Larissa could feel her heart thump harder as panic rose in her, but she was accustomed to dealing with it from her many adventures. She had organised different search parties to find her lost husband, but she herself could not risk leaving baby Leo. If their household had an enemy that could snatch Jemmy from inside Coltbridge, she would take no chances.

Suddenly she became aware of a presence in the room and whirled round. Two yellow, slit pupilled eyes stared back, but she gave a sigh of relief when she realised it was just Gloom the imp.

“Once a bona fide demon has been allowed access to someone’s domicile, nothing can keep him out,” he said in his reedy little voice, in a monotone as though he were reading that from a dusty old tome. “I have to inform you that my Mistress is on her way.” He made a show of cupping his little fanged mouth behind his small fist and whispered loudly: “She’s in a right state. Doesn’t bear up as well as you.”

Larissa strode out on the lawn, baby Leo in her arms.

Tira on her broomstick came hurtling down from the sky, landing on the lawn in an ungainly fashion that caused her to stagger as she dropped the broom. The girl’s blue eyes were extremely bloodshot – in the way that a witch’s eyes turned bloodshot. It looked like the whites of her eyes were tinged green. Her blood must be as green as her skin. There were traces of tears on her green cheeks.

“Larissa,” she gabbled. “Y-You’ve heard, you know…!” Her breath was coming in ragged gasps. She clutched a sickle moon amulet that hung from a necklace around her neck. She gasped. “Jemmy is alive… I know, cos of my magic…”

Larissa felt a surge of relief, like a great weight had been lifted from her.

Gloom appeared. “But we do not know where he is. He could be in terrible, danger, or suffering…”

Tira clutched her blond head with her hands and her eyes opened very wide as her forehead creased. “Stop!” She screamed. “You’ll make me ill. I – I – We can find him, cos I made a pair of amulets and he has the other. It was in case he ever got lost.”

“Bless you, Tira, you clever girl,” said Larissa.

“But it’s gonna be hard,” said Tira. “He’s been kidnapped. And not by someone in Coltbridge. We gotta go now and look for him.”

“Whoever the malefactor is, they may seek to take my son,” said Larissa. “I cannot risk that.”

“We can leave baby Leo with Willow,” said Tira, her voice still shaking. “No one could take him from her when she’s on her own turf.”

“Indeed not,” said Gloom. “They would be foolhardy to try.”

The broom ride back to Willow’s house was quick and little Leo took it very well. In fact, he complained less about Tira’s flying than Gloom did. As they alighted on Willow’s lawn, the witch herself took Leo from Larissa.

“I will guard him with my life,” said Willow gravely. “Rest assured, if anyone dares trespass and try to take him, they will be sorry.”

“Mother, why do you want another baby?” said Jasper.

“Who knows? You’re a perfect baby,” said Gloom.

Willow glared at the imp and ruffled Jasper’s hair. “We are going to take care of little Leo. You will have to stay home for a few days, Jasper. You must help.”

“Yeah, you can’t do much without me,” said Jasper importantly.

After they had put Leo in a crib guarded by the witch’s familiars, Willow took Tira and Larissa into her room of magical artefacts. This room had no windows. It was lit only by candles, which cast flickering shadows on the walls and the shells laden with bottles, jars and books and other miscellaneous items. The three of them sat down and Willow picked up a leather bound tome, and rapped on the cover with her fingernails. “I’m pleased with how far you’ve come, Tira dear,” she said. “You had the good sense to imbue the pair of amulets with a concealment spell, so no enemy, not even if she is another witch, will be able to detect it on his person. Now the seeker spells point in the direction of the cityport of Ctharae.” Willow opened the book and laid it out on the little table. “The North Gate of Ctharae opens out into the Wilderness. There is a magical barrier that prevents anyone travelling by air to the Wilderness, so the journey has to be made on foot, through the cityport’s north gate.”

“Magical barrier? How convenient,” said Gloom tutting.

“Not convenient at all,” said Willow. “I means a hard trek to get through the city. Tira, you will need the special magical artefacts. And I will give you my sun gem.”

Willow lifted an orange gem from the shelves and rapped her fingernails on it. She cradled it in her green fingers and murmured a word Larissa couldn’t pick up. The gem glowed orange, the light playing weirdly on the green faces of the witches.

“Thank you!” said Tira.

“May it be a light to you, even in the darkest of places,” said Willow softly.

00O00

In Millie’s dark cave, Jemmy trembled at the force of the bedlam witch’s glare. She gripped his shoulders with her green hands and he found himself unable to move or speak. “You dare talk to me like that?” she said, her voice choking and her black lips drawn back as she bared her teeth. She shook him hard, but suddenly she released him and stared wide eyed and her green fingers. She breathed heavily, her breasts rising and falling. “Jemmy…” she said, “my sisters, the other two Bedlam Hags, called me an ice queen, but you really take the cake. You’re like Kaj from the Snow Queen. Why are you so negative?” She cupped his face again in her cold hands. “You are very special, but there are some things we need to take care of so you can stay here.” She was breathing heavily, so that he got the full benefit of her reeking breath in his nostrils. “I need you to be connected to me. We will make a connection. Make no mistake.”

With surprising strength, she hauled him over her shoulder and carried him to the back of a cave which opened out onto a narrow passageway. He still couldn’t move. He realised with a rising sense of panic that he seemed to be paralysed, as one suffering from night terrors. If only this could all be a bad dream. The air from the tunnel was blowing crisp and cold and the rocky pathway opened out into a vast, underground cavern that shimmered with bioluminescence. Rocky stalactites hung from the ceiling high above them.

“My underworld,” said Millie in a low voice. The strange lights on the cavern playing on her garishly coloured, angular face made her look spooky. Otherworldly, Jemmy thought. To think he had thought he was used to witches. “Here, I am the queen,” she said. “I can provide for you. You’ll see.”

There was a great lake in the cavern and a small wooden boat. Millie dumped him into the boat and sat down beside him, before gesturing with her green fingers and muttering strange words. The boat took off, as if propelled by invisible hands, and streaked over the glassy smooth surface of the lake. Then the witch gripped Jemmy’s forehead on her clammy fingers and murmured something else. Jemmy found himself able to move again. He gingerly stirred his limbs. Everything seemed to be in order.

Millie touched his cheek and he stopped himself from flinching from her touch. “Don’t try to jump out,” she warned. “It could be dangerous. Here.” She picked up a leather bag from the bottom of the boat and drew out a coarse, black bread and thin strips of cured meat. “Cured snake meat.” She tapped her long, green nose. “These things are everywhere, and they bite. It’s time they gave back.”

Jemmy was so hungry that he bolted down the bread and meat, even though it was salty.

“I had a dream,” said Millie suddenly. “That you came here with Larissa, that great warrior, holding your hand.” Millie curled her blackish lip. “And you were afraid at first, but then you said you were my knight in armour and you’d defend me from the monsters here.”

Millie took another package from the bottom of the boat and unwrapped it. It was an ornate sword and scabbard. The sword’s blade made of a burnished reddish black metal. Some kind of bronze perhaps? The hilt was cased in black leather and studded with opals. It had been cleverly fashioned to look like the head of a bird of prey with opal eyes.

“A gift,” said Millie, handing it to me. “Compliments of me. It’s beautiful. In my dream you had a blade like this. Not that ugly old breadknife of a hallowed blade.”

“Um… I thank you, Millie,” said Jemmy warily. He was thinking she must be mad if she couldn’t tell the difference between life and dreams. Or if she really supposed that bribery was the way to his heart.

“Put it on your belt,” she ordered. Jemmy did so.

“There we are,” said Millie. “Your sword should be precious and beautiful. Not some piece of junk hand me down. You’re the kind of warrior who ought to be by the side of a truly powerful woman.”

Jemmy thought hard. “Um… Millie… you remember your… sister, Vi. She would not want you to keep me here.”

Millie turned her face from him and made no reply.

Jemmy tried again. “Do you not remember your sister Vi?”

He felt a stab of annoyance as she ignored him. “Is your memory that of an old lady?”

She stiffened and breathed through her long nose. He hastily put a hand on her shoulder. “My apologies. Just a little bit of humour.”

Millie sighed and turned round again. “I don’t care to remember Vi. I don’t want her. Good riddance to her. I just want to stay with you. I want you to think like that too. About all the bossy witches in your life, whether they have green skin or complexions of peach. You ought to want just me. You may not have realised it, but I get what I want. It’ll come to me, somehow, in my cave…”

At that moment, the water around them bubbled, and white shapes like fish broke the surface… no… these were not fish. They were elongated, eyeless mouthless heads with thin tails like tendrils, like tadpoles but huge, white, slimy and blind. They leapt at the boat and Millie gave a short, sharp scream. She was distracted. Jemmy seized the moment, and dived into the icy water. His clothes weighed him down and the chill of the water seemed to sear his very flesh, but he swam and swam and swam, ready to run for his life for freedom. But with a sinking feeling of dread, he felt something strong wrap itself around his leg and he was pulled under the water, his breath rushing out of his lungs in a cloud of bubbles. He was going to drown! He was suffocating as he was dragged under…

But there were hands around him pulling him out of the water. Millie had grabbed him and was pulling him onto the sandy shore. She screamed again and held up a glowing rock which she flung into the water. An explosion without sound, and the horrible tentacle released his leg. Millie staggered backwards and fell onto the sandy shore of the lake, Jemmy on top of her, their noses touching. Her brown eyes were wide and stricken. They were both soaking wet. Millie had white, sticky stuff staining her dark robes and her sodden, blond hair. Stains like that probably wouldn’t come out of her clothing, though she could give her hair a wash.

The witch sat up and gripped Jemmy by the shoulders, glaring at him as she breathed hard, her bosom rising and falling. He found himself unable to move again as she shook him hard.

“How dare you! I said not to jump out… you could have drowned.” She choked and stopped talking but continued to glare.

“I thank you for saving my life,” he said hastily. Would that placate her? “You truly are an empowered, liberated woman. I can see that now.”

She stared. She was still gripping his shoulders, pinching rather hard. “You’re just saying what you think I want to hear. You didn’t even ask how I escaped.”

“You were in danger from those giant white tadpole things that were coming for you in your cave of wonders beyond the crack?” said Jemmy. “How did you escape? I am genuinely intrigued.”

“Oh please, Jemmy, you only asked because I reminded you,” she said bitterly. She stood up. “I’ve been too patient with you.” She clapped her green hands together, and with a renewed sense of dread, he felt himself pulled to his feet, as though he were a marionette pulled by invisible strings. “You’ll dance for me now, boy. I’ll teach you about obedience.” She gestured with her green fingers and he was pulled close to her so that they were nose to nose again and her rank breath was in his mouth and nostrils. “I actually made a puppet version of you out of clay, you know?” she said and her brown eyes had the hardness of steel. “Want to find out how I played with him?”

Jemmy didn’t want to find out how she would have played with a doll version of him, but was she going to give him a choice?