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"What did you get all over yourself?" Sarah grabbed asp

Each finger bore a strip of color down its center My pinkie was streaked with brown, er, and red blazed down er in an iether onon to the fleshy mound at its base in a braided, reen that wandered down froiven the fate of most of my houseplants The five-colored twist traveled the short distance to s--the pentacle

"My weaver’s cords They’reinside me" I looked up at Matthew in disbelief

But most weavers used nine cords, not five I turned overstrands: black on er, and silver on er bore no color at all And the colors that twisted down toand no end that looked like a snake with its tail in its mouth It was the de Cler?" Abby asked

Still staring at ers An explosion of colored threads illuminated the air

"What was that?" Sarah’s eyes were round

"Threads They bind the worlds and govern ic," I explained

Corra chose thatShe swooped down the stillroo and wheezing, she lurched to her feet

"Is thata dragon?" Caleb asked

"No, it’s a souvenir," Sarah said "Diana brought it back with her froland"

"Corra’s not a souvenir She’s my familiar," I whispered

Sarah snorted "Witches don’t have familiars"

"Weavers do," I said Matthew’s hand rested onquiet support "You’d better call Vivian I need to tell you soan, her hands wrapped tight around a stea of coffee

"Firedrake," I interrupted

"So it--"

"She Corra is a female"

"--is your familiar?" Vivian finished

"Yes Corra appeared when I wove onser, firedrakes?" Abby shifted her legs on the family-room couch We were all settled around the television, except for John, who had slept peacefully through the excitement

"No My teacher, Goody Alsop, had a fetch--a shadow self She was inclined toward air, you see, and a weaver’s fa to a witch’s eleest utterance I’d ever ible to any of the witches present, who didn’t know a thing about weavers

"I have an affinity for water as well as fire," I explained, plunging on "Unlike dragons, firedrakes are as comfortable in the sea as in the flames"

"They’re also able to fly," Vivian said "Firedrakes actually represent a triplicity of elemental power"

Sarah looked at her in astonishree in medieval literature Wyverns--or firedrakes, if you prefer--were once coends"

"But youyou’re my accountant," Sarah sputtered

"Do you have any idea how lish majors are accountants?" Vivian asked with raised eyebrows She returned her attention to me "Can you fly, Diana?"

"Yes," I ad witches It was showy, and therefore undesirable if you wanted to live quietly a humans

"Do other weavers shi her head

"I don’t know if there are other weavers There weren’t many left, even in the sixteenth century

Goody Alsop was the only one in the British Isles after the Scottish weaver was executed There was a weaver in Prague And my father was a weaver, too It runs in families"

"Stephen Proctor was not a weaver," Sarah said tartly "He never shimmered and had no familiar

Your father was a perfectly ordinary witch"

"The Proctors haven’t produced a really first-rate witch for generations," Vivian said apologetically

"Most weavers aren’t first-rate at anything--not by traditional standards" It was even true at a genetic level, where Matthew’s tests had revealed all sorts of contradictory ood with the craft Sarah can teach anybody hoork a spell--but not h was shaky "Daddy told o in one ear and out the other and then make up my own"

"When did Stephen tell you that?" Sarah’s voice cracked across the roootabilities from him, after all" In spite of Matthew’s insistence that I didn’t have to tell Sarah everything at once, that’s how the story was co out

"Did you see Rebecca?" Sarah ide-eyed

"No Just Daddy" Like ain had been an unexpected gift on our journey

"I’ll be da, but for a few days, there were three weavers in London We were the talk of the town" And not only because ue to William Shakespeare

Sarah opened her mouth to fire off another question, but Vivian held her hand up for quiet

"If weaving runs in families, why are there so few of you?" Vivian asked

"Because a long tihtened on the towel that Matthew had wrapped around my shoulders

"Goody Alsop told us that whole families were acy" Matthew’s fingers pressed into the tenseWar, disease, and infant mortality would have put considerable stress on those few re bloodlines"

"Why eradicate weavers? New spells would be highly desirable in any coven," Caleb asked

"I’d kill for a spell that would unfreeze my computer when John ja: the char for new endeavors

None of them seem to ith these modern electronics"