Cate Tiernan - A Chalice of Wind

I nodded. What has a front has a back. And the bigger the front, the bigger the back. The joy and beauty of magick were married to the awful responsibility of wielding it. The pleasure of calling on magick was tempered by the need to do so,

"Did you get any of the words?" she asked me.

I nodded, "Some, but they didn't make sense. Part of it was, A chalice of wind, a circle of ashes, a feather of stone, a necklace of water. All connected like that. Thais looked thoughtful, repeating the words to herself. "You don't know what it meant?"

"No-never heard it before. We can ask Ouida," I said.

"Now I think its time," Ouidas clear voice cut through the lingering effects of the magick. "Time to know the truth. The whole truth "

Maybe I'd had enough truth for one day. I felt drained. My skin was still alive and glowing from what I'd just discovered. I didn't know how it had happened, where it had come from, or even what "magick" really was. I only knew that I'd felt it, and for a few minutes, I'd been part of everything. I hadn't been alone, everything had made sense, and my pain had less-ened. If that was magick, sign me up.

"Can we go back downstairs?" Manon asked in her little-girl voice. "It's hot up here."

The whole truth. I thought about finding Clio, realizing she and Petra were witches, finding out Luc was really Andre, rinding out he was a witch. I really didn't think I could take any more. Could I escape somehow? But Ouida seemed to have a plan, and Clio looked determined.

Downstairs, every time I glanced at Clio, she was watching Luc. Her face was angry, but I recognized another emotion as well: desire. She'd said that she'd just been using him, that she didn't love him. It wasn't true. She'd wondered if he was the one behind the attacks. I didn't know-when I tried to follow that line of thought, my brain just shut down.

"Sit here, Thais," said Ouida, gesturing to the sofa. I was stuck Clio sat at the other end of the sofa, and Richard sat between us. I couldn't wait to hear his story.

Axelle, Ouida, Daedalus, and Jules all looked at each other, as if silently figuring out who should start. My curiosity was mixed with dread about what might be coming. After today, everything that had happened in my life before New Orleans would be gone forever, as if it had happened to someone else. I felt Luc's eyes on me and Clio's eyes on him. I ignored him as best I could, but heat rose in my cheeks just from being in the same room.

"Well, really, our story started quite a long time ago" Ouida said slowly. "Our families came from France, through Canada, and settled in southern Louisiana, not far from New Orleans. That was in the late 1600s. There were fifteen families, fifty-eight people total. They lived in peace and made their lives and homes in their new chosen land. They practiced Bonne Magk and stayed true to the old ways.

"This continued for almost a hundred years," Ouida went on. "As with any group of people, there were leaders and followers-people who were stronger and people who were weaker. Within the fifteen families and the new families that had been created by intermarrying, there were several different covens"

"Eight, I think," said Jules, frowning in thought.

"Now, I have to tell you a bit about Magk Noir" Ouida said, taking a deep breath.

"Dark magicki 1" Clio said in surprise.

"Yes," Ouida went on more firmly. "In our community, young people, teenagers, often experimented with Magk Noir before they made their rite of ascension. The corollary today would be experimenting with drugs, or drinking, or sex."

"Or all three," Richard murmured, and my skin crawled. Bizarrely, there was something very likable about Richard, but he was also just so young to be so dark It was creepy.

"In those days, it was usually Magk Noir," Ouida said. "They were punished if caught, but in general the feeling was that they would play with it, get it out of their systems, and then be ready to settle down into the community as they should. And for the most part, that's what happened."

"Until Melita," Daedalus said, his voice heavy with memory, as if it had all happened just last year.

"Yes," Ouida said. "Until Melita, Melita was a very powerful witch, with the kind of power that comes along once every hundred years. She learned fast, soaking up information, rites, history like a sponge. Before she was sixteen, she made her rite of ascension, thus giving her even more power"

I had been watching Ouida, but when I looked around the room, I was surprised by peoples expressions. Almost everyone here wore a mantle of gloom. These witches who only ten minutes before had been singing with clear joy now looked like they were immersed in sadness and pain. I risked glancing at Luc, and he looked even worse than before. He met my eyes, a still, speculative look on his face. I shifted and looked away from him, my heart pounding.

"The community ignored what was happening and closed their eyes to the fact that Melita wasn't just passing through her Magk Noir phase-she was reveling in it, pursuing it, and working hard to increase her power all the time, through dark and dangerous methods''

Jules lowered his head and rubbed his eyes with one hand, as if suddenly tired beyond words. Daedalus for once had no used-car-salesmans smile, but looked drawn and stiff.

"One night Melita was in the woods, performing her dark rites. Its still unclear whether she caused this to happen or whether it was just there and she found it- but she came upon a small, bubbling spring, un Source. The water was red-tinted and very cold, and she drank from it."

"She said she made it, conjured it," said Richard, and Daedalus whirled on him.

"I don't believe it. It was sheer happenstance that led her to it…

"However it happened," Ouida continued, "from that day on, Melita was never ill. When the whole community had the flu and more than twenty people died, Melita never got sick. Any small injury healed unnaturally quickly. She was strong and healthy in a way that few people were in those days, before antibiotics and vaccinations. But more important, her magick increased maybe a hundredfold.

"Several years passed. There had always been people whose magick seemed stronger or more true, but now Melita overshadowed the best of them. It was obvious that she had special powers. The boys in the village fell in love with her, but she didn't care for them-only for power. She began to dominate the whole community, both through her force of will and by her magick. The Magk Noir had taken hold of her, and unlike other people, it didn't let her go."

"She studied the ancient texts," Jules said quietly. "And researched herbology and astrology. Within seven years, she was the strongest witch anyone had ever seen. At the end of this seven years, Melita had devised a plan to forever consolidate her power by a ritual at the Source, this time with twelve carefully chosen fellow witches. These witches would represent a cross section of abilities, affinities, ages, sexes, and so on, as her research had indicated was necessary"

"There was an older man," said Daedalus, his voice dull. He was looking at the floor and didn't raise his eyes. "An elder in the community-the mayor, if you will."

"There was a powerful, headstrong woman," said Axelle, sounding sad and un-Axelle-like.

"There was a virginal young woman," said Sophie, not looking at anyone.

"There was an older woman, a wise healer," Ouida said. "And there was a female slave."

'And another slave,' said Jules. 'Arrogant and ambitious.'

"There was a girl" Manon said slowly. "Who had not yet reached puberty"

"There was a heartless rake" said Luc wearily;