"Brianna!" My voice reverberated hoarsely in the cold morning air, fading
slowly only to be echoed a few moments later by a deeper, masculine voice,
which was also, cracked with desperate, hoarse worry.A moment later,
Jamie's head popped into view a few feet down the trail. He stared at me
for a moment, the question in his eyes sending sparks of agony into my
heart, and I nearly choked as I swallowed hard and shook my head.
Two nights earlier, at the coming of dusk, Roger, my daughter's husband and a boy I had known since he was a toddler, had rushed up to the cabin that Jamie and I shared. I'll never forget the look of horror and shock on his face as he hurriedly explained that, on arriving home after foraging for more firewood, he had found the front door open, little Jemmy crying in his crib, and Brianna nowhere to be found. The search had been on since then. Jamie, far better a tracker than I, now led the way up a trail that had previously never been explored, but that Jamie had found what he had been certain were footprints. I pulled my heavy jacket closer, shivering at the clouds of breath I breathed into the frigid morning. Jamie himself had disappeared into the brush further along the trail.
"Brianna!" I called, pleading with God for an answer returned.
An answer did return, but not from my missing daughter. "Jesus Christ!" Jamie's exclamation set my feet to wind. "Sassanech!"
I nearly ran into Jamie as I burst out of the bushes and onto the scene. I didn't need to question the reason of his cry as I took a quick glance around and my jaw dropped in an expression of shock similar to Jamie's. Standing in the small, rocky clearing, was a stone circle. It wasn't the henge that drew my own gasp though, but what my still sharp eyes saw at the base of one; a small, irregularly beaded, bracelet. Brianna's bracelet, given to her by her husband not three weeks previous. But no sight of Brianna.
"Brianna!" I screamed her name as I rushed forward towards the stone cleft, towards the bracelet that lay so innocently on the freshly fallen snow.I was jerked back just as I heard the terrible sound like the buzzing of bees, which signified how close I was to being taken by the magic of the stones. I crumpled into Jamie's arms, and he pulled me close.
"No, Sassenach! Ye dinna want ta be pulled inta it, yerself, do ye?" I could see the hairs on his arms stiff and erect. He was as frightened by the stones as I was, not that I could blame him. Over twenty long years ago, similar standing stones had taken me away from him, almost forever. We had found each other again only two years ago, and neither of us could so much as voice what horror the stones found for us. For me, they held even a worse terror, for not only had they taken me away from this strong, handsome man-my husband, lover, and friend-when I was two months pregnant with Brianna, but I had been forced through the awful magic of the stones not twice but three times; once to the future, twice to the past. I never wanted to experience it again. But I knew what the bracelet on the ground signified...and so did Jamie.
Very reluctantly, he left me on the outskirts of the circle to carefully retrieve the irregularly-shaped jewelry on the ground. His eyes, darkening with a fear I rarely saw in them, and a pain I knew all too well, slanted back to me, almost pleading with me not to confirm that the bracelet's location meant what he already knew it did. Not wanting to get any closer to the stones, but unwilling to stay alone-even the short distance that we were apart-I hurried into his arms, feeling tears roll down my face as he pulled me close. Brianna was lost to us, to the sorcery of the circle.
Two nights earlier, at the coming of dusk, Roger, my daughter's husband and a boy I had known since he was a toddler, had rushed up to the cabin that Jamie and I shared. I'll never forget the look of horror and shock on his face as he hurriedly explained that, on arriving home after foraging for more firewood, he had found the front door open, little Jemmy crying in his crib, and Brianna nowhere to be found. The search had been on since then. Jamie, far better a tracker than I, now led the way up a trail that had previously never been explored, but that Jamie had found what he had been certain were footprints. I pulled my heavy jacket closer, shivering at the clouds of breath I breathed into the frigid morning. Jamie himself had disappeared into the brush further along the trail.
"Brianna!" I called, pleading with God for an answer returned.
An answer did return, but not from my missing daughter. "Jesus Christ!" Jamie's exclamation set my feet to wind. "Sassanech!"
I nearly ran into Jamie as I burst out of the bushes and onto the scene. I didn't need to question the reason of his cry as I took a quick glance around and my jaw dropped in an expression of shock similar to Jamie's. Standing in the small, rocky clearing, was a stone circle. It wasn't the henge that drew my own gasp though, but what my still sharp eyes saw at the base of one; a small, irregularly beaded, bracelet. Brianna's bracelet, given to her by her husband not three weeks previous. But no sight of Brianna.
"Brianna!" I screamed her name as I rushed forward towards the stone cleft, towards the bracelet that lay so innocently on the freshly fallen snow.I was jerked back just as I heard the terrible sound like the buzzing of bees, which signified how close I was to being taken by the magic of the stones. I crumpled into Jamie's arms, and he pulled me close.
"No, Sassenach! Ye dinna want ta be pulled inta it, yerself, do ye?" I could see the hairs on his arms stiff and erect. He was as frightened by the stones as I was, not that I could blame him. Over twenty long years ago, similar standing stones had taken me away from him, almost forever. We had found each other again only two years ago, and neither of us could so much as voice what horror the stones found for us. For me, they held even a worse terror, for not only had they taken me away from this strong, handsome man-my husband, lover, and friend-when I was two months pregnant with Brianna, but I had been forced through the awful magic of the stones not twice but three times; once to the future, twice to the past. I never wanted to experience it again. But I knew what the bracelet on the ground signified...and so did Jamie.
Very reluctantly, he left me on the outskirts of the circle to carefully retrieve the irregularly-shaped jewelry on the ground. His eyes, darkening with a fear I rarely saw in them, and a pain I knew all too well, slanted back to me, almost pleading with me not to confirm that the bracelet's location meant what he already knew it did. Not wanting to get any closer to the stones, but unwilling to stay alone-even the short distance that we were apart-I hurried into his arms, feeling tears roll down my face as he pulled me close. Brianna was lost to us, to the sorcery of the circle.