Burning of Witches

“Always perpetually dusk,” Jaden said. He was talking about the sky. All day long in Burghead the sun looked like it was setting, always a dim pale yellow. And then, it got dark. The sky was normally covered in a thin blanket of clouds. I heard a rumor that the sky was blue. None of us people in Burghead would ever know, it was always cloudy and dim there.

The castle of Brodie stuck out among the fog, its looming towers and ridged rooftops poking into the blanket of cloud.

“Can’t wait to get to town. The women there,” Jamie gushed, “Sick of looking at you trolls.”

He looked at me particularly when he said that. I stuck out my tongue at him. It was nighttime when we approached the gates. Other nightguards walked past us, of all different ages, they looked like degenerates. You could tell the difference between the honorable knights and the nightguards. The knights had shiny armor and regalia. The nightguards wore black over their often secondhand and dented armor. As I climbed off my horse, Jamie grabbed my arm and yanked me back I almost spun to swing on him but I saw as I fell onto my ass in the dirt, a chariot hurtle past.

Almost died before I even saw war.

“Pay attention you oaf!” Jamie yelled, looking redder than when I’d slapped him a few days ago. The only time I’d dare to put my hands on him. Godson would always get mad if I hit Jamie, even when Jamie often started it. But this time he crossed the line.

Princess Butterface climbed out of the chariot so we all dropped to our knees to bow to her. She kept her curly brown hair cut short. She nodded towards us with her diamond shaped head and continued on her way. My knees were now caked in mud from kneeling as I got to my feet. By now I was completely filthy. I’d need to change before we met the king.

A knight came past, dragging some witches who were chained by the leg. You could tell they were witches because they often cut the really dark spells into their arms, their body was covered in partially healed and sometimes scabbed up symbols. And dark spells would take a toll on their skin, they could be 13 and look like old ladies, faces looking sunken and wrinkled.

One of them lurched at me, another moment that Jamie had to rescue me, and pull me out of her lash, still she grabbed onto my ankles.

“You’ll all burn too, you’ll see,” she croaked and the knight that was pulling her came over to yank her chain and drag her across the ground.

“Soon you’ll be marred the beast.”

Jamie was angrier than ever after she left.

“You’re not going to last a second in this war,” he groaned, shaking his head and moving onwards.

We’d stay in the castle tonight, for the festival of the burning witches. They’d set 13 witches a flame at midnight. And we’d eat pumpkins and shove candles in skulls and drink and dance and sing. And then tomorrow we’d head out to Pile hill, where we’d live until we die.

Our room was in the basement. Me and Mellzie shared since we were the only females in our bunch. Most females didn’t go to war, ones that had families to arrange marriages for them. If you’re married, you didn’t have to fight, as a lady. If you weren’t then you were another body that could be used. Mellzie wasn’t an orphan, she had a mother, and was loved but they lived in a brothel. And if you’d think that’d make the guys turn their nose up to her, you were wrong, it only impressed them more.

I threw down my sack of clothes. Nothing I owned belonged to me, a lot of my clothes were Godson’s wife’s hand me downs. Things that had holes and patches in them or tears. I often hid the disaster of the clothing with a cloak. I had a nice cloak, belonged to my father I think. At least that’s what I liked to believe. It was a man’s cloak, completely black made of nice threads and no matter what happened, it never tore nor got any holes and I had it my whole life. They said I was found wrapped in it, as a baby, my swaddling cloak.

The only thing I knew about the person who wore it, the words ZOLLE stitched into the neckline, which was where I got the name, Zollie.

There were lots of handsome knights wandering the halls, tall and built, like every girl’s dream. None of them looked at me and if they did, they quickly looked away as if they couldn’t bear what they saw. Some squinted, curious probably of my skin tone and why it was the color that it was. But there were no long looks as always.

We would eat, and then we would drink, and then we would burn some witches.

The grand hall was lined back to front with wooden tables and knights and guards filled them all. A grande feast was laid on all of the tables. Jaden sat next to Mellzie even though I saved him a spot. Then Blinkie stole the spot next to me as Scheppa sat on my other side.

Jamie didn’t even sit with us, he’d rejoined his own kind. All knights, all handsome like he was grinning in their gloriousness. When I looked over to the spot he was in I must’ve looked too long because he caught my gaze and I quickly looked away.

“Hello all,” the king said, calling quiet to the once gaudy room, “Thank you all for being here, you brave souls who volunteered to give your life away to protect this great city from the king of the night. And eat and drink and be merry. For tonight, we burn witches.”

Everyone cheered and began throwing back their food. There was always a good meal at the palace during the burning witch festival. And every year I looked forward to it. But not this year, as I started to feel as if it may be one of my last. The food tasted stale and rotten in my mouth but I forced it down anyway. Only eating one plate instead of the three I normally had.

The ale was in barrels and large buckets in the city center. On the stand were the 13 witches that were to be burned. They looked almost unreal the way they quietly stood there, like statues. Except for that witch, the one that had lurched at me. She was laughing the entire time. Her wild cackles filled the silence and soon became drowned out by the noise of people leaving the feast and having their first drink.

“Can’t believe it,” I heard Jamie’s whiny voice behind me. And saw he was dipping his metal mug into one of the buckets for ale and began drinking it like it was water.

“Do you know what my father just told me? He intends to marry me to Princess Butterface,” he said.

All of the guys laughed.

“Shut your eyes while you fuck her, and grab her tits,” said his friend, a handsome dark-haired gentleman named Joseph.

Joseph of the Darkwaters from a land North of Brodie while we had come from the south. He was a higher ranking noble. And his narrow half shut eyes spoke of an oriental heritage. His dark hair was kept short and slightly curled. And he had a deep confident assuring voice. Always seemed calm cool collected. The room next to him could catch on fire and he’d still have the same impassive look on his face. He was one of the few who would look at me and not look quickly away. Though his look couldn’t be described as long either. More like an I-notice-you look.

I walked away, trying not to be seen by the two but I caught Jamie’s eye anyway. I felt embarrassed, remembering the event from a few days ago now. I practically ran to get away. There was more drinking, the men lit a large torch they needed 3 men to carry. Then they carted it around the streets while singing the burning witch song.

“A witch will grab you by your lips

A witch will rip off both your tits…”

The torch was then brought to the stacks of logs and sticks sitting beneath the stand where the witches will burn. The fire grew slowly, it was painful to watch how slow it was before the first witch could feel it’s burn. I always looked away before the flames engulfed them, normally left. But this time I watched as the flames slowly trickled up the legs of the woman that grabbed me. She felt no pain, she just kept laughing, laughing laughing. And then I heard her voice in my ears, darkly, a curse upon you all. It sounded inhuman it sounded wicked. And in a blink, she was gone. The other witches burned, she did not.

“Fuck you Moor,” I heard as I attempted to walk back to the inside of the castle. Someone threw a steel mug at me. It hit me on the back of the head. I turned to see a group of knights laughing, Jamie among them.

I couldn’t do anything other than keep walking. They were 6 strong and drunken guys. I was a girl with sloppy swordsmanship.

“Hey hey hey, are you going to be alone tonight?” he was not the more attractive of the knights, he was short, but bulky, his brown hair he kept short and his face mostly clean shaven besides bristly. I was desperate to be loved but not that desperate. His hand came across my waist, fingers slightly brushing my bottom.

“Leave me alone,” I said firmly, enough to mean business but not too firm to provoke them.

“Hey,” he said, this time shoving me, my back hit the wall, “Show me that purple pussy.”

I considered hitting him.

“That’s enough,” Jamie said, lightly pulling him back, “There’s better looking girls.”

 If he had just pulled him off me and not insulted me, he would’ve been mistaken for being noble. But he never made that mistake.

“Are you scared?” Mellzie asked when we got back to our room. The guys were there, sitting on our beds and sharing a bottle of wine.

I scoffed. It was a stupid question. Whoever said they weren’t, were lying. Unspeakable horrors would await us on the battlefield. Dragons that blew flames so hot it froze instead of burned. Deformed half men, zombies who ate flesh. Witches with sharp teeth who drank your blood. 10 foot tall demons with heads of goats. And the greatest horror, the Night king. Everyone who saw him described something different, fangs instead of teeth, dark holes where his eyes should be, fleshy bat wings on his back, his entire body covered in bulging blue veins. It’s said looking at him once will give you nightmares for the rest of your life. If you looked twice, you will die in your spot.

“I’m not scared,” Jaden said, probably to impress her, “I’m not afraid to die.”

Dying was easy. The stuff that happened before that was the terrible part. Like being ripped alive by zombies.

They were sitting awfully close and then, he kissed her. The two became embroiled in kisses.

“Welp, time for me to leave,” said Schepp, leaving me with the two and Jaden who was now climbing on top of her.

I guess I’ll just die alone, I muttered to myself, making the mistake of leaving the room and wandering the halls at night by myself. The only light, the flickering torches on the walls with shadows that moved behind them. I could still hear the cackling of the witch in my head and I start to feel like maybe she was here, and she was following me. I began to run and slammed into a knight as I was turning the corner. He caught me in his arms as I fell to the ground. Jamie.

“Who’s after you now?” he asked.

He always got handsy when drunk. The first time he did, I was flattered, thinking maybe he liked me, then he said, you’re not so bad looking in the dark.  

Then a few days ago, I went to bathe in the lake and he walked right up to me while I was naked. I could do nothing other than to make a dash for my clothes. He stepped on them so I couldn’t get it. Then he stared. So I punched him.

And I got in trouble when Godson asked what happened to his now bruised cheek. I got nine lashes for it. The wounds still hurt.

“You do not strike him, he is your superior, you are the dirt caked beneath his boots!” Godson reminded me. Jamie could hit me all he wanted but I couldn’t hit back, those were the rules.

“The witches,” I said.

“Shhh,” he said, pulling me close, placing a hand on the back of my curls, “I’ll protect you.”

Then I pushed him away, careful not to push too hard for fear of more lashes. He just laughed, drunkeningly drawling.

“What would you do if I didn’t protect you? You’d be dead by now. God knows what will happen to you tomorrow. And I’ll be in the back of the field, while you’re in the front lines. You won’t last 10 minutes,” he said.

“I’m stronger than you think,” I said.

“I hope so,” he said, placing a hand on my cheek.

“Go to bed, you’re drunk,” I told him, lightly pushing him away again.

“Come with me,” he said and I just laughed, he rose his brows.

“Come on, you think any other guy will touch you?” he said.

I placed a hand on his chest and pushed him gently into the wall and he allowed himself to be pushed.

“You’re pretty right here,” I said pointing at his face, “But you’re soooo ugly down here.” I pointed at his heart.

“And for that reason, I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole,” I told him as gently as I could.

“That’s the only chance you’ll get,” he said as I walked away. �