she went into the kitchen for a piece of fruit to quiet her gnawing stomach. She found Sarah sitting in the breakfast nook with a cup of herbal tea. When Sarah looked at her, her expression softened with kindness. “Was it as hard as you thought it might be?”
“Yes and no.” She rubbed her face, grabbed a banana, and went to sit opposite Sarah. “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but that somehow made it worse. I don’t have the right words.” She peeled the banana and looked at it. “We swore and yelled at each other and came to a compromise of sorts.”
“It looks like you hate it.”
“I think we both do.” She poured out the details of what they had decided while Sarah listened sympathetically. “So I have eighteen weeks to train for a possible confrontation with an evil, potentially thousand-year-old witch. In the meantime, I can always hope that Josiah and his coven find and kill him first.” She twitched a shoulder. “And survive.”
Other than a small wince, Sarah took the news with the appearance of calm. “I see. It looks like we have our work cut out for us.”
“Thank you for not saying it’s impossible.” She looked outside. The morning was sunny with a mild temperature and another cool breeze blowing off the jade-colored water. Outside, the sky was a clear, bright aquamarine blue. Golden light streamed in from the windows.
“I thought I would avoid stating the obvious,” Sarah said dryly. “I hope you enjoy studying for long hours. Do you need to go to bed?”
She had napped on the plane, so she shook her head.
“All right. Have you finished reading the books I gave you last week?”
Molly nodded. The week before, Sarah had given her a pendulum to work with along with the books.
“How is practice with your new pendulum going?”
“Would you like to see?”
“Please.”
She pulled the amethyst on a sterling silver chain out of her purse and held it steadily in front of her, in the position described in one of the books. The pendulum started rocking back and forth. Then it began to spin until it whirled in a circular movement perpendicular to the table.
Sarah’s eyes widened. Molly tilted her mouth in a wry slant. When the pendulum began to spin so fast it whistled through the air, she clapped it between both hands. “You tell me. How am I doing?”
“Oh dear,” Sarah murmured. “Well, it can take students several months to master how to use a pendulum, so don’t feel discouraged. Let me show you how it’s supposed to go.”
Molly handed it over. Sarah propped her elbow on the table and held it in the same position as Molly had, by pinching the end of the silver chain between thumb and forefinger and letting the stone dangle freely.
Sarah said, “This is the right way to hold it. You did a good job with your positioning.”
Sarah held her other hand palm up and directly underneath the pendulum so that the dangling amethyst and chain drew a line from her raised right hand to the left hand down below. Her expression was calm, even serene. She hadn’t bothered to wear a scarf that morning, and her strong, almost aquiline face was accentuated by the smooth, round dome of her bald scalp.
At first impression, she had seemed rather plain, but as Molly had gotten to know her, she could see there was a harmony to Sarah’s features, along with the lines in the soft, tanned skin bracketing her mouth, that was pleasing to the eye. Even with the illness, she carried a sense of vitality lacking in many other people.
Sarah told her, “Now watch.”
At first nothing seemed to happen. Then the stone began to move. It swung back and forth at an angle. Sarah’s hand, she saw, remained perfectly steady, her elbow propped on the table.
“At least it’s not spinning wildly like it does for me,” Molly muttered. “But why is it doing that?”
“It’s responding to my energy, like it was responding to yours,” Sarah replied. Slowly she tilted her hands, first one way and then another, and the amethyst tilted with her, straining from the fingers of one hand to the palm of the other.
As Molly watched, there was no doubt in her mind. No matter what position Sarah held the stone in, she maintained complete control.
Molly sighed. “I’m never going to achieve that.”
“Yes, you will. When you gain mastery over your Power, the pendulum will calm down for you too.