Free Witch Catcher by Mary Downing Hahn Page B

my head and looked at Kieryn. She was in her own shape again, crouched on the bed and shivering in her rags and tatters.
    "You can't go around dressed like that." I pulled some clothes out of my drawer—a T-shirt, underwear, shorts. "Here, put these on."
    Turning her back, Kieryn peeled off her clothing, yanked on mine, then looked at herself in the mirror. "Great purple toads!" she exclaimed. "I be as ugly as a wergle in these here boshy clothes."
    She was right. Even in their wretched condition, her own clothes had looked better on her than mine did. Shorts and a T-shirt merely accentuated her strangeness. It would be hard to convince anyone she was an ordinary human being. Not with those eyes and that skin.
    I yanked open the bottom drawer and pulled out a long old-fashioned nightgown. The bodice was pleated in tiny folds, and its neck, cuffs, and hem were ruffled and trimmed with lace. I'd picked it from a catalog and Dad had given it to me for Christmas. I'd been saving it for a special occasion. This was definitely as special as occasions come.
    I held it up for Kieryn to see. "Is this better?"
    Her wide mouth spread into a big smile of pure delight. "Oh, aye, Jen, aye. It's purely proper, and pretty as well."
    She shed the shorts and T-shirt and slipped the gown over her head. Twirling around, she admired her reflection in the mirror." Thank'ee, thank'ee," she said. "I feels more like my true self now."
    As she spun. I glimpsed a silver chain around her neck. "What's that?" I asked.
    Kieryn's hand flew to her chest as if to hide the necklace. "What's what?"
    "The chain around your neck."
    "I didn't mean for ye to see it," Kieryn said in a low voice. "But maybe it's best ye know."
    Reaching inside the nightgown, she slowly pulled out the delicate silver chain. On it hung a stone the color of the midnight sky, set in twisted strands of silver as delicate as cobwebs. It was similar to Moura's red pendant, but made with greater skill. A shape like a tiny star glimmered in the stone's depth.
    "Mam gave me this afore she sent me here. Without it, I can't go home. The door is sealed against all—even me." Kieryn held the stone to the light and stared into it as if she saw her world there.
    I moved a little closer. "I don't understand. Why did your mother send you here?"
    "It be a long story and hard to tell, but it was during the Third War of the Witches that our troubles began," Kieryn said. "My father, the king, was newly dead, and the witches rose up, stronger than ever. They come after Brynn and me, planning to kill us, I expect, on account of our royal blood. Mam led us deep, deep into the forest to a tall oak tree. Its trunk was so big, ten folk couldn't have joined hands and reached around it. Ye might say it were the king of the trees. Mam held up the pendant, and a door opened in the tree, a door into the darkest dark ye ever saw.
    Kieryn shuddered, and Tink crept into her lap, purring as if to comfort her. "Mam slipped the chain over my head. 'Guard this stone well,' she said, 'for ye can't come home without it.' With that, she pushed us through the door and shouted 'Run, run. and keep running till ye come out the other side.' And we did—my brother. Brynn, and me and our three aunties. We ran through the dark and the cold, thinking Mam were following us."
    She paused to wipe her eyes on the sleeve of the nightgown. "We five come out into a forest, but Mam weren't with us. I started to run back into the dark for her, but the tree closed itself up all ordinary-like, and there was only bark where the door had been. Brynn and I beat on it with our fists and called Mam, but she didn't open the door, she didn't come out."
    Kieryn turned her head away, but even with her back to me, I knew she was crying and didn't want me to see. "I tried the stone, but it didn't work. The aunties said it were too soon to go home."
    I put my arm around her skinny little shoulders, and Tink nestled closer, purring and rubbing his face