“Instead of a harmless tradition to honor a grandfather,” Bryn said.
“Exactly.”
All the women nodded, and Kiela taught them the words syllable by syllable. She corrected their pronunciation until they had it completely perfect. Only then did they speak the words with the sticky pine cones in front of them.
Completed, they wrapped the enchanted pine cones in scraps of fabric. And then each of them reached for another pine cone to begin again. It was Bryn’s turn then to regale them with a flood of anecdotes. She described various baking accidents she’d had and experiments with recipes, plus the time she’d been distracted and had in fact mixed up salt and sugar. “I didn’t create a bird, but I did create the most inedible pudding that you can possibly imagine.”
“Let me guess,” Eadie said. “Tobin ate it anyway.”
Bryn grinned. “Every last bit of it.”
Hours flew, and by the time the sun was overhead, they’d created several dozen remedies and depleted the entirety of the ingredients from the forest spirits. Caz offered to gather more for their next working picnic, if they were interested in making this a regular event. Everyone loved that idea, and Bryn offered to supply the bread next time, Ulina offered to bring the cheese, and Eadie volunteered honey.
As they poured themselves a final round of tea, Eadie said, “If this is going to be a regular meeting, we should have a name. I vote we call ourselves the Pine Cone Coven.”
“Yes!” Bryn said.
“I love it,” Ulina said.
Kiela held up a finger. “That might cause problems.”
“The Pine Cone Society?” Bryn suggested.
All of them agreed to that, and Kiela felt an unfamiliar knot of warmth. She’d never really been part of a group before. Even in school . . . Well, this was nice.
Bryn lifted her teacup. “To the Pine Cone Society.”
“The Pine Cone Society,” they all said, lifting their cups. Caz lifted a cup using his leaves. They clinked and then drank. Caz dumped his cup, with water not tea, onto his root ball.
Kiela smiled as she set down her cup—
And saw a bush shiver at the edge of the forest. A tree guardian? She smiled, thinking the cloud bears would be happy about the Pine Cone Society saving more trees. As she watched the bushes for a hint of cloud, she thought she saw a flash of red.
“Did you see that?” she asked.
“What?” Caz asked.
All of them turned to stare at the woods, but Kiela didn’t see any other hint of motion. For an instant, she’d thought she’d seen the red of Radane’s hair.
Just my imagination.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Pine Cone Coven,Kiela thought as she waved goodbye to the three women. She decided she’d call it that to herself, though it was wise to say “society” out loud. All total, they’d made forty-six more remedies. She’d wanted to gift them at least half, in thanks for their work and company, but Caz had jumped into negotiations—and somehow, in payment for her teaching them the spell, they’d agreed to supply her with a quarter of the harvest on any fruit or nut trees, or a fish a week for a month if they used the remedy on another kind of tree. She had no idea where the spider plant had learned how to handle business negotiations, but she was grateful. Also, she was going to have to learn how to cook fish.
Larran would know.
She wondered if that was a decent enough excuse to visit him . . .
She could also ask how Sian was feeling . . .
But what if Radane was there?
She wondered if that really had been her, lurking in the greenery, or if it had only been Kiela’s imagination.Maybe I’m just overly jumpy.She’d glimpsed a bit of red—it could have been a bird. Perhaps even the apple-blossom bird with its red feathers. She headed back inside the cottage.
“The cactus wants to help next time,” Caz said.
“Of course!” She was ninety-nine percent certain the Pine Cone Coven wouldn’t bat an eye at the addition of a sentient succulent. Or at least ninety percent certain. Eighty-five? “It’s welcome to help whenever it wants.”
