Surely, this must be the spot where Mad Maedie lairs, Daelith thought, throwing herself down beside the turgid water. Old and winding, the River Tael had many cutoffs and oxbows turned halfway to swamp or mire. She'd already tried every overgrown backwater from Temaene to Delaerue, but none had been nearly so loathsome as this.
"Oh, why have the gods cursed me with such useless beauty?" she wailed and began to weep, hoping she sounded properly insipid and self-pitying. Her tears were real enough, though born of anger and grief rather than despair. Taeran, her promised husband and dearest friend in the world, lay two weeks in his grave, the seventh victim of Mad Maedie's spite in as many years. Even with the help of her aunt, the wisewoman Genae, Daelith's hunt for the witch had been frustrated at every turn.
As if in answer to her cry, the hot summer air grew suddenly very still. Nothing could be heard save for the low, ominous drone of insects; a sense of pressure and stifling heat seemed to envelop the place. The droning grew louder as the water began to swirl into a small eddy. In moments, the disturbance grew into a whirlpool of amazing proportions. Mouth falling open in astonishment, Daelith sat up to stare at the apparition which arose from the center of the whirlpool.
"Who dares to wake me!" the hag croaked as she stepped to the shore, glaring balefully about her.
Mad Maedie was the ugliest woman Daelith had ever seen. Her visage might have been shaped by the cruelty and spite that permeated her being--snaggle-toothed and pasty, she had a carbuncle the size of a prune on her nose. Her unsavory appearance was made even less appealing by the river-weed tangled locks that hung over her baggy breasts and stomach, not quite covering the splotchy flesh beneath.
"I ... I," Daelith stammered, revolted by the woman's appearance. Not a little afraid, now that she actually faced the witch, she scrambled to her feet. Though Daelith had steeled herself for this meeting, she was unprepared for the reality of such malice.
)
"When all else fails, read the directions." But if you want to avoid failure, read the directions FIRST.
