Susana - Sins of the Mothers

Three more days of travel through the barren desert brought the pair to a strip of grassy woodland at the base of Dragon Mountain. They left their horses with a hungry looking farm couple at the base of the mountain. They seemed eager to accept the offered gold Wendells in exchange for a few days' board for the tired animals. Remembering the lack of fuel at the top, they collected twigs and sticks as they climbed the steep grade. Long after dark, they reached the tiny indentation, generously dubbed a cave.

Wolf spread their blankets out for the night while Virginia went to the entrance to gather the wood from the pile they had gathered. As she reached down for the twigs, something shiny in the rock wall caught her eye. Imbedded in the granite was a medallion so shiny it looked as though it had been minted that day. Intrigued, she leaned over to touch it.

Instantly a shot of electricity thrilled through her body, blinding her for a moment. When her vision returned, she was in a huge cave, very narrow, with a ceiling so high she couldn't make it out. The walls of the cave seemed to be made of black ice. The only light came from the wall below a dais twenty feet ahead of her. A large, throne- like chair rested on the dais, and in that chair, with its back to her, sat a tall, dark shape, shrouded in black.

The figure arose from the chair and turned to face Virginia. The black cloak slid to the floor as it rose, revealing a tall, striking woman. She wore a skin-tight, floor-length gown of brown leather, slit from ankle to thigh. Her bare, tanned arms were covered with bracelets which seemed to made of polished bone. Her black hair was a mane which fell to her waist, a dark frame for a cold, but beautiful face. Dominating that face were the cruelest, most reptilian, green eyes Virginia had ever seen. She tried to speak to the woman but found she could not. Try as she might, Virginia could not help feeling like a mouse looking up into the eyes of a python.

The woman towered over her, a condescending smile on her scarlet lips. "So you are the mighty Virginia? You don't look like much to me. They actually credit you with saving the Nine Kingdoms? You aren't capable of saving a mouse, much less a kingdom or your child or yourself."

She turned to a large flat boulder to her right, snapped her finger, and it projected a large, movie-like projection of Victoria playing in her nursery and singing to herself. Virginia studied the angle of the picture then gasped "Of course! The mirror! You have been watching her all the time through the mirror."

"Oh give me more credit than that," she hissed. "I do far more with my mirror than just watch. I listen, I speak, I teach, I command, I give special gifts, I travel and I take." She smiled, showing her long pointed teeth. "Your daughter has given me her will. I am greedy however, and now her will is no longer enough. I want her life. Her life is required and I will have it." She said the last remark casually, in the same tone she would discuss a sale on her favorite shoes.

"She's a child," Virginia stammered. "She is not capable of giving her will away. She doesn't even know what that means. Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Virginia demanded.

The woman smirked. "Because it amuses me, I shall answer your questions. My name is Andromeda, Andromeda of the Rampion Family. You probably know of the story of how my grandmother won Lady Rapunzel from her mother in return for her fine garden greens. We are, in our true form, wolves. You might call us the black sheep of the wolf clans. You also might call me your worst nightmare. You would be right."

The lanky woman strode toward Virginia stealthily. She smiled evilly as she paced. "The other wolf clans were happy little wolfies being burnt and badgered by the good village folk. They whined and groveled, trying to appease the humans, talking about tolerance and good faith. They seemed blind to the fact that the humans were destroying our forests and driving away our game. Of course we went for their sheep and chickens. Were we supposed to starve? Of course wolves took the blame for all their misfortunes. They blamed every tragedy from a child down a well to droughts on the wolves. The wonderful people used any excuse to take our land, our dignity, and our lives."

She continued pacing the floor in front of Virginia, then turned toward her sharpy and sneered, "You humans are such a flat, cowardly, unimaginative lot. My ancestors saw the folly of trying to deal with your kind. We decided to drive the human vermin from our lands. Humans are a delicious prey. Somewhat fatty though; you don't even give good chase.

"My clan stuck to itself, separate from the human-loving packs long ago." The she-wolf stood in front of Virginia, glaring, then continued, "Of course when the time came for me to choose a mate I had to leave my family group and mix with the other clans, and that's when I met him." She closed her eyes, licked her lips, and moaned aloud, "Mmm... Wolf, he was so yummy... so young...so savage... they told me he was half human but he was all wolf to me...". Virginia blinked at the nearly pornographic expression of ecstasy directed at her husband.

Her eyes snapped open. "He should have been my mate for life," she growled. "But before I could get him out of that idiotic prison, he found you - his simpering little 'boo-hoo my Mommy doesn't love me' Virginia. What a slap in the snout that was - to be thrown over for a piece of troll dung like you. When I returned home I was the laughing-stock of the pack. My father was furious that I had chosen a wolfie. He ordered me to pick a 'real wolf' or he would pick one for me. Wolf was the only mate I could ever live with. I defied my father and he banished me from the pack. I am doomed to live and die alone. Do you have any idea what that is like for a wolf? It is a living death. In my despair I developed a new plan. Many solitary nights went into this great idea. I would punish Wolf the same way he had punished me," Andromeda continued, staring into the darkness of the cave, her voice strangely flat, "I studied the dark arts. I learned to read the secrets of the soul. In his soul all I found was his absurd passion for you and your spawn. So, I thought, Let him have everything his heart desires then take it away - better yet - force him to send it away. Make him the instrument of his own destruction. Clever, aren't I?" she snickered.

Virginia took a deep breath and measured her words. The wolf-woman was clearly insane, and incredibly evil. But she was also very powerful and clever. And vain. "So you want to kill a little girl because Wolf rejected you years ago? Don't you find that a little sad, even pathetic?" Virginia prodded, playing to the she-wolf's vanity as her trump card.

Andromeda all but ignored the petite woman's words. She would not be played that easily. "When the boy was born I was going to take him, but he is is strong, like his father. He will prove very amusing to me in the years to come. Now the girl-child, she is like you - weak and simpering. To remind me of her weakness I kept her small in size - like a mouse I could toy with at will. I have given Wolf the choice. You or the child. He can not condemn his mate. That would go against his wolf nature. To to choose his child will drive him mad. And there you have your happy family: insane father, despairing mother, angry son, and dead daughter. Sounds jolly, doesn't it?"

Virginia's control snapped. "You evil bitch, you leave my family alone!" she screamed as she lunged for the wolf's throat.

Andromeda leaped aside, shook her finger, and sneered, "Tut tut, game's over." With a flash of light Virginia was back at the cave mouth, a bundle of sticks in her hands, and a heaviness in her heart.