by Koboah, A D
“Luna, stand aside,” Mama said. “The demon has bewitched you. Stand aside so we can break the hold it has on you.”
“No, Mama. You kill it now and it gonna come back.”
I don’t know what made me say that, but judging from the expression on Mama’s face, it was true and I could only conclude that I had somehow plucked the knowledge from her thoughts because Avery looked as surprised as everyone else.
“You know that be true, don’t you, Mama?”
“Yes,” she said gazing thoughtfully at me. “They can come back to life but if we cut off its head, burn and scatter the remains, it should—”
“No,” I said suppressing a shudder at the thought of Avery beheaded. “That ain’t gonna work. We has to kill it when the sun goes down, so’s the evil can go back to where it come from.”
“You cannot know that. You—”
“I do, Mama,” I insisted. “I spent weeks learning its secrets and letting it think it can trust me. I knowed you was coming for me, Mama. So I tricked it so it be here in the day for you to catch. But you can’t kill it now. You has to take it back to the chapel. That where it be made so we has to kill it there at night.”
“This is nonsense,” Master John said as Mama watched me carefully, suspicion in her shrewd dark eyes. “Your mother told us it will regain its strength at night.”
“Not...not with them chains on it. But you go on and kill him, Massa,” I said and took a small step to the side even though everything within me screamed in protest at leaving Avery exposed to him. “But who you think he be looking to kill first when he come back?”
Master John gulped and sweat broke out on his brow at the thought of being in Avery’s grasp once more. After a few moments of silence, he gestured to the two men standing at either side of Avery and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Pick it up. We can strap it to one of the horses and take it back to the plantation that way.”
“But—”
“Do it!” he snapped.
I did what I was dreading then and faced Avery who was looking at me in bewilderment. All hope deserted him when he looked into my eyes and although it broke my heart to see this, I forced myself to meet his gaze with contempt.
“You’d better be sure about this,” Master John said to me.
“I is,” I said, my gaze never leaving Avery’s. “He gonna suffer more this way and I never has to worry about him coming back.” Don’t listen to my words, Avery, listen to my thoughts. I love you. Please, listen to my thoughts and know I’ll find a way to get you out of this.
But it seemed as if he was keeping his promise to never read my mind again because his face crumpled and he seemed to wilt as the two men picked him up and dragged him away.
I stayed where I was for a few moments, the raw pain that was binding itself to me like a living thing with a will of its own.
I planned to do everything in my power to try and save Avery but I was alone and faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. How was I going to get him out of this alive?
The only thing I knew for certain was that I would die trying.
Chapter Twenty
The ride back to the plantation was the worst two hours of my life. As the woodland around us grew denser, slowly creeping closer until it bullied us into riding single file, my sense of hopelessness grew stronger. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Avery was now slumped unconscious over his horse, which was being led by one of the men with guns. The other two followed close behind on one mount, their guns in their laps and their nervous gazes trained on Avery’s inert form.
Master John rode in front, his chest puffed out, making him look like a peacock in his green jacket and I was forced to endure the sound of his nauseating voice as he joked and bragged his way throughout the entire journey. I could only imagine the hideously exaggerated reports of Avery’s capture that would make the rounds once he got back to the plantation.
And of course there was Mama, who rode with Mr Walker. If she wasn’t watching me carefully then she was watching Avery. And that’s probably the only thing that gave me hope that he was still alive.
She had made it perfectly clear as we walked through the woods back to the horses that she knew I was lying. And I suppose it hadn’t been that hard to deduce because I hadn’t been able to keep my gaze off Avery who no longer had the strength to resist as he was dragged away.
“What is that I keep hearing, my child?” she had asked softly.
I managed to tear my gaze away from Avery, whose eyes had begun to glaze over.
“What, Mama?”
“A word, I keep hearing it over and over again. Avery. Why do I keep hearing that, Luna?”
I felt my throat tighten but was able to force a smile. “I don’t know, Mama. You the one who be knowing everything.”
I quickly turned in case she saw more than I wanted her to see in my eyes.
“Yes, my dear. I know everything. My poor Luna. You look so sad. It must have been terrible to spend all those weeks in that house and have that beast force itself on you, again and again.”
I rounded on her, my anger flaring.
“He ain’t never laid a finger on me,” I said sharply.
“He?”
I bit my lip. I had fallen into her little trap so easily. Then I leaned close and whispered softly in her ear.
“You has what you want now, Mama. So make it go away.”
“What do you mean?”
She kept her voice low but I heard stirrings of uncertainty in her tone and her gaze slid guiltily away from mine.
“You know what I be talking about. I can feel it eating away at you still, so make it go away before it takes you away from me.”
She stopped dead in her tracks and for a few seconds she looked like a child who had been caught harbouring a deep, dark secret.
I left her standing there in the morning sunlight and made sure I didn’t look at Avery as I walked away.
And now it was as if she had completely shut herself off from me. Her gaze when it met mine was cold. I knew that shrewd mind of hers was working furiously behind her impassive expression. When I was a child, I thought that the bond we shared was unbreakable but when she was sold, it had broken as easily as an egg shell. I didn’t know her at all now and I felt a profound loss because the three-year-old me would have known exactly what that look in her eye and the set of her shoulders meant. And Mama would have known to trust me, to trust my judgment in wanting to save a seemingly evil being.
I realised that I had never really recovered after she’d been taken away from me, and that strengthened my resolve. Regardless of what it cost, I would not lose Avery, ever.
But I couldn’t ignore the fact that the odds were firmly stacked against me, especially when we left the woods and were thrust into the full glare of the sun. I grew to hate the sun that day as it beat down hatefully on my beleaguered Avery. A silent, golden king, it was the most cruel and pitiless nemesis.
The only thing that made the journey back to the plantation bearable was the feel of Jupiter’s strong arms around me and the sound of his deep voice as he related all the changes that had taken place in my absence. It helped keep my mind from tumbling into the depths of despair as I tried to think about what to do. But the longer I thought about it, the less likely it seemed that I would be able to save Avery. I even wondered if maybe it would have been kinder to let them kill him. At least that way he would have died knowing I loved him instead of believing the vile lies I had told, which now seemed only to have delayed the inevitable.
At last we got to the plantation and went straight to the clearing where the chapel sat waiting in the mid morning sunlight. It appeared older, darker and more sinister; the evil presence that had plagued it for so long stronger than ever before. It was like walking into a wave of cold malice. Avery was dragged off the horse and dumped on the ground and when I saw his face, a sharp, clean fear came barrelling into me and my chest tightened.
He l
ooked like a corpse. His skin was grey, his lips had turned blue, and his eyes had sunken into their sockets.
“He...he dead?” I couldn’t conceal the tremor in my voice.
“No,” Mama said coolly behind me.
It seemed as if I could breathe again, especially when I saw Avery’s eyes flutter in response to my voice.
“Good,” I said. But I was running out of time. “We has to get him in the chapel.”
“But that’s out of the sun.”
This came from the biggest man, the one who had been the most nervous during the journey. He was staring at me in an accusatory manner and I noticed that his grip had tightened on his gun.
“Get him into the chapel, damn it!” Master John said.
The man glared at him for a few moments before reluctantly gesturing for the other two, and they began to drag Avery to the chapel. Master John followed, barking orders and generally making a nuisance of himself, as always.
“I am going back to the plantation to get some rest so I will be strong enough to keep the demon bound when night falls,” Mama said.
I nodded slowly. Mama leaving had widened that narrow chance I had of getting Avery away from the plantation. But only by the smallest of margins.
“I has to let Mary know I’s all right then I’s gonna come and find you so’s we can go home,” I said to Jupiter, all the while thinking about how to get a hold of one of the horses.
“No, I need Jupiter to come with me,” Mama said, eyeing him surreptitiously. He frowned and glanced from Mama to me. “I will need him to help me prepare.”
“You should tell them mens to stay in the trees, as far away from the demon as they can get,” I said. “In case he...it tries to control them. I’s come to you later, Mama, if Massa Geoffrey be letting me, so’s I can help you get ready.”
She nodded and said no more.
I walked away, the weight of their suspicious gazes like a bull’s eye on my back, and with every step I took from the chapel and Avery, it felt as if my heart was being torn to pieces.
I had almost reached the trees when I heard Avery cry out.
“Luna! Luna!”
A tremor surged through me and I stopped dead in my tracks. The urge to respond to that tortured cry was overwhelming, but Mama was still watching. So I walked on, even faster than before, and practically ran into the woods.
When I was far enough away from the chapel and any prying eyes, I stumbled to a stop and leant against a tree with my hand pressed to my chest. It took a few minutes but my breathing eventually slowed and the pain threatening to render me apart began to diminish.
Feeling in control again, I was about to move away when I saw Zila standing about five metres away, her eyes lit with cold, calculating fire as she watched me. Cursing myself for being careless enough to let anyone see me in that state, I glared at her before I walked away, knowing she had become yet another obstacle I would have to contend with before night fell.
When I left the woods, I glanced anxiously up at the sun, which seemed to have climbed even higher in the sky, before I ran down the hill toward the main house. A sense of urgency overtook me as I ran under the ever dominant glare of the sun. I sensed that death was on its way and, like the sun, it would be almost impossible to escape. I ran past the cotton fields, barely glancing at my fellow Negroes, and on toward the main house in search of Mary. I needed her to deliver a message. I also needed to say goodbye because I knew death was coming and when it did, I didn’t want to leave this world without saying goodbye to the woman who had been like a mother to me.
I felt a prickle of apprehension when I reached the mansion, remembering all too well that only a month ago my whole life had amounted to little more than tending to this house and the every whim of its occupants. I shuddered in spite of the boiling heat.
I was almost at the kitchen door when I saw three of the other slaves. They stared at me with identical expressions of wary astonishment before they smiled brightly, although not brightly enough to dim the suspicion in their eyes. They stopped what they were doing and made their way over to me.
“Luna, you’s alive. Praise Jesus,” Natty, a short, earthy woman said as she beamed at me.
“It sure is good to see you, Luna. We’s all praying for you,” Sirus said. He was a tall, gaunt field hand.
“You is?” I said coolly. “It sure didn’t look like that from where I’s standing that night.”
Their smiles slowly faded. It was probably the imperious disdain emanating from my gaze more than my words that had them peering at me fearfully.
“It...it wasn’t like that, Luna.”
“Get out my way,” I snorted contemptuously before I barged past them, for I had seen Mary come rushing out of the kitchen.
She looked thinner and there were deep circles under her eyes. When she saw me she came to an abrupt stop and stared at me for a few seconds. Then, dropping the basket of vegetables she was holding she ran up to me with tears streaming down her face.
“Luna!” Her embrace nearly knocked me off my feet. “Luna! Oh Lord, Luna. It’s true, you’s alive.”
She pulled away and held my face in her hands. “You all right, girl? What happened?”
I could see the other three eagerly straining to hear, so I dropped my voice and pulled her with me away from them.
“I’s fine, Mary. Really,” I said glancing uneasily at the sun, which was like an hourglass slowly emptying me of hope.
“Oh, Luna. I thought you’s dead. I’s sure of it. But what happened? Why did it take you away?”
I found I couldn’t answer. It was too difficult to talk about Avery and have to pretend to hate him when my heart was aching and I feared for his life. So I only shook my head.
“Look, Mary. I has to go. I only come to find you ’cause I wants you to know that...I...I missed you.”
She stared at me in astonishment as if a dream she had given up on had finally come true. I realised in that moment that although she hadn’t allowed me to keep her at arm’s length as I had done with everyone else on the plantation, she had begun to believe that I didn’t really care for her at all.
Then her face crumpled up and she began to cry again.
“Oh Lord, Luna. What happened to you? What it do to you?”
“You hush now, Mary,” I said smiling sadly. “I’s all right. It didn’t do nothing to me. I just needs you to know, that’s all. I has to go now. But can you find Massa John and tell him to come to my cabin?”
Now she looked bewildered. “He ain’t here. He gone to see some lawyer man.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “But why you wants him to come to your cabin? When has you ever wanted him in your cabin?”
“I needs to ask him something.”
She placed her hands on her hips and fixed me with a no nonsense stare, and as always when faced with that look, I gave in.
“You know I’s free now but he be trying to find a way to keep me here so I needs to speak to him.”
Now she was glaring at me. “Girl, I think you done lost your mind. You think you can talk him into giving you up by letting him have some of what he about to lose?”
“Mary, please. Just do it!”
“All right. But don’t you be shocked none when you end up back here with the rest of us.”
She went to move away but I grabbed her and hugged her again before I let her go. With tears filling her eyes again, she gave me a long questioning look before she left.
Ignoring the small group of Negroes that had gathered, I walked away. Once they were out of sight, I started to run, racing against the grains of sand that were slowly slipping through the hour glass.
I ran into the woods, where I slowed to a fast walk in order to catch my breath.
I had asked Mary to get Master John to come to my cabin because he had the keys to the gun cupboard. He had also been wearing one this morning. My plan was to get him alone and find a way to get the gun or keys off him, then get one of the horses from the stables.
It was a feeble plan at best, complicated all the more by the fact that Master John wasn’t here and I didn’t know when he would be coming back. And time wasn’t on my side.
Feeling as if there was a noose around my neck, tightening with every second that passed without my having done anything to get to Avery, I walked on, desperately racking my brain for a more feasible plan.
Then, with a gasp, I came to a stop in the woods.
Chapter Twenty One
Julia was standing in the dappled shadows cast by the trees. She snorted in an almost bored fashion and came ambling forward. I stood rooted to the spot in surprise, hope brightening my failed spirits like a full moon on a dark night.
“You sure is a clever, clever horse!” I exclaimed when it sank in that she wasn’t an illusion.
I kissed and patted her on the neck. Then, in a rush of excitement I remembered the satchel I had hidden under her saddle. It was still there, along with the loaded gun.
Tears sprang to my eyes and I had to take a moment to steady myself.
Julia being here was like a miracle and in that moment I felt something I had never felt before in my life: self-belief. It was a beautiful feeling and it seemed as if all the events in my life had been leading up to this one perfect moment in which I would dare to brave the impossible and in doing so achieve something extraordinary.
I was going to save Avery. There was no doubt in my mind now about whether or not I could do it.
Exulted but still aware of the sun straining to reach me through the leaves above, I led Julia through the woods toward one of the lesser known tracks to the clearing. Perhaps this newfound belief in myself had made me over-confident because I was so busy searching the trees to my left, where the men were likely to be keeping guard, that I didn’t see Zila kneeling with her back to me, directly in my path until it was too late.
I stopped, feeling like a small animal that had been caught in a trap. Barely breathing, I started to back away with Julia when Zila turned around.
To my surprise, she wore a tense, anxious expression as if she too had been caught in a trap, but then it melted away and she breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s just you.”