The Crone pulled the blanket from her head and glared up at Tala's astral form.  "And now, girl," she said, "you git back to your body and wait for Bronn to come fetch you. I'll be seeing you again very soon. Aye."

     Tala drew back from the other witch, miserable with failure. Why not? If she couldn't bring herself to take a life, not even to save her own, then why not just wait for the inevitable? What else was she going to do? She allowed herself to drift aimlessly, like a cloud at the mercy of the winds, until she found herself in the room where the two circles were drawn on the floor. Gren was there, lying dead on the ground surrounded by a pool of cold blood. The Crone tottered into the room and stared down at him in sorrow.

     "You were a fine servant, Gren," she said. "I'll not forget you. And when your son has avenged your death he'll serve me just as well, as will his children to come." Then she looked up at Tala again. "Why are you still here? Git and be gone with you. I've got no use for your soul. It's your fine young body I want."

     Tala looked at the two circles of blood, needing only a sprinkling of fresh blood to bring them back to life. There was an oil lamp sitting on a shelf. On a sudden impulse, she grabbed the lamp with her invisible hands and threw it hard onto the ground. Burning oil splashed out setting the wooden floorboards alight.

     "NO!" cried the Crone in horror, jumping up from Bron's corpse and staggering back against the wall. "You stupid, wicked girl! What have you done?" Her eyes glowed brightly again, but it wasn't the Eyes that Bite this time. It was something else. Some other magic that Tala didn't know. It caused the flames to dim and shrink as if she was smothering them with dust. She sagged with relief but kept her eyes on the fire, shrinking it still further.

     With a burst of hope, Tala used her invisible hands to bring the blanket from the back room and throw it over the Crone's head again. The older witch screamed with fear and outrage and Tala held it firmly in place as she tried to tear it away again. Freed from the influence of her magic, the flames leapt up again, spreading across the floor towards the two blood circles.

     "No!" cried the Crone again. "You spiteful, horrid girl! Stop the fire! Please let me stop the fire! You don't know what you're doing!"

     Tala truly didn't. She'd assumed the other witch would be able to create another pair of circles with little difficulty but perhaps she'd been wrong about that. "It took you a great deal of effort to create them, didn't it?" she guessed. "How much effort? Did it almost kill you? Have you got the strength to do it again?"

     The flames had reached the first circle now, and with a sense of savage triumph Tala allowed the Crone to pull the blanket from her head. The older witch stared in dismay as the blood caught aflame, turning into a circle of fire that then spread across the dry, dusty floorboards towards the other. Then she cried out in torment and dismay. "You don't know," she accused. "You don't know what it cost me. It would kill me to do it again. I'm too old. I should have found a new body years ago but it took me so long to find you. So long."

     <Everyone dies,> Tala told her, not without sympathy she was surprised to find. <But not today. You've still got a few years ahead of you, I think. Bronn will look after you. You can live your final years in peace and comfort with your loyal...>

     "You bitch!" screamed the Crone in wild fury. "I'll kill you for this! If I'm going to Hell I'll take you with me!"

     She glared up at Tala, her Eyes that Bite blazing into life again, and Tala leapt away as the agony hit her. Her astral form shot up through the thatched roof and hovered above the cottage from where she looked down, hoping to see the Crone making her way out. She grew anxious as the older witch didn't appear, though, and concern drove her to drop back down, passing through the roof like a ghost. She found the Crone lying face down next to Gren's corpse, both figures equally motionless. With a surge of regret Tala drew closer, reaching out with her invisible hands to feel for a pulse. There was nothing, though, and when she reached gently into her chest she found that her heart had stopped. That last attack with her Eyes that Bite must have been too much for her. That, and her dismay at being trapped forever in her ancient body, had killed her.

     Tala waited for a moment or two longer, but then remembered her body lying unattended in the woods. Was Bronn doing things to it even as she watched the Crone's corpse being consumed by the flames? She willed herself back into her body and, to her relief, found herself right where she'd left herself. She jumped back to her feet and began running away, jubilant at her freedom, but the sound of a struggle brought her to a stop. Gareth and Bronn. The Crone's servant had apparently ignored his mistress's command to capture Tala in his need to kill the killer of his father. Gareth was injured, she remembered, and he had no weapon while Bronn would have a knife at the very least. The Knight had no chance. Even if Tala decided to go to his aid, he would almost certainly be dead before she could reach him.

     And why would she want to help him? Gareth wanted only to see her stoned to death. She should be glad that he would be dead soon. She should just run, and by the time the Knights came to see what had happened to their men she would be a hundred miles away, busy making a new life for herself in a big city where no-one would think to look for a green witch.

     She should just run, she knew that. She would be mad to do anything else. The sounds of struggle were somehow still going on, though. Gareth was somehow holding his own. Cursing her own stupidity, therefore, she turned and ran towards them.

     She found them about fifty yards away. Gareth had been hiding behind the tall roots of a fallen tree and had tried to run when Bronn found him. The Knight was lying on his back with the woodsman sitting on his stomach, trying to plunge a long dagger into his throat. Gareth was gasping with effort as he tried to keep the blade away but he couldn't keep the sharp point from dropping closer and closer while Bronn grimaced with triumphant effort. The outcome was certain and only a couple of moments away.

     Tala reached out for the knife with her invisible hands and pulled. Bronn reacted with surprise as the knife jerked upwards, but he must have been familiar with the invisible hands of a witch because he looked around as if he knew exactly what was going on. He punched Gareth in the face to keep him down for a moment, then jumped to his feet and spun around to face the witch.

     Tala's invisible hands had about the same strength as her physical body which, although strong for a woman, was nowhere near the same as that of a man. They did nothing to stop him, therefore, as he ran towards her, brandishing the knife furiously. Tala used her Eyes that Bite but the man still came on. In the brief moment she had before the man reached her, Tala wondered whether the Crone had taught him how to resist the green eyes of a witch in case he ever had to fight one.

     The man slashed at her with the knife and Tala was only able to keep it away by deflecting it with her invisible hands. Then the man bowled into her, though, knocking her from her feet and landing on top of her. The knife plunged down and Tala grabbed his wrists with her physical hands, trying to stop it. "Your mistress needs me alive," she gasped.

     "I don't care," Bronn replied.

     Her strength was nowhere near great enough to stop the knife. It plunged down, but Tala managed to push it to the side just enough for it to miss her heart. It sank deep into her chest, though, and Tala cried out in pain and terror. Bronn pulled the knife back out with a spray of blood and Tala could only lay helplessly as he aimed for the killing blow...

     Gareth came running at him and knocked the woodsman off the witch. Bronn threw him away and jumped to his feet, brandishing the knife at him. He advanced upon the Knight, who backed away warily, and Tala saw that his side was soaked with blood. His injury had torn open again. Gareth was limping weakly as he backed away and Bronn advanced upon him confidently with a sneer on his face.

     Tala reached out for Bronn's heart with her invisible hands and squeezed. She wasn't trying to kill him. She didn't really know what she was trying to accomplished except to stop the woodsman from killing the Knight. She had no idea what her next move would have been. As Bronn doubled over in pain, though, Gareth took the opportunity to run forward, pull the knife from his hand and plunge it into his heart.

     The Knight and the witch both watched numbly as the woodsman fell dead, and then Gareth sank to his knees, his hand going to his side as he examined his wound. Tala also felt her injury gingerly, using her right hand. Her left arm, the side she'd been injured on, refused to move. Her fingers came away with blood on them. Also, she was finding it hard to breathe. She pressed her hand to the wound and found she was able to breathe a little easier. There was no pain, she was surprised to find, but there was a weakness spreading through her that scared her.

     Gareth climbed unsteadily to his feet and made his way carefully over to her. "You're hurt," he said.

     You don't miss anything, do you? thought Tala, a wild, crazy amusement swelling up inside her.

     "Why would you do that?" the Knight demanded, dropping to his knees beside her. He stared at her in disbelief and total bewilderment. "All you had to do was run away and you would have been free. You could have gotten away while he was killing me." Tala didn't have the breath to reply.

     "I wonder if that old bitch has other men working for her," said Gareth, opening Tala's clothes to examine her injury. "They could be looking for us right now."

     "Dead," Tala managed to say. "Witch dead. No more men."

     Gareth was pulling a small cloth from a pouch which he stuffed into Tala's injury, to stop the bleeding and help her breathe. It caused Tala a spike of excruciating pain and she passed out.