Daughters of Le Fey Part 24

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 Part 22 Part 23

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

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“But, we all loved her. She was definitely a likeable rogue, with a heart of gold. That boy murdered her and I’m all for not waiting for the Magistrate, but meting out justice right here and right now!”

He beckoned to a couple who had just arrived to see what the fuss and procession was all about. The farm labourer jumped down from the wagon and went to speak with the couple as the crowds parted to allow them through.

“Mother…” Ruth said and Katherine held her close as the new spirit sobbed. “I’m so sorry. You told me not to go…”

Ruth’s mother stepped back and the man with her held her as Katherine held her daughter’s spirit.

A voice from the crowd called out, “Let the girl’s mother decide whether we fetch the Magistrate or lynch the murderer here and now!”

The crowd murmured its agreement and for a moment, Katherine stood transfixed.

Dominic’s reincarnation glared at her with the cruel smile she once believed was a kind but contemplative expression. She looked at him and realised how much of his true nature she had missed.

He laughed at her, yet it was as though she could see what the earth-bound humans could not. His inner spirit knew that if he was killed by the lynch mob, he was still free to reincarnate without hindrance or punishment from the demons such as he’d received when Elizabeth had him executed.

Dominic did not realise how much Katherine had learned over the centuries.

She took Ruth’s hand and pulled her along to stand beside the grieving mother.

“Touch your mother’s hand,” Katherine said.

Ruth looked at Katherine with a question just beginning to form.

“No questions, do it now.”

Ruth placed her hand in her mother’s as she had when she was a small child. Ruth’s mother gasped a little at the touch.

Katherine nodded.

She stood close to Ruth’s mother and concentrated on getting a message to her. Because she felt her departed child’s hand, Katherine knew she would be at least a little receptive.

“Hang him,” Katherine whispered. “Hang him, and if you need to call it revenge, then I alone shall bear that weight for he has taken my daughter and I shall see him hanged right now on the very same afternoon that he murdered her. Hang him.”

Ruth’s mother’s head raised and she looked the farm labourer right in the eye.

“Hang him,” she said in a voice barely more than a whisper.

Then she looked around at the crowd. “Hang him, and if you need to call it revenge, then I alone shall bear that weight for he has taken my daughter and I shall see him hanged right now on the very same afternoon that he murdered her.”

Then Ruth’s mother looked directly at Dominic’s reincarnation and said, “Hang him. For Ruth and for Katherine.”

The boy that Dominic had reincarnated as heard the words and knew he was doomed. He looked at Ruth’s mother agape. The daughter could have been her double and he knew that Katherine’s image had once again sealed his fate.

A rope hung from a loading bay and the boy was man-handled over to the building. A noose was fashioned from thinner, more supple rope and tied tightly to the loading bay rope.
The noose dropped over his head even as he struggled.

“Bitch! Katherine, you bitch! I shall find you and make you suffer for this! I shall make you suffer more for this than for the last because you knew not what I faced then. You know now and for that, I promise my revenge!”

The pull on the rope stopped his ranting and his face grew dark and his eyes bulged as he slowly strangled.
Ruth’s father watched with a grim expression on his face. His wife stood impassive, tears standing on her lower lashes.

A man turned to her as the boy’s kicks grew weaker and she nodded to him that he should pull on his legs to at least end the suffering and get it over with.

Dominic’s spirit rose from his corpse and swiftly made its way to Katherine and Ruth. Ruth flinched and ducked behind Katherine for protection but Katherine didn’t move. She knew the waiting demons wouldn’t allow Dominic out of arm’s reach.

She was correct, of course. The demons snatched Dominic even as he thought he had chance to get to Katherine. They wrapped their scaly limbs about him, digging in their talons, dragging him backwards and downwards, still screaming his promise of revenge.

Ruth finally looked up as the noise died away.

She looked to Katherine and she nodded. “It is time. Say goodbye to your mother and I shall take you where you may wait for her. It won’t seem long, at least I can assure you of that.”

Ruth kissed her mother’s cheek. The woman placed her fingers to the very place Ruth kissed. “I’m so very sorry, Mother,” Ruth said and then she took Katherine’s hand.