Free Shaman of Stonewylde by Kit Berry Page B

we was in the Circle, that her time here was over. Along with the dark-haired bastard. You said they’d be pushed out and our own dear ones would take their places.’
    ‘Aye, and so ’twill be. Be patient, Vetch. ’Tis all a-coming just as I foretold. He’s here now and ’tis all in motion, right enough.’
    They sat in companionable silence for a little longer and then Starling sighed heavily, and with both hands lifted her great legs one at a time off the log. With a grunt and another explosion of wind, she heaved her bulk out of the chair and steadied herself as gravity redistributed her mounds of flesh. She shuffled over to the range and poured hot water into three filthy earthenware mugs, along with a generous pinch of herbal mixture and a good slug of something murky from a bottle.
    ‘Night-caps are ready,’ she said. ‘Pity our Jay didn’t come by this evening.’
    ‘Aye, we need more wood chopped and more water,’ said Violet crossly, rising from her chair. She tried to stand up straight but arthritis was taking hold. ‘Who’s supposed to look after us? If the boy don’t come, we’ll die o’ cold and thirst.’
    ‘Ain’t his fault,’ wheezed Vetchling. ‘He has to live up at the Hall and he told me he can’t come down every day. They work him hard in that school place he goes to in the Outside World and he has to do more o’ that book-learning in the evenings.’
    ‘Pah! Stupid notion, taking our young ‘uns away,’ muttered Violet for the hundredth time. ‘We should have that idiot son o’ yours back, Starling. You tell that sow Maizie we need him back here to do the heavy work.’
    ‘ ’Tis no use!’ snapped Starling, sick of the complaints about their absent boys. ‘Magpie ain’t ours no longer. I seen him in the Village the other day with that Outside teacher, drawing some load o’ rubbish. Hardly recognised me own son! His hair is gold, would you believe? He looks like an Outsider now, not one of us at all. All fancy clothes and airs and graces.’ She spat accurately into the fire, making it hiss. ‘I’d like to take the stick to him, so I would, and beat him back into shape! He didn’t even look my way – me, his own mother!’
    ‘Don’t you fret, my girl,’ said Violet, picking up her mug with a twisted grip. ‘All will be put straight soon enough. We summoned at Samhain and we done a good job. We know he’s here amongst us. We know that by Samhain this year, all will be right at Stonewylde. All will be back in its proper place and the upstarts will be gone. ’Tis all happening. Remember what came about at Imbolc?’
    ‘Aye – Imbolc were the best day!’ cackled Vetchling, and then stopped as another cough erupted in her bony chest. She clutched the table and tried to steady her breathing. Starling threw more logs on the fire and pulled up the spark guard, oblivious to her mother’s suffering.
    ‘We could do with a man about the place,’ she mused. ‘How about it, Auntie Violet? Can you summon me a man? A nice little love spell? ’Tis been a long time and I could do with something to warm me up at nights, a woman in her prime like me.’
    She leered at the crones, brown teeth gleaming in the flickering light.
    ‘A man? Who needs a man? More trouble than they’re worth,’ said Violet bitterly, shuffling towards the stairs. ‘We are three and we have the power. We don’t need no man messing things up!’
    ‘That’s all right and good for you, Auntie,’ said Starling, ‘seeing as how you’re the Wise Woman and solitary as you must be. But what about me? I have my needs and I ain’t getting no younger. If we had a fine strapping man here to look after us, we’d have no worries about Jay turning up to chop our wood and fetch our water. We need the garden dug too, and lots o’ jobs done around the cottage. You two are useless now and I can’t do it all on my own. ‘Tain’t fair on me!’
    ‘No, Starling, no man!’ said Violet firmly. ‘ ’Twould