The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney Page B

heavily illustrated pages. She jabbed her finger at what looked like an ancient bronze seal. It was stamped with the image of a simple yet highly stylized serpent, curled in a circle with its mouth and tail almost indistinguishable.
    “See? It has different names depending on the culture, but the most important thing is what it symbolizes. It’s something to do with ‘all being One,’ and it reminds us that the cycle of death and rebirth might be considered a natural thing. Although death is something that alchemy seeks to overcome.”
    The part of the mythology she didn’t tell Navin was the part she’d held close to her heart ever since her father’s death. In traditional alchemy, it was only by symbolically “slaying the dragon” that any kind of real transformation could occur. Donna knew that she had a long way to go before she was ready to face her own personal dragon—the monster that had destroyed everything good in her life—but the belief that she would someday face it had kept her going through many painfully long nights.
    Navin was looking thoughtful as he stared at the image of the ouroboros, and she knew that he must be thinking of his own loss. His mother’s illness and passing had been hard on all the Sharmas, but Donna knew that Navin still mourned her every single day. They’d talked, before, about how his family’s Hinduism had helped his father to cope; back then, Donna had had to fake the whole pagan thing when they were comparing experiences. She wondered how Navin would react to the ideas she had really been brought up with—alchemy wasn’t exactly an easy subject to come to terms with, and it was more science than religion despite what many detractors would say to the contrary.
    “Okay,” Navin said. “So I get it. Alchemy, life and death, blah blah blah. What else? Tell me about the other three Orders—you said there are four.”
    Donna slammed the book shut and dumped it on the floor. She crossed her legs on the bed and began counting on her fingers: “The Order of the Crow, the Order of the Lion, and the Order of the Rose.”
    He frowned. “Rose?”
    “What’s so funny about that?”
    “Well, there are three Orders that are all, rah , scary creatures; and then there’s the ‘Order of the Rose.’ Sounds kinda lame to me.”
    Donna rolled her eyes. “That’s because you don’t understand Hermeticism.”
    “Hermeti- what ?”
    “Never mind. Just go with it: Dragon, Crow, Lion, and Rose. That’s the way it’s always been. And like I said, the others aren’t so important these days. Well, apart from the Order of the Crow. We have what some old-school practitioners call Dragon Magic, and they have their Crow Magic in England. But each Order is very different and follows a separate mission. We don’t see representatives from the other Orders very often—like, once a year is pretty much it.”
    Navin smirked. “At the annual Alchemy Con?”
    “This is serious .” Donna swatted him with the cushion she’d been leaning against.
    Deflecting the blow with ease and grabbing another pillow, Navin pretended to suffocate her with it. “And this is my way of dealing with it.”
    She pushed him away impatiently, though she could hardly blame him. “Okay, so that’s the Order—”
    “Hold on a second there, Underwood, we haven’t even scratched the surface yet.”
    “Nav, there isn’t time to give you every single detail. I’ve been a part of this my whole life; it would take forever!”
    His face was serious again. “I know that. But what do alchemists do ? Surely they’re not really searching for the philosopher’s stone? Even I’ve heard of those myths, but … is that real?”
    Donna wrapped her arms around herself and leaned against the wall. She couldn’t tell him everything; she just couldn’t bring herself to talk about the Order’s hunger for eternal life and their single-minded dedication to that cause. Especially not after the whole