Baba Yellowlegs · The full story
The Ancient in the wagon
Seven hundred years old, and she helped pull down a whole city of witches. She died in a carnival wagon, beheaded by a customer, with the smile still on her face.
THE HARMLESS OLD FORTUNE-TELLER
The most dangerous thing at the carnival was reading palms in a wagon.
When a travelling carnival comes to Rifthold for the spoiled prince Hollin's birthday, Baba Yellowlegs sets up as a fortune-teller, luring paying customers into her caravan to read their futures. The act is total: a bent, gnarled crone with long silver hair, tanned saggy skin, and the saffron-gold ankles that give her clan its name. Underneath it is one of the Ancients — a seer near seven hundred years old, iron teeth and iron nails kept permanently on display, and a head full of the oldest, most forbidden lore in Erilea. Nobody at that carnival has the faintest idea what has set up a wagon among them.
THE LORE SHE HELD
She is where the whole series learns what a Wyrdkey even is.
Celaena seeks her out on purpose — a witch old enough to know ancient things — carrying a riddle from Elena's tomb about three things hidden in three places. Yellowlegs, intrigued, unspools it: the three Wyrdkeys that open the Wyrdgate between worlds; the three Valg demons who slipped through and shattered part of the gate long ago; the Fae who hid the broken keys; and the fact that whoever gathers them commands this world and others. From that reading Celaena works out the thing that reorders everything — the King of Adarlan already holds at least one key. The mythology of the whole saga comes out of a fortune-teller's mouth.
THE FIGHT ON THE WAGON FLOOR
She saw through the assassin's lie, because seeing is the one thing she does.
Having got what she came for, Celaena tries a bluff — the witch's life for a name — and a seer detects a lie the instant it is told. Yellowlegs attacks, overpowers a master assassin with heavy chains, and knocks her out, disarmed, in the wagon. Celaena wakes to iron teeth looming over her and fights back on the floor with the only thing to hand: a dirt-coated ornamental axe off the wall. She headbutts the witch, batters her with the broad side, and beheads her with one full-strength swing. The head sprays blue blood — proof she was never human — and lands still smiling.
THE DEATH THAT OUTLIVED HER
Killing her marked Celaena a witch-killer, and handed Manon a reason to hunt Aelin.
Celaena burns the body in the wagon's own fire, left with small punctures above her collarbone from the iron nails — a necklace of scars she knows will not fade. But the kill does not stay small. Word reaches the Ironteeth at Morath, who hold a memorial; the Blackbeak Matron uses it to warn Manon that a seven-hundred-year-old Ancient was murdered in her own caravan, and that Manon at a thousand would never be half the witch Baba was. Books later, when Aelin admits she is the one who did it, that killing is part of what drives Manon to fight her on a collapsing island. The fortune-teller's death keeps paying out.
The Ancient in the wagon
She survived seven centuries and the fall of a city, and lost to a customer with an axe — but her death kept killing long after.
One of the Ancients
Near seven hundred years old, a seer of the Ironteeth, far stronger than an ordinary witch.
The Witch-City's fall
Five centuries back she helped pull down the walls of the Witch-City and struck down the Crochan Queen Rhiannon.
The stolen crown
She took Rhiannon's crown of stars from the dead queen and wore it ever after.
The fortune-teller
By Adarlan's day she hides in a carnival wagon, reading palms for coin.
The riddle
Celaena comes to her with Elena's riddle, and Baba reveals the lore of the Wyrdkeys and the Valg.
Chained and disarmed
Heavy chains overpower even a master assassin; Celaena wakes imprisoned in the wagon.
The axe off the wall
Celaena headbutts free, grabs a dirt-coated ornamental axe, and beheads her mid-charge.
Burned in her own fire
The body goes into the wagon's fire; Celaena keeps a necklace of scars from the iron nails.
The Ironteeth mourn
Word reaches Morath; the Blackbeak Matron holds a memorial and warns Manon to fear the Yellowlegs.
Manon's grudge
When Aelin admits the kill, it helps drive Manon to fight her on a collapsing island.
What she carried
Iron, a stolen crown, and the axe that ended her.
- The crown of starsRhiannon Crochan's crown, taken off the last Crochan Queen's corpse when the Witch-City fell, and worn for five hundred years. Manon wins it back a lifetime later to be crowned Queen of Witches.
- The iron teeth and nailsGrown of iron and, by Yellowlegs Clan rule, kept permanently extended on display. Her nails leave the punctures above Celaena's collarbone that scar into a necklace.
- The ornamental axeA dirt-coated blade hanging on the wagon wall — the only weapon a disarmed Celaena can reach. Broad side to stun, edge to behead. The witch's own decor kills her.
We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put Manon on a shirt without knowing which way the iron teeth snap — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.
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