"That wasn't medicine so much as ward-crafting," she replied. "Ward-crafting is easier than medicine, really, if you know how to set up your patterns. Medicine is much more . . . delicate? More life-and-death. You can set up a ward in a moment, and correct if need be. Not so much when you have a baby who's eaten a toadstool."

"What is a ward, exactly?" Cara asked. "It's like...I understand a little what it s, it's like setting up a fence or a boundary, isn't it? But it's all metaphysical?"

"It's a line of force. There are lines of force all o'er the world, natural ones. Things tend to--well, line up along them. The stone circles, for example, are really nothing but enormous wards that connect one set of lines to another." She felt as if she had come full-circle from explaining this to Mel to explaining to Cara. "I am not sure what you mean by metaphysical," she admitted.

"Metaphysical," Cara replied. "Metaphysics is the science of things that cannot be seen or quantified. But if these...these are just another kind of force, or pattern?" she asked. "Just...an invisible one? Like magnetism?"

She still wasn't quite grasping the direction. "To be sure they're invisible, but aye, they're there, like the currents in the sea. You can't see them, you can only see what they do, where they push things, or you can feel them pull at you. A ward . . . a ward gathers in a little bit of that force, and depending on which way it's bent, uses it to draw something in, or thrust things away. This."

She rolled up her sleeve and bent up her arm. Just above her elbow was a blue six-pointed star no bigger than a strawberry. "This is warded to my son who's at sea." She cupped a hand around it, concentrating, then smiled. "Whene'er I am too worried about him," she said, "I can tap into the ward, and it gives a little tug, so I know he's still alive."

Cara let out a little "ooh!" of understanding. "Like a string, connecting you!" she observed.

"Very much like that," Morgana said. "I can tell if he's near or far, and I can tell if he's alive. More than that I do not pry. He's a young man now, and when they reach that age, they like their privacy."

The redhead burst out laughing. "They need their privacy, or you don't want to see what they're up to?" she asked teasingly.

"Both," said Morgana with a touch of satisfaction. "But also, too, it's a very simple warding, especially when it's between two objects that move as much as we. More than that would have been complicated. Wards work much better on places than on people."

"Like the circles," Cara suggested. "Or...the way you have your house warded? It's the same way a fence works better around a place than around a person."