The Calamity of a Reborn Witch

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Chapter 7: The Hunter’s Demon Eyes

The night air slid over her like a veil as Carina stepped down from the hospital porch and ripped off her mask. Although she would never consider the abrasive air of the slums refreshing, there was a marked difference between the scent of neglect and filth compared to that of rot and death.

The knights she had sent to inspect the hospital now stood on guard beside the waiting horses. Isaac moved towards them for a brief discussion as the Duchess paced in no particular direction.

The drums of fear, uncertainty, and panic beat against Carina’s ribs and ears as she shook out her trembling hands and then clenched them into fists while trying to bury the image of Samantha’s rotting stomach.

‘If I accept that this is not the same plague then—everything changes. And everything I’ve done to prepare—it’s all useless now.’

The impact of the reality this further alteration from the future that Maura had shown her burned against Carina’s chest like an iron of ridicule.

‘Was it my arrogance that caused this? Did the gods change the plague because I tried to change the future?’

“Your Grace.”

Carina’s ice-blue eyes flicked towards the Colonel impatiently before she waved him off and turned sharply away from the hospital towards one of the neighboring buildings. The empty rooms with their dark, haunting walls and shadows, completely baren of life, offered no judgment, only a reminder that death was a certainty no one could escape.

‘I can’t give up. If this is because of me, then I must do something.’ Carina folded her arms around the suffocating guilt that pressed against her chest. ‘And finding the source of the illness is a good place to start.’

“Your Grace.”

Isaac’s persistent footsteps followed behind her. The Duchess sighed and turned sharply to face him. “What is it, Colonel?”

“I know you wanted to investigate the street those people lived on,” Isaac replied swiftly as his gaze shifted between her and the dark buildings around them. “But I think it would be a good idea to leave one or two men behind.”

“Why?” Carina tilted her head, surprised that Isaac, of all people, would suggest lowering the number of knights protecting her. “What did your men find?”

“There is sufficient evidence of vandalism and more than one attempt from the looks of it. They found other burn marks and a few smashed windows. One of them managed to question a nurse that was on duty. Apparently, some locals have been giving the hospital grief, usually after hours.”

“Locals?” Carina arched a brow as a feeling of unease settled upon her shoulders. She glanced at the abandoned building behind her once more and then moved back towards the hospital lanterns and waiting knights. “You mean the Fox Den?”

Isaac shrugged as he walked beside her. “It’s not like the Foxes to turn a blind eye to this sort of behavior in their territory.”

“It’s also not like them to harass people that are here to help their community,” Carina countered quickly. She took the reins of her horse from one of the waiting knights and turned to where Tobias had finally emerged from the hospital.

“Sorry for the delay, your Grace,” Tobias chirped as he moved down the steps with all the eagerness of a collector in pursuit of some exotic prey. “Shall we head out?”

“Do you have a horse?” Carina queried with a frown at the heavy leather satchel the physician carried with him.

“Ah, yes! She’s tied up around back. I’ll go grab her,” Tobias turned and quickly jogged around the side of the building.

Colonel Isaac nodded to two knights that broke away to follow the physician. “It might be best to come back at first light, your Grace.”

“How can I possibly sleep when countless innocents may be exposed to such gruesome suffering and death?” Carina demanded sharply as she mounted the patient white mare.

“It's not their safety I’m worried about, but yours,” Isaac replied firmly as he stepped closer to adjust the twisted stirrup beneath her boot. “It would be safer to investigate in daylight when there are fewer troublemakers around.”

“But a lot more prying eyes.” The Duchess studied him for a moment before her gaze drifted towards the darkening blue sky with its distant twilight stars. “I understand that going now comes with greater risk. You and your men have my permission to use whatever means necessary to ensure the safety of myself and Lord Tobias.”

Isaac drew himself up stiffly, then nodded, and turned to round up his men.

‘If the Foxes came after my hospital, their target could very well be me. In that case, I might as well face them, find out what the trouble is, and deal with it now before the hospital and future patients suffer any more backlash.’

Carina brushed her fingers over Viktor’s bracelet and reached through to Lumi. ‘If there is any danger, be ready to come to our defense.’

‘Yes. Master.’

Tobias returned, seated on a rather old-looking bay nag. The two knights who had escorted him remained behind to guard the hospital while the remaining four knights formed up on either side of their Duchess and the Physician.

Colonel Isaac led the way towards the northern corner of the slums, following the crudely drawn path that Devin had marked on a map.

“Does your Grace intend to inform his Majesty?” Tobias asked curiously as they rode along in silence.

“Yes,” Carina replied with a distracted nod. “As soon as we eliminate this public drinking well as the source of the—disease.”

The physician nodded slowly while his gaze moved to the sword sheath that peaked out from beneath the Duchess’s cloak. “Why is it that every time we meet, you seem to evolve into a different person?” When Carina arched a brow, he continued. “When we first met, you were a half-blood fashion designer who happened to work for Frost. Then you became a Duchess, and now—” he shrugged as if unsure of himself, “—you’re dressed like a knight while investigating poisoned wells under cover of darkness.”

“I am what the situation requires me to be,” Carina replied dismissively.

“How very amenable.”

The Duchess frowned and narrowed her ice-blue eyes on the physician. “I think adaptable is the word you’re looking for.”

“Really?” Tobias slouched against his saddle as he appeared to ponder her reply. “Just how many nobles do you know in Lafeara that would stretch themselves so thin to prevent a future calamity they believed would affect thousands of strangers?”

‘What is he getting at? What’s wrong with wanting to stop a plague?’

Carina studied the physician quietly for a moment before shaking her head. “And here I thought that you more than any other member of Cerberus would want to fight off an epidemic.”

“I am not so arrogant as to claim my interest in this endeavor is entirely selfless. I have a personal, scientific interest in uncovering and exploring this new epidemic.” The undeniable spark of excitement in Tobias’s hazel-blue eyes easily confirmed the truth of his words. “But what of your interest, your Grace? For that matter, what of Frost’s?”

The Duchess considered her response as she watched the dance of shadows and light beneath the lantern Isaac held play across the gloomy debris scattered along the road.

“When Frost and I first began this—endeavor,” Carina began slowly. “Well—we had hoped to disprove the old superstitions that witches were to blame for every famine, plague, and other natural disaster that appeared.”

Tobias nodded slowly. “So, your interest is in dispelling centuries of mistrust and blame placed on a race of outsiders?” He scoffed softly, then examined his fingers and hands, which remained bright red from the rapid scrub cleaning he had given them in hot water. “I was never one to put much faith in the church’s rather convenient fairy tales. I’ve seen enough of man and nature to know that some things are simply beyond our grasp to understand and explain fully. Blaming it on the most convenient enemy who happens to be in our way is hardly the path to actual truth.”

“Haa!” Carina smiled cynically as she scanned the rooftops above them, unable to shake off the tingle of warning that ran down her spine as she searched for hidden eyes. “You’re one of very few people to hold that opinion.”

“Which makes the rather grim reality before us all the more—disastrous.”

“I think you mean ironic.”

Tobias shook his head and then continued somberly, “If this is the start of a new epidemic bent on ravaging its way through Lafeara, then I fear another brutal inquisition of witches will follow.”

‘Which is why I can’t walk away now—even if the plague has changed.’

The Duchess gritted her teeth and focused on Isaac, whose attention now appeared to be on the rooftops around them as well. “Colonel, is something wrong?”

“It appears we’re being followed, your Grace,” Isaac replied. The knights around them silently drew their swords and prepared their crossbows at his comment.

“I felt it too,” Carina whispered back. “What do we do?”

“Keep our guard up and keep moving,” Isaac replied with a nod to the road ahead of them. “We’ve nearly reached our destination.”

“Perhaps it’s the same local thugs that have been harassing the hospital,” Tobias suggested, his voice faintly muted with uncertainty. “But surely they would not be foolish enough to challenge the knights of Bastiallano?”

“We’re hardly dressed in Bastiallano’s colors at the moment,” Isaac commented as he turned down another alley street that curved and wound downwards towards the distant Serpentine River.

A shingle fell from a nearby roof and sent one of the knight’s horses jostling into another as heads turned and eyes darted in sharp anticipation. Carina gripped her reins tightly as she filled the air around them with a thin layer of cold mist that rose and spread towards the rooftops, where the night breeze scattered it further east.

The Duchess closed her eyes as the mist illuminated three figures to their right. ‘Three maybe more. We might be outnumbered at this rate.’ She opened her eyes and pushed her frost magic, allowing it to crawl over the rooftops to the west. Despite the vast length and number of roofs around her, the task proved surprisingly easy. ‘Compared to training inside the Frozen Heart’s central cortex, this much is nothing.’

Carina smiled as two pairs of boots pulled away from the frost that coiled around the hidden stalkers’ feet. ‘That makes five so far. Not bad odds given the skill of my knights.’

Despite this reassurance, the suffocating air of tension seemed to close in around them even as a fork in the road appeared ahead.

“Stay to the right,” Isaac advised sternly as he turned his horse accordingly.

“Good evening!”

The Duchess started as a strong, melodic male voice greeted them from the darkness ahead. Isaac reined in his horse then held up his lantern as he studied the cloaked figure, who emerged from a building along the right street. The man stopped only a few feet beyond the lantern’s light, where he offered them a polite bow.

Carina’s gaze quickly focused on the pair of pistols the stranger wore at his waist. For a moment, she was reminded of the dark and formidable Alex, who once wore such a prized pair. Still, despite the similarity in the amber color that surrounded the man’s coal-black eyes, he was not the Fox Master she had met before.

“It’s quite a late hour for nobles like yourself to be wandering around in my district,” the stranger continued with a note of smug authority.

“Your district?” Isaac echoed with a note of disdain. “By that, do you mean that the Fox Den has laid claim to this territory or the Church?”

The stranger snorted while Carina furrowed her brows in confusion.

“Well, well,” a female voice floated down from the rooftops above. “If it isn’t the backstabbing, ice-cunt himself.”

A pair of glowing green eyes that reminded Carina of a cat’s appeared on the roof of the building, which split the street in two.

“Tarlay,” Isaac growled. “What an unpleasant surprise.”

The Duchess narrowed her eyes at the sharp note of danger in the Colonel’s voice. She expanded her mist further and confirmed that the five who had been following them had now spread out to surround them.

‘Well, we’re surrounded, and they have the high ground.’

“Six on the roofs,” Carina whispered to the knight at her right. The Duchess moved her hand carefully from the pommel of her saddle to the sword at her waist. ‘Not that a sword will do much good against a pistol.’ She returned her gaze to the woman directly before her that Isaac seemed especially wary of.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding,” Tarlay growled. “And here I thought the witches of Lafeara would never accept a forsaken dog such as yourself.”

“Lafeara doesn’t only belong to the air witch covens,” Isaac retorted stiffly.

“Ahh yes,” the woman replied with a flash of teeth. “The Frostbite Coven is rumored to have retained some presence here. Perhaps I’ll track them down after I eat your eyes, Traitor?”

The Colonel snorted, apparently unfazed by her rather blunt threat. “And what is Ripper’s third-in-command doing this far from Zarus?”

Tarlay’s eerie glowing green eyes shifted towards Carina, who flinched beneath their cold, assessing gaze.

“I came to confirm whether the rumors were true or not,” Tarlay answered with another threatening smile. “Has the Isbrand Witch of Calamity returned to throw the world into chaos once more?”

Carina grimaced. ‘Leave it to Kirsi to have such a poor reputation.’

The Duchess gripped the hilt of her sword as she returned the woman’s intimidating stare with a grim smile of her own. “We are here on a mission of public safety. While I do not know who you both are, I would prefer to avoid any unnecessary altercation at this time.”

“Oh?” Tarlay arched a cynical brow and folded her arms with an expression of disbelief. “I have heard of Lady Maura’s many efforts to prepare and prevent, of all things, a plague outbreak in Lafeara?” The Witch Hunter chuckled and caressed the emerald earring in her left ear as she put on a puzzled frown. “No wait, that was Lady Aconitum. Ahh, but your all the same person, aren’t you?”

Carina smiled tightly beneath the Witch Hunter’s condescending smirk.

“But I must ask how, pray tell, were you able to determine that a plague would appear at all?”

“Don’t let your guard down,” Isaac growled softly as his gaze moved to the buildings around them. “Tarlay is a mix-breed who controls air and water. We may have already walked into her trap.”

‘Trap?’ Carina’s eyes narrowed as she examined the street and buildings around them cautiously.

“It is suspicious—your Grace—that you would invest so much into preventing the outbreak of an uncertain plague unless—” Tarlay’s smile twisted into a mocking sneer, “—you also had a hand in its creation?”

“The Duchess is acting on the foresight of Mr. Frost,” Tobias interrupted bluntly from his quivering nag. “Surely even the dogs of the church have heard of his ability to predict the future.”

Tarlay’s eyes narrowed in on the physician with a look of annoyance. “Ahh, yes. The business fortune-teller who hides behind an ambiguous name and multiple business partners. The church is well aware of his blasphemy. And we would not put it past such a cunning charlatan to sponsor a witch to create a plague if only to enforce his own credibility.”

“That—is absurd!” Tobias protested.

“Exactly what sort of fiction are you trying to write here?” Carina cut in sharply with a scowl. “We’ve only just met, and yet you’re determined to slander me without providing a single piece of evidence? Ahh, but that is the common practice of the church, isn’t it? Burn first and ask questions later?”

“You are certainly bold, little ice witch,” Tarlay replied as her right hand moved closer to a thin white object on her belt.

A prickle of anger twisted in Carina’s stomach to hear Viktor’s affectionate nickname echoed with such derivative malice. “And you are rather foolish for a half-witch.”

The words came out of their own accord, and yet the hatred behind them was not Carina’s alone.

A flicker of something—uncertain—flashed across Tarlay’s face. The Witch Hunter’s smile twisted grimly beneath her glowing green eyes as her hand tightened around the object Carina could not yet identify.

‘A dagger, perhaps?’

“What is it that you want, Tarlay?” Isaac growled. Behind him, the knights’ horses shifted uneasily as a tangible prickle of danger filled the warm night air.

“I want her,” Tarlay replied without a moment’s hesitation. “Duchess Kirsi Valda. The Pope would like to examine you in person. You can either come with me willingly or—” she tilted her head with a faint smirk, “—I will judge you here and now and take that traitor’s head while I’m at it.”

“If you lay so much as a finger on me or my men, Witch Hunter, you will live to regret it,” Carina replied through gritted teeth. A strange sort of need burned at the back of the Duchess’s throat and pounded inside her chest. Anticipation, laced with anger and bloodlust, coursed through Carina’s veins as Kirsi pressed forcefully against her restraints. “Please—Step aside.”

Tarlay smiled and nodded as if she had expected no less. “Do try your best to stay alive while I dispose of the rest.”

“W-what?” Tobias squeaked out in terror as the shadows on the rooftops around them leapt in for the kill.

“Lumi!”

The flash of gunpowder sent Isaac toppling off his horse even as the massive scriva appeared. The white wolf leaped through the air knocking the thugs aside as they charged the knights. The thugs stumbled and scattered as she caught the last of them in her fanged mouth and flung the unfortunate man against the wall like a drowned rat.

The Duchess ignored her sword and focused instead on raising a protective ice wall around the knights’ defensive formation. Her men concentrated on the few Foxes that had slipped past her barrier and quickly cut them down.

The thug’s apparent leader calmly reloaded his pistols behind the cover of a doorway and then stepped out to fire on them again. The bullets clipped harmlessly against Carina’s barrier but left a few cracks along its surface that she hurriedly reinforced.

Tobias squealed as the nag beneath him kicked frantically at the barrier before throwing the physician from his saddle. One of the knights hurriedly dismounted and dragged Tobias to safety while another put a cross bolt through the panicking horse’s throat. The other knights’ horses shifted uneasily as the bay nag fell, her weak legs thrashing against the unevenly paved road for a few more frenzied breaths before she went utterly still.

“Colonel?” Carina called out in the brief window of grim silence that followed. Isaac’s horse regained its footing and snorted nervously behind her. The Duchess quickly turned her mare and grabbed the reins, then let out a breath of relief as the fallen half-witch pushed himself up onto a knee and reclaimed his sword.

“Your men don’t seem surprised to be following an ice witch,” Tarlay observed as she paced the ledge of the roof above them. “Then again, your predecessors all possessed such a steadfast resentment towards the church.”

“Your men are dying because you attacked us, and you want to lecture me about resentment?” Carina tilted her head, bewildered.

The Witch Hunter shrugged indifferently. “I didn’t ask them to come, but they had their own score to settle with you.”

‘What?’

“A bit of a misunderstanding on their part,” the thug with two pistols called out from behind cover. “You see, my older brother, Alex, was killed in a battle between a fire and ice witch.”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“The ice witch was after you. Alex and his men just happened to get in the way.” The man appeared again as a flash of gunpowder filled the street between them with small clouds of smoke. The bullets rang against Carina’s shield with the same ineffective results.

“Felix,” Tarlay growled in warning. The Witch Hunter slid her left hand slowly through the long, purple braided hair that fell over her right shoulder. “You should retreat for now.”

Felix nodded, returned the pistols to his belt, and bowed his head cordially towards the Witch Hunter. “I wish you a successful hunt, Tarlay. You know where I’ll be if you need me.”

Carina watched in disbelief as the man moved off, showing little concern for the five Foxes that had fallen to either Lumi or the knights. ‘It’s six to one now—so why do I feel as if the danger has increased?’

“Now then, before I get started, I believe in properly introducing myself to those who are about to leave this world,” Tarlay explained in a casual tone as she continued to stroke the sapphire gems in her purple hair. “I am known as Demon Eyes Tarlay, third in Command of the Witch Hunter Order.”

“Oh, fuck me,” one of the knights whispered with a note of dread.

Carina narrowed her eyes as the Witch Hunter freed the thin white object from her belt. The woman’s movements and the object's shape offered clues that didn’t make any sense.

‘Is that—a flute?’

“Lower the barrier, Kirsi!” Isaac commanded sharply as he snatched the crossbow from a nearby knight. “We can’t allow her to play that instrument!”

Tarlay smiled as the crossbow twang sharply. She moved slightly to the side, avoiding the deadly bolt while lifting the flute seamlessly to her lips. A low haunting tune filled the alleyway as the Witch Hunter’s eyes glowed brighter still. Neon-green fireflies emerged from the chartreuse-green depths and spiraled towards Carina and her men across the melodic breeze.

Isaac’s second attack pierced one of the fireflies as it shot towards the playing Witch Hunter. The sparks of the shattered magical insect glittered across a barely visible thread that connected to yet another. The ominous, invisible wires both vanished beneath the firefly’s dying glow.

‘Is that the trap Isaac mentioned?’ Carina released the reins of Isaac’s pacing stallion and her mare as she extended her hands outwards and poured a burst of cold magic to the street around them.

“Saint’s mercy, that’s cold!” Tobias complained as he grabbed his shoulders and shivered beneath the cloud of icy mist. All around the knights, a shimmer of deadly wires emerged in crisscross patterns that bared not only their way forward but the road to the left as well.

‘What would have happened if they hadn’t stopped us before we ran into them?’

“We should retreat while we still can,” one of the knights growled as he turned to examine their only way out.

“That’s what she wants us to do,” Isaac snapped as he lowered the empty crossbow. The spent missiles had all been deflected by an invisible air barrier directly in front of the Witch Hunter.

‘This isn’t a battle my men can win,’ Carina realized as she swallowed the cold knot of uncertainty that crept up her throat. ‘Lumi, can you help us?’

The giant scriva leapt quickly onto the rooftop that faced the demonic Witch Hunter. Lumi growled as she spun and backed up slowly, then sprinted forward and jumped across the street towards her waiting prey. Carina held her breath as the elemental summon cleared the short distance, landing in a spray of broken tiles on the other side of Tarlay. The white wolf spun around once more, then opened her deadly jaws wide as she lunged towards the Witch Hunter’s exposed back. For a moment—it looks as if Tarlay wouldn’t dodge the scriva’s attack.

A blur of gray flew across from a nearby building and crashed into Lumi just before the scriva could reach the Witch Hunter. The white wolf flew from one rooftop to another before it crashed into a third and then rolled out of sight.

The young woman who appeared behind Tarlay shook her right hand lightly with a grimace. The strange gloves she wore flashed with a pale violet-blue light as she turned to glare down at Carina.

‘Another Witch Hunter?’

The older Witch Hunter finally stopped playing her instrument and lowered the flute with a displeased expression. Her glowing green eyes remained focused on the Duchess as she sighed.

“Vanya, I thought I told you to stay behind.”

Carina blinked and whipped around to stare at a second Tarlay, who now stood directly behind them on the rooftop. ‘Wait, how? There are—two of them?’

“This is why they call her Demon Eyes,” Isaac muttered as he gestured towards yet a third Tarlay, who knelt idly on the crumbling rooftop that Lumi had flown across. “These are her mirages. And they’re all just as deadly as the original.”

‘Hell’s Teeth.’ The Duchess gritted her teeth as the knights circled in around her, their uneasy gazes shifting between the three completely identical Witch Hunters that watched them from above. ‘Tarlay’s bad enough, but the other Witch Hunter is ridiculously strong. I’ve never seen anyone hit Lumi that hard before.’

“Well, Kirsi?” The second Tarlay asked with a mocking grin as she tapped the ivory flute against her chin. “I’ll give you one last chance to surrender willingly—what do you say?”

“You want me to surrender to the church,” Carina retorted stiffly. “That’s not going to happen.”

“What a shame.”

Carina stiffened as the Witch Hunter’s voice came, not from above, but directly behind her. The Duchess spun in her saddle as a sword sliced through the air towards her. In the split second the blade danced before her eyes, Isaac yanked Carina from her saddle and hurriedly raised his shield. The white mare screamed and crumpled to the ground. Its neck half severed from its body.

The knights quickly closed in on the thug, who had fallen to their blades only moments ago. Carina panted and blinked as her attacker’s appearance suddenly shifted into a fourth Tarlay.

‘Just—how many more can she make?’

The Duchess clambered to regain her footing and breathing while the Colonel maintained a firm grip on her arm. They both spun towards the other fallen bodies in the street that shimmered as they stood up one by one until five matching grins surrounded them.

“Those—are all mirages?” A Bastiallano knight gasped as he shifted into a defensive pose. “They felt real enough when I cut them down earlier.”

“Haa!” Carina laughed weakly as she shook away Isaac’s grip and spun slowly to face the small army of purple-haired, green-eyed Witch Hunters. ‘They can’t all be illusions.’ Her gaze snapped towards the rooftop where the first Tarlay stood, guarded by the Witch Hunter who had defeated Lumi earlier with only her fist. ‘What are the odds that one is the original Tarlay?’

The possibly authentic Tarlay smiled down as she moved towards the edge of the rooftop and knelt. “I was hoping for a bit more resistance than this, Kirsi. After all, you’re supposed to be the legendary ice witch who can’t die.”

“I’m not immortal,” Carina replied grimly. The sharp cry of a knight to her left pulled the Duchess’s startled gaze away. She watched the knight fall with a hatch buried in his throat. The Colonel quickly moved to close the gap and blocked a pistol shot with his shield.

“Stay together,” Isaac shouted as the three remaining knights stepped away from their fallen comrade to surround the Duchess.

Cold waves of panic prickled across Carina’s skin and collided together inside her chest as the reality of the difference in skill between herself and Tarlay became clear.

‘If I want to survive—if I want to save the men with me—I have no choice.’

Isaac stepped away as he deflected another pistol shot. The Colonel quickly lunged forward and shoved the mirage off balance before planting his sword inside its chest. The illusion's gun clattered against the street as the mirage vanished in a cloud of fireflies that swarmed and blurred into yet another copy of Tarlay a few feet away.

‘Shit. That means the only way to win is to take out the real Tarlay.’

The knights around Carina hastily shifted to cover their Colonel’s back even as they dodged and parried the relentless attacks of Tarlay’s other five mirages.

Carina reached out but still couldn’t find her connection to Lumi. She could only pray the scriva was alright as Kirsi seized control and clawed her way to the surface with a malevolent smile. Bastiallano’s knights, Colonel Isaac, and the Witch Hunters all vanished as Carina plunged into the dark, icy waters beneath the chaotic flicker of the Frozen Heart’s glowing cortex.

‘I’ll take it from here, Carina,’ Kirsi’s taunting voice echoed through the island of ice above her. ‘Watch and learn.’