The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Taliesin Govannon (best free ereader .txt) 📖

you no harm.” she said, looking at the tree I was hiding behind.

                Busted! I stepped out and tried to make myself look intimidating. “What do you want from me?” I asked firmly.

                I wasn’t prepared for her answer.  She laughed. “That’s very good, Sorceress…” she said, smiling, “if I were anyone else, I might be frightened.”

                “Fine.” I said, deflating slightly. “Who are you, and how do you know me?”

                “Why, I am called Mujaji.” she said. “I bring the rains to my people and make their enemies’ fields wither and die. And you are a guest in my domain.”

                “Sorry for the attitude.” I said chastened. “Are you a Goddess?”

                “The people call me such.” she replied. “But I don’t concern myself with matters of titles. I just make sure that the rain falls and that the crops grow.”

                “That’s really cool.” I said with a slight smile. I meant it.

                “I know you,” she continued, “because you are the Sorceress, and you draw from the very energies that give me life.  I always feel it when a Sorceress comes into her power.”

                She sat on a fallen log nearby, and I joined her.

                “You wouldn’t happen to know who’s been moving giant hell-elephants through this area would you?” I asked her.

                “They don’t use the magick of the earth, I know that.” she replied.  “If they did, I would have noticed.  Like when you arrived last night.”

                “I’m still not sure how I got here, honestly.” I never got the chance to ask Gaia last night I thought.

                Mujaji looked at me oddly. “You exited a doorway from a Fae land.” she told me. “It didn’t strike me as odd at the time.”

                We used a Fae gate? I wondered furiously. I thought that the Twilight Fae’s doorways were too complicated to use like that!

                “Curious.” was all I said.

                “I sense your resonance with the earth.” she continued. “Your progress is exemplary.”

                “Thank you.” I replied. “I’ve been worried about this whole ‘settling’ thing, you know… the potential for a Sorceress to go bad? I guess I was worried over nothing.”

                “Oh, don’t speak so quickly.” she said, warning in her voice. “The corruption of a Sorceress isn’t often runaway power, but rather runaway intention.”

                “Intention?” I said, puzzled. “What do you mean, intention?”

                “Look through your history, child.” she replied. “The worst, most cruel things are often done with the best of intentions.”

                “True.” I nodded.

                “Besides, I didn’t come to warn you about your path,” she said, “I came to help you on it.”

                “Really?” My heart jumped with excitement. Another Goddess adviser? Cool!

                “Yes.” she said. “You can tap elemental energies within you, but what about without?”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Let me show you.”

                                                                                                *                *                *

                I returned to base camp, smiling, a spring in my step.

                Just wait until everyone sees what I can do now!

                When I got there, they were sitting around the fire eating lunch. I had wondered what we were going to do for food, since we had brought none with us. I was surprised by the answer.

                “Taco Bell?” I said, walking up to them. “How did you conjure that?!?”

                “We're just miles away from South Africa's third-biggest city." Jack said, his mouth partially full with the chalupa he was munching on. "You don't think they have Taco Bell?"

                “And did you walk to go get it?” I asked him, hand on my hip.

                “Uh, no.” he said sheepishly. “Gaia popped through a gate and picked it up.

                “I used to get really strange looks from my human-glamour in Africa.” Gaia said. “What with the green hair and all. But, thanks to the internet, I saw five young women with green hair as well!”

                “Uh, yeah, about that." I said, looking at my green-skinned friend. "How do you 'pop' anywhere? How did you transport us last night? It took Lucinda a half-hour to lead us through the gate to the Twilight Fae realm… I thought it was too complex."

                “Not if you’re old enough.” she said with a wink.

                Now, what the hell does THAT mean? I thought. I didn’t get a chance to ask a follow-up question, however.

                “My phone tells me that we're going to have rain tonight." Jack said, seemingly accepting Gaia's answer without question.  He looked back at the shelter that Gaia had magicked into existence the night before. "Is that thing waterproof?"

                “Absolutely.” Gaia answered, taking another bite of her taco.

                “You sure?” he asked, doubting.

                This was my opportunity! “Let’s try it out!” I said brightly.

                Everyone else looked confused, but I just started working. They’ll see soon enough.

                I closed my eyes and focused.  I connected with the water in my body, and then to the water beneath the ground.  I then reached skyward, careful to maintain concrete barriers as I did so.

                Nothing happened for a moment, then a massive, dark cloud formed above us, seemingly out of nowhere.  It rolled with thunder, and flashed with internal lightening.

                Everyone else looked on with wonder.  The fact that the cloud had formed in an otherwise clear blue sky was most likely a big part of that.

                I focused again, and rain started to fall,  The thing was that it was only falling on the shelter… everywhere else, including where we were standing, it was still dry as could be.

                I walked under the shelter, where it was also dry. “Looks like it’s solid.” I said, smiling.

                “Now that I haven’t seen before!” Gaia said, smiling.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                Jack smoked a lot of the local cannabis during our stay in the sub-tropical forest. He wasn’t climbing trees or anything, thank goodness… that was Gaia’s and Katsu’s job. Katsu, of course, did all such physical activity naked.

                “Aren’t you afraid of getting… bugs in uncomfortable places?” I had asked her as she started up another tree trunk.

                “Nah.” she