Page 3 of Rise of the Witch
This is no natural death!
Two massive wolves ambled out of the cave, flanking a thin, white wolf who suddenly shifted into an old woman, wizened by time but still possessing a fierceness to her steely gaze. Luperca was the oldest shifter in this forest, more ancient than several generations of Yagas. Her bone-white hair hung in dreadlocks around her sculpted cheekbones, beads and bones gently clinking among the strands. Tribal tattoos adorned her face, green-tinted and faded with time—the markings of a warrior.
“Yaga,” Luperca dipped her head in greeting, and I returned the gesture. “It appears even my clan isn’t immune to The Devouring.”
Many of the shifter clan leaders had started calling the strange occurrences in the forest by this title, but I was yet to join them. I knew better than most, that which you named, you gave power to.
And I want to know what I’m dealing with first.
“May I?” I asked, slowly kneeling beside the fallen warrior but keeping my gaze on the formidable leader. She solemnly nodded, so I gingerly moved the wolf’s hind legs to better examine the ground beneath. Although it hadn’t rained in weeks, the soil was damp and eroded, mud squelching between my fingers. No matter how deep I dug into the earth, the decay was there—black and insidious, like cancer that had worked its way into the bone.
I need to seek guidance from the Mother Goddess.
With permission, I removed a fang from the corpse, along with a patch of fur. I added the items to my pack and bowed my head low, leaving the clan to their burial rites. Instead of heading to my original destination, I turned westward, following the sun’s path toward the closest sacred grove. Although the growth here was dense—a mix of fir, birch, and oak, untouched by humans for centuries—I traveled quickly, soon arriving at a small, irregular clearing carved out of the surrounding forest.
Removing my cloak and boots, I entered the grove barefoot, immediately feeling the pulse of power through the soles of my feet. A single tree rose from the center of the clearing; an oak so massive and ancient it left no question as to the godly power it held. I approached the intricately carved, stone altar half-encased in its bark, running my fingers over the workmanship of a people long forgotten by history.
Placing the fang and fur on the rough stone surface, I added my wooden Mokosh pendant to the pile before digging into my satchel for a small jar of extra potent dream tea. Kneeling in front of the altar, I pressed my forehead to the ground, digging my fingers into the earth. I gave thanks for life still flowing through my veins and for the creatures of the forest still unharmed by the mysterious threat we were up against.
Keeping my head respectfully lowered, I sat up and cleared my mind until the only image was the fallen wolf warrior and his unnatural death. Bringing the jar to my lips, I drank down the concoction, allowing its sweet, floral taste to warm my veins.
Allowing my eyelids to become heavy, I relaxed my body as the tea took effect, noticing how the surrounding forest had become eerily still. The silence was broken by a faint whooshing sound, growing louder as it approached, circling the grove. I knew better than to look upon what rode the wind and instead trusted my dream tea-induced second sight to guide me as I sank deeper into my trance.
A deafening crack startled me back to reality, causing my eyes to snap open in alarm. My confused gaze fell on the mighty oak, now split down the middle as if by a bolt of lightning, only this was no lightning from above. Perun—the highest god in the pantheon and ruler of thunder and lightning—would never fell a tree so sacred, especially one that was the living embodiment of his strength.
Peering closer, I realized the ground itself had ruptured, meaning the force had come from below. Horrified, I watched as a wooden box rose from the heart of the destroyed tree, its latch popping open to reveal a smaller box inside. That box also opened to reveal an even smaller box nested within...and another smaller one…
No! How did he find me after all this time?!
I gasped, scrambling to my feet and hurriedly backing away from what I was witnessing. Before I could run, the box dissolved, replaced by an enormous man emerging from the tree, his strange silhouette freezing me in place. This wasn’t the enemy I was expecting, but he still exuded deadly energy that suggested he wasn’t a friend. A tilt of his head exposed his towering ram’s horns to the afternoon sun, although the rest of his face remained in shadow, save for his smoldering eyes. I saw my death in their fiery depths, calling to me like a promise I hadn’t known I’d made.
“Vaaaasssssiiiiii….” his voice was a taloned hand on my throat, making me lose the ability to speak, forcing me back down to my knees before him. “Why have you called me here? You don’t appear to be ready for me yet...” The horned man almost sounded amused as he gestured toward me. Shaking in terror, I followed the path of his pointed finger to my bare forearm, gasping as ethereal swirls of color appeared—white, red, and black—the pattern ever-shifting so no sense could be made of the design.
“They’re so close, Yaga,” he purred, a wicked smile causing a fang to catch the light. “All you need to do is let them in. Claim them as yours. Untame them. Fuse your power with theirs so you’ll all be ready when the time comes. And the timeiscoming—sooner than you want to believe.”
Another thunderous crack knocked me onto my back, the air exiting my lungs in a painful burst. Righting myself, I gaped at the massive willow tree that now towered above me, as if the oak had never existed. Warily approaching the altar, I noticed the wolf’s fang and fur had vanished as if they’d been swept away as an offering. My pendant remained, except the mark of Mokosh had been scratched out, replaced with a rudimentary symbol I recognized all too well.
It was the mark of Veles, the god of the Nav.
Although my rational mind screamed for me to leave the pendant where it lay, I picked it up with shaking fingers, draping the leather cord over my neck and tucking it back into my layers of clothing.
If Veles had wished to kill me, he could have done so with a wave of his hand. While that thought was in no way comforting, it allowed me to accept that the purpose of what I’d witnessed—of why the god of the underworld had appeared tome—would be revealed at the proper time, possibly very soon.
Sooner than I want to believe.
Chapter 3
Asa
If I had to listen to another one of Nox’s unending strings of obscenities, my famously agreeable reputation may finally succumb to ruin. I understood his frustration; we’d been lost in the woods for close to 48 hours, and wenevergot lost. However, the most important thing for us to do right now was not to lose our heads.
As we broke through the tree line to find the very same thermal pools we had encountered three times already, I braced myself for another round of cursing. Luckily, Taneer broke the silence first with some levity. “It’s a sign, boys!” he joked, toothy smile glowing white against his olive skin as he started to remove his shirt. “Last one in is a rotten egg!”
“If you jump in that pool, I will fucking kill you,” Nox growled, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of one massive hand as he leaned against a boulder. “C’mon, Tan,focus!What time do you think it is?”
Tan lowered his shirt back over his sweat-slicked abs—much to my disappointment—before squinting at the sky. Our compasses and satellite phones had mysteriously stopped working, so we’d been relying on Tan’s usually infallible navigation skills to get us back to base. Unfortunately, it seemed even the celestial bodies were in on whatever cosmic joke we’d stumbled upon. I reckoned it was hours past dawn, but the sun continued to play tricks on us, as the more we followed its path, the more lost we became.
It would be poetic justice if the three of us died out here, after what we’ve done.
