The Wraith of a Snowy Sea Part 8

 “You ready?” Twiggy asked Zendaya in the dark sitting over the hut where the witch of the swamps lived. She checked her pistols seeing the iron ball inside with the magical runes carved in them.

                “She has to be gone by now,” Zendaya said. “She couldn’t be foolish enough to stay around.”

                “You said that already,” Twiggy said watching the house.

                “It just seems like a waste of time,” she said.

                “We need to find a clue to where she went,” Twiggy told her like Spencer had before.

                She sighed seeing Spencer stepped on to the dock from almost nowhere. If the witch had traps set up the Captain, he seems to get by them with far too much ease. She wondered if before he was playing with her trying to keep his real power hidden like he did in Wellstone. It was a smart move and would always keep his foe guessing when trying to kill him. She couldn’t help but asked herself what he was hiding from her?

                Zendaya glanced around the black swamps trying to find Elizabeth, but she was too well hidden for her to be picked out of the night. She was a well-trained Marks-squirrel, and her skill with a rifle had even reached the ears of Zendaya on her father’s ship. She felt safer with Elizabeth out there hiding in the night able to reach out and hit anyone before they knew what happen.

                “Be ready,” Twiggy said as Spencer slowly approached the door to the hut.

                “Can’t believe he just walked right up to the door,” Zendaya whispered.

                “He had done dumber plans before,” Twiggy said with a grin at her, and she rolled her eyes.

                She waited for something to go horribly wrong pulling the hammer on her gun. She studies the old hut sitting on the even older dock watching the black water still under it. She was sure something was going to come out of the pitch-black water, but nothing happens.

                Spencer stepped out of the hut waving for them all to join him. They all dropped on the dock using the trees as a path to the house. They had set this up long before Spencer had made it to the door.

                Zendaya lifted herself up and asked, “Nothing? Like I said.”

                Spencer turns on his heels stepping back into the hut. They followed him into the house to find the witch dead in her chair.

                “Wouldn’t say there nothing,” Spencer said.

                The witch had been shot by someone at close ranges. Zendaya's heart dropped to her feet knowing this was her only hope to find her father killed. The one squirrel who might have some answers was dead. She started to weep for the first time over her father and where her life had ended up now. She fell to the floor balling up and yelling, “Why? Why did he have to die? Why is these happening?”

                Spencer sat down beside her petting her head as she tossed herself into his chest. “We will find this killer,” he said, “I give you my word, and until then you will stay with us.” Spencer helped her back to his rowboat while Twiggy looted the hut for anything they could use and trying to find clues. Once, they were done Elizabeth set the hut to flame heading back to the Crimson Edge.