This required careful thought – especially when Ondine had never understood how Tabitha seemed to show every sign of her grandmother's witchery. Those powers should only be able to be passed down the female line, and yet Tabitha possessed them anyway. Ondine had wondered about Maude's own blood at first – but she knew in her heart that Maude was not a witch. And so her extraordinary granddaughter remained a puzzle.
No, Ondine was not happy about having to lie to Tabitha. And she thought she ought to give her some inkling of what she now wore around her neck. But what could she tell her? Ondine didn't know.
And so Tabitha grew up believing her mother to be dead, and without knowing that the stone she wore around her neck was a door between worlds. It became a constant source of worry for Ondine, that she was the only one who would know what to do if strange things started happening in the village.
And strange things did.
Notes
Dear reader,
Thanks very much for reading The Hagstone. I hope that you enjoyed it, and I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that the story isn't over just yet! The Hagstone continues with Tabitha's story in The River Witch, the first book in the River Witch series.
In the meantime, by remaining on my mailing list you'll be treated to fascinating facts about Faerie and folklore, the opportunity to win River Witch goodies, and other literary nuggets. Lovely.
The River Witch
The Kingdom of Faerie has been sleeping for centuries, through the ages of iron and metal and glass. But now technology has failed, the digital world is over and, finally, something has disturbed the fae from slumber…
Tabitha is a misfit. She's hopelessly naïve, more comfortable in the pages of her books than talking to the other villagers, and spends most of her time chattering away to the river that runs through her village.
The rest of the village all agree – she is definitely odd.
But when the little folk start wreaking havoc and something old and terrible wakes up in the river, it falls to Tabitha to leave home in search of the fabled Iron City, home to the only humans who still have any memory of the fae and who might be able to help her village.
Tabitha wasn't born an adventurer. And with only a simple book of fairytales to help her navigate this strange new world full of faeries and sprites and pixies, she quickly finds herself way out of her depth...
Get The River Witch on Amazon now
The Hagstone Page 8
