Jungle Witch

Ebony jerked out of sleep with her father’s hurt eyes still haunting her mind. She reached up and rubbed at her forehead. “Oh gods, I feel terrible.”

“Are you alright?” Raj asked her, putting his front paws on her bed so he could look at her.

“I’m fine. Just got a headache.”

She pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around.

Venom was resting next to her in a coil. Her green, blunt head was watching Ebony carefully. Her tongue came out, tasting the air. “You seem much better than you were yesterday.”

“I don’t think that would be very hard,” Ebony grumbled.

She debated on whether she should bother getting up or not. At the moment, staying in bed sounded like the best idea she’d ever had.

There was a knock on the door, and Jay came in without waiting for her to invite him. He carried a tray with a jar of sugar, a pitcher of milk, and two bowls of porridge. After setting the tray on the table next to her window, he sat on the edge of the bed.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I had a mild breakdown yesterday.”

He grinned. “I wouldn’t call it a breakdown.” Taking her hand, he tugged until she got up. “You were just finally giving everyone a piece of your mind.”

“I’ve been doing that.” She let him pull her to the table and sit her down. “Or have you forgotten how rude I am to everyone else?”

“I haven’t forgotten.” Jay sat across from her and took one of the bowls for himself. “Can we talk about yesterday?”

She let out a breath as she added sugar to her bowl. “I suppose you would have questions about some of the things I said.”

“Only two.”

“Go ahead.”

“Did you really mean it when you said you hate everyone?”

Ebony looked up at his tone. He’d sounded hurt. Jay’s eyes were on her, searching her face for an answer. She put her spoon down. He would get her undivided attention for this particular question. She owed him that much.

“Jay...” She tried to think of what she was going to say to him. “I don’t hate you and I haven’t hated you since shortly after meeting you. I wanted to hate you, but you wouldn’t let me.”

He grinned, which relieved her. Jay should never look unhappy. That emotion didn’t fit him at all.

She picked up her spoon again. “See. You are pushy.”

A laugh escaped him. “Fine. I confess to being pushy.”

Ebony gave him one of her rare smiles. “What’s your other question?”

“You mentioned your mother. I know it’s silly, but I sort of forgot you had one.” He took a bite, while she gave him an incredulous look. “So I wanted to know more about her.”

“That’s a lengthy answer, just so you know.”

“We’ve got time.”

She ate a couple of bites while she decided where to start. She finally settled on the beginning. “My father always used his magic on others for his own entertainment. One day, he met a women that he couldn’t do anything to, and better yet, she stood up to him. That impressed my father so much, he married her.”

“Why couldn’t he use his magic on her?”

“My mother, Jyoti, was a darnot.”

“That’s someone who can suppress magic, right?”

She nodded, taking another bite of her porridge. “She died from an illness when I was five years old, so I don’t have many memories of her. My clearest memory is of her humming a song while painting.”

“What song?”

“I don’t know the name or words, just the tune.” Ebony looked around. “Raj, do you know where my pipes are?”

The tiger wandered over to the bedside table and picked up a set of reed pipes.

“Thank you.”

She took them and played a sweet song that made her think of the moon of over a peaceful lake. Her mother had always told her to close her eyes when she listened to music because the images she sees in her own mind are better than anything the musician can create.

“It’s a lullaby,” Jay told her when she played the last note. “My mother sang it to me when I was a child.”

“What’s it called?”

“I don’t know. It might not have a name, but it’s a very old song. Most people just call it ‘Mama’s Lullaby’ because it was their mother that sang it to them.”

“What happened to your mother?” she asked curiously.

“She got sick and couldn’t get better.” Jay looked out the window. “The city had a breakout of the plague when I was around six or seven years old. My mother was one of the many victims.”

“That’s what took my mother too,” she said in a soft tone, reaching down to scratch at Raj’s ear. He purred a little and sat.

It was amazing just how much she had in common with Jay. A father that brought them shame and a mother that died when they were children from the same disease.

“That’s why my father drinks so much,” Jay continued. “He always drank, but the habit became uncontrollable after Mom died.”

“My father didn’t change much.” Ebony finished off her porridge. “Mom didn’t seem to mind what he was as long as he loved her and me. Surprisingly enough, he did. Love us I mean.”

“I guess even monsters aren’t black and white.”

Ebony shook her head. “No. After his death, I fell apart. It made it easy for the humans to chase me out of the city. If it hadn’t been for Sith, I never would have recovered.”

“My dad never did recover from Mom’s death, and it took me a while to manage it.” Jay took a drink of milk. “I think the only reason I did was because there was no other choice.”

Raj looked towards the door. “Someone is knocking.”

“Raj says someone’s here,” Ebony translated, standing up. “I’ll take the dishes to the kitchen.”

“I’ll get the door then.”

Jay stood with her and both made their way down stairs. Ebony turned towards the kitchen, while Jay went to the front door.

Abhay stood there, his hand clasped behind his back and a tired look in his eyes. “Hello again, Jay. Is Ebony feeling better today?”

Jay stepped out of the way to let the commander in. “Yes, sir. There’s some porridge left for you in the kitchen. I didn’t want to give Ebony the chance to decide she wasn’t hungry so we already ate.”

The commander gave a small smile, because Jay was already heading towards the kitchen. Jay is always taking care of others, Abhay thought with some amusement.

As they walked into the kitchen, Ebony looked over at the commander and winced a little. She knew he would want to talk about her outburst last night, if for nothing else than to confirm what she’d told everyone. He probably deserved to know the truth anyway.

“Hello, Commander,” she greeted warily.

“Ebony, we need to talk.”

She nodded. “I figured as much. We’ll go sit in the dining room.”

“I’ll finish in here, then go to take care of my errand,” Jay told her as he moved her out of his way and began to take care of the dishes. “I’ll be back this evening. Don’t forget to eat lunch.”

“Nag, nag, nag,” she said on her way towards the dining room.

Jay smiled. He’d accomplished his goal in making her smile, even if she was being sarcastic.

“Jay.”

He glanced towards the door where she stood. “What?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

She shrugged. “Everything.”

With that said, Ebony turned into the dining room. Abhay was already sitting. Ebony sat across the table from him.

“You look tired, Commander.”

She wasn’t sure which one of them was more surprised by the touch of concern in her tone.

“I’ll be alright,” he replied, waving off her comment. There were more pressing things to talk about than his health. “I need to know if what you said last night is true.”

“The part about helping you kill my father?” At his nod, she said, “Yes, it was true.”

“How? You were nine years old and two floors up.”

“I was a nine year old wizard,” she reminded him. Shifting a little uncomfortably, she corrected herself, “Actually, I didn’t use my wizard powers to help you.”

“Then what did you use.”

“I inherited darnot powers from my mother,” she explained hesitantly. It went against her instincts to talk about her powers. “Unlike other darnots, I have to intentionally use my suppression powers, and I can throw it at something. It’s what I did to Naveen when he escaped his cage.”

“So you threw one of those at your father the night I killed him.”

He’d phrased it as a statement, but Ebony answered anyway. “Yes.”

“I didn’t see anything hit him.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have. At the time, I was focused on Bura, not you, and your sphere is black, which would have been hard to see at night.”

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, sir.”

Abhay sat back with a sigh. “I’m not sure what to say other than thank you.”

“Why thank me?” she asked, surprised.

“What you did probably saved my life.” Abhay smiled a little. “You see, even at eighteen, I took my duties very seriously. I came that night to make sure my father got justice, but I expected to die.”

There was a long silence as the two of them tried to figure out what to say next.

Finally, Ebony said, “You should find a backup plan for Esha, the woman that will transform next.”

Abhay nodded. “I’ll have a darnot brought in from Kylor.”

“Will that work?”

As soon as she asked, she remembered that Abhay had told her they’d tried using darnots before and found that it suppresses the curse while the darnot is present, but the moment he left the one marked transformed.

“Never mind.” She raked her fingers through her hair. “I’m going to continue searching for the journal now.”

“I better see to the darnot. We only have eight days to get one here.” Abhay stood and bowed. “Until next time.”

She nodded and saw him out. Once Abhay was gone, she looked at Raj. “I’m actually acting polite now.”

“Only to Abhay and Jay. You’re still properly rude to everyone else,” he assured her.

Reassured, Ebony went into the library to look for the journal. She had to find it or she’d never be able to go home where things made sense.