her sagely, nodding to herself ever so slightly. “I scried the surrounding area early this morning. It seems that the Sin’Rath and their puppet soldiers haven’t given up on you yet.”
“Do you think they’ll find your valley?” Isabel asked.
“Doubtful,” Hazel said. “This place is very well protected. They’ve searched for the doorway along the stone face where you entered several times already and failed to see it. While powerful and dangerous in the extreme, the Sin’Rath are rash, and subtlety is often lost on them. I suspect they’ll move on in a day or so.”
“And if they don’t?” Isabel asked.
“We wait,” Hazel said, indifferently. “Eventually, they’ll tire of the hunt.”
Isabel nodded, calmly sipping her tea while thoughts raced through her mind. She felt a sense of urgency building in the pit of her stomach, the need to be on her way, to find the bones of the Goiri and use them to wage a very personal war against Phane. Every day he was allowed to draw breath was another day that innocent people would meet their untimely demise. Yet, she had to be smart about it if she was to succeed. No realistic plan of attack against the Sin’Rath had any chance of success. Two witches and nearly thirty soldiers were simply beyond her and she knew it.
“Ayela asked me to teach her to fight,” Isabel said. “Can I have my weapons back so I can teach her how to use them?”
Hazel frowned, staring into the fire for several moments before slowly shaking her head. “While you are a guest in my home, I would prefer that you remain unarmed. You’re still a witch of another coven and I don’t know you well enough to trust my life to you. You are, however, welcome to use sticks or branches to simulate weapons, like the one you have concealed in your sleeve.” She looked at Isabel pointedly.
Isabel froze for a moment before smiling with a shrug. “I’m a woman at war. I feel naked without a weapon.”
“Understandable,” Hazel said. “I’m sure you can teach Ayela the basics without your weapons and I assure you that all of your possessions will be returned to you when you leave.”
The others woke a few minutes later. Hector and Horace prepared breakfast for everyone at Hazel’s direction. They seemed eager to please her and worked cheerfully. Isabel noted that both men were also without their weapons. After breakfast, Hazel sent them out to work on more firewood. She caught Isabel’s frown.
“You disapprove,” Hazel said.
“Yes,” Isabel said without elaborating.
“It isn’t often that I have two strong young men at my disposal,” Hazel said. “There are so many chores that need to be done around here, it only makes sense to put them to work. After all, I’ve opened my home to you, fed you, and sheltered you from your enemies. Their labor seems a fair price for all I’ve done for you.”
Isabel found it difficult to formulate a counterargument so she changed the subject. “How does that work, anyway?” she asked. “They’re clearly charmed by you, why not just use your charm on me as well?”
“Very well,” Hazel said. “Ayela, you should pay close attention here. A charm spell works best on one of the opposite gender, but there’s more to it than that. A charm creates a strong emotional bond to the caster of the spell within the subject, and while this bond is artificial and temporary, it is nonetheless quite powerful while it lasts. Since women are prone to more intense emotions than men, we tend to be better able to manage such emotions. Add to that the natural need of a witch to manufacture powerful emotion for spell casting and the fact that other witches are usually all but immune to such magic.”
“Huh,” Isabel said. “That’s very interesting.”
“So why not just charm my father or brother and tell them the truth about the Sin’Rath?” Ayela asked.
“They’re already under the influence of a charm,” Hazel said, “a much darker and more powerful charm than I can cast. The Sin’Rath are descended from the Succubus Queen, Sin’Rath, and as such have inherited a number of powerful natural abilities. One of those is their venom. A single bite from a Sin’Rath witch will permanently charm any man, rendering them completely obedient to the witch who bit them. No simple charm spell can overcome something so insidious.”
“Then how can we save them?” Ayela asked, new worry quavering in her voice.
“Kill the witch who bit them,” Hazel said.