Chapter 44: The Fateful Threshold

MALADIA'S POV

The witch had set up a little hiding place for herself a suitable distance up the mountain. She forced some weasels who owed her a favor to extend a natural pocket of volcanic soil. Then, she dragged some deceptively light slabs of stone to make a sort of roof for her hidden spot.

The pocket was about twice the size of a broom closet. Not the most comfortable accommodations in the world, but a jug of moonshine made them considerably more tolerable.

Maladia huddled in her little cave for days, chugging liquor and peering down the mountain through a spyglass she had tricked a sailor's child into trading for magic beans.

Her current batch of moonshine was, in fact, distilled from currents. She had bought the stuff in the same coastal town where she had traded for the spyglass.

A nice place. Sunny, but cool. A place Maladia wanted to visit again for a luxurious vacation once she had taken care of Durri Del.