The Stargazers (12 page)

Of course, the hags weren’t wrong about everything. Ellemire’s magic was drying up, and fast. The land was full of wasteful, spoiled idiots blinded by their lust for things that did little more than sparkle, but unlike every other witch and wizard in Ellemire, Oleander required almost n
o external magic for her powers. P
otions were more about the science. The numbers and measurements. Her limitless knowledge of ingredients, her piercing intuition. If all the magic in Ellemire withered up and died—as it surely would, whether Aster became pregnant or not—Oleander could go right on cultivating her herbs and potions and living much as she always had. Over time, the myopic sheep of her world would stagger to her for help in surviving their magic-barren world, and she wouldn’t mind that one bit. In fact, she counted on it.

Of course, Oleander wasn’t patient to just let that inevitability come to pass without helping it along at least a little, and she didn’t intend to rule the world without a subordinate at her side. Whatever Aster’s destiny, the child had power, and Oleander had every intention of siphoning it from her. But that wasn’t all that made the pink-haired bitch appealing to her.
Oleander
was due a penance. Her own child was dead because of their lies, but a daughter would suffice rather nicely. Yes, indeed.

Oleander had
opened the path to the Tree of Doors twice before in hopes of finding a way through to the other world
. The simple incantation was not such a tightly kept secret among the family. Oleander had heard Lily utter it numerous times throughout her life and she’d memorized and written it down for future reference. The barrier to the path was mainly designed to keep out other intruders from Ellemire, even though few were brave or willing enough to intrude on Stargazer land.

However, opening the Door of All Doors had provided the biggest challenge. Lily never shared that information with anyone e
lse, other than precious Dahlia. And Holly, of course, was her insurance. Lily was as shrewd as she was
ancient, but she wasn’t nearly as cunning as her middle child, and Oleander had finally learned the secret that would get her through to the other side.

Holly was the only Stargazer—actually, one of the only witches in all of Ellemire—with the gifts of the mind. What a waste
that had turned out to be
.
But the potion Oleander concocted with the girl’s brain matter had done the trick. Of course, it took several hours of muddling through years of faded and fragmented memories to find it, like a rare diamond buried in layers of silt, but she was confident now that she could get to the other side.

She still needed Holly to help her open the door, for it took the power of two. The act of doing it would likely kill the broken bitch, but at least her final deed would be a noble one.

Oleander was sitting hidden behind a stand of banyans at the head of the path when she saw Holly stumbling through the thick underbrush toward their meeting place. The younger triplet also wasn’t deformed by a transfer of magic, but one could hardly tell by looking. She was as weak and wasted away as the two biddies back home.
She had already forgotten about the head bashing and needle in the eye from the other night, and was currently high as a Grah festival firework, but that was to be expected
.

As Holly neared closer
to the hiding spot, she tripped
on the hem of her own skirt and pitched fo
rward, arms pinwheeling, before landing face-first in the dirt
. Oleander heard her laughing and the rage burbled in her gut like magma. “Psst! Over here you twit!”

“Huh?” Holly raised her head and looked around as if she’d heard a strange creature nearby. Then her beady eyes found Oleander and she gasped. “Oh. Hi, Oly!”

Oleander walked over to her idiot sister and nudged her in the shoulder with one carefully polished shoe. “Get up and shut your stupid goat’s mouth before someone hears you.”

“But the ground is so comfy, Oly. The clouds are like little lambs today. I’ve been counting them all afternoon.”

Oleander’s foot itched to deliver a swift kick to the nitwit’s stomach. Instead she grabbed a handful of Holly’s hair and yanked her to her feet.

“Ow! Stop it!
Owww
! That really
hurts
!” Tears seeped out of her red-rimmed eyes and green stains
from the salvia
marred her lips and teeth. 

“Shut up your useless mouth before I put my fist in it,” warned Oleander.

“You’re always so dang mean, Oly. What do you want anyway?”

Oleander’s foot lashed out and cracked against Holly’s shin. The other witch howled, but only until she saw Olea
nder’s murderous expression. After that, she reduced it to a shaky
wimper.

“You’re going to
help me
open the Door, you festering blister! Can’t you remember anything?”

Holly’s eyes went as wide as tea saucers. “Ohhhh! I remember now. But… Do you really think I can do it? I’m not so good at that. You know that. I’m stupid now.” She bowed her head. 

Oleander sighed. This was not going to be nearly as easy as she’d hoped. “You aren’t stupid, Holly. Not now, anyway. I’ve been giving you the smart potion, remember?”

After the little brain incident, Oleander gave Holly a useless potion of green tea and slippery elm bark, telling her it was to help make her smart again. Of course, not even Oleander could have concocted something that would have done any good in such a short period, but sometimes the power of suggestion was more effective than any fancy tonic, Now Oleander wondered if she might not have overestimated the dummy’s cognitive abilities.

“Yeah. Yeah, I remember. It tastes like boiled boots. But do you think it works?” She looked up at Oleander with pathetic hope stamped on her face.

“Of course it works! I made it, remember? Have you ever seen a potion of mine not work, you bloody… Dear Sister?”
Be easy
, thought Oleander.
Just a little longer
.

“No, I don’t suppose you make bad potions. But what if I get caught? What if they find out? I could be locked up for doing this.”

“No one will know, and Lily would sooner slit her own throat than allow one of her daughters to be locked up for trespas
sing on her own land. Once the D
oor is open, you’re free to leave. Stay in the hills and eat all the weed you want until I send word for you to return. It won’t be long.”

Panic worked Holly’s thin face, making her brow furrow and her lower lip quiver. “You’re going to kill her, aren’t you? You
’re going to kill our poor niece
.”

Instead of getting angry, Oleander brought one of her hands to her sister’s pale cheek and stroked it with the gentleness of a bird’s feather. She would ignore the way Holly pulled back as if she’d been burned. For now. “Darling sister, I am many things, but I’m no murderer. I have no intention of killing our niece. In fact, you could say that I’m saving her from a wretched duty that even she herself doesn’t want to do.”

Holly heaved a shaky sigh. “I don’t like that she’s over in that world. I hear the people are mean and terrible there.”

“That whole world is dying of a slow rotting disease. That’s why I am going to help Aster. She belongs here among us. With my help, we’ll find another way to save our world.”

“Oh Oly, you would really do that for her? We’re all so lucky to have you looking out for us.”

Oleander patted her sister’s head like the obedient little dog she was. “Yes, you are. Now let’s get this started.”

After Oleander recited the familiar incantation, the invisible barrier to the path opened with a cool gust of wind, and the two women stepped through. They walked toward the rows of beacons, which were barely visible in the mid-summer daylight. Soon, she could see the Tree of Doors, tall and lush in the clearing, its round leaves dancing in the breeze, soaking up the sunlight. Its doors of every shape, size, and color hung from its branches like odd fruit.

Once they were at the Tree’s base, Oleander reached into her bag and pulled out a chocolate-coated pill she made specifically for the occasion. “I want you to swallow this.”

“What is it?”

“It will help make sure you don’t remember anything.”

Holly frowned. “But why would I need that?”

“That salvia has already turned your brain to mush, and it’s unlikely that you’ll remember much anyway, but just in case they ask questions, I don’t want you to be able to tell them a thing.”

“You don’t trust me?” Her lip stuck out in a petulant pout.

Oleander held back the guttural scream that wanted to rush forth. Why
wouldn’t the ins
olent witch just do as she was told? “It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s them. If you don’t know what happened, they won’t be able to dig it out of your head with whatever magic they have. If they find I’ve crossed over before I have a chance to do what I need to do, it could cause many problems for all of us. Now
take it
.”
Of course, she left out the part about the likelihood of Holly not surviving the opening of the door, but that was inconsequential to Oleander’s ends.

She thrust the pill into Holly’s face, stopping short of shoving it down the dummy’s throat. But it turned out that force wasn’t necessary, for Holly plucked it from her fingers and placed it on her tongue and swallowed it.

“I’m doing this for Aster. I wouldn’t want to mess anything up for her,” said Holly.

“Good girl.” Oleander reached out her hands and Holly took them. “Now, I know this is going to be a very big test for your ability, but there is great strength in you. I made sure of that when I gave you those tonics, didn’t I?”

Holly gave her head a tentative shake. “It’s just that… the Doors weren’t designed to be opened this way, Oly.
We’re forcing them before their time.
It could do something really bad.”

Oleander smiled. She’d considered the po
ssibility that she’d be damage
the passage between the two worlds and possibly trap herself
and Aster
on the other side, but it was unlikely. If it was done right, nothing more would happen than a door opening. At worst, a few birds might fall dead form the sky.

“I have faith in you, Sister.”

Holly’s eyes were as pathetic as those of a dog returning home to its master after years of being lost. “Thank you.”  She then took a breath and turned toward the Door of All Doors with her hand outstretched. Oleander knew the gesture was unnecessary, but it helped Holly to concentrate, and that was all that mattered. 

Both of them began to mutter the chants that Oleander had plucked from Holly’s brain with the needle.
A cool breeze rushed through the clearing as the world began to stretch and pull around them like taffy candy.
It was a feeling that made her stomach roll. Something didn’t feel right.

“Holly, what are you doing?”

“It’s supposed to be this way. This area isn’t like normal reality. Anything I move here has an effect on everything around it.”

“I knew that!” Oleander yelled, not liking Holly’s s
udden confidence. The use of so much
power was clearly making her defiant.

“I…I can see the lock. It’s just so… tricky.” Her eyes were narrow slits as she focused on whatever it was she was seeing. Little blue veins stood out on her temples. Meanwhile, the surrounding trees were starting to look like melting wax. The ground felt mushy. When she looked down, she saw that her feet had sunken into it up to her ankle. She pulled up on one foot, and it came free with a smo
oching sound. Her ears were popping, which made the sense of vertigo even more severe, and she leaned over and vomited into the grass
.

“Hurry up, damn you!”
she screamed through a voice made hoarse by the burn of breakfast coming back up. Even the strings of drool dripping from her mouth seemed to be bending funny.

“
I almost have it,” said Holly
, her voice equally hoarse
. Her black hair had gone almost completely gray, and her face was sporting lines that looked like a series of dry riverbeds. The use of
so much m
agic was dra
ining her fast.

The shape of the Tree was morphing into some
thing resembling a mushroom. Oleander bent over and retched again
, but the weirdly morphing landscape caused her to
fall
forward, and she landed on a gr
ound that felt like as soft and sticky as fresh marshmallow.
“
Holly!
”

“Pipe down! Allll…most…there.” Though she looked much older, her eyes were sharper than Oleander had ever seen them. She stood tall, in
her element, directing every ounce of her abilities toward her
target
,
with a command and precision that even Lily might have envied.
For the barest moment, Oleander felt a tickle of fear at this new witch. Perhaps it wasn’t killing Holly, but making her stronger.