“Thank you,” he said in a low voice to whatever hobs were near, looking around the castle entry before stepping outside and back on the path toward the monster in the woods.
By the time they reached the woods, they still hadn’t seen Sondre. What they did see was a procession of people accompanying a woman on a stretcher. They were coming from the direction of the town, and the woman who had been carrying the limp woman earlier was at the front of the group.
“Hide!” Dan whispered.
The two men ducked into the woods, and Axell took his hand. Danwas briefly grateful for the brambles and shrubs that were at the edge near the path. It must be what enabled them to hide. No one so much as looked their way, even though they weren’t very far into the woods at all.
But when Dan glanced over at Axell, he saw… nothing. No person there, even though he was holding what felt like another man’s hand.
“Axell?”
“Shhh,” a voice answered. Dan saw no one at all there; he appeared to be alone.
Then he glanced at his hand and saw nothing there either. He started breathing too fast, too deeply, and then he felt a second hand reach out and grab his wrist. He couldn’t see anyone, and he hoped it was the man he’d been here with.
Did I imagine him? Imagine all of it?
Panic crept over him, but then the hand that had caught his arm crept higher, tracing up his arm and then across his chest. It was both the most unsettling and exciting thing that had happened to him in quite some time—aside from the whole becoming a witch thing.
He stared at the crowd of people passing on the trail as the invisible hands pulled him closer. He stumbled and fell into the invisible body he believed was Axell.I didn’t imagine him.
Dan let out a small noise when his own hand landed on a taut stomach.
“Hush, Daniel.”
“I can’t see youor me,” Dan whispered.
“Magic.” Axell’s voice, louder now that the people had passed, was slightly to the left of him, even as their hands were on each other’s bodies. He was standing at an angle. “I did not want to be seen, and we are not seen.”
“You made us invisible.”
“I did!” Axell’s laugh was right in front of Dan, but it was still disconcerting to not know where exactly he was.
“Super weird.” Dan jerked away, and they both became visible again. “Okay, weirder.”
“Together it worked.” Axell stepped forward, took Dan’s hand, and again they vanished. “We hold hands while we follow the headmaster.” His grip tightened on Dan’s hand. “Maybe we don’t talk so much when we get near him.”
Dan nodded, realized Axell couldn’t see the nod, and suggested, “One squeeze for stop. Two for go.”
“Three for yes,” Axell added, squeezing Dan’s hand three times.
They set off through the woods, wondering what exactly they would find in front of them. As they walked, Dan thought back on his first attempt at hiking. That one ended in his near-death plummet, but as far as he knew, there were no ravines here.
Supposedly no monsters either.
By the time they found Sondre, he was talking to a witch who looked like her hair had blood-streaks. She carried an ornate stick that she held out from her body like a weapon.
“Another one dead.” The witch stared at the man on the ground, pointing toward the decaying corpse. “Damn fools refuse to stay away from the rift.”
Overhead, the wooden serpent undulated like a snake-charmer had been playing songs. The little snakes shivered and shifted underneath the massive beast.
“Whose work is this?” Sondre asked the woman. He had an unmistakable hopefulness in his voice as he added, “Surely not Scylla’s…”
The other witch cackled like she was embracing stereotypes. “As if.”
Sondre walked closer, and one of the baby snakes lunged at him. Wooden fangs sank deep in his leg, and the red-haired witch slashed a sword down, severing the head of the creature. Purple fluid oozed down Sondre’s leg, and the head turned into wood and vines. Lifeless. Still.
“Not an illusion.” Sondre stared at the rest of the snakes. “What witch is keeping secrets, Agnes?”
