Water Witch

by Carol Goodman

  “Are they … regular deer or magical deer?” I wondered.

  “What do you think?” Laird asked.

  I looked closer. At their eyes, which were large and golden, at the buck’s antlers, tipped with gold … the deer were full of Aelvesgold, so they must be from Faerie.

  “I saw him once before,” I whispered. “On Christmas night.”

  “That’s the king of the forest, Cernunnos. I imagine he’s been keeping a keen eye on you. Look, he wants you to approach.”

  The buck stepped past the beautiful doe and stamped a hoof on the ground. Summoned, I stepped forward. I put my hand out, as I might for a dog or horse. He lowered his head with the grace of a courtier bowing before a lady and touched his velvety muzzle to my hand. He huffed and his warm breath misted the air in a golden cloud that grew between us. I looked up and met those large golden eyes and felt a spark of recognition.

  “Do you see the Aelvesglow?” Duncan said from somewhere behind me. He must have been close but suddenly he seemed far away. “Do you see how it connects you to all things?”

  Lifting my hand I saw it was surrounded by an aura of gold. My whole body was surrounded by a nimbus of gold.

  “You’re made of the same substance, all interconnected. When you move …” He held his hand a few inches above mine. Gold light filled the space between us. When he lifted his hand I felt a tug move mine, as if we were connected by invisible strings. It reminded me of my dream … how Liam had stirred the gold light over my naked body.

  “You can do it, too,” Duncan said.

  I lifted my hand above his and saw his hand trail behind mine. I swung my arm in a wide balletic arc. It was like stroking through warm water. The branches of the trees above us swayed in the same arc, a shower of honeysuckle blossoms drifted down and landed on the buck’s antlers, forming a flowery wreath. The deer were swaying, too, their golden eyes following the motions of my arms, the drifting flowers dancing in the air like tiny ballerinas. I laughed and the golden air rippled in concentric circles that spread outward into the woods. I felt the ripples touch the trees and move through them. I felt the trees, their rough bark, the sap that moved through them, the prickle of leaves sprouting from branch tips … I looked down and saw where the gold light limned my fingertips, the shadow of branches.

  “The Aelvesgold heightens your connection to the rest of the world,” Duncan whispered in my ear. “When you see how you are like a thing, you can become that thing. That’s the root of metaphorical magic – the oldest magic.”

  I stretched my arms out and felt them sway in the breeze with the branches. I wiggled my toes and felt the stir of roots. I could be a tree if I wanted to … or perhaps something more mobile. I concentrated on the doe. Her nose twitched and I sniffed the air. The night was suddenly awash with smells. Mingled with honeysuckle was the musk of the herd, the tang of pine in the branches, the sap moving through the trees, the bitter taste of bark that we would eat in winter … but not now when it was summer and there were fields of fresh grass and tender leaves …

  My mouth watered. I lifted my nose to the air … and felt my neck lengthen. I heard the deer stir and my ears pointed and twitched at the sound. My skin itched to be gone and I felt fur bristle down my legs … felt my legs and arms grow long and strong, my fingers and toes hardening into hoofs. I stamped the ground and looked back to Duncan but where he had stood was another buck, as large and golden as Cernunnos, his antlers branching against the sky. The two bucks huffed at each other and I felt the air crackle with tension and saw the tawny skin of Aelvesgold stretched taut between them. They both lowered their heads, but before they could charge the beautiful doe pawed the ground and huffed. As if that had been the signal they were waiting for, the herd turned as one, like a flock of birds wheeling in the sky, and sprang away. I felt the tug of their movement and followed without thinking.

  A fire leapt up my legs, a delicious spark that travelled from my hooves to the tips of my pointed ears. The other deer had melted into the woods, but I felt them ahead of me and Duncan beside me. We ran together, our hoof beats keeping time with each other. Deeper and deeper into the woods until we exploded into a moonlit heath. I felt the openness like a dangerous tingling all over my body, but when I lifted my head I saw Cernunnos and the beautiful doe grazing on the hilltop and knew it was all right. I looked to Duncan and saw that he was also grazing. I lowered my head and nibbled the silvery moonlit grass. It tasted like … summer, like life, delicious, but fleeting. I didn’t even bother to chew it. It slid down my long throat into my second stomach where I would store it until I had more time. Now I sampled one tuft of tender green shoots and then another, drifting across the heath with the others. A young fawn kicked its hind legs and butted its head into its mother; a group of young bucks rubbed their antlers against the back of a fallen log. I rubbed my face against a clump of clover and lifted my nose to sniff the fragrant air.

  Beside me, Duncan lifted his head and then rubbed his neck against mine, spreading clover and musk into my fur. A delicious tingle spread in my legs and before I knew I had decided to move we were running. Just Duncan and me now, across a wide meadow and then into the woods again. I felt Duncan’s breath hot on my neck as we ran side by side. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him, his strong neck stretched forward into the run, his fur tipped with gold, his antlers glistening with moonlight. A wild desire spurred me on while at the same time I wanted to knock myself against him, twine my neck with his, feel his rough fur against mine … but for now running together was enough. We were linked by the Aelvesgold, bound as surely as if we had been yoked.

  I don’t know how far or long we ran. The nearly full moon hung low in the western sky when we came to a stop at last beside a rushing stream that reflected the first blush of dawn in its rippled water. Duncan dipped his head to the water first and then, when he lifted his head, water dripping in moonlit pearls from his velvety antlers, I lowered my head and drank. The water was icy and tasted like winter. Of bitter bark and deep snows and hunger. It seemed to fill my veins with an icy sadness, but I would have drunk longer if Duncan hadn’t huffed and stamped the ground. I looked up, but whatever danger he sensed was invisible to me. I was losing a bit of my deerness as I grew tired, but I was still deer enough that when Duncan leapt across the stream I leapt after him.

  Only something in the water reached up to stop me, something cold and wet that snagged my hoof and pulled me down to my knees into the fast moving water. I cried out in a voice that was neither fully deer nor fully human. A face rose out of the water level with my own. I was looking into wide moss-green eyes as cold and dispassionate as river stones … and then long cold arms wrapped around my neck and pulled me under the water.

  Lorelei. She’d followed me through the door and lain in wait to drown me. I kicked out against her but my hooves only scrabbled along the creek bottom. Lorelei rode my back forcing my head under the water. The limbs that had felt so graceful on land were now clumsy. And I was tired. I had run for miles. Still I bucked and struggled. As I did, I felt myself changing. I was turning back into my human form.

  If only I could change into a fish, I thought. As quick as the thought flitted through my brain I felt myself contracting. My legs and arms hewed to my sides, my skin flaked into scales. I took a breath and drew in oxygen rich water. I was slipping out of Lorelei’s grasp …

  But I’d forgotten what undines lived on. Before I could get away, sharp claws pierced my gills. She’d skewered me like a shrimp on a spit and now she was lifting me into her gaping, needle-toothed mouth. I thrashed to get out of her grip but her claws only sank deeper into my skin. Her eyes glowed with malice and delight as she squeezed … but then suddenly they widened with surprise. Something jarred her. I felt the reverberation in my gut. I looked up and saw the shadows of branches spreading over her head – then another jolt. Lorelei screamed and turned to face her attacker, flinging me aside in her panic. I hit something hard and dry. I was on land, gasp
ing to breathe like a fish out of water … no, that wasn’t the image I needed. Like a drowning person dragged ashore. I pictured myself – my own human body – and then I was retching up water, my limbs bruised and battered, but once more my own. I was on a large flat rock that hung over the stream. Duncan, still in his deer form, stood a few feet from me, his head lowered to ward off Lorelei with his antlers. Her hair was wild and matted, her green eyes flashing, her lips curled over her sharp teeth in an angry snarl. Blood ran down her pearl-slick skin, pooling in crimson swirls around her slim legs. When I sat up, her eyes snapped from Duncan to me.

  “I see you didn’t waste time finding another male to protect you, Doorkeeper. Is that why you don’t want the undines free to come to this world – because you want all the men to yourself?”

  “I’m trying to keep the door open!” I cried.

  Lorelei laughed. “By running naked in the woods?”

  I looked down at myself and saw with horror that she was right – I was naked.

  “And copulating with that handsome buck?” She gave Duncan an appreciative look.

  “I was not …” But before I could finish she raised her arms and summoned a thunderclap that would have drowned out anything I was going to say. The boom was followed by a torrent of rain that came down like a curtain on the last act of a bloody and tragic opera. Lorelei dove into the water and swam away with the current. Duncan lifted his head and turned, becoming a man again. A rather nicely built man, I couldn’t help noticing as he waded naked through the water toward me. That linen suit had been hiding a muscular chest and strong arms. And lovely hands, I noticed as he laid them on my ribcage.

  “You’re hurt,” he said. “Lie back and I’ll work a binding spell to heal your skin.”

  “What if she comes back?” I asked as I lay down on the rock, mortified that I was naked. I hadn’t minded running through the fields with Duncan Laird or nuzzling him in deer form, but I was now all too aware that we’d only met a few hours ago.

  “She won’t come back,” he said. “She’s hurt too. I speared her with my antlers.” His lips twitched into a smile at his prowess, but his eyes stayed on the wounds on my ribcage as he moved his hands over them. He was making a motion with his right hand that resembled sewing. Great, I thought, my spine had been knitted and now my ribs were being sewn up by invisible thread. I’d be a Raggedy Ann doll before long. I felt a tug on my skin and looked away, back to his face.

  “She was going to kill me,” I said, trying to focus on Duncan’s face instead of what his hands were doing. It was a nice face to focus on. Without the distraction of his messy hair – plastered now to his skull – and square glasses I could admire his high forehead and the angular line of his cheekbones. “Even though I told her that I was going to try to keep the door open.”

  “You can’t expect rational thinking from an undine, especially one in heat – and believe me, that one was. You said you wouldn’t let her come through the door when you met her in Faerie. That was enough for her to decide you’re trying to keep her from breeding. No matter how much you may actually be trying to help the undines she sees you as an obstacle to her breeding … hold on, this is going to pinch a little …” Duncan made one last tug that hurt like hell, then he laid both his hands on top of the wounds, closed his eyes, and uttered a few words in a language I didn’t recognize. I felt a warming sensation and then my skin went agreeably numb. Duncan opened his eyes and looked straight into mine. Against the backdrop of grey rain clouds they were a fiery gold that smoldered with the same warmth I felt in his hands. Which still lay on my bare skin.

  “Are you … um … still healing me?” I asked awkwardly.

  He shook his head. “I’m trying to feel if your power has been unblocked. It feels different, but still … tangled. Perhaps another transformation would work better. Another shape might be more liberating. We have to try something else. It’s more important now than ever that you gain control of your power.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “To protect yourself. As long as Lorelei believes that you’re in the way of her breeding cycle, she’ll continue to try to kill you.”

  Duncan walked me back to my house, supporting me with his arm around my waist. He’d conjured clothes for both of us but they were soon so wet they didn’t do much good keeping us warm.

  “There’s one thing I don’t understand,” I said, after a long silence.

  “Hm … just one thing?”

  I laughed. “No, actually there are many things, but one uppermost. Aelvesgold comes from Faerie, right?”

  “Yes. Creatures from Faerie bring it with them when they come into this world.”

  “Right, and witches use it to make magic …”

  “Yes,” he said, holding back a sodden branch for me. The path was narrow here. I was conscious of my wet clothes brushing against him as I passed and I was glad it was too dark for him to see how my clothes clung to me, which was ridiculous considering that he’d seen me naked not half an hour ago.

  “But Liz said the circle had a limited amount of it, and yet tonight I saw it all around me.”

  “Yes, that’s because after you handled the Aelvestone you were filled with the stuff and drew even more of it to you. Think of the Aelvesgold as having a magnetic charge – the more you have inside you, the more you draw it to you.”

  “Huh. Okay, so couldn’t there conceivably be enough Aelvesgold in this world to supply all the witches and fairies even if the door closes?”

  Duncan shook his head. “Without replenishment from Faerie it would run out rather soon, unless …”

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless there was a creature that produced its own Aelvesgold even outside of Faerie.”

  “You mean the way the undines lay an egg of Aelvesgold to protect their young?”

  He made a face, either from pain or from squeamishness at talking about women’s reproductive cycles. “Not exactly. Undines only make enough extra Aelvesgold to protect their eggs. Once they lay their eggs they’re entirely depleted of Aelvesgold. If they don’t go back to Faerie they’ll wither and die. No, I’m talking about a creature that makes its own Aelvesgold in this world and never needs to go back to Faerie. If there were a race of creatures like that they would rule the whole world and we wouldn’t have to worry about the door closing. I could do some research into it today and return this evening.”

  We’d reached my back door. “What about Lorelei?” I asked. “We have to tell Liz and the others that she’s here in Fairwick.”

  “I’ll alert your dean to the situation. You should try to get some rest. Transformations take a lot out of you.”

  Before he left, he lowered his head and touched his cheek to mine, less a kiss than a nuzzle; a brief reminder of how we’d touched last night when we were deer. But instead of leaning into it, as I had when we were deer, I flinched. He stepped back and stared at me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m …”

  “Exhausted,” he finished for me. “Get some sleep.” Then he was gone.

  I opened the back door, chiding myself for reacting to Duncan’s touch like a … well, like a startled deer. Duncan was a nice man. He was trying to help. If I acted like that to every man who touched me I was going to be alone for a long time in this big silent house.

  Silent.

  I listened for a moment until I had confirmed my first impression. The rain pounded on the roof but there was no ping or patter of falling water within the house. Bill had managed to seal the leaks – at least temporarily – with his tarps. What a prince! I might end up alone in this big old house, but at least I’d found someone to take care of it.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I SLEPT SOUNDLY and dreamlessly. In the morning I awoke to sunshine and the sound of hammering. I dressed, noticing that the wounds on my ribcage were almost entirely healed. Duncan Laird was quite a powerful wizard. I shivered a little recalling his hands on me – on my naked body. How would I ev
er face him again? The transformation I’d undergone last night hadn’t unlocked my power and now we had another problem – a crazed undine on the loose who somehow thought I was keeping her from breeding.

  I wasn’t going to figure out what to do without some coffee, though. In fact, I was so foggy that I could swear that I smelled coffee. I went downstairs and found Bill, in navy sweatshirt and baseball cap, in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee into my favorite mug.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in,” he said, handing me the mug. “I wanted to get an early start so I used the key under your gnome.”

  “Oh,” I said, taking the mug, “how did you know the key was under the gnome?”

  He grinned. “Everyone in this town keeps their key under their gnome. Anyway, I just wanted to check that the tarps kept the water out last night.”

  “Oh yes,” I said taking a sip of the coffee. It was delicious, a perfect combination of the two blends I kept in my freezer. “I didn’t hear any drips at all. You did a great job.”

  He pulled his cap over his eyes and looked embarrassed at the praise. “It’s just a temporary solution,” he mumbled. “I’d better get to work on the roof. I think the rain’s letting up.”

  I looked out the window above the sink and saw a line of clearing sky through the woods in back. Lorelei must have gotten tired of making it rain … or her wounds had worn her out. Ha! I thought, she probably didn’t have a talented wizard like Duncan to heal her wounds.

  “… So if you just okay this estimate …” Bill was holding the clipboard out to me, head ducked, feet shuffling.

  “Oh, of course. You’ll need a down payment. How much …?” I looked down at the statement and was pleasantly surprised by the total. “That seems fair,” I said. “Can I write you a check for half now and half when you’re done?”

  Bill grunted assent and I went to get my checkbook out of my desk drawer. When I came down he was in the foyer on his hands and knees. At first I thought he’d slipped on the wet floor and I wondered if the house was deliberately sabotaging anyone who tried to fix it, but then he looked up and I saw he was holding an old rag in his hands.