by Les Goodrich
“But I also stayed here because of my little brother. He’s sixteen and our dad died when he was ten and I was twenty. We’re ten years apart. He was a little surprise to my parents but he’s just awesome. Our mom is great too, but I’d never leave him. At least not until he’s really out on his own.”
“Okay,” Jordan said and she knew right then she had completely given up even trying to not fall for him. “Have you dated anyone since she left?”
“Nope.”
“So why me? Why now?” Jordan asked.
“I can’t explain why now. All I know is that if you like me and want to spend time with me, then it’s a done deal because all I want to do is be around you. The only thing I’m worried about is bugging you too much, or you thinking I’m pushy. It’s not my style. I know you have a life. So do I. If our lives can work together to make us both happier then I say let’s go for it. But only if you want to as much as I do. If there’s ever a problem tell me. And I’ll do the same.”
Jordan felt a bit shocked by his honesty and a bit cautious about agreeing to too much too soon, but most of all she felt excited and happy and hopeful in a way she had not felt before. “Okay,” she said. “We can talk more about this any time but let’s start with this: I’m down with being happy and I’m happy around you. But I’m happy anyway, so remember that. I like this honesty thing so let’s keep that going. If we start to get on each other’s nerves then we tell each other immediately. I’m not even gonna pretend that I don’t like you because I do. But liking guys is not exactly a new thing for me. Girls either for that matter. I’m a little bit compulsive. But I trust the Universe and the Universe has brought us together and I believe it does what it does for the benefit of all.
“If you think you like me, you’re gonna have to like me the way I am. Let’s just take our time to find out if we really do like each other the way we both really are. The only thing I can promise you right now is this: I’ll always tell you the truth and I’ll always tell you how I feel. I’ll always tell you what I want to do before I do it, if I think it concerns you. If you do the same, then we can agree that we are dating because at the moment I’m not seeing anyone else and haven’t for a while.”
James was instinctively stimulated by her attitude and he thought he would have impressed her with his honesty, but instead she had fully increased the honesty vibe to a new level. His natural reaction was to keep going with it. He felt like the conversation was alive as its own thing. Not two people talking back and forth, but more like the conversation was actually having them. He thought that maybe it was the Universe like Jordan had said, and he wanted to remember to mention that someday, but not right then. Right then he was going to move this to a point where he was comfortable if he could. He smiled and she smiled back and he spoke.
“All of that’s fine. I appreciate you being so honest. And I’ll agree to get to know you for who you are and, okay, fine, you do the same. But we already had sex so that little activity is out of the bag so to speak. I’m all for doing it more. Now I’m not asking you to buy a mini van and walk down the aisle tomorrow. But if we’re gonna have an intimate relationship, then we have to agree to only do it with each other. At least until we figure out what this is. Anything beyond that can be part of our, we always tell each other how we feel and what we want to do before we do it, thing. Deal?”
Jordan smiled and she felt like she had finally met her match. A cool guy and a witch at that.
“Deal,” Jordan agreed and the two shook hands across the table. She lifted one eyebrow in her little trademark mischievous smirk. “Did we just shake on being sex buddies?”
“I think so,” James said.
“That’s awesome,” Jordan said and both of them laughed.
***
Tanner arranged to meet Carmine on Wednesday afternoon and Carmine suggested they meet at an Italian cafe on Aviles Street. Tanner worked in the morning with Carol then Jordan came in and the morning was smooth. They talked about the reality of actually going with Dan to fetch his friend’s boat back and run to the islands for the painting and the book and they speculated about the mission. They agreed that Tanner would go and they needed a powerful witch along, or at least a witch who could cast spells on the fly, so everyone agreed it should be Jordan. Tanner expressed concern about it being a typically rough time of year as far as the seas went, but since there was nothing to do about that, he simply dropped the subject.
Tanner walked from the shop to the cafe on Aviles where it stood in a row of three similar cafes and the sidewalk tables blended together and only the umbrella colors and styles of chairs distinguished one from the other. He looked to the signs and doorways and picked out the Italian cafe that was part espresso bar and part restaurant and at once he saw Carmine walking down from the north end of the street. Tanner began to lift a hand to wave but stopped himself when he knew Carmine had seen him. He dropped his arm back down then looked to the two tables with customers at the cafe next door. He looked inside and saw one man seated at the espresso bar and one table occupied by a young couple and the only other person he saw was the waiter. He turned back to watch Carmine stride up and he instantly felt underdressed in his jeans and black sweatshirt.
Carmine walked in black silk trousers, a black and deep red embroidered silk vest with gold buttons, a white shirt with ruffled collar, and ruffled sleeve cuffs that swung from his heavy black coat arms with each step. His coat opened dramatically into velvet lined lapels and hung behind in curved split tails. The collar of his shirt was closed with a red sash tied in a square knot at his neck and the two tag ends of the sash were tucked purposefully down into the shining vest. He stepped with an easy but deliberate gate as if each footfall were landing on a treacherous mountain edge path that only he knew well enough to stride upon with such casual confidence. His walking stick pressed the sidewalk occasionally and those clicking placements were more to confirm the handle to his palm than for any utility of balance for he needed none. He swung the walking stick to hold it under his left arm, as if he had done so numerous times, and this deft affectation freed his right hand which he extended to Tanner and the two shook hands across the empty table.
“Tanner F. Hampton,” Carmine said and he looked Tanner in the eyes and smiled thinly and in that smile was neither happiness nor malice but some distant curiosity as if he were conjuring the long ago memory of a smile.
“Signore Bellini,” Tanner said and Carmine’s expression morphed into a genuine smile at the fact that Tanner had used the Italian signore rather than the lowly mister that even despite its crass sound had been all but forgotten by the American youth.
“Please Tanner, call me Carmine.”
“Yes sir. Thank you for meeting me.”
“My pleasure,” Carmine said and the two sat. The waiter came up.
“May I buy you an espresso?” Carmine asked Tanner.
“Yes thank you,” Tanner said and Carmine turned to the waiter to see if it was the young man who had waited on him in the past and it was not. It was also not the owner and Carmine gave a glance inside to see if the owner was visible but he was not.
“Due espresso favore,” Carmine spoke Italian and the waiter started to write but stopped when Carmine ordered nothing else and he looked up from his pad.
“Capisci?” Carmine asked and the waiter nodded and spun on his heels and vanished into the cafe.
“What can I help you with Tanner my friend?” Carmine asked and Tanner pulled his iPad from his messenger bag.
“A few things,” he said and he placed the tablet on the table. “I’ve studied witchcraft for five years now and runes for longer than that and I’ve done most of it on my own. Carol has helped me. I’ve also studied Norse mythology and tried my hand at several spells and all of the magick I’ve done has worked out well. I don’t cast a lot of spells spontaneously. I tend to think things out and take a more patient approach.”
“Wise,” Carmine said and the waiter placed their esp
resso cups and saucers on the table with sugars and cream and went back inside. Carmine sipped his espresso and Tanner added cream to his and sipped it twice and went on.
“Everyone I know assumes I’ll initiate as a Light Tribe witch and Brit at our store has done just that after a long struggle about it.”
“Her parents,” Carmine said and Tanner realized that much of what he was telling Carmine, he somehow already knew and the realization gave him pause but he went on anyway because it was his intention to have this conversation only once.
“Yes. Her parents. You know them?”
“I know them. Go on.”
“With Brit initiating as a Light Tribe witch, it leaves me the only one in the shop who remains unaffiliated as it were. I love them all and my parents are both Light Tribe witches too and I have not spoken to anyone about this but—,”
“But you think Ashenguild may be the path for you and you don’t want to disappoint your Light Tribe friends. Family.”
“Exactly,” Tanner said and finished the tiny drink. Carmine finished his as well and nodded and placed the cup down gently on its small saucer and looked inside the cafe but saw no one but the few customers.
“There is only one world. There is only one Universe, perhaps many, but one Universe is beyond enough. So one Universe. There is only one god and his name is karma. Causa ed effetto.”
“Cause and effect,” Tanner said.
“Yes. You see, this us-and-them division. This is a Christian idea. This division is a poison. It is a trap for the mind. Light Tribe tends to fall into this trap. It is the recognition of this false division of the world into good and bad that has driven you to Ashenguild. Is it not?”
“I never thought about it like that, but, yes. That’s it exactly.”
“To be an Ashenguild witch is to see the world beyond the petty divisions of this group or that. It is from this perspective that you read even the Christian texts and see within them the elegant connections of all living things. You see the wisdom of Jesus as pointing toward the oneness that unites us all. From such a position, how could you be against the Christian? How could you be against Light Tribe? How could you be against Shadowclan?”
“I guess you couldn’t.”
“Wrong,” Carmine said and he lifted his hand to signal the waiter although no waiter was in view to signal but at the wave of his hand the waiter stepped from the cafe and took their order for two more espressos. “You could easily be against anyone who intends to do you harm, regardless of what they call themselves. If you are a Christian, then go be a Christian. But leave me out of it. If your religion compels you to harm me, well, now we have a problem.”
“I understand,” Tanner said.
“Do you? Because the Ashenguild witch will use any and all means at his disposal to secure his life or the lives of those he loves. A Light Tribe witch will stop at a certain point. And Shadowclan will always try to dodge the only one true god of cause and effect. They will sling hate and malice and negative energy and they believe that in doing so they do not cultivate this for themselves. However, an Ashenguild witch avoids. He accomplishes. He wins without fighting. He disarms. It is not so much a tradition as it is a way of looking at the world. It is a higher perspective and you either have that perspective or you do not. If you do not no one can teach it to you. It must be hammered out of you on the anvil of experience. Unless you are simply born with a capacity to see the macro. The whole. Or, rather, all are born with that sight, and the one who continues to see it has merely found a way to avoid it being driven from him by others. Parents. Teachers. The like.”
“Do you not think someone like Carol can see the whole?” Tanner asked.
“Oh I know she can. She knows its depth as well as it can be known. She chooses Light Tribe because she loves to be good so much. She loves to help young witches and Light Tribe is the way she does it. She loves to do good things in good ways. She believes in harmony. Her electing to be a Light Tribe witch is part of what balances the world. We need her to offset the Taras of the world. But deep down she knows all things are one and this is why you see her use so much restraint. If she did not, her and Gwen would have shot it out in the street long ago.
“Gwen realizes this oneness also, but she pursues the divisions of the physical world with selfishness and greed for power. She revels in the divisions and places us-and-them at the heart of her endeavors. For she and only her closest allies are us, and the entire rest of the world is them. In this way she is destructive. In this way she is more like the radical Christian. She tries to outwit gravity. She knows all things are one so, because of her attitude, it makes her dangerous. She’s not afraid to die so she will not hesitate to kill—if it helps her and she thinks she can get away with it. More often, however, she will manipulate others to do her dirty work. She imagines this will insulate her from the reaction. From the, consequence.”
“Does it?” Tanner asked almost to himself.
“For a time, perhaps. But not forever. No one can hide from the fruits of the seeds they sow.”
“I am certain that I am an Ahsenguild witch if I am a witch at all. I believe it completely,” Tanner said and he heard himself say it and he had never felt as sure of anything in his life and the clarity of it was so pure that he felt, for the first time, that he did not even need Carmine’s help to pursue the path.
“Now that is the right answer. I will help you where I can. There is no fancy ritual to dedicate as an Ashenguild witch unless it is something you wish to create. There is only commitment and agreement between teacher and student and I must tell you that if this is to be our agreement, then it is something I have searched for over a long time.”
“No fancy ritual needed for me,” Tanner said. “I will be your student and come to you in whatever way you suggest and at whatever frequency will not interrupt your business.”
“The only frequency we will observe is the frequency of need and I trust you to be both conservative and prompt with your petitions. As for method, you can text me anytime. But let us save the deep conversations for meeting in person and we will work that out as we go.”
“Outstanding,” Tanner said and he stood and shook Carmine’s hand who remained seated and Tanner nearly forgot the other reason he had wished to speak to his new mentor. Carmine nodded toward Tanner’s tablet on the table.
“Oh right,” Tanner said and sat back down and woke up the device. He opened his note app and pulled up the note from his research. He told Carmine a brief account of the mermaid spell and how the clues had led them to Aradia as the witch of the story and Carmine was well versed in his responses and he knew much Aradia lore but he had little to offer about the mermaid spell although he did know of it. It was news to him that Aradia had anything to do with the tale but he was not surprised. Tanner explained what he knew of pirates and their habits of using the same locations again and again.
“It’s the modern location name I can’t find but I have a clue here and I can’t make any sense of it and maybe you can.”
“Go ahead,” Carmine said and he was noticeably interested.
“I found a description of an island and everything about it points to a place that would be perfect. A pirate cache, stable, never discovered, protected coves, caves. There aren’t a lot of caves in the Caribbean. Not in the north anyway. But the name is never mentioned.”
“And the clue?” Carmine asked.
“It’s right here. This is from a pirate captain’s journal. A part of her is crippled, a part of her is honest, a part of her is deep, a part of her assaults, but I dare say that for all of her treachery, there is none more beautiful than Isabella.”
Carmine smiled. “My poor Ashenguild apprentice and your American high school education.”
“What?” Tanner asked.
“The name is right in front of you. Isabella.”
“But I looked. No islands named Isabella.”
“Not anymore,” Carmine said and he relished in the fac
t that he had the answer and he was sure of it. “And I was just teasing about your American education. You have managed to find one of the most obscure islands in the Caribbean. Even to this day. It was called Samoete by the Arawaks. Two islands that form an atoll. Columbus named one of the islands Isabella after his queen but few ever called it this but him. It was eventually named Crooked Island because of its shape. The other island that forms the atoll is called Acklins Island. The little group of cays remained virtually unknown until 1783 when American loyalists settled there. They were former plantation owners who attempted to establish an island cotton growing industry. But emancipation and soil depletion conspired to erode their profits and what little that had been built fell into ruin. I’m not sure what’s there today but I doubt it’s much. The location is small and rugged. I’m sure that’s your island though.”
“Crooked Island,” Tanner said with excitement. But what does the rest of this mean? A part of her is crippled, a part of her is honest, a part of her is deep, a part of her assaults?”
“I don’t know. Many pirate captains are given to dramatic flair. It’s this charisma that causes us to have romantic notions of them, but these were—and are—scallywags of the lowest sort. Culled from the devil’s own rejects and nursed on fell deeds. Some are former military men but with hearts no less black and their discipline and orderly processes make them all the more lethal. And remember, just because this passage was discovered in a pirate’s journal does not mean it was written for him alone. It may have been written down with the intention to send it as part of a letter upon landfall.”
Taner looked at the note again and Carmine stood.