Page 26 of The Women of Wild Hill
“Yes!” Sadie readily agreed. “I will go see the sisters now.”
THE SISTERS LURKED IN THEdungeon where they’d been imprisoned before their trial in 1597, almost three hundred years earlier. After they were executed, they’d returned to the castle to ensure their descendants would not meet the same fate. For three centuries, they’d dwelled in darkness, providing counsel to those who needed it. Perhaps it was merely a coincidence, but during that time, no one in the family had been burned at the stake.
Sadie lit a torch and plunged down the narrow staircase that led to the bowels of the building. The long, dark hallway at the bottom had ferried countless prisoners to their doom. Mice scurried across the flagstones and spiders dangled from silken webs. Sadiewas halfway to the thick wooden door when she heard the sisters whispering to each other, speaking in the old language of the north.
“She’s coming!”
“She knows!”
“Oh dear, she’s very cross indeed!”
“At us or at fate for making her female?”
Sadie threw open the door. The three women in black cloaks were waiting for her in the center of the room, their hands hidden inside their sleeves and their hoods casting dark shadows across their faces. The flame of Sadie’s torch flickered. They beckoned her forward and the stench of smoke grew stronger as they drew her into their circle. Once, when she was little, Sadie had caught a brief glimpse of what was hidden under their hoods. She’d never been tempted to look again.
“If you knew my father was planning to sell me off, why didn’t you warn me?” Sadie confronted the sisters.
“Fate has come for you.”
“You must go to the New World.”
“It is what the Old One desires.”
“Much good will come of it. We see things you cannot.”
“There is no good worth having that foul man crawl on top of me,” Sadie argued. “His breath smells like pig slop.”
“Yes, but he will give you fine daughters. Then you can be rid of him.”
“You will have a home where your powers will grow.”
“You will see ghosts there.”
“Pfft.” Sadie waved that gift away with her hand. “I can already see you.”
“You will learn to summon storms.”
“A power I inherited from you three, I presume?” Sadie asked. “Isn’t that the one that got you all burned at the stake? Conjuring a tempest to destroy King James’s boat?”
“The tyrant escaped by the skin of his teeth.”
“Our kind wasn’t as strong in those days.”
“Your gifts will be far more potent.”
“Your descendants will be formidable women. Unlike any who’ve come before.”
“Do you believe in our family’s mission?”
“Certainly,” Sadie said, wishing she could just stay home and ride horses.
“Repeat it!” one of the witches cried, as though she’d read Sadie’s mind.
“What is the mission?”
“Topple tyrants. Balance the scales. Protect the earth. Avenge the wronged,” Sadie recited.
“Yes. That is the calling. Ours and yours, too.”
