Figures in the dark

A figure in a dark cloak to blend in with the darkness, glided gracefully in the dark to meet another less graceful, clad in a similar fashion.

"The old man is unto something," the smaller figure, ever so slightly stooped began.

"Does he know anything that we ought to think him a threat?"

"Not really, he knows she has been switched." There was a moment's silence in which both parties seemed to be in deep thought.

"You should 'ave finished her off when she came to you and yet you choose not to. I begin to wonder why."

"I did send her to the wolves if you must know. How she survived it I am not sure."

"You should 'ave simply killed her. She was that exposed. Without a guard, a maid, nothing. No one knew where she was."

"I couldn't hunt down a flightless bird if I wanted to now." the smaller figure shrugged. "She is still a spirit child regardless of the fact that she is now a Switch. Harm her in anyway and the old man knows. If it were so easy to kill her, we should be in warm beds."

Keritha was too engrossed in thought to be bothered by the hint of sarcasm, or she chose to ignore it altogether.

"What do you suggest is to be done now?"

"For one thing, you can let her waste away, slowly like all switches do. It never lasts more than a season. We shall count on their fear of having her discovered to not make noise about it. "

"That is too long a time for my patience."

"I thought as much. Any other person would have followed the instructions to the latter, but you found it too long for your weaning patience."

"I like to think it is your sorcery that has aged beyond potency." A smirk crossed the others face in the darkness.

"Perhaps you would like to see what aged sorcery can do?" She fixed Keritha with a stare intended to scare in the least.

"You don't speak to me like that. I can 'ave your 'ead by the light of dawn if it pleases me."

"I mean no disrespect. I was only pointing out the fact that you have complicated things more than when she was not switched."

"You did your part, I did mine. If anything did not go as planned, its because you are old and not strong enough to contribute much in strengthening the deed."

The sorceress tried hard not to show resentment. They fell silent, the intermittent high pitched cry of wild crickets filling the air.

"I have for long thought why.. " The smaller figure said, her pensive look lost on the other in the darkness, too engrossed in asserting her right to note the tone.

"I told you everything was done as you said," she said. There was silence.

"Perhaps it is that she is not a normal child."

The smaller figure said, speaking her thoughts into words. Then hit by an idea she said,

"You could make it known that she is a Switch. Even the king cannot save her."

"You are dumber than you look even. You said she has no marking. There will be need to send for a sniffer. I can't risk it being traced to me. How do I explain knowing what she is?"

"I asked her to bring the boy home."

"How has that anything to do with what we are talking about?"

Obviously, she had the inclination that the old sorceress was a little batty.

"Here she is sheltered. Out there, she is like any other, an easy target."

"How do you know she would risk it?"

"I think she will go to look for the boy. If she does, she meets what meets her."

"If she doesn't?"

"She will. I know she will."

"That only solves a smidgeon of the problem. It is my stepdaughter I want dead not some random girl. How do I know killing this one does not bring back her real soul to its body."

"Don't you see how that helps with the problem. Here we are, not sure where she is. Or do you know where she is?"

"I am still looking. I had hoped that she would share the body of my maid, but as it is, the girl is still as she is. And to think I still have not detected her presence. If it were possible that I switched her out of existence, it would be exhilarating. I know she is out there somewhere, only I am not sure where."

Merely speaking of the princess agitated Keritha, and as she stood in the darkness thinking of where she could possibly be, she feared her stepdaughter might be somewhere safe, and out of her grasp. It had never crossed her mind that this was a possibility.

At the moment, they had run out of speculation on where the Princess would be and she was beginning to doubt the capabilities of the sorceress, old as she was; she had once been famed. Keritha looked at her with some loathing for their present predicament. The more she gave it a thought, the more it occurred to her she was not to be trusted. The ease with which she made a decision to send the Switch away without consulting her was a red flag. The figures spoke some more in hushed tones and departed each in the opposite direction.