The Initiation Page 0,61

The adults seemed scared to touch them.

Saturday dawned clear and cool. Cassie went over to Diana's in the evening after spending most of the day staring at a book, pretending to read it. She was worried about the skull ceremony, but she was even more worried about Adam. No matter what happens, she told herself, no matter what, I won't let anyone know how I feel. I'll keep it a secret forever if it kills me.

Diana looked tired, as if she hadn't been getting enough sleep. It was the first time the two of them had been alone together since the initiation - since Adam came. Sitting in Diana's pretty room, looking at the prism in the window, Cassie could almost pretend that Adam hadn't come, that he didn't exist. Things had been so simple then; she'd been happy just to be with Diana.

She noticed, for the first time, another wall of art prints like the ones she'd seen the first day.

"Are these goddesses too?" she asked.

"Yes. That's Persephone, daughter of the goddess of growing things." Diana's voice was soft with tiredness, but she smiled at the picture. It showed a slender girl laughing as she picked an armful of flowers. All around her it was springtime, and her face was filled with the joy of being young and alive.

"And who's that?"

"Athena. She was the goddess of wisdom. She never married either, like Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. All the other gods used to go to her for advice."

It was a tall goddess with a wide brow and clear, calm gray eyes. Well, of course they're gray; it's a black-and-white print, Cassie told herself. But somehow she felt they'd be gray anyway, and full of cool, thoughtful intelligence.

Cassie turned to the next print. "And who's - "

Just then there was the sound of voices downstairs. "Hello? Anybody up there? The front door was unlocked."

"Come on up," Diana called. "My dad's at work - as usual."

"Here," Laurel said, appearing in the doorway. "I thought you might like these. I got them along the way." She held out an armful of mixed flowers to Diana.

"Oh, Bouncing Bet! They're such a pretty pink, and I can dry them for soap later. And wild snapdragon and sweet melilot. I'll go get a vase."

"I would have brought some roses from the garden, but we used them all for purifying the skull."

Melanie smiled at Cassie. "So how's our newest witch?" she said, her cool gray eyes not unsympathetic. "Totally confused?"

"Well... a little confused. I mean" - Cassie picked at random one of the things she didn't understand - "how do you purify a skull with roses?"

"You'd better ask Laurel that; she's the expert on plants."

"And Melanie," said Laurel, "is the expert on stones and crystals, and this is a crystal skull."

"But just what is a crystal, exactly?" Cassie said. "I don't think I even know that."

"Well." Melanie sat down at Diana's desk as Diana came back and began to arrange the flowers. Laurel and Cassie sat on the bed. Cassie really did want to know about the things the Circle used to do magic. Even if she could never do the one spell she wanted to, she was still a witch.

"Well, some people call crystals 'fossilized water,' " Melanie said, her voice taking on a mock-lecturing tone. "Water combines with an element to make them grow. But I like to think of them as a beach."

Laurel snorted and Cassie blinked. "A beach?"

Melanie smiled. "Yes. A beach is sand and water, right? And sand is silicon. When you put silicon with water, under the right conditions, it forms silicon dioxide - quartz crystal. So water plus sand plus heat plus pressure equals a crystal. The remains of an ancient beach."

Cassie was fascinated. "And that's what the skull is made of?"

"Yes. It's clear quartz. There are other kinds of quartz too; other colors. Amethyst is purple. Laurel, are you wearing any?"

"What a question. Especially with a ceremony tonight." Laurel pushed her long, light-brown hair back to show Cassie her ears. In each she was wearing a dangling crystal of a deep violet color. "I like amethysts," she explained. "They're soothing and balancing. If you wear them along with rose quartz, it helps draw love to you."

Cassie's stomach clenched. As long as they could stay off subjects like love she'd be all right. "What other stones are there?" she asked Melanie.

"Oh, lots. In the quartz family there's citrine - Deborah wears a lot of that. It's yellow and