A Great and Terrible Beauty

"Who are these women here?" Ann points a pudgy finger at the worn drawings.

"The Morrigan was a threefold goddess, often seen as a beautiful maiden, the great mother, and the bloodthirsty crone. She could change shape at will. Quite fascinating, really." Felicity regards Miss Moore coolly. "How did you come to know so much about goddesses and such, Miss Moore?"

Miss Moore leans her face in toward Felicity's till they're separated by only a breath or two. I think Felicity is really going to be raked over the coals for being so cheeky. Miss Moore speaks slowly, deliberately. "I know because I read." She pulls back and stands, hands on hips, offering us a challenge. "May I suggest that you all read? And often. Believe me, it's nice to have something to talk about other than the weather and the Queen's health. Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating. Now, I think we've had enough of mythology. Let's do some sketching, shall we?"

Dutifully, we take out our sketching pads and slender reeds of charcoal. Already Pippa is complaining that the cave is too hot for sketching. The truth is that she can't draw. Not a whit. Everything she attempts ends up looking like a clump of gloomy rocks, and she's not a good sport about it. Ann is tackling her project with her usual perfectionism, making small, careful strokes on the page. My charcoal flies across the pad, and when I'm finished, I've captured the smudgy likeness of the hunt goddess, spear in hand, a deer running ahead of her. It seems bare, so I add a few symbols of my own. Soon, the bottom of the page is filled with the moon-and-eye symbol of my mother's necklace.

"Very interesting, Miss Doyle." Miss Moore peers over my shoulder. "You've drawn the crescent eye."

"There's a name for this?"

"Oh, yes. It's a very famous symbol. A bit like the Freemasons' pyramid."

Ann speaks up. "It's like that strange necklace you wear."

The girls stare at me, suspicious. I could kick Ann and her big mouth. Miss Moore arches an eyebrow. "You have this symbol on a necklace?"

With effort, I pull the amulet out from its hiding place under my high collar. "It was my mother's. It was given to her by a village woman a long time ago."

Miss Moore stoops down to examine it. She rubs a thumb over the hammered metal of the moon. "Yes, that's it, all right."

"What is it, exactly?" I say, tucking it back inside my bodice.

Miss Moore stands, adjusts her hat on her head. "Legend has it that the crescent eye was the symbol of the Order."

"The what?" Cecily says, making a face.

"You've never heard of the Order?" Miss Moore says, as if this should be as familiar to us as basic arithmetic.

"Do tell us, Miss Moore!" Pippa's over in a flash. She'd do anything to get out of drawing. "Ah, the Order. Now, there's an interesting story. If I can remember my folklore correctly, they were a powerful group of sorceresses who'd been around since the dawn of time. Supposedly they had access to a mystical world beyond this one, a place of many realms where they could work their magic."

Kartik mentioned realms. So did Mary Dowd's diary. My skin has gone cold, and I'm desperate to know more.

"What sort of magic?" I hear myself asking.

"The greatest of them allthe power of illusion."

"That doesn't seem terribly special to me," Cecily scoffs.

Elizabeth folds her arms. It's obvious they don't have much use for Miss Moore.

"Really, Miss Temple? That comb in your hairit is the latest fashion, isn't it?"

Cecily is flattered. "Why, yes, it is."

"And does that make you fashionable? Or does it merely create the illusion that you are?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." Cecily's eyes blaze.

"I'm sure you don't," Miss Moore says. Her wry smile is back.

"Could they do anything else?" I ask.

"Oh, yes. These women could help spirits cross over into the afterlife. They had the power of prophecy and clairvoyance. The veil between the supernatural world and this one was a very thin one for them. They could see and feel things that others couldn't."

My mouth is dry as sawdust." Visions?"

"You're awfully interested," Elizabeth taunts. Felicity yanks a lock of her hair and she yelps, then quiets.

"How did they get to that other world?" It's Felicity's voice now, asking the question I want the answer to. Cold shivers run down my arms.