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.She sat near me, which was good in one respect (Ididn't like the way she kept shooting little glances at Ben), but for some reason, tonight hernearness made me feel edgy.I scooted a bit away from her, hoping no one would notice.Wiccans were very big on maintaining contact in a circle.To back away from someone was aninsult.Mom took a deep breath and gave it another shot."From sea and mountain, desert and trees,By staff and sword and a mangy dog's fleas.Heed our plea!"Silence fell on the circle."Oh, dear," Navy said, leaning over to talk to one of the local Wiccans."That's not right, is it?""Earth, Fire, Water, Air," Mom said grimly, her hands fisted as she started the invocation to thegod."Elements of the stars conspire,God, father of all, come to us!Don't worry about being male, we'll make no fuss.Guard us within from all threats beyondI wonder if there are leeches in yonderpond?By wand and cup and ball and batI just know these pants make my butt look fat.Heed our plea!"Desdemona burst out into laughter at the invocation.I wanted to giggle as well, but one look atthe horror on my mother's face killed all thoughts of that.Clearly something was up to throw mymother so far off the track.I couldn't ask her what was wrong, though, because right at thatmoment, things got really weird."Goddess above—is that what I think it is?" Mikaela asked, pointing at me."Huh?" I asked, looking down at myself to see if I'd spilled something on me.Ben stood up,staring past me.I turned around to look and saw a thin, pretty woman with lots of long blond hairin the shadow of the tent behind me."It's a huldra ," one of the local Wiccans said, her voice all hushed with awe.Or something."Is that a tail ?" I asked as the stranger bent down to pick up something from the ground.I couldhave sworn there was a cow's tail popping out from under her long skirt."Yes, huldra have tails," Mikaela said, also getting to her feet."They are spirits of the wood.Atype of nymph, actually.They are supposedly harbingers of disaster, appearing briefly to warn ofimpending danger,then disappearing just as quickly—""Hey!" I yelled, jumping up as the woman snatched up the purse I'd set down in order to join thecircle."That's mine!""Franny, no!Do not break the circle—"I knew it was bad to leave a circle before it had been formally unmade, but I couldn't just let thewoman—spirit, nymph, whatever she was!—run off with my purse.It had all my money in it, forone thing, and for another, I just don't like people stealing from me.So I bolted after her as sheraced past the main tent, heading straight for a small clump of scraggy trees that marked theboundary of the archaeological dig.You should never run after a being you do not know, Ben chastised, his dark shape leaping pastme after the blond huldra.You're so cute , I thought at him, puffing just a little as I jumped over a fallen tree trunk.Ben wasfaster than me (he had longer legs plus that whole immortal thing going for him), but I wasn'tgoing to just stand around and let him be Mr.Manly and get my purse back.Anyone who had tothe nerve to steal from me had to deal with me , not my boyfriend.The archaeological dig was at the far edge of the island.It didn't look like much—a bunch of deep trenches and areas where square blocks of stone hadbeen dug out and revealed, but evidently it was hot stuff archeologically speaking.Right in thecenter of the dig, in a ragged rectangular spot framed with bits of stone that Imogen had told mewas the long house (the main living place of the Vikings who built this area), Tibolt and his gangwere having their blot , also in a circle.Because the trees surrounding the area made it dark,they'd lit a few torches and stuck them in the ground, the light cast by them making odd littleflickering shadows on everyone as they did whatever it is they did during a blot.I stopped for a minute to survey the situation.Imogen was there, as I knew she would be,looking like a goddess in a shimmering gold-and-white dress as she stood next to Tibolt.He wasdressed in some sort of long black robe, I guess his mage wear.I didn't pay too much attention towhat was going on in the blot circle because beyond them, the huldra dashed out from behind atree, and went racing across the dig site toward an unpassable rocky area.Fran,let me catch her, Ben said as his shadow flickered in and out amongst the trees.He wasfollowing the path the huldra made, but I could tell he wasn't going to catch her before she got tothe rock cliff.I sprinted to my right, along the outer edge of the blot , hoping to intercept her
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