Picking up each hard-earned leg bone sequentially, she snapped them in half, then scattered each piece inside her circle of blood in the four directions. Aquilo. Auster. Occidens. Oriens.Gaia existed in all four directions. Knowing this would help her locate the amulet, and the legs of the rabbit would help her travel there in her mind.
She reached into the cloth sack at her feet and intentionally picked up the apple that was inside. She laid it in front of her in the bloody, dirty mess where the rabbit had been and sliced the apple in half. In the pale flesh, she could see tiny holes where caterpillars had gotten in and nibbled on the sweet meat all the way to its core. She read its signs and Knew that the tree it had grown on was old and healthy. It had flourished in the past year, which had been particularly cool and wet, leading to the creation of this fruit, whose only goal was to be eaten and decay, leaving its seeds in the soil to propagate anew.
Slicing again, Ena now cut the apple into quarters. She placed them carefully between each piece of bone in her circle of blood. Apples represented knowledge. Placing the apple around her circle signaled to Gaia that she wished to Know.
Finally, she removed the bunches of dried herbs that Steig had stolen, then tossed the empty sack outside of her circle. Bay leaves, belladonna, sage, and wormwood—herbs which enhanced wisdom and were used in divination. One by one, she took a sprig of each in her hands and crumpled them delicately in the circle around her. They were brittle and aromatic; likely a year or two had passed since they’d been cut from the living plants they’d once been a part of. The herbs crumbled easily between her fingers, leaving a residue behind once she was finished. Once combined, Ena breathed in deeply and lowered to her knees in the center of her circle. She could feel Gaia’s presence in her every heartbeat.
Now for the most critical part. She didn’t know much about this amulet. She’d never seen it in person. But she concentrated her thoughts on the description Ty had given her. A deep-purple, uncut amethyst stone in a circular setting of silver, hung on achain of braided silver strands. She thought about the way the light would reflect through the amethyst, and the way the cold silver would feel in her hands. She closed her eyes and spoke her spellword.
{Locus}
***
Images flashed quickly through her mind’s eye. She saw the amulet; it was beautiful. The stone was multicolored, fading from a vibrant deep purple at its center to a pale white-purple at the edges. The circular setting was large. She thought if she were to hold it in her hand, it would cover her entire palm, but the symbols etched into the silver confused Ena. She recognized the triquetra, often used as a symbol of the three Covens, the Goddess, which was Gaia’s symbol, and the horned God, often used to represent Iblis, but she didn’t recognize the final one. She’d never seen it before in her life, despite her rigorous studies, and she couldn’t fathom what all these symbols together might do.
The image changed and she saw the amulet sitting in a simple wooden box. The box had a lock on it, and it was closed shut.
The image changed again and she saw a large leather-bound trunk in a dark room filled with trunks and bookshelves. It looked similar to Heran’s altar room.
The image flashed one more time to reveal a large wind-beaten wooden house with new wooden shingles. She breathed in deeply and, though she knew her physical body was still in the woods, the air smelled salty and fresh, but also slightly fishy. The house was two stories and had large circular windows. An overgrown fenced-in garden surrounded it, reminding her so much of home that her heart ached to see it. In the distance behind the house, she caught a glimpse of sand dunes, and justas she heard the crash of large waves pounding into the shore, her eyes snapped open.
***
She was out of breath as she looked frantically around her, trying to regain her bearings. The woods around her were dark, the only light coming from the fire in front of her.
Ty, Turner, and Steig were all standing, clearly on edge, and staring at her intently. She had no idea what she’d looked like as she was receiving the vision, but Turner and Steig had their hands on their weapons sheathed on their belts and their brows were furrowed. Ty, who had given his weapon to Ena, was closest to her and looked like he was two seconds away from jumping into the circle and yanking her out of it.
She placed her hand over her chest and took several deep breaths, willing her heart to calm down. The visions were disorienting to say the least, but she was familiar with the aftereffects. After several moments, she felt calm enough to look up and address them. They were still all standing in silence, clearly unsure of whether it was alright to speak again, so she spoke first.
“I found it,” she said.
Picking herself up, she stepped outside of her circle and rejoined the men around the campfire. Their body language calmed instantly as she approached them.
“Where is it?” Ty asked hurriedly.
This was the tricky part. She needed to give the men enough information that they wouldn’t suspect her of lying or leaving anything out, but she didn’t want to give them all the information. She needed to retain the upper hand for when they let her go if she had any hope of thwarting their plans.
“It’s on the coast of the Endless Ocean. I had a vision of its location, and during it, I smelled… well, I can’t say for sure since I’ve never been, but I think it was the ocean, and I heard the crash of waves.”
“Where is it on the coast? Did you see anything else?” Ty asked.
“I saw a house, a big one with large round windows and a fenced-in garden around it. That’s all I saw,” Ena said, keeping the additional details of its location to herself. “I think,” she added, “I think it’s with the Occidens Coven.”
“Good, that’s good,” Ty said, nodding and looking at Steig and Turner. “That’s a lot to go on. We’ll head there first thing in the morning. It should take us several days, but if we keep our stops minimal, we should make it in less than a week.”
“Wait,” Ena said, something about the way he spoke setting her off. “We?Us? Are you includingmein this? I thought you said you’d let me go if I helped you with the spell!”
“Wewilllet you go,” Ty said reasonably. “But only after we get the amulet. You’re the only one who will recognize the house for sure, so we’ll need you to point it out so we can be in and out of there as quickly as possible. Plus,” he added, glaring at Ena like a kid caught stealing all the sweets, “there’s no way we’re letting you go now so you can run right to your Coven and warn them about what we’re doing. You’re coming with us.”
Ena’s heart plummeted. They weren’t letting her go. On some level, she wasn’t surprised. She’d seen this coming. She knew they were unlikely to let her go that easily. But suddenly, shame filled her. What if she really had just helped them find the amulet? She’d kept some details to herself, hoping she’d be able to thwart them once she was free, but now she had no idea when that would be, because now they were going to—
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second.” Another thought occurred to Ena, one almost as upsetting as being kept by thesedaemons. “You don’t understand,” she explained. “Ican’tgo to the Occidens Coven. It’s forbidden. They are our rivals and we have a very strict treaty with them not to infringe on their territory. If I’m caught there, my life could be forfeit.”
The smile that graced Ty’s face was downright malicious. “I know,” he said. “Now you’ll have just as much motivation to keep quiet as we will.”
Ena didn’t know what to say to that. He was right. If she went with them to the Occidens Coven to steal the amulet, she’d be better off keeping quiet and sticking with them than revealing herself to the rival Coven. Ena was not exactly sure what had caused the rivalry, but she knew to willingly break it would be to her detriment. There had apparently been some disagreement hundreds of years ago that had since been long forgotten, only the bitterness and mistrust remaining. To Ena and the rest of the witches, it seemed like it had always been this way. It was simply fact that the other two Covens, Aquilo and Auster, did not get along with Occidens, so there was a treaty between them that specified that Auster and Aquilo witches were not to trespass on Occidens territory, and vice versa. The territory line was somewhere just past the Sacred Pool she’d visited with Heran, and the punishment for breaking the treaty was up to the discretion of the Coven who was wronged, but it could include death. She’d heard stories about witches losing their tongues or hands as punishment for attempting to trade with villages over the treaty line. One witch had been burned alive just for walking along the beach near the Occidens Coven’s village.
No, one thing was terrifyingly clear—if she continued on with them into Occidens territory, she’d have no choice but to help them find the amulet as quickly and quietly as possible in the hopes that they’d let her go afterward. But, of course, maybe they’d just kill her once they had it. Or take her back to the Underworld as their prisoner.
