by Jana Oliver
‘Briar?’
She jerked at the sound of her name and found Ruric standing over her. ‘Ah . . . sorry, I wanted to get my fortune told.’
‘The teller of fortunes is not here today,’ he said.
‘What?’ Briar turned back and found that the woman and her cards were gone. Even the piece of cloth had vanished.
OK, that was really weird. Did I just dream all that?
‘We can return tomorrow if you wish,’ he offered. ‘Perhaps she will be here.’
‘No, it’s OK.’ The cards had showed her two possibilities: either she found more help or she died. It couldn’t be simpler than that.
Briar fell quiet, unnerved by what the old woman had revealed. As they strolled through the market, Ruric handed over the scarf and she tied it round her neck for the time being.
‘It will look fine on you,’ he replied.
‘Thank you,’ she said. Are you my prince?
An apple came her way and Briar eagerly dug into it, hungry once again. Unlike the supermarket kind at home, this fruit was actually good. When juice ran down her chin, she wiped it off. Briar was about to take another bite when she hesitated. A thin worm crept out, waving its head above the fruity flesh.
The worm was all metal.
‘Ruric . . .’ she said, panicking. Had she eaten of some of that?
With a growl, he took the apple and tossed it away. ‘Now she is poisoning our food. When will this madness end?’ he said under his breath.
A commotion made them turn in unison and it centred on a pair of uniformed men stomping through the market. One carried a large leather bag and the other glowered menacingly, his sword drawn. They stopped at each stall or cart where the merchant would grudgingly place an item or two inside the bag.
‘What are they doing?’ Briar asked.
‘Collecting the duties. They come through every day and it is expected that each merchant give them some of their goods.’ He touched her elbow and angled his head. ‘This way.’
He led her away, moving casually as if he were in no hurry, so as not to attract attention. Briar matched his pace. Once they were a short distance from the market, he led her down a narrow alley, which proved to be a dead end. Instead of being upset at the obstruction, he deftly moved aside a portion of woven fencing and crawled through. Trusting that he knew where he was headed, Briar followed along. Behind them, he replaced the barrier.
‘You know this village really well, don’t you?’ He nodded. But it was more than just curiosity. ‘You’re mapping an escape route, in case something goes wrong.’
Ruric seemed impressed at her assessment. ‘I do not believe it is as simple as kissing the princess to wake her. Too many men have gone to their deaths for that to be the case, some more worthy than me.’
‘So you’re going to wait then? Make sure you have it right before you try.’
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head, as if resigned to his fate. ‘I am done waiting; too many have died as I laid my plans. Meanwhile the regent’s power increases with every passing day. That creature in the apple was one of hers, and soon such things will be in all of us, eating us from the inside out.’
‘But if you don’t wake the princess you could die, Ruric, like the others.’
‘I know. Does that trouble you?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. A lot.’
He smiled and then paused, pointing down an alley. ‘There is an abandoned wine cellar just there. It’s through that old blue door. Do you see it?’ When she nodded, he continued, ‘It is fairly safe if you ever need to take shelter. I have supplies laid back there.’
They set off again. ‘You were talking to yourself in the market. Do you do that often?’ he asked.
‘No.’ When Briar told him about the old woman and what her cards had shown – leaving out the part about finding her prince – his face grew grave.
‘You have been given a sign. You should heed it, for you are a clever girl.’
No matter what Ruric thought of her, she wasn’t an extremely clever girl, or a lucky one for that matter. To survive in this make-believe world, she’d need to be both.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
When it grew close to the time when he was supposed to meet Reena at the crossroads, Joshua took off on foot into the woods. It was about a twenty-minute hike and he knew the path well, even in the middle of the night. He’d crept out of the house, careful not to wake his mom. For the first time in months, there hadn’t been a light under her door and he hadn’t heard her crying.
Kerry trotted along beside him now. To the dog this was an adventure, but to Joshua this was trouble in the making. He didn’t like sneaking around, feeling he was breaking his parents’ trust. If his mom knew what he was up to, he’d be grounded for the rest of the year.
As he tromped through the woods, his mind continued to churn. He knew nothing about magic other than it had hurt someone he cared about. What would happen if Reena could break the curse? What if Briar found out he’d been the one to give it to her?
One thing at a time. They had to get Briar awake and then he’d worry about the rest.
Reena had insisted he meet her at Potter’s Mill. Joshua reached the site early, so he sat on stairs that led to the mill. It was a clear and muggy night, and a froggy choir serenaded him from the riverbank. The mosquitoes were out in force and he slapped at the ones that thought him edible.
From above came the drone of a private jet heading towards the Savannah airport. He peered upward and finally found the flashing lights among the brilliant stars. He liked nights such this. They seemed to heal some of the damaged places in his soul.
He wasn’t exactly sure when Briar had gone from classmate to something more, someone worth caring about. Part of it had been when his mom had immediately made all things Rose off limits. That had just piqued his curiosity.
Still it wasn’t all her fault. Maybe it was Briar’s pretty eyes or her hair. He’d always liked her hair and had been upset when she’d cut it short one summer. Fortunately it had grown back, long and thick, and now, that he was older, he found himself wondering what it would be like to touch it.
Are you crazy? She’s never going to talk to you again, not after she finds out who cursed her. Even if they could shake their parents loose, that would be kiss of death for any future they might have.
Still, he’d found the courage to give her the charm bracelet. He’d bought it weeks in advance of her birthday, had it sent to Reena’s house so his mom didn’t know what he was up to. His biggest fear had been that Briar would laugh at him when he gave it to her.
Instead, her eyes had lit up. He shouldn’t have worried – Briar was kind like that, but he knew it had nothing to do with her caring about him. That had been made clear when she’d taken off into the woods with Pat Daniels and ruined the entire evening.
‘Josh?’
He jolted in surprise. ‘I’m here.’
A flashlight swung in his direction and then promptly arched to the ground so as not to blind him. As his dog splashed at the river’s edge, trying to catch a bullfrog, Briar’s best friend joined him on the bank. She tucked her knees up to her chin and hugged them.
‘Kerry, get up here,’ Joshua called, and the Border collie reluctantly obeyed. You never knew when an alligator might be trolling for a meal.
‘This place has bad memories for all of us,’ Reena said.
‘Yeah.’ It was the reason why Briar feared any body of water. For Joshua, the fear hadn’t taken root. It’d been hard the first few times he’d tried to go swimming after the accident, and then the panic had left him behind. As he saw it, if the water hadn’t killed him then, it never would.
‘Pat picked a bad place to try to get lucky,’ Reena observed.
Joshua snorted. ‘At least she knows he’s a jerk now.’ Then he sobered. ‘She’ll hate me too, once she knows the truth.’
‘Is that your way of saying you don’t want to do this?’
‘No. But what a
re we doing? You haven’t told me jack.’
‘I will when the time’s right. Come on, we need to get going.’
Joshua offered to take her backpack, but she refused, so he followed behind. They walked along the old road, the one that wound from up north down to the lake. Night sounds kept them company, and every now and then something would rustle in the bushes near the road.
Ahead of him, Reena’s posture was taut, anxious. Whatever she was going to do was spooking her big time.
Maybe this isn’t a good idea.
‘You know anything about hoodoo?’ Reena asked, breaking the silence.
‘Some,’ her companion replied. ‘They sacrifice chickens, don’t they?’
‘That’s voodoo you’re thinking of. Hoodoo is folk magic. They . . . I do root magic.’
‘OK, so where are we headed?’
‘We’re going to a crossroads. They’ve always been places of power, even before Christianity.’
‘They used to bury suicides at a crossroads so the ghosts wouldn’t haunt them, didn’t they?’
‘That’s right. There’s a spirit there and I’m going to summon him. The Dark Rider has a lot of power, and if I do it right he’ll share some of that with me. I’m hoping I can get inside Briar’s curse and help her find a way out.’
‘Ohhkay . . .’ Joshua said, not quite believing her. ‘What’s this spirit dude like?’
‘The Dark Rider is more of a trickster than anything.’
‘Like Loki, you mean?’ When Reena gave him a sidelong look, Joshua shrugged. ‘I’m kinda into Norse mythology.’
‘Yeah, I guess he’s like that.’
‘If I remember anything about gods or spirits,’ Joshua replied, ‘they never give you anything without a price.’
‘Not in this case. I should be able to borrow the dude’s power without costing me anything.’
Riiight.
They walked to the intersection in thoughtful silence. The road had been abandoned once the new highway was built further to the east. Occasionally the locals would come down this way, but only if they didn’t care about the exhaust-ripping potholes or if there hadn’t been a heavy rain.
Reena shifted off her backpack. ‘If you’re having second thoughts, now’s the time to leave.’
Joshua hesitated for a fraction of a second, and felt bad about it. ‘I’m good,’ he replied. ‘Anything I can do to help?’
‘Keep an eye out for traffic,’ Reena said, her voice tighter now, evidence of the strain. ‘There shouldn’t be any, but with my luck some moron will come driving down here when I’m in the middle of the conjure. I don’t want to be a big brown bug on someone’s windshield.’
‘Consider it done.’
He sent Kerry off to sit on the side of the road and then moved closer to watch Reena’s preparations. He’d never seen magic up close before and until recently he’d not believed in it.
His friend retrieved a dark canvas bag from inside the backpack. From that bag came smaller pouches, along with candles and a box of matches.
‘Why would a rootworker put a curse on a kid?’ he asked.
Reena gave him a sharp look. ‘Lily thinks that the conjurer was inexperienced, did something wrong, and that somehow the trick got out of hand. She doesn’t believe it was targeted at you. It happens. Magic is . . . touchy.’
‘Does this happen a lot?’
She shook her head. ‘A trick to find a lover or gain money, sure. Killing someone? Not so much.’
When Reena finally had everything she needed, she moved to the centre of the crossroads and knelt in the dirt where she carved out a hole with a short-bladed knife. Once the hole was about seven inches deep, she removed the ribbon from beneath her T-shirt and pulled it over her head.
‘I’ve been wearing the keys for about a month now so they’re part of me. I’m going to bury one here and keep the second one. Once I do that, I’ll have a conduit to the power at this crossroads, power that might take me to Briar.’
Reena began to refill the hole, covering the first key. Once she’d tamped down the earth, she cut the ribbon. After retying it, she dropped the remaining key and the little charm under her T-shirt.
‘That’s it?’ Joshua asked, growing more nervous as time passed.
‘No,’ Reena replied. ‘That was just the beginning.’
As he kept a wary eye out for any cars, she sprinkled something on to the ground from the small pouches. When she’d finished, the piles of herbs formed four corners, with a dot in the very middle of them.
‘A quintux,’ he murmured.
‘Yup. Since the veil between the worlds is supposed to be thinner here, I’ve created an altar. Well, sort of.’
The scent of the herbs opened his mind to new possibilities. Seeing Reena here in the dark, lit only by a pale moon, made him wonder how many of her ancestors had conjured in just this way, both here and in Africa. How many centuries had they woven magic and tried to fix the evils of the world?
Joshua watched in growing fascination as she laid out a series of small bones. Next came the candles – four of them. Before he could ask, she explained their significance.
‘The white candle is for healing. The orange one is to open the way, the purple one for power and control.’
‘And the black one?’
She looked over at him. ‘Freedom from evil.’
‘That works,’ he murmured.
Reena fussed with one of them, adjusting its position, her hand quivering. After a deep breath, she nodded to herself.
‘I’m going to light the candles now, then I’ll summon the Dark Rider. I need you to turn round and don’t look back. You’re not supposed to see him. And don’t say a word, no matter what happens. You understand?’
‘So if I’m not going to help, why am I here?’ he asked, annoyed.
‘You’re here in case it all goes wrong. That way you can tell Lily what happened to me.’
His blood chilled. ‘Briar wouldn’t want you to get hurt because of her.’
‘I know. Like you, I have to do this.’ Reena looked down at the crossroads. ‘Say your prayers that this works. If not, I don’t know how we’ll ever get her back.’
As Joshua turned away, he whispered that prayer, and added one of his own.
Reena had spent most of the evening trying to determine what song she should use to call the Dark Rider to her. The tune itself wasn’t important, but her delivery had to be pure and true. She needed to convince the spirit that she was worthy of notice, worthy of him sharing his power.
After much debating, she’d finally chosen ‘Bye and Bye’, an old negro spiritual her great-gran used to sing in church. Now she had to make the song hers.
Reena cleared her throat, whispered a prayer under her breath, and began.
O, bye and bye, bye and bye
I’m goin’ to lay down my heavy load.
I know my robe’s gon’ to fit me well;
I’m goin’ to lay down my heavy load.
I tried it on at the gates of hell;
I’m goin’ to lay down my heavy load.
Like the other women in her family, she’d always had a good voice, but now it sounded weak and thready, as if the trees along the highway had sucked the life out of it. By the time she’d finished the first verse, nothing had happened. Not one twitch of power.
Was her great-gran’s faith misplaced? Had all this work been for nothing?
I have to do this. It was that or go back to the Roses’ house and watch her friend’s life ebb away. ‘I’m going to try again.’
‘You can do it,’ Joshua replied without hesitation.
At least he believes in me.
This time Reena closed her eyes and thought of her very best friend, what it would mean if she remained inside the curse. If it didn’t kill her, Briar would sleep through the rest of high school, through prom, graduation. She’d lose her chance to attend college, to get married or even to have children. The world would move on and Briar
Rose would know nothing of it.
Reena would lose her best friend and Joshua would lose . . . well, something he’d only just realized he wanted.
No way.
Reena began to sing again, visualizing the inside of the old church where Lily had taken her as a child. It’d been built in the late 1800s and the floor creaked a warm welcome with every step. The pews were wood and hard on her butt. The women always wore their Sunday best, clad in their fancy hats and dresses. The men were in dark suits, their shoes polished, their ties straight. That old building was filled with love and faith, emotions stronger and richer than anything else in this world.
She’d just reached the second verse when the earth began to crack open. Her voice faltered and went silent.
I did it! Reena Bulloch Hill, Lily Foster’s great-granddaughter, had pulled the Dark Rider from his slumber.
Kerry went frantic, barking at the intruder. Joshua ordered her to be quiet and the collie fell back, low growls filling her throat.
‘Why have you summoned me, child?’ a chill voice demanded.
Reena’s heart lodged in her throat. The Dark Rider never spoke to anyone. Had she screwed up the conjure?
‘I . . . I need . . .’ She corrected herself. Everything she’d read said that she had to keep control of the situation, not beg for what she wanted. ‘I need to break a curse. I need power to do it.’
‘You are of the old one’s blood,’ was the reply. ‘Her I respect. You are but a pup.’
‘A pup who summoned you,’ she shot back. Attitude counted, or at least that’s what Lily had always told her. ‘Here’s the deal,’ Reena began, resisting the urge to turn and face the spirit head on. ‘My best friend, Briar Rose, is cursed and she needs our help.’
A bone-dry chuckle came from the spirit behind her as footsteps drew closer. Reena’s knees were knocking now and she clutched her personal gris-gris bag tighter. Joshua was shivering as well, though he kept his back turned as she’d asked.
‘I see this curse,’ the spirit said. ‘It is a dark one. She lives not inside a dream, but a nightmare, one built of her own imagination. One that will kill her in time. So you wish me to break it?’