“Lots of fire here.”
“I wonder if it’s meant to be cleansing,” Deirdre mused. “It’s not very logical.”
“That’s because we’re supposed to let the dead rest,” I said. “If they want to hang around, that’s one thing. That’s their choice. But we’re supposed to let the dead be.”
“Yeah, I know. Unbunch your panties.”
Deirdre was always the one who asked why, and liked to figure that aspect out. “They’re not in a bunch. I just want this to work, and to get the answers we need from Granny.”
Daniella and DeAnna came back in. DeAnna looked unsettled. I totally understood.
“We’re ready?” Daniella asked.
“Yes,” I said. “DeAnna, can you read Latin? Or at least read this?” I turned the book to her and showed her.
She began to read.
“Supra et infra spiritibus
nostrae vocationis audiat
Ad eos qui nos ad pallii
Salvos nos fac Domime O spirituum,
Nos atque piae.
Deferrent nostrae
Sine ulla peccatum.”
DeAnna stumbled over the unfamiliar words. “I’m not doing it now, am I?” She looked alarmed.
“No, we have to have all the things in place. Magic doesn’t usually happen accidentally. It’s why there are usually two or more steps, or you’d have beginning practitioners blowing themselves up all the time,” Deirde said, smiling. “You’re good. Go over it a few more times. We’re going to say together, so it’s not like we’re leaving you hanging on your own.”
DeAnna mouthed the words, and after watching her, I helped Daniella get all the herbs ready. The grave dirt was in a separate bowl and would be added right before we lit the whole mess on fire.
I didn’t like grave dirt. It smelled. I know it was probably a lot of my imagination, but it always smelled to me. At least down here, the smells of everything else muted it.
Finally, DeAnna looked up. “I think that is as good as it’s going to get. I’m nervous, so I can’t guarantee I’ll say it all correctly.”
“It’ll be fine.” Daniella waved her hand. “Okay, ladies, let’s do this.” She pulled things from the counter, and started placing them on our compass rose on the floor.
“I didn’t even notice that,” DeAnna said.
“It’s better to have a circle to protect you when you’re dealing with spirits. We don’t do it often, but a circle with the Rose of the Winds—that’s an old name for the compass rose—and calling on the spirits of the winds will help you if something you bring through has less than nice intentions,” Daniella said.
On the north, she placed the Earth bundle, which was a large quartz crystal. On east, she set down the Air object, an incense holder burning a sage joss stick.
For south, which represented Fire, a plain white candle, clear and clean. Daniella lit it, and the flame flared up strong and bright yellow. And for the west, water in an abalone shell. It made a circle about eight feet in diameter, which was large enough for all of us to stand in, with everyone at a compass direction. We’d need to be closer, so that we could all read from the book.
But here, Deirdre surprised me. She handed out sheets of paper. “One for everyone. That way, we’re closer to the Rose points.”
“Good call, sister.”
“Only took you a hundred years to appreciate me, but I’ll take it.”
I wondered when she’d done it, and then figured it didn’t matter. She’d done it. It would make this all easier. You know, as easy as it could be.
“We ready?” I asked. Now that Meema was gone, leading the work would fall to me, and I wasn’t yet comfortable in the role. I’d always been the one who charged ahead, and Meema was there to make sure I didn’t fall.
Now I not only had to keep myself from falling, but everyone else. Please, goddess, let this work, I prayed. I looked at my paper, and at my sisters—all four of them, which made me smile—and nodded.
Deirdre brought over the grave candle and lit it. Daniella lit the bowl with the herbs and the grave dirt. A sickly smell drifted up—I really hated the smell of the grave dirt. The herbs only slightly hid it when things were on fire.
I nodded again. “This is for real, now.” We all read, speaking slowly.
“Supra et infra spiritibus
nostrae vocationis audiat
Ad eos qui nos ad pallii
Salvos nos fac Domime O spirituum,
Nos atque piae.
Deferrent nostrae
Sine ulla peccatum.”
Chanting together, we completed the incantation three times.
I held up a hand. The room had darkened, and the candles were flickering wildly. The temperature dropped and there was a swirling of dust in the middle of the circle.
“We call the spirit of Desdemona Delilah Nightingale, beloved mother of Desdemona, and grandmother to Desdemona, Deirdre, Daniella and Deana. Desdemona Nightingale, we call you!”
There was silence, and the dirt began to swirl more, rising up in the air. Up, and up it rose, gathering more dirt from who knew where. The thought that it was from our stillroom made me a little itchy.
The dirt darkened, and began to take shape. A head, then hair on the head in the form of a bun, and then a skirt. The dirt swirled as the spirit took on more of the characteristics of the human she’d been.
I still didn’t know whether it was Granny. The dirt was swirling too fast; too—
“Why have you called me, girls?”
It was Granny.
“Mary, mother of God,” DeAnna breathed.
“No, Desdemona, mother of Little Desi,” Granny said.
Her voice didn’t have her usual snap, and that made me really, really nervous.
“Why did you call me, girls?”
She knew. Holy shit, she knew. “Because we’re in a bit of a pile of crap, Granny, and I think it’s your crap.”
The ghost sighed. “You would be Desdemona, wouldn’t you?”
At my look, she waved a hand at me. “Don’t get all shirty with me, missy! The last time I saw you, you were ten years old.”
“Yeah, when you died on us,” Deirdre cut in.
Granny whirled around. “You are?”
“Deirdre.” She crossed her arms.
“You have grown into the spitfire I saw when you were little.” Granny’s face took on an expression of softness.
“And? What did you do? We are in a world of shit, and it all keeps pointing to you!” Deirdre shouted.
Granny sighed again. “I’m going to guess I’m here for a while? Where’s Meema? And who are you?” She looked to DeAnna.
“That is DeAnna, daughter of Deana.” I kept my voice neutral.
Granny’s face shifted to … guilty. “Where is Deana?”
“She’s gone. She’s been gone for some time,” DeAnna said. “And she never stopped being angry about something that happened here. Was it something with you?”
Granny frowned. “I just said I haven’t seen the girls since they were ten.” Her eyes, such as they were, shifted around.
“Granny, what aren’t you telling us?” She was hiding something.
“Where should I start?” she asked finally.
“At the beginning,” Daniella said. “Because there’s a lot your diaries don’t cover. Not that we’ve read all of them, just the parts about Ashlar and you welshing on your agreement!”
“You’re taking his side in this?” Granny held a hand to her chest. “Really? If you’ve met him, you know that he isn’t a good being. No demons are. But he’s a particularly bad one.”
“And so that was the one you made a deal with?” I demanded. “You need to start explaining.”
“Where’s Meema?” Granny asked again.
“She’s in Hell,” I said flatly. “Where Ashlar took her, and me, less than a week ago. He tossed her soul into the River of Souls. He tied me up, meaning to torture me while my body decayed in Hell. Only by th
e grace of a demon did I get away, and I have no idea how to find or rescue Meema’s soul. All we know is that Ashlar says you didn’t honor your agreement, and now we’re on clean-up detail.”
“Don’t forget the whole trying to stay alive detail,” Deirdre put in. “Because the demon is pissed, and said that since you’d already died, the contract would never be fulfilled, so the Nightingale women would have to pay the price forever!” Her hands were on her hips as she glared at Granny.
I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and I slid my gaze over. Granny might be dead, but she was sharp as ever, and I didn’t want to distract her.
Doc was hovering half in, half out of the wall. I widened my eyes and shook my head. Granny didn’t need to see him right now. I wasn’t sure how she’d receive him, since she’d gone out of her head over this guy. He frowned at me.
I glared back.
He sank back into the wall. Thank the Goddess. We had enough drama to be going on with right now.
“Well, you’d better get chairs, girls. I’ll tell you about the demon.”
Daniella stepped out of the circle, and got a chair for everyone, placing them inside the circle.
As we sat, Granny watched all of us, turning from first one to the other. “It’s very good to see you girls. I’m sorry that Deana’s gone.” An expression I couldn’t read crossed her face. “But I’m glad to meet her daughter. Was she happy?” she asked DeAnna.
“Yes and no,” DeAnna said. “She was not happy to have left her home, but she was also really glad to be out of Deadwood.
Granny sighed. There was a lot of that going around and it made me nervous as hell.
“Okay, Granny, you’ve stalled long enough. Spill. Why did you make a deal with a demon? And even more so, why with Ashlar? He’s a complete asshole,” I said.
“Because he was the demon who showed up when I called him,” Granny said calmly, like that explained anything.
“Just because he dangled immortality in front of you, or Doc, didn’t mean you had to say yes!” I struggled to keep my voice down. “Look at me!” I pulled up my sleeve. “This is part of what it cost me to get out of Hell! I had to crawl out, my skin on fire! Now you tell us why you did it! Make me understand why this was necessary!”
“I did it for you girls.” Granny’s voice was soft, her eyes riveted on the black marks that went up my arm. “How did you get out of Hell?”
“I crawled out. On my hands and knees, not sure if I was going to make it. I’m not the same. I have nightmares of the River of Souls. I can hear Meema!” Damn it, I needed to calm down. This wasn’t going the way I thought it would.
“How long did the Cannadys last?”
“Years,” Daniella said. “They made it years. Finally, the daughter broke and laughed in Ashlar’s face.”
“In all that time, he never came back to Deadwood to check. He’s not very smart, for a demon.” Granny looked over our heads, seeing something we couldn’t.
Which was the damn problem.
“Well, he was smart enough to kill Meema, and nearly kill me. No thanks to you. Granny, how could you do this to us? You had to know that we’d figure it out, and then have to deal with this!” I exclaimed.
“I did not know. I’d already determined that Ashlar wasn’t the brightest demon of the bunch.”
“What, you know a lot?” Deirdre asked, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady. I know a sight more than you do.”
“No, shit,” Deirdre shot back. “It would’ve been great had you shared before you know, you died on us.”
“I am trying to share now,” Granny said with exaggerated patience. “May I continue?” After a moment of silence, she went on. “I figured that he’d never find out. He was, at the time, vain and proud, and that sort of man, be he human or demon, tends to get in his own way. So I figured Mrs. Cannady and Tandy, her daughter, would be able to fool him.”
“You condemned them to that?”
“I made a bargain with them. They knew I was a yarb woman, a healer, and came to me anyway. They knew they would die. At the time, consumption was fatal. I told them if they did me a service, I’d make sure the other four children were taken care of. You don’t understand what it was like for children with no adults to care for them. They felt they got a good bargain. And I kept it. Every one of those children found a good home. They were still close to their siblings, and had a good chance. Better than they had with Mrs. Cannady. No one would do anything for a consumptive woman.” Granny didn’t sound the least bit repentant.
“I’ve been in Hell, Granny. It was horrible.”
“Yes, I am sure it was. But there are many kinds of Hell, Desdemona. Leaving your children behind is another.”
“You’d know,” snapped Deirdre. “I love Doc, but really, Granny, you did all this for a man?”
Granny stared at Deirdre, and then burst out laughing. “You think I did all this for John Henry? Oh, my Lord,” and she doubled over laughing.
I saw Doc’s head emerge from the wall out of the corner of my eye. I pretended not to notice him. He felt horrible that Granny had gone mad over him. Apparently that wasn’t the case, so I figured he had a right to hear this.
“Oh, my,” Granny said. “I adored that man, I admit. And he gave me the most wonderful gift ever, your mother, girls. Well, your grandmother,” she added to DeAnna. “I did indeed want to settle down with him, and by the time he was ready to leave Deadwood, I could have helped him. I do believe I could have cured him. But he left, and took up with Big Nose Kate, so that, as they say, was that.” She laughed again. “It’s because of him we have this house—he could do wonders with a hand of cards, even an awful hand. But that—well, that is not why I bargained with Ashlar.”
“Then why in the name of blazes did you keep me here?” Doc charged through then, coming to a stop outside our Rose of the Winds circle. “I wanted to pass on. You knew that, and you kept me here.”
Granny had turned when Doc spoke, and her eyes widened as she listened to him. She didn’t answer, her hand covering her mouth.
“Answer me, woman! Damn it! I’ve been stuck here for over one hundred years! No right to the rest that all beings should have! I love these girls, but it has not been easy for any of us!”
“You’re still here,” she whispered. “Oh, my. John Henry, you look as good as you ever did.”
“That is not important, Desdemona. Why did you keep me here? Why did you bring me in the first place? And most importantly, why in God’s name did you truck with a demon? And leave it to your granddaughters, our granddaughters, to deal with? Do you know that I watched our daughter disappear before my eyes?”
I didn’t think ghosts could cry, but Granny sure looked close.
Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the slam of a door and footsteps above our heads.
“This has got to be the worst séance ever,” Daniella muttered. “We suck at this.”
“No we don’t,” I whispered back. “We got our girl. But we have too many ghosts, and way too much drama.”
She covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. I had to do the same. It was either that or scream and cry, and the latter wouldn’t do a damn thing for any aspect of this situation.
“Hey! We’re home! And we got it! Where is everyone?” Deana’s voice rang out. “Gran? Desdemona?”
“Let’s just throw a party,” Deirdre muttered. “We’re down here!” she yelled.
Footsteps thundered down the stairs and Deana came in, waving a small silver and gold sword. It was a cross between a fancy hunting knife and a real sword. It gleamed even in the dim light of the stillroom.
“You got it,” I whispered. I felt tears spring to the back of my eyes. Till this moment, I hadn’t been sure they’d get it, that it was real. “Are you sure this is the right thing?”
“Touch it,” Zane said, coming from behind Deana and Dee, who were hugging DeAnna.
He took it fr
om Deana, and handed it to me. I touched it, and the electricity bolted through me.
“That’s angel magic,” he said, and there was a fire in his eyes. Then he took in the scene. “Holy shit.”
“Exactly. Everyone, this is the much-vaunted Granny, who was just telling us the real deal.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the stillroom.
Everyone turned to Granny.
Chapter Sixteen
“Well, I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Yes, I made a deal with Ashlar. I fulfilled the bargain, two souls for the gifts he gave me.”
“What did he give you?”
“Immortality for me and my descendants, as long as we wanted it.”
“If we stayed in Deadwood,” Daniella cut in.
“He did tack that on without telling me about it first,” Granny admitted. “He also gave you to me,” she added in the direction of Doc. “I didn’t tell him I wanted you. I told him I was so sad because I wanted to save you, and if I could do that, you might have stayed. You left, and he laughed at me. He knew I was expecting—he was the one who told me, sadly. He told me if I agreed to our bargain, I could have everything I wanted.”
“Well, he wasn’t entirely honest with you, then,” I said. “But you said you wanted love—"
“No, he was not honest,” Granny cut me off. “And I did want love. I got it, in your mother, and you girls,” she looked at us fondly. “But I was proud. And that was my sin, girls. I thought I could outwit a demon. After all, he wasn’t the brightest, or the most cunning—but he is a demon.”
“Okay, whatever. How do we beat him?” Deirdre asked. “Tell us, keeper of all the answers.”
“Because he’s coming back. The clock is ticking. I’m astounded we haven’t heard from him yet. And worse, Granny, he’ll screw up all of Deadwood in the process. We got lucky when we were able to ward it before. There’s only three of us now that Meema is gone.” I couldn’t stop myself from butting in. Just in case she was tempted to wander too far down memory lane.
She looked around. “I see six of you.”
“These are Deana’s girls. They weren’t raised in magic like we were.”
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