The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 11

Suffer the Children

Salazar had just returned his familiar to its shrunken form and let him return to the safety of the basket when Gryffin found him. Slipping the tied basket back to the inside pocket of his robes, he pointed to the small depression in the meadow.

"My friend found what we needed. He entered from somewhere higher up the mountain and followed the cave to its furthest wall, which ended just under our feet. We will need to levitate the witches down, then one another."

Gryffin walked to the depression and looked into the depth of the mountain itself. Salazar had opened the earth where the snake had indicated, revealing a great cavernous vault. He had then cast an orb of light that hovered in the air just above the ground at the bottom of the cave. He looked at Salazar and frowned, thinking that convincing the witches to hide underground would not go well.

"Where is the other entrance? They are more likely to accept the other one."

Salazar pointed to the crest far above them where sheets of rain were falling from dark clouds. The storm had already broken over the northern mountaintop and would be upon them shortly.

"We do not have much time if we want to stay dry. Collect the others while I make a trip to the lake."

"Is there no source of water?" Gryffin looked down again, not wanting a trap without a source of water and food.

"There is a hot spring. It keeps the cold from the air. We may have to search for fresh drinking water if Helga's cup fails us." Salazar looked to the cave as well. "It is the only way. The mountains here are riddled with caves all facing north and too small to shelter us from the storm."

"I know," Gryffin said reluctantly. "We have searched as well and found nothing."

"I will go and gather some mussels so that Helga's cup will keep us fed. I saw some grain by the face of those rocks to the east. Have the witches see if it is suitable, then hurry below."

The witches were hesitant to descend below the earth's surface, as Gryffin had suspected. Rowena looked down at Erwin, who encouraged her to accept Gryffin's spell and allow him to levitate her. She squeezed her eyes shut and hugged herself tightly as she felt her feet lose purchase with the ground. She held her breath as she moved over the hole, peeking from one eye to see Erwin grinning up at her and quickly closing it again, praying that her sickness would not pick this time to come.

Helga paced at the mouth of the cavern, afraid to step close to the edge. She glared at Gryffin as he stepped close to her to talk in soothing tones and gentle words. She wrapped her cloak firmly around her shoulders and sat heavily on the ground.

"I can stay here. What of a little rain?"

"Helga, look up if you think it is just a little rain. We have only minutes before it breaks over our heads."

"What if we cannot get out?"

"Do you plan on leaving your magic here?"

"What if it falls in?"

"It has always been here, and always will."

"What if there are creatures down there?"

"There are. We named them Rowena Ravenclaw and Erwin Raven." Gryffin felt his lip twitching.

Helga crawled to the opening on her hands and knees, peering down to see Erwin and Rowena looking up at her. She crawled back quickly and looked up at Gryffin.

"I don't like this."

A pair of arms grabbed her around the waist and picked her up. With her feet held off the ground, she kicked as she came closer to the edge, and screamed as she was tossed in. Erwin raised his hands and cast a spell to slow her fall and levitate her to the stone bottom. As soon as her feet made purchase, she raised her fists to the opening and began to scream and curse Salazar.

"You no good son of a pus-blistered wart toad! How dare you do this! If you think I will put up with your Slytherin arrogant ways you are sorely mistaken!"

"My mother may not bring a gift when she dances at your binding if you insult her like that." Salazar grinned down at her. "On second thought, it may be my father who is more insulted, to be told he bedded a toad. He thinks himself to be a good-looking man."

"Get me out of here," she cried.

Salazar raised his arms and, saying an incantation, lowered himself down beside her.

"I want to go home." Helga's lip trembled and tears ran down her face. "I want to go home, please. Sal, get me out of here."

Salazar frowned and hugged her to him, looking at Rowena in question. Helga had always turned her fear to anger, never showing a weakness to others. Now, he held a sobbing witch, one hardly able to stay standing. He lowered her to the floor of the cave as Gryffin came down beside them and squatted next to Helga.

"It is fine, Helga," Gryffin said softly. "We are all here with you."

"It is the being underground," Erwin said, stepping forward and squatting next to the witch as well. "She ..."

"Helga," Salazar called her. He turned her head and looked into her eyes, which had rolled back up into her head. "She is having a vision. Leave her."

He stood up and laid a hand on Erwin's shoulder until the wizard stood and stepped away, leaving Helga to her seeing.

"What could be so terrifying that she acts this way?" Rowena had stepped close to look at the shaking witch, clinging to Erwin's arm in her own fear.

"We should have thought to purchase a mirror at the goblin village," Erwin said. "It is safer than this."

"I am not sure I would want to share in this seeing." Gryffin watched as Helga leaned forward and held her stomach as if in pain, and heard the sounds of pure anguish spill from her lips. He turned from her, hearing the sounds of lost souls and screams of burning witches in his mind. Running further into the cave, he vomited against the wall.

Rowena threw her hands over her ears and looked at Erwin, who was grey and ashen. He too heard more than a woman's scream of fear or simple pain. Helga's sounds tore from the part of her that held the soul, the part that only birth or death could touch.

"My gods, Salazar, can we not make this stop?" Rowena could only take shallow breaths, forgetting how breathe. "I know we should not interfere when she is with the gods, but look at her."

"We may have need for what she sees." He stood between Helga and Rowena, preventing her from comforting the witch or stopping what they could learn. "Whatever this is, it must have meaning in this place. We need to know of it before we build, or before we leave this valley."

Helga saw great slabs of white stone laid out in front of her. Clear, fresh water ran on both sides. At the head of the stone road lay a great basilisk bathed in blood and watching as children paraded slowly in front of him. Its great tongue tasted the air, memorizing the smell of each child as its hood fanned and its muscles rippled under its skin. It watched the children and seemed to wait and search for one.

Blood replaced the water and still the children came. They now numbered in the hundreds, and filled the white walkway of bloodstained stones, waiting their turn to present before a god of snakes and death that waited still for the perfect child.

Then she was outside, watching as Rowena's child stepped from her womb as a child of eleven, followed by others that stepped out and walked toward Salazar, who stood pointing to the hole under the Quiet Valley. The storm came again, bringing great showers of clotted blood as the sun and moon raced overhead, showing the passage of great time. Rowena's children mixed in the lines, formed of other children, and calmly walked to the snake with the others that had wistful smiles on their faces.

A final scream ripped from her throat as she fell forward, gasping for air and vomiting out the sharp, bitter bile that had risen in her mouth, and then she fell blissfully silent. Rowena tore Erwin's arms from her shoulders and ran to fall on her knees next to Helga. She pulled the witch to her and held her, feeling spasms that ran though Helga as she began to thrash wildly.

"I need help, I cannot hold her."

"She is having a fit, it is normal after a vision. Rowena, what is wrong with you? You know to leave her." Salazar and Gryffin quickly laid her on her side and Erwin pulled Rowena away, turning her head from the sight of the god's possession of the witch, fearful of marking the unborn baby.

Salazar held Helga's head firmly and Gryffin tried to keep her still. The spasms lasted only a few moments but seemed to stretch into a day to those watching. When she calmed, the two wizards stood up and saw her bathed in sweat, her skin a deathly pallor with great dark circles around her eyes. .

"She will sleep now." Salazar ran his hand through his hair, looking at the others, uncertain as to what course to take. "She has been touched, by which gods I have no idea."

He took off his cloak and laid it over the witch, then, looking up, he judged her too close to the entrance. He picked Helga's limp body up and carried her to a dry, protected place in the cave, where he placed her on the ground. He stepped away from her, hung an orb of light, and left her alone, as if afraid to be close for too long.

Rowena sat by her head and stroked her hair. Looking up to Erwin, she tried to smile, to reassure herself as much as him that they would pass this night safely. Pulling the other witch's head into her lap she, leaned back against the cold stone and listened to the storm that now sat overhead.

"There is not much night left," Salazar said, turning from the sight of Helga and searching for Gryffin. "Make sure she rests, we will question her when she wakes."

"It could take several days." Rowena looked at Helga and gently pushed her hair out of her face. "It was a strong vision. It may be days before she wakes."

"We do not have days, she wakes in the morning or we will find a way to wake her."

Erwin knelt down on one knee and turned Rowena's head to him. "The baby? Is the baby harmed?"

She placed her hand on her stomach and looked down, suddenly afraid. If the gods that had taken Helga were good, the baby would be blessed; however, if dark gods of the night had made the manifestation, the baby would be lost, or abandoned on a hillside when she pushed it from her womb.

"My gods, Erwin." Her eyes filled with tears as she lifted her head back up to look at him and saw her fear reflected on his face.

"We will know when we talk to her," Salazar said. "If we must, there are herbs growing near the pass that will get rid of it."

Erwin stood, putting himself between Rowena and Salazar. "If you touch her, or harm the child, I will send you to your own reward."

"Erwin," Gryffin said, "listen to me. Wait until we talk to the witch. If it were a dark god, she would have found insanity in the vision, not fear. Rowena should be fine."

"You would do this as well?" Erwin snarled at him.

"He will do what must be done." Salazar folded his arms across his chest and glared at Erwin. "I will not sacrifice lives already here for one in the womb. Decide now. If blackness touched your witch, the child is lost or you both leave and take the spawn with you."

"We will wait for the morrow," Gryffin said, pulling Salazar's arm. "If a choice has to be made it will be made then."

Slowly the four were able to settle down, find comfort on the stones, and fall into fitful sleep.

.

.

The next morning Rowena woke and looked down to find Helga gone. She glanced to where the wizards lay and silently stood, knowing Helga would not have walked deeper into the mountain as her fear the past evening had been too great. She looked to the shaft of pale light falling from the entrance and managed to levitate first to the small platform of rock and then to the still-wet ground.

Rowena once again fell captivated by the sight of the valley in early sun. The expanses of green and the quiet lake looked as they had the morning before, only wet with droplets of water hanging from the blades of grass. She felt a peace that she had not felt since the time before her father's homecoming and the events that changed her life. Helga caught her eye as she stood at the shore, raising her arms to the sky in what had to be her morning prayers.

Rowena sat on the wet ground to wait for her return, not wanting to interrupt, and found no prayer in her own heart to offer up. She knew the day, and the runes that would mark its passage. She had studied all the prayers to be able to give each day a prayer. Now she sat unable to find the joy she would need, and thought that perhaps Helga's prayer would be strong enough for all the day's gods. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and felt the squeezing of a fist in her chest. She wanted to hold this child in her arms and offer it to the gods. She knew Salazar and Gryffin would take the child and destroy it if it had been touched.

Helga walked back slowly, stopping to pick small blades of grass and leaves as she came. She saw Rowena and raised her hand in greeting, then continued her steady climb to the meadow.

"It is a good morn, Rowena." Helga smiled and sat next to Rowena, looking out at the lake.

"You gave us quiet the scare."

"I don't know what came over me. I have never seen so strongly." Helga bit her lip and thought for a moment. "Rowena, tell me we will close the cave. It needs to be sealed off."

"What did you see, Helga? I must know, the baby..."

"A snake. The children were there and blood, blood was washing everywhere." Helga closed her eyes and Rowena knew she was offering up another prayer by the way her lips silently moved.

"You must tell me what you saw."

"I will say it once, when it is time, but not before," Helga whispered. "When the others are here I will tell the dream, but ... I can not visit it again. Rowena, you must know the gods that guided me were good. They stood beside me, and would not let me pass into the darkness."

Rowena let out the breath she was holding as tears came to her eyes, and finally able, she lifted her face and quickly chanted her prayer to the day.

Erwin came above ground and pulled Rowena to her feet. Glancing at Helga, he raised his eyebrow in question to Rowena and saw her smile as she nodded and lowered her hand to her stomach.

"Helga? We are going to take a walk. Will you be content here by yourself?"

"Of course." Helga looked up with a laugh. "Enjoy your walk, Erwin. I hear wizards like to walk best in the morning."

Erwin looked at Rowena turning red, while his lip twitched and fought the grin that would only confirm Helga's suspicion of what he had planned. He reached for Rowena's hand, tugging her up the mountain in search for a more private place.

"The only thing that bothers me about that witch is that I am unsure when she sees and when she jokes." Erwin grinned at Rowena as he stepped behind a large stone and pulled her to him. He cast a shield around them and filled it with a warming spell as he fell to his knees, pulling her down with him.

"Twice I woke last night and wanted you, and twice I saw you still with Helga." His mouth fell to her neck, which he kissed and nipped as his hands sought the skin of her back. "Twice I wanted you so badly it hurt."

She clung to him, raised her head, giving him more access to her throat, and closed her eyes as he lifted her robe over her head. He gave up a prayer of thanksgiving for the witch in front of him and the child that was still safe in her and thought he would never be as happy as he was at that moment.

His mouth again lowered to her throat and continued down until he heard her gasp and felt her hips rise to meet him. Then looking into her eyes and seeing her nod, he laid over her, and loved her again.

.

.

"I see our couple has stepped out again," Salazar said lightly as he came up behind Helga.

"Yes, a while ago." She sighed and looked up at him.

"So, you are the only one left not to have tasted bliss," he joked as he sat down next to her.

"Do you miss her still, Salazar?"

"No, not often." He frowned, looking out at the lake. "Only with the rising of each sun."

"Is there someone else for you?"

"I thought perhaps. Before this happened I had a fancy for a witch." He shrugged his shoulders and turned to her. "And what about you, dear sweet talking little Helga?"

"No." She sighed deeply, brought up her knees, and hugged them as she rested her head. "Mine was a small clan. I would have to bind outside its bounds and too much time was taken with study."

"In Slytherin witches often decide not to marry. It is their choice, not as in other clans where an unmarried witch is a burden or a curse."

"Would your clan have banished Rowena?"

"She would have been stoned." He turned to her to study her face. "She carries a child that is not of her husband's blood. This child would sully the bloodline and bring dishonour and shame."

"You follow these ways?"

"I would want nothing to happen to Rowena, but I can not tell you I would feel the same if it was my child she was carrying to another's hearth." He scowled, seeing the horror on her face. "We take our inheritance seriously. Do not mistake inheritances to mean material things when talking to a Slytherin. Inheritance is the blood of the family, its future and its soul."

"Remind me to never bed a Slytherin." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them and the blush started at her neck and slowly crept up.

"I will keep that in mind if you come to see my snake some dark and stormy night."

"Your arse, you know what I meant to say."

"Gryffin's mother came from Slytherin. That is why she had to leave our clan and live with his." Salazar ignored her blush as he explained patiently. "Although he is a kinsman, as we share the same grandparents, and his mother makes him by extension of my clansmen, I do not consider him Slytherin, nor does he consider himself anything other than Godric."

"So, this witch you had a fancy for, she is of Slytherin?" She smiled widely. "Is she with one of the families coming north? Have you made your intentions clear to her? Have you spoken for her? Have you bedded her?"

"Three yeses, one no, and one question too improper for a witch to ask." He laughed at the pout she gave him. "And no, I will not tell you which the no is."

"I am glad you are awake and seem well." Gryffin was the last to wake and now stood stretching in the sun.

"Gods, I am stiff. We may complain about sleeping on the hard ground but one night in that cave makes the ground seem soft."

"You are just getting soft in the morning, old man." Helga giggled and then again put her hand over her mouth.

Gryffin did not understand her meaning and looked to Salazar in confusion.

"Think nothing of her," Salazar said. "We just need to remember to find her a mate." He looked at her and paused. "Soon."

"While you two are bantering, start walking and count your steps. At least we can take measure of this and have it ready when Rowena and Erwin return." Helga stomped off to measure the plateau so they could begin to plan the building.

"Should we tell her of your charm?" Gryffin sat down and watched as the witch begin to pace.

"No, this is much better. More fun to watch her legs as she walks off her anger."

"Rowena may keep the child?"

"Yes, Erwin will be glad of it." Salazar thought of how angry Erwin had been the previous night and had marvelled that he would protect a child not his own with such passion.

"Well, I must get busy," Salazar said, standing up. "I have some work I want to do below. Send me your... Yes, try your Patronus again. If it still does not work, have Erwin or one of the others send theirs. We have things to discuss and a school to build before the snow is here, which I fear will come too soon."

Salazar had looked into Helga's mind and had seen her vision. He saw no terror in the sight and did not feel deeply disturbed by the parade of children and the blood that seemed to flow with no visible wounds. He had seen Rowena's part and his as he had stood and pointed to the cave, but could not ferret out the reason for Helga's terror. To him the great cobra had seemed watchful, even protective of the children that filed by in a show of pure-blood pride, which had and still would bind clan on to clan over eons of time. He wondered at the imagination of witches and went deeper into the cave.

He had barely time to find the source of the water and to cast his spell to measure the distance from the spring to the mouth of the cave when he saw a silver Patronus no larger than a mouse. He frowned and squatted down for a better look, as it refused to rise to eyelevel. The tiny Patronus gave no message, only twitched its nose at him and left. His laughter filled the cave as he shook his head and began the climb back to the top. This could only be Helga's form.

"Helga?" He was still smiling as he looked at her.

"You know yourself one has no control over the shape of their Patronus." She folded her arms and glared at him. "Gryffin, tell him. He never listens to me."

"A shrew, Helga?" Salazar's laugher spilled out again. "You who all call sweet? A shrew?"

"Umm, Salazar," Erwin grinned as Rowena bit her lip and turned away. "I wouldn't."

"Why not, Erwin? This is just too good." Salazar laughed, noticing Erwin and Gryffin step back. He suddenly did not feel as mirthful.

Helga stepped forward and waved her hand, chanting through clenched teeth and glowering at Salazar. A moment later, he stood with honey, broken egg and clotted cream covering his body and dripping from his hair.

"You do know that one of the cardinal rules in Transfiguration prohibits the creation of food." He shook egg yolk off his hand calmly. "It adds nothing to the nourishment of the body, only fills the stomach."

"Then do not eat it," Helga said, slowly walking towards him. "Do I need to tell you what to do with it?"

"No." He quietly licked his lips and tilted his head to the side. "Perhaps it needs a pinch of salt?"

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