Page 40 of A Dance with the Fae (Mistress of Magic #1)

‘This is where you will learn our magic.’ Levantiana gestured to the altar table. ‘Whether or not you can wield the power is another thing.’

‘I’m a quick learner,’ Faye said. ‘You’ll only have to tell me something once.’

‘We will see.’

Levantiana took Faye’s hand and led her to the golden table and the ice sphere.

As well as the sphere which hung untethered above the table, the table held a large, gilded chalice.

The bowl of the cup was easily a foot wide, and engraved with the familiar spirals that were everywhere in the castle.

Faye recognised the alchemical symbol for water, the triangle with its point facing downwards.

The cup was half-full with water which glinted silver in the odd light, and Faye saw a seven-pointed star engraved on its front.

Alongside the large chalice, seaweed and shells were strewn on the table, as well as a crystal ball – bigger than the one in the shop, and completely flawless – and a wand.

Faye gasped, recognising it: it looked exactly the same as Grandmother’s wand, down to the writing inscribed on its shaft.

‘You have a matching wand.’ Levantiana nodded at the wand. ‘It was given to Grainne Morgan, and has remained in the possession of the Morgan women since then.’

‘What does this say? My Gaelic isn’t great,’ Faye asked. ‘May I touch it?’

‘You may.’ Levantiana watched her as she picked up the wand and turned it over in her hand.

‘ A rèir an tròcair mhòir, Glòir agus cumhachd do Rìgh agus do Bhanrigh Mhurias, mar a bha e aig an toiseach, agus a-nis, agus gu bràth ,’ Faye read aloud haltingly; she recognised the words from the wand in the shop, but couldn’t translate them. ‘What does it mean?’

‘ According to their great mercy, Glory and Power to the King and Queen of Murias, as it was at the beginning, and is now, and forever ,’ Levantiana recited.

‘It is a wand of great power, made by me from the finest faerie glass and from the wood of our sacred willow grove. I made this one, and the one belonging to your family as a gift. To symbolise our bond and our interconnectedness. The witches honour the fae and the elemental powers, and the fae keep the balance and peace of natural energies in the human world.’

‘I had no idea.’ Faye felt the same thrumming energy in this wand as she had in the one at home.

‘You should. This has been part of the problem; your recent ancestors were too lax when it came to passing on the knowledge they had.’ Levantiana looked grave. ‘I doubt you even know the power of the wand. What it can do.’

‘No,’ Faye confessed. ‘What can it do?’

‘It is from Murias. It has the power to summon water, to cleanse and consecrate, to channel the elemental power of water and, if the power has already been summoned, to send it back. Reverse it, or divert it. It also has the power to protect the user from fae creatures of this realm,’ Levantiana explained.

‘How would I do that?’ Faye asked.

‘Hold the wand in your left hand. Ideally, you will be near some source of water, then you need to bring the water into contact with the wand –even a sprinkle will be enough. Then, trace the appropriate sigil in the air in front of you. Here’ – Levantiana held up a sigil engraved onto a copper disc.

Faye realised that there was one exactly the same in the cabinet in the shop – ‘you have one of these, too.’

‘Yes. I didn’t know what it was for.’

‘It is the sacred symbol of water activation. Which any fae in Murias knows, but apparently you do not. Humans are ignorant, but witches should know better,’ she said disapprovingly.

‘Once activated, and the words read aloud, the sigil cast’ – she repeated the Gaelic phrase again – ‘the wand just needs your intention. If your powers of visualisation are clear and focused, you will find many uses for the wand.’

‘What does that mean?’ Faye frowned.

‘Imagine it and it will happen.’ Levantiana rolled her eyes. ‘I wonder exactly what your mother taught you at all.’

‘She taught me a lot of things,’ Faye argued, protective of the memory of Moddie.

‘Not the right things, it would seem,’ Levantiana replied archly. ‘Try it.’ She nodded at the wand. ‘Summon the element. Not difficult to do, in the heart of the elemental kingdom.’

‘Fine.’ Feeling like an errant child, Faye took the wand in her left hand as instructed and read aloud the words on it.

She felt the wand humming in her hand, a subtle but definite vibration. She dipped the wand into the large chalice that sat on the altar, then, looking at the copper disc, copied its shape in the air in front of her. Then, she closed her eyes.

Summon the element.

Faye didn’t know exactly what to do, but she thought of a stream of water.

A pretty, countryside stream, trickling its way through a beautiful forest. It was gentle and tranquil.

She concentrated as hard as she could on the image.

She thought about what the stream would sound like, smell like, even.

She opened her eyes and looked down. She felt as though she had stepped in a puddle. But what she saw under her feet made her exclaim out loud. ‘Oh!’

A stream flowed through Levantiana’s chamber, gurgling over their feet. The water glittered in the lamplight, and Faye knelt down to touch it with her fingertips to see if it was real, or an illusion.

It was real. Tiny, gleaming fish and fronds of green weeds inhabited its flow.

‘Oh my…wow.’ Faye looked up at Levantiana, who stood with her arms crossed, her expression unreadable. ‘I did it!’

‘You did, sidhe-leth .’ The faerie queen inclined her head delicately. ‘It looks as if you are not quite as ignorant or talentless as I assumed.’