Page 5 of The Water Witch (Fairwick Chronicles 2)

TWO

We continued to follow the stream through the woods, its gurgle accompanying us like a fifth companion. I knew when I agreed to join the Grove that my loyalty to my friends at Fairwick might be tested, but I hadn’t known that I’d be thrust into a conflict so soon. If the Grove was really coming here to close the door to Faerie, would I be compelled to take a side?

It was true that I’d seen some pretty dangerous creatures come through the door, but I’d also seen harmless ones. Many of my closest friends had originally come from there. Which of them, I wondered now, would choose to leave this world if they knew it was their last chance to go back?

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud splash. An undine had leapt over a boulder, her slim transparent body twisting in the sunlight as she performed a backward flip. Immediately two others copied their sister with their own flips, the second one adding a double somersault and a midair twist.

“Great, now they’ll all have to do it,” Liz muttered, hands on hips. She clapped her hands briskly and called in a sternJean Brodie brogue, “Come along, girrrls, we haven’t got all day. No time for showing off.”

In response one of the undines performed a triple axel worthy of Sarah Hughes at the 2002 Olympics.

“Very well,” Liz said, the ghost of a smile flitting across her face. “Get it out of your systems.” And then, noticing me on the path behind her, she added in a low voice, “Poor things. I can’t begrudge them their little bit of fun. They have a difficult journey ahead of them…and then, this might be the last time I ever see an undine run.”

Glancing at Liz, I noticed the smile had faded from her face.

“Soheila told me about the meeting next week,” I said. “Do you think the Grove will really try to close the door? Will IMP go along with it?”

Liz turned to me, her face looking suddenly older. The truth was I didn’t know how old she was. Witches could augment their life span with magic. If Liz had seen the undines run before that meant she was more than a hundred years old. Normally, she looked like a stylish, well-preserved sixty, but right now her eyes seemed to have seen a century of woes.

“I believe it is what the Grove has been working tirelessly to achieve for over a hundred years. Before I came to Fairwick I taught at a girls’ school in the Hudson Valley. There was a door to Faerie nearby. The school was run by the witches of the Grove, who believed that the creatures who came from Faerie were all evil and must be destroyed.” She shuddered. “Some of the creatureswereevil. But some of us came to believe that not all the denizens of Faerie were bad. There was a rift, followed by a battle in which innocent blood was shed…” Liz’s voice trembled. She bit her lip and looked away until she had mastered her emotions.

“I wasn’t the only one to lose loved ones. The witches of the Grove suffered losses they still haven’t recovered from. They closed the door to Faerie near the school and since then all the other doors to Faerie have closed, except for the one here in Fairwick.”

“Soheila said that some people believe it’s a natural process…”

Liz shook her head impatiently. “No more than global warming is anaturalprocess. The Grove has been closing the doors with their spells. This door would have closed already were it not for the spells we’ve cast to keep it open, but over time it’s become harder and harder to keep the door open. We were afraid that it was closing for good…but then you came…”

“If the Grove wants to close the door will IMP be able to stop them?”

Liz sighed. “I honestly don’t know. There has been a growing conservative trend among the governing members of IMP. They’re concerned—and rightfully—about the dangerous nature of some of the creatures that come through the door. Even some of the fey members of the board would like to limit future immigration. I’m afraid that it’s possible that IMP would vote with the Grove.”

“If the vote went to closing the door, as doorkeeper would I be able to stop them?” I asked.

Liz gave me a long, considering look. As far as I knew her magical powers didn’t include mind reading, but I felt that she could tell I had a guilty secret. “I don’t know,” she said at last. “You’ve already demonstrated extraordinary power in opening the door, but you haven’t yet had to go up against a really powerful witch—and mark my words, the witches of the Grove areverypowerful. The truth is we don’t know thelimits of your power. The combination of fey and witch bloodlines makes for a powerful but unstable mix. You should have been trained from early on…”

Liz looked embarrassed to have brought up this detail from my past. My parents had died when I was twelve, leaving me to be raised by my grandmother Adelaide. Since Adelaide was a witch she should have, by all rights, trained me herself, but she hadn’t. She later claimed that she had seen no sign of magical power in me and assumed that my half-fey ancestry had canceled out my witch’s power. It wasn’t until I moved to Fairwick that I discovered I had any power at all—or even that such creatures as witches and fairies existed.

“…and I have been remiss in getting you the proper training,” Liz continued. “I promise we’ll start this summer…as soon as we’ve got the undines settled. Your magical abilities need nurturing,” she said, turning to walk ahead of me on the path. I only heard her next words because they were carried to me on a gust of wind. “Heaven knows we may all be in sore need of them.”

I caught up to Soheila, Liz, and Diana at the edge of a waterfall. They were watching the undines tumbling down into a wide pool. Another stream rushed into the pool from the south. In the distance I could make out several fishermen standing knee deep in the water, casting their lines out over the sun-dazzled water of the lower branch of the Undine.

“Won’t the undines be in danger of getting caught in those lines?” I asked. “And won’t those fishermen be…surprisedto find a teenage girl on their hooks instead of a rainbow trout?”

“The Department of Ecological Conservation has declared Sul’s Eddy off limits until the beginning of July,” Liz told me.

“Officiallyto prevent overfishing on the Undine, but really because we’ve got friends in the department who are giving us time to get the undines out,” Diana added.

“But we have to act fast,” Soheila said, leading the way down the steep, rocky path to the junction pool. “The underground passage to Faerie is on the far side of the pool, but the undines get confused because of the different currents. They could head down into the lower branch of the stream if we don’t help direct them.”

At the bottom of the falls there was a metal sign erected by the Fairwick Fly-Fishing Club. It seemed out of place here on the edge of Faerie…until I read it.

Sul’s Eddy is one of the most famous pools in angling lore. Formed by the waters of the Undine and the Beaverkill, it is a pool with strange and mystifying currents and eddies. Legend says that the confusing flows cause migrating trout to linger for days trying to decide which stream to enter. This indecisiveness causes delay which, in itself, is the reason many of the largest trout in the Undine are taken from this pool.

“The same thing happens to the undines,” Soheila said. “Look, you can see them swimming in circles. They’re confused by the currents.”

I looked into the pool. At first I saw nothing but clear water; then I noticed circular ripples spreading out from the center of the pool.

“This is bad,” Liz said. “When a few start swimming in circles they create a whirlpool that sucks all of them into it. It’s a sort of mass hysteria.”

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