Page 53 of The Water Witch (Fairwick Chronicles 2)

I looked again at the acres of intricate patterns. “It must be a lot of work.”

“It is, but it’s necessary. If not for the wards, the farms and the village would be open to the woods. Anything could come out of them.”

Or get lost in them, I thought, remembering the fishermen who had gone missing in the woods. “How’s Brock?” I asked.

A shadow passed over Ike’s deeply furrowed brow. “I’m beginning to fear he’ll never wake up. It’s been four days. I don’t know what we’ll do if he’s still unconscious when—I mean,if…the door closes.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know whether I should bring him to Faerie or not. I don’t know his wishes. He’s very attached to Fairwick. Sincewe came here, he’s seen himself as the guardian of the town. And I know he won’t want to leave you here unprotected. But then, if Dory goes…”

“Dory is planning to go?” I asked, shocked and dismayed that she would think of leaving Fairwick. She was such a fixture of the town—a member of the Rotary Club and head of the library board. What would the town do without her? What wouldIdo without her and all the othergoodneighbors? I felt a tug at my chest, as if someone had tightened a knot there.

Ike gasped. Looking out at the fields, I saw that the gold patterns were now quivering like live electrical wires.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s your pain at the thought of your friends leaving.” He looked at me strangely. “You’re part of the pattern of Fairwick now. You feel the loss of all our good friends.”

“Of course I do,” I said, laying my hand over my heart. The knot hurt like a cramped muscle, but I had a feeling that it would hurt more if the knot weren’t there. Then it would be only an empty place. “That’s why we’re not going to let them leave.”

Ike gave me a hopeful smile and then turned to lead me around the side of the house. “We’re outside today,” he told me. “The Norns thought that the circle would be more powerful if it was held in the labyrinth.”

“The labyrinth?”

“Yes, Brock built it some years ago for our amma so she could use it to meditate. It’s always available for the circle, and for anyone who wishes to walk the labyrinth.”

We passed through a wooden arbor covered with roses and followed a stone path bordered by hollyhocks, dahlias, and poppies toward a formal garden of neat boxwood hedges and parterres surrounding a circle marked out by sunken bricks. Brock lay on a bench at the center, his honest facelooking as serene as if he were sunbathing instead of in a coma. The members of the circle were assembled around the perimeter, some sitting on the grass, a few standing. Moondance, regal in a flowing orange and purple caftan, greeted me by demanding what I had been doing. “The Norns say the wards have been disrupted.”

“Sorry, I guess it’s this.” I took the Aelvestone out of my pocket and unwrapped it from the flannel cloth. Twelve heads leaned in to look at it.

“That’s what made me drop a stitch before,” Urd hissed.

“And tangled my thread,” Verdandi said, holding up a knot of multicolored embroidery thread.

“Yeah, my screen crashed five minutes ago, but I knew it was going to happen so I backed it up.” Skald held up a flash drive that was hanging on a chain around her neck along with her silver scythe.

“You might have told us,” Verdandi snapped.

“Ladies,” Ike interrupted, “were you able to fix the wards? Did we suffer a breach?”

“Of course we fixed the wards.” Urd held up her knitting. The bundled afghan in her lap was knitted in the same rune and knot pattern as Verdandi’s needlepoint and Skald’s computer game. The same pattern, I saw now, that overlaid the fields and buildings of Olsen farm and the surrounding valley. “Do you think we were born in the last millennium? We know how to circumvent a power surge.”

“You didn’t prevent her from short-circuiting the circle last time,” Moondance grumbled, glaring at me as I sat down on a bench between Ann Chase and Tara Cohen-Miller. Ann smiled and patted me on the hand as if to make up for Moondance’s hostility.

“We were unprepared,” Verdandi said, shooting Skald a reproachful look.

“I can’t keep an eye on everything,” she retorted, rolling her eyes like any exasperated teenager. “Would you like tomorrow’s Dow Jones index or next week’s weather in Kuala Lumpur while I’m at it?”

“Really? You know all that?” Hank Lester asked. “Do you know who’s going to win in the fifth race at Belmont today?”

Skald smirked at Lester and clicked the smooth gold ball embedded in her tongue against her teeth. “Would you like to know how long you’ve got to live while I’m at it?” she asked sweetly.

“Stop it, Skald,” Verdandi told her sister. And then to Hank she added, “Don’t pay her any mind. The future she sees is only one possible future—it’s always changing and she’s wrong half the time. But sheshouldbe able to plot out Callie’s future for the next hour and tell us if we’re going to have a problem in the circle today.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Skald said, hunching over her phone. She moved her thumbs on the keypad rapidly, her eyes flicking over the screen.

“Is that my future?” I craned my neck to see Skald’s screen, but all I saw on it were enigmatic runes, squiggles, spirals, and, in the center, a huge ugly knot. My future looked like a mess. Skald seemed to think so, too. When she looked up, her customary smug expression was replaced by one of perplexity. It made her look very young. “I can’t read you at all,” she said. “You’re all tangled up inside.”

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