8.3 The Shetland Witch, or, Atropos Wants Her Shears Back

Witches walking in the dark.

Maggie and Hazel walked across the bridge in the dark, and then up the field to the field gate. They could hear water crashing onto the rocks at the headland. The wind was picking up. A light glinted at them from the south, a boat coming late into Baltasound, Hazel thought. Behind them traces of the sunset glowed like a peach.

Bergen was due east, and the Faroes were way over to the north west. Ahead of them to the north there was no land until Svalbard and Spitzbergen. Hazel thought that these islands must truly have been the ends of the earth for anyone coming from the south. They couldn’t possibly have imagined anything further north than this, especially in a bad storm. And if a boat had sailed all the way up to Muckle Flugga, at the top of Unst where the birds nested at Hermanness, it would turn around pretty quickly and go south fast. A more inhospitable slab of rock she had never seen.

Svalbard. She rolled the name around her mouth. Spitzbergen.

‘Maggie,’ she said suddenly to the tall figure walking beside her on the army track, ‘Where do the Shetland witches come from?’

Maggie looked at her sideways. ‘Well,’ she said cheerfully, ‘When a mummy witch loves a daddy witch very much –’

‘Oh shut up. Why are our powers the way they are?’

Maggie thought about this. ‘We don’t do much spellwork. We don’t do rituals, or use broomsticks. We do sympathetic magic, using what we find to do the work that needs doing. Definitely na robes or pointy black hats. We have power, but we’re not magical in ourselves. Not like Atropos. She’s something else.’ Hazel could hear Maggie smiling. ‘She might put some noses out of joint. She’s the most magical person we’ve had here in centuries. She knows goddesses exist because she’s lived with them. You can’t argue with that.’

Hazel thought that Maggie had not really answered her question.

They had been climbing and had now reached the excavation. The mound at the far end looked even more like an Easter egg, hunkered down in silhouette, waiting to be unwrapped.

‘What was up with Atropos back there, do you think?’ Hazel asked, checking the stones that weighted the tarpaulin down.

‘Well,’ Maggie said ruminatively, ‘if I’d been flung ten thousand years into the future and was grappling with the language, the temperature, and a bullying father god who I kent was seriously angry, I’d be upset too. Not to mention being fuddled by learning about weird things like forks and taps. I’m surprised it took her this long to crack. Once we get these things out from under the stone I’m sure she’ll be fine. That’s what’s really bothering her.’

‘Unfinished business,’ Hazel said. ‘The things are really preying on her mind. If she can get them somewhere safe, then she’ll be able to relax a bit. Settle into deciding what she wants to do next. But right now, I don’t think she can focus on anything except getting those things into safety.’

In the silence they heard Ishabel close the gate. The sheep were interested in whether she had brought any food for them but she was shooing them away.

‘This might be the wrong time to mention it, but,’ Hazel was embarrassed, ‘Do you think she’s good? On our side? Are we sure she’s not going to do bad things with these things we’re helping her get back?’

Maggie considered, turning her face away from the cold breeze. ‘I don’t think we can know till we do it. She’s not done or said anything that makes me think she’s aggressively dangerous, or malicious.’

‘She’s a force of nature,’ Hazel said, ‘and there’s no controlling that.’

‘No. So, what is under there? Apart from the things that Atropos wants?’ Maggie asked.

Hazel rubbed the back of her neck, which had begun to ache, like fingers poking at her. ‘I don’t know. We haven’t got the instrumentation to look through stone. I’m a bit worried about what will happen when we do take the things out. This is totally unknown territory for me. Have you ever done anything like this before?’

‘Nope.’ Maggie said with a sprightly cheeriness. ‘None of us have. I don’t know of any other elemental artefacts deposited in Shetland.’

Ishabel walked up the slope to join them. Atropos was a tall and silent shadow behind her.

‘Archaeologically speaking, Hazel, should we disturb anything?’

‘No! Of course not,’ Hazel said, ‘We should disturb as little as possible, and make the removal as undetectable as possible.’

‘Atropos,’ Ishabel asked formally, ‘What do you wish to take?’

Atropos sent the images straight to their minds’ eyes, pictures of long, shining black blades with handles of silver and ivory. They were held in her own hands, then they were wrapped in a sparkling green cloth, then resting on a stone floor. They were cutting intangible threads of mist and air. Finally she sent them a vision they had already seen, of the blades in much larger hands, held in a powerful grip.

‘I see,’ said Maggie.

‘Were there not other things with the shears? Do you want to take them too?’ Hazel asked.

Atropos took some time to answer. Hazel wondered if she was crying again.

‘No. The spindle is not mine. We must leave it.’

‘But, won’t, you know, won’t he take it if he can get it?’

‘It’s been broken. He cannot use it.’

‘Well, OK. If you’re sure. I suppose we do need to leave something for my team to excavate.’ Hazel was uncertain. ‘This is an intact site, no-one’s opened it for centuries. We can’t leave any trace of intrusion or robbing.’

‘This is where science and witchcraft occupy the same path but they don’t get in each other’s way,’ Ishabel said. ‘We’ll do it by feel.’

Hazel could hear her smiling.

They stood around the mound, with Atropos at the seaward end, and Ishabel standing at the space in the curving walls with the stone clamped down on top before her. They stood in the dark, and nothing happened.

Episode 8.4 will follow.

The Shetland Witch © Kate Macdonald 2024.

Please get in touch if you want to reproduce any part of this or any other published episode.

The Shetland Witch is a reader-supported publication. As well as taking out a free subscription for the novel, you can subscribe to the paid tier for In Achaea and Mrs Sinclair and the Haa, the two worldbuilding novellas that unpack and develop some aspects of the story and characters.