The Water Witch by Juliet Dark

almost out.” Then she turned her attention to Joan, who was whispering over the bowl.
    Joan struck a match and held it to the liquid in the bowl. Blue flames danced over the surface and then suddenly flared gold. The light from the flames was reflected in the faces around the circle, making each face glow golden. Tara stepped inside the circle and finished pouring the salt. I felt a little
snick
of energy when the circle was completed and a change in the air pressure, as if we were in a sealed plane cabin and had just changed altitude. The flames from the bowl leapt higher into the air. My fingertips tingled and I was suddenly aware of the beating of my heart and the effort it took to swallow. I looked around the circle of faces, telling myself that I had nothing to fear, that I knew half the people here, but in the gold light of the flames not even the faces of my friends looked familiar.
    “Join hands,” Liz said, reaching for mine. I put my left hand in hers and my right in Ann Chase’s, being careful to cradle her arthritic fingers gently. They felt like a bundle of broken sticks. She reached for Tara Cohen-Miller’s hand and then Tara took Leon’s hand … and so on, even the Norns putting down their respective occupations to join the circle. Inoticed that Moondance made a little moue of distaste when Skald took her hand. When Urd took Liz’s hand, the circle was complete.
    Heat pulsed through our hands. I felt Ann’s crumpled fingers relax and become supple. She sighed with relief. I briefly wondered what she was saving her energy for that would keep her from using it to relieve her own pain. Then my body was flooded with a wave of blinding gold light that wiped every thought from my head. I opened my eyes and saw that the mist that the Norns had woven hung like a shroud around the circle. The gold light from the burning bowl filled the circle like shimmering, sun-struck water. I felt as if I were inside a cave …
    An image of a grotto flashed across my eyes, a sea cave filled with glowing blue water reflecting ripples on the limestone walls, flickering over painted images of horned animals. A figure stood waist-deep in the water, arms raised, a long-bladed dagger in her hands …
    The image changed and I stood in a clearing in the woods, a fire leaping up to the sky, sparks flying into the branches of the surrounding pine trees. Against the light of the flames that same figure lifted her hands to the sky, her dagger reflecting the rays of the moon …
    I was on a windswept heath standing in a circle of huge monoliths. Above was the moon. I lifted my arms, cold steel grasped in one hand, the even colder steel of the moonlight flowing through the other …
    I was standing barefoot in the grass, a figure looming over me. The figure was stretching her hands up to the moon, a blade in one hand. Light flashed on silver metal as the blade came arcing down toward me …
    I gasped and tried to free my hands. Something snapped. I opened my eyes and found myself back at the Olsens’ farm,sitting on the hard chair, my arms wrapped protectively over my chest. Liz was hovering over me, her brow furrowed with concern. “Oh, thank the Goddess! I thought we’d lost you, Callie.”
    “What happened?” I asked.
    “You broke the circle,” another voice answered. I looked around Liz and saw Moondance crouched over the chair next to me. “And broke poor Ann’s hand.”
    Moondance shifted so I could see Ann Chase cradling her limp hand to her chest. Diana, kneeling next to her, was gently inspecting the hand while whispering something under her breath.
    “Oh my God, Ann!” I cried, leaping to my feet. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I saw … things.”
    “The circle’s energy sometimes grants visions,” Liz said. “Especially when it’s enhanced by Aelvesgold.”
    “An experienced witch knows how to tell reality from illusion,” Moondance chided. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea to