Ghost Clan

by Heather Walker

  Angus chuckled. Even to himself, it sounded hysterically maniacal in that vast empty castle. “She’s a helpless crow, mon. She’s as docile as a lamb, and if ye lads are too soft to enter that room wi’ ‘er, I’ll enter it alane. Ye can stay out ‘ere and wipe each other’s noses fer all I care. I’m goin’ in there, and I’m goin’ through wi’ this, wi’ ye or wi’out ye. Now stand aside unless ye want tae feel me blade.”

  Callum locked his eyes on his brother’s face one more agonizing moment before he stepped aside. Angus shoved past him. He couldn’t look at the terrified expressions on Jamie and Fergus’s faces.

  When did he turn into this monster? The curse affected him, too. It turned him into a heartless tyrant. He went through hell getting into this castle. In all the terrible weeks they spent on the road, he never stopped caring about his men. He ached every time one of them got killed or injured.

  Now it all fell apart. He no longer cared. He wanted them all quaking in their shoes at his heartlessness. He would vent his fury on anyone weaker than himself, and he would start with that waif in the next room.

  He shoved the door open and slammed it behind him. Hazel jumped. She knelt on the floor with dozens of scraps of paper spread over the carpet in front of her. She cut out card-shaped squares of paper and drew on them with a stick of charcoal Ewan fished out of the fireplace.

  Ewan never questioned Angus’s plans. Ewan helped him organize this. He never quailed or told Angus not to tamper with spells. Ever since Angus used the ruby to raise him from the dead, Ewan clung to Angus’s side more than ever. He shadowed Angus anywhere he went except when Angus ordered him to fetch something Hazel needed for the spell.

  Angus peered over Hazel’s shoulder. “How many more?”

  Hazel bent over her scissors. Her hair tangled in a mat all around her head and gave her a crazy appearance. She didn’t look up. “I’m half done.”

  “Hurry up,” he snapped. “Ye’re tak’in’ too lang.”

  The charcoal scratched over another piece of paper. “I can’t go any faster than I’m already going. They have to be right, or they won’t work. They probably won’t work anyway. You realize that, don’t you? It’s not a real Tarot deck, and the herbs are all being prepared at short notice. The sage has to be dried, and the lavender infused over the course of weeks. You can’t just throw this stuff together and expect it to work.”

  Angus dropped into a squat next to her. He grabbed her by the chin and wrenched her head around. She screamed, but he only clenched his fingers around her tighter. He wanted to hurt her. He wanted to scare her out of her wits. He wanted her to suffer one fraction as much as he suffered.

  “Ye better mak’ it work if ye ken what’s good fer ye,” he snarled. “If it doesnae work, it’s yer head. Understand?”

  He tossed her aside. She cried out again, but he spun away. He stormed over to the window and glared out at the empty countryside.

  Hazel sniffed back sobs. “I don’t know what Carmen sees in you. You’re a fiend.”

  “Stuff yer gob, scunny fud!” he snapped over his shoulder.

  “I always thought Carmen was a heartless robot,” Hazel muttered to herself. “She never cared about anybody outside her precious job. She acted differently when I met her here, though. She actually started to act human, and she seemed to think you were the kind of guy who would help us. I don’t know what she was thinking. I never met a more vicious brute than you. I wish she could see the way you’re treating me. She’s supposed to be a cop. She would put you in your place, and now you want to ruin everything by repeating the spell that caused all this. You’ll wind up killing us all.”

  “Ye did this!” Angus blurted out. He didn’t intend to rise to her bait, but his feelings got the better of him. “Ye caused all this, not me. If I’m a vicious brute, it’s because ye turned me intae one. When will ye get that intae yer wee head? I wasnae any vicious brute when I left me auld hame. I wasnae any vicious brute or heartless fiend when I fought those wraiths and had tae stand by and watch me friends and me brother and e’erybody else die before me eyes. Ye did that! Ye put me under a curse, so dinnae blame me. Ye’re the one ‘at made me this way.”

  Hazel cowered on the floor before his outburst. She didn’t answer back.

  Angus faced the window. He couldn’t cope with this witch. She broke down his resolve until he couldn’t figure out what to do with himself.

  “I wasnae like this wi’ Carmen. She said I made the richt decision to leave hame and come here. She said I wasnae to blame for all their deaths. She said I was a hero. Can ye believe that?” He snorted to himself. He could barely believe she said that about him. “It’s ‘er leavin’ that’s made me lik’ this. I dinnea want tae be like this. That’s why I ha’e tae get her back. I can’t live lik’ this….”

  He broke off. What was he doing, talking to the witch like this? He wanted to kick her in the head for making him reveal so much.

  She worked steadily at her cards. “If you were nice to me, I might want to help you. You don’t have to be such an ogre about everything.”

  Before he knew what he was doing, he flew across the room. He skidded on his knees next to her and seized her by the throat. He clenched his fingers around her scrawny neck to choke the life out of her and snarled in her face. Spit struck her face where it burst between his bared teeth. “If ye e’en think about tamperin’ wi’ this spell tae mak’ it fail, I swear to Heaven I’ll torture ye tae death. I’ll flay yer skin off one inch at a time until ye beg me to kill ye. Do you hear me? Dinnae ye dare e’en think about it.”

  He pushed her away so hard she sprawled on the ground. He jumped clear and stomped off for the door. He paused there just long enough to make sure she got back to work on her card set. Her shoulders shook with sobs, but she didn’t raise her head again.

  He exploded out of the room, but he didn’t go back to his brothers. He had to get away from her, from them, from everybody. If only he could get away from himself by running, he would never stop until he left all this behind.

  What was he turning into? He couldn’t stop the demon rage welling out of him to destroy the whole world. He never meant to hurt the witch. He could see plain as day she was utterly harmless. Carmen’s words came to him out of this skinny woman’s mouth.

  The spell they used to cross over from the other world created the curse. It created it retroactively so it stretched four generations into the past. That woman in that room never did anything to anybody. She made a mistake casting that spell, and she never thought it would really work.

  He could see that. Anybody could see that. She didn’t know spit about magic. She was nothing, so why did he persist in treating her like some evil witch who ruined his life? This whole situation happened by mistake.

  The good news was it brought Carmen to him. He never would have known what it felt like to love someone that much if they hadn’t made the mistake of casting that spell. Maybe the whole tragic screw-up happened so he could find his Queen. Maybe it wasn’t a screw-up at all, but part of a larger design to help him win back his Throne.

  He couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t let himself feel again, or he would lose himself utterly. He had to kick and stab and scratch and fight until he destroyed the whole world. He wanted nothing more than to throw himself off the battlements roof and end this long nightmare, but he couldn’t do that. He had to keep pushing. He had to keep going, no matter what, even if he destroyed himself in the process.

  He strode through the castle halls. This place meant nothing to him now. Not even his home castle and his old district meant anything to him. He might as well be dead.

  He came around a corner by the stables. The long low building called him to enter its peaceful quiet. He stopped in front of one of the empty stalls. If only this stable had some horses in it, he would feel better. Horses always calmed him down.

  He crossed his arms over the half door and let his forehead sink into his elbow. He closed his eyes. He sho
uldn’t go back. He should just keep walking and go somewhere else, somewhere no one knew him, somewhere he wouldn’t have to be this…this fiend.

  The witch was right about that. That’s exactly what he was.

  He started to plan where he would go and what he would do. He would first of all trek as far away from this castle as he could get. Callum could ascend the Phoenix Throne if he wanted to. As the next eldest son, he would make a good King. Callum was a stout level-headed man. He would find himself a Queen, and he would find a way to lift the curse.

  Once he got far enough away, Angus would find a nice tree to sit under. He would stay there until all the madness drained from his soul. He would keep clear of people and villages and everybody else until he got over this painful attack.

  A shout touched his ear. He didn’t want to raise his head, but at the second shout, he recognized Ewan’s voice. “Angus, mon, it’s all set.”

  Angus blinked. His eyes ached. He hadn’t slept since Carmen disappeared. He would probably never sleep again. Too many demons haunted him when he tried to close his eyes. “Where’s the witch?”

  “She’s got ‘er cards ready. E’erythin’s set. We’re just waitin’ on ye.”

  Angus followed him back to the castle. They found the three brothers waiting under the portico, and at Angus’s word, they all filed into the room where Hazel sat on the floor. She flicked her scraps of paper in her hands. She barely saw the men when she looked straight at them.

  “Weel,” Angus began. “Ye’re all set, so let’s get tae it.”

  Ewan pulled the heavy drapes across the window to cast the room in shadow. He lit several candles placed around the room and came back to Angus’s side. The sage tied in a bundle, the lavender infused water bowl, and all the other trinkets she said she needed already sat on the carpet in front of Hazel.

  Hazel cast a miserable look at Angus. He hardened his face toward her. “Get tae it.”

  She turned the cards over so she couldn’t see her own scrawled writing on each one. She shuffled them and turned them face up one by one. She laid them out in a star pattern on the carpet and positioned the other key ingredients in their proper places.

  She raised her eyes to Angus’s face. “Now you all have to form a circle and join hands. You have to repeat the incantation.”

  No one moved. The men exchanged glances. Angus shook himself. He wanted to do this. Now was the time. He stepped into position and put out his hand to Ewan. Ewan blinked. Then he obeyed and took his place at Angus’s side. He clasped the outstretched hand.

  Angus turned the other way. He clipped his words at his brothers. “Get in line.”

  They hesitated one more moment before they, too, submitted to his authority. He could bend them any way he wanted with his eyes, his voice, and his will. They joined hands, but they kept shifting from one foot to the other and glancing around at each other.

  Angus didn’t like this any better than they did, but he had to do it. If he could reverse the crushing horror of Carmen’s disappearance, he had to do it no matter what it cost him. Jamie and Ewan put out their hands to Hazel. She sighed and completed the circle.

  She murmured the words under her breath.

  “Mnistoh, mnylnin, ini dheflo llyatta lladdepas sefrimi viaphreen urlu…”

  Angus couldn’t make out what she was saying, but the more she repeated them, the louder she spoke. The others picked up the refrain and chanted in unison.

  Angus took a little longer to join the chorus. Did he really want to cast this spell? Could he really say those words? The other men’s voices acted on his vocal chords. In a second, he found himself repeating the words along with them.

  The sound rose in pitch. Hazel joined them, and their combined strains echoed off the ceiling. Tension electrified their circle. It charged between their hands and lifted them higher.

  Angus cast a glance around the circle. Doubt no longer shadowed his brothers’ faces. They threw themselves into this with a will. They intoned the words louder and with greater feeling. Angus closed his eyes. Was Carmen coming through that portal from the other side? Would he see her in a few minutes or even seconds?

  He distinguished each voice in the surging chant. Everyone in the room concentrated their utmost power to make this work. Hazel’s voice elevated to a high-pitched shriek of madness and pain.

  All of a sudden, a puff blasted through the room. All the candles around the walls blew out at the same instant, and the room fell into darkness. The next thing Angus knew, the sage bundle exploded into flame. The bright orange light illuminated his companions’ faces. They stared at each other in shock through the gloom.

  At that moment, a second flash burst out of the lavender bowl. It shot stinking smoke into Angus’s face, and the concussion knocked him back on his heels. He clamped his eyes closed against the sting.

  The moment the surprise wore off, silence blanketed the room. No one breathed. Out of nowhere, the curtain shot back to let a shaft of light stream into the room. Everyone turned around to see Ewan standing there with the drape in his hand.

  The party looked back and forth from one to the other. The same six people stood in a circle in mute stupefaction. Angus, Ewan, Callum, Jamie, Fergus, and Hazel. Carmen was nowhere in sight.

  One by one, they let out their breath. Ewan let go of the curtain and turned around. The others looked at Angus to see what he would do.

  He heaved a deep sigh. “Weel, lassie, ye didnea do it.”

  “I tried to tell you,” Hazel wailed. “I told you the cards wouldn’t work, and the sage wasn’t dry enough, and the lavender had to infuse longer, and there are six people here instead of five, and…. I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen, and I….” She broke off.

  Angus glared at her. How he hated her. She dragged their whole party down. His brothers tiptoed around her and twitched every time she spoke. They wouldn’t obey him anymore. He had to get rid of her.

  She failed to bring Carmen back, so what good was she? This chit of a girl couldn’t help them lift the curse, so why should he waste his time on her?

  “Ye didnae do what I tol’ ye tae do, and now ye mun’ pay the penalty. If ye cinnae bring Carmen back, I’ve no further use fer ye.”

  Hazel stared at him. Her lower lip trembled. She rubbed her hands together. All of a sudden, she doubled over, clutched her arms over her stomach, and collapsed on her knees. She rocked back and forth from silent sobs.

  Angus strode around her in a half circle. He couldn’t contain his rage. He pinned his last hope on her, and she failed. His disappointment, his hopeless despair, could take only one form.

  He came to a stop at her side and drew his saber from its scabbard. Callum leapt forward and seized his arm. “Nae!”

  Angus rounded on him in a fury. He shoved his brother back. “Gang awa’ wi’ ye if ye don’ wanna taste a piece o’ this!” He brandished his weapon in his brother’s face.

  Callum backed off. He didn’t dare face Angus like this. At the same moment, Ewan walked over from the window. He didn’t touch Angus, but his deep voice boomed through the room. “Ye cinnae kill ‘er, mon. It an’t right. She did as ye asked ‘er. Dinnae harm a hair on ‘er wee head…”

  Angus whirled around the other way. He snarled and spat like an animal. He jabbed his saber in his friend’s face and roared out loud. “Dinnae tell me what I ken and cinnae do! I’ll kill ‘er if I please, and I’d lik’ tae see the mon in this ‘ere room that’s stout enough to stop me.” He spun the other way. “Eh? Fergus? Jamie? Who’d lik’ tae try their luck wi’ me? Naught a mon a ye dares tae test yer blades against me. Ye’re all tongue, the lot o’ ye!”

  Jamie and Fergus shrank back. He was right. They didn’t dare draw their weapons to stop him in his madness.

  He turned his attention back to Hazel. She doubled over her arms, and tears streamed down her face. She rocked on her knees and stared down at the smudged remains of the Tarot cards she worked so hard to make.

 
; Angus squared his shoulders. He raised his saber and rested the blade on the back of Hazel’s neck. He waited until her sobs and her rocking died down and she sat still enough for him to take his aim.

  When he was ready and sure of his stroke, he pulled his sword back over his shoulder to bring it down hard.

  Chapter 27

  Carmen watched Lucy lay out the Tarot cards. “Are you sure this will work? We had five people last time, and you and I are only two.”

  “It’ll work,” Lucy replied. “I’ve done it enough times.”

  “How many time?”

  Lucy shrugged. “When I was a kid, I used to go back and forth all the time. I practically lived in Urlu.”

  Carmen started. “Urlu? I know that word. Where did I hear it? Let me see….”

  “If your friend cast the spell to send you there, you would have heard the name in the spell. Urlu is the name of the dragon realm. She would have to say the name to send you there.”

  “The dragon realm!” Carmen exclaimed. “What do you mean?”

  “Urlu is where the dragon people live. Didn’t you know? That’s why the Throne has a dragon around it. They’re all dragons, those people.”

  Carmen blinked at her. “What are you talking about? I’ve seen a picture of the King standing in front of his throne, and he was as human as you and me. Angus saw the Queen, and he didn’t say anything about any dragon. The only dragon we saw was at the river…”

  “They’re all dragons. They can take the form of a dragon any time they want to—all except the King. He has to pay the Tribute to get his dragon from, but after that, he’s the same as all the others. That’s what the Throne means. It’s the King’s dragon spirit ruling the realm. Urlu is crawling with them. You should know this. You said your friend read the Fire Trilogy. What do you think it means?”

  Carmen shook her head. “That’s impossible.”

  Lucy put aside the rest of the Tarot deck. “I’ve spent enough time in Urlu to see it for myself. When I was there, there were dragons all over the place. The young people used to have races over the mountains, flying as fast as they could. They would have air battles until someone came down bloody and limping. They’re all dragons. You’ll see.”