Daughters of Le Fey Part 23

This is the story I've been editing. I reached the end of the work in progress and I've had inspiration to continue the story.

Thank you for following me as I edited it. I hope you'll continue to follow as I now enter the writing stage.

The links to the previous episodes are all here.

On with the story.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21

Images from Wiki, Google (free to use) and Pixabay

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Without a word spoken, the boy pushed the girl into the river. She cried out in shock at first and then annoyance at what she believed was a prank. She assumed he had meant to scare her a little by almost tipping her into the water but had misjudged and pushed too hard.

He followed after her and the girl held out her hand for him to help her.

“Oh look, I’m soaked through! Help me out, I shall be in no end of trouble when I get home.” She waved her hand, hoping he would grasp it and help her out of the river. She looked down to see if she could see safe footing to clamber out but the water was muddy and she could only hold up her skirts and feel for the next firm place to put her foot. Her clothing, weighted down by the water hampered her efforts to wade out of the water.

The boy looked up at Katherine and a nasty grin spread across his face. “I’m coming to help!” he said.

He grasped her wrist and pulled down her arm. She was expecting him to help and so didn’t resist. He put his other hand up near her elbow and brought the arm across his knee, in much the same way as he would break a stout stick.

The girl screeched in agony and distress. His strength was far greater than she assumed a boy of his age should possess.

Katherine stood silent and in shock, watching the boy and the girl. She understood the chance had been lost to approach the girl and have her kill Dominic. Instead, Katherine was forced to watch powerless as the boy first broke the girl’s arm that she held out for him to help her from the river and then, even as she screamed in pain and incomprehension, he held her head beneath the water.

The girl thrashed in the water, her broken arm flailing uselessly. Katherine gathered up her power and sent out a pulse of energy; the force of which knocked the boy over in the slow-moving river. He kept hold of the girl’s hair and even though he struggled to regain his footing, he held the weakening girl under the water.

Katherine’s pulse of energy took its toll on her strength and though it exhausted her, she was gratified that it had done its job. Men, farm labourers came at a run to see what the cause was.

They saw what was happening and dragged the boy from the river to keep hold of him even as he screamed his innocence. “I was trying to save her!” and battled with the men. They too were surprised at his strength but with sheer force and weight of numbers, they overpowered him.

The girl was beyond saving and she was pulled lifeless from the river.

The girl’s spirit rose from the water and she was bemused and growing angry. Katherine went to her and took her hand, removing her from the scene of her own murder.

“My sweet, I am so sorry. I have let you down,” Katherine said, pulling the girl around so she could no longer see the scene.

The girl pulled back, letting Katherine’s hand go. “No. I want to see what happens to me.” She turned to Katherine. “I want to see what happens to him,” she said.

Katherine’s heart plummeted in her chest. If only she had found the girl earlier, she had the determination and strength to have helped Katherine in her task, but Dominic found her first.

Katherine nodded to the girl. “I will stay with you to see what happens.”

They followed the angry cortege. The girl’s body was lain upon an empty cart and the boy was tied with rope. He was dragged to the village and Katherine and the girl’s spirit followed in silence.

People came out from their houses to see what was happening. As word spread, the crowd grew in size and their wrath grew with it.

Mutterings to fetch the Magistrate were shouted down. The farm labourers’ chief stood on the wagon near to the bedraggled corpse of the girl.

He put his hands in the air and waited for silence.

“We saw what happened. This boy, a stranger in the village, arrived just a few weeks ago, befriended Ruth and though her parents forbade it, she went out walking with him,” he said and waited again for the mutterings of agreement to stop.

“We know Ruth was sometimes reckless and disobedient,” he said.

“I was not!” the girl said to Katherine, as she crossed her arms in defiance.

Katherine couldn’t help but smile.