Soul Inheritance (14 page)

“
That’d be good. Maybe you can help her get some perspective if she finds she is Miranda tonight. Maybe we can joggle the memories the magic won’t necessarily bring out. Time’s not exactly on her side here. She needs to remember as much as she can as quickly as possible, for her own protection.” Dora was stern and serious.

“
Why not include a protection spell? Something that’ll help once she’s there.” Bell spoke up from the other end of the table. An older woman with silver hair that was shoulder length but curly. She had an intense look about her. It was the way she carried herself, her presence, her bearing. Her features were strong, if wrinkled, and she looked like someone who was used to being in charge. Katherine remembered seeing her talking to Dora on the front porch of her enormous old house. Even at a distance she looked like someone who could and did handle things.

“
That could be helpful, though there isn’t much we can do in that department except minimize the small threats along the way. The powers and creatures she’s dealing with are stronger than we can defend against. These’re definitely old powers, if not ancient ones. That leaves a lot of grey area.”

Katherine looked up at Dora, a shadow crossing her memory and her face.

“
What is it?” Dora reached out and touched her shoulder.

“
I…” she hesitated, brow wrinkling. “Grey… Grey…” frustration built as the memory tugged at her. “Greystone. His name was Greystone.”

“
How do you know?” Ivy spoke in an excited whisper.

“
This morning,” it was no longer a tug of war; the memory flowed as clearly as the rest of the day. “Why would he fight that? Fight letting me remember his name?”

Bell chuckled. “There’s power in a name. We can use it to block him out during the ceremony.”

“
It’s sad. I think in some way we can all associate with him. He lived in a time when the very existence of his family line was in danger. They were facing extinction by bigots who just didn’t understand their ways. People who had no business interfering in their beliefs or practices. He did what he had to do to protect his family and their future.” Margaret was sitting two people down from Katherine. She was somber. “If you’re the last of his line then it’s imperative that he sway you, make you understand. Or everything he did would’ve been for nothing. His sacrifice of himself to this would’ve been for nothing. Wasted.”

Katherine stared at her glass. That was a new way of looking at it. What if he didn’t want her at all? What if he sought her understanding to draw her back to the folds of the family? If that was what he wanted he had an odd way of showing it. She rubbed her upper arms absently, grimaced and shifted uncomfortably.

“
I think he loved Miranda,” Katherine said absently. Looking around at the guests she drew herself up straight. “I need to know if I’m her. Did I somehow get reborn into my family line from earlier lives where I had no control? If that’s the case why am I here now? What’s changed to make me stronger? If I am. Whether his intentions started out honorable or not he turned into this… thing that he is now and he’s been taking family members with him every since. I’ve got to end it now. Or the line has no future because it will die with me.”

“
Umm… no, that’s not true. What about the aunt? Did she have any children?”  Serena spoke up from across the table.

“
How’d you know about my aunt?” Katherine straigh-tened, stiffened. There’d been no mention of her at this table.

“
Sorry, I’m empathic. It was laying just below the surface in your mind. I couldn’t help it. So, what about it? Did she?”

Dora looked up at Serena, seemed to study her closely, but said nothing.

Katherine thought a moment. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really been concentrating on any of that. I’ve been more concerned with dealing with the thing that took my father and finding out what to do.”

“
Well, you might want to find her first,” Margaret interjected. “If there’re others you might need to know. Are they affected? Maybe they’re looking for answers. Maybe they can help you. If they’ve already been swayed, you’ll need to watch out for them.”

“
I don’t think there’re others. I don’t know why, I just don’t think so. He’s concentrating too hard on me. He seems to think I’m the only chance for whatever it is he wants.”

“
Maybe he just
wants
you to be her. If he’s in love with Miranda then he may desperately want her, or you, to be with him. Eternity is a long time.” Serena held eye contact exclusively with Katherine as she spoke. It was almost as if they shared some deep bond that Katherine wasn’t privy to, but felt in the burn of her stare.

“
Only one way to find out,” Dora added, “Let’s do it.”

The conversation turned to the ritual they were all there to perform. Everything was explained so that Katherine would know what to expect. If it worked - and Katherine and Miranda were one in the same – then the memories of her past would begin to come back to her, though not all at once. They didn’t want to overwhelm her with information. If it worked she would know immediately, but the knowledge would come in fragments, hopefully as she needed them.

They gathered in the gazebo at the middle of the garden. Small lanterns with fogged glass and dragonfly patterns were hung from the support posts. Each housed a candle, throwing a soft glow over the group. The women held a candle in one hand and an ingredient in the other. They sat on benches along the edges, taking up three quarters of the circle. The other quarter housed a small, narrow table set out from the wall. As everyone settled into place Dora took a spot behind the little table and Katherine realized with a little uncertainty it was an alter.

“
Sit on the cushion,” Dora instructed.

Katherine turned to find a purple cushion in the center of the circle. She took her place there, glancing around at the serious and determined faces. She felt strangely at home here. As if she knew them all in some way. If reincarnation was how things were then perhaps she did know them, from other times, other lives. She wondered if that would help her now. There was hope as she turned her attention back to Dora.

The alter had begun to take shape. Dora spread a white cloth, placed a purple runner down the middle and five of the crackle glass candleholders along it. Next she set a black iron ring with legs over the center candle, lit them all, then brought out a shallow bowl made of pottery that fit into the iron stand.

Dora glanced at Katherine with amusement. “Not exactly a caldron. Clay, of the earth.” She picked up a small jar with a corked top, pulled out the cork. “Vervain tincture first.” She poured it into the bowl, swished it around. “Then holy water.” This was poured from a tall thin jar, its light green glass nearly glowing in the candlelight. Then she reached to the side and pulled out an incense cone and holder, lit that and set it to the side as narrow wisps of smoke spiraled upward.

“
Now, we have representations of earth, the pot, fire, the candles, water, the holy water – which means it’s been purified with sea salt and blessed – air, the incense and spirit, all of us. All of these are the basic elements of magic. One by one we’ll each come forward and add an ingredient to the pot and the incantation for it to do as we ask. Then we’ll use it to anoint you and proceed with the ritual. Ready?”

Katherine nodded.

Quietly she sat on the floor of the gazebo, her skirt flowing over the edges of the purple pillow with her legs crossed. She swallowed as she watched Margaret step forward and she listened to each of them as they petitioned the goddesses and gods they called upon for assistance. When the last one had performed her task they all drew the circle in with her as the center and Dora facing her at the pinnacle.

Words unfamiliar to Katherine flowed around her. They closed in, caressed her skin as if they were animate objects, hands that touched every inch of her, fingers that gently combed through every strand of hair. While she did not know the language she knew the meaning. The goddess was called to let the lives lived converge, the memories known in this time of need. Each voice was part of a whole, forming one sound, one melodious cord as they converged into a chant that lifted her to their goddesses and gods.

Katherine felt a cool tingle run from the top of her spine to the very tip. A mist began to form outside the boundaries of the gazebo. Thin and gauzy it listed like an ocean current from side to side. She felt relaxed, secure inside their circle, sleepy with the rhythm of the voices and the waves of mist. Her eyes faltered, she fought it.

“
No, let it take you. Follow it. It’ll show you what you want to know,” Dora spoke low, not interfering or taking away from the chants.

Katherine let go. Her eyes closed and she floated away. Turning she looked back at herself sitting in the gazebo. The candles flickered and were gone. She stood alone in the cool mist, completely at ease. Something stirred within the white folds. The sound of footsteps in the distance drew her attention to the left. She turned and waited calmly as they came closer. As the sound approached another began from the right and then another from behind. Katherine began to grow anxious; as she became surrounded she fought to keep her attention on the one that was closest.

A form began to develop in the mist. In moments a woman walked out of the curtain of moisture. Katherine was speechless. The woman was shorter, slightly smaller in frame with almost no bust and tiny feet. She was dressed in a green and white gingham dress to the mid-shin with a fifties style bun pinned up on her head. It was not this that startled her. It was the face. They could have been mistaken for mother and daughter.

From the other directions came more female forms. The first wore a belle style dress from the early eighteen hundreds, her hair pulled up and cascading down her back in ringlets. She didn’t look comfortable in her attire. The gypsy in her was imprisoned in the properness of the age and class to which she obviously belonged. She stood staunch and serious. A woman enslaved in Victorian times. 

The next form wore the twenties style. A one piece dress that stopped just below the knees, a belt snuggly fastened round the waist of the grey material. Her wavy hair bobbed with her movements, giving her a less than formal and very comfortable appearance. They all had one thing in common. Each face reflected back her gaze.

The last to emerge was known to Katherine, from the last encounter with Greystone. She noted that her dress was not torn, her hair not in disarray. She did carry a scar, deep and long across the left side of her pretty face. She smiled in a knowing way, reached out and offered her left hand. There was hesitation as she looked down at the fine, thin hand. The lovely ring was not there.

None of them spoke, but moved forward, reached out. A hand on each shoulder, one on her back. A feeling of security and knowledge washed through her like a flood through a canal. She reached out, took Miranda’s hand. The electrical charge that ran through her was so strong she nearly pulled away. Each of the forms moved into her where they were absorbed like drops of water in a pond.

Finally all that remained was Miranda, holding tight to her hand. She looked deep into the brown that felt like her own eyes. In a moment of profound understanding they stepped forward together. Each absorbed the other until only one being stood in the mist.

Katherine was whole in a way she had never been before. Now she knew what had been missing. Quite literally a part of her. Half to be exact. She felt herself being drawn back into the circle, into the gazebo and into her body.

The gazebo and the women there slowly filtered back into existence. Her head ached, there was something else there. Someone else. Dora had her arm. The chants were finished, the circle disbursed. Someone laid her back on the wooden floor, put a pillow beneath her head.

“
Katherine, are you alright?” Dora hovered, Margaret and the others only a few steps back.

“
Uh, yea. I think so. My head hurts.”

“
You’ll probably be tired. What happened? What did you find?”

Katherine scrunched up her face, tried to sit up. Had to accept lying there, looking at the roof beams. She remembered it all very clearly. More importantly she felt the same as she had after she and Miranda had joined.

“
Oh, I would say that I found more than I was looking for.”

Dora grinned, “How many were there? How many did they give back?”

“
Four. And they all joined me.”

Everyone fell eerily quiet.

“
Are you sure? They were all joined with you?” Dora looked concerned.

“
Yea, I…uh…absorbed all four.” She thought a moment. “Well, no. I absorbed three.”

Dora looked sideways at Margaret. “What do you mean? Was Miranda one of them?”

“
Well, yes, but… that was different. We absorbed each other. It was very clear. We both knew it had to be that way.” Katherine attempted to sit up again. Succeeded.

The women around her immediately began to mumble amongst themselves. Dora looked hard at Katherine. Her hair had taken on streaks of silver and her eyes were now a dark brown, almost black. Katherine smiled.