The cursed towers 161
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Tears running down the seams of her face, Meghan tried to pump her heart into life, but there was no
response. Latifa was dead.
The murder of the old cook threw the keep into chaos. The chambermaids huddled in corners, weeping;
the apprentice cooks spoiled the dinner; the steward sat with his hands hanging, muttering, "But who
could want to kill Latifa? But why?"
Meghan was shocked to her core. Latifa was one of the few of her friends from the old days to have
survived the Burning. She had known her as a plump baby with dark curls and fat hands, and a cheeky
young student who refused to concentrate on her lessons at the Tower of Two Moons, wanting to lie
around on the grass and eat gingerbread instead.
Meghan had wanted the young Latifa to take her Tests and be admitted to the Coven as an apprentice
witch, but she had gone to work as an apprentice cook in the kitchens instead, following in the footsteps
of her mother and grandmother. As a result, she had survived Maya's Day of Reckoning when so many
of her former class mates had not. Maya had never suspected the palace cook was a gifted skeelie, with
a Talent for fire magic and close ties with the Coven of Witches. For sixteen years Latifa had spied for
the rebels, risking her own life daily to keep Meghan informed of the Banrigh's movements and intentions.
Although Latifa had betrayed them at the final moment, Meghan knew it was because Maya's charm had
slowly and insidiously worked upon Latifa's own fears and uncertainties until she had not known what to
think or what to do. The old sorceress knew just how powerful Maya's compulsion could be. After all,
the Fairge had ensorcelled Jaspar into massacring the witches, and Jaspar had been far more powerful
than Latifa. So Meghan had pleaded with Lachlan and saved the bewildered old cook from a traitor's
death.
Latifa had spent the two years since working to overcome Lachlan's suspicions and regain her trusted
position in the Coven. To her great pride, she had sat her Tests and been admitted into the Coven as a
fully accredited witch, wearing on her plump fingers moonstone and garnet rings to show she had passed
her Test of Fire as well as her apprenticeship test. She had worked tirelessly to stretch their scanty
supplies far enough to feed thousands, and had begun teaching her kitchen magic to some of the eager
acolytes in the Theurgia. Meghan did not know how she was to manage without her.
The town guards searched every inn and house in Dim Eidean but there was no sign of Maya the
Ensorcellor. And even though Dun Eidean's gates were closed and only those on the Righ's business
allowed inside or out for close on a week, still Latifa's murderer was not found.
The sun beat down on blackened fields, the sky overhead a hard, bright blue. A few trees still raised
black, angular branches in stark silhouette. Most had fallen and lay charred in the ashes. A small boy
searched through the ruins of a cottage, his sooty face streaked with tears. As the carriage swayed along
the road, he raised his face in hope, only to wail thinly in disappointment as the vehicle kept on its way.
Maya sat back on the cushioned seat, biting her lip. She remembered these fields as lush and green with
clover and barley, with thick copses of trees on the hills and pretty cottages surrounded by flowers in the
valleys. She and Jaspar had often driven through these gentle hills to stay with the MacThanach at his
country estate. She was shocked by the devastation. On an impulse she put her head out the window and
gruffly commanded one of her outriders to turn back and give the little boy one of her gold coins. He
took the coin, saluted her and spurred his horse around, and she sat back against her cushions again,
wondering at her moment of weakness.
