lost the will to live. She had considered using the last of her strength in order to stop her heart from beating. But then, her precious baby girl began to cry. As the guards took her away, Joanna suddenly found a reason to live. She vowed to search to the ends of the earth looking for her daughter.
That day, she began planning her escape. She feigned a lingering illness as a result of the birth. In reality, she was secretly gaining strength.
The midwife watched Joanna closely each day, searching for any sign of improvement. The Master was waiting for her return to the dungeon. The moment she was strong enough, Joanna would be sent back into hell where she would be drained of her magic each day and would live in fear of nightfall.
Joanna listened closely to the whispered conversations between the servants and midwives. Screams of pain and the sound of babies crying indicated that Joanna was in maternity ward of sorts. She only heard the crying for a few moments, before they were quickly taken away by the guards. Some of the Witches, like the one who briefly occupied the bed next to Joanna, did not survive… nor did her child.
She secretly grew stronger, while continuing to feign weakness. She had listened intently to the servants and midwives in an effort to find out exactly where the guards took the newborns when they stole them from their mothers’.
Joanna had successfully bridged a fragile mental link with her daughter. She had been fearful of making the link too strong as she couldn’t risk discovery. The link would help Joanna locate her daughter when it came time to leave.
She woke abruptly to a blinding flash of pain searing through her head and into her heart. The pain was so intense that she had become violently ill. Joanna screamed and retched over and over again, and then she had slipped into unconsciousness.
Joanna knew the moment she had awakened that something was terribly wrong. She frantically tried to link with her daughter, but she could not. Soon she learned why….
The guards who brought the next Witch into the sick bay told the midwives the tragic news. A virus had spread through the nursery and “took all the babies.” They went on to say that the nursery had been moved to complex B.
Her baby was dead! Joanna screamed inside, biting her lips until she tasted blood. She mustn’t show emotion or react to the devastating news. What kind of virus would kill all the babies in one night?
Joanna was more determined than ever to escape. She vowed to make each and every one of them pay for killing her baby. She escaped that very night and kept her vow of revenge… with one exception. Joanna dreamed of the day their paths would cross, and then he too would get what he deserved.
#
Joanna determinedly pushed her grief away and turned once again to gaze into the harbor. She reminded herself that, like the tides, life constantly changed and moved. She had no choice but to move forward rather than dwell on the past. She spied Fort Sumter standing proudly in the distance. This great fortress was one of the strongest in the United States, possibly even the world. The Fort must have been a hotbed of activity during the war. Joanna could imagine the sounds of cannons and guns firing as soldiers worked diligently to defend their stations.
Joanna knew when she moved on she would leave a piece of her heart in this historic city. The past seemed so close here; she felt it wrapping around her in such a way that it almost seemed within reach.
However, long before the war, Charleston was somewhat of a pirates’ heaven. Shop and tavern owners loved the constant supply of goods the pirates supplied. Merchants especially looked forward to the coins and jewels spent in their shops and bars. It was a match made in heaven; that is until the pirates held Charleston under siege. Several wealthy families were held hostage and threatened with death if the pirates’ demands were not met. In all fairness, Joanna did have to acknowledge that the demand was for medical supplies to treat injured crew members. When the medicine was handed over to Blackbeard, he freed the wealthy hostages.
It must have been exciting to see Charles Towne Harbor, as it was known then… filled with cargo ships as well as pirate ships. Wives of ship owners and crew members paced back