The Portal 00 - Legacy of the Witch

than mounting a rescue. But I must explain things to you first.
Darling, my sisters and I are to be sacrificed to the sun god tomorrow.”
    “No!” I cried loudly, no longer caring if I was heard, and I
shifted my attention to the door of her cell and yanked on the lock, twisting
and tugging at it until my hands were raw.
    And all the while Indira was speaking softly to me, saying,
“Amarrah, Amarrah, please, you must listen. There’s so little time.”
    Eventually I heard her and, swiping my eyes, gave up on the
lock and went back to the window. “I won’t let it happen,” I declared.
    “Sweet, sweet Amarrah, every last one of us now living is going
to die. And while ordinary people think of the Land of the Dead as a place to be
feared—a place like, well, like this one, I suppose—we witches know better.”
    I sniffled. “You do?”
    “Yes. Death is nothing to fear, little one. It’s a glorious
release, a blissful awakening to a world beyond anything we can even imagine
while here in this one.”
    My brows rose, and I stared into her eyes, holding the lamp
higher, looking for evidence she was lying to me.
    “It’s true,” she said, and her eyes were sincere. “We don’t
fear death. But what they plan to do to poor Demetrius, our dear Lilia’s true
love, is much worse than any death. The high priest intends to strip him of his
soul and then imprison him in a truly dark place, a dimension of demons and
evil, for all eternity. That, we cannot allow.”
    “But…how can you stop him?”
    “Only in death, child. Only when death frees us from our
shackles and the bonds of our bodies. Before we cross into that blissful
afterlife I’ve described to you, we intend to snatch back Demetrius’s soul and
split it between us, hiding it within magical objects, binding those objects to
our own spirits to go with us into the afterlife, to be kept with us for all
eternity until the time when we can free him from his prison and try to restore
his human soul to him.”
    I nodded slowly, as if I understood, though I really didn’t. It
was like a nightmare, the things she described, and yet she said them as if they
were perfectly ordinary.
    “Someday our spirits will be reborn to an earthly life again.
But we might not remember all that happened in this lifetime. So I’ve recorded
it, all of it, on scrolls that will be hidden in the cave near the place of…of
our executions. You know where it is, do you not?”
    I nodded. Sacrifices to the gods were always pitched from the
cliffs of Mount Zucaris, far to the north of our city. Often people gathered to
watch. The offerings were most often goats or bulls, but sometimes humans were
tossed to their deaths on the jagged rocks below, enemy soldiers taken captive
in battle, traitors to the king. Witches.
    “There’s a special chest, a treasure chest. The scrolls will be
inside it. You must take it from the cave after the rituals are over and keep it
with you wherever you go. You must leave it to someone you trust at the end of
your life, with these same instructions, and so on down through the generations,
the ages, until the time when my sisters and I can return and set things
right.”
    “But how will you get the chest to the cave?”
    “I have a friend who will put it there. He will not know who
you are, nor may you know who he is, for the safety of you both.”
    “And how will you find it again in some future lifetime?” I
asked.
    “Just the same way I’ll find you, little Amarrah. By witch’s
magic.” She extended an arm through the opening and ran her hand over my hair.
“So, do you accept this sacred task?”
    I bit my lip and nodded firmly. “I do. I won’t let you down,
Indira. I won’t let any of you down.”
    “I know you won’t,” she told me. “Now go, before you’re caught
down here. That would ruin our whole plan.”
    I clasped her hand, moved it from my head to my lips and
pressed kisses to it. “I love you, Indira. And Magdalena and Lilia, too. I love
you all so dearly. Please tell them that for me when you see them. And that I’m
so grateful for all you did to make my life better. I will never forget you.
Tell them.”
    “I’ll tell them.”
    “I don’t want you to go,” I sobbed as she took her hand
away.
    “There’s no need to grieve, child. We’ll return.”
    With a vengeance, I thought, but I didn’t say it out loud.

Chapter Seven
    “Now you remember.”
    It was Lilia’s voice I heard, even though I knew that