Free Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey Page A

witch to hang or burn as the people liked?
    Down the hill we flew through the foreyard to
the castle stable. I tossed a coin to silence the stable boy, and we led the

liorses across the drawbridge. We took the road that crossed IVIorgesh Valley and galloped to the base of the mountain.
    "Don't worry, Kit!" I called.
"We'll save your mother sure!" But my voice did not sound as sure as
I wished, and I hoped Kit could not hear the fear behind it.
    We galloped in the wind, riding up the steep
path, leaping over fallen branches. I was thankful then that I'd taught Kit to
straddle her horse snugly as a man does, to duck her head, and lo center her
weight on the saddle just before a jump.
    Partway up the trail I pulled Rollo to a halt
and looked over my shoulder. Not far below
us the villagers' torches flickered like star spit. Our mounts were
speedy but those on foot were already swarming up the trail.
    "Faster," I called. "They're
heading for Demetra's cave."
    I booted poor Rollo, praying all the while to
Saint Hippoly-tus for protection from a sudden fall. We happened on the cave. I say this because I was lost by the time we
reached it. Dismounting secretly, we hid our horses in the copse to the right
of the trail and sneaked inside.
    We crept through the stony maze in search of
Ali. I prayed Demetra was deep in a cavern bent over an absorbing spell, or
better still, gone altogether. This close to the hag, I could taste the fear in
my mouth. I set my jaw and prayed I wouldn't meet her moonstruck eye.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    The
Hag
    Stumbling into A small room, I
bumped against a broken eggshell the size
of Cook's great caldron, spilling bones and dried herbs onto the floor.
It could not be an egg by all rights. No bird was that big, but I had no time
to wonder at it with the townsfolk on their way. Racing down the hall, I found
Kit leaning over her mother. She wept soundlessly as she kissed her cheeks.
    "Child," said Ali.
    "Hush," I whispered. "You must
come with us now!" I pulled her up. Ali, obedient to my harsh whisper,
grabbed her cloak and shadowed us out of the cave. Hearing the crowd close by,
I took her hand and tugged her into the shelter of the copse where our horses
hid.
    We crouched behind some thick gooseberry
bushes and waited. I rubbed my sore knee and eyed my gloves. Both were filthy
and the right one was torn. Mother would be angry.
    "Who comes?" whispered Ali.
    "Villagers. Their blood burns for Demetra."
    The crowd wended up the trail and surrounded
the cave,

their torches and rushlights crowning the stone entrance in
pale gold.
    "Out, witch!" called Brock the
tanner.
    In the gap between Brock and Kate the
miller's wife, I saw the entrance of the cave and the low fire within. No sign
of Demetra. The villagers shuffled their
feet, their shadows dancing on the stony walls.
    "Out, I say!" Brock shouted.
    Four men strode into the cave. Then there was
a clattering noise and a scream, and out they came with Demetra, with her hands
bound behind her back.
    "You have spelled your last spell,"
shouted Brock.
    "Why have you bound me?" cried
Demetra. "I've done nothing untoward. I've been away at herbing these
three days."
    "Gathering hex potions!" shouted
Kate. "Wilde Island will not abide a witch!"
    "Where have you
hidden the knife you used to murder Tess?"
    Demetra narrowed her moonstruck eye.
"Tess murdered? This is the first I've heard of it. I say I've been
up-mountain."
    "It's true," whispered Ali.
"She's been gone three days."
    "Aye, gone," I said, "but who
is to say where?"
    "Unbind me!" snarled Demetra. Just
then I saw her gray cat in the cave behind her. It jumped from the table where
it had been nibbling on sheep bones. Skirting the fire, it scurried outside.
    "See her
kith-beast!" called Jossie. "Same as the one we saw trancing the dogs at the fair!"
    "Kill it!" shouted Keith.

Kit fairly leaped out to aid the cat, but I
grabbed her by the cloak and held her back. Arrows flew as the cat darted into
the woods on