Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (43 page)

“
If not for you risking your own life, I surely wouldn’t be sitting here now,” said David, thanking him again. He decided to share the strange images he dreamt about while John battled the spirit.

“
Once a shaman, always a shaman,” Evelyn observed, smiling proud once David described the dream. John returned her smile weakly, stating he hoped never again to face such a demon.

After he and David helped Evelyn clean up after dinner, they all returned to the living room. Since it wasn’t time yet to move on to the next portion of the ceremony, they conversed on lighter subjects with the TV muted in the background. Around seven o’clock, Shawn scratched at the back door. Evelyn went to the door and opened it. Cautious, she peered outside while removing the chain from his neck. As he had the night before, Shawn whined and looked repeatedly toward the darkness beyond the security lights. She shut the door and locked it, pausing to peek through the door’s drawn curtain.

“
Come here, boy!” John called to Shawn. The husky trotted into the living room, his tail sweeping across the coffee table as he went by. “There, there…good boy.”

Shawn responded with a drawn out whine. John looked up worriedly to where Evelyn stood next to the door, and she frowned and shook her head in response.

“
She’s back, isn’t she?” asked David.

“
More than likely,” said Evelyn. “I’d planned on getting started around nine, since the actual ceremony takes about two hours. We’ll need to arrive at John Oliver’s homestead by eleven-thirty, which should give you plenty of time to get to the ravine by twelve. Most magical spells are strongest after midnight. You’ve noticed Allie favors the latter half of the midnight hour. Our spell will work the same way, but in the earlier half hour.”

She peered again through the back window and then moved over to the table, opening her duffel bag and removing a leather-bound book. She also removed a single white dove feather the size of her index finger and a smaller patch of deerskin, laying them alongside the book on the table near her chair.

“
Grandpa, would you mind if I use your CD player?” she asked, removing a disk from her duffel before closing it and setting it beneath the table. “I’d like to set the mood.”

John didn’t mind, and checked the player to make sure it still worked after last night’s misadventure. He brought it over to where Evelyn waited, and she plugged the player into a nearby outlet, stating she wanted to recharge and preserve the batteries in case the power went out again.

“
Both of you, please join me at the table,” she said, and placed the disk inside the player.

The sound of soft drums, chimes and a wooden flute playing a lovely but haunting melody filled the air. David returned to his seat at the table as did John, after first placing two large hickory logs inside the fireplace and waiting for the flames to take hold. Unlike last night, a dozen additional logs sat waiting next to the hearth. Ready to begin, Evelyn poured them each a cup of fresh coffee first.

“
I’d still prefer to wait until nine o’clock to officially start, but it might be helpful to discuss some of what you’ll hear, and the meanings behind key phrases,” she explained, replenishing the incense in the burners and lighting them both anew. “Grandpa is familiar with most of the Cherokee incantations I intend to use. Since I’ll be completely focused once we begin, having some familiarity beforehand should help you stay focused and in tune with me, David. He should be able to tell you what’s going on and where we are in the ceremony once my guides take over. When that happens, I may not be coherent enough to be understood.”

A sudden gust of wind blew against the back of the cabin, rattling a few loose shingles on top of the roof. John grimaced. It appeared last night’s visit from Allie Mae left some undetected damage.

“
Wait here, while Grandpa and I make sure everything is locked up,” said Evelyn.

She stood up from the table and John joined her. The drapes covering the loft’s window still closed, they focused on the windows and doors on the main floor. The bathroom window turned out to be the only one unprotected; the wooden shutters left open that afternoon. Once taken care of, she and John soon returned.

“
Stay focused no matter what happens, David,” she said, after she sat down again. “I was thinking just now of what might help us prepare better for our ceremony. Grandpa, do you recall the ‘Tale of the Lovers’ as well as the other story you used to tell Hanna and I when we were young, about the Cherokee warrior sent to find the Great Antelope imprisoned in the land of darkness beyond the Three Blood Rivers?”

“
I do,” he replied.

“
My guides told me you should share them with David,” she said. “After I closed the shutters in the bathroom I heard them say ‘Have him tell the stories—the stories from when you were a little girl!’”

Hesitant at first, he agreed to recite the tales. She turned down the volume on the CD player so he could be clearly heard. A gifted storyteller, David already knew this from the tour he and Miriam had taken at the Cable Mill that fateful Saturday before the vengeful spirit invaded their lives. When John began to speak, the wind, which had been whistling against the eves of the cabin, died down, as if someone else wanted to hear the stories too.

The first story involved an Indian girl named Quia-sontha and a young brave named Ta-e-kita. Similar to the Shakespearian tale of Romeo and Juliet, the families of Quia-sontha and Ta-e-kita feuded within the Cherokee nation. Set in the early seventeen hundreds, when the white settlers still respected the Cherokee, the story centered on the healing of this feud, as the families finally saw the senselessness of the war between them. But, as in the legendary tale of Romeo and Juliet, the lesson came at a cost. Ta-e-kita died in a battle with one of Quia-sontha’s older brothers who didn’t want this peace, leaving Quia-sontha to grieve from her loss until she died of a broken heart.

David nodded politely at the conclusion of this story, wondering what in the hell it had to do with his situation. If supposed to be a portent of things to come, then a serious ass-kicking awaited him by Allie Mae’s ghost. Evelyn laughed.

“
You must understand that the ceremony tonight is not only intended for your salvation,” she told him, still chuckling. “In some ways, your tormentor is like Quia-sontha. Allie Mae feels terribly wronged, and when she passed over to the other side she did so with a horrible wound and burden placed on her heart. I’m sure you’ll find the next story more appealing.”

She motioned for her grandfather to continue, and he moved on to the next one. It dealt with a warrior named Sha-hinta, sent by Tsu’l’kalu, the Cherokee deity known as ‘the Great Lord of the game’. Tsu’l’kalu sent Sha-hinta to the land of darkness to save the Great Antelope, kidnapped by a mythic great horned serpent known as Uktena. After a terrible struggle to reach this land, where he escaped death at the hands of a host of enemies waiting for him at the Three Blood Rivers, Sha-hinta defeated Uktena and returned the Great Antelope safely to the ‘Great Mountains of the Blue Ridge’. Tsu’l’kalu rewarded Sha-hinta by allowing him to lead the first hunt when the antelope grew plentiful again.

“
You see, this one wasn’t so bad,” said Evelyn.

David thanked John for sharing the stories, which took just over an hour to complete. The clock on the kitchen wall read 8:24 p.m., and as soon as John finished the wind began to whistle again as it moved freely through the eves, no longer hindered by whatever force had prevented it from reaching the cabin. Evelyn and John turned their heads to the back door, and David caught a glimpse of a shadow passing by the door’s window, visible through the curtain.

“
Let’s make our final preparations. Would either of you like more coffee before we start?”

Her smile couldn’t mask her nervousness. She returned with the coffee pot, setting it on a warmer near John’s place at the table after replenishing everyone’s cup. Once seated again, she handed a pad and pen to David.

“
Write down the information I’m about to tell you, and refer to it while the ceremony is in progress,” she instructed. “The first thing we’ll do is try to loosen the spirit’s grip on you, to disrupt her ability to haunt you at will. We’ll use these items for that.” She pointed to the white feather and the patch of deerskin.

“
This first part of the ceremony is known as ‘Tsigiu’, which means ‘I eat’ or ‘I take’,” she said. “You may have heard of the Cherokee ‘spirit eaters’, which is where this ritual is taken from. The intent is to take the evil influence and bind it in the deerskin offering. The feather represents your desire for lasting peace, and it will be placed with the deerskin inside Allie Mae’s bag.”

She waited for him to finish writing and then set up the three slender white candles in front of the three wooden bowls containing the pastes. Next, she opened the leather book, which contained a number of bookmarks.

“
Once the binding is done, we’ll set up your protection for when you enter her lair, the sacred ravine in Cades Cove,” she advised. “Like the great warrior, Sha-hinta, you must go and face your nemesis. Allie is your Uktena, and like Sha-hinta you’ll be after the thing you prize most. Your Great Antelope is the safety of your family and your own peace of mind.”

She waited for him to write this down and then make eye contact with her.

“
She’s near…listening to us from outside the cabin,” said Evelyn, her tone soft and serious. “No matter what happens, concentrate on what you want to accomplish, your freedom. I’ll now give you words to remember, to watch for. Let them serve as a map to know where we are in the ceremony, so that you won’t be distracted by whatever she brings our way. Rest assured, she’ll try to stop us, and the best time to do it is before the ceremony is complete. Once the incantations are spoken and you’re marked by the pastes we mixed earlier, she can’t harm you.”

She tapped on his note pad for him to turn to a fresh page. Then she turned to the first marked page in the book.

“
When you hear the word ‘
Dunuwa
’ in a succession of three, which means ‘it has penetrated’, the ceremony will be halfway over. The phrase ‘
Dayuha hinehi-hinida’we utsina wa
’ will mark the beginning of the end of the ceremony.”

She waited for him to finish writing the phrase, helping him spell each word. Then she moved to a bookmark placed near the end of the book.

“
Watch for the word ‘
aduniga
’ which means ‘relief has come’. The last incantation will end with ‘
yuhahi, yuhahi, yuhahi
’, which is sort of like an exclamation that we’re finished. Afterward, I’ll apply the empowered pastes to your forehead, cheeks and hands. That’s when the ceremony will end.”

Evelyn returned to the first marked page in her book and laid it open. She lit the three candles, moving from left to right, and then removed three small brushes and a vile of water from her duffel bag. After pouring a small amount of the water into each of the three remaining wooden bowls, she placed the bowls in front of the candles with the brushes resting on the edge of each bowl.

“
The water’s pure, in case you’re wondering,” she advised. “We’re now ready to begin once nine o’clock gets here.”

She glanced at her watch and then back at the kitchen’s clock. Both showed 8:49 p.m. For the next eleven minutes they sat in silence, listening to the same instrumental CD now on its second turn. David thought of Miriam and the kids, hopefully safe and sound in a hotel back in Littleton. He regretted not taking a moment to call her and knew it wouldn’t be a good time now, with the ceremony about to begin. His thoughts turned to Allie Mae’s ghost and when she’d strike. He wondered if she planned something dramatic, like shake the cabin’s foundation at nine o’clock, or would wait until Evelyn became vulnerable under her guides’ influence.

Nine o’clock arrived. Evelyn asked David to give her his right hand, which she took in her left. She closed her eyes and uttered a quiet prayer, waving her right hand in the air above the large white candle. A noticeable depression had formed in its center, obscuring the flame. But now the flame grew tall, rising nearly a foot to where her palm hovered. She smiled and opened her eyes.

“
My guides are ready,” she said. “Again, don’t be alarmed by what takes place over the next couple of hours.”

She closed her eyes and passed her hand over the other three candles, the flames from each rising toward her palm. When she brought her hand back to the book, she opened her eyes.

Evelyn removed the first bookmark and set it to her right. She began reciting an incantation from the page. Soft at first, she became more ardent as she read the words before her. The wind picked up outside as gusts rustled leaves onto the back porch and the whistling grew stronger.

She picked up the patch of deerskin and passed it over the single large candle, its flame leaping up to her hand. She then opened her mouth, imitating the act of eating the patch while bringing it down from her face to her chest. She repeated the incantation and set the deerskin on the left side of the book.

The feather came next, and she passed it over the candle. The flame leapt toward her hand again. She placed the edge of the feather against her forehead and then her heart while chanting the next incantation on the page. Once finished, she placed the feather on top of the deerskin patch and lifted the items together. While repeating the incantation with her eyes closed, she kissed the items.