Page 16 of The Snow Witch

Ollie nodded and clattered his fork down noisily. He’d been playing with it the whole time. He leant back in his seat and looked at Violet. ‘Cute charm. So – beat my weirdness. Go!’

‘Riiiighhhht.’ Violet leant forwards. ‘How about this: I went to Coventina’s Well. And I saw something that looked like a dagger lying around. Just a small one – big enough to hurt you with, though. And I mean, Coventina’s Well is a sacred space at the end of the day, so I didn’t like to think about a dagger being left there. It just seemed wrong.’ Violet shuddered.

‘Why is it a sacred space?’ Ollie was intrigued. ‘Isn’t there a temple nearby anyway?’

‘Yes, there’s the Mithraic Temple. And there used to be a Shrine to the Water Nymphs just along Meggie’s Dene Burn – where Meg’s ashes were scattered for her beliefs. But Coventina’s Well is dedicated to a goddess who the Pagans believed made the snow thaw and the spring come. People still believe in that. And when you have three places like that together, four if you include the fact it’s probably where poor Meg met her fate, something’s going to linger isn’t it? I’m writing a book on witch trials throughout Britain, and bringing in sacred spaces and folklore, and it all kind of makes sense in my mind.’

‘That’s interesting.’

‘It is.’ Violet nodded, then it was her turn to take a deep breath. ‘But then I reached down to pick the dagger up, because I knew it shouldn’t be there and, all the time, it seemed like the atmosphere was changing and getting a bit more, I don’t know, sinister? And then when I went to grab it, it was gone.’

‘Fuck.’

‘Exactly. And then I slipped on the snow and nearly fell into the bloody Well. Luckily, my partner turned up and he hauled me up the bank before I actually drowned myself.’

‘Wow, that was lucky! Had you arranged to meet? I thought you were just here on your own.’

‘No.’ Violet flushed again. ‘We hadn’t arranged it. Pure chance he was there.’

‘Then it’s really lucky he was.’

‘Yes. So, there you go. Weird. Fate, maybe.’

‘I think, then,’ said Ollie carefully, ‘that we have stumbled upon… a weird place.’ He raised his glass of water and Violet laughed.

She raised hers as well and they clinked glasses. ‘I’m actually glad you had a weird day as well.’ There was, Ollie sensed, some sort of relief there as she spoke. ‘Because I was genuinely thinking I was going crazy.’

Ollie shook his head. ‘If you are,’ he said, ‘I am as well. Let’s just hope it was something to do with the weather.’ He glanced out of the window where the snow was falling. ‘Tricks of light and all that stuff. Atmospheric pressure and shifts. Not seeing things clearly through a blizzard.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ said Violet.

Ollie took a sip of his water. Yes, the blizzard and the strange, snowy light might explain some of the odd feelings around there.

But surely not everything?

That would take more than a snowstorm to explain away.

10

THEN

Meggie knelt by Coventina’s Well as the low cloud swallowed up the world around her and the hills and valleys and ruins of the ancient wall were simply vague shadows within it. The snow was falling gently now and beginning to cover as far as she could see with white.

She sheltered beside the high stone walls surrounding the Well, and shivered. There was a strange sense of someone just having left which bothered her, but nobody was there.

Ah, well. If someone wanted her, they would know where to find her.

Instead of worrying about it, she settled down by the Well and took her dagger out of the folds of her shawl.

The dagger had been blessed generations ago, and passed down through the female line ever since. Meggie’s mother had died in childbirth, unable to be saved by all the herbs and medicines Meggie’s grandmother could muster, and now the dagger belonged to Meggie.

The story was that the dagger had been a gift from Coventina herself, centuries ago, to the first woman who found peace by the Well. This woman was, so the tale went, one of Meggie’s relations. She had been given the dagger by a fair-haired goddess who had risen from the Well and made the woman promise to use her powers for good; the healing powers that the dagger was imbued with. If it was ever used for ill, then a curse would haunt the family until the dagger was returned to Coventina, where the sacred waters would wash it clean of all evil. Meggie had been taught to revere Coventina, to thank her for all her blessings, and she did so wholeheartedly.

Today, Meggie filled a bowl with water from the Well and placed it in front of her, and she began to add the ingredients for the mixture she had to give Alice, chopping up the plants with her dagger, praying over the mixture and sad to understand what she was doing. She was also furious with Charles for putting both her and Alice in that situation. Meggie paused, overcome with emotion, and bowed her head, at one with her thoughts.

After a little while, lost in her work and her thoughts, someone spoke to her, interrupting her. ‘Meg. You’re here.’ The voice was soft and round, full of the rolling nuances of the true Northumbrian. Alice’s voice. ‘I came up here before. I wanted to see you.’

Meggie looked up and smiled, welcoming her friend and trying not to let the feelings show on her face. ‘Alice! I was just thinking about you.’