Sky Mothers (Born of Shadows Book 4)

by J. R. Erickson

  Sebastian listened closely. Binda intended to wipe his memory and having had firsthand experience, he had no doubt that she could do it. How could he make himself remember? At some point, the magic that paralyzed him would wear off. Could he fight her? Somehow slip past her?

  "When Meghan disappeared into the dream wood, it was like any other day. It rained that morning. The humid rain of summer, of the monsoon season. We ate papaya and oysters for breakfast. Meghan, troubled by guilt, had created a book of poetry for Clyde. She looked forward to giving him the gift and I looked forward to the smile she would wear when she returned from visiting him."

  Binda stood and refilled her glass.

  "I'm sure you're parched," she told Sebastian, moving to his bedside and tilting the water to his lips.

  He could not drink, but the cool liquid slipped down his throat and took the gritty, dusty feeling with it.

  She returned to her chair.

  "I waited until hours after sunset and then I walked to the bridge. I called out her name. I believed she had merely stayed on with him for comfort. Her choice to confine him to the dream wood had been a hard one, but in his best interest, of course. Clyde was willful, deceptive. She didn't see it, dared not recognize him fully, but I did. He was only seventeen then, but already he'd wreaked havoc on their world. He murdered her other son, his own brother. A vicious act born of jealousy and hatred. I saw it the moment I met him, I felt it in his fingertips, the blood he'd shed. His brother was not the only life he'd taken, but beautiful Meghan in all her purity and kindness could not see the monster that she so desperately protected. I went home that night and slept soundly in our bed by the sea. I woke with the dawn, prepared a mango and some tea and returned to the bridge. We would greet the morning together, but she did not come. I stayed that day and into the night. I climbed a tree and sought the stars for guidance, but they held no great vision for me. It was on the second morning that the ball of dread formed in my belly. It lives there to this day like I swallowed a stone and it has grown and warped and filled me in the worst possible way."

  Sebastian's right ear itched. He wanted to reach his hand to scratch it, but of course, his arm did not move. His fingers, however, did. A tiny movement, barely perceptible, but he knew. The magic had begun to wear off.

  "She never came out of the dream wood," Binda continued, and her eyes had the glassy look of having left the present for another time, a sadder time.

  Sebastian wiggled his toes. After another moment, he lifted his tongue within his mouth and fought the urge to lick his dry lips.

  "You can't imagine the questions. They begin as logical things and turn sinister. She had an accident, she needed time to strengthen the magic, Clyde needed her help. Later, I believed he'd killed her, and after that, I feared she'd taken him and fled to another place altogether. Perhaps she no longer wanted to be a part of the Sky Mothers. What had been our dream had possibly been mine alone. Those are the worst types of realizations, that this beautiful, magnificent world you've constructed is built on a foundation of mistruths. Meghan needed me when she arrived with Clyde. She was alone in the world, on the run. Perhaps she never loved me at all, only clung to me in order to escape the witches who hunted her child."

  Binda shifted and Sebastian stilled, not wanting to alert her that he had begun to regain control of his body.

  `

  Chapter 15

  Faustine walked through the burrow slowly. He allowed his mind to seek the book without looking too closely. A trunk in the corner of the room drew his attention. The trunk was open and the book lay on top as if she had left it there intentionally. The trunk contained other items, a jumble of letters wrapped in twine, a journal, more ancient looking books, some of them green with a layer of mold. Hunched down, he started to sift through the contents when he heard the snapping of a branch overhead. He stuffed the book, letters, and journal beneath his cloak and pressed back against the wall. In the part of the woods where the Lourdes lived, animals did not wander. They had learned decades ago to stay away from the dark witch who lived in the ground.

  The crunching grew louder and closer. Faustine opened his mind, but only a blurry shadow arrived. He could get no real sense of the person above him. A hiker perhaps.

  Faustine pressed farther into the dirt alcove until he had no space left. He whispered an incantation of invisibility and focused his energy on blending into his surroundings. He took the book and letters from within his shirt and turned to the wall behind him. He stared hard at the wall and without crumbling, the dirt shifted. He reached for Elda in his mind and the moment he connected to her, he sent a vision of shoving the papers into the opening. He felt her questioning thoughts trying to stay with him, but he immediately cut her off. He would need all his energy to conceal himself from the presence approaching. He moved to the other side of the space, distancing himself from the trunk and again focusing on invisibility.

  Heavy footfalls pounded on the roots that descended into the cavern.

  ****

  Kit moved toward the little cottage, pausing to peer into one of the windows. Abby surveyed the yard beyond the cottage noticing that it did not feel abandoned.

  Kit made a little choking sound and quickly stepped away from the window. Abby knew from her expression that she'd seen something disturbing.

  "What? Is there someone in there?"

  Kit put a hand on her forearm to stop her going forward.

  "I need a minute to think, okay?"

  She started to pull away, but Kit gripped her harder and Abby knew she would have to call on her element to break Kit's hold.

  "Tell me," Abby snapped, her voice rising.

  "Shhh..." Kit whispered, holding her other hand over Abby's mouth. "Binda is in the cabin and so is...Sebastian."

  Abby felt her heart lurch in her chest. It was enough to break Kit's grip. She ran toward the window, but a wall of fire blazed before her and she nearly collided with it. She stopped just in time and recoiled from the heat. She spun around.

  "What do you think you're doing?" she spat.

  Kit strode to her and held up a hand.

  "Abby, please, just listen to me. Something is not right and Binda is edgy, we don't want to spook her."

  "She has Sebastian in there! And you're worried about spooking her."

  "Please," Kit pleaded. "She must have a reason. If we panic, we're lost."

  "There are two of us," Abby insisted. "Start a fire or I'll make a rainstorm and we'll flush her out."

  "You want to make a rainstorm in the cabin? Because I sure as hell don't intend to light it on fire."

  Abby started to speak and then something hard hit her from behind and she sprawled on the ground.

  "What the?" Kit spun around. "Hannah!"

  "I heard you arguing. She wants to light someone on fire in the cabin," Hannah muttered, stepping out of the trees.

  Abby tried to stand up, but Hannah waved a hand at her.

  "No," she barked. "You stay on the ground."

  "Hannah, you don't understand," Kit started, but it was too late. The forest, previously filled with sunlight, turned black as pitch.

  Abby could see nothing. She crawled on hands and knees in the direction she believed the cabin to be. The wind started to pick up. The trees began to thrash and wail. Leaves and twigs pummeled Abby's back and stuck in her hair. Binda knew she'd been discovered.

  ****

  The moment Sebastian heard the voice, he knew his chance to escape had come.

  "No," the word, yelled, drifted through the open window and Binda sprang to her feet. She began to whisper in a language he did not recognize and as she raised her arms the world beyond the cabin went dark.

  Sebastian could see Binda in the dim light of the wood burning stove and he knew that her focus had shifted. The howling of the wind shielded the sound of the window as he thrust it up. He dove out and landed hard on his right side. The bright day had been transformed into a screeching wail of wind and tre
es and darkness. He crouched and ran for the denser forest, knowing that Binda could release the storm at any moment and he needed to hide.

  His foot struck something hard and someone yelped beneath him.

  "Abby?" he exclaimed, dropping to his knees.

  She sat up and though he couldn't see her, he felt her wrap her arms around his waist.

  "Yes, yes, it's me. You made it out. I was so worried, Sebastian."

  "Shhh..." he grasped her head and kissed her on the mouth. Putting his lips close to her ear, he whispered, "We need to get into the woods."

  Holding hands, they stood and hurried for the forest, hoping that they moved away from the cabin rather than toward it. Sebastian knew that Abby could have illuminated their path, but the light would have also given away their location.

  A sudden shriek from the cabin told Sebastian that Binda had realized he escaped.

  ****

  "Did you have any sense of who it was?" Elda asked Faustine that evening at Ula.

  They had both arrived home several hours before and Faustine filled Elda in on the discovery of the Lourdes's body as well as the stranger who nearly met him in the lair.

  "It had to have been a Vepar," Faustine said, hoisting the trunk onto the desk and opening it carefully. "I couldn't get a sense of him though. He stopped when he heard a screech from the woods and I knew the sound, a skin-walker."

  "You don't think the skin-walker was after him? Maybe he was trying to hide?"

  "No, I felt a blast of frustration, almost like he was pissed at the skin-walker for making the sound."

  "Well, thank the Goddess you're okay. When you sent me that vision, I was on the airplane. I was practically walking up the walls by the time we landed."

  "I'm sorry about that. I should have sent another to let you know I was safe. It took all of my focus to stay invisible when I left the lair with this." He tapped the trunk.

  Elda leaned forward and peered at the book. She touched it gingerly, concerned about damaging the ancient pages.

  "Was she murdered?"

  "She was in the later stages of decomposition," Faustine told her, grimacing at the memory. "But sitting at her table. It did not appear that any sort of struggle occurred."

  "A natural death, then?"

  "I doubt it," Faustine admitted. "The timing feels too convenient with all that has occurred. But maybe not a violent death, just an intentional one."

  "She was never easy to deceive."

  "No, but the last time I visited her, she spoke of a desire for death. Perhaps she simply allowed it."

  ****

  After several minutes of hiking blindly through the woods, Abby and Sebastian left the darkness that Binda had created and returned to the light.

  Abby stopped and hugged him, burying her face in his chest.

  "I was terrified when you didn't come back out of the dream wood. I thought..." she stopped and sagged against him. As the relief settled in, the tension of the previous days began to disappear, and with it came a heaviness. She wanted to lie down and sleep for days.

  He held her close and breathed into the top of her head.

  "I would never have abandoned you, Abby. Even when I knew I was trapped, I also knew that I would get out, somehow I would get out."

  "How did you escape? What happened?"

  "Wait." He held a finger to her lips and she heard it too. A vehicle coming down the road toward the Sky Mothers' Coven.

  "Is it Binda?" he asked her.

  "It's Oliver and Helena, I know it," she cheered

  They ran through the woods, breaking onto the dirt road just as Oliver came around the corner. Sebastian flung himself in front of the Rover, waving his arms and yelling "stop."

  Oliver slammed on the brakes and he and Helena jumped out.

  "You're free!" Helena beamed, running to Sebastian and hugging him.

  "What's happened?" Oliver asked, recognizing the panic in both Abby and Sebastian's faces.

  "Best if we talk and drive," Sebastian said, glancing into the woods behind him. "The other way, though. We'd better not go back to the Sky Mother's just yet."

  As they drove, Sebastian told them about his experience in the Forest of Purgatory.

  ****

  Fuming, Julian stood in the wind tunnel at the Sky Mothers. When he had returned to Australia, Abby and the others had been at the airport to meet him. They told him all that had transpired with the Forest of Purgatory, Meghan, and Binda. Now he fought to control the magic that longed to explode from his flailing hands. How could Binda have betrayed them all? How dare Matilda defend her now?

  "It is unacceptable," he spat, for the third or fourth time. "I'm of a mind to leave this instant, take the amulet and my witches back to Ula and write off the Sky Mothers completely."

  "Julian, please," Matilda pleaded. "You cannot possibly understand how angry I am with Binda. All of us are angry, and you are right to have your misgivings, however-"

  "Misgivings?" Julian roared. "Your elder witch has been lying since the moment we arrived. She had vital information that she intentionally withheld. She kidnapped Sebastian! And all of that after the disgrace you call Hannah lured Sebastian into the woods and conspired to send him into a dangerous, possibly deadly world of magic where other hybrids had vanished before."

  Abby, Sebastian, Oliver, and Helena stood in the doorway behind Julian. They had intended to put their opinions forth as well, but Julian left little space for additional comments.

  "All that you say is true, Julian," Matilda said, holding her hands out and trying to calm him.

  He backed away from her and shook his head, disgusted.

  "Please, let us make this right. We want the truth as much as you, Julian. Help us discover what that is."

  Sebastian stepped forward.

  "She's right, Julian. We can't leave without knowing everything."

  Julian shot him a furious look, but did not refuse the suggestion outright. He paced away from Matilda, his fists balled at his sides.

  Helena held Abby's shoulders firmly in her hands.

  "Hannah is in her room," Matilda promised. "I've put the lock charms on her door and she will not leave until I release her."

  "And Binda?" Julian spat.

  "She's here. She came back on her own, Julian. She feels terrible and she wants to explain."

  Helena released Abby and walked forward. She placed a soothing hand on Julian's back and Abby saw his shoulders release a hint of their tension.

  "Matilda, you understand of course, why we are concerned. But we appreciate the graciousness with which you opened your home to us. We would appreciate the opportunity to speak in-depth with Binda. We need some assurances though."

  Helena opened the beaded bag at her wrist and pulled out a small amber colored bottle.

  "She needs to take a Serum of Infallibility."

  "Truth serum," Oliver whispered to Abby and Sebastian.

  Matilda took the bottle and nodded.

  "Of course."

  Chapter 16

  Binda sat in the room that Sebastian had visited the first day at Sky Mothers, the space where she had examined him and deemed him a hybrid. She held her shoulders stiffly and watched the ocean through one of the open doorways. Her face looked drawn and old.

  Matilda handed her the serum without a word and gestured to the other chairs arranged in the room. Julian, Abby, Sebastian, Oliver, and Helena took seats. Kit walked in and sat close to Oliver.

  Binda opened the serum and drank it expressionlessly.

  After several minutes, she spoke.

  "I am sorry. I know how I must seem to you, old and hard and angry, but I have not always been this way. My actions are inexcusable and my apology is but a breath in a wind of deception. I was once a witch of great integrity. I took pride in that integrity. Pride, like deception, is toxic. I chose to lie rather than smudge my pure name in this coven. I could not bear for any of my witches to see me as less."

  She looked at Kit
and smiled sadly. Kit nodded at her as if to convey that she still had faith in the elder Sky Mother.

  "I can hardly believe it has been three hundred years, but it has, of course, it has. You'd think I would have let go a long time ago. I should have, but love lives on. I met Meghan in 1702. I was a tribeswoman then, but I had discovered my powers as a young woman and I lived alone in the wilds. I found the Mother Tree one day as I searched for a place to begin my coven. I had dreamed the Sky Mothers dream and knew that I would create a coven of women. Meghan appeared like a vision from my dream, a white woman. I'd never seen anything like her. We did not speak the same language, but we were witches after all. We communicated with more than words. She came from the New World."

  Binda closed her eyes and a tiny smile curved her lips.

  "Some memories do not fade. I remember Meghan, I remember she wore trousers and smoked from a pipe carved from bone. I knew she was a witch before I saw her. I had sensed her. I had dreamed her. I took her with me into the bush. She and Clyde and I lived in a stone hut, but she immediately set to creating the dream wood. I built the Sky Mothers and she built the dream wood."

  "How did they get here though?" Julian asked. "Americans were not traveling to Australia in the early 1700s."

  Binda nodded.

  "A portal. A jump through space. Meghan called it the tunnel of darkness. She did not know where they would end up. They fled in the night and abandoned nearly all of their belongings."

  "And Clyde was Meghan's son?" Helena asked, clarifying. "Was he a child?"

  "He was her son, yes, but he was not a child. He was seventeen, he was a man."