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DARYNA
Daryna hovered over her cauldron and examined the bubbling liquid. Boda, her helper, had told her how the villagers gossiped about Daryna being a witch, telling stories about her strange ways. They didn’t realize how right they were.
Pulling a wooden cutting board across the table, Daryna took the plump dead toad and sliced it into thin slivers. She had no qualms about chopping up creatures when necessary if she needed them for a brew, but the act of killing them herself sickened her, so she used a special remedy to put them into a permanent sleep before the deed. It still took their life but in a more humane way.
Daryna brought her ingredients to the boiling water and let the frog bits plop into the liquid. One of the legs stuck to the wood, so she shoved it off with the tip of her knife.
She lived by herself, and she preferred it that way. Never had she been in love. After watching customers act like fools over one another, she never wanted to be like that, either. She loved herself, and that was good enough.
A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts, and her nerves were rattled by the sound. The noise was followed by three soft taps, and she calmed herself. It was only Boda, letting Daryna know she was back from her errand.
And she had better have the chicken.
Daryna needed the heart for this particular concoction. One of the love fools in Verolc, the territory next to Kedaf, wanted to break what he still harbored for a woman after she had found a new lover. The dolt had his answer right there—she’d found someone else, so their love should have then ended. But he was paying greatly for this tonic, and Daryna would gladly accommodate him for the price.
Her bulky boots thudded over the floorboards as she walked to the door, swinging it open to reveal a sweaty Boda.
Daryna still had the knife in her grasp when she peered at Boda’s empty hands and asked, “Where’s the damn chicken?”
“I didn’t get it.” Boda sighed, and her massive body stepped over the threshold.
Boda was an imbecile, but she transported things for Daryna to villages in Verolc, mostly stolen goods she’d purchased from thieves, which she in turn sold for a higher coin. But customers also wanted concoctions, whether to make their skin appear younger or to heal someone of an ailment.
Daryna would never do it out of the goodness of her heart—there was always a charge. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t help if she were face to face with an injured person, but she needed money to keep herself breathing. Venturing outside of her home to find work, and being around a group of villagers, heightened her nerves. Her hands shook uncontrollably every time she thought about it, so that was a quest she would have to avoid.
“And why didn’t you get it?” Daryna cocked her head, remembering Nahli’s quick reflexes from the prior day.
Nahli wasn’t supposed to have come yesterday. Daryna had been struggling with a remedy and had needed to be left to her thoughts, so she’d taken it out on Nahli.
Perhaps she should get rid of Boda and use Nahli instead. At least the girl had a brain, but she wasn’t sure if Nahli would listen to her. For the right coin, Daryna believed she would.
“No, the girl didn’t have the chicken anymore.” Boda brought a hand to her shorn hair and plopped down in one of the wobbly chairs at the dining table.
Damn, I really need to get a new table or fix that leg. She then focused on the more important matter at hand.
“I needed the heart of the hen for this remedy.” Daryna nodded at the bubbling cauldron. “I didn’t want to have to use one of the other chickens, but Clary will have to do.”
A hint of remorse struck her of what was to come. Clary liked to follow Daryna around, but she was the only one out of the other hens that wouldn’t lay any eggs. Daryna understood, she would prefer to remain childless, too.
“I can steal you another one.” Boda shrugged.
“We don’t have time for that.” She flicked her hand at the door. “Can you go remove Clary’s head?”
“Let me grab the ax.” Boda scooted the chair back and stood from the table, taking a step away.
Daryna’s gaze fell to a splatter of red on Boda’s tunic sleeve. “Wait. What’s that on your sleeve?”
Boda’s eyes shifted to her arm and she released a sigh as though she’d been caught doing something wrong. “Blood.”
“What did you do?” Daryna knew Boda had done something stupid by the way her eyes kept darting side to side.
The woman’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “I got caught up in the moment by the lake out in the woods.”
“What did you do, Boda?” Daryna barked, standing from her chair, inching closer to the tall beast of a woman.
Boda slapped the side of her leg with a fist. “I killed her, all right? The girl wouldn’t listen to me and kept trying to run off. The only option was to take care of her.”
“So you killed her? Over a chicken?” Daryna shrieked, anger lacing her words.
With wide eyes, Boda pointed a meaty finger at Daryna. “You’re the one who told me to slap her twice and retrieve your things.”
“Or to replace them.” Daryna had never once told Boda if she couldn’t find her things to kill the girl.
“She wasn’t keen when I told her I’d cut off her hands for stealing.” Boda examined her fingernails instead of looking Daryna in the eyes.
“You imbecile!” Daryna roared, gripping her knife. “I didn’t send you out there to hunt her down like a huntsman, you oaf!”
The room was spinning. It would mean people from the village would come to her doorstep searching for answers about a murder that was never supposed to have occurred. Her fingers fluttered, and she had to dig her nails into her skirt to get them to stop.
“I was caught up in it all, and it didn’t turn out the way we’d hoped. What else can I say?”
Daryna’s gaze locked onto Boda. “How did you kill her?”
“I stabbed her in the heart.” There wasn’t a single ounce of remorse in Boda’s voice.
With the knife clenched in her fist, Daryna thrust it directly into Boda’s chest and twisted it in her heart’s center.
Boda’s dull eyes bulged in surprise as her face lost its color and she tried to speak, only she made a sound like a choking horse.
“I don’t take murdering people too kindly, especially over something that can be pinned back on me.” Daryna may not have been one to kill an animal, but she didn’t have a problem stabbing a pathetic human who murdered for no reason.
Boda’s large body slumped to the floor, her ragged breaths drawing to an end. Daryna had to think about what to do now. She cursed to herself because now her kitchen was a mess. The brew would have to wait, and she’d have to retrieve the girl’s body from the woods before anyone else discovered it. That meant she had to leave the cottage.
Daryna hurried to the woods, wishing witches could ride on broomsticks like in the stories. More times than needed, she looked over her shoulder until she reached the edge of the lake where Nahli’s body lay lifeless and covered in blood. No one had found her.
Rage still lit a fire inside Daryna from Nahli stealing her things, but perhaps Daryna could have been a little gentler. No, she changed her mind quickly—the girl shouldn’t have brought the pathetic jewelry on a day she wasn’t supposed to.
Nahli was a wisp of a thing, but she didn’t feel that way as Daryna hauled her across the grassy area, all the way back to her home. Daryna was as tall as Boda, but she wasn’t as muscular.
When she made it to the cottage, Daryna removed several of Boda’s organs that she could use instead of an animal’s for future tonics, since her body was already there. She didn’t do the same to Nahli because as irked as she was with her, she knew it was her fault for sending Boda to do the task.
Even though Nahli most likely thought Daryna hated her, she really didn’t. The girl was lost, just as Daryna was, only she always kept that to herself.
Nahli had once told her she’d come from Huadu. Daryna didn’t know any of the prayers that they would recite to their gods, so she made up one of her own.
Now Daryna would have to finish the load by slicing off Clary’s head, then bring the tonic to Verolc. Eventually, she would need to find someone who would listen to her directions and know how to follow them correctly.
Her hand twitched again, and she became nauseous as she thought about having to venture out from the safety of her home.
