“I’m not for certain of an exact number but I’m going to sayyyyyy…all of them.”

  “Stay here.” She told him as she pushed past to descend the stairs. “Keep your eye on those men at the end of the hall. If they come out of that wash chamber, use your sword.” Hoxley stormed down the stairs, gingerly stepping over those lying in her path. At the bottom she took a quick glance out the windows to find Loxo’s statement to be all too true. The king’s soldiers had shown up in droves. They’d be surrounded in no time. She climbed the stairs once more to join the others.

  “Hoxley?” asked the prince. “Who is the man in the doorway with you?”

  “This? This is Loxor Santium Balthazar the Fourth. He’s a pirate,” Loxo in turn bowed for the introduction. “Loxo is right, we can’t stay here, the prince’s uncle’s soldiers are here.”

  “It’s nothing for the witchkind to leave.” Said Ignatius. “But how will we get you and the others out of the building? It’s a long drop down to the ground.”

  “I-I don’t know.” said Hoxley

  “Perhaps I can help if someone would put out that lantern.” Said a ghostly disembodied voice. Hearing this, the prince reached over and extinguished the small light. Out of his clothes the girl made of shadows emerged to stand before them, her outline glittering like pinpricks of stars in the sky.

  “Now that is something I have never seen before.” Loxo remarked as he walked over to her. He then proceeded to stick his hand through her back and have it emerge through her chest before wiggling the fingers and pulling it back out.

  “Don’t be rude just because she’s different.” Said Hoxley. “She’s a person. Nobody tries to stick their arms though you.”

  “Hoxley dear, you and I have very different definitions of what ‘different’ is.” Quipped the pirate.

  “Could this conversation continue at a later time?” asked Ignatius. “Dozens of men with swords are gathering. If we are to flee, now is the best time.”

  “But where will we go?” asked Morell

  “Through the woods.” Hoxley and Ignatius answered together.

  “It’s our best chance of evading them.” Continued Hoxley “We’ll continue south or south west as best we can.”

  “Those men are bigger than us.” Said the prince. “How can we outrun them? Hoxley can’t carry us all.” The boy’s words rang true.

  “She can’t.” said the shadowy girl. “But I can.”

  “Oh? How so?” asked Hoxley. The waifish form glided without sound over to the window and leapt out. And for a moment the companions stood watching the night through an empty pane.

  “Well, that solved nothing.” Robert muttered “I hope we have a back-up plan. She’s gone.”

  “Look again.” Said Loxo as he pointed through the window. When they did, they saw what the filthy pirate beheld. The shadow girl had grown in size again like she’d done upon Faustacon mountain. Her proportions had increased a hundredfold to create the shape of a girl gargantuan enough to dwarf the entire inn.

  “Come this way,” the girl beckoned, taking a knee to lower herself down to the second story. She cupped her titan size hands as one scoops water to drink from a stream. “I can carry you through the woods.” The companions exchanged startled glances as the prospect, all but Loxo.

  “Well, stand like statues all you like.” He said pushing his way past Hoxley. “I for one am not missing an opportunity to be carried by a fifty-foot tall lady. This will be a drinking story I tell for the rest of my life.” He didn’t slow a step as he walked over to the second story window, placed a foot upon the pane and stepped out upon the outstretched fingers of the hands held midair. No one in the party could believe their eyes as the pirate appeared to be levitating. He gave a wide grin and bounced a little to demonstrate the integrity of his footing before the others followed.

  “Hurry.” The shadow girl said. “More men are coming.” The witches, Morell, and the prince stepped out into the night air, each of them marveling at the magic of the shadows holding them off the ground. Hoxley was only a few steps behind them when the men who’d been in the washroom stormed into the doorway to find her ready to depart.

  “There she is!” said the first one pointing with a charred sleeve on his shirt. “Capture her!” Three men came dashing in with their blades drawn. Hoxley backed away, making two small gallops to the windows before leaping through. The shadowy palms and fingers, who were only visible by their stardust outlines, lifted her away to safety. One man with a covered face was so enthusiastic to pursue her that he dove after the centaur and fell headlong out the window to land with a painful thud in the grass below. The shadow girl continued to grow in size until she was taller than the oldest trees. Higher and higher she lifted the companions. When her hands could be held at chest height above the treetops, she ceased to grow. All along the ground, men with swords gathered to point and shout at the unnatural sight they beheld. Some gathered and chased after it while others ran in fear.

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  “Which way should we go? She asked

  “Through the woods that way.” Hoxley pointed to the southwest.

  “Very well.” The shadow girl trod across the land as a giant, her gait covering more than forty paces at a time. But for her gargantuan size, her footfalls carried to no sound, no goliath tromping steps to disturb the land. To keep from teetering, everyone in the party sat down or knelt in the palms of their dark cohort.

  “This is amazing!” Morell said. “I’ve never been this high in the air before, even when I used to climb the trees around my home!” The witches looked a little less impressed. They always flew wherever they went, but even they didn’t seem to mind being carried in such a fashion.

  “You should see things from the top masts of my father’s ship!” Boasted Loxo. “Yes, yes! You’re all to be my guests for a feast around my father’s table! Even you, my dark lovely!” He shouted to the shadowy girl carrying all of them. The air was cool and the breezes above the trees a little chillier than usual. Far better than being atop a freezing mountain for sure. The Magnificent strides carried them over the tops of trees a dozen at a time. Siouxsie reached her hand out to touch the tops of spindly firs. Hoxley knelt next to Ignatius and began to dig in her saddlebags for her magic blanket when Ignatius stopped her and opened his cloak for her to wrap herself within. She didn’t hesitate to drape it about her, the smell of sarsaparilla already in her nose. And together, they all watched the forest unfold before them in a way they’d had ever seen before.

  “Would anyone like to hear a song?” asked Siouxsie as she produced her lute from her cloak.

  “Please not piggy piggy.” Huffed Robert.

  “How do you hide that lute under your clothes? Morell asked her

  “Magic.” she cheerfully grinned. “Same as everything else.”

  “Oh! Oh!” said Loxo, becoming more animated. “Do you know the ‘witches are keen’ song?”

  “Know it?” laughed Siouxsie. “Some people say I sing it so well that I very well could have written it myself!” She strummed the strings of her instrument and cleared her throat before her voice filled the night:

  We’re…… a…… button and buckle on every pocket, a secret inside every locket, across the sky we all can rocket… witches are truly keen.

  Witches… witches… pointed hats and pointed shoes!

  Witches…witches… cauldrons full of bubbling brew!

  Oh! We plant the flowers that feed the bees, we see the things that no one sees, sometimes we even take naps in treeees…….Witches are truly keen.

  Always dressed in black from dusk til, noon, look out evil, we’ll spell your doom, if you’re not friends with a witch, then make one soooon… witches are truly keen.

  Witches… witches… pointed hats and pointed shoes!

  Witches…witches… cauldrons full of bubbling brew!

  We merrily meet and merrily part then merrily meet again, across the snow, across the fields and deserts made of sand!

  Oh! broom in broom we sing in tune, we may not be what you assume….we vanish in smoky plumeeeeeeessssss…Oh! witches are truuuuuuuuuuullllyyyyyyyyyyyyy keeeeeeeeeen!”

  And with a furious strumming of strings, the song came to an end.

  Through the night the companions traveled in the gentle palms of the dark colossus. They only stopped once so that everyone could forage for food. Morell found an entire cluster of edible fungi which he crammed into little glass jars. Some were even what he referred to as ‘the special kind’.

  As the evening wore on, many fell asleep, lulled to rest by the rhythmic steps of the one who carried them. Siouxsie and Loxo however found one another company to be quite pleasant.