Gunilla hesitated, rocking back several steps. A moment later, she straightened, a smug smile adorning her face. Still, Katrin noted the woman somehow looked many years older in that moment.
"Why would you think I have done anything? I warned you about him and you refused to listen."
Katrin shook her head, fingers tightening on thestav, though she resisted waving it into Gunilla's face.
"He thinks I have betrayed him, because of something you said or did. What is it?" She didn't want to let on just how much she knew about what Hradi had heard. She wanted to force Gunilla's admission.
"You are speaking nonsense." Gunilla tried once more to take Katrin's hand. Katrin evaded the attempt.
"All along, I have suspected you know more about this battle than you have told me, from the moment I first saw the jarl's future. Tell me, now. Who have you aligned yourself with? And how?"
"Child, you don't understand anything. The gods have already decided our fates, and this must play out as they intend."
Despite the rage shaking through her, Katrin managed to hold an appearance of calm, though she supposed she would never know how. Pure instinct perhaps, propelling her to conceal all she knew. Raising her wand in one hand, she brushed her fingers against the tip, smiling with a morbid excitement at having the upper hand. The control that Gunilla had always had over her.
"I have also been keeping secrets," she said, savoring the panic that crept into the older woman's pale eyes. "And I have seen your fate."
She took a step closer, nothing how Gunilla paled even more and backed away. A distinctive satisfaction coursed in Katrin's veins. She savored it, surprised to discover the guilt she'd borne over her doubts these last months no longer existed.
"There is a chance that could change, but you must tell me what you know." Katrin glanced around the room, reminding Gunilla they were not alone. "Otherwise…"
Fear surrounded the silver-haired witch like a dense fog. Yet, moments later, she once more resumed her defiant attitude.
"You try to frighten me." She shook her head, clicking her tongue. "But you are still beholden to me. You must obey my wishes."
Katrin gave a giggle, oddly pleased with the hint of menace accompanying it. She shook her head.
"I am done with you, old woman. You need me. I no longer need you. And I will not allow you to destroy me alongside yourself. You tell me the truth. All of it. Now!"
Her voice echoed ominously in the room, the guards shifting uneasily and muttering amongst themselves. She ignored them, her focus instead on the reassurance mingling with her building rage. Surely that awareness was given to her from the gods; there could be no other explanation for the sense of approval and encouragement that rushed through her veins, growing strongerwith each passing second. Within her grip, the wand vibrated, the essences of air, earth and sea coming together in a force of righteousness.
Fear crept into Gunilla's eyes. Katrin recognized the moment her mistress realized she must confess all. She took a step closer to the woman who had once been the center of her world.
"What did you do?"
Before the older Seeress could answer, the door slammed open and Hradi filled the frame. Though the sounds of a battle had been muffled until now, Katrin noted that it seemed oddly quiet outside the longhouse.
"There! She's there!"
Hradi pointed at Katrin. Her heart seemed to cease beating when several men stepped into the hut and headed toward her. She held up her hand.
"Hold!"
The men stopped, confused and looking to Hradi to confirmation. Katrin restrained her smile when he signaled for them to heed her silent command.
The brief moment of delight faded when she faced Gunilla once more. Instead, Katrin's heart felt as if it had turned to stone. The woman before her had become a stranger. Any affection that may have lingered within Katrin over the last weeks dissipated in a regretless wisp.
"I want the truth. Now!"
After several moments, Gunilla nodded. She began to pace, but the warriors assigned to guard her moved in close, hindering her movements. The wild terror in her eyes reminded Katrin of a caged beast. The silver-haired woman looked around the room and apparently realized her defeat. She lowered her head.
"The gods took my powers. If I was to continue on the path of helping others, I needed someone I could teach, someone who would share what they saw with me, so I could best serve."
Katrin recognized a grain of truth in the woman's words. "Yes, you needed someone else with a true gift. But not to help, to benefit yourself and harm others!"
"No! That is not true! You know very well how many villages and clans we have helped throughout the seasons. Your gift was the reason why, and I knew well how to understand it."
"You mean take advantage of it." Katrin somehow refrained from slapping the woman. Finally knowing just how she'd been used all these years left her sick. She willed her roiling gut to settle, determined to make Gunilla confess to all her misdeeds.
