“Pomie, stop it!” said Caitlyn uneasily. “You’re supposed to be searching for a book, not snooping through the Widow Mags’s personal things!”
“Hey, I’m snooping with a purpose,” said Pomona indignantly She lifted another thing out of the tray. It was a diamond-shaped, pale-green stone attached to a long silver chain. The stone had strange markings across its surface, which looked almost like snakeskin.
“Oh! That’s a dowsing pendulum,” cried Evie, pushing past Caitlyn to join Pomona at the
chest.
“A what?” said Caitlyn,
“It’s a divination tool,” Evie explained. “It gives you answers to questions or helps you find the location of things.”
“Yeah, and this is a serpentine
crystal,” added Pomona, touching the green stone reverently. “I’ve seen a couple of these in an occult shop back in LA. They’re really powerful, with strong magical energy. They’re used in Kundalini activation—that’s a kind of divine energy,” she explained to Caitlyn, who was watching them sceptically.
“Uh… okay…” said Caitlyn, feeling totally lost.
Not for the first time, she reflected that it should really have been Pomona to have discovered that she was descended from witches. Her American cousin had believed passionately in magic all her life and had always been fascinated by the paranormal, spending the better part of her teens dabbling in tarot cards, crystal healing and various other occult practices. When they’d arrived in England and discovered that witches and magic
really did really exist, Caitlyn had struggled to reconcile her feelings of bewilderment and disbelief. Pomona, however, had instantly taken it in her stride, embracing it all with a gleeful “I told you so!”.
Now she held up the serpentine pendant triumphantly and said, with a smug smile: “I’ll bet this will help us find the grimoire.”
She stretched her arm out in front of her, holding the end of the chain with a thumb and forefinger and letting the serpentine pendant swing freely. The green stone twirled through the air, catching the light as it swung first one way, then another.
“Show me where the grimoire is,” Pomona intoned as she began walking slowly
around the room. “Show me where it’s hidden!”
The serpentine pendulum swung and twirled, winking in the dim light. In spite of herself, Caitlyn held her breath, her eyes following the green stone expectantly. The whole thing seemed silly and ridiculous. But she had been wrong to scoff at the existence of magic so perhaps she ought to keep an open mind for once.
When a few minutes had elapsed, though, with Pomona doing nothing more than walk aimlessly around, Caitlyn spoke up impatiently: “Well? Is it telling you anything?”
“No,” Pomona admitted, looking slightly crestfallen. Then she brightened. “Maybe it needs a spell! Yes, that’s it. It probably needs a spell
to activate it or something. Go on, do something to make it wake up.”
“Me? I don’t know what to do—” Caitlyn started to say but Evie interrupted her.
“Oh, I do! I know just the spell,” cried the younger girl eagerly. “I learnt it last week. Well, it’s actually to activate the compost heap in Mum's
garden—you know to draw forth the natural energies and speed up decay—but I’m sure it’ll work just as well.”
“Um, Evie—are you sure?” asked Caitlyn nervously. “You know your spells often seem to backfire and… er—”
“You don’t think I can do magic at all, do you?” said Evie, looking
hurt.
“No, it’s not that,” said Caitlyn quickly. “I just…” She hesitated, seeing the wounded look in the younger girl’s eyes, then she forced a weak smile. “Of course, I believe in you. In fact, we’re… we’re lucky you know a spell.”
“Yeah, go on, Evie—do your thing!” urged Pomona.
Evie flushed, looked pleased. “Hang on a minute—let me try to remember the words…” She raised a hand, hovering it over the serpentine pendant. “Elicio lumina, invigorus vita emergere!”
There was a puff of smoke and Pomona yelped and jerked back her hand, as if she had been burnt. The pendulum dropped to the
stone floor with a clatter and Caitlyn cried out in dismay.
“Oh no—is it broken?” she gasped, peering through the smoke. “Can you see the stone? Is it still in one piece?”
Then the smoke cleared and she saw what lay at her feet: a slithering, rolling mass of green scales and sinuous
muscle.
“Aaaahh!” she screamed, jerking back from the huge green python coiled on the floor. “Evie—what have you done?”
“Holy guacamole, you’ve really activated the…um… serpent in serpentine,” said Pomona, laughing. “Wow, this thing must be, like, ten feet long. And look at those scales!” She
leaned closer to the giant snake. “You know what… it’s kinda cute. It’s sort of cross-eyed and there’s this adorable little notch in its mouth where its tongue comes out—”
“What are you doing, Pomie?” gasped Caitlyn. “Get back! It might bite you!”
“Pythons don’t bite,” Pomona scoffed. “They just wrap
around you and squeeze you to death.”
(** this is from my current unedited, working manuscript so please excuse any
mistakes & typos!)
