The Grand High Witch-A sample of a short story in Progress by Lorraine Poulter

The Grand High Witch

     They watched. Their minds a whirl. No one had expectd the outburst from Jado and his storming from the room.  All five looked to each other in disbelief and shock. Jado was gone. He had lead them for the past eighteen months. His leadership was erratic but he was fair and wise in all the dark knowledge he passed onto them. Which after all was their reason for being there. This was the coven of Jado. A new type of coven in which warlocks and witched combined to greet their Master on a weekly basis.

        They were all taken by surprise at his words on leaving. All except one. The Grand High Witch. She gazed over them with half closed eyes as black as night with the satisfaction tha all her hard work for the past months was about to pay off: that her carefully orchestrated and surreptitiously connivings had led to her dream coming true. The smile that lurked on the corner of her lips was ill hidden.

     Now what do you make of that!” she exclaimed for them all to hear the contempt she held for Jado.She would have clapped her hands for joy had she not known that it would be most unseemly. After all the demise or sudden overthrow from power was not a moment of sorrow for her but one of celebration and joy. She just had to be sure they felt the same. “That came from absolutely nowhere!” she said seeking to rally the coven and force from them their support while they were feeling vulnerable.

       “I am shocked,” agreed Marlo, an elderly Warlock who had retired from the violence of mainframe Warlocking to seek a more sedate life in his old age. “I am most surprised,”

      “Me too,” the quiet voice of Midliss spoke. She was a timid witch. Her timidity though hid her ruthless ambition. Initially she had been sent to the coven by an overbearing aunt who felt it would “bring her out of herself”. Midliss did not need bringing out of herself. She was a secretive, sly witch, craven in her lust for power, who listened. She soon realized the power of the coven laid not with Jado but indeed with the Grand High Witch. She secretly swapped her allegiance to the Grand High Witch and her life changed forever. There was nothing she would not do for the Grand High Witch. Indeed if only the Grand High Witch knew how much she was involved in ridding Jado from the group.

        Midliss watched the Grand High Witch adoringly. One day, she thought longingly. One day she would have favour of the Grand High Witch.

       “Goes to show how unstable he is. Unpredictable outbursts like that. You’d need to watch yourself. I’m glad he didn’t draw his wand. That could have been messy,” The Grand High Witch said. What she meant to say was that she would have used the death spell on him if he not left that evening. He had worn her patience thin with his reluctance to leave. With each effort he made to put right things set by his invisible enemy, the bigger the hole he was burying himself in. Such a delight to watch, the Grand High Witch thught, if painfully slow. Still it gave her time to seal off all routes back into the group at a later date. Now that chance would never be available to him. All she had to do was convince the others they were better off without him.

       The other two witches who were seated next to the now absent Jado silently rose from their seats and departed.
The Grand High Witch©️Lorraine Poulter 2016