Sacred Mountain

Chapter 3: Isolda

'She was killed by . . . by her own curse?' Daisy tried to keep the tremor out of her voice.

'Would that she had been killed by the curse!' Cressida swallowed. 'She didn't die. She changed.'

Wide-eyed, Daisy stared into the crystal and saw Isolda lying unconscious in the rose bed. As she watched, Isolda's skin began to change. It started at the neck: green scales sprouted like lichen on a tree, growing all over her face. When they reached her hairline, her long brown hair fell to the ground and the scales spread over her bald head. Soon her hands were also covered and her fingernails grew into long yellow talons which curved like scythes.

Hooked yellow talons sliced their way through the toes of her leather boots. Her front teeth enlarged and sharpened into fangs which forced her scaled lips open. Behind her closed eyelids, her eyes bulged to twice their normal size. Worst of all, her scalp started undulating wildly like the surface of water just about to boil. Huge blisters sprung up all over her head. They swelled, stretching the skin, till all of a sudden they burst and dozens of green snakes grew out of her head, their fangs bared, forked tongues tasting the air, their slitted eyes staring hypnotically as their hissing got louder. They grew as far as Isolda's shoulders before they seemed to fall unconscious.

Daisy gasped. Her hands flew to her mouth.

'A gorgon!' she whispered through her fingers.

'A gorgon.' Cressida echoed. 'The very worst of monsters. Just looking into her eyes is enough to kill any mortal creature stone dead and a bite from her poisonous fangs can slay even immortals like the dragons.'

Fear gripped Daisy's heart as she stared dumbstruck at the unconscious monster in the crystal.

'What happened to her? You didn't . . . kill her?'

'Our Wise Woman code forbids killing and besides,' she looked down, her eyebrows pulled together. There was deep pain in her eyes, a wound that could never be healed. 'She was my sister.'

'So where is she now?'

'At first, I tried to keep her locked in a room in my cottage. I put up mirrors so I wouldn't have to look at her and cast spells all around me to protect me when I brought her food. Each time I went in she would try to attack me. She'd come at me, screaming like a banshee, fangs bared, talons flailing but the spell kept her from reaching me.' Cressida sighed. 'I didn't realise it at the time but she was getting stronger with each visit; she was feeding off the magical barricade I was putting up, replenishing her energy and draining me. I was getting weaker and weaker.

'Then one day . . .' She turned her face to the crystal and Daisy saw a younger Cressida standing in front of a heavy oak door. Her eyes were closed and she was muttering a spell under her breath, hands clasped in front of her chest. There were dark circles under her eyes and her shoulders were stooped. At her feet a grey rabbit in a small wooden cage hopped agitatedly. Cressida took a deep breath, pulled the many bolts that secured the door aside, picked up the cage and walked in.

There was an earsplitting scream as the gorgon launched herself at Cressida but an invisible barrier halted her, an arm's length away. As Cressida put the cage on the floor and reached down to open it, the gorgon lowered her head and took a step back. Her emerald eyes burned, she fixed them on the back of her sister's neck and with a blood-curdling cry she relaunched her attack. This time she broke through the barrier and fell on her sister, snakes hissing furiously. She sank her talons into Cressida's shoulder, blood blossomed on the white material of her dress. The Burned One's head shot up, her face distorted with terror. The gorgon opened her mouth, ready to plunge her teeth into flesh. Cressida screamed as she felt the first tooth graze her neck.