The Ice King (The Witch Ways 0.5)(3)

“Time to be on your way…” As she spoke the sky clouded over a little and the brisk breeze that had been cooling in the sunlight was now chilly.

“Seriously Missus, we are on our way. Come on Mike.” Lanky was tugging at his companion’s sleeve. Stocky Mike jerked his arm away.

“In my own good time.” he looked at Hettie. The gull overhead began to wheel in deeper and deeper circles. Stocky Mike made no move to leave, he stepped forward, adjusted his fishing line.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Hettie’s voice warned. Stocky Mike gave a loud burp. As he did so the line twitched, and again, heavily. Gleeful, and with a triumphant glance to Hettie, Stocky Mike took hold of the rod.

“What did I tell you Jamie boy? What did I say?” his tongue was out, lolloppy looking and greedy, he began to wrestle and run the reel.

Hettie gave herself a moment. There was a scent in the air, a cold dankness familiar to her that made the hair on the back of her neck prickle. The urge to run away was very strong but she fought it, she concentrated upon keeping her heartbeat steady and her mind focused on her gamekeeping. In the sky overhead the gull began to glide on shallower turns.

“Let it go.” Hettie’s voice reverberated in Vanessa’s head and chest like a drum.

“No chance.” Stocky Mike had worked himself into a sweaty little frenzy, the reel was rolling out of his control, the whizzing sound metallic and echoing across the stillness of the water. Had these two not seen how still the water had become? Hettie willed them to take notice of their surroundings but Stocky’s mind was almost beyond her, a small box and she rapped hard on its surface with her mental fist.

The rod was curling now, the reel whirring and Stocky, cutting his fingers, catching his thumbs, straining his shoulders, pinching his back, his feet sliding in the pebbles, was one footstep into the water. Vanessa felt the short burst of heat from her mother once more and as she did so, the wheeling gull cried out one long hammering call before releasing a huge off-white splat of bird shit. It splathered down Stocky Mike’s back. He yelled out and recoiled.

“Ugh.” he grunted, his face was turning purple with the effort of controlling the rod, Hettie could hear the tension twanging in his sinews. Lanky Jamie’s heart beat like a rabbit’s, his face looking out across the water.

“Mike…mate…Mike…” Lanky’s voice was higher, keener as the surface of Pike Lake lifted imperceptibly, a cold smooth wave like rolling steel coming to shore. The heat burst from Hettie once more, Vanessa’s fingers prickling with it. The gull swooped in low, once again releasing, the white and green smeared mess landing squarely on Stocky Mike’s face. He gave a cry, his hands letting go of the straining fishing rod which snapped in two, the line at once whipping up and out towards the low wave and disappearing fast with a deep ‘plonk’. The water lowered, settled, the heron took off.

Lanky looked at Hettie as Stocky Mike groaned and wiped at his face.

“Ew…Orgh…urgh…bleuch…”

Lanky stared at Hettie in fear.

“I warned you.” Hettie said.

Without another word she turned Vanessa towards the wood and they began to walk quickly away. Hettie glanced down at her daughter, her small white face showing she was rattled. She reached for Vanessa’s hand once more and, with only a few more swift steps, they were in the cover of the trees. Vanessa stopped.

“Larus Marinus.” Vanessa said. Hettie turned.

“What’s that?”

Vanessa looked up into the sky.

“Great Black Backed Gull.”

Hettie nodded, and with a tight squeeze of her hand she half lifted Vanessa up the path so that she would be in front of her.

“Come on…this way…” they moved quickly along the path heading deeper into the wood. Her mother held tight to Vanessa’s hand.

“Oh…look at the lichen.” her mother stopped, panting now, by a fallen log “What’s that one called? Do you know?” she placed herself behind her daughter, her arms softly on Vanessa’s shoulder. Hettie cast a glance back the way they had come but Vanessa looked down at the lichen. She didn’t know its name and she was distracted too by a moss nearby that was like tiny green stars and then there was a patch of toadstools, red capped spotted white exactly like the fairytale pictures.

“Oh, toadstools…” Vanessa picked her way towards them, her mother held her back a little.

“Careful sweetheart, those are Fly Agaric.” as her mother spoke the air seemed very still and Vanessa thought that Havoc Wood was suddenly very quiet, a cushiony silence held the air, even the birds had stopped singing.

“Fly Agaric.” Vanessa said the name over to herself and loved it at once.

“Deadly poisonous.” Her mother held her hand very tightly and they began to walk onwards, her mother careful to keep Vanessa just ahead of her. “Tell you what…why don’t we go into Castlebury tomorrow and find you a book about mushrooms?”

“And lichens?” Vanessa asked.

“Yes. Definitely. A good idea… very useful…Who wants spaghetti for their tea?”

Back at Cob Cottage they began their usual kitchen bustle, Vanessa, allowed to use the big knife because she was careful, chopped onions and squidged the garlic as the rain came in sheets rattling at the windows.