Obviously the wretched little thing had been born and bred on the city streets. Surviving by handouts or perhaps thievery as well. Quintana didn’t care. She was no more concerned with what the girl was than who she was. Young ( and now that the filth of the streets had been scrubbed off her hide ) and beautiful. Perfect for Quintana’s needs.
With a forced smile, Quintana watched the girl stuff handfuls of food in her mouth, ignoring the polished silver utensils before her.
"What did you say your name was again?" Quintana asked.
"Lily," she mumbled through a mouthful of food.
"And you have no family?"
"None."
"What happened to your parents?"
"Dead."
"You poor thing," the sorceress said, insincerely.
She moved towards the table, her joints aching with the numbing cold of seven centuries. Even a sorceress couldn’t live forever and she now had the means to insure her prolonged life.
She sat across from the girl thinking of all she had went through to obtain the essence transfer spell. The lies and deceit. The bloodshed. It was well worth making a few enemies.
After obtaining the spell she sought a victim. She had walked the streets after dark, watching the street children at their task of day to day surviving. As luck would have it, this Lily, had tried to lift her purse. Her third eye had warned her of it and she had grasped the tiny wrist
with one wrinkled hand. She wasn’t so feeble that she couldn’t handle a mere waif. The girl, however, had not put up much of a struggle and had allowed herself to be taken to Quintana’s manor house.
Quintana had struck a false bargain with the girl. If she were to help Quintana with an experiment in sorcery, Quintana would pay her, her weight in gold. No street waif would pass up such an offer. Once the transfer was made the old woman would die and Quintana would live for seven centuries more.
Something however, had concerned her about Lily. For a street waif, even when she had been covered with mud, she looked remarkably filled out and well fed. Not like the others. Hollow eyed, skinny and pale. Skin stretched taut. No, this Lily could pass for nobility.
"You seem rather well fed for a street urchin," Quintana voiced her thoughts.
Lily looked up questioningly, whipped cream and strawberry sauce smeared across her face.
"It seems you eat well enough," Quintana remarked.
"I do," she said. "I never want for food. In a city full of people."
So the poor souls of this city took pity on her, Quintana thought. Still, she had this slightly uncomfortable sensation that refused to dissipate. When Lily finished Quintana gave her a warm damp cloth to wash her face, then said, "Follow me."
She led Lily to a small dark room which contained only a table strewn with an odd assortment of bottles. A single large book lay on the table as well, near a candelabra and a mortar and pestle. Quintana closed and locked the door. "Stand here, girl."
Lily obeyed. Quintana turned away and went to complete the spell, adding the last necessary ingredients. An acrid black smoke rose from the mortar. Quintana breathed in deeply.
"Come here," she said.
Lily walked forward. Quintana turned quickly and thrust the smoking mortar under Lily’s nostrils. The girl breathed deeply.
"Now!" Quintana shrieked.
As she began the incantation her body became rigid. The one difficulty with the spell was that it rendered not only the victim helpless, but the caster as well, if only for a short period of time. She stared into Lily’s eyes triumphantly and saw . . .
No fear. No agony. Instead she saw -- hunger.
Quintana, for the first time, began to feel a strange twinge of fear. Didn’t the girl realize she had been tricked? Quintana realized she had not finished the incantation. In the next moment she realized she had forgotten it. Now paralyzed, she could no longer study the book that held the spell.
She stared at Lily, who stared calmly back.
Nausea claimed Quintana. Her head began to throb. Her heart hammered in her ears. Her throat and mouth went dry. Lily, never moving, held Quintana’s eyes in a withering gaze. Quintana felt the paralysis wear off but to her horror, she couldn’t remember a single spell. She raised both hands to see the skin cracked and peeling. She moved her hands to her face and felt the deep wrinkles. When Quintana opened her mouth to scream, Lily lunged forward, pressing her lips to Quintana’s chapped ones and breathed inward deeply.
The last thing Quintana saw were the eyes of Lily. The hunger in them at last appeased.
The last thing she felt was a clutching pain and the sensation of being torn away from her body.
Lily stepped back and watched Quintana’s empty shell of a body crumple to the floor. She watched it instantly decompose to dust.
"Not too bad," Lily said, aloud. "I choose my victims well. This is the best essence I’ve ever absorbed. Such knowledge. Such power. A shame she thought she could trade bodies with me. Ah, such is life."
Lily walked forward and kicked at the dust with the toe of her shoe.
"You won’t mind if I take over this lovely manor, would you?" Lily said. "Of course not. One has a tendency to tire of playing a street urchin in order to feed. No matter how well one plays the part."
She laughed. It had a heartless edge.
"I told you sorceress," she said. "With a city full of people, I never want for food."
Bio: Although my current job is a Financial Service Advisor ( the actual title )at a bank, my "career" has been fantasy writing since the age of twenty. At 31, I'm the original Delaware native, happily single, and have had two short stories published, one in a paper magazine called Lost Worlds and the other Shadowsword. I had three others accepted by Shadowsword, unfortunately, they have closed. I have had several poems published in a now closed digest magazine. Online publishing opened up a whole new venue for me and I have had four stories published online to date.
E-mail: LadyBard@email.msn.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/6305/
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