The cursed towers 256
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could feel her mother and Bronwen were at the Tower's height and so she kept running up the stairs, not
bothering to search each floor. She saw Maya searching desperately through the corridors of the third
floor and called to her to follow.
Isabeau reached the chamber at the top of the Tower and staggered through the doorway, black dots
obscuring her vision. She saw that Ishbel had flown up to the tall, stained-glass windows that lined the
walls and was struggling to escape through one mullioned pane. Hampered by the wailing baby, she had
not been fast enough to escape the Mesmerd, who hovered just behind her, its claws grasping her skirt.
Ishbel was trying to kick the Mesmerd in the face but it evaded her easily, its translucent wings whirring.
It sensed Isabeau's arrival and leant forward, bending its head over Ishbel and breathing directly onto her
face. She faltered, and her hold on the struggling baby weakened. With a cry, Bronwen fell.
The Mesmerd swooped and caught her in its claws. Isabeau dared not try and shoot it down with her
witch's fire, in fear of hurting the little girl. She could only watch helplessly as the Mesmerd darted away
like a giant dragonfly, Bronwen kicking and struggling in its grasp. This image suddenly gave her an idea.
She shut her eyes and concentrated on the heavy loops of filthy cobwebs strung across the high, domed
ceiling. She felt a keen pleasure as the cobwebs dropped like a sticky, dirty net over the Mesmerd,
entangling its wings so it could not fly.
With a strange hoarse sound it fell and Isabeau's fists flew to her mouth in dismay. Ishbel somersaulted
down from the window ledge where she had been clinging and caught handfuls of the web, managing to
slow its precipitous descent enough to stop the Mesmerd from slamming into the floor. It fell hard,
nonetheless, and Isabeau dragged away the sticky mess from it with frantic hands.
Luckily the little girl had been cushioned by its hard, segmented body and although she clung to Isabeau
with both hands, sobbing, she seemed unhurt. Isabeau soothed her, watching apprehensively as the
Mesmerd struggled to rise. She knew she should blast it to powder while it lay helpless at her feet, but
she could not bring herself to destroy it so heartlessly.
Then Maya came up beside her, looking at the creature curiously. She bent over it and said coolly, "Do
ye understand me?"
It gazed back expressionlessly. She said, "If we release ye from your bonds, will ye promise no' to try to
take my daughter again? We wish ye to take that loathsome toad back to your mistress and give her this
message from me. Tell her that stepping on a thistle may sting your foot, but stepping on a sea urchin will
cause ye to die in agony. Can ye tell her that?"
Slowly it bowed its head, just once. Maya nodded to Isabeau, but the young witch refused to relinquish
her hold on Bronwen to do the Fairge's bidding. Maya was forced, very reluctantly, to strip the filthy
cobwebs from the Mesmerd's body herself.
"Ye will find the toad downstairs," Maya said, fastidiously wiping her hands on her skirt. "Go now, else
this witch will blast ye to dust as she blasted your kin. Understand?"
It stared back at her with glittering eyes and flew with some difficulty out the door and down the spiral
staircase. Maya turned to Isabeau and held out her hands. "Give me my daughter."
Isabeau cuddled Bronwen closer. "Ye canna have her!" she cried.
At that moment Ishbel started forward, crying, "It is ye! Foul witch! Ye're the one that ensorcelled my
beloved."
She flew at Maya, nails raking. The Fairge stepped back, raising her hands high as if to cast a spell of
