Abby the Witch by Odette C. Bell Read Free Book Online

as
terror. The pit of his stomach was so cold it felt like he'd jumped
into the iciest ocean. He wanted his mind to come up with
something, to either condemn or laugh wildly. But he couldn't. All
Pembrake Hunter knew was that the fear was snaking through his
veins like a poison.
    'Hunter!'
Western grabbed his shoulder and pulled him up onto the cobbled
pavement out of the way of the guards and their prisoner. Pembrake
had been so caught up in the scene, in the terror and fear, that he
hadn't resisted Western's pull.
    'Hey,
you're unusually pale,' Western always had a jovial tone,
even when he was proclaiming the dirtiest of insults.
    He knew what
Western was, yet again, insinuating and it was the one fear that
could trump the frigid numbness that had arced across Pembrake's
back. 'She's,' Pembrake began slowly, shifting his eyes from the
thrashing woman and settling them on a tuft of grass sprouting
through the cobbles, 'even uglier than the Lieutenant's
mother. And I wouldn't bother building a tip over her house; it
would make all the rubbish smell too bad.'
    This drew a
laugh from all his friends and the guards too. Western slapped him
on the back several times as he guffawed with a sound like a
drowning frog.
    The old woman
stopped shrieking abruptly, her last hiss ending like a shot of
steam. She tucked her head down onto her chest as if she were
falling asleep. Then, with a slow roll she let her face angle up,
her yellow eyes resting on Pembrake. 'You.'
    There was no
question: she was talking to him. The fear hit him again like a
blast of sea spray in a storm.
    'You! The
past, the future, the present!' her eyes widened, rimming her
pupils with a thick band of white. 'Walking through time, up and
down, round and round,' her head lolled in great circles, 'got a
chance like no other, chance to change, to break, to fix again. But
this time,' her voice descended into a growl, 'don't break my
window!' She struggled wildly against the guards' hold and they had
to stop laughing to shore up their grips. 'Fix it all!' She
screamed so loudly a window behind them rattled.
    Then she broke
free with an enormous snap like a bent-over sapling returning to
its true position, but, rather than rush at the crowd wildly like
everyone expected, she just stood there and stared at Pembrake as
the guards behind reigned in their surprise.
    'Fix it!' she
spoke with a horrific finality, with a weight behind her words that
seemed to make the world tilt on its axis.
    Then, with a
terrible, almost wet snap, the Sergeant smacked his baton hard
across the back of the witch's head and she fell, her collapse
viewed by the onlookers with as much import as a drop of rain
falling into the ocean.
    'Careful,
son,' the Sergeant said as he dealt another vicious blow to the
clearly comatose woman, 'sounds like she likes you.'
    Pembrake's
face was frozen in shock, hideous, amazed shock. Numbly he turned
away.
    The Sergeant
and his guards continued to laugh sadistically behind him as they
dragged the old woman's now lifeless body through the streets.
    Ignoring his
friends' ribald comments, Pembrake turned his back on them and
walked back to the ship alone.
    He had never
met that woman in his life. What had she wanted from him?
    6 months ago, Royal
Blue, docked outside Bridgestock….
    'A career in
the Navy is something to be proud of, son,' Captain Jefferson
stared at Pembrake, his eyes grey and steady like a windless
ocean.
    Pembrake
nodded. A career that promised him a lifetime away from Bridgestock
was worth all the gold in the world.
    'I want you to
know you've earned this. It's been a hard journey for you, I can
appreciate that. But I want you to know that you have become a fine
sailor and an even finer Officer.'
    Pembrake's
chest was puffed out about as far as he could push it. It wasn't
everyday that the Captain pulled you into his office to compliment
you.
    The Captain
paused for a moment and picked at a stain on the edge of his desk.
'I received a