Elizaveta Arkadyevna, our pack's witch, is one of those.
She is very powerful as witches--even as black witches--go.
But, as I understand it, skirting evil is difficult, time-consuming, and requires a lot more from a practitioner than true black magic does.
It is so much easier to use the suffering of others to make magic, and the results are more predictable.
This witch--and as we closed toward the throne, the smell got stronger and stronger, making my supposition more and more likely--this witch stank of the blackest magic.
In her neighborhood, pets and small children would go missing, and even the occasional homeless man.
I was betting that the iron chains binding the forest lord were hers.
The room the others saw, for all its height, was not a terribly big one.
The cave I could see was bigger, but almost half of it was taken up by the forest lord behind the throne.
It didn't take long for us to reach the dais.
The fairy queen sat on the edge of the seat of the silver throne and reached down to pet her witch--who didn't seem to appreciate it much.
The queen's wings fluttered as she sat, then folded so she could lean against the back of the throne.
Her eyelids fluttered with a faint wrip-wrip sound.
Once I was facing her, I could tell that her eyes were just .
.
.
wrong.
She would stare and stare, then blink rapidly.
It was hard to watch.
"Jesse," she said.
"Tell me your name?" "Jessica Tamarind Hauptman," Jesse said, her voice not quite right.
"Jessica," said the queen.
"Isn't that a pretty name? Come sit at my feet, Jessica." She looked at me and smiled as Jesse did as she was bid.
The queen leaned forward to pet her head--Jesse seemed to appreciate it more than the witch had.
"She is half-mine already," the queen told me.
"Your young man, Gabriel, and I have already done this as well.
Haven't we?" "Yes, my queen," he murmured tightly.
"I haven't collared him because of our bargain, Mercedes Thompson, but while a human is in my presence, unless I suppress my magic, they belong to me.
It was not smart of you to bring me another thrall." She patted Jesse one last time, then sat back.
"But that is not all you brought into my Elphame.