by G A Chase
The trip that had taken half a day by pole boat passed in less than an hour by airboat. “Does that island up ahead look like what you remember? If not, there are two or three other possibilities we can check out before dusk.”
The dark cypress grove on the opposite side of the scrub forest was enough of a reminder for Colin. “That looks like the place. Swing around as close as you can to the trees, and I’ll walk the rest of the way along the shoreline. Shouldn’t take me long to find out what I want to know. If this is the place, I’ll be spending the night here. You can camp in the boat.”
The airboat swung a sharp ninety-degree turn toward the island. Though the engine had been shut down, Colin’s ears still rang from the racket. The craft came to a gentle bump against the grassy shore.
“Sure you don’t want to take a gun with you?” the pilot asked. “People and gators out here aren’t too accepting of strangers.”
“I’ll be fine. If the person I’m looking for is out here, a gun won’t do me much good, and a gator wouldn’t dare bite me.”
Though the walk across the marshy ground was less dramatic than cutting through the disorienting forest, making the trek alone added a little hustle to Colin’s steps. As he rounded a jetty, he lost sight of the airboat. Turning to look into the tall trees draped with Spanish moss, he saw the dilapidated cabin exactly where he remembered.
He could tell even before he approached the ladder that the house was deserted, as if the witch had been holding everything together through force of will. With her gone, the whole compound was deteriorating to dust.
He hadn’t expected to find her alive. Delphine might not always know what she was doing, but even she wouldn’t have misread the death of a powerful witch. Carefully, he ascended the ladder, hoping the boards would hold for one last visit.
The slashed screen door hung limp on its hinges. The old hag wasn’t slumped over dead in her chair, which came as a relief.
He stood in the middle of what at one time must have been a living room meant for children and entertaining but was now nothing but desolation. “What am I doing here? Clearly, your granddaughter took any writings you might have left behind.” The part of him that maintained the old baron’s memories insisted he was missing something important.
The place barely had the basics to support life. He tried the kitchen faucet and was rewarded with brown goop oozing from the tap. Looking out the window and higher into the tree, he spotted a water tank lodged in the upper limbs. A pump had to be somewhere, but with the witch gone, the pipes were quickly filling with rust and sediment. He flipped a switch next to the sink. The bare bulb hanging from the ceiling attempted to radiate light but quickly faded back to darkness. Must be battery powered.
Sunset turned the ancient tree trunks from forbidding sentinels to welcome guardians as the light crept below the dense foliage above. Though old and withered, the woman must have found peace in the hardship of living on the island. He stared out across the bayou. Deep in the swamp, a flicker of light indicated someone was camping on a neighboring island.
52
Kendell found it hard to believe Madam Delphine de Galpion was standing in her doorway. Though she and the voodoo priestess had become something resembling friends, that was before the woman stole Baron Samedi’s cane.
“Come in,” Kendell said. “This must be important, for you to come to me.”
Delphine almost never left her shop, especially not in early afternoon. She looked tired. “It is. I’ve tried to shield you from further involvement in the Malveaux curse, but I’m afraid events have progressed beyond my control.”
Cheesecake gave the dark woman a low-pitched growl before relinquishing the chair by the window.
Myles wasn’t much more welcoming. “We’re aware of Colin Malveaux, the people he used to be, and his search for Baron Samedi’s walking stick. Do you still have it?”
“Direct as always. I did have it, but I don’t any longer. Colin Malveaux is headed out to the bayou to confront the witch who’s guarding it. He won’t find her, but with him out of the city, I no longer can keep tabs on what he’s up to.”
Kendell paced in front of the sunlit windows as Cheesecake walked with her. “So you did steal it. That would explain why the girls have come up empty searching the shops and why Professor Yates hasn’t had any better luck. It would have been nice if you’d told us sooner. You could have saved us a lot of unnecessary work.”
“By not telling you, I hoped you wouldn’t run afoul of Colin. He’s not to be trusted. And just in case anyone else is looking for the cane, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to keep up the search as a distraction.”
Myles leaned back in the couch with that smug look that made Kendell crazy. “Let me guess, you want our help but aren’t willing to tell us anything. Your secrecy didn’t work out so well for me last time.”
“I’m not going to apologize for keeping Marie’s secrets. But you’re right in that I need your help. I’ll tell you what I can. Together, we can still stop Colin.”
Kendell was discomfited by his antagonism of Delphine. “What do you need us to do?”
“You and I spent a considerable amount of time modifying the curse. It’s time we put that spell to work. In Colin’s arrogance, he wears as many of the baron’s old things as possible. You can access those objects to see where he is and what he’s up to. More importantly, you can talk to Sanguine Delarosa, granddaughter of Agnes Delarosa. Sanguine is now the guardian of the curse. She’s gone into hiding with the Samedi cane, but because you’re now a part of the curse, you two can communicate.”
Kendell hadn’t forgotten her sessions in Delphine’s voodoo library. They’d damn near killed her. That wasn’t the kind of thing she’d forget, but since the spirits of the women Baron Malveaux had held hostage were freed, she had considered the job completed. “How is it I’m just now hearing about this mysterious witch? If she’s associated with the curse, I would have expected to encounter her during our sessions.” She sat on the ottoman. At her feet, Cheesecake kept a watchful eye on Delphine as if unsure if she was friend or foe.
“Think of the Wiccan witches as Marie’s insurance policy,” Delphine said. “For generations, those who followed her weren’t half as skilled as you are now. The spirit women in Guinee had a lot to do with holding Baron Malveaux in the afterlife, but they weren’t alone. Only the highest voodoo priestess was told of the swamp witches’ roles in protecting Marie’s spells. Agnes and I were silent associates. We knew of each other, and that was enough, but you and Sanguine are locked together.” She interlaced the fingers of her hands. “You two are like two halves of a cage.”
“So if I can keep track of Colin Malveaux’s movements and talk to Sanguine, I can keep her one step ahead. How do I do it?”
“The glasses you found in Fleurentine Laurette’s possessions weren’t from her husband the baron, but I assume you already figured that out. They were a specialty of Marie Laveau’s. Someday, I’ll tell you the story of the glassblower that created them, but for now, know you can use them to communicate with Sanguine. Get comfortable in a quiet, dark room, and put them on. As she’s the one guarding the curse, she’ll be able to instruct you on how to access the objects being worn by Colin.”
Myles leaned forward on the couch. “Wait. If Kendell can contact Sanguine and she has the cane, why don’t we just hook her up with Baron Samedi? You can break whatever spell Marie put on the staff holding it to the living. He can get his walking stick back, and this whole thing will be over.”
Kendell remembered learning Occam’s razor in a philosophy class. The simplest answer is often the correct one. “Is there any reason Baron Samedi couldn’t manifest next to her? It does seem like the most logical solution.”
Delphine shook her head. “Marie thought of that possibility long ago. That headpiece Pierre Boudreaux fabricated wasn’t just from an ordinary lump of silver. She secured sixteen pieces of eight from the pirate Jean Lafitte. Those coins carried
the symbol of the Catholic church. Blessed silver can’t be taken to the nether world. A spell does hold the headpiece to the staff, but it’s not in any of Marie’s writings—not even in the journals Lincoln Laroque gave me as payment for the voodoo fetish containing the baron’s spirit. I can’t break a spell without first knowing how it was cast.”
Kendell wondered how many of Marie’s writings were scattered throughout the city. “If you don’t have the diary and the Laroque family didn’t have it, where else could it be?”
“Baron Archibald Malveaux didn’t get along with his son, but he doted on his granddaughter. The journals the family owned came from the baron through his granddaughter. His son, however, liked to keep things hidden—even from his own daughter.”
Kendell remembered all too well how Samantha Laurette had found the cursed pipe tool in the Laurette mansion. “So we’re back to digging in the walls of the buildings Anthony Laurette designed?”
“He would have kept close something as valuable as the key to unlocking the Samedi cane.”
The mansion had been in a pretty bad state the last time she and Myles talked with Samantha.
“The previous owner was trying to unload the place. Any idea who owns it now?”
“I’ll give you one guess, but you won’t need it.”
Kendell swore under her breath. “So Colin Malveaux is the only one who might possess information on how to separate the two pieces—the person who would be least likely to allow that to happen.”
“Nothing is ever straightforward. Without that diary, I don’t know what exactly happens when the headpiece is removed. Colin bought the old Laurette mansion and is having it remodeled. I have to believe what he’s really doing is searching for the journals Marie left to the baron’s son. If there’s a way to bring down Colin Malveaux, it’ll be in those writings. They’ll be in code. Keep those glasses safe. They could be our only way of deciphering her hundred-year-old secret plan.”
Myles got up, paced like someone on a mission, and ticked off items on his fingers. “Right. Contact the witch over the curse network. Use the old cursed items to keep an eye on Colin Malveaux. Retrieve Marie Laveau’s diary from the walls of the Laurette mansion while it’s being remodeled by Colin’s contractor. Figure out what it says. Bring the cane and diary to you for separation. Then contact Baron Samedi to come get his stick. Oh, and I’d better not forget we need to maintain our cover story of searching New Orleans’s shops and homeless to keep Joe Cazenave and his boss Luther Noire from getting any ideas of what we’re really up to. If they get their hands on the walking stick, who knows where it’ll end up. Anything I’m missing?”
Kendell nudged him as he passed her. “You could lose the attitude.”
“I’d just like to know what she’s going to be doing while we’re risking our necks… again.”
“After you bring me the cane and curse diary, I’ll have my work cut out for me. Undoing something Marie Laveau bound together is no simple matter.”
* * *
Once Delphine had left, Myles and Cheesecake settled into their usual spots on the couch. Kendell turned the glasses with their green-tinted lenses in her hand. “I suppose we should start with the simplest task. Contacting Sanguine, at least, doesn’t carry the risk of getting caught by one of Colin’s people.”
“There’s nothing simple regarding what you’re about to do. You’ve got every reason to be hesitant. Accessing that curse in Madam de Galpion’s shop left you convulsing during the session and drained afterward.”
That had also left her with remnants of Baron Malveaux’s soul, which she’d unintentionally transferred to Myles during their sexual encounters.
“If you notice a change in me, you have to say something,” she said. “I promise I’ll take it seriously.”
He reached over to the ottoman and held her hands. “I didn’t know what I was seeing last time. We know better what to look for now. Would you feel more comfortable if Cheesecake went along with you?”
Kendell looked at the teddy bear of a dog lounging in the sun. “She looks so harmless in this reality but a total protector wolf in the other. I don’t want to intimidate Sanguine—not on this first meeting.”
“Fair enough. We’ll be right here if you need us.”
She couldn’t imagine his proposal was anything other than for moral support, but she’d learned not to discount any offer of assistance. “I just wish I had a walk-in closet or something. Conducting this meeting in the bathroom doesn’t seem very respectful. But it’s the only totally dark room in the apartment.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “I’m sure she’ll understand.”
Kendell grabbed a pillow off the couch and headed to the small bathroom. Sitting in the claw-foot tub would at least beat conducting the chat on the toilet. With the door closed and the lights off, she confronted one of her lingering fears, that of small, dark places. Being in a city with constant entertainment, her apartment was never truly dark or quiet. She liked it that way.
I’m not really alone. The thought helped her combat her anxiety. Sitting on the pillow in the old enameled cast-iron tub, she fumbled with the glasses until they sat comfortably on her face. “Sanguine Delarosa, if you’re out there, I need to talk to you.” She repeated the request several times, hoping for an answer but at the same time feeling a little silly.
The lenses of the glasses glowed, but from her peripheral vision, she knew the room remained dark. A woman in her early twenties, younger than Kendell, bent her neck back and shook her hair out of her face. “I’ve been expecting you. That asshole’s invaded my island and is after me. I hope you’ve got a plan.”
“Then you know of the work Delphine de Galpion and I did on the curse. I need access to the items Colin Malveaux has on him. If I can track him, I can keep you one step ahead until we can find a way to return the cane to Baron Samedi.”
The young woman crossed her arms and glared at Kendell through the glasses. “Then what? We’re not going to have many shots at this guy. Just because you deny him his little stick, that doesn’t make him harmless. Far from it. I don’t mind playing the bait while you catch this fucker, but catch and release is for schmucks. This is the best shot we’re likely to get at this guy. He’s after us. That’s an advantage.”
Kendell suppressed her sigh of disappointment. Apparently, everyone had their own agenda. “What do you have in mind?”
“Kill him.”
She stared disbelievingly at the woman in the glasses. “That doesn’t seem a little extreme to you?”
“You don’t try to rehabilitate a nutria. Vermin need to be dealt with decisively. We have something he wants. That puts us in the driver’s seat. Use the power you have while you can. I’ll give you access to his little trinkets, but you’d better come up with something better than just keeping an eye on him. I’m not letting you know where I am until you’ve got a better plan.”
Kendell really wanted to like the girl, but the last thing she needed was one more person who thought they knew what to do better than she. “Fine. Just tell me how to access the curse. I can at least keep you safe from his plan.”
“Get something that belonged to Baron Malveaux, something that is still under the curse. Then find a map of the area and put on those glasses. That’s about it. You’ll feel the baron’s object gravitate toward a spot on the map like a compass needle. With the glasses on, you’ll get a better look at his exact location. As for listening in on who he’s talking to and what he’s doing, well, you’re not ready for that yet.”
Kendell wondered if that was what it would have been like to have a sister. “I’ve spent my time in the dark energy of the curse. My boyfriend has taken me to Guinee. It’s not like I’m unfamiliar with what happens.”
“Fine, but don’t come crying to me when he takes possession of your soul. You open that kind of link, and there’s no telling who’s really in control.” She smirked like a know-it-all. “That’s the problem with voodoo. Y’all thi
nk you can gain control over others by accessing the afterlife. Wicca is more about existing in the here and now, about living as one with nature.”
Kendell really wasn’t in the mood for a lecture. “So how do I listen in on his conversations?”
“Take the cursed object and do what you’re doing now with me, but hold the item and try to imagine what he looks like. And keep your mind quiet. If you can hear him, he can hear you. These connections are never only one-way. The deeper you get into his mind, the more you open your own.”
The thought of once again opening her soul to the baron made her grip the rough lip of the tub so hard it threatened to cut her fingers. “Now I understand your warning. I’ll only keep an eye on him, but at least there’s another trick in my arsenal if I need it. I’ll be back in contact once I know something.”
“That’s not going to work for me. I can’t just find a lovely spot to chat while I’m navigating the bayous. You can reach me either in the morning just before dawn or dusk after the sun sets. Think up a plan soon. There’s a storm coming. The animals have already started going to ground. I don’t want to be caught out here with nothing more than a magic stick when Mother Nature lets loose her fury.”
* * *
Myles nearly fell asleep waiting for Kendell to get done with her bathroom conversation. He sat up straight, however, when he heard the door open. She looked more pissed than anything else.
“How did it go?” he asked.
She described their latest challenging partner and relayed what she’d said. “I suppose if I was the one on the run, I too would want something more definitive than handing off my pursuer’s cane to someone else.”