Dead Moon Awakens: A tale of Cherokee myth and Celtic magic (Mystic Gates) (18 page)

the key one seeks one learns.

M
ay
6

Ma, are you really dea

I’m all cried out. I still can’t belie

Lance is

What
do
I use a bell

I hope Anita is

After finding the letter I

So much happened yesterday. I’m all cried out.
I didn’t even dream last night. I’m just blank. Lance is so upset. He’s not
speaking to anyone. Kelile only wants to find that stupid stone. Morri looks
sad. She’s been crying all night too. I wonder if I look like she does. She’s
tried talking to Lance, tried telling him she’s sorry, but he pulls away.

I don’t know what to do. Should I help find the
stone? Solve the riddle? Maybe my book has the answers. Maybe I can find the
stone
and
solve the riddle.

Ma, I can’t believe you’re
dea

“Aishling, do you mind getting my mother’s
letter?” Lance said as he sat on one of the sleeping bags. He rested his
forehead in the cradle of his hands.

After putting her diary away, she retrieved her
wish box. The letter was inside. She held it out for him to take, but he looked
up and shook his head. She placed it back in her lap and searched both Kelile’s
and Morrigan’s faces for what to do. They both had glazed-over eyes and lost
expressions. Her chest ached, and her stomach felt as though a vise had clamped
on the inside of it.

“Okay,” Lance said, then took a deep breath and
lifted his head. “I don’t … I don’t know where to start. So much has happened
since we left Herald Home. I guess we need to decide what to do next. I know
when we left Herald Home each of us wanted something different.” He hesitated,
stroked his right hand through his chestnut hair, and pressed his fingers into
the back of his neck. “But, it looks like we’re all together for a reason. I
guess our mothers had known each other. Maybe we need to go back to the
beginning and try to piece everything together.

“I think the letter my mother wrote you, Aishling,
was also intended for me, maybe all of us.

“There’s something I haven’t talked about.” He
rubbed his chest. “The night before my parents were killed, Mom made me promise
to contact Redhawk if something ever happened to her and Dad. She told me he
was the only one I should go to. That he would know what to do. She also said
that others would try to prevent it, but no matter what, I should go to him.
That’s why all I’ve thought about since my parents … That’s why all I’ve
thought about is getting to him.

“Mom knew something was going to happen. Now, I
realize that’s why Dad had put in a request to move to the Wayah Ranger
Station. He did that right after Mom had written that letter and hidden it in
your book. I’m
sure
there’s a connection between us.” He motioned
between Aishling and himself. “I think we should go to Redhawk and tell him
everything. I think he’ll understand.”

“Man, I can’t go to Redhawk,” Kelile answered.
“You know as soon as we do, I’ll get picked up. That can’t happen. I know now I
have
to find the Suti Stone. If I don’t, something will happen to
my
mom.”

“Yes, we need to find the stone,” Morrigan said.
“I believe we’re supposed to have it. And, I know it will help us.” Though Lance
shook his head, she kept talking. “I know you all don’t believe me when I tell
you it can bring people back to life, but I know it’s true. And, my mother told
me about it before she, you know, and made me promise to find it if something
ever happened to her. I believe she may have known something too.” She glanced
from Lance to Aishling. “I’m going to find the stone.”

“Morrigan, I don’t believe in a mythological
stone.” Lance sighed. “Seriously, don’t you realize that it’s just a myth?
There
was
no
Uktena
. There
is
no
Ulunsuti
.”

“I think Morrigan’s right,” Kelile said. “Look,
even your mom told Anita that the bitch witch was after a powerful talisman.
That’s got to be the stone, man.”

Lance shook his head.

Aishling touched his right shoulder. “You have to
open up to the possibility that they’re right. Your mother did tell Anita that.
Don’t you think it makes sense that it could be the Suti Stone?”

Lance kept shaking his head.

Aishling looked at Morrigan, wanting her to say
something, but Morrigan only looked away.

A couple of minutes later, Lance spoke, “Aishling,
first I want you to tell me again exactly what Anita said to you yesterday.
After that, I want to read my mother’s letter.”

She proceeded describing her and Morrigan’s
encounter with Anita. When she finished, he held out his hand, and she gave him
the letter. He got up and left. She remained seated, waiting for his return.
The others sat in silence with her.

When Lance came back, his eyes were red, but he
showed no emotion. He sat and handed her the letter. He cleared his throat.
“After reading it—” his voice faded, and he cleared his throat once more “—I
think we should go to Redhawk.”

“But, Lance!” Morrigan said.

“Morrigan, my mother doesn’t say anything about
looking for the stone. If that’s what Aishling was supposed to have done, she
would have said so. No,” he emphasized when she tried protesting again. “In her
letter, she says she can only act as a guide for Aishling, and she is guiding
her to unlock the mystic gates. Even if the
Ulunsuti
were the talisman,
Aishling wouldn’t be able to handle it yet. She isn’t ready.”

“But, maybe you or I could handle it,” Morrigan
said.

“Can you solve the riddle and uncover the key to
the Eastern airt?”

Morrigan opened her mouth but closed it.

“Man, don’t you think we need to at least find the
stone and hide it from whoever the bitch witch is?”

“I wish you would stop calling her that,” Morrigan
blurted.

“What difference is it to you? She’s worse than
that, anyway. She’s a
murdering
bitch witch. Remember? She killed
Aishling’s mom
and
probably Lance’s parents tryin’ to get her hands on
that stone. Besides that, voodoo queen, she might have caused the death of your
mom too.”

Morrigan cowered and covered her eyes.

Aishling trembled. No one had said it that bluntly
before.
But if that were true
… “Lance, we have to look for the stone.
Don’t you see? She’s got to be the same woman who’s been hounding Kelile’s
thoughts. She wants us to find the Suti Stone. If we do, she’ll come for it.
When she does, we’ll trap her. We’ll make her pay for what she did to our
parents. I don’t think we should go to Redhawk, not yet.”

“How would you trap her?” Morrigan asked.

“I don’t know yet, but I think it’s clear what we
need to do. We’ve got to find the stone. We’ve got to lure her here. Maybe my
grimoire
will have a spell in it that we can use on her. We’ll get her to confess, and
then we’ll turn her in and make her pay for what she did.”

“I don’t know. I …” Morrigan stared into the
trees.

“Morri, she might have killed your mother.”

“And I’m not waitin’ for her to kill mine.” Kelile
leaned forward, grasping Lance’s arm. “Aishling’s right, man. We have to find
the stone and lure the bitch witch in.”

Lance nodded and whispered, “Okay.”

May 6, late afternoon

We decided. We’re going to find the Suti Stone.
I’ve been looking through my book for anything about it. Lance and Kelile are
searching the boxes in my garage, hoping for a clue. But Morri hasn’t done
anything. She just took her diary and walked away. She’s been sitting by the
Garden of Life and Death and writing in it for a long time. I thought she
wanted to find the stone. It doesn’t make sense.

Ma, I’ll try not to be sad so I can see you again.
Please come to me and tell me what to do. Please. Eagle Woman said you were no
more than a hairbreadth away. Please come to me. I love you.

Aishling reread the letter from Eagle Woman. It
must have been the tenth time. She had also repeated the riddle over and over.
If she figured out the key, would this also be a clue in finding the Suti
Stone?
As the closed is opened, a treasured link returns. Then knowing
remembers; the key one seeks one learns.

“Girl, are you still writing in that evil-eye
journal of yours?” Kelile called out from the garage door.

Aishling flinched, thinking he was talking to her,
and then realized he was looking at Morrigan.

Morrigan stuck her tongue out at him.

“I have an idea!” He waited until Lance followed
him outside. “When we lure the murdering bitch witch here, we won’t need to tie
her down because voodoo queen”—he pointed at Morrigan—“can flick her tongue at
her and she’ll stick to it like glue.”

“Oh, shut up!” Morrigan shouted and coddled her
diary.

He walked over to her and said, “Seriously, you’re
always writing in that book. It’s almost like you’re havin’ a conversation with
someone. Do you have a telephone in there somewhere?” He smirked.

“Go away! Leave me alone!” She jumped up and ran
behind the garage, disappearing into the trees.

“Why did you do that?” Lance said. “Don’t you
think we have enough problems without egging her on all the time?”

“Oh, okay. I’ll go get the queen.” Kelile toddled
along in slow motion after her.

Several minutes had passed before a screech sent a
stabbing chill through Aishling’s stomach, up her shoulder blades, into her
arms.

Lance bounded out of the garage. “Did you hear
that?”

“Yes.” She dropped her
grimoire,
and they
rushed after the others.

As they neared the lake’s edge, they spotted a
body lying in the brush.

Kelile.

When they reached him, he was moaning and
whimpering. He cradled his bloody eyes with one hand and his stomach with the
other. “Stabbed me … blood …”

“Kelile, we’re here,” Aishling said. But he didn’t
respond. He kept moaning and turning from side-to-side, rubbing his eyes and
his stomach. He had smeared blood all over himself. “Did you look at Morri’s
journal again?” Aishling tried pulling his hand away from his stomach so she
could tell if he was bleeding there, too. “Did she stab you? What happened?”

No answer.

She managed to get his hand away long enough to
see his stomach wasn’t bleeding.

Lance stood, looking around. “Where is she?” He
squatted and gently shook Kelile. “Tell us what happened.”

Still no answer.

Lance motioned for Aishling to help lift Kelile.
They struggled as they tried to get him to his feet. Once they did, they
half-dragged him back to the sleeping bags.

“I’ll find Morrigan.” Lance ran back into the
trees.

“Kelile?” After getting her water container,
Aishling cleaned his face and hands. “Oh, Kelile, I don’t know what to do.” She
pulled him up into her arms and rocked him.

Lance returned, alone. “I can’t find her. Is he
any better?”

She shook her head.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know for sure.”

He bent down, grasping Kelile’s shoulders.
“Kelile, can you hear me?”

“Lance, I’ll go look for Morri. Maybe she’s afraid
we’re mad at her.”

“I am!”

As she meandered between trees, Aishling called
for Morrigan. She wanted to scream and cry at the same time. How could Morri do
this? Why wouldn’t she answer?

“Please don’t be mad at me, Aish,” Morrigan
muttered from behind her.

She swung around, meeting Morri’s eyes, “What did
you do to him?”

“I didn’t mean to. Really.”

“You have to come fix it!”

“I’m not coming back unless you promise you won’t
be mad.”

“Morri! Kelile is suffering.”

“Promise you won’t be mad.”

Aishling blew her breath out. “Okay. Come on.” She
reached out for Morrigan, but Morrigan stood her ground.

“And, promise you’ll talk Lance into not being
mad.”

“I’m not promising you anything else. Now come on!
Or, I
will
be mad at you.”

Morrigan turned and jogged back into the trees.

“Drat!”
Enough is enough!
Why should she
put up with Morri anymore? She barreled her way back to Lance and Kelile. She
would figure out what to do by herself.

When she returned, she sat next to Kelile and told
Lance about her encounter with Morrigan. Then, still angry, she commenced
taking deep breaths, trying to find the inner calmness needed so she could use
healing touch to help Kelile.

She closed her eyes and envisioned the golden
light faintly shimmering above her becoming brighter and stronger. Then she
envisioned it moving into the top of her head. In a whisper, she repeated the
words,
I am a channel for the healing light of love,
until she felt heat
generating between her hands and his eyes. After the energy had cooled, she
turned her focus to his stomach and used the same process.

He stopped moaning. As the energy cooled between
her hands and his stomach, he took her right hand and placed it over his eyes,
while keeping the other hand on his stomach. “Aah, good witch, you don’t know
how much better that feels. Thank you.”

Lance settled next to him. “What happened? Are you
any better?”

Aishling lightly tugged on her hands to remove
them, but Kelile held them in place.

“Why did Morrigan do that to you?”

“It was stupid, man. She threw her diary at me,
and it was like a reflex. I started readin’ it.”

“Did she put a stabbing spell on you too?”
Aishling asked.

“I don’t know what happened next, but all of a
sudden it felt like I’d been stabbed through my stomach. The pain shot up my
back and into my arms.” He released her hands.

When she raised the hand that had covered his
eyes, she gasped. His eyes were open, and he had no pupils!

“I can’t see anything. God! I can’t see!”

Lance bounded to his feet. “We’re not waiting any
longer, Aishling. We’re going to the ranger station and tell them it’s an
emergency, that we need Redhawk. Kelile is blind. Morrigan is missing. We don’t
have a clue where to find that stone, or if it even exists.”

“No, I can’t go back yet. What about Morri? We
can’t leave her behind?”

“We’ll get Redhawk to help us find her. We just
can’t sit here.”

“Hello? I can hear you. My ears still work, you
two. Why don’t you go after Redhawk, Lance. Aishling and I will stay here.”

“No. I can’t leave you like this.” Lance paced.
“We need to get you to a hospital.”

“A hospital ain’t gonna fix this. You know that. I
need the queen, and I’m waitin’ here until her sorry ass returns. Besides, if I
move around much I feel like a knife is still sticking in my gut. Now, get
outta here. We’ll be fine.”

Lance huffed, crossed his arms and glared at the
ground.

Aishling picked up her
grimoire
. What could
she do? She had her book, peacock obsidian, and a bell. But she didn’t know
what to do with them.
Oh, Kelile’s right! Just what is a bell good for?

Pouting, she carelessly flipped through the pages
of her
grimoire
then stopped, shut her book, and sighed.
What can I
do?
For one last attempt to find the answer in her book, she closed her
eyes and randomly opened it again, hoping.

This time, she opened to a passage that hadn’t been
there before—and the answer to her question:

You use a bell for different purposes. A bell’s music
or vibration can invoke the Goddess during ritual, or invoke pleasant energies and
repress negative ones. You can also hang it above your front door to guard your
home. It is especially useful for warding off evil. The most potent of bells
are capable of summoning beings from other realms, like the Sidhe, to your aid.

“That’s it! Lance, I know what I can do.” She opened
her wish box and pulled out the silver bell.

As she took a deep breath, she closed her eyes,
cleared her mind, and opened to her intuition. Immediately, she remembered the
vision of her and Ma walking under the arbor in their garden and entering into
a different realm where Da was waiting for them.

She took the bell to the Garden of Life and Death
and stopped in front of the arbor. This had to work. While ringing the bell,
she closed her eyes and stepped under the arbor, expecting Da to be there when
she opened them.

It didn’t work.

Aishling still stood in the weed-infested garden,
no lights, no fireworks, no sweet smells.

She lumbered back to the sleeping bags.

Lance shook his head.

“What’s goin’ on, you two?”

“I had read something in my book about using a
bell, and I tried it out. It didn’t work.”

“What was the bell supposed to do?” Kelile
prompted.

“I thought it would help me move into the
Otherworld
and talk to Da.”

“The
Otherworld
? Girl, do you make this
stuff up?”

“Please don’t make fun of me. I’m trying to help
you.”

“I know. I know. Wait. You said that book of yours
told you how to use the bell. What about the black stone your mom left you?
Does it say anything about that in your book?”

“Kelile, you’re a genius!” After getting her
grimoire
again, she looked through a section that explained uses for several stones
and found an entry for peacock obsidian:

Use this stone to enter other realms of reality and traverse
between worlds. It acts as a beacon and carries you forth on its rays of light.
It can also attract entities from other realms and carry them to you. It helps
the holder ignite and expand consciousness, and to see with clear vision. Its
elemental aspect is fire. This stone not only generates travel between worlds
and opens one’s spirit, but it offers protection while doing so. At certain
times, it may be used to communicate with deceased loved ones.

“That’s it! I’ll use the obsidian
with
the
bell.”

She ran back to the archway leading into the
garden and began the process again, this time holding the obsidian in her right
hand and ringing the bell with her left hand.

When she stepped across the threshold, her mother
stood before her.

“Ma! Ma, I see you!”

Her mother smiled and said, “We have very little
time. Use the obsidian for healing the tissue in the boy’s eyes and absorbing
the dark energies of the stabbing spell. Honey, remember when we’d go to the
cave in the forest close to Joyce Kilmer?”

At once, Aishling glimpsed the memory. She nodded.

“You’ll find what you need there.”

Her mother’s image faded, and Aishling was in the
overgrown garden again.

As she wiped the tears from her eyes, she turned
to go back to Kelile. Lance stood at the archway, watching her.

“Did you see her?” she asked.

“See who?”

“Ma. Ma came to me.”

She returned to Kelile. “You were right, and I
know what to do. I have to place this obsidian on your stomach and eyes. It
should absorb all the negative spellwork that Morri cast on you. It should heal
you.”

Kelile shrugged. “Whatever works.”

Moments later, he said, “Wow. That stone is hotter
than your hands were. It’s like a fire.”

When the energies cooled, she moved the stone from
his stomach to his right eye. “Keep your eyes closed. Let me move back and
forth over them.”

“Aishling?” Lance sat next to them again and
placed his hand on her arm. “Is that what your mother told you to do?”

“Yes.”

She continued holding the obsidian in place until
the energies had cooled over both eyes. “I think you’re okay now, Kelile. Open
your eyes.”

He opened one eye first. His mouth formed a wide
grin as he opened his other eye. “I can see.” He sat up and leaned from side to
side. “Wow, I don’t get any stabbing pain anymore, either.”

“Well, goody, goody for you,” Morrigan mocked,
strolling into the yard as if coming from a lazy afternoon walk.

“Morrigan!” Lance jumped up. “I can’t believe you
did that to him.” He looked like he was ready to pounce on her.

Leaning away from him, she inched down beside
Aishling. “I didn’t mean to hurt you like that, Kelile.” She clasped her hands
under her chin. “Please forgive me, everyone. Please?”

So happy about Kelile and about having seen her
mother, Aishling hugged her and said, “I forgive you. And guess what? I saw Ma,
and she told me where to find the Suti Stone.”