Agnieszka guides me over to the fire pit, where there are some glowing coals from earlier. She instructs me to sit in a very specific spot between the fire and the altar, facing north. After checking my position, she coaches me to scoot over a minute amount, then tells me not to move once the ritual begins. “The more still you are, the better the cloak will adhere.”
Patrycja throws some kindling on top of the coals and coaxes the fire to life again. Berta and Martyna stand next to the altar and begin chopping up bundles of herbs they had already laid out for the purpose.
Ewelina hauls over a bucket of water and pours it carefully into the cauldron. When she finishes, she looks up and catches me watching her. Her teeth flash at me and she throws up the horns. “Rock on.”
The rest of the witches stand around me in a circle, with gaps for the others to take their places later. Malina kneels down next to me to explain what will happen.
“The true nature of our divination cloak is really a blessing bestowed upon you by the Zoryas. With their help, we are going to hide you from the second sight, the third eye, the fourth horseman, the fifth element, the sixth sense, the seventh son, and all other seers, deities, and methods of extrasensory perception.”
I have so many questions after hearing that list, but the one thing I really want to ask about is the fifth element. I keep my mouth shut, though, because I don’t want to lose any Druid Wisdom Points and it already sounds like they are giving me the equivalent of a Multipass.
“Once this blessing is bestowed,” Malina continues, “it can be removed, as your Indian friend removed the cloak from Mr. O’Sullivan’s sword. But it will require a skilled practitioner of the magical arts and ritual. It’s not something you can cancel easily.”
“Understood. But what about cold iron?”
“Mr. O’Sullivan’s cold iron aura never affected the sword’s cloak, and he handled it often. You have that talisman,” she says, pointing to my amulet, “and you can wear it all you want afterward. But I need you to remove it now so that we can target you for the ritual.”
“Oh. All right.” I take off my necklace and put it over Orlaith’s head, asking her to keep it safe for me.
“Your hound will need to remain outside the circle, by the way.”
I ask Orlaith to wait for me outside the circle, with my amulet and Scáthmhaide, and once she does I feel acutely vulnerable, because the Sisters of the Three Auroras could target me with something else now and this might be the end of a long con on the gullible young Druid. I don’t know whether to be proud of my paranoia or saddened that I think so poorly of these women who have done nothing but be kind to me so far. I mean, except for that time Klaudia snared me with those charmed lips of hers.
The question, I suppose, is whether getting a divination cloak is worth possibly dying for. Considering all I have already gone through to get it—getting bitten by a snake-god—I think I have to answer yes. I certainly can’t continue to be the method by which Atticus’s many enemies track him down. And until I get this cloak, I can’t even begin to free myself from all his entanglements. This god or that Fae monstrosity or the other evil wizard bro will continue to use me to get to him, unless I do something about it. And fuck that. I’m not going to be their stepping stone or hostage or anything else. I want myself removed from the picture. In practical terms, not getting the cloak would probably be just as deadly as letting the sisters have their free shot at me now.
“This will take about an hour, and all you’ll hear is Polish from now on,” Malina says, rising and taking her place in the circle.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Berta says. When I turn around, she waves at the chopped-up plants on the altar. “We have to throw some of this stuff in the pot there, and it might smell bad. We have to sprinkle some of this on you too.”
“But you won’t smell bad!” Martyna hastens to reassure me. “Only the boiling stuff smells bad. We need you to have some of the raw stuff on you for focusing.”
“Oh … okay,” I say. “You did all this for Fragarach?”
“We sure did,” Malina replies. “It’s only an hour of work. Mr. O’Sullivan had to do much more than that to earn it. And you had to do much more as well.”
That is certainly the truth, but as Martyna dumps a load of yarrow and some other herbs I can’t immediately identify into my hair and on my shoulders, I say, “No, I mean this.” I jerk a thumb at my beflowered hair. “You sprinkled herbs on the scabbard and had the cauldron and everything? In Tempe?”
“Yes. We had a secluded spot in the desert for our outdoor rituals.”
I cough, then sneeze from the pollen. “Maybe I can use your shower afterward.”