaway witches, comparing notes of their past trials. It didn't matter much; the trials were always suited to the witch, so knowing what Henrietta overcame in the earth trial would not give Elizabeth an edge in her own upcoming trial. Elizabeth and Mary trailed behind, growing more frustrated with how smoothly Lydia seemed to be fitting in with the other witches.

Marie suddenly cried out. “I see a trial ahead!”

Everyone scrambled for a view, trying to interpret it but in the end they needed to get very close to realize that it was a spirit trial.

“More's the pity,” said Marie. “We haven't seen a new trial in weeks. If only we could complete this one, we could go home but, without a spirit witch of our own, we cannot do it. I suppose the trial must be meant for you. We wish you the best of luck, friends. Merrily met and merrily we part.” She looked at Jane as if to encourage her.

“Wait, wait,” Lydia butted in. “All you need is a spirit witch for one more trial? If I join your coven, I'm that much closer to getting out of here?” Elizabeth glared at her but Lydia would not be cowed. “Don't get high and mighty at a time like this, Lizzy. And don't pretend you weren't thinking of how to ask the Stornaway fire witch if she wants to defect to Longbourn.”

“I wouldn't dream of splitting you up,” said Marie, ignoring the threat to her own group. “One's coven is one's sisters.”

“Sisters, yeah, but real family would want me to do well no matter what,” Lydia mumbled, not quietly enough. The Stornaway witches shared smug smiles.

“Lydia,” said Jane. “Lydia, really? Would you really leave us?”

Lydia curled her lip in a defensive snarl. “You were making me eat dirt before the Stornaways showed up. You all hate me right now. Face it, you blame me for what happened to Kitty. Maybe it's for the best if I went to another coven. Merrily met and merrily we part, and all that.”

“Hey, how are we supposed to get out of here with only three of us?” Mary barked.

“You've done the spirit trial; you don't need me anymore. Find someone else to join you, or join up with someone else. How else do you think we're supposed to get out of here?”

“Lydia, I can't make you stay, but --” Jane began.

Lydia cut her off with a tight hug, squeezing air out of her so she couldn't form additional words.

“Thanks, Jane, I knew you would understand!” Lydia didn't wait for more goodbyes or arguments. She had no hugs or backward glances for Elizabeth and Mary. Instead she draped her arms over the shoulders of Henrietta and Louisa as the Stornaway witches went to their last trial.

“Jane,” Mary said quietly, “Jane, we have to stop her.”

“No, we don't. This was another vision from my trial,” Jane answered. “I expect that I know how each of us will leave the Road.”

She offered no further details. Whether this was due to the murkiness of those visions or the macabre endings, neither Elizabeth or Mary desired to find out.

With a heavy sigh, Jane continued down the road. Elizabeth and Mary shared a shrug and followed.

// THE END //