Woman King (16 page)

I washed my left forearm in the sink and
dried it. Then, following her directions, I laid my arm on the
counter. Nadia removed her heavy cardigan, saying she was warm, and
instructed Elsa to bring her a candle and some salt. Elsa brought
both items to her and took a step back.

“Dim the lights,” Nadia said to no one in
particular. Lily got up and turned off most of the lights in the
kitchen, leaving a single bulb above the stove for illumination.
Then Nadia lit a small white candle and picked up the glass bottle.
She ran the flame under the bottle several times and then tilted
the candle until it began to drip wax onto the counter.

“North. South,” she chanted in her
Russian-tinged English. “East. West. These are the directions in
which we travel.” She continued to drip wax until the face of a
compass appeared. When she was done, she asked Lily to slowly
sprinkle salt along the wax pattern as she spoke. Nadia ran the
flame of the candle under the bottle one more time and then began
to murmur the words of a spell under her breath. Slowly she
unscrewed the cap on the bottle and handed the candle to Elsa. Then
she picked up the paintbrush. Symbols began to glow when she
clasped the handle. Nadia dipped the brush into the jar and
continued to speak.

“
Subnoto. Signum. Terminus.”

As soon as the brush touched my arm it began
to sting. I had expected her to draw the images on my arm, adding
each site I had seen on the map. Instead she was running the brush
up and down the length of my arm, much the same way a painter would
try to cover a wall. As my arm was coated with the liquid, exact
copies of the line drawings I had seen on the map began to appear.
I’m not sure how long it took her to complete the process. I was
transfixed, watching the map take shape on my arm. The pain was no
less and no more than what Nadia and Lily had promised. It stung
and my arm burned, but I was almost too distracted by the magic to
be uncomfortable.

When Nadia was finished, she asked Lily to
put the last of the salt on the wax compass on the counter. Then
the old witch placed the brush in the flame of the candle and said
“Termino.”
The hairs of the brush glowed, but did not catch
fire.

I looked down at my arm. There were a half
dozen line drawings sitting at the surface of my skin, all angry
red and swollen at the edges.

“Can I touch?” I asked, hoping I could put a
cold cloth or some ice on my arm. Nadia nodded and took a small
clay jar out of the other pocket of her sweater, which I was
beginning to suspect was bewitched to hold anything she needed. She
opened the pot and moved it under my nose several times so I could
pick up the fragrance. “Calendula flowers,” she said, as I smiled
at the scent. “It will help your skin heal.” Nadia rubbed the salve
on my arm and asked Elsa to bandage it for the night. “In the
morning, you can remove the bandage,” she added, as she began to
pack up her belongings.

“What will it look like tomorrow?” I asked,
worried there would be some big, ugly mess on my arm.

“The map will be visible for the next few
days, but only to you,” she continued. “It will disappear and only
return when you request it.”

“Request,” I repeated, but Nadia shook her
head.

“Not out loud. All you need to do is think
about the map to see it. The map is bound to you now.” I stared at
my arm, marveling at how, for the second time in recent weeks, I’d
managed to stamp myself with permanent ink.

“There is one more thing,” Nadia said,
interrupting my thoughts. “The map will change.”

This caught everyone’s attention.

“How do you mean?” Lily asked.

Nadia fixed a stare on the three of us, much
like a schoolteacher dealing with an inept student. “The magic that
binds the map is a part of the same spell that creates the portals.
If the locations change, or a route is blocked, you will see
it.”

“And if I leave San Francisco?” I asked,
thinking this handy information.

Again, Nadia fixed me with eyes that spoke
volumes about my inexperience. “The map will display the portals
located in the place where you are. If your arm is blank, it means
there is no exit.”

That sounded ominous.

“I think it’s time for tea,” Lily
interjected, thankfully.

We made Nadia a cup of tea and the four of us
sat in amicable silence for a few minutes. Finally the old woman
stood up abruptly and declared that she was tired and wanted to
leave.

“I will walk you,” Elsa offered, but Nadia
declined, saying a walk in the crisp night air would do her some
good.

When we reached the door, Nadia asked for my
hand and began to examine my palm. She stood quietly for a few
moments and then spoke. “You are destined for great things, Olivia.
You have a long life line and…” Nadia had stopped speaking.

“And what?” I prodded.

“You have a great adventure ahead,” she said,
almost squinting at my palm. “I see two great loves will enter your
life.”

I replied with my own question. “Did I make
the right decision joining the Council?”

Nadia squeezed my hand and stepped closer to
me to ensure only I could hear her whispered words. “That was not
your choice,
miloska
,” she said. “Women kings are born and
must accept their fate.”

“There is no such thing,” I said back.

Nadia began to leave. “Oh, but there is,” she
said nodding. “There is.” And then she quickly walked down the
stairway, on to the sidewalk and into the night.

I remained in the doorway, unsure of what to
think. I decided it was better not to mention too much to Lily or
Elsa, who’d stayed in the kitchen. I knew Nadia wasn’t crazy, but
she was old and maybe a little bit nostalgic for a different time.
I walked back into the kitchen to find Elsa tearing a linen dish
rage into strips for my arm.

Lily broke the silence. “OK, tell us: Did she
read your palm?”

I nodded. “Yes. She said I would live a long
life and have two great loves. I assume she meant the two of you,”
I said, trying to make a joke out of it. But neither Lily nor Elsa
was laughing.

“Nadia is a great seer,” Lily said. “If she
said love, she means it.”

I found the entire conversation a little
overwhelming after my cartography session. “How will I ever find
one love, let alone two, when I’ve got a campaign to run and you
two as my chaperons every evening?”

“Whatever Nadia told you is going to come
true, Olivia. So you’d better be prepared,” Lily said,
undeterred.

****

Fortunately, I didn’t have time to dwell on
fortune cookie predictions, or the mysterious old woman who doled
them out. My arm, while tender, was healing nicely and, as Nadia
had said, the images were invisible to everyone but me. That made
my next job easier, as I was off to find the head of the Democratic
Party and convince him to not run a candidate against Levi.

The expression “three is a crowd” holds true
for both romance and politics. A three-way race is a disaster
because it splits the ballots, making it almost impossible to gain
a majority of the votes. A three-way race usually results in a
run-off.

I was determined to help Levi avoid that
fate. I drove over to Lake Merced and found my target. As I
expected, Paul Levant was ensconced on a bench, watching a regatta.
No one was seated next to him, probably not a coincidence. Throwing
caution to the wind, I slid alongside him on the bench. Levant, a
small bag of popcorn in his hands, turned to look at me, shook his
head and chuckled.

“I figured you would come to see me, sooner
or later,” he said, popping a kernel into his mouth.

“You must have ESP,” I said, watching the
women of the University of San Francisco glide across the
water.

“Maybe,” he said, “Or maybe I read somewhere
that you’re running Levi Barnes’ campaign for District Fifteen. I
do try to stay current on my political news.”

“I liked it better when I thought you had
magical powers,” I said, enjoying myself.

Levant handed me the bag of popcorn and
smiled. “On second thought, I do have ESP, because I know exactly
what you are going to ask me.”

“You do?” I asked, feigning ignorance for the
sake of our conversation.

“You want to know if the party is going to
support someone else for that seat,” he said. “The answer is no; no
one wants it.” Levant was agitated. I wasn’t the cause, but there
was an undercurrent of worry running through him; it felt old, like
it had been with him for a while. “The Republicans are looking for
a candidate, Olivia. They want a Tea Party rep for that seat,
someone who can appeal to the conservative money in Silicon Valley
and the farm belt.”

“You think a guy who writes code for Facebook
games is going to vote for someone who thinks the world is flat?” I
asked tartly.

Levant shook his head. “Don’t be so flip.
They won’t be as obvious as that,” he said. “It will be about taxes
and regulation. It will be about immigration and education, maybe a
tad bit about water rights in the Central Valley. Stuff your guy is
not as good at.”

“What do you mean, no one wants it?” I asked,
not wanting to discuss Levi yet.

“Just what I said,” Levant replied, taking
back his popcorn bag. “No one wants to take on the Tea Party, or
the Republican Party. It’s impossible to raise a million dollars in
this economy. At this rate, the Democrats will be lucky to keep the
seats we currently have in Congress.”

Here was my opening. “Fortunately for you,
money is no object for Levi Barnes. He’s prepared to spend to win.
And he’s a Democrat.”

Levant shook his head. “At this point, I am
glad someone is willing to run for the seat. I’m getting too
fucking old for this shit. As far as I’m concerned, a Bible’s main
use is to swear in a candidate, and that’s about it. In my day, we
didn’t let these fights become so personal. Your guy is walking
into a shit storm of hard feelings in Washington.”

“Paul, don’t worry,” I said, feeling the need
to reassure him. “Levi is a former member of Congress and a
successful businessman. He can stay above the fray and he’ll be a
bright star for the party…you wait and see.”

“If he can win, kid. If he can win,” Levant
said, turning his gaze to the wooden boats on the water.

“Maybe if you use some of the ESP you’ve got
to help us, it will be a sure thing,” I said, gathering up my
belongings.

“I think I’d rather send you a check,” Levant
said. “Be in touch with me about your campaign plan; the Party will
support you.”

I walked to my car, but waited until I was on
the road back to my house before I made the call to Levi.

“Levant is backing us,” I said, feeling
jubilant. “The party will bankroll our efforts.”

“I don’t need their money Olivia,” Levi said.
“I’ll tell Paul to use it for another race, for someone who needs
the help.”

“We will take a little help from the party,”
I said. “For one thing, it will look better if they’re seen
spending some resources on us. We don’t want anyone to think our
campaign is operating out there alone.”

After I hung up with Levi, I called Gabriel.
He didn’t pick up, so I left him a message letting him know that
I’d secured Levant’s backing. I also told him about Levant’s funny
comment about the Bible, knowing he’d get a kick out of the
image.

With Paul Levant’s promise in my back pocket,
I was free to continue with a research project I’d started a few
weeks back. It took patience, but finally one Sunday, as I was
reading the entertainment section of the paper, I was rewarded.
There, in a small box, was a listing for Three Blind Mice. They
were playing later in the week at the Treasure Chest, a nightclub
on Divisadero Street. This was my chance to see William again. Now
that the campaign was on the right path, I didn’t see why anyone
would object to me taking a night off. Nadia’s pronouncements
aside, the truth was that I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I
wasn’t sure what bothered me more, being caught in the horrible
cliché of pining for a vampire musician, or my actual yearning for
him. Regardless, I was determined to see him again.

When the night of the show arrived, I was
pleased Elsa had forced me into such a rigorous exercise regime. I
pulled a pair of very slim black jeans out of my closet, along with
a beat up pair of brown cowboy boots, and then searched in my
drawer for the sexiest bra I could find. I knew I was playing with
fire—not to mention being pretty presumptuous, but if there was a
make-out session in my future, I wanted to be wearing the most
provocative underwear possible. I rummaged around for the black
T-shirt I was looking for and grabbed a khaki safari jacket off a
hanger. I looked in the mirror and liked what I saw. I was stylish
without trying too hard. At the very least, if I missed William, I
would no doubt meet someone interesting, and the truth was that I
was in the mood for a little night magic.

I called a cab and within ten minutes one
arrived at my doorstep. It was approaching 9:30 when the car neared
the club. I began to feel nervous. What if I walked in and he was
there with another woman? What if he didn’t want to speak with me?
I was rethinking the whole idea when the car pulled up to the curb,
but by that time it was too late. There outside, leaning against
the wall in a pair of faded Levi’s and his signature cowboy hat,
was William. It seemed likely he had picked up on my thoughts and
knew I was coming when I got within a few blocks of the club. I
sighed, realizing there would be no sneaking up on him.

As I paid the driver and stepped onto the
curb, my nervousness returned. I’d never really chased a man
before, and now I felt my whole life depended on what I would find
when I looked into William’s eyes. I glanced up slowly, and was
relieved to see he had a wide grin on his face. “Well, now,” he
said emphasizing his accent. “What do we have here? Have you gone
AWOL from your barracks?”