Dead Moon Awakens: A tale of Cherokee myth and Celtic magic (Mystic Gates) (19 page)

Tuesday, May 7

Aishling opened her eyes. Still dark. Still
early. She sighed, not wanting to get up, too exhausted from the nightmares
that had plagued her throughout the night. Even now, the dreams haunted her.

She had been eager to fall asleep, expecting to
see Ma again. Since they had planned to look for the stone today, she had felt
sure her mother would come in her dreams and tell her what to do.

But, Ma hadn’t appeared in her dreams, nor made any
further contact.

Now she lay there struggling with her thoughts. The
nightmares always ended with her desperately trying to build a protective fire,
unable to succeed. Would her
grimoire
show her how to summon fire? Had
she overlooked something when she searched yesterday afternoon?
Maybe that’s
why Ma didn’t come last night.
She’d have to check it again this morning
before they left.

She didn’t want to get up, though, or even move.
Instead, she wanted to rid her mind of the nightmares, to stay there, safe and
warm.

She touched her amulet with her left fingertips.
Just how safe
would
it keep her? Obtaining the Suti Stone would not be
easy. Hadn’t her dreams made that clear?

Also, she was worried about Morrigan. In her
dreams last night, as before, the serpent had bitten her. And, as before,
Aishling couldn’t prevent it, couldn’t help her, couldn’t even confirm whether
she had lived afterwards.

The protective fire,
she reminded herself.
This was the most important thing to learn before leaving. As quietly as
possible, she collected her
grimoire
and flashlight and tiptoed into the
garage.

When she first opened her book, she found a page she
had not seen before. The title was,
Your Amulet
. How strange. Hadn’t she
just wondered if it would protect her? After removing her amulet from around
her neck, she held it in her right hand while she read:

Your amulet is crafted with moldavite, jet,
and rose quartz. Each stone radiates a different energy. The stones are
entwined within silver, the lunar metal and metal of Goddess.

The pink rose quartz is a glorious stone
that floods your heart and soul with a pure stream of divine love. Its
elemental aspect is water. The forest green moldavite is an intense stone that
acts like a tornado, thrusting you down your spiritual path. Its elemental
aspect is air. The black jet is a purification stone that acts like a great
sponge, absorbing, neutralizing, and clearing all impurities and negative
energies along your path. Its elemental aspect is earth.

These stones combined together create a
powerful, protective, and transformative amulet you should wear at all times.

Aishling studied her amulet a few more moments
before placing it back around her neck and underneath her shirt. Then she continued
searching for a spell to summon a protective fire.

Nothing.

She searched once more.

Nothing.

Before closing her book, she reread the page
regarding her amulet. This time, she realized there was no reference to a stone
with the elemental aspect of fire. Even her amulet didn’t contain fire. Discouraged,
she gave up.

An hour later, they packed their things and left
in search of the cave.

“How much further?” Morrigan huffed. “We’ve been
walking all morning.”

“The cave should be around here, somewhere.” But
Aishling’s stomach had begun gurgling as she seethed with self-doubt. The
others were getting impatient, too. Lance had already made several comments
about calling the whole thing off.

Kelile stopped in front of her, preventing her
from moving forward. “Look, girl, I don’t know anything about magick or witch
stuff, but in the real world, you don’t hide something important where just
anyone
can find it.”

This triggered a connection of thoughts, and she
swept through snippets of memories of when she and Ma had been here before, of
the information she had read in her
grimoire
, of bits and pieces of
recent dreams, and of the last encounter with Ma’s spirit.

“Kelile!”

“What is it?” Morrigan said.

At first, she couldn’t find the words to match her
thoughts.

“Girl, you’ve got that weird, voodoo stare again.”

“I think … I think the cave is in another
dimension, another realm. The bell and stone Ma left me are tools for walking
between worlds. That’s why she left me those things.” She stared past the
others.

“Aishling? Aishling!” Lance gripped her shoulders.

She must have zoned out again. “Okay,” she said
and took out her silver bell and obsidian. “Remember the riddle?—
As the
closed is opened, a treasured link returns.
—I think I’m supposed to use
this bell and stone to open a gateway to the cave.”

“What?” Kelile said.

“Aishling, you’re not making any sense,” Lance
added.

When she looked at Morrigan for moral support,
Morri was beaming. “Do you mean what I think you mean?”

“I think the cave is not in our reality, and we
must go through a gateway to get to it. I need to use these tools to open the
gateway.”

“Where do you think it is?” Morrigan asked.

“Well, Ma told me to come here. There must be
something around here to show us where it is.” Aishling twisted around,
searching the area.

“I can’t believe I’m following you on this
ridiculous search,” Lance said, taking off his backpack and setting it on the
ground.

“Don’t give up on ’em yet, man.” Kelile swept both
his hands toward his chest. “Hey, I’m a walkin’ example of their magick.”

“What?” Lance stepped away, drifting to the left.
“It can’t be.” He squinted while he leaned forward, moving his head
side-to-side. “No.”

“What’s the matter?” Aishling asked.

Moments ticked by while he continued staring,
squinting, moving his head. He looked as though he was trying to align
something.

“Man, you’re freakin’ me out. What are you doing?”

Lance motioned for the others to come near. He
clasped Aishling’s left arm and guided her in front of him. “Do you see that
first tree ahead, the mountain ash, and how the base of it is bent over like
half an archway?”

“Oh … yes.”

“That’s a
thong tree
, a trail marker.
There’s very few left nowadays. Indians used to form young trees that way to
mark important trails.”

Morrigan and Kelile squeezed even closer, looking.

Lance continued, “Okay, now look past that tree a
little to the left, about forty paces, and there’s another mountain ash with
half an archway. Do you see it?” She nodded. “See how you can look a certain
way and they form a complete arch?”

“Yes!” Aishling said. At the same time, she
remembered that the
Ogham Few
, or Druid symbol, on her bell stood for
the “ash” tree. Lance had to be right!

“That’s it!” Morrigan said, running ahead. The
others followed, but Morrigan spun around, stopping them. “Wait, you can’t see
where the archway is from here. Someone needs to stand back and guide us
through. Kelile, you go back and guide us. Then you can stay here and make sure
no one follows us.”

“What? Look voodoo queen, I’m supposed to be on
this little excursion. Remember? The bitch witch is in
my
head, not
yours.”

“Stop it, you two,” Lance said. “Aishling, you stay
here. I’ll go back and guide you to the archway. Kelile find a large stone or
something we can use to mark the entrance. And, Morrigan, back off.”

Five minutes later, Aishling stood with the others
at the gateway, squirming with excitement and tingling all over. She clutched
the silver bell in her left hand and obsidian in her right. When she closed her
eyes and took a calming breath, another memory filtered through about the ash
tree.
It’s a link to all worlds and a guide in and out of those worlds. It’s
found around sacred sites that are guarded by serpents!
But Ma wouldn’t
send me here if it weren’t safe.

“Okay,” she said, nervously looking around.
What
do I do now?

Ever so faintly, a whispered voice said, “
Ring
the bell. Calm the energies. Breathe deeply, slowly.
”

She checked to see if the others had heard it.
They hadn’t, and were staring at her.
One of the ash trees must be guiding me!
Closing her eyes, she listened once more.

“
Visualize your spirit opening from a bud into
a radiant flower. Now visualize the flower joining with the earth energies
surrounding you. Feel yourself vibrate in tune with Mother Earth. Open your
heart. Open your soul. You have nothing to fear. The stone you hold protects
you. Ring the bell again and step through the threshold.
”

When she crossed over and opened her eyes, she
stood ninety feet away from the entrance of a cave, a cave that had not been
there moments before. “Yes!” She bounced for a split-second before realizing
the others weren’t with her. The excitement fell away. Her chest tightened, and
she gasped.

Okay, I need to calm down. I’ll just go back
and bring them through
.

As she stepped back through the portal, Morrigan
screeched, “You disappeared! Weren’t you going take us with you?”

“I didn’t know you couldn’t come with me on your
own. I think you need to hold on to my arms and move with me.”

Lance and Kelile looked at each other, hesitating.
She worried they wouldn’t come, but Lance reached out and clasped her arm at
the same time Morrigan and Kelile grasped her other arm. “Okay. Here we go, I
hope.”

She didn’t hear the voice as before, so she
repeated the same process. When she stepped through the gateway this time, the
others stood next to her.

“Man! Jeez! I can’t believe this!” Kelile patted
his arms and whirled around.

“Wow,” Lance whispered.

“I knew it! I knew you could do it, Aish.”
Morrigan clapped and jumped up and down.

“We should get our flashlights, Kelile,” Lance
said as he retrieved his.

“How are we goin’ to mark the gateway on this
side?” Kelile asked.

“Can you leave your backpack here?” Lance said.

“Sure.”

Aishling and Lance led the way to the cave. Before
entering, she stashed her bell and obsidian into the extra pocket of her
backpack.

Light from their flashlights revealed a tunnel
with nothing more than earthen walls. No life anywhere. No bugs. No bats. No
nothing but darkness.

After several hour-long minutes, Aishling worried
the cave was an unending path to nowhere. Would they get lost in there?

“Look at that,” Morrigan said, pointing in the
direction Kelile’s flashlight lit. “It looks like another tunnel.” She bounded through
the opening.

“Morri!”

“Wait!” Kelile said.

They sprang forward to the archway after her and
stopped, their flashlights piercing the darkness beyond.

No Morrigan.

Aishling shouted again, “Morri!”

No answer.

Morrigan had vanished.

How could she disappear like that? It didn’t make
sense. Morri hadn’t screamed, hadn’t said anything. She was there, and then she
wasn’t, gone within a second. Aishling edged forward to enter the tunnel and
look for her.

Kelile stopped her. “Wait. Why doesn’t she come
back?”

“Could this be an entrance to another realm?”
Lance said.

“Yes. That makes sense,” she answered. “Like when
I stepped through back there and you-uns weren’t with me.”

“Yes, but you came back,” Lance said.

“But remember, man? She was gone for several
minutes before she did.”

“To me, it was only seconds.” She stared at the
darkness ahead. “How could Morri go into another realm without me?”

“Maybe once you enter the gateway you can wander
in and out of different places, or realms,” Lance answered. “We shouldn’t
separate.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “Hold on to me and we’ll go
together.”

They found Morrigan on the other side of an
expansive cavern. She was crouched near a far wall with her hands covering her
eyes, crying.

“Morri!” Aishling called, moving ahead to go to
her. Lance stopped her and set his backpack by the entrance they had just come
through before releasing her. He walked alongside her.

Aishling’s relief at finding Morrigan turned into
awe. Unlike the tunnel they had been in before, this cavern’s walls were
embedded with thousands of luminous crystals glowing in different hues of
color, as though they were inside a sparkling rainbow. And, what looked like
frost or crystals of ice blanketed the cavern’s ceiling, illuminating the
cavern with varying shades of white light. The different shades of light and
color created a warm and cozy feeling.

They had entered through one of four openings. The
sounds of a nearby waterfall emanated from a side chamber, left of where they
had entered. “It’s so beautiful in here,” Aishling said.

“What are you talking about? It’s horrible!”
Morrigan kept her hands over her eyes. “It’s pitch black. How can you
see
anything? And the bugs! It feels like bugs are crawling all over me.” Her whole
body shuddered.

“Morrigan calm down.” Lance patted her on the
shoulder. “Open your eyes. Aishling’s right.”

She peeked through her fingers and stood. “What
happened? It wasn’t like this when I came in.” Wiping her eyes as she looked
around, she said, “It was dreadful! I heard all these crawly things everywhere.
I couldn’t see them. Then I felt them crawling all over me. I couldn’t see
anything. It was pitch black. And the smell. It was dreadful! I thought I was
going to throw up. And why did it take you so long to find me? I yelled and
yelled for you!”

“Maybe that’ll teach you to stay with us.”

“Oh, I hate you!” she yelled, glaring at Kelile.

“Ouch.” He grinned, baring his teeth, and turned
away from her. “What do we do now?”

Lance glanced around at the walls. “Find the
Ulunsuti
.”

“I’m on it, man.” Kelile went to the nearest cave
wall and began looking at the embedded crystals as he strode closer to the
others. “It’s gotta be one of these.”

Aishling patted Morrigan’s left shoulder, trying
to calm her. At the same time, she ran her left fingertips over the crystal
wall next to them. “We don’t know for sure what it looks like.”

“I think I’ll know it when I see it. The bitch
witch is really yakkin’ at me right now.” Kelile huffed and continued his
search.

“Well, oh psychic one, where is it?” Morrigan
smirked.

Aishling ambled toward the side chamber where she
heard the waterfall. “You’ll find it where the four elements meet and join.”

“How’d you know that’s what the bitch witch was saying?”
Kelile asked.

“I don’t know. I just did.”

“What?” Lance said. “What does it mean … where the
four elements meet and join?”

“Where air, fire, water, and earth meet as one.” Aishling
continued moving toward the other chamber as though pulled by an invisible
rope.

“But, Aishling … fire?” Lance said.

She stopped.
Fire.

Morrigan said, “We have earth and air in here, and
water in there.” She pointed to Aishling who now stood at the entrance of the side
cavern, facing her. “What if we build a fire? Would the stone reveal itself to
us?”

“Yeah. It’ll be that easy, my queen. Just for you.
All we do is build a fire, and the stone magically appears.” Kelile smirked.

Morrigan stuck out her tongue at him.

“Oh, that’s it. We build a fire. The stone pops up
in front of us, and you catch it with that.” He leaped for her and swiped at
her face.

“Enough!” Lance.

Kelile jerked away from Morrigan and cupped his
ears. “Aishling must be right ‘cause the bitch witch is screamin’ it now.”

“The voice you hear is telling you we need a
fire?” Lance asked.

“Yeah.”

“And you think that, too, Aishling?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then we need to go back out, get some stuff
to make a fire and return.”

Morrigan shrieked, pointing at Aishling, then
screamed.

Aishling didn’t have to look at what Morrigan
pointed to. She knew. Her dreams had warned her. And now, she heard it behind
her, slithering across the cavern floor. She sensed its energies. Smelled its
foul stench. Saw it in Morri’s face. Why had Ma sent her here if it weren’t
safe?

On impulse, she pulled out her silver bell and rang
it as loud, as clamorous as she could. She also grabbed her obsidian then
turned in time to see a horned serpent the size of an ancient oak tree raise
off the ground and lunge
away
from her.
The bell works.
“Get out
of here!” she yelled.

Morrigan and Kelile raced through the opening
Lance had marked with his backpack and disappeared.

She scrambled after them, but slipped, dropping
the bell and obsidian.

The
Uktena
undulated after her as she
fumbled for her magic tools. A flashback streaked through her thoughts—a time
of struggling like this before when the serpent was coming for her.

“Hey! Over here!” Lance stood at the opening,
waving and clapping his hands.

The
Uktena
changed directions and moved
toward him.

“No!” Aishling yelled. She grabbed the bell and
rang it while picking up the obsidian and scuttling to her feet.

Seeming confused, the Uktena stopped. She raced to
Lance.

But when the
Uktena
emitted a hideous wave
of hissing whispers, she almost dropped everything to cover her ears.
Keep
ringing the bell! Keep ringing the bell!
—she told herself.

Lance pulled her through the entryway.

She looked for the others, but couldn’t see past
the flashlight’s glow. Were they already out of the tunnel? Were they headed
back to the portal?

“Where are they?” Lance shouted above the clanging
bell.

“Maybe they’re at the cave entrance.”

She kept tripping and running into the tunnel
wall, pulling Lance with her. The flashlight dimmed, and now she couldn’t see.
Her skin prickled when she smelled rotten eggs.
Oh no! It’s getting closer.

Lance released his hold on her. She stumbled and
fell again. Metal slapped against the cave wall. He must have fallen too.

“The bell! Keep ringing the bell!” he shouted.

As she got up, she couldn’t tell which way to run.
As in her dream, she found herself in a thick, black fog.

Her intuition told her to keep moving in the
direction she was facing. Using the tunnel wall for guidance, she hastened on,
still ringing the bell.

It had been several moments, and she hadn’t heard
Lance. “Lance,” she called. “Lance?”

No answer.

Like the dream.

“Lance? Morri? Kelile?”

Again, no answer.

Was she going in the right direction?

She spotted a glimmer of light ahead.
The
opening!
But the others weren’t there. How had she gotten ahead of them?

What should she do? She had to keep ringing the
bell, but she couldn’t hear if the others were coming. Could they have gone
back through the portal already? But how?

“Lance?” she yelled again. “Kelile? Morri?”

She would have to be quiet and listen. While
leaning against the tunnel wall and holding the obsidian in front of her, she
stopped ringing the bell.

Someone screamed.

“Morri?”

“Keep ringing the bell,” a muffled shout from
Lance.

But she couldn’t tell how far back he was. She
rang the bell again.
Oh, Goddess.
“Hurry, Lance.”

She didn’t know how to build the protective fire
.
With that realization, she froze.

A dragging noise grew louder, moved closer.
The
Uktena!

She rattled the bell as hard as she could.

Something brushed her side.

She screamed.

“It’s us,” Kelile shouted, grabbing her arm and
pulling her through the cave opening, toward the gateway.

“Get my backpack, girl!”

When the four of them tumbled through the gateway,
stress poured out of her body … until she realized Morri wasn’t moving.

“Help me. We’ve got to get her out of here,” Lance
said.

Aishling almost collapsed when she spotted the
bite marks on Morrigan’s neck. “No!”

Kelile grabbed his backpack from her and slung it
on his back then helped Lance pick up Morrigan. A harsh silence took over as
they pulled and struggled and panted and huffed, trying to get away from the
thong trees.

When she thought they were far enough away, she
glanced back. What she saw made her bones feel like old, crumbling plaster.