'She was killed by . . . by her own curse?' Daisy tried to keep the tremor out of her voice.

'Would that she had been killed by the curse!' Cressida swallowed. 'She didn't die. She changed.'

Wide-eyed, Daisy stared into the crystal and saw Isolda lying unconscious in the rose bed. As she watched, Isolda's skin began to change. It started at the neck: green scales sprouted like lichen on a tree, growing all over her face. When they reached her hairline, her long brown hair fell to the ground and the scales spread over her bald head. Soon her hands were also covered and her fingernails grew into long yellow talons which curved like scythes.

Hooked yellow talons sliced their way through the toes of her leather boots. Her front teeth enlarged and sharpened into fangs which forced her scaled lips open. Behind her closed eyelids, her eyes bulged to twice their normal size. Worst of all, her scalp started undulating wildly like the surface of water just about to boil. Huge blisters sprung up all over her head. They swelled, stretching the skin, till all of a sudden they burst and dozens of green snakes grew out of her head, their fangs bared, forked tongues tasting the air, their slitted eyes staring hypnotically as their hissing got louder. They grew as far as Isolda's shoulders before they seemed to fall unconscious.

Daisy gasped. Her hands flew to her mouth.

'A gorgon!' she whispered through her fingers.

'A gorgon.' Cressida echoed. 'The very worst of monsters. Just looking into her eyes is enough to kill any mortal creature stone dead and a bite from her poisonous fangs can slay even immortals like the dragons.'

Fear gripped Daisy's heart as she stared dumbstruck at the unconscious monster in the crystal.

'What happened to her? You didn't . . . kill her?'

'Our Wise Woman code forbids killing and besides,' she looked down, her eyebrows pulled together. There was deep pain in her eyes, a wound that could never be healed. 'She was my sister.'

'So where is she now?'

'At first, I tried to keep her locked in a room in my cottage. I put up mirrors so I wouldn't have to look at her and cast spells all around me to protect me when I brought her food. Each time I went in she would try to attack me. She'd come at me, screaming like a banshee, fangs bared, talons flailing but the spell kept her from reaching me.' Cressida sighed. 'I didn't realise it at the time but she was getting stronger with each visit; she was feeding off the magical barricade I was putting up, replenishing her energy and draining me. I was getting weaker and weaker.

'Then one day . . .' She turned her face to the crystal and Daisy saw a younger Cressida standing in front of a heavy oak door. Her eyes were closed and she was muttering a spell under her breath, hands clasped in front of her chest. There were dark circles under her eyes and her shoulders were stooped. At her feet a grey rabbit in a small wooden cage hopped agitatedly. Cressida took a deep breath, pulled the many bolts that secured the door aside, picked up the cage and walked in.

There was an earsplitting scream as the gorgon launched herself at Cressida but an invisible barrier halted her, an arm's length away. As Cressida put the cage on the floor and reached down to open it, the gorgon lowered her head and took a step back. Her emerald eyes burned, she fixed them on the back of her sister's neck and with a blood-curdling cry she relaunched her attack. This time she broke through the barrier and fell on her sister, snakes hissing furiously. She sank her talons into Cressida's shoulder, blood blossomed on the white material of her dress. The Burned One's head shot up, her face distorted with terror. The gorgon opened her mouth, ready to plunge her teeth into flesh. Cressida screamed as she felt the first tooth graze her neck.

Suddenly there was a deafening cry and a figure appeared at the door. The face was youthful, childish almost, but Daisy recognised her teacher, instantly — Gerda, Wise Woman to the court of King Kriston of Frailing.

'No!' Gerda screamed and stretched out her arms. A wave of tremendous energy rippled out from her palms, lifting the gorgon off her feet and sending her flying back across the room.

'Just one drop of poison was all she managed to infect me with but it was enough.'

The image swam and reformed, showing Cressida lying on the floor they were sitting on now, her skin deathly pale, her white dress soaked in sweat, writhing in agony as the fever shook her body. Her hollow eyes darted from side to side following the hallucinations that tormented her. Gerda and a dozen other Wise Women knelt in a circle around her chanting and the crystal glowed, pulsing with a bright white energy.

'I was like this for a week before they managed to break the fever,' she shuddered at the memory, 'but a gorgon's venom is too powerful; they couldn't cure me completely. The poison is still in my veins and one day I'll die from it.' Her tone was matter of fact as if this was something she'd got used to long ago. She took a deep breath in and sighed it out before she spoke again.

'There were two young acolytes collecting herbs in the forest nearby. When they heard all the commotion in my cottage, they came running to see what the matter was but by the time they arrived Gerda had already taken me to the temple. They knocked at the door but when no one answered they ran round the back and climbed the fence into my private garden. It was forbidden but they were worried about me.'

Her face screwed up in an expression of intense pain. 'There was no answer at the back door either so they pressed their faces up to one of the windows. Oh, if only they'd picked a different window!' Her voice caught in her throat. 'They came face to face with the gorgon. They died instantly. Both of them.' Cressida hung her head and Daisy felt the heavy weight of shame and regret as strongly as if it had been her own.

'After that we had no choice. We built an underground dungeon and locked her away so she could never hurt anyone else.'

'Where is the dungeon?' Daisy's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. She'd never seen such a thing in the Wise Women's village. Cressida leant forward onto her hands and knees and crawled over to a white-painted metal ring in the temple floor that Daisy hadn't noticed before. She pulled it and a trap door opened to reveal a set of stone steps leading downwards.

'With great power comes great responsibility, Daisy.' She laid a hand on Daisy's shoulder. 'Before you stand in the stone circle and swear before the Goddess never to allow selfishness, greed, hatred, ambition or jealousy to rule over you, you need to see what happens if you break that vow.' Cressida took a black silk scarf out of the pocket of her dress. 'Do you trust me, Daisy?'

Daisy looked into Cressida's eyes and the answer came immediately.

'Yes.'

'Turn around.' She turned and Cressida tied the blindfold round her eyes. She felt Cressida's hand on her arm, gently leading her to the top of the steps.

'Take a step down, now.' Slowly the Burned One guided her one step at a time, down into the dungeon. As they went deeper, the air on her face grew colder and her nostrils filled with an earthy dampness. With each step she felt the gorgon's malevolent presence grow stronger. She trembled. Her instincts screamed at her to turn back, to run for her life.

O Goddess, help me! Help me!

On cue her Wise Woman training kicked in. She focused her mind on the warm feel of the hand guiding her arm and tried to slow her breathing.

'This is the last step,' Cressida tightened her grip on Daisy's arm. 'When I take the blindfold off, look into the mirror. Only look in the mirror. The gorgon's magnetism is strong but do not turn to face her, no matter how strongly tempted you are. Do you understand, Daisy?'

She nodded. The Burned One untied the blindfold. Daisy's breath came thick and fast. She blinked over and over till her eyes adjusted to the darkness. First she saw her own face, her glassy, frightened eyes and determined, knitted brows. Then she became aware of the bars of a cage behind her and beyond them a figure with its back to her hunched on the ground, a cloak draped around its shoulders. Her heart beat faster as she recognized the shape of snakes writhing on the figure's head and heard their hiss. They must have tasted her scent on the air because the hissing got louder. Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the head turned towards her, its gaze fixed on the ground. A scaled and taloned hand reached forward and with reptilian precision, the creature crawled towards the bars. Gripping one in each hand it raised its head and looked straight into the mirror, its bulging eyes a fiery orange, their pupils no more than a vertical slit. And in that deadly gaze, in those poisonous, those murderous eyes, Daisy saw only one thing:

Loneliness.

Unutterable, imponderable, unbearable loneliness.

Thank you for reading 😊

Please let me know if you spot inconsistencies or typos or if anything doesn't make sense. Also why not vote if you liked it ⭐️💬

This chapter is dedicated to ammmmanda whose Twisted Kingdoms is an enthralling high fantasy adventure.

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