by Isobel Bird
Sasha sighed. “This sounds pretty hopeless,” she said. “We’re looking for something, we don’t even know what it looks like, and it could be hidden anywhere. Oh, and it’s been over a hundred and twenty-five years since it was hidden, so we don’t even know that it’s still here.”
Annie put her arm around Sasha. “Hey,” she said. “We’ve had to do weirder things. Welcome to the wacky world of Wicca.”
“Sasha’s right, though,” said Kate. “How do we start looking?”
“Why don’t we start with the places we don’t look?” suggested Cooper. “I assume that you’ve been looking for a while, right?” she added to Nora.
Nora nodded. “For a couple of months,” she answered. “As soon as Mary told me what I was looking for, or at least as much about it as she knew.”
“Then let’s make a list of those places,” said Cooper. She fetched her notebook from the dresser and opened it. “Start talking,” she told Nora.
Nora began rattling off a list of locations around the hotel. Cooper wrote them all down as she enumerated each one. Nora continued for several minutes, and when she finally stopped Cooper looked at the list she’d made.
“Wow,” she said. “You’ve been busy. You actually checked every room?”
Nora nodded. “We help clean them anyway,” she said. “I just took a little extra time in between changing the sheets and washing the windows.”
“But you didn’t find anything?” Kate asked.
“Nothing,” said Nora. “Except for a lot of spare change under the beds.”
“The garden shed, the pool house, the kitchen, the library,” Cooper read. “The ballroom, the billiard room, and the wedding chapel. That seems to pretty much cover everywhere.”
“Trust me,” Nora said, “there’s more. This is a big hotel. But yeah, I covered most of it.”
“This is really frustrating,” Sasha remarked. “It’s like looking for the needle in the haystack.”
“Here’s a thought,” Annie said. “What if the talisman isn’t hidden at all?”
“What do you mean?” asked Nora.
“I mean, what if someone has it already?” Annie said. “Someone like Lucy.”
“That would be perfect,” Cooper said. “Of course she would want it so that Nora couldn’t find it and help Mary. And since Alice is the one who made it and hid it, she would obviously know where it was hidden.”
“I bet that’s it!” Nora said excitedly. “I bet she’s had it all along! No wonder I couldn’t find it anywhere.” For a moment she looked triumphant, but then her face fell and she frowned. “But if she has it, we’ll never find it,” she said.
“Not unless she tells us where it is,” Kate replied.
“Right,” said Sasha. “Like she’s going to do that.”
“She would if she thought I believed her,” said Kate slyly.
The others looked at her for a minute and then began grinning. “That’s dirty,” Cooper said. “I love it.”
“Think about it,” said Kate. “She’s been giving me little hints for the past couple of days. Obviously, she wants me to believe her story. So, what if I pretend to? I’ll tell her that I’ve been thinking about it and that I want to help her. Once she thinks I’m sincere, I bet she’ll tell me everything.”
“You have to be careful,” said Nora. “Lucy is dangerous right now. Alice has her all turned around, and she isn’t thinking clearly. I mean, she thinks I’m out to get her. If she thinks for even one second that you’re lying to her, I don’t know what she would do.”
“Nora’s right,” said Annie. “Remember what happened when we tried to pull one over on Sherrie last summer? Lucy is ten times smarter than Sherrie is. You’re going to have to play this really cool, Kate.”
Kate nodded. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I have a plan. By tomorrow night I’ll have her eating out of my hand. That talisman is as good as ours.”
Nora took a deep breath. “I sure hope so,” she said. “Because if we don’t get it, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
CHAPTER 11
The next morning, when Kate arrived at the room where the Water path was meeting, the first thing she did was look for Lucy. She saw the girl standing by the windows, gazing out of them with a peculiar look on her face. Taking a deep breath, Kate walked over to her, thinking, Here goes nothing.
“I need to talk to you,” she said.
Lucy shot her a sideways look. “Why?” she said. “So you can think I’m even crazier than you already do? I don’t think so. You’ve made your choice. You’re on Nora’s side.”
“No,” Kate said, shaking her head. “Not anymore. We asked her some questions last night and her story didn’t check out.”
Lucy looked at her again. This time there was a spark of hope in her eyes. “What did you ask her?” she said.
“Cooper found out some things,” said Kate. “About Mary.” She paused before adding, “And about Alice.”
“You know about Alice?” Lucy asked, turning to face Kate for the first time.
“Yes,” Kate said. “We know about the accident in the tower room.”
“That was no accident,” Lucy said.
“I know,” said Kate.
Lucy studied Kate’s face for a moment. Kate looked back at her, her gaze unwavering. She knew that if she showed the slightest sign of being nervous Lucy would know she was lying. She had to make the other girl think that she really was on her side now and not on Nora’s.
“What else did Nora tell you?” asked Lucy, clearly testing Kate.
Kate swallowed. This was the make-or-break moment. “She told us about the talisman,” she said. “The one Alice made to keep Mary from working any magic.”
Lucy’s eyes flickered for a moment before her steely expression returned. “Mary can’t be allowed to come back,” she said quietly. “If she does, everything will be ruined.”
Kate nodded. “I know,” she said. “That talisman is the key.” She paused a moment before asking the question that was at the heart of her charade. “Do you know where it is?”
“Maybe I do,” answered Lucy. “But why should I tell you where it is? As long as Nora can’t find it and return it to Mary, everything is okay.”
Kate and the others had anticipated this response, and they had come up with a story they hoped Lucy would buy. “We think the talisman may be weakening,” Kate told Lucy.
Doubt flashed in Lucy’s eyes. “What do you mean, it’s weakening?” she said breathlessly. “That talisman has worked for over a hundred and twenty-five years. Why would it weaken now?”
“I don’t know,” Kate told her. “But Mary’s ghost is getting stronger, so something is happening.”
Lucy looked away, staring out the window again. For a minute Kate thought that everything was over and that the other girl had decided she was lying. But then Lucy looked back at her. This time her eyes were sad.
“If I tell you where the talisman is, what are you going to do?” she asked.
“We’ll try to strengthen it,” answered Kate. “Cooper, Annie, and me. We’ve done a lot of magic, and we think we could add enough energy to the talisman to keep Mary’s ghost from crossing back over.”
“Mary is very powerful,” Lucy told her. “It will take a lot to hold her back.”
“We think we can do it,” Kate said. “But we need that talisman if we’re going to try.”
“I don’t know,” said Lucy. “I have to think about it.”
Inside, Kate groaned. Lucy was holding out on her. If she didn’t produce the talisman, then Mary’s ghost would be trapped and whatever Alice was planning would most likely take place on the evening of the Winter Solstice. There was also the risk that Lucy would tell Alice what the others were planning, and then everything would be ruined. They needed to get the talisman, and they needed to get it as soon as possible.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Kate said, applying gentle pressure. “The longer we wait, the
less time we have to strengthen the talisman.”
Lucy nodded. “I know,” she said. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can. In the meantime, thanks.”
Kate smiled. “It’s okay,” she said.
Lucy smiled crookedly. “I just want things with Nora to be good again,” she said.
Kate nodded but didn’t say anything in response. It was the same thing Nora had said about Lucy. But in Lucy’s case, Kate wasn’t convinced that she wanted things to work out at all. There was something disturbing about Lucy Reilly, and Kate didn’t like it. The girl was strange—edgy and unpredictable. Kate found herself wondering what exactly Alice and Lucy talked about.
Lucy looked out the window again and sighed. “There’s a storm coming,” she said. “A big storm.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Kate, looking out at a clear sky.
Lucy laughed. “Just because Mary is bound by the talisman doesn’t mean she still doesn’t have some powers,” she said. “Trust me, she wants a battle. She wants revenge. She’s been waiting a long time. And it’s coming.”
“Then we have to stop her,” Kate said firmly, trying to drive the point home. She wanted Lucy to really believe that they were on her side.
Lucy nodded. “Yes,” she said. “We do.”
Before they could continue the conversation, Jackson entered the room. “Good morning!” he called out cheerfully. “Are you all ready for another day of introspection and self-discovery?”
The class gathered around him in the center of the room and sat in a circle. Kate couldn’t help but notice that Lucy once again sat as far away from her as possible. She still doesn’t trust me, she thought miserably. But she’d done everything that she could. Now it was all up to Lucy.
“For the past two days we’ve worked with secrets,” he said. “Like divers, we’ve gone beneath the surface of our lives and the lives of our pathmates, returning with things to share. Now we’re going to go one step farther. Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. How prepared are you to enter the darkness of that night?”
Jackson looked around the circle, examining the faces of the people sitting there. “The journey into the darkness of the Winter Solstice is a lonely one,” he said. “It is long and cold and hard. Are you ready to step into the frozen hours of the solstice?”
Nobody answered him. But although she was silent, Kate was thinking about Jackson’s questions. Was she ready to take a journey into the darkness? She’d always been afraid of the dark, of the unknown. Even as a little girl she’d always slept with a night-light beside her bed. Waking at night and seeing it burning, she’d been comforted, knowing that the darkness of her bedroom wasn’t complete, that she always had the light to guide her if she needed it.
But the darkness of the Winter Solstice was complete. It was black and cold and empty. Yes, there was light at the end of it, but that light came only after a long night of nothingness. Was she ready to face it?
“This morning we’re going to do a meditation to prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s solstice,” Jackson told them all. “Tomorrow night—the longest night—all of the paths will join for an all-night ritual and celebration as we greet the returning light. But today we will be taking a short journey into the darkness to see what awaits us there.”
He stood and walked to the windows. He pulled down the shades, covering the view and blocking out the bright sunlight. Then he went to the light switches. With a flick, he plunged the room into darkness. Kate sat in the shadowy gloom, her eyes adjusting to the blackness.
“We’re going to do a meditation now,” Jackson told them, his voice floating out of the darkness. “Close your eyes and listen to my voice.”
Kate dutifully shut her eyes, although she didn’t see how that would make it any darker than it already was. Still, shutting her eyes put her in a different mood, one that was appropriate for meditating. It calmed her and helped her to center and focus her thoughts. She breathed deeply, as she had learned to do in her weekly Wicca study class.
“I want you to imagine yourself in a small cabin,” Jackson said. “It can look any way you like. It is your home. Picture it now.”
Kate imagined herself inside a small stone house. It was a simple house, with one big room. A fire burned in the fireplace, and she pictured herself sitting at a wooden table. It was a cozy image, and it made her feel relaxed and at home.
“It is winter,” continued Jackson. “Outside your cabin, the wind is blowing the snow around. You can hear it howling in the chimney, trying to put out the fire on the hearth.”
Kate listened to the wind in her mind. Just as Jackson described, she heard it whistling at the windows and sweeping around the house in a frenzied dance. She looked out the windows and saw the snow lifted up and scattered around like feathers escaping from a pillow being shaken by a giant invisible dog.
“All of a sudden you hear a knock at your front door,” said Jackson. “You go to it and open it to see who might be out on a night like this—this longest, coldest night of winter.”
Kate saw herself rise and go to the big wooden door of her cabin. She pulled on the handle, opening it a crack. Cold air swept in, bringing with it some snow as she peered out into the dark. What was she supposed to see? she wondered.
“No one is there,” said Jackson, answering that question. “All you see is snow and night. But you heard someone knock. Someone was there. Now, looking out through the blowing snow, you see a light moving away from you. Someone is carrying a lantern. That is who knocked on your door.”
In her meditation, Kate did indeed see a light bobbing in the blackness. It was some way away from her, and whoever was carrying it was moving very quickly through the snow. She wondered who it could be and where the person was going.
“Will you follow the lantern?” Jackson asked. “Will you see where the one carrying it leads you? Decide now. Will you put on your cloak and go out into the darkness, or will you stay inside and wonder what might have been? The choice is yours.”
Kate stood in the doorway of her cabin. Behind her, the warmth of the fire beckoned, calling to her to shut the door and keep the cold and the darkness outside, where it belonged. She knew that all she had to do was push the door closed and she would once again be surrounded by a cocoon of light and security.
But another part of her wanted to step out into the snow, to make her way through the wind and the cold and the dark to see where the lantern bearer was going. There was something waiting out there, something mysterious and possibly even dangerous. If she remained in her cabin, she would never know what it was. Then again, if she ventured out into the darkness she might end up lost and freezing, with nothing to guide her back.
“Come on.” The voice whispered in her ear, jerking her out of her meditation and back to the real world. She opened her eyes and saw someone crouching next to her.
“I said come on,” the voice whispered again, and Kate realized that it belonged to Lucy.
“Where are we going?” Kate asked, trying to be as quiet as she could be.
“To get the talisman,” Lucy answered.
Kate nearly jumped to her feet with excitement. Lucy was going to show her where the talisman was! She’d believed Kate’s story. You mean your lies, she reminded herself. She hadn’t told Lucy the truth, that was for sure. But did it matter? After all, Lucy was the one doing the wrong thing. They were just trying to stop her.
Kate stood up as quietly as she could and looked around. Everyone else was still engrossed in Jackson’s meditation. Jackson himself was seated by the fireplace. Thank Goddess his eyes are closed, too, Kate thought as she and Lucy snuck out of the room and into the hallway. Once they were away from the library door, Kate turned to the other girl. “So you do know where it is?” she asked.
“Part of me still doesn’t want to tell you,” Lucy said. “I’ve been keeping this secret for a long time.”
“But you’re doing the right thing,” said Kate reassurin
gly. “Once we get that talisman, we can make everything right again.”
“I hope so,” remarked Lucy. “For the sake of all of us.”
Kate followed Lucy as she walked down the hallway toward the lobby. She desperately wanted to ask Lucy where they were going, but she also didn’t want to do anything to make Lucy change her mind. She didn’t know why the other girl had suddenly decided to lead her to the talisman, but she was glad that she had. Once Kate had it in her possession, then everything would be okay.
Lucy walked into the lobby and stopped. She looked around. Then she turned to Kate. “It’s here,” she said.
“Here?” Kate repeated, looking around the lobby. “The talisman is hidden in here?”
Lucy nodded. “Where better to hide it than in plain view?” she said, sounding almost proud.
Kate continued to survey the lobby, but she couldn’t see anything that might be a hiding place for the talisman. “I don’t get it,” she said finally.
Lucy pointed, and Kate followed the direction of her gesture. She was indicating the giant Yule tree that stood in the center of the room.
“It’s on the tree,” said Lucy. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
She grabbed Kate’s hand and dragged her over to the tree. After circling it for a minute, she stopped and pointed to one of the branches. “Right there,” she said.
Lucy reached up and removed one of the ornaments from the tree. It was an angel. It was carved out of wood, and its features were painted on. It also had what looked to be real hair sprouting from its head.
“Alice made it,” Lucy explained as she cradled the angel ornament in her hand. “The hair is from Mary. That’s what gives it its power.”
“She made a Christmas tree ornament talisman?” said Kate, not sure she believed what she was hearing.
Lucy nodded. “It was a brilliant idea,” she said. “Mary would never think that she would hide such a thing right out in the open. But there it was. And it’s been on this tree every year since, along with all the other ornaments.”
“I would never have thought to look here,” Kate admitted.