"Ground and center," she said, laying down the bronze and passing her hand over the pool. "Ground and center. Be at one with each other and the world beyond."

They knelt around the still surface of the spring-fed pond. After moments that might have been hours or only minutes the focus lifted. Then each drew the wand of blessed rowan-wood from their girdles and touched the surface of the water. Signe sprinkled it with mugwort, picked at the full of the moon.

"We ask aid of You," Juniper said. "Lugh of the many skills, God whose vision dispels ignorance; Brigid, Goddess of high places and the knowledge that carries the self beyond the self. From the longing of our hearts, we ask that You gift us in this holy place with the dara sealladh, the sight which pierces to the hidden truth."

"Show me my child. Show me Edain," Melissa asked, and closed her eyes.

"Show me my daughters," Signe said, and did likewise. "Show me Mary and Ritva."

"I ask as Your priestess, and as a mother to the Mother," Juniper said. "Show me my son. Show me Rudi." She hesitated, and then used his Craft name: "Show me Artos."

TheScourgeofGod

CHAPTER ONE

High was the Mackenzie hearth

Dun Juniper, Gods-favored hall

And goodly its treasures

Song and feast, harp and verse

Rang often there and well

But far and wild were the wanderings

That Artos must endure

Hard-handed hero, well companioned From: The Song of Bear and Raven

Attributed to Fiorbhinn Mackenzie, 1st century CY

SNAKE RIVER PLAIN, BOISE/NEW DESERET BORDER
JULY 21, CY23/2021 AD

"We'd be a lot farther east if we'd gone the southern route," Edain Aylward Mackenzie grumbled quietly. "If we're going to this Nantucket place for the Sword, I'd prefer we just go."