“But I don’t believe this one’s power has been cancelled out,” Urd continued. “I felt a strong power in the room and then it was extinguished. As if it were being held back by something.” The ancient Norn got up and hobbled over to me. Now that she was standing I saw that she had a pronounced widow’s hump, and she was so bent over that she had to twist her neck to look up at me. As her eyes locked onto mine I felt a tug at the back of my neck as if the old woman had pulled tight a cord strung through my vertebrae.

“Can you be more specific?” Moondance asked, her voice impatient.

Urd wrenched her head around toward Moondance with the speed and agility of a cobra striking and Moondance reared backward. “No!” Urd snapped. “I can’t. Whatever happened to Cailleach McFay is shrouded, but she has more power than the lot of you thrown together.”

“How do we get to it?” Liz asked.

“How should I know?” Urd snapped. She hobbled back to her chair and took up her knitting again, muttering about a dropped stitch. From the chain around her waist, she snatched the sickle knife and cut through a piece of yarn. The pressure on my spine relaxed. I suspected that if the old woman wished to she could have yanked that cord and made me dance like a puppet. Skald groaned, her fingers flying over her keyboard. Verdandi started pulling stitches out of her needlepoint. I turned away from the Norns and went over to Ann. Diana was still holding her hand, stroking it gently between hers.

“Ann, I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

She smiled weakly. “It’s all right, Callie, you didn’t know what you were doing. And my hand is fine now.” She held it up and wriggled her fingers. Not only was the hand unbroken, but all signs of her arthritis were gone. Her flesh was smooth and faintly glowing. “See, as good as new – even better.”

“You should let me tend to your hands regularly,” Diana said.

Ann smiled, but shook her head. “You do enough for me, Diana. And now you’ve used up all your Aelvesgold on me.”

“And all the Aelvesgold we had to cast the circle for Brock,” Moondance remarked, clucking her tongue.

I looked back at Ann’s hand and saw that the glow in her flesh was the same honey gold as I’d seen in Faerie. A residue of gold was also on Diana’s palms, but as I watched, it faded. Not only had I broken Ann’s hand, the circle had used up their supply of Aelvesgold to heal her and there was none left to help Brock.

“Can we get more?” I asked.

“Our only dependable supply comes from Faerie,” Soheila answered. “But sometimes we find traces of it in the Undine, especially after an undine spawning. Diana and I will look for it.”

“Can I help?”

“Haven’t you done enough?” Moondance snapped.