Dead Rainbow

Eldest Witch

Redwing dunked gallon buckets into the pristine woodland stream for the tenth and last time of the morning. The spring sunlight filtered through the trees and sparkled off the water. The tall boy had grown over the last winter. Pollen floated in the warm air and the western woods pulsed with renewed life. 

He talked to his pet as he walked the last half mile of his morning chore carrying the two heavy pales.

"I hope you had your fill with those baby rabbits, Lazar. You must stay out of Deirdra's chickens. If you eat one more she says she'll kill you or do something worse." 

The shaggy brindle haired wolf tilted its pointy-eared head and looked at him with one dark brown eye and one bright blue. She let out a huffing dog sound.

"You're a lot bigger than you were when I found you." 

The wolf barked at him.

"I know it was hard with no mother's milk all winter. I guess we both know what it is like to lose our mothers."

Lazar sneezed in that odd way only a canine can. 

"The pollen is bugging me too." He wiped his runny nose on his sleeve.

They followed the well-worn path back. The cave stood out as a dwelling, what with its old wooden door and the tin chimney sticking out the side of the hill. Smoke perpetually rose from the witch's mound. 

Cairn rock stacks marked the way and the twisted voodoo stick figures made out of dead woven branches discouraged visitors. Outside the door was a small chicken coop that was wheeled in at night and several opened clay pots filled with foul-smelling potions drying in the morning sun. 

Redwing kicked open the door and Lazar ran into the darkened hovel. 

"Out of the way dog," said the hag, "Redwing, come, come quickly." She was in a state that morning. "Quick, pour the water." 

The old witch's wild curly gray hair stuck out in all directions. She wore a long flowing felt robe and bells around her wrists and ankles. She tinkled when she moved about. Both her eyes were lost in a ritual performed long ago and though she spent much of her life blind, Melock did her a favor and provided her with a marvelous yellow eye the worked far better than anything human. Its triple pupils spun and changed shape when she thought or spoke, often forming a perfect equilateral triangle. In return, Melock would ask her for a favor one day. 

The payback brought her great joy in the form of Redwing. 

In the dimly lit kitchen, where she spent all her time, Deirdra's eye glowed with excitement. Redwing dumped one bucket into the great cauldron that always simmered, day and night. The near-boiling sludge cooled with the fresh stream water and the surface took on a mirrored reflection. 

"Yes, Yes! Look, my boy, look deep into the now."  Her arms jingled as she pushed back her sleeves. 

Her forearms were covered in self pricked tattoos. In truth, she had constellations like a connect the dots drawing inked all over her body; relics from when her sisters were still alive. She was the last, living out her days in dread of her own demise. 

"I knew it, I knew it-t-t-t," hissed the woman with an unnerving joy. "Today is the day. Finally, my time has come. I'm ready. Bring it to me, baby!" 

She clasped her hands and danced about the room in a whirl of hair and jingles. 

"In the four years I've been with you, you've told me this at least a dozen times." Redwing poured the last bucket into the home water barrel and shooed Lazar into her corner. 

"Yes, true, but today I mean it."

"You say that every time." 

"I'll prove it. I want you to pack your things. Everything. Don't leave a trace that you were here. And take that smelly dog too. Camp in the woods tonight at least a mile away. Your father will find you in the morning."

"Ok, I admit this is a new twist and it is a fine season for camping. Must I take everything?" 

"Yes, yes, everything. Not a trace may be left behind or death will follow you."

"You're serious?" 

"Yes! I've foreseen it all. They're almost upon me. By dusk, I will be dead and join my sisters. Finally!" 

She undid her robe and reached for the small pouch she wore between her large sagging breasts. Redwing averted his eyes. She intentionally covered herself slowly.

 "Oh, now that you're approaching manhood, you shy from your beloved granny?"

"Deirdra." Redwing could give her a look and she could read every thought in his mind. 

"You'll always be the boy who danced naked in the rain with me. My prize student. You're like my son. I leave you all my knowledge." 

She stood up straight, a rare thing for the hunched gal, opened the pouch, and dumped out the six grey crystals it held. 

"These are for you, my dear boy." She reached out her jingly hand to him.

"The fate stones. You would offer me the eyes of the fates? Now you have me scared. How is death coming?"

"Oh, suddenly you believe me. When my prized possession is on the line. All this time living in poverty and I've still failed to cure you of greed."

Redwing smirked in response.

"Death will come as she always does, like a thief in the night." Deirdra smiled with an almost insane lustful joy as she grabbed Redwing's hand and dumped the crystals into it. 

"I can't take them from you," he said.

"Then give them to your father. He'll be thrilled to have them. They can't stay here or death will claim them too."

Redwing looked at the six gray crystals in his hand, then he rolled them on the little table Deirdra kept next to her cauldron. They changed color to a series of browns, whites, and blacks. Deirdra gasped. 

"Don't you come back here tonight, my dear. Or you'll lose that wolf of yours." 

The colors of the crystals matched Lazar's brindled coat exactly. Redwing narrowed his eyes at the result. 

"You roll them," he suggested. 

Dierdra scooped them up and shook them around, blew on them for luck, and sprinkled them with a jingle onto the wooden table. They took on the six primary and secondary colors of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Dierdra clapped with joy. Then one turned black and one turned white and the rest completed a scale of grays between the full spectrum and the absence of color. 

Redwing's face took on a grave look. 

"You've seen the dead rainbow before?" asked Deirdra. 

"When my mother died." Redwing winced. 

The old witch moved in close and hugged the boy who now believed her prognostication without a doubt. 

"I know it may seem to be the worst of signs but for me, it's a welcoming." 

She scooped up the crystals again, dumped them back in their pouch, and put its loop around his neck.