Sapphire A Huntress no more (Sapphire Book 1)

The road, muddy and full of holes, had been empty, except for a few human souls running for cover. A snow storm was about to hit the town in full force. My senses were on high alert, and not because of the weather worsening. The witches city was closer and I was sure they were following me for some time now. Since I arrived on their land the air changed and the fog got denser as I advanced. Charles and his ideas were just as strange as when he was a child, thinking only of pace and seeing the good in everyone especially in his enemies, the witches were more dangerous than Cole and his men. Their power was more than meets the eye and crossing them would mean complete destruction.

The snow storm got worse as I advanced, even in my wolf form I saw just one meter in front of me and it was surely the witches doing, snow storms are never this powerful, not on their own. I crossed the border to the next town when the people who were fallowing me came forth. The three witches were covered in black robes with silver linings, they were the guardians in charge of their land borders. From memory I knew they were the first line of defense, powerful witches with no emotion what so ever.

‘State your business wolf.’ The voice of the witch was shallow, as though it came from the other realm. I knew this kind of voice, it had been a while since I encountered a witch.

‘You know why I am here, you had been following me since I set foot on the continent.’

’State your business. You are trespassing on our sacred land wolf.’

‘I am here to see your priestess as per the orders my king gave me upon their past talks.’

‘LIAR…there is no way our priestess would allow a wolf in our sacred land.’ The witch from the left had boomed. They were not told of my arrival, fighting them now would off meant an act of war with the witches, we could not afford another enemy now. Damn it, Charles and his brilliant ideas, I should have refused this quest from the start. They were about to attack when a portal opened between us and another witch, this time dressed in gold and purple came through stopping the three egger to kill witches.

’You three, what do you think you are doing? I ordered you to wait for me before engaging with the wolf.’

’We know about that, but the wolf is lying.’

‘Mace, had you not been informed about the arrival of an important guest?’

‘We did mistress, but what does that have to do with this wolf trespassing?’

‘He IS the guest.’

‘Well, if we got that out of the way, shall we go? I presume you are here to take me through that portal of yours.’

’Yes, indeed. I am sorry for the inappropriate behavior of my guard. If you would be so kind as to step forward, the portal won’t be open for much longer.’

Going through the portal I tried contacting one of my men to see if they had any news about the meeting between our king and the huntress. I had no luck, it was as if our link was missing here in the portal which was true, as the portals are a shortcut through the realms and nothing exists here.

As quickly as we entered we were soon in the grand room of their coven. There were a lot of witches and warlocks present, as if they gathered for some grand ball or important event. The priestess was on her throne joined by her daughters and sons. She was the only one without a scowl on her face, but I understood why the others had one, all too well. The ceiling of the room was made of glass, letting the sun come through and brighten the chamber they were in. The carvings on the walls, were similar with ours canvases, representing war and peaceful times. What caught my eye though was the painting behind the throne.

‘I see that you have been charmed by the painting behind me.’ The priestess said with a warm smile upon her face.

‘Your goddess? I thought your kind did not believe in such a thing.’

‘No, she is not a goddess. Our seer saw her in one of her visions e long time ago, she believes she is our savior, and yours as well.’

‘We are our own saviors in my opinion, but the painting is magnificent.’

She smiled at me, it was a warm and sincere smile. She greeted me like an old acquaintance, her people were not so kind, whispering with each other, about my purpose here I was sure.

‘You arrived here later than expected Mr. Crawford, we were about to go have dinner, please join us.’

The dinner table had been set beforehand, the priestess had changed clothes and was joined by her mate at the head of the table. Their general, the woman who had stopped the guardians from attacking me, a warlock I had met previously and some other advisors I had never seen before joined the table. At the other end stood the seer witch.

‘I have a question for you Mr. Crawford.’ We were all silently eating the dinner when the sear witch spoke up, as if she had forgotten to ask something important.

‘What kind of a question Carme?’ The Priestess was intrigued as well by the sudden outburst of the seer.

‘A personal question. Tell me wolf, if given the choice, would you die for your loved ones?’

The silence that followed her question was unusual. The expression on their faces was one of wander, I was not the only one who thought the seer to be too forward in her inquiries.

‘Carme that is not something you ask a stranger. I am sorry for this, she is not always so straight forward.’

‘I don’t mind. To answer your question, no, given the choice I would choose not to die for my loved ones.’ This time, the one who was more upset with my answer was the Priestess herself.

‘Why would you say that? Do you not care about the ones you love?’

‘Of course I do.’

‘Then why would you choose not to die for them.?’ Said the guardian witch, trying to figure out my reasons.

‘It is a very simple answer, actually. Who can guarantee that by giving my life in exchange for my beloved ones they will be safe from any danger. Can you guarantee the safety of your people upon you death Priestess? Can any of you?’

‘You have a point wolf, but still…’

‘Hmmm I know of another who gave the same answer as you Mr. Crawford.’

‘From whom did you hear it before?’

‘I saw someone say it, in a vision that is.’

‘You never told us about such a thing Carme. Who else did you see have the same view as him? I don’t remember you asking such a personal question before.’

‘My queen, I was not the one who put the question to the other. As I said I saw someone answer the same question, I had a vision before the arrival of our guest. I remembered just now about it’

‘Then why ask me the same question?’

‘Curiosity for one, as for the other, I wanted to see the answer you would give to a question put by your king.’

‘What does Charles have to do with it?’

‘You call your King by his given name?’ The Priestess was taken by surprise by what I have said. The witches were too formal in my opinion.

‘Yes, I do call him by his name from time to time. You did not answer my question, what does my king have to do with you asking me about what you did.’

‘In my vision he was the one who put the question to someone, I am not sure who the other was, all I know is that it was a woman.’

‘I understand, he is like that sometimes, overly curious about people. But leaving that aside, shall we discuss what we should and leave this discussion we have behind?’

‘Patience is not one of your strong point, I see.’

‘I do have patience, but at the moment we are one step away from another war, so I need to settle whatever we need to settle and go back to my king.’

‘Not to worry wolf, he is not in any danger, for now that is.’

‘I beg to differ. A few days before a hunter showed up to our door, I am not too comfortable leaving my king unprotected.’

‘A hunter you say? I thought you wolves were more careful than to leave some hunter in your house.’

‘Yes, well, if it was up to me the hunter would have been disposed of by now.’

The night went on, all we did was shift from one story to another. They avoided talking about the upcoming war, and I had no idea why. The room I was put in, just after midnight, had the ceiling made of glass. The night sky was clear, full of stars which seemed brighter than usual. The moon was full, white and bright like always but something still stirred in my mind. All that cleared away as sleep took over, and the same dream as before began to form leaving me restless and a bit hopeful against my will to do so. Morning came faster than I wished.

This time the room we had dinner the night before had a round table in the middle. Everyone was already seated except for myself and the Priestess. The seer was also present, she looked pale as she began to speak in a low voice barely audible. She was chanting something, a prayer for the lost and for the living.

‘Mr. Crawford I had spoken with your king before your arrival. We know why you are here, but do you know the reason you were chosen for the task of negotiating the terms of our help?’

‘I do not know the reason, but I figure is something to do with my person.’

‘No wonder you are the second in command. How did you know it was more about you?’

‘I had a vague idea, especially when your seer put that question of hers. What is it that you need from me, that you couldn’t get from my king?’

‘In order for us to agree on whether or not to help you with the war against Cole Bates…’

‘You will ask something in return from me.’

‘That is correct.’

‘Then tell me, what is it that you desire in exchange for your help.’

‘What we want is for you to sign a treaty of pace with us. We want your word and your mate’s word that you will always be our allies.’

‘Shouldn’t Charles be the one to sign such a treaty? And another thing, I do not have a mate how would this pact even work?’

'Well he did sign half of the treaty, the other one is to be signed by you and later on by your mate.'

'I will sign the treaty, but my mate won’t as I don’t have one'

‘What nonsense are you saying, of course you have a mate, every wolf does.’

‘That may be true, but mine died, one of your fellow witches had a vision of her death.’

They looked at one another and then at me, and something told me this day will me a long one.