Healing Hands (The Queen of the Night series Book 2) by Laura Emmons Page A

do?”
    “Duncan started blowing on this weird old wooden whistle. It didn’t make any noise, but right away this dude in a little green hat appeared. He flew up into the air, floated over to the mistletoe, and cut it down with this tiny, golden scimitar thing.”
    “The scimitar thing was probably a sickle,” I corrected him. “The dude in the hat…was he blond with breeches on?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Did his green hat have a feather in it?”
    “Yup.”
    “Did you look in his eyes?”
    “No!  Why would I look in another dude’s eyes?”
    “Good…don’t.”
    “Okay, whatever…but the dude could fly!”
    “Yes, that’s because he’s a fairy.”
    “You mean he’s like the lady in the well?”
    “He’s exactly like her, except she’s an oracle and he’s a dryad.”
    “What’re they?”
    “An oracle can tell the future. A dryad magically helps trees grow and stay healthy. Buach, the dryad you met today, is the King of the Sidhe.”
    “Buck is the king of the she?  That doesn’t make any sense.”
    “Buach is the King Fairy. They prefer to be called Sidhe. It’s spelled S-I-D-H-E.”
    “Sure, because ‘she’ is always spelled S-I-D-H-E.”
    “I said the same thing when I first found out about them. Anyway, Sidhe is the politically correct term for a fairy. I’m guessing Buach does something to the mistletoe when he harvests it to make it magical.”
    “Whoa, do you think?”
    “Probably.”
    “So the whistle that didn’t make any noise…is it magical too?”
    “I’m not sure. The whistle is called a lute, and it plays a frequency which can only be heard by dryads. It’s probably magical, too.”
    “Cool.”
    ***
    Later that evening, Rose and I performed magic of our own by setting up the DSL connection and the wireless network throughout the house. The video game system in Corey’s room and the Blu-ray player in the den both had Internet connections. Once we’d hooked up my new notebook and the computer in Rose’s home office, we were set. I created a new e-mail account to touch base with a few friends in Santa Monica, but when I tried to compose a message, I couldn’t think of what to say. No one would understand what it was like to lose a parent and I didn’t want to depress them. I couldn’t talk about anything in my new life without revealing the existence of magic, so I canceled the message and went to bed.
     

 
    Chapter Eleven
    Hogmanay
    I woke the next morning to a frantic Rose. She wanted the house completely cleaned and unpacked from top to bottom. At first I thought she had anxiety about the party, but soon realized she was more serious about the cleaning than pre-guest jitters. She kept talking about cleaning out the fireplace and making sure she paid all the bills. She made us visit a cell phone store in town before they closed at noon because she didn’t want any outstanding debts. We had to close our accounts with the phone company in California.
    Finally, after we’d returned home, I made her sit down and take a break for lunch. As I made sandwiches and served them in the kitchen, I asked her to explain.
    “It’s tradition to clean your house and fireplace before the start of the New Year. We believe you should not leave any outstanding obligations so you can start the year fresh. That’s why I have to make sure all of the bills are paid today. Beyond that, I have to prepare for a redding ritual.”
    “What?  We’re having a wedding tonight?”
    “No, we’re not having a wedding. It’s a ‘redding’. The Crone and the Healer come over and rid the house of old and negative energies. They cast blessings of protection and good fortune on all the people living in the house. It’s usually done after people have finished unpacking and moving into a new home, but because of Corey, Fiona wanted to make sure we did it in conjunction with the New Year. Plus, we’re gonna have something like ten people in the house for the party tonight. I’m