Dead Moon Awakens: A tale of Cherokee myth and Celtic magic (Mystic Gates) (14 page)

Thursday, May 2

They reached the outskirts of Andrews
mid-afternoon. Aishling had been quiet all day, troubled. Was it the dream? The
myth? Morri’s increased pressure to find the stone? Or the fact that Kelile
would be leaving the group soon?

“Kelile,” Morrigan said, increasing her pace until
she was walking next to him. “I have a feeling you’re going to get caught.
Maybe you should go with us to Robbinsville.”

He stopped walking and glowered at her. “Girl, I
don’t understand you. Before we left Herald Home and for most of this little
excursion you’ve been tryin’ to get rid of me.”

“The last couple of days I haven’t. I’ve been nice
to you.” She huffed and looked at Aishling. “Well, for the most part.”

“Maybe I will get caught, but I have to try. The
reason for me runnin’ away in the first place was to get Mom alone long enough
to convince her to leave that abusing asshole. I don’t care what happens to me.
I just want her away from him.” He straightened his backpack and continued
walking.

Lance clasped Kelile’s arm, stopping him again.
“Listen. I think we need to decide how we’re going to do this so …” He let go
of Kelile and kicked the train trestle.

“So you won’t get caught?”

“Yes.”

“Man, I’d definitely be pissed if, after all this,
you did get caught.” Kelile huffed and glanced around behind them. “I think
it’s time for me to split, and you three head on to Robbinsville.”

“No!” Aishling said, hoping she sounded forceful
enough. “I think I should go with you, and Morri and Lance can go on to make
camp. I’ll meet up with them later.”

“You ain’t goin’ with me, girl.”

“Yes! Remember, Kelile, both Morri and I have
special
skills that can keep us from being caught. Morri can protect Lance, and I can
protect you.”

“Hey, I don’t need no protectin’, especially from
a female!”

“You know what I mean, Kelile.” She folded her
arms across her chest.

“How are you gonna get back to them two?”

“Either you’ll show me how, or you’ll bring me
back yourself, and we’ll
all
go on to Robbinsville. Yes, Kelile,” she
insisted when he shook his head.

After Aishling and Kelile had hiked into town and
were heading to his mother’s place of work, he said, “I can’t believe you
talked me in to this. Just what do you plan on doing?”

“I’ll conjure a protective circle around us and
add a repelling enchantment, too. We’ll stay inside it while we wait for your
mother to come out. Is there somewhere close to the building that has trees or
bushes?”

“I think so, but what good will that do?”

“Maybe keep us from getting caught. Besides
putting a protective and repelling circle around us, I’ll try enfolding us into
the trees. Maybe no one could see us then.”

“Like what you did with the canoe?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean
we’ll
be invisible?”

“I think, but not really invisible. Our energies
will just merge with the trees. When someone looks at us, they’ll only see
trees.”

“Girl, you’re weird.”

She grinned then frowned. “But, Kelile, when your
mother walks to her car, you’ll have to leave the circle and try bringing her
back into it so you can still be protected.”

“Right. I’ll say, ‘Hey, Mom, come over here and
join us in our cone of protection and invisibility. It’s all right. You’ll be
okay. Aishling’s a witch.’”

“Be serious. You don’t need to tell her anything.
Just pull her or guide her over to the protective circle.”

“Well, we’ll soon find out.” He pointed ahead.
“That white building is where she works.”

They hid in an area east of the building where
several oak trees formed a barrier between the building and an open field.
Aishling commenced setting up their safety circle boundary while saying her
protective and repelling intentions. She included a couple of the oaks in the
circle to hide behind in case her enfolding enchantment wasn’t successful.

“Okay. Now, I’m going to try and enfold us into
these two trees.”

“Don’t try. Do.”

She guided Kelile behind one of the trees and
stated her enfolding intentions.

“Did it work?”

“I hope.”

“What do you mean you hope?”

“The person doing the enchantment can still see
the object even though others can’t.”

“Then do yourself, and I’ll see if I can still see
you.”

Before she could, he said, “There she is.” He
jogged away.

“Wait, Kelile, the circle!” she whisper-shouted
before hiding behind the other oak. She peeked around to see what was going on.

“What are you doing here?” Kelile’s mother said.

“Didn’t they tell you I ran away?”

“You ran away!”

Kelile clutched his mother’s arm and said, “Mom,
come over here. I wanna talk to you. I don’t want anyone to see me.”

“You tell me right here, right now, Kelile
Manannan, what is going on?”

Aishling’s heart pounded. She rocked on her feet
as the tension mounted. How could she get Kelile back in the circle?

“… had to get away. I needed to talk to you. Mom,
please listen to me. Please.”

“We’re going home right now. I’ll take you to the
new place myself.”

“Mom!” He held her shoulders. “Listen to me.
You’ve got to get away from him. I can’t stand him hurting you any longer. You
don’t need to put up with that anymore. I’ll protect you. Let’s get Jamal and
Jamela and get out of here before he really hurts you.”

“Kelile,” she said, clasping his face in her
hands. “I do want to leave, but don’t you see? I can’t. If it were just you and
I, we would have left a long time ago. No, listen to me. He would track us
down. Things would get much worse. I’ve got to figure out a safe way to handle
this situation. But there’s something else right now that’s even more important
to me. You are in grave danger. I’m trying to keep
you
safe. The best
place for you is at the new group home. You’ve got to understand, Jerel isn’t
the only one I’m trying to protect you from.”

“What do you mean, Mom?”

She let go of him and fumbled through her purse,
pulling out her billfold. “Here, take this.” She handed him some money. “You
remember my friend—”

Aishling had been so intent on listening to
Kelile’s mother, she hadn’t noticed she had moved away from the tree. Too late.
Just as she realized it, his mother looked up from his face. Their eyes met.

Everything erupted.

“What is she doing here?” With her right hand, she
pushed Kelile behind her, raised her left hand, and pointed it at Aishling. She
chanted something, but Aishling couldn’t make it out. At once, his mother drew
her left hand back and thrust it forward as if she were throwing something at
Aishling.

“Mom, what’s the matter.” Kelile stepped away from
her. “What are you doing?”

A jolt of energy hit and vibrated around
Aishling’s circle of protection. The popping sound sent shivers through her
body.

Kelile’s mother cried out, “I don’t want you near
her, Kelile!”

He didn’t respond. Instead, he ran to Aishling,
bounding into their protective circle.

His mother chased him, stopping short of the
perimeter. “Kelile, I want you to come home with me right now. We’ll work
everything out.” Her eyes shot around. She panted. “Please, Kelile, come home
with me, now.”

“What’s goin’ on? What did you just do?” he
blurted, his eyes popping open.

“Kelile, come with me.” She reached out and
motioned for him to come to her.

“Are you gonna leave his sorry ass?”

“I’ll try.”

“Mom?”

“I’ll try, Kelile. That’s all I can do.”

“Promise me you won’t tell anyone about Aishling.
You’ll let her go.”

His mother hesitated, looking around, frowning,
panting. “I promise.”

Return to Beginning

As the closed is opened,

“M
om,
you go ahead and get in the car,” Kelile said, picking up his backpack. “I’ll
be right there.”

“You’re coming with me, Kelile. Now!”

“I’m coming, but I have to talk to Aishling a
moment.” He paused as though he were waiting for her to walk away. “Mom! I’ll
keep my promise. Please keep yours.”

Aishling met her eyes again and smiled, but his
mother broke eye contact and walked back to her car. “Maybe we shouldn’t have
come, Kelile,” she whispered.

“It’s okay.” He took his left forefinger and
touched her lips. “Shh, don’t say anything, just listen.”

She nodded.

“Remember how to get there? Robbinsville Road to
Stewart. Turn right, then left on NC 423. Go about a quarter of a mile and
you’ll turn right, kinda up a hill. You’ll see a sign that says something about
the Cherokee Trail of Tears or Tatham Gap Road, I don’t remember for sure.
Lance shouldn’t be too far back from the entrance of that road. Okay?”

She hugged him. “I’ll remember.” Tears streamed
down her cheeks. “Please be careful. I’m going to miss you so much!”

He chuckled once and patted her on her back.
“Listen, good witch, I hope you find what you’re lookin’ for. I’ll miss you
too.” He jogged to his mother’s car.

While waiting until they had driven away, she
wondered if there was something else she could do to protect herself until she
found Lance and Morrigan.
My amulet!
She’d forgotten all about it. She
dug to the bottom of her backpack and pulled out the pillowcase that held her
old diary and amulet. After putting the amulet around her neck and the
pillowcase and old diary away, she took a deep breath and stepped out of the
protective boundary, bolting in the direction of Robbinsville Road.

Thirty minutes later, Morrigan ran toward her with
arms wide open, “Thank Goddess you’re here!” She practically knocked Aishling
over when she hugged her.

Lance jogged up. He smiled. “How about Kelile?”

“He went with his mother,” she answered as they
walked to camp. Tears clouded her eyes, and she couldn’t see where she was
going.

“What’s the matter?” Lance asked.

When she sat on a sleeping bag under the tent
canopy, she wiped away her tears. “I don’t think she listened to him. His
mother yelled at him and told him she was taking him to a new group home
herself. I don’t understand.”

The others listened while she told them what had
happened. But when she got to the part about Kelile’s mother trying to put a
spell on her, Lance interrupted.

“How can you say that about his mother.” He stood,
tromped several feet away and kicked a broken tree limb that was laying on the
ground.

“I’m not saying anything bad about her. I’m just
telling you what I heard and saw. Listen, Lance, Kelile even asked her what she
had done. He saw it. Don’t walk away.” She raised her voice, “I’m telling you
the truth.”

Morrigan reached out to her. “I believe you. Do
you know what kind of spell?”

“No. I was standing in the protective circle. I
had also reinforced it with a repelling enchantment. His mother chanted
something—I think in Gaelic. She looked like she was throwing it at me. The
circle popped when the spell hit it.”

“I can still hear you!” Lance stormed back and
grabbed the other sleeping bag. He shoved his backpack at her. “There’s
something to eat in there if you’re hungry.” He took the sleeping bag several
paces away from them and spread it on the ground. When he got in it, he turned away
from them.

Aishling flung her hands up in exasperation, but
Morrigan shook her head, motioning for her to be quiet.

Darkness descended on them while she ate her snack
and whispered with Morrigan about the day’s events.

“You two need to get some sleep,” Lance said.
“We’re leaving as early as possible in the morning. We have a long way to go,
and I want to be at the ranger station by nightfall. Good. Night!”

“Lance, please don’t be mad at me,” Aishling said.

“I don’t want to hear anything more about witches
and spells and all that stuff. Got it?”

“Okay,” both girls responded.

“Goodnight,” Morrigan whispered and got her diary
out of her backpack.

Aishling stretched beside Morrigan, which relieved
her achy, tired muscles. Why did Lance act like that? As she lay on the
sleeping bag, she rested her hands over her stomach, trying to calm her
nauseous tension. Would Kelile be okay? Would she ever see him again?

Before long, she slept.

In the dark, early hours of the next morning, she
jounced out of her sleep, gasping for air, her heart racing. She sat up and
looked around, getting her bearings. Morrigan and Lance were still asleep.
The
dreams. So many dreams.
She searched her memory as she quietly found the
flashlight and reached for her backpack, retrieving her diary and pen.

May 3

So many dreams! One was about Kelile’s mother.
She cast her spell at me again, like what happened. But in the dream, I could
understand what she said. She called on all directions of the elemental “air”
to create a tornado and carry me far away. The tornado spun around me and
picked me up. It carried me away from Kelile, and further and further away from
Earth, spinning me into a great void. But all at once, the spinning stopped and
some kind of great force pulled me back to Earth. I found myself bound within a
choking-thick, black fog. No matter how hard I tried pushing out of the blinding
fog, I couldn’t escape.

Then I think I heard Ma’s voice saying, “As the
closed is opened, Aishling. As the closed is opened.” I didn’t understand what
she was trying to say, and then she spoke again, “Open your heart and soul.”

I also had a dream about Morri. She was
screaming. I didn’t see it, but I knew the
Uktena
was chasing her. I
called out to her over and over, but she couldn’t hear me. Then I heard her
shriek.

I had another dream about the
Uktena
.
Lance, Kelile, Morri, and I were all running from it again. Morri and Kelile
kept saying, “We’ve got to get the Suti Stone. Only you can do it, Aishling.
Only you can save us.” First, Lance disappeared, then Kelile, leaving Morri and
I. It bit Morri, and she dropped to the ground. It kept chasing me. I reached
the entrance to its cave and tried casting the circle of protective fire around
me but couldn’t.

Lance caught up to me and shouted, “Aishling,
I’ll kill it for you.” I tried telling him to get away from it, but he lunged
toward it. The
Uktena
flung him up into the air, and he disappeared. Then
Kelile came into the dream. He told me he would distract it while I got away.
But when I ran, the
Uktena
struck me. I lay on the ground, dying. As I
took my last breath, I thought about Ma’s words and became hopeful that I’d see
her soon. I saw a bright light drift toward me.

I went to a beautiful place. Light beings were
all around me. One walked toward me. The closer she got, I knew she was Ma. She
reached out to me and said, “Open your heart and soul, honey. It is the only
way.” But just as she said that, a white horse with wings swooped down and flew
me away. I cried. I wanted to get off the horse, but I was too high.

Then the white horse flew back down into that
choking-thick, black fog and dropped me. The fog closed in. I wondered how to
open my heart. I couldn’t breathe anymore. I lost hope.