"I'll give you that the genetic link idea may be sound," he said, to the distant ringing of church bells as he rubbed both hands across early morning stubble. "But the blood aspect of it strikes me as perilously close to the methods the opposition uses. It also leaves you more open to psychic rebound, if you do manage to make some kind of contact. You can always drop things out of the equation, if you start to get caught up in whatever's holding him; but if your body is part of the equation, extricating yourself might not be that easy."
"No one's expecting anything to be easy," she replied. "I am expecting that the locket will be the primary focus, though, because it's his hair that's the most direct link. I plan to use the locket as a pendulum for map scrying. Even if we can't pin down the exact location, we might at least be able to get a directional fix on him."
"Then let me put some additional protection on you before we start," Christopher insisted. "The last thing we need at this point is for you to get trapped and drawn into whatever devilry Raeburn has going."
Philippa did not protest as he blessed holy water and made a circuit of the library, refreshing the wards always resident in the room and, indeed, around the house, then coming to sprinkle each of the women in turn. When Philippa sat down at the table where Victoria was opening out a general map of Scotland, she had Adam's skean dubh in hand again and had donned the Horus necklace.
As Julian rolled into place at her right and Victoria sat on her left, Philippa took the locket back from Julian and looped the doubled end of its chain around the hilt of the skean dubh, just below the sapphire in the pommel, then held the weapon by the sheath and propped her elbow so that the locket dangled just above the Perthshire coordinates of Strathmourne. Julian and Victoria laid hands on her shoulders as Christopher sat down opposite, joining hands with him to close the circle as all of them prepared to begin the Work.
Philippa drew a deep breath and slowly let it out, settling into trance. She could feel the others' support as she gathered herself for the attempt and began casting back for memories of her pregnancy with Adam. Calling to mind the strong, secret rhythm of his heartbeat in her womb, her remembrance of the first time she had become aware of him as a distinct presence, she visualized their two lifelines entwined within the vessel of her own body. Then she began a conscious willing to reweave each and every tie that bound her to her son, fashioning the strands into a shining net that she finally cast outward, flinging it as far as she could.
She sensed a faint resistance as she started to reel it in, but she focused the pull through the links of her body and blood, through the necklace that had been Adam's in a distant land and time, through the skean dubh that was working tool in his present life - and down the silvery strand to the locket holding his likeness and a curl of his hair. She could feel her hand starting to tremble under the strain of channelling so much intent, could see it trembling as she let her gaze drift toward it - but then the pendulum itself began to vibrate, of its own accord. And then it began to circle slowly clockwise - and then counterclockwise - and then clockwise again.
"What…?" came Victoria's soft whisper, cut off at a nudge from Christopher.
Philippa did not move, holding her focus against increasing strain, but the locket continued to circle, refusing to take direction. At length she gave a long sigh and closed her eyes, letting the locket and skean dubh sink to the map and then slip from her fingers as she bowed her head in her hands.
"What happened?" Christopher asked gently. "Philippa, are you all right?"
She sighed again and lifted her head, weariness and discouragement writ stark across her face.
"He's out there," she murmured, "but I couldn't get past whatever's shielding him. They must be holding him somewhere that's incredibly well protected - quite probably Rae-burn's own bolthole."
"And given how well we can hide psychic activity," Christopher said archly, "we have to assume that Raeburn probably has similar expertise in that regard. Clearly, he does, or we should have been able to break through by now."
"I agree. But having said that," Philippa went on, "it occurs to me to wonder whether Raeburn would risk compromising such a secure retreat by using that location to carry out whatever he has planned for Adam. In other words, would he risk fouling his own nest? Also, given the way Callanish was used, and Raeburn's known predilection for working with ancient god-forms, I can't imagine that he'd pass up the chance to enhance his working by tapping into the power of some other ancient site.
"This gives us a two-pronged possibility of attack: By compiling a list of all the likely sites in the country, we may be able to narrow down some possibilities for his physical destination tomorrow night. And if they do move Adam to one of those sites, probably in the next twelve hours or so, they'll have to bring him out from under the heavy protection of wherever he is now. They can't maintain the same kind of cloaking on a moving subject that they can while he's stationary, in a long-established safe-house."
"That assumes that they will move him," Victoria pointed out. "What if they don't?"
Philippa shook her head. "I don't want to think about it; I can't think about it."
"I think you ought to get some rest," Christopher said quietly. "You're too worn out to - "
"I'm worried about his rest - which may be eternal, if we don't find him!" she retorted, rounding on the clergyman with all a mother's fierce determination. "And what if it isn't merely physical death that Raeburn is threatening? I can't give this up, even if it costs me my life!"
"And wasting your life isn't going to help him!" Julian said sharply, at the same time slipping an arm around her friend's trembling shoulders. "Get some rest, Pippa - please. We have to believe it's Imbolc Eve that Raeburn is aiming for - which means we've still got close to thirty-six hours to come up with something. If you think Raeburn is apt to use another ancient site, I'll put Julia on compiling a list right away.
"Meanwhile, you'd do us all a favor if you try to sleep for a few of those hours, so that you'll be ready to face the last ones. That's when Raeburn is most apt to slip up, most apt to get sloppy. But if you don't rest, you'll be no good to Adam."
Philippa said nothing for several long seconds, face turned away from Julian's entreaties; but then the proud shoulders unbent and she gave a long sigh as she looked up.
"You're right," she whispered. "All of you are right. I'll go upstairs and lie down for a few hours. Do have Julia start that site research, but carry on with the sweeps we've been making for the past two days. You might want to switch to pendulum dowsing, now that we've got the locket. And call Noel. Have him get back here with Peregrine. If we did make a contact, we wouldn't be able to make a timely response, physically scattered as we are right now."
"We'll do all of that," Christopher reassured her. "But you will get some sleep in the meantime?''
"I promise I'll try," she replied.
Philippa was as good as her word, and came back downstairs for tea when Ximena and Harry finally returned at mid-afternoon. McLeod and Peregrine had arrived a short time before, and took Harry off to the parlor to bring him up to date on police efforts.
"We've installed Mom at Harry's town house," Ximena told them, shaking her head as she gratefully accepted a mug of tea from Victoria. "His housekeeper will look after her. She took the news well enough, under the circumstances, but I thought her jet lag would never kick in. That's why we're so late."