“What’s going on here?” he yelled at the three prison attendants. “What the hell do you think you are doing? And why is Gwyneth in here?” His fuming voice echoed throughout the room. “I was not made aware of any questioning today!”
He looked at the beaten woman’s body and shut his eyes. He advanced on the masked man and ripped off the mask revealing a young man with brown hair. Then he turned to the one-eyed man. “What did you think you were doing?”
“She spat-”
“I don’t care what she did! It doesn’t give you the right to sentence her. That job belongs to the judge.” Jonathon gently removed the unconscious woman from the spiked contraption and slammed the door shut, sending a loud jolt rumbling through the room. Rowena jumped, almost tipping off the stool. Jonathon glanced at the unconscious woman and peered up at the ceiling seemingly in deep thought. He turned to Agatha. “Don’t you think that this young woman has already suffered enough?” he barked.
“She is the devil’s spawn! We need to purify this town and rid ourselves of these devil children! Besides she and all the others are going to be burned at dawn.”
“Who told you that?”
“Judge Hector made the ruling last night. He said that he’d seen enough.”
“He might say what happens to them outside of here, but I say what happens in here.”
“No, you don’t. You’re just temporary and your behavior is getting suspicious.”
“You’ll listen to me until your former boss returns.”
“Well it doesn’t look like he’s going to return, does it? He mysteriously disappears and then you, a supposedly famous witch hunter, blow in from nowhere and take over.”
“I will not be talked to in that way! Get this girl a physician and do your job properly,” Jonathon fumed.
Agatha hesitated then nodded her head and motioned for the men to follow her. They lowered the girl to the ground and scurried past Jonathon. Rowena stared wide-eyed at him. He turned to her and ran a hand through his hair.
“Rowena.” He crouched beside her and took her trembling hands, squeezing them gently. She avoided his eyes, still staring at the tortured woman. “I’m sorry you saw what happened here. You weren’t ever supposed to see this.”
“But I did.” Rowena glared at him. “You run this place?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got nothing but time.”
“That’s not true. If we’re going to save these women we’re going to have to work fast.”
“Tell me how you got to running this place,” Rowena demanded.
“Hawthorn helped me. “We needed a way to be close to the witches that were taken so we performed a spell.”
“What sort of spell?” Rowena asked, wiping away a couple of stray tears with trembling hands.
“The spell was one that made the man who was in charge of this prison feel an irresistible desire to pack up and leave. We made a career in dairy farming seem very appealing. When he left suddenly, I showed up with a convincing story about me being a witch hunter and I had very convincing documents and a reference signed by the previous man in charge.”
“It must be hard for you to let this happen.”
“You have no idea…” Jonathon’s voice trailed off as a short gray-haired man entered the room.
Jonathon stood up. “Doctor, this woman needs attending to,” Jonathon said referring to the girl lying on the table.
“What happened to her?” The doctor’s face crumpled with concern.
“Some dimwits didn’t follow orders that’s what. Can you help her?”
“I doubt it very much. Help me get her to a bed and we’ll clean her up. Maybe get some stitches on the large wounds and stop the bleeding. I’m afraid that’s the best I can do.” The doctor said, shaking his head.
“It’ll be easier if we bring a bed to her. Come with me.” Jonathon led the doctor out of the room, leaving Rowena with the woman. She rushed to the girl’s side and kneeled down next to her, placing both of her hands over her chest. Concentrating hard she shut her eyes and envisioned seeing the girl happy and pain-free. She started to chant quietly when Jonathon and the doctor returned holding a lumpy looking mattress and a pile of blankets.
They dropped the mattress onto the table and lifted the girl onto it.
Rowena backed away and let the doctor clean her cuts and stitch the deeper gashes. She helped to bandage her broken thumb as the doctor assessed the damage the penetrating tool had done to her insides. When he finished, they placed two blankets over the girl and made her as comfortable as possible.
“Will she be all right?” Rowena asked.
“It seems that the probe didn’t go in too far this time. In fact, I’m rather amazed, the wound has already started to heal.” The doctor scratched his head in amazement.
Jonathon looked over at Rowena. She had found her calling as a healer when she was only five-years-old when her pet rabbit was stood on by a careless adult. Rowena had held the rabbit in her arms and had started to chant words that she didn’t really know the meaning to. After a few minutes of her chanting the rabbit became lively and it fully recovered. Sadly, she could only heal beings that still harbored the will to live. She knew it had been too late to heal Isabel. She’d been too weak and the healing energy needed would have been impossible for Rowena to muster.
The doctor placed his instruments in his old leather bag and said. “Will that be all?”
“Yes Doctor, thank you for your help,” Jonathon said, seeing him to the door.
After the doctor had left Jonathon walked over to Rowena. “We’ve done all we can.”
“She’s going to get better,” said Rowena. “We have to get her out of here, though, before those horrible people find her again.”
“I’ll get Ronan to take her away.”
“Where to?”
“Somewhere where she will be safe.”
“You mean sneak her out?” Rowena’s eyes grew wide with excitement.
“Perhaps. Just until this whole thing blows over.”
“If it does.”
“It will if we have anything to do with it.” Jonathon smiled at Rowena and told her to wait with the girl until he returned with Ronan. Rowena sat beside the woman and held her hand until Jonathon came back with Ronan. Rowena smiled weakly at Ronan and raised a hand in a wave. He smiled back at her then knelt down by the sleeping woman.
“I’ll take her to Hawthorn. They won’t be able to touch her there.”
“Why not take all of them?” Rowena asked.
“They would think it was a bit too strange if they all disappeared. I’ll say this one died,” Jonathon said.
“But you could take us all.”
“We can’t take everyone, Rowena. They would track us down. We have to help the witches who have died and the witches of the future.” Ronan spoke softly to her. “Don’t worry, she’ll be safe.”
After they’d crept out of the prison carrying the girl wrapped in blankets, they placed her in one of the same wagons Rowena had seen while hiding in the bushes when this whole nightmare had begun. Anger stabbed at her as she climbed up into the wagon. Isobel should be riding away with her, not lying alone in a den of horrors. Tears trickled down her cheeks.