The Night Sorceresses

By Erica Griswold

Magic is illegal in Ethermoor. Willow Nightshade is a young sorceress living in the village of Fernhollow. After her parents are brutally murdered at the hands of the police for practicing sorcery, she vows revenge on the evil King Banderon for the kingdom's unjust laws against the magical people. Betrayal lurks around every corner, and Willow must be careful whom she trusts. And something else that may not be human at all is killing the magical people of Ethermoor. Can Willow restore peace and magic to the kingdom?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erica Griswold
• Release date: May 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463039359

Erica Griswold

I love to read and write fantasy novels. It is my dream to be a bestselling author one day.

Book preview

Prologue

Tyrus Firedorn and his daughter, Piper, were riding their horses through the forest one night outside the village of seaside, a small village located in the principality of Aralin, which was in the country of Ethermoor. Tyrus was a sorcerer, and Piper was a sorceress. The sorcerers and sorceresses of Ethermoor were the descendants of fairies who had married humans, and each possessed a magical ability unique to the type of fairy their ancestor was.

Tyrus and Piper were Knowledge Sorcerers, descendants of Wisdom Fairies who married humans, and each one possessed a strong ability to discern truth from fiction, and could also sense when someone was lying. Many Knowledge Sorcerers worked as writers for newspapers because they wanted to accurately record current events. They possessed an intense desire to share information with others, and many were teachers, professors, archivists, and historians, or pursued related professions.

Knowledge Sorcerers experienced intense pain and sickness when telling lies, and their skin felt as if it had caught on fire if they heard someone telling one. They also experienced burning sensations in their skin in the vicinity of any sort of dishonesty.

Tyrus and Piper were members of a group of Knowledge Sorcerers investigating a series of strange deaths that had occurred throughout the country. Piper had first learned of the peculiar deaths when working as a newspaper reporter in the principality of Oloredian.

A few days prior, she was sitting in her office, looking through some notes she had taken while interviewing a woman about an unusual death she had witnessed the night before. The victim was the village apothecary, and his wife was Piper’s interviewee. She’d told Piper that she and her husband were asleep in their bed the night before, and she was shaken awake by the force of something heavy falling on the mattress. She woke up and saw a terrifying bluish-white spectral being standing at the foot of her bed. It disappeared the second she laid eyes on it.

The woman reached across the bed to wake her husband, and when she touched him, she discovered he was as cold as ice. She yelled his name and shook him, but he did not answer. The woman sat up in bed, lit the candle sitting on the nightstand next to the bed, and held the flame near her husband’s face.

What she saw was the most horrifying thing she had ever seen. Her husband’s face was shriveled, and his mouth gaped. His eyes bulged out of their sockets, and he was staring straight upward toward the ceiling. The woman told Piper that when she reported the death to the police, they threatened to arrest her if she told anyone about the creature she’d seen.

The police went to the local newspaper and asked the newspaper manager if anyone had interviewed the woman. Piper was compiling her interview notes to write a newspaper article about the murder, when she heard someone knock on her office door. She opened the door, and two officers walked inside. They told her that if she mentioned the ghost-like creatures in her article, they would arrest her and put her in jail.

All the deaths had four things in common. First, the victims were either apothecaries or mental hospital patients. Second, there were reports of the presence of a blue-and-white ghost-like creature at the scene of the death. Third, the victims’ corpses were all described as having a gaping mouth and a terrifying expression on their faces. Fourth, police made death threats to witnesses and reporters. The sorcerers and sorceresses who worked for newspapers began noticing this pattern and assembled their own investigative teams to try to find out what was behind the deaths. There had been another murder the night before Tyrus and Piper’s investigation in the forest, in the small fishing village of Seaside, which was why they were investigating the forest surrounding it.

The Knowledge Sorcerers’ headquarters was a massive library inside Mount Pyraxia in the Celexia Mountain Range in the principality of Oloredian. The library, called the Pyraxia Library, housed thousands of books, historical documents, potions, and newspapers the sorcerers had collected over the centuries.

The creatures they suspected were committing these crimes had not been seen in Ethermoor in over five hundred years: the Faeblood Wraiths. None of the sorcerers who worked for the newspapers said a word about their suspicions to non-Knowledge Sorcerers. They hoped they were wrong.

There was a deafening silence that night, as if even the forest animals knew something supernatural was lurking around. All five sorcerers in Tyrus and Piper’s investigative team were either wearing or holding an object that had belonged to an evil warlock named Tareth.

Tareth had created the Faeblood Wraiths, and holding an object that had belonged to him was said to be a person’s only defense against them. The wraiths acted on Tareth’s commands, and his objects represented him. The wraiths were the souls of sorcerers, sorceresses, and fairies whose magic he had stolen for his own use. A wraith fed off the magic of sorcerers and fairies. Once a sorcerer’s magic was depleted, their soul left their body to feed on the magic of another sorcerer. Then, that sorcerer’s soul also transformed into a wraith. They were called Faeblood Wraiths because they mostly attacked fairies and their descendants.

The team’s only light was the torches they were carrying and the glow of the full moon that shone brightly in the cloudless sky. A terrible fear suddenly gripped Piper, and she froze. She heard the most beautiful singing, and it entranced her. She dismounted her horse and followed the voice. She heard her father say her name, but she was so enraptured by the singing that she did not comprehend that he was speaking to her. Piper! Tyrus called again. Still, Piper did not answer him. Tyrus turned around on his horse to see why she was not answering him.

Piper, do you— he began as he turned around, but stopped when he saw a terrifying bluish-white creature hovering right behind her. A bright-blue mist surrounded Piper, and the creature was inhaling it. Fear shot through Tyrus, and he galloped toward the creature, brandishing a quill pin that had belonged to Tareth in his right hand.

Get back! Tyrus screamed as he galloped right toward the creature. It saw the pen, let out a piercing shriek, and shrunk backward. The mist around Piper disappeared, and she fell to the ground. She stumbled to her feet and pulled her long red hair away from the necklace she was wearing that had belonged to Tareth. The creature screamed and shrunk backward at the sight of the necklace. Tyrus waved the quill pen and galloped toward the beast. It flew off into the forest, shrieking so loud that it hurt Piper’s ears.

Daddy! she whimpered. Tyrus dismounted his horse, and Piper collapsed in his arms, embracing him. The creature had drained so much energy from her that she could not stand back up. A wave of exhaustion washed over her. Come on. I’ll help you get back on your horse, Tyrus said. He and another sorcerer named Valron lifted Piper onto her horse. She lay on its back and fell asleep instantly.

The creature’s reaction to the sight of Tareth’s belongings confirmed the sorcerer’s worst fear: that these beings were indeed Faeblood Wraiths. And, if the wraiths had returned to Ethermoor, had Tareth also returned?

Piper was shaken awake by the other sorcerers lifting her off her horse. She was vaguely aware of being carried up the stairs of an inn and being laid on a bed.Sleep engulfed her, and she slept very soundly until morning.

Damian Anderson was in his study, looking over some forensic drawings of murder victims and artist renderings of the creatures that had killed them as described by eyewitnesses.

He was a mortician, and he’d applied for a medical examiner job when he noticed that some of the corpses of his clients’ dead loved ones all had the same bizarre expression on their faces. The Ethermoorian Police had hired him to help them investigate the murders. He was currently investigating the death of a lunatic who had also been murdered by a strange blue-and-white ghost-like creature. Damian found it very strange that the spectral beings were attacking the mentally ill as well as apothecaries.

Each of the lunatic patients had had terrible dreams on the night of the full moon, and had spoken unintelligible words the next morning, which was why they were in mental institutions. A few days later, their behavior and speech returned to normal. The patients were able to describe their dreams, but the events in them were so jumbled that the patient could not make sense of what these dreams were about. These were the only non-magical people who were being killed by the spectral creatures.

Typically, sorcerers did not work for the government. Magic was illegal in Ethermoor, and if someone discovered that Damian was a sorcerer, he would be sentenced to death. Damian was trying to help solve the odd murders along with the other Knowledge Sorcerers.

The Ethermoorian Police also suspected that something supernatural, possibly Faeblood Wraiths, was killing people, though they kept their suspicions secret because they did not wish for unfounded rumors of a wraith presence in Ethermoor to spread. After all, Tareth was the whole reason magic was made illegal in Ethermoor in the first place, and Ethermoorian government officials and the police were very familiar with the stories about him.

Before Tareth’s arrival in the realm of Valfariel, which was where Ethermoor was located, fairies, sorcerers, and humans lived together in peace. Fairies could travel from one realm to another by using fairy rings, which were either temporary rings made up of circles of mushrooms that grew after rainstorms, or permanent circles of stones that the fairies constructed.

Tareth was a warlock, which meant he was a human who didn’t have any magical ancestry and taught himself how to use magic. He had also learned a spell to make himself immortal.

Not all of the fairies were good. An evil fairy named Garavind had crossed over into the realm of Morvogth and met Tareth. He was absolutely fascinated that a human with no fairy ancestry was able to cast magic spells and make potions just like the sorcerers. He brought Tareth back with him to Ethermoor to teach the non-magical humans magic. During Tareth’s time, some evil fairies dragged mortals through the fairy rings and kept them in the fairy worlds. Their mortal bodies died due to a lack of food and water from the human world.

Tareth also taught humans how to use magic themselves, which was done by stealing an object of importance made by a fairy. The objects held no actual magic while in the fairy’s possession, but their magical essence was in the thing they created, and humans could wield the fairy’s magic while in possession of the object.

Thus, Tareth’s students posed a terrible threat to peace and stability in the realm. Since Tareth was immortal, Queen Zadelia of the Ethermoorian fairies made a prison for him on the island of Valroth, and he was banished there. His students were all imprisoned by the human king Clarence, and eventually they all died in prison.

All the fairies and sorcerers agreed to leave the realm of Valfariel in hopes that banishing magic from it would help end the destruction that Tareth’s arrival had brought upon the humans who lived there. Queen Zadelia and King Clarence placed a spell on Valfariel to banish magic from the realm and ensure that it couldn’t return.

The fairies and sorcerers were exiled to the six other mortal realms known to fairies: Danvorian, Halvaroth, Janiria, Zanzomina, Yanrith, and Kalmovar. Somehow, and no one knew how it happened, magical people and their descendants slowly began returning to Ethermoor. The people would often just be walking somewhere, and suddenly, they found themselves in the Valfarielian realm.

Over the centuries, fears about Tareth’s return replaced the memories of good fairies and sorcerers among the humans. Magic was made illegal, and anyone caught practicing it received a death sentence. The Knowledge Sorcerers were in a somewhat better position to be able to practice their magic openly because the knowledge portion of their abilities could not be told apart from regular humans.

Their truth-sensing powers were what could potentially reveal that they were sorcerers. Many sorcerers did not know other sorcerers, except for their magical family members, because they had to keep their magic a secret for fear of being discovered by the authorities. Often, the only other person who knew about the sorcerer’s magic was the person they intended to marry. This was why Damian was not exactly eager to work with the Ethermoorian government, but he had to to help the Knowledge Sorcerers discover the cause of the strange deaths.

The door to Damian’s office burst open, and a policeman walked in.

Sir, there has been another murder, the officer said.

Yet another death? How long can this go on? Damian thought.

What is the victim’s name? he asked.

Celestia, and she lived in Seaside.

Were there any witnesses?

She was alone in her bedroom when the murder took place, but after news of her death broke in the village, some people who happened to be walking down the street at the hour of the night she died told the police that they saw what they could only describe as ‘ghosts’ floating around outside her house.

Ghosts. Just like all the other witnesses described, Damian thought.

She, too, was an apothecary. The policeman leaned in toward Damian and whispered, Have you heard any . . . rumors as to why only apothecaries are getting attacked by these creatures?

No, Damian replied.

Well, Chief Matthews told us today that there is a rumor among law enforcement that the victims are sorcerers, not just ordinary people selling medications, the officer whispered.

Fairies were nature spirits, and sorcerers and sorceresses were able to infuse the healing properties of herbs with their magic to make extremely powerful medications. Damian knew that many sorcerers who had returned to Ethermoor chose to be apothecaries.

How did this rumor start? Damian asked

The officer looked around nervously as if he were looking to see if anyone was watching. Damian found this behavior strange, because they were the only people in his small study. There is a new palace alchemist, and he has created a formula that he says can detect fairy magic in a liquid. There are rumors that the police have caught a few sorcerers owning these apothecary shops.

Damian seethed with anger. He tried to maintain his composure to hide all signs that he sympathized with sorcerers.

What’s this alchemist’s name? he asked.

Halvor.

And what does this Halvor know about magic?

The officer’s eyes widened and sparkled. Much! He has been most helpful in rounding up suspected magical people!

Any feeling of camaraderie Damian might have felt with the officer disappeared upon seeing his gleeful reaction to innocent people going to prison.

If I ever meet this Halvor, he’d better pray that he survives the meeting, he thought.

Where does Halvor live? Damian asked.

Ethermoor City.

Damian made a mental note to try to find the monster as soon as he finished with the investigation he was currently working on.

Another officer walked into the room. There’s a letter here for Damian Anderson, he said as he handed the letter to the other soldier, who then gave it to Damian.

The letter read:

Dear Damian Anderson,

His Royal Highness, King Banderon of Ethermoor, requests your presence at his castle in Ethermoor City at once. He wishes to speak with you regarding the progress of your investigation.

Sincerely,

Halvor Thorngrind

Palace Alchemist

Good, I can meet both of the monsters at once, Damian thought.

Early the next morning, he was awakened by the sound of something scratching on the window. Damian looked outside and saw a barred owl sitting on the windowsill with a letter tied to its talon. He opened the window and untied the letter. The mail service that used birds to quickly deliver letters from one place to another was called Mango Mail. They usually used parrots, but they used owls if a letter needed to be delivered overnight. Damian gave the owl a piece of meat from his supper the night before as payment and shut the window. He opened the envelope and pulled the letter out. It read,

Dear Damian Anderson,

As we were investigating the forest outside Seaside, Piper got attacked by a strange spectral creature. When I flashed Tareth’s quill pen at it, it flew off into the woods. Given the creature’s reaction to the pen, we have determined that it probably was a Faeblood Wraith. You need to be careful out there.

Sincerely,

Tyrus Firedorn

Damian tucked the letter in his bag and set off for Ethermoor City. He only slept inside inns so that he would not be sleeping alone in the forest at night. He sometimes went for a day or longer without sleeping to try to avoid being attacked by the wraiths. He had a small bottle that had belonged to Tareth, which he had fashioned into a bracelet pendant. Damian tried to keep it visible at all times, and to keep his hand on top of the blankets as he slept at night.

The trip took several days, but he finally arrived in Ethermoor City. The streets were filthy and lined with beggars. Knowledge Sorcerers experienced intense physical sensations when in the vicinity of someone telling a lie, and Damian could sense the corruption of the Ethermoorian government by just walking through the city itself. He sensed the dishonesty coming from the government buildings miles away so strongly that he felt as if burning ash from a fire was stinging his skin.

The castle loomed large over the city surrounding it. Damian made his way through the streets to the door of the castle. My name is Damian Anderson. His Highness requested to see me Damian said as he handed the letter he had received from King Banderon to the guard standing beside the door. The guard looked over the letter and said, Come with me.

He opened the door and led Damian inside. They walked down a long hallway and stopped at a set of double doors. The guard said, I will inform His Highness that you are here. He opened one of the doors, walked inside, and shut the door behind himself. Moments later, the door opened again. The guard popped his head out and said, King Banderon would like to see you now.

Damian walked through the door and into the throne room. Your Highness, this is Damian Anderson, the guard said.

So there you are, in the flesh, Damian thought, seething with fury. A long red carpet stretched across the room, from the doors to a large ornate chair made entirely of gold and silver. A man wearing a suit made entirely of golden material sat on the throne. A crown made of solid gold and studded with every kind of jewel that Damian was familiar with sat on the man’s head.

I’ll bet that suit is worth enough money to house and feed all the beggars in Ethermoor City for the rest of their lives! Damian thought. Damian bowed to the king and felt very nauseous doing so. King Banderon leaped off his throne and walked down the red carpet. He smiled broadly and shook Damian’s hand vigorously. Just the person I want to see! Banderon said.

It’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness, Damian said. A searing pain shot through his body as he lied.

Banderon leaned in and asked, So what have you found out about the strange creatures?

Not much, only that they killed another woman in Seaside last week.

Banderon glanced at a servant woman busy dusting a candelabra attached to one of the walls. He whispered, Let’s go somewhere we can talk in private.

Private? Damian thought, absolutely terrified by the notion of being alone with the sorcerer killer. Then, he noticed a wild terror in Banderon’s eyes, and Damian took comfort in knowing that the man might genuinely be frightened of something.

Yes, sir, Damian replied.

They walked out of the throne room, down an adjacent hallway, and stopped in front of a door. Banderon looked both left and right as if he were looking to see if there were any potential eavesdroppers around. They were the only people in the hallway. Banderon stopped in front of one of the doors, and the two walked inside. He closed the door and locked it.

The light of the sun streaming through one small window dimly lit the room. My new royal alchemist believes that the spectral creatures are Faeblood Wraiths, Banderon whispered. In the dim light, Damian could see that Banderon’s eyes were wide with terror. He stuck his forefinger in Damian’s face. And they are predominantly going after sorcerers! You are following my orders to keep people from talking about the creatures, aren’t you?

Yes, sir, I am, Damian replied as he choked back a lump in his throat.

A grin stretched across Banderon’s face. Good.

Sir, why do you think the victims are sorcerers?

My royal alchemist had his suspicions as to what the creatures were, and he created a formula that detects magic. He tested the medications that the victims sold in their shops, and sure enough, there was magic in them. Can you believe that sorcerers and sorceresses were hiding in plain sight, and we didn’t catch them until now? Banderon said.

There goes any shred of sorrow I might have felt for Banderon in his dealings with the Faeblood Wraiths. Damian felt like ripping his sword out of its holster and chopping Banderon’s head off, but he maintained his composure.

May I meet this man? Damian asked.

Certainly! He comes in at ten at night. He prefers to work at night because he doesn’t want to be disturbed.

Damian narrowed his eyes. How did you come to hire him?

My old alchemist died three months ago. During the last phase of the interview process for a new one, Halvor showed us his sorcerer-catching formula and demonstrated an ability to catch these criminals. All have used magic in self-defense upon being discovered by the authorities, Banderon said.

I must relay this information to the other Knowledge Sorcerers, Damian thought.

Banderon invited him to eat supper at the palace as he waited for Halvor’s arrival, and Damian accepted. Banderon also took him on a tour of the castle, which Damian thought was rather odd because he was a total stranger to the king.

At ten, they waited in the servant’s entrance for Halvor’s arrival. At precisely 10 p.m., a cloaked figure walked through the door. Damian could not see the man’s face because the hood of his cloak was covering it.

Banderon said, Halvor, I would like you to meet one of the men investigating the murders. He gestured to Damian. This is Damian Anderson.

The figure pulled the hood off his head, revealing a middle-aged man underneath. He was emaciated, with chin-length brown hair and cold brown eyes.

Ugh, this is him. Damian thought. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Halvor said with a grin so wide that it showed all his teeth. What is that lovely bracelet you have there? Halvor pointed to Damian’s bracelet.

Damian’s bracelet consisted of a leather strap threaded through an eyelet that he had attached to the top of a bottle. He thought it was odd that someone would even notice it at all. Oh, it’s just something I made. His Highness tells me that you have invented a formula that can detect magic. I would like to see how it works.

Why don’t you show Damian to your lab? Banderon suggested, smiling.

It would be an honor, Halvor replied, bowing slightly to Damian. Damian felt as if his skin had caught on fire. It was clear to Damian that Halvor did not want to show him his lab.

He followed Halvor through the castle. They walked up five different flights of stairs to the fifth floor. Then, they walked down another hallway. Halvor stopped in front of a door. He opened it and led them up a dark spiral staircase. When they arrived at the top of the stairs, Halvor opened another door, and they walked into a room. This is it, he said, gazing around the room.

Damian saw a chemistry apparatus, several shelves full of books, and a telescope pointing out a window. There were no cabinets, and all of Halvor’s materials either sat out on tables or on shelves. Damian walked around the room. He did not see any herbs or liquids typically used in potions, something that might indicate if Halvor was a sorcerer who had turned on his people.

Instead, he saw bottles and jars of alchemy chemicals sitting on the shelves and tables. What exactly do you do here? Damian asked.

I turn objects into gold and silver for His Majesty, Halvor replied.

Damian’s mind again turned to the homeless in the streets. Do you create any money to give to the poor? he asked.

Halvor burst out laughing. The poor? I wasn’t hired to help the poor! I was hired to make gold for the king and advise him in matters of science and chemistry!

Damian decided not to press the matter any