Hijinks! Flying Carriages and Such!

The Five-Minute Witchy War, Part 6

My apologies for the delay—I’m working on a manuscript.

Okay, we’ve covered the first twenty chapters of WITCHY EYE by D.J. Butler. The monk Thalanes has died, and the formerly evil henchman Obadiah Dogsbody has joined Sarah’s side as part of his babyface turn. Sarah has to deal with the Heron King’s marriage offer as she continues on her quest to find her lost siblings and the missing regalia of her late father.

Chapter 21

Thalanes’ sacrifice gives Sarah a boost of magic, which she uses to temporarily turn herself and her allies into birds. They fly away from the cathedral and escape the peril of Angleton, the necromancers, and the dragoons. Jacob Hop, the Dutchman who helped her, turns into a heron and flies in a different direction.

Meanwhile Angleton meets Oliver Cromwell, the main necromancer who controlled the two “Lazars” who’d been dogging Sarah for the last several days. Cromwell ensnares Angleton and then uses necromancy to reanimate Thalanes’ corpse, interrogating him as to Sarah’s next steps.

The chapter ends with Sir William telling Sarah of his connection to her father, and pledging to help her reclaim his throne.

Chapter 22

This chapter is a little bit more running around, interrogating, escaping pursuers, and crossing paths with enemies as Sarah hunts down an associate of the chevalier of New Orleans. She and her allies end up in a bit of a rock-and-a-hard-place between Angleton and the necromancers, and the chevalier’s men, who have silver weapons that thwart her magic.

Chapter 23

While trapped inside the chevalier’s palace, Sarah uses her magic to glamorize and disguise her team so they can capture the chevalier’s seneschal—equivalent to a governor and his chief assistant. They need to retrieve a letter that Bayard Prideux wrote, detailing the murder of Kyres Elytharias, Sarah’s father; the chevalier has it in his possession and the contents are important.

Her magical disguises falter in the presence of silver weapons, and several factions converge for a fight in the middle of a major social event (a ball). If things weren’t tense and complicated enough, Don Sandoval appears—the man who hired Sir William to kill the chevalier’s son in a duel.

In short, everybody is mad, armed, and hates each other. Fit’s about to hit the shan.

Chapter 24

We get a death-defying escape in flying carriages that clear entire rivers using magic from ley lines. Guns fire, swords cross, lives are spent, and heroes get away, though their next move is highly uncertain, and the events of the last few days have cost them a few allies. Obadiah Dogsbody dies securing Sarah’s escape, and now she has to figure out what her next move is.

Chapter 25

Exhausted from the night’s heroics, Sarah crashes them in a field north of New Orleans. They bury Obadiah Dogsbody and remember him as a hero. Lady Cathy translates the letter from Bayard Prideux, who wrote it in French: it implicates Thomas Penn in the murder of Sarah’s father, and also has a cryptic clue as to the location of the regalia. Team Sarah saddles up and rides to the Ohio to find her royal gadgets. During the voyage, Sarah constructs a magical decoy to throw her pursuers off her trail.

Oliver Cromwell explains to Ezekiel that he plans to 1) kill all Firstborn, and then 2) use their magical energy to end death for everybody else. Sarah has the potential to offer resistance, especially if she secures the Cahokian throne, so Cromwell charges Ezekiel Angleton with catching her before she rallies the rabble.

Back in New Orleans, Etienne Ukwu performs a voodoo-esque funeral right for his father, the now-late bishop, swearing vengeance on his murderers.

Conclusion

This leg of the book is simultaneously packed with action and also a bit of a grind to get through; a few majorly big things happen while also treating us to things we’ve spent the last ten chapters doing. We’re running. We’re hiding. We’re facing off. We’re fighting. We finally break free and run north, now we’re tired. We lose friends, gain friends, lose them too, find clues, get information, and stampede onward to the conclusion of it all. Even though I like this book, I admit it could move just a little bit faster. Nevertheless, cool things are happening. Bring on the next leg!