Trajan nodded and followed Isabel into the passage.
“All right, Hector, we should be far enough away,” she said.
It had taken days for Trajan’s men to dig them free of the Goiri’s crypt, but they worked methodically with the air of men who knew that they were working toward a successful outcome. Isabel and Trajan spent a lot of time talking during those days. He was furious about the Sin’Rath and vowed to hunt them to extinction, exactly the reaction Isabel had hoped for.
After significant convincing, he accepted that his sister was living within an old woman’s body and spent some time threatening Hazel with a variety of very painful ways to die. Hazel was, of course, gagged and bound, so it was a very one-sided conversation.
There were a number of smaller rooms at even intervals surrounding the main chamber where the Goiri had died, all accessible through large archways. The remains of furniture, glassware, and books littered the floors, but it looked as if the whole place had been destroyed in a mad rage a long time ago.
Isabel had gone to one room after the next, peering inside, hoping to find something useful and being disappointed, until she came to a very unusual room. It was rectangular, longer than it was wide. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of stone in the first part of the room but gradually transformed into crystal shot through with gold near the far end. A low bench ran the width of the room along the far wall, carved from the same crystal and gold as the rest of that end of the room, with a large crystal bowl in the center of the bench. She peered into the bowl, expecting to find some kind of treasure, but found only dust. Still the room caught her imagination and set her mind to wondering.
During the days that Trajan’s men worked to dig them free, Isabel found ample time to read the two spellbooks she’d taken from Hazel.
The charm spell was powerful and insidious, relying not on anger or love for the distracting emotion, but hate. At first, Isabel was surprised and confused by the nature of the spell, but soon came to understand the level of contempt toward another person one must feel in order to deprive them of their free will through such magic. That kind of contempt could only be the product of hate. Isabel got the impression that this charm spell was a variation of a more basic spell, one that relied on love, but she couldn’t be sure. In any event, she didn’t think she’d be making use of this spell anytime soon.
The shapeshift spell was another matter. It could be powered by either love or anger and it had a wide range of applications. Changing into something of similar weight and size was the most basic form of the spell, allowing the caster to assume another person’s appearance, but the spell was much more potent for witches with the power and talent to make use of it. A High Witch could transform into a creature or object a hundred times her size or a hundred times smaller. At that level, the shapeshift spell became incredibly versatile. Isabel spent most of her time studying the spell, though she couldn’t actually learn it since the Goiri bones prevented her from practicing. That didn’t stop her from committing the spell to memory so she could practice it when she had the chance.
After they’d freed themselves from the Goiri’s crypt, they went straight to the crystal chamber. Hazel resisted, of course, so two of Trajan’s men had to bodily carry her. The same two tied a rope under her knees and looped it behind her neck. With her hands tied behind her back, she was unable to move out of the magic circle.
Hector pushed the large emerald in the center of the panel. Nothing happened.
Several seconds passed before the crystal began to glow, increasing in intensity very quickly, until it was so bright that even Isabel and Trajan down the hall were blinded.
The light subsided as quickly as it had come, plunging the chamber into relative darkness with only two torches for light.
Isabel approached Ayela and untied her legs, then removed her gag. “Convince me,” she said.
Ayela proceeded to answer questions from both Isabel and Trajan for several minutes until both were satisfied that she was herself again. Hector stood back and watched until the verdict was determined, then