Blessed of the Earth by Annette Wilson

Author:Annette Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781481066
Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing
Published: 2012-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

Lindy trudged to Margaret’s home one morning, the pain in her head pounding in time with her footsteps. What Margaret had called her special power roiled in her stomach and banged behind her eyes, almost driving her to distraction. She knocked at the door of the old wicce’s cottage and went in without waiting to be invited, as she always did now. Margaret was waiting for her as usual, and on the kitchen table was a cup from which rose an inviting plume of steam. ‘Sit down and drink this,’ she said as soon as Lindy had removed her cloak and hung it on the hook behind the kitchen door. ‘Today I want to teach you how to journey outside your body, one of our most prized skills. Close your eyes, and take deep slow breaths.’

Lindy obeyed, tasting unfamiliar bitterness in the hot drink. She wondered of what it was made. She rested her head against the back of the high kitchen chair, and waited. At first, it seemed that nothing happened at all. There was just herself and Margaret, sitting quietly in their seats, and Elsie lying under the table, sleeping. Her dreams appeared to be happy ones, for her tail wagged slightly to and fro. Margaret placed the tip of her right forefinger on Lindy’s closed lips. ‘Think of your mouth. Concentrate your mind upon it. Now imagine, if you can, that your ferth is turning to smoke, pale smoke, and is rising up through your body. Do not try to prevent it. As you breathe in, draw up the ferth, and then puff it out through your mouth.’ Lindy breathed in and out, thinking of the life- smoke moving within her, surging up her throat, and filling her mouth. She opened her lips, released a sharp hiss of air, and found to her astonishment that she was standing on the floor next to her chair. Yet she still sat in the chair, or her body did. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was now two, the Lindy in the chair and the one standing by looking almost exactly the same. The difference was that the chair Lindy appeared to be in a deep sleep. Margaret stood and sat beside her, also become two.

‘That is very good indeed,’ she said encouragingly. ‘How do you feel?’

‘Am I, am I dead? Lindy faltered, not really knowing how she felt. ‘Are you dead too?’

‘No, we are still alive,’ Margaret assured her. ‘We have left our bodies, that is all. They will be quite safe until we are ready to enter them again. Come over to the window.’

It was not difficult to move. Copying her teacher, Lindy lifted one foot and then the other, just as she did when walking. She held her out her hand to the window, and saw her hand push into the glass, so that it was outside the room. She shuddered. Of course, she had heard of travelling outside one’s body, but had never expected to be able to do it herself.

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