The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick Page B

To Feenix it was spicy, wild, and golden. It made her think of roses and fresh-cut grass and running horses.
    “Oh, oh!” Gorgo whimpered ecstatically.
    Everyone watched. Ten drops fell, only half filling the bottle, then the oozing clotted like blood and the honey stopped. They could see that a sticky crust had formed like a scab over the tiny hole.
    Baba put the stone down with a sigh and lifted the bottle.
    “Come, let us have a taste,” Gorgo said eagerly.
    Baba closed her eyes. “Yes. We will have a taste and I will go first.” With great care, she lifted the bottle and tipped it so one single drop of the honey fell into her mouth.
    They all waited.
    For the first moment, she looked frightened. She shut her eyes tight and her single nostril quivered. Then she moaned and threw her head back.
    “What is happening?” Skuld demanded, squinting furiously.
    A soft and rosy pink began to creep across Baba One Nostril’s old, ashy gray skin.
    Her hair, which was steely gray and so thin it allowed her scalp to show through, thickened and darkened to a deep chestnut brown. Her face, loose and wrinkly like elephant skin, tightened and smoothed out. Her knobby, crooked fingers grew long and strong, and she flexed them as if they had been asleep for a long time and needed to be woken up. Her stooped skinny shoulders straightened, and she stood upright. She looked about two hundred years younger. She would have looked good, if it weren’t for the bad nose thing.
    The two sisters shuffled as close to her as they dared and stared at her openmouthed.
    Skuld forgot her fears. “I will have my turn.” She reached out for the bottle.
    “No, no! I will go next,” squealed Gorgo, trying to get in front of her.
    Baba stopped her with a sharp gesture. “You are a greedy-fingered glutton. You will both have your turns, but I will hold the bottle.”
    Gorgo glared at her with fury, but held her hands at her sides.
    Baba went first to Skuld and tipped a single drop into her mouth. Then she did the same to Gorgo. She put the bottle on the table, stoppered it, and stood back to watch.
    In a few minutes the other two were transformed as Baba had been. Gorgo still looked doughy, but she was a young and pink-faced doughy. She had muscular arms and a round pumpkin-shaped body.
    Skuld, to Feenix’s surprise, was beautiful. She held herself like a ballerina, her head straight up, her shoulders back, her eyes glittering like little pieces of glass caught in a streetlight. Her red kerchief held back her long, flowing chestnut hair.
    In every way—except eyesight—the three witches were stronger, healthier, and younger. To Feenix, it was not a happy improvement. They all took turns using the spectacles and peering at themselves in a little sliver of mirror that hung by the doorway.
    “Let us have one more sip,” breathed Gorgo. She turned her gaze greedily to the stone. “I’ve never tasted anything more delicious.”
    Baba One Nostril answered her scornfully. “What an infant you are. How long will it take you to learn when you have had enough? Besides, it would be prudent to save some for a later day, don’t you think?”
    “I suppose,” said Gorgo sullenly.
    “Let us turn our minds to other matters.”
    Baba looked at Feenix. “I think now would be the perfect time to reward our young visitor, don’t you, my sisters?”
    Skuld stopped examining herself in the mirror. “What do you mean?”
    “She has brought us this great gift. We should let her go free.”
    Feenix’s heart leaped up.
    The two sisters stared at Baba. “Now?” asked Gorgo eagerly.
    Baba tipped her head to one side and appeared to consider. “The time is ripe, don’t you think? And it would seem only fair, wouldn’t it?”
    “Yes it would,” replied Skuld chuckling. “In the words of the great master, ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair.’ Let us be about the business. Darkness will fall soon.”
    “Yes!” sang young Gorgo. “Perfect, perfect,