osmosis, has moved back to her own place. I don't like Mia being alone for long."
"We'll get you off to play house," Ripley began, then saw the icy temper on Sam's face. "Hey, hey. Easy, Sam. We're on the same team, remember?"
"It's hot out here." With that, Sam turned and strode into the house.
"Edgy," Ripley said as he passed.
"Who isn't? Here come Nell and Zack. Let's get started."
Within ten minutes, Sam found his little cottage taken over. Nell, obviously anticipating the state of his supplies, had brought cookies and a cooler of iced tea. She managed to set it all up like a party even as Mac spread his notes and books over the table.
"Nell, would you sit down?" Zack tugged her toward a chair. "Get the kid off his feet for five minutes."
"Hey, I've got double." Ripley boosted herself onto the kitchen counter, snagged a cookie. "So, I'll start. Nell and I decided to do a little spying yesterday - "
"It wasn't spying."
"It would've been," Ripley said, "if we'd pulled it off. But we couldn't. Mia's totally blocked. She's got herself locked up like a vault."
"And you think this is news?" Sam asked.
"She's got something going on in that prissy brain of hers that she doesn't want anyone to know," Ripley continued. "It's irritating, but more, it's got us worried."
"She's worked out what she's going to do."
"I think you're right about that," Mac said to Sam. "The other night when we were together, she said something about knowing all the aspects, the interpretations. It got me thinking. On the surface, it's pretty cut and dried. Her task, let's call it, deals with love. Love without boundaries. We can take that to mean she's meant to love that way, or to let go, freely, of an attachment that restricted her. Sorry," he added.
"We've been through this before."
"Yeah, but what seems cut and dried rarely is. The first sister, her counterpart, trapped the man she loved. You take a silkie's pelt, you bind him to the land and to you. They had a life together, a family. But his feelings for her were a result of magic, not free will. When he found his pelt, he reverted, left her."
"He couldn't stay," Sam put in.
"No argument. Now, a possible interpretation is that Mia is required to find a love without boundaries. One that comes to her without qualification or magic. That just is what it is."
"I'm in love with her. I've told her."
"She has to believe you." Zack laid a hand on Sam's shoulder. "And either accept or let you go."
"But that's not the only interpretation. You need to follow along here." Mac picked up one of the old books, opened it to a section he had marked.
"This is a history of the island, written in the early seventeen hundreds, that used documents I've never seen. If Mia has those documents, you didn't get them from the library."
"She wouldn't keep them there." Worry clouded Sam's gaze. "She'd probably have them in her tower."
"I'd like to see them, but for our purposes, this is enough. It goes into the legend in some detail," Mac continued. "I'm going to hit the highlights."
He adjusted his glasses, skimmed down the yellowed page. " 'By magic it was formed, by magic it will thrive or perish. So the choices of the circle deem life or death, one times three. Blood of their blood, hand of their hand. The three who live must face the dark, each to her own.
" 'And Air must find her courage. To turn from what would destroy her or to stand against it.' You did both," Mac said to Nell. " 'When she will see herself, give herself for what she loves, the circle is unbroken. So Earth will seek her justice, without blade or lance. To shed no blood but her own in defense of what she is, and all she loves.' "
Ripley turned her hand palm up and studied the thin scar that slashed across it. "I guess we pulled that
one off."
"You had a choice." Mac turned to her. "More of a choice than we'd realized. 'And when her justice is meted with compassion, the circle is unbroken. Thus Fire must look into her heart, open it and leave it bare. To see love with no boundaries and offer for what she holds dear, life. When her heart is free, the circle is unbroken. The power of the Three will join, will hold. Four elements rise and end the Dark.' "
"Sacrifice?