by R. E. Rose
“Emi, what’s going on here?” I asked.
“Look around,” she said, and then gestured.
I did look around and realized that it was a gathering of women. Not only Emi and Temmie, but the woman who belonged to the world card from the cursed tarot deck was there, and so was Justine Dahliday, from the Justice card, and there was Mrs. Gotschalk—the Empress – and Glendie all Sun and shine. Even Cassandra from the Lovers’ card was there.
“But who are all these others?”
“They’re the rest,” Emi said, as if I should know.
“The rest of what?”
“The cursed tarot deck. They’re your people, and they represent the remaining suits of the deck. They serve you. Look closely.
There are four suits in the deck. Those carrying walking sticks follow the way of the wands; they’re the magicians of their realms, full of passion and action.
“Those carrying swords, like me,” Emilia said, “They follow the path of the enlightened warrior—thinkers – and there – look there – those wearing the tiaras and crowns, those are the cup bearers and keepers of higher emotions like love and creativity.
“Then there are the treasurers. They are the best dressed and the most bejeweled, from the pentacle cards. You, with your need for materialist things, will be very attracted to that group.
“This is your stag,” Emi said matter-of-factly, switching from a tone of high philosophizing to her regular speech.
“But shouldn’t the stag – and I think you mean bachelorette party – come before the marriage and the honeymoon? Women have bachelorette parties, not stags. A stag is for guys.”
“Really, Jane?”
Just then, a beautiful white buck with great, white, antlers that looked very much like ivory, came out from the stand of willow trees. On his back sat the snowy coloured, scintillating Lucilla, the High Priestess. Lucilla rode toward me and spoke.
“Here is where you’ll learn the magic and power of the handcuffs,” she said. She referred to the magical handcuffs that I’d taken from Justine Dahliday after I’d returned her to the deck. But Lucilla wasn’t waiting for any reactions or statements from me, she continued with her speech.
“I believe in the mystery of life, “she said, somewhat mysteriously. That is what calls to me. As each mystery is solved or explained, there is always another to take its place.”
She then gestured toward Justine, who stepped forward and, from somewhere behind her, she produced a pair of golden handcuffs. Temmie took the cuffs from her and brought them to me. She smiled sweetly at me, and suddenly I knew what I had to do.
I held out my wrists, and Temmie placed the cuffs on me. Then she locked each one ceremoniously around each wrist and stepped back. The crowd moved in closer forming a large circle around me. I was in the center. Lucilla dismounted the buck and came toward me.
“You, my dear are the final catch.”
“What do you mean?” I asked feeling confused, even a little frightened.
“Calm down. It’s only ceremony. You simply have to slip free of these cuffs, and you are no longer caught.”
“But I don’t know how. I’ve been practicing with these for months, and I still haven’t figured out exactly how their magic works.”
“Oh, but you have. Think back. Back to a day when you took these with you on a special date; you wore these and caught your “man.” But you drank too much and couldn’t remember how you’d released him.”
“I – I –” stuttering away, I couldn’t figure out what to say.
“Try to transform into a cat. After all, this is the Cheshire, where cattiness is a state preferable to humanness. Just do what Temmie told you to do earlier. Imagine yourself as yourself, as Divinity Star, that is the name of your cat form. Imagine yourself as a cat.
Oh, there was that term again. I didn’t like it when they called me that, Divinity Star. I thought about Lucilla’s words and did recall that date with Shane Apollo. We had a great time out in the cornfields. That day, I had a strong feeling I had to cuff him to me, and I thought then that maybe I was getting a little kinky for a first date and all.
But now that Lucilla reminded me of that night, I remembered that I’d actually had a very strong desire to “hang onto” Shane Apollo, like he might go somewhere if I hadn’t cuffed him.
The next morning, I awoke to find us un-cuffed, and not long after that, he’d disappeared. He transformed into a horse! And he’d galloped away. While the cuffs were on him, he had remained in his human form.
Okay, I decided I’d try turning into a cat. I clearly imagined the cat I’d been earlier and felt the shimmering, and unfolding, and un-organizing of my molecules as my transformation began to take place, but then it all came to a stop. I was still me. I looked at the crowd of people watching me.
“The cuffs prevent magical transformation,” I said. Eureka! Lucilla gave me a huge grin.
“Of course,” she said, confirming my discovery.
“Of course,” I repeated, wondering how I was supposed to have figured that one out.
“Justine had to make sure that whomever she caught when she was arresting mundanes and magicals couldn’t get away from her by changing into animal forms that could escape regular cuffs. By using the magical cuffs, she could be assured that her catches didn’t get away.
“And now I have to escape these shackles to prove my power and win back my freedom to be who, and what I always was, Jane, the free spirit.
“To Jane, the good witch,” Glendie called out to me and raised her frothy glass of foggy ambrosia in my direction.
“Jane, the sorceress,” Emi said, also raising a glass.
“Jane, Divinity Star,” Temmie called out.
“Jane, the Goddess,” Lucilla whispered in my direction. And in that instant, they all turned into their Cheshire cat-selves, but not me!
28.
The Escape
The garden gathering formed a procession, and as they each removed their rhinestone bracelets in order to leave the realm of the Cheshire and return to the mundane world as humans, they followed me, still in my human form, back to the realm of the carnival grounds. Eventually, we entered the big top tent. I was still cuffed together at the wrists, still a prisoner of the ceremony.
They walked me to the center ring where I stood wearing my long, white and shimmering, beaded mermaid, trumpet gown that had a strapless top and sparkled with a gazillion rhinestones in the front. I was pretty sure it was an Armani design. Unfortunately, I still wore the panther paw around my neck because once I left the Cheshire, the little kitten turned back into what it actually was, poor thing.
Even though the paw hung below the bra line of the dress, the chain it hung from was obvious. I felt the paw begin to come to life. I was alone in the ring but not for long. Silvio came out from behind the curtains and stood before me. My female entourage gathered around me.
“Is this going to be a battle?” I asked him.
“No. No battle. You know by now that you must freely offer me my paw. If I take it, it will always return to you.”
“Why would I do that? Returning the paw empowers you and weakens me. There’s no benefit.”
“Then you must guard it forever. I, on the other hand, must seek it forever. Is that how you wish to live your reign as the Divinity Star?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that question. This situation was a conundrum. I really didn’t want to return the paw, and neither did I want to keep it.
“There is one other choice,” Silvio said. I looked at him, afraid to hear what that might be. “A sacrifice.”
“A sacrifice of what?” I asked. “Money? No problem. I’ll find some,” I said. I had no idea where, but I could always rely on my ATM tweezers and a little magic.
Silvio scoffed and gave me a derogatory sideways glare.
“The stakes are much higher, Jane,” Silvio said. Then he snapped his fingers. The gathering of people all around us shuffled and soon parted. T
hrough the passage created by the standing bodies walked the hooded person wearing the moonstone. I noticed that his or her hands were tied together at the wrists. The bearer of the stone walked, escorted by Barkman and another beefy looking guy I didn’t recognize.
I looked around me and realized everyone was here. All had reappeared and gathered, all the higher arcana characters, the lower arcana characters, and the various mundanes that had, for whatever reasons, been caught in Maisie and Silvio’s sorcery. They were all here to witness whatever was going to happen next between Silvio and myself and this individual. Only one person was missing.
“Where’s William?” I asked.
“I’m here,” he said, and stepped forward to stand on my right. I felt comforted by his presence.
Silvio stepped between William and me.
“If you decide not return the paw you will have to sacrifice this man,” he said casually, too casually for my taste.
“He’s kidding, right?” I looked to William for assurance. But there was no assuring expression on his face. “There is no way in hell I’m sacrificing this guy for any reason. That’s murder! I’m not going to kill this guy. That’s not how I roll.”
“Then give me the paw,” Silvio said. I reached into my cleavage and pulled out the cursed paw, but I didn’t hand it over. Instead, I walked over to the masked man and pulled away the cover over his face.
The crowd gasped.
“You’re not supposed to reveal the sacrifice,” William said in a hushed tone. I glared at him, them, the crowd. Then I looked at the man behind the mask. It was Gordon, Gordon Schmidt from Koldwell Bank.
“Well,” I said. “I can understand why they’d want to sacrifice a banker, but that’s not going to happen today!” I announced this to those gathered. Then all the dots connected for me.
Gordon’s dead body had haunted me, had been trying to ask me not to sacrifice him in this crazy ritual. I got it. No problem there. I wasn’t about to kill anything. That wasn’t my department.
“Where’s Devon?” I asked. The crowd parted to reveal Devon in his master of ceremonies uniform. He came forward and removed his glittery top hat, and then he bowed to me.
“Stand here, “I said, and I had him stand on my left, just behind me. With Devon on my left, William on my right and Silvio before me, I continued to call people from the crowd and move them into positions in which I felt they needed to stand.
I kept myself in the middle of the pattern and arranged Maisie so that she stood behind me, with Devon. While the High Priestess, Lucilla, on the back of her white elephant, took a position just beyond William, but above me. Silvio shifted his position a little which allowed his shadow to cross my own. Emilia sat on a large ball, polishing her sword, which placed her in a position below me, even though she wasn’t actually below me.
I followed my urge to put five others in a line ahead of me in a linear configuration, which included, Temmie, Glendie, Shane, Barkman, young Bobby Bentley from the Fool card and Christian Whitman. That completed a tarot reading pattern I’d seen Maisie do many times. Then Lucilla whispered down to me.
“You can be a sorceress or – you can be the Divinity Star.”
“But what is that? If I’m the spirit in the Star card, then I’m stuck in the deck for an eternity.”
“The Divinity Star is more than a Star card spirit. Instead of a sorceress, you become a goddess.”
“Goddess?” I liked the sound of that.
“The Goddess is always the force, free and creative, thus empowered,” she said.
“What’s the catch?” I asked as I tweaked and shuffled others around ever so slightly to get them exactly where I wanted them. I untied Gordon’s wrists and pushed him back into the crowd, dismissing him from the whole scenario. As I did this, I created a picture of sorts, a pattern, I felt my magic rising. All this I did while still wearing the golden handcuffs.
“We told you in the garden,” Lucilla said. I stopped what I was doing.
“I’ve already forgotten what you said there.”
Lucilla slid down from her elephant and stepped forward, out of the position I’d originally placed her in, and her adjustment felt exactly correct. I felt my powers begin to tingle and rise in my legs and arms and through my heart.
“Jane, you’re the catch – the final catch.”
“But –” Before I could finish what I was about to say to her, the panther claw hanging between my boobs began to crawl and fidget. It got more agitated and fiercer, until I feared for my safety. It could really injure me. I looked at Lucilla for guidance.
“Send it home,” she said.
“Bu – Silvio – he will be empowered,” I said.
“And, so will you.”
I knew she was right. Yet, I was terrified at the thought of handing Silvio his paw. He was, after all, the Devil. All the stories I’d ever heard never ended well when that negative energy known as “the devil” was empowered.
I turned to Silvio. He’d already moved closer. I looked around for assurance. All of my people were in the pattern I’d created. I looked at Temmie, and she blew me a kiss. I felt my power building. I desperately wanted to chew my lips, but I knew I shouldn’t, not yet. The moment wasn’t quite ready.
I looked at Silvio. He stared deeply into my eyes, and for an instant, I felt myself falling in love with him, but I knew it was a trick.
“Take the paw. I give it to you, Silvio Garcia. Take it back. I give it to you freely.”
Silvio stepped toward me, reaching for it.
Just before he claimed the paw, I put my hands up. The chain on my wrists pulled taught and formed a barrier that made Silvio hesitate.
“What’s this?” he asked and took a step back. “Some kind of trick?”
“To take the paw from me, you must break this chain. Then you can reclaim your item. To set me free is to set yourself free.”
My power got crazy hot after I said that, and I was so pleased with myself for having possibly figured out how to get out of this mess. I felt the magic inside me build like the water pressure in a fire hydrant about to burst.
Silvio blinked. He smiled. He did a little dance, a soft shoe shuffle. He spun around, and when he faced me again he’d turned into Manuel, my ex, and he was not a happy camper.
Manuel didn’t hesitate. He struck out at me, and I blocked his big meaty fists with the chain. He struck again and again, and each time I’d block his blows until his hands where so bloody they looked like balls of raw steak.
“You effing bitch.” These were his final words, and then he became smoke, disappeared, and I smelled sulfur. Silvio stood in his place. He looked fine; no damage done. I, on the other hand, froze with fear.
Silvio raised one hand, and I cringed slightly, but he only snapped his fingers, one, two, and three. The members of the Silver Bullet gang stepped forward. Silvio pointed at me, and the gang rushed in my direction.
Before the first man in the crush got to me, I raised my arms, still in handcuffs, and every hair on my body became electrified with my power; I had time for one quick glance at my pattern of defenders, none had budged; Lucilla, back up on her elephant, nodded and smiled at me.
As each gang member came at me, I blocked them with the chain between the cuffs and in turn, each attacking gang member transformed into a squealing, screeching, rat, until the three rings in the carnival tent were filled with the horrid creatures.
Then, it was the Razors’ turn, and as each made contact with the cuffs, they became mice. Without even a call from me, Sia and Thesia came forward. Sia took care of the rats and mice at lightning speed, and Thesia dispensed with their tiny ghosts, so that they were removed from both realms forever.
I chewed my lip, and the cuffs glowed with heat. I reached for the chain around my neck that held Silvio’s paw. I ripped the chain away, and the paw fell from my grasp. It quickly snaked its way back to Silvio, but he refused to pick it up.
“You must do it, Jane,” he hissed as
he handed it back to me.”
And so, I did.
The moment I gave the paw willingly to Silvio, the cuffs disappeared. I looked to Maisie for an explanation, but she only shrugged. I looked to the High Priestess Lucilla, and she indicated that I should look to Silvio, the Devil himself.
“You freed yourself,” he said. He took his paw and transformed instantly. He became the black panther, and all four legs were intact. He circled us all three times. I thought we were doomed, but Silvio did something I hadn’t expected. Maisie placed the Devil card on the ground, and with one large paw, he stepped on it. He returned to his card.
Maisie moved from her position and came to me.
“It’s over, Jane. You’ve done it. You’ve done something I couldn’t.”
I looked at her. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“You’ve exhausted Silvio for a time. But be ready, he’ll be back, I’m sure.”
“Are you free of the deck, Maisie?”
“I am and so are you.”
“The Star card is empty?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, “for now.” That news made me feel incredibly happy.
“What about – all these tarot spirits?” I pointed to the people milling about the ring.
“They’ve got to return to the deck.”
“Whose job is that?”
“They can return on their own – or we can touch them with their cards. They need to recuperate – it’s been a long journey for them. They used a lot of their powers helping you stave off Silvio. They like you, Jane.”
Naturally, I thought. Maisie’s still trying to get me to take over.
Lucilla approached us with cursed tarot deck in her hands.
“Remember, once we’re back in the deck, you need to protect us. Put us where no harm will come to us.”
“Of course,” I said. “I know just the place.” I took the deck of cards from her fingers.
I intended to lock those cards in the same safety deposit box I’d locked the portal keys and every other magical item that I’d collected, and this time I’d throw away the key.