“As for Jean,” Nuala said, returning to her folding, “I’m not blind to the girl’s faults. I can tell when sweetness is a deep well and when it’s nothing more than surface water. So I’m troubled by Fiona’s suspicions. More troubled by the fact that Jean was hunting for plants and didn’t want any of us to know.” She sighed quietly. “Her mother was a hedge witch, and that kind of magic is connected to plants and charms rather than the branches of the Great Mother. Like any gift, it can be used for good or ill. In Jean’s case, she has enough connection with earth to draw some power from that branch of the Mother. That’s a dangerous combination in someone who believes her every wish and whim should be indulged and becomes resentful when it isn’t. Fiona’s always been able to see people clearly, so her suspicions that Jean has used magic to cause mischievous harm can’t be dismissed.”

“Does she see me clearly?” Breanna asked, not sure if she wanted the answer.

Nuala folded clothes for a minute, saying nothing. Finally, she said, “We are not all the same, Breanna. We do not all have the same skills, the same abilities, the same strength. For some, the power we can draw from our branches of the Great Mother is no more than a trickle. For others, it is a small brook, or a deep stream, or a strong river. I am a deep stream, but you and Jenny…you are rivers, fast and strong. So, yes, you are different from our kin from the east—but you are not so different from many who live in the Mother’s Hills. Power runs deep there, and it runs strong.”

Thinking of Jenny, Breanna asked, “If Jenny and I are rivers, are there any witches who are the sea?”

Nuala hesitated. “If there are witches that strong, they would be very dangerous if provoked.” She made a visible effort to push that thought aside. “Enough talk with me. Go on now and find out what’s troubling Falco.”

“The threat I made frightened him. That’s what’s troubling Falco.”

“That is not the only thing.”

“What else could be troubling him?”

Breanna squirmed as Nuala turned and gave her That Look.

“That,” Nuala said, “is what you need to find out.”

He was still sitting on the bench under the tree, looking lost and lonely.

As she walked toward him, Breanna wondered just how much he had given up in order to give whatever help and protection he could against the Inquisitors. She knew he’d been shunned by the Clan whose territory was anchored to Old Willowsbrook, but had he just forfeited his family as well?

When she sat down beside him, Falco said, “Liam returned. He said he needed to soak his hands in water.”