No human person knows Her true name or is exactly sure where She came from, but this Witch, the oldest and most evil of all Dead things, lurks in a cave on Mount Wanslo, a mountain that is close to the Hiraeth chain of mountains near World’s End. She has been there for centuries, luring susceptible people to Her, using Her telepathic magecraft, then draining their lives to fuel Her own longevity and artificial beauty.
We meet the Witch in the first book of the Nighthunter series, when She appears to Noran as a beautiful woman invading his dreams and giving him instructions to kill a man. Once he has the corpse with him in his makeshift tent — after running away from home — She gives him further dream-instructions to fashion a strange musical instrument from the man’s ribs and hair. The instrument, an amau-anghofio, has the power to tell prophecies of the future, and the Witch wants Noran to bring it to Her. It’s part of Her plan to destroy the Worlds and remake them as She sees fit.
There are myths about the Witch that circulate amongst certain people. The tribes of nomadic magi in the mountains know about Her. There are tales of locals and tourists in Thosea wandering off to the North and going missing. The Kendra know a tale concerning the Witch:
“…The reverberation from all the monkey-folk jumping to the ground rattled and rumbled throughout the world, causing a quake. Somewhere in the Deep North, the Hiraeth Mountains erupted. The highest and most ponderous of them all was Mount Wanslo.
A being from the First Era lurked in a cave near Mount Wanslo’s summit. Once the goddess of summer among the First Race, She committed a terrible crime: She fell in love with someone who was not Her intended spouse, and plotted to murder Her betrothed. The gods of the Living banished Her to a dank place under the earth. She seized the mountain’s root and held on as it grew through all the nine worlds until it resurfaced in this world, taking Her with it.
She was an ancient being, though She still looked beautiful on the outside. She wanted to take revenge for the love She had lost and the way She had been treated. Afraid of losing Her visual charms to the corruption of Her soul, She gathered all the magecraft She could find and weaved Herself a mask to hide Death’s touch on Her and the evil of Her intentions. She planned to seduce whoever would give Her extra power with that thousandfold beauty — magicians, lords, ladies, Kings, Queens, people of influence, and drain their bodies of life to feed Her continued longevity.”
— Excerpt from a tale told by The High Madre of The Kendra
Towards the end of the book, Logan Bartholom (The Nighthunter) and Noran Cadwallader find the Witch (after a long adventure riddled with danger and unusual occurrences) and confront Her. I won’t reveal the outcome of the battle, as that would spoil the book!
Nightwalks 