“Okay,” both girls responded.
“Goodnight,” Morrigan whispered and got her diary out of her backpack.
Aishling stretched beside Morrigan, which relieved her achy, tired muscles. Why did Lance act like that? As she lay on the sleeping bag, she rested her hands over her stomach, trying to calm her nauseous tension. Would Kelile be okay? Would she ever see him again?
Before long, she slept.
In the dark, early hours of the next morning, she jounced out of her sleep, gasping for air, her heart racing. She sat up and looked around, getting her bearings. Morrigan and Lance were still asleep. The dreams. So many dreams. She searched her memory as she quietly found the flashlight and reached for her backpack, retrieving her diary and pen.
*******
May 3
So many dreams! One was about Kelile’s mother. She cast her spell at me again, like what happened. But in the dream, I could understand what she said. She called on all directions of the elemental “air” to create a tornado and carry me far away. The tornado spun around me and picked me up. It carried me away from Kelile, and further and further away from Earth, spinning me into a great void. But all at once, the spinning stopped and some kind of great force pulled me back to Earth. I found myself bound within a choking-thick, black fog. No matter how hard I tried pushing out of the blinding fog, I couldn’t escape.
Then I think I heard Ma’s voice saying, “As the closed is opened, Aishling. As the closed is opened.” I didn’t understand what she was trying to say, and then she spoke again, “Open your heart and soul.”
I also had a dream about Morri. She was screaming. I didn’t see it, but I knew the Uktena was chasing her. I called out to her over and over, but she couldn’t hear me. Then I heard her shriek.
I had another dream about the Uktena. Lance, Kelile, Morri, and I were all running from it again. Morri and Kelile kept saying, “We’ve got to get the Suti Stone. Only you can do it, Aishling. Only you can save us.” First, Lance disappeared, then Kelile, leaving Morri and I. It bit Morri, and she dropped to the ground. It kept chasing me. I reached the entrance to its cave and tried casting the circle of protective fire around me but couldn’t.
Lance caught up to me and shouted, “Aishling, I’ll kill it for you.” I tried telling him to get away from it, but he lunged toward it. The Uktena flung him up into the air, and he disappeared. Then Kelile came into the dream. He told me he would distract it while I got away. But when I ran, the Uktena struck me. I lay on the ground, dying. As I took my last breath, I thought about Ma’s words and became hopeful that I’d see her soon. I saw a bright light drift toward me.
I went to a beautiful place. Light beings were all around me. One walked toward me. The closer she got, I knew she was Ma. She reached out to me and said, “Open your heart and soul, honey. It is the only way.” But just as she said that, a white horse with wings swooped down and flew me away. I cried. I wanted to get off the horse, but I was too high.
Then the white horse flew back down into that choking-thick, black fog and dropped me. The fog closed in. I wondered how to open my heart. I couldn’t breathe anymore. I lost hope.
*******
Alerted by the footsteps, Aishling turned off her flashlight. Someone was walking toward them. Straining to see, she tried to make out who it was. She couldn’t warn Lance; he was too far away. She reached for Morrigan.
“Good witch,” the person walking toward her whispered.
“Kelile!” She jumped up.
Morrigan shot up. “What happened?”
Lance bounded over as Aishling hugged Kelile.
“What are you doing here?” Lance said.
“I’m comin’ with you.”
31
Friday, May 3
They had been hiking since early morning in an agitated silence. Aishling sensed something was amiss. Kelile had worn a scowl on his face all morning.
Lance stopped and pulled his forestry map out, glaring over it. “Oh great. I think we took a wrong turn.” He huffed.
“Man, I don’t have time for this crap.” Kelile pointed at him. “I need to get down the road. I’ve got to find that stupid Suti Stone.” He stormed ahead.
“Kelile! Wait!” Morrigan raced after him. When she caught up to him, she grabbed his shirtsleeve. “You’re going to help me find it now?”
“Let go of me!” He jerked away and continued walking. “And who said anything about helping you?”
“Well, it was my idea. You didn’t say anything about finding it before now.” Morrigan ambled alongside him.
“Kelile, where are you going?” Lance called. “We need to go back this way.”
Stopping abruptly, he jerked off his backpack and said, “Are you sure now?”
“Here, you take the map and see if you can figure it out!” Lance threw the map at him.
Morrigan followed Kelile as he jogged over to Lance. He picked up the map and handed it back. “Sorry, man.”
They fell in pace behind Lance again, still in an agitated silence.
As afternoon slipped into early evening, Aishling’s patience disappeared. Are we ever going to get there?
“Finally!” Kelile blurted.
They had reached the other end of Tatham Gap Road, just outside of Robbinsville.
“I suggest we backtrack a few yards and camp off this road tonight,” Lance said, looking at Kelile. “We can get an early start in the morning.”
“Why are you lookin’ at me?” Kelile frowned. “You’re runnin’ this show.”
Lance marched up to Kelile, planting himself in front of him, face-to-face. “What is the matter with you?” he said, his arms spiked back and hands fisted.
Kelile responded by shaking his head and walking back in the direction they had just come from.
Glowering at Aishling and Morrigan, Lance threw up his hands and grumbled, “Set up camp.”
After preparing for nightfall, Morrigan settled next to the others on one of the sleeping bags and said, “Okay, Kelile, now it’s your turn to talk. What do you mean you’re going to find the Suti Stone?”
He leered at her, then Aishling, then Lance.
Lance said, “Now isn’t the time, Morrigan.”
“Oh.”
“We’re not trying to bug you, Kelile,” Aishling said, smiling, trying to calm the angry energies.
He stared at her several moments in silence then nodded. Glancing at Morrigan, he pointed and said, “I don’t wanna hear any spoutin’ off of that mouth of yours.”
She puckered her face and folded her arms against her chest.
“You don’t have to be rude,” Lance said.
“I don’t want any of her jawin’.” He frowned at her. “Got it?”
“Okay! I won’t say another word.”
Still frowning, Kelile huffed and chucked a small rock into the dirt beside the sleeping bag. “Man, last night I had this weird nightmare. I woke up in a cold sweat. But, it was more than a nightmare. I think I had a … a premonition, or something.”
“Why? What happened in the dream?” Lance asked.
Kelile wrapped his arms around his knees and stared at his clasped hands. “I was at home by myself, but something kept doggin’ me. It’s hard to explain what it was. At first, it was like a shadow person or black ghost hovering around. Then, it spread out into this thick, black fog. Everywhere it touched it clung like Saran Wrap. I tried to get out of the house, but Mom came home before I could. When she opened the front door, that black fog closed in behind her and trapped her. It began choking her.” He pointed at Morrigan. “Don’t say anything. Then I heard this female voice say, ‘Find the Suti Stone. Find the Suti Stone. She’ll die if you don’t find the Suti Stone.’ She went on and on like a broken record, and even now she’s still doggin’ me.” He looked at Lance. “I know it’s crazy, man, but I think something bad will happen to Mom if I don’t find that stone.”
He dreamed of the shadow-woman and the fog? Speechless, Aishling b
egan rocking side-to-side. What did this mean?
“Did you tell your mom about the nightmare?” Lance asked.
“No. I didn’t see her again before I left.”
“How did you leave without her knowing it?”
“I wasn’t at home. She had taken me to a friend of hers so asshole wouldn’t know I was in town. I snuck out after Marge went to sleep.”
“So you think something will happen to your mother if you don’t find the Ulunsuti?”
Kelile nodded.
“What are you supposed to do with it after you find it?”
“Don’t know, man. I just have to find it.”
Morrigan raised her hand, sniggering. “May I speak now? Don’t look at me like that, Kelile.” She arched her eyebrows and glanced at Aishling. “Aish and I will know what to do with it. You just need to help us find it.”
“What?” Aishling muttered.
“My world does not revolve around you, voodoo queen. The voice in my head is not sayin’ anything about givin’ it to you.”
“You won’t be able to handle it,” Morrigan said. “In fact, the only person who will be able to handle it, I think, is Aish.”
“What do you mean, Morri?”
“What are you talkin’ about?” Kelile said.
“Like the myth,” Lance spoke up. “She’s talking about the myth. You don’t really believe that do you?”
“Yes.” Morrigan shifted her knees underneath her and sat up on them. “I believe her mother is the one mine talked about. I know we will find it there at your place, Aish. Or, we’ll be led to it from something we find at your place. Or, maybe it’s Kelile’s purpose to find it for us.”
“Hey, I’m not any kind of purpose for you.” He swatted at her.
“Stop it!” She hit his hand away.
“I don’t know,” Lance said. “I need to think about it.”
“Well, all of you pay attention to your dreams tonight,” Morrigan insisted. “Your dreams will confirm what I’m telling you.”
Saturday, May 4
The next morning, after they had finished breaking camp and were preparing to go, Morrigan asked, “Why hasn’t anyone said anything? What did your dreams tell you last night?”
No one answered her.
Aishling hadn’t slept much. She hadn’t wanted to have any more dreams about the serpent. I don’t care about that stone. Why can’t she understand? I just want to find Ma.
“Isn’t anyone going to talk about their dream?”
Lance answered her, “Morrigan, you’re my friend, and I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I’m not here to find some mythological stone. I’m here to talk to Redhawk, and he’s about four miles from here. Now, let’s go.”
“Looks like I ain’t the only one thinkin’ you’re a pain in the backside.” Kelile’s backpack brushed against Morrigan’s arm as he walked past her, grinning.
“I don’t think I want his help after all, Aish.”
Only able to force a weak smile on her face, Aishling nodded and followed the guys.
They hiked along a gravel road until it turned into a paved road. Lance paused and looked at his map again. “We’ll get to a fork in the road up ahead at New Hope Church. That’s where I’ll go right, and you veer left,” he said, putting his map away. He looked at Aishling—his eyes clinging to hers—then turned away.
As they passed a few scattered houses, they walked in stifling silence, moving closer and closer to the moment Aishling dreaded. The weight of the coming goodbye dragged her down, slowing her pace. Would she be able to say goodbye to Lance? He had been her guiding light until now. What would it be like without him? She wiped a tear off her cheek so the others wouldn’t notice.
When they came to the fork in the road, they stood looking at one another as if no one knew how to say goodbye. Aishling kept telling herself not to cry in front of them. She had to think about something else. Focus on my sneakers. Her sneakers were dirty. I have to be strong. Her socks were worse. She swallowed again and again, willing herself not to cry.
But … tears trickled from her eyes anyway. While staring at the ground, she watched them drip onto her sneakers.
“Don’t cry, Aishling,” Lance whispered. He stood next to her now.
She gave up and looked at him, her face wet. “Please don’t think I’m silly. I’m going to miss you so much. I don’t want you to go.”
Lance blushed, shyly smiled, and said, “I’m going to miss you, too.” He gazed at her, his eyes tender. Alas, he gently touched her on her cheek.
Morrigan pushed between them and swung her arms around his shoulders, “Oh Lance, I’ll miss you so much.”
He guided her arms to her sides and let go. “Me, too.”
Morrigan opened her mouth as though to say something else, but closed it and stepped back, tears in her eyes.
“Later man,” Kelile said, holding up his left fist.
“Later.” Lance bumped it. “I’ll try to get in touch with all of you, I promise. But, who knows, we may end up back at Herald Home in a few days. If so, we’ll have to plot another escape.”
Looking at Aishling again, he said, “From what you’ve told me before, your house is about five or six miles that way on this road. Does any of this look familiar?”
She nodded, sniffling.
He reached out and softly patted her on her shoulder, “Bye.”
“Bye,” she said, smoothing the tears off her cheeks.
“See you all.” He smiled at each one before walking away.
Return to Beginning
a treasured link returns.
32
Aishling hadn’t expected to feel this way upon arriving at her home. But now, she labored as if she were climbing a steep mountain. Up until this very moment, she had believed all her problems would dissolve as soon as she arrived here—that everything would become clear and she’d know where to find Ma.
She had been certain of this.
Yet now, walking up the gravel driveway—her eyes drawn to a half-charred shell that was once her home—an agonizing loss crushed her certainty.
She imagined she could still smell the smoke, as if the fire had been just a few weeks ago.
“How did you survive that?” Kelile asked.
She couldn’t answer, couldn’t talk. Flashbacks pressed in on her from all sides, flattening her spirits to the ground.
Morrigan’s light touch on her shoulder momentarily pulled her back to the present, but she retreated into her memories again. As she stared into her past, her eyes glazed over. “Ma and I were arguing. We’d been doing a lot of that. She had been acting so weird. I was mad because she had taken me out of school. I didn’t want to be home-schooled.
“It was Samhain. I had gotten really mad because she wouldn’t let me go to the school’s Halloween party and haunted house. I could tell she was scared about something.” Aishling hesitated, shook her head. Becoming more alert, she whispered, “Oh my.”
“What?” Morrigan asked.
“That’s what your mother reminded me of, Kelile,” she answered, turning to him.
“What are you talkin’ about?” He squinted.
“Both times I’ve seen your mother she’s had this fearful look on her face. It was how Ma looked the night of the fire, and even a few days before when she took me out of school. She had been afraid of something … like your mother is.”
“I still don’t get what you’re saying.”
“The first time I met your mother at Herald Home, she looked scared when I told her my name. And then when I saw her the other day and she tried to put a spell on me, she—”
“Spell? What!”
Aishling hugged herself. “You know, Kelile, when she was arguing with you and saw me. She tried to put a spell on me, but I was in the circle of safety. I don’t—”
“Girl, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.” He huffed and frowned.
“But, you asked her yourself what she was doing.”
“No. She didn’t try to put a spell on you. She’s no witch! Don’t you ever accuse her of that again.” He stormed away.
“Kelile?” Her heart pounded so hard she thought she would choke. Coughing, she lowered her head and shuddered.
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Morrigan said, putting her arm around Aishling’s shoulders. “It’s a good thing Lance wasn’t here, though.” She squeezed Aishling and dropped her arm. “Come on, you can tell me what you remember.”
Aishling sighed as she stared past Morrigan, once again into the past. “Ma and I had gotten into a terrible fight. I told her I never wanted to talk to her again.” Her eyes flooded with more tears. “Was it all my fault? Maybe Ma doesn’t want to see me. Did I somehow cause the fire?”
“I don’t know. What else do you remember?” Morrigan asked. “You argued about not going to school for Halloween. What happened next?”
“I went to my room.” She pointed to the left side where the majority of burned remains were. “I slammed my door, and … and … cried myself to sleep, I think.” Aishling stared past the remains. “No!” she cried, ousting flashes of a giant serpent from her mind.
Morrigan grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
This briefly jolted her into the moment, but she swooned back into her past. “No. No.”
She vaguely felt Morrigan shake her again, but the slap brought her back. She rubbed her stinging cheek, confused. “Why did you slap me?”
“Aish, you were hysterical. I kept calling your name, and you didn’t hear me,” Morrigan answered.
“Girl, you were freakin’ out,” Kelile chimed in, now standing next to her.
“And screaming for help,” Morrigan added.
“Oh.”
“You were shouting about that dragon-snake comin’ for ya. Girl, you’re mixing your nightmares with reality.”
“What?” She closed her eyes to see if she could get a vision. Nothing. “Well, maybe the Uktena is somehow connected to the fire, and that’s why I’ve been dreaming about it.”
Dead Moon Awakens: A tale of Cherokee myth and Celtic magic (Mystic Gates) Page 14