by Turhan
“Yeah, she would have asked if she suspected anything," Looking in Coral and Davina’s direction, Amber said. “I think they’re sleeping.”
“Well, tell me, what did she say to you? Your face was white as pastry when you came out with Elektra.”
“Jade, I’m really, really afraid to tell you. I know you think I’m brave but－”
“Just take it slow. Who are they? Who is Kylar, he’s different, you know what I mean?”
“Kylar is a man, the opposite of us. Elektra said he was our protector.”
“Protector, for us!? Why do we need protection?” Is someone trying to harm us?”
Amber nodded nervously and I could tell she was from the way she kept making ringlets with her finger in her hair as she spoke, she only ever did that if she was super nervous about something.
One spring morning she was climbing the tallest pine tree in the back yard and was almost to the top and could see further than she’d ever seen before and Ophelexa screamed at her to come down. That’s the last time I saw her do that. While Ophelexa was still yelling she had made a whole bunch of ringlets before the yelling finally stopped.
I reached over and stopped her. “Amber, are we going to be okay?”
“I don’t know, she told me we need to be ready to leave two days from now. She said they’re coming back and that we’re all going to go with them, but not Madame Tutella.”
“I don’t understand. Where are we going?”
“Elektra told me, home, and it’s up.”
“Up? What does that mean? Home is up?”
“I don’t know Jade, you’re the oldest. Should we trust them?”
“Perhaps we should tell Ophelexa or Madame Tutella,” I said. “They’ll be angry with us if we keep this from them.”
“Wait a minute Jade. I want to show you . . . ” Amber reached under her bed and pulled out a large ornate box and after flipping the lid open she took out something I had never seen before. She unwrapped it and handed it to me.
“Where did you get this? What is it?”
“One time when I was out late by myself, I met up with Jasmine, she gave it to me. She said there’s a place called New York and that there were ‘men’ there. That’s what made me nervous when I saw Kylar.”
“Amber, what is this?”
“Jasmine said she found it in a flower bed, she thinks it fell out of the sky. She told me all kinds of things are coming down because ‘Kylar people’ men, are drilling!? And they’re making holes in the sky and keep losing things that fall down. She showed me how this works.”
“Works? Like what?”
“It’s called an MP3 player and there’s singing on it. Listen.”
Amber held the “MP3” player up to my ear and I couldn’t believe what was going on.
“Don’t be afraid, I listen to it all the time, there’s no one inside of it, it’s just singing.”
Amber had taken the player away from my ears but I could still hear the melodic voices coming from it. It wasn’t like anything I had ever heard before, there were instruments of sound being used with the voices that made the singing sound different, but good different. Where was this place called New York, how could we go up without steps or did we need to climb the tallest tree to get there?
Amber continued, “Elektra said that “bad times” are going to be here soon but not to be afraid because they’re coming for us and she loves us, so does Kylar and Kira and she said the Madame Tutella that was here is really Sin-dy, an Alter-Witch, like the ones we read about as kids, I didn’t think they were real, but they are!”
My sister was pacing around the room, making ringlets in her hair. So much had just happened. “Can you come and sit next to me?” I asked. “I’m afraid too. What should we do?”
“Sarturas isn’t home Jade, up there is, that’s home,” Amber said. “I want to go there, I want us all to go.”
“Me too, but I’m getting tired. Can we can talk some more after our chores tomorrow morning, when Madame Tutella is at her meeting.”
We climbed into bed and snuggled together. Across the room Coral and Davina were sound asleep in the other bed. So much had just happened that I wasn’t sure about anything anymore. Why did these strangers want to help us, who were they?
I fell asleep with Kylar’s words going around my head “Can you trust me?” I don’t know why, but I felt a strong connection to him. Was tomorrow a new beginning for us, in a new world, in New York?
***
The morning light was shining through our window and it was warming my face. I turned to say something to Amber, but the bed was empty, where was she? My mind went back to our conversation last night and I suddenly realized my sister might be up to something, she must have crept out, because she usually tickles me to wake me in the mornings.
Jumping out of bed I saw Davina and Coral were still sleeping. So I quietly went down the steps and heard Madame Tutella as she was on her way out, off to her meeting. As she closed the door, Amber came out of the pantry and whispered, “I’m going to follow her.”
“Are you crazy?” I asked. “Why?”
“I have to go before she gets too far,” Amber replied. “I want to see what she does at her dumb meetings.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said. “Coral and Davina are still sleeping.”
We caught sight of Madame Tutella as she stopped past the gate at the end of the pasture. Another Tutella had walked up to her and they continued on together. We made sure to stay far enough away that they couldn’t see us. It felt like forever as we went past several houses and I could see girls at each one of them, I’d never seen them before, they were skipping, playing, and doing chores. This was all new to me, I hadn’t been this far ever and started getting anxious. I had to speak so I tugged at Amber’s shirt. “Maybe we should go back,” I quietly said. “We may get lost.”
“Don’t worry,” Amber replied. “I come this way to meet Jasmine sometimes. She lives another four houses that way.”
“Yeah but they’re going the opposite way, not that way,” I whispered.
“Wait,” said Amber. “Get down, they’re stopping!”
We watched as the Tutella’s reached a large stone wall with a section that looks like a doorway and standing guard was a grotesque looking statue that came alive as they stepped up and it opened the door for them. Looking around as though they were making sure they weren’t being followed, they scurried through.
“Hurry!” Amber said. “I don’t want to lose them.” She yanked my hand and we started to run in the direction of the stone wall.
“Amber! Are you serious? We can’t go through the door, the statue will−”
“This way!” Gripping my hand tight my sister headed toward a tree that rose high up above the stone wall away from the door. We ran faster than I’d ever done in my entire life. Amber seemed as though she was in her element, no longer afraid, she ran like the wind, on a mission.
Having reached the tree, Amber pulled up her shirt and started to unwind a silken rope.
“Amber, I didn’t know you had that!”
“This is why I’ve been learning how to weave silk all this time. I wanted to make a rope, to climb with.”
Tying its end around a small rock Amber threw it over a branch, when the rope came back down again she made a loop and pulled the silk rope until it was secure. In an instant she had scaled the tree. “Hurry! I’ll help pull you up.”
“I’ll just slow you down, you go!”
“I’m not leaving you behind,” She was peering over the wall. “Come on, I still see them!”
I made my way awkwardly up and we started to run along the top of the wall until we came to a section that we could jump off from. Ahead of us was a mossy lane and we could hear voices. “Take your shoes off,” Amber said.
Walking as quietly as possible we approached the clearing that the voices were coming from. One voice seemed familiar, we didn’t dare go any closer but without moving the
foliage in front of us we could see who the familiar voice belonged to, it was Ophelexa.
“It sounds like she’s ordering the Tutella’s to do something,” I whispered as quietly as I could.
“Yeah, wait here I’m going a little closer.”
I couldn’t stop her, she had already moved several feet in front of me. Looking back, she signaled for me to stay low. After several minutes Amber came back, every hair on her head was a ringlet, it must be bad news. “Let’s go,” she said.
We retraced our steps and made our way back out of the walled area and raced all the way home.
“Where were you?” Coral asked. “Davina was hungry.”
Amber and I looked at each other, wondering what we could say not to frighten Coral. “Uh . . . We went for a race, to see who’s the fastest!”
“Who won?”
“It was a tie,” Amber said. “Hey, you and Davina can play with my glass rocks in my box upstairs.”
“Really, can I make another tiara with them?”
“Yeah, go ahead. We’ll make something for us all to eat.”
Coral ran upstairs calling for Davina.
“What did you hear?” I asked. “Was it bad?”
“We have to get out Jade. There were about twenty Tutellas and Ophelexa was telling them how to make a sleeping meal for the ‘Feast of Fevronia’ I don’t know what that is but It doesn’t make sense. Why would they want to make a sleeping meal?”
“For us?” I guessed, “and for the other girls we just saw?”
“It must be,” Amber said. “Remember? Elektra told me “Bad times” are coming?”
The door opened and Madame Tutella walked in. She took off her hat. “Why are you two dirty, where have you been?”
My heart was thumping, but I managed to say, “We were racing outside, to see who’s the fastest.”
“Where did you race to Jade, I won’t be angry, I just want to make sure you’re both safe. I wouldn’t want you to race all the way to Sector Three, some of those girls aren’t trustworthy.”
“Oh no,” Amber lied without skipping a beat. “It was just around the pasture a couple of times.”
Madame Tutella started to unravel the silken rope that we had climbed up, at the walled enclosure. “Have you ever seen this before, Amber?”
I couldn’t believe it. In our haste to get back before being discovered we had left it in the tree.
“No,” Amber stepped forward to touch the silken rope. “If that were mine it would have triple stitches, that one only has two.”
“Look, I made this too,” She opened a drawer and handed a silk scarf that she had made to Madame Tutella and sure enough the scarf had triple stitches. Inside of me I breathed a sigh of relief. “Coral and Davina are hungry,” I said. “We’re going to make something to eat.”
Having made certain Madame Tutella was busy in another part of the house I asked my sister, “Should we just take Coral and Davina and leave tonight? I’m scared, where can we go?”
“No, she would tell Ophelexa and they would find us in a couple of hours, we have to wait until Kylar comes back for us.”
“But what if Madame Tutella cooks us a sleeping meal, I don’t want to eat it.”
“I don’t know if you’re going to like this plan Jade, but it’s the only one I have. Tonight, when she falls asleep, we’ll wait until she’s drooling because we know she’s not going to wake up, we’ll tie her up, she’ll never know until she wakes up in the morning and by then Kylar will be back.”
“I don’t know Amber. If she wakes up she’ll punish us worse than she’s ever done before. What about if we just say we’re not hungry?”
“Yeah but that doesn’t mean Coral and Davina won’t eat the meal, we can’t risk it. It’s tonight or . . . ”
***
We were never allowed to spend any time in Madame Tutella’s room and if we had to clean it, she would always be in there with us, like she was this time. Tonight is different, she’s lying in front of us asleep, drooling, and she has a rope around her feet, the silken one that we forgot in the tree yesterday. Amber was the architect for this tying stint we were pulling. She reached across and handed me one end of the rope and signaled for me to loop-knot-loop one arm and hand it back to her. By the time we were done, Madame Tutella was bound up in such a way that even if she struggled, the rope would just get tighter instead of loosening, my sister is amazing.
I started heading out of the room when I heard Amber. “Psst,” She was pointing at a bag over by the window and I knew she wasn’t going to leave without looking inside of it. I made a vain attempt to stop her from spending any extra time in Madame Tutella’s bedroom but I knew her curiosity would win her over.
There was enough light from the one oil lamp for us to clearly see the contents. Amber reached in and unfolded a towel, inside of it was a mixture of herbs that we didn’t recognize.
“Sleeping meal Ingredients?” I whispered. Amber nodded in agreement. Madame Tutella shifted and we both froze, after she settled back down again I reached in and found something I hadn’t seen in years, it was my silver chain with the tiny little triangle pendant hanging from it. Only the oldest of sisters received one of these and I had wondered where it had gone to and why we weren’t allowed to wear them any longer. Amber took it from my hand and placed it over my head and pulled my hair through the back. The pendant was finally where it belonged again after all this time, I remember being told it held great magik but I was never told what kind.
Something glinted at the bottom of the bag, shiny things always were an allure for Amber, like her glass rocks. She pulled the object out. “It’s a knife,” she whispered. Pulling it out of its sheath the knife was about ten inches long, and its handle had an engraving on it like my triangle pendant. It also had an Amber stone at the top of the handle, no way was she leaving this behind.
Amber stood up and wrapped its leather tie over her head and it sat at her waist. I’ve seen pictures in the books I’ve read of girls adorned by all manner of embellishments on their ears, in their hair, but this was perfect for my sister, it looked like it belonged on her.
We stood up and began making our way out of the room when Madame Tutella’s nose began to twitch, it stopped us in our tracks, she sneezed! Her eyes opened and she was staring at us. “UNTIE ME! You ungrateful sisters of mortals!”
“The bag!” Amber yelled. “Take the sleeping ingredients out, quick!”
“NO! UNTIE ME!”
I handed the ingredients to Amber and she grabbed a handful and shoved it into Madame Tutella’s gaping mouth. “NO! It’s too much, you’re going to kill me!”
Standing over her, the two of us looked at each other in shock, Madame Tutella was spewing green and yellow liquid from her mouth and within a few seconds she had stopped shouting at us, she was dead. No breathing, no drooling, just dead.
We heard Coral from our bedroom, “Where are you?”
“Stay in there Coral,” I shouted. “We’ll be right back!”
“What have we done?” I said. “We have to leave, we can’t stay here any longer.”
“Jade!” I heard Coral’s voice again. “I’m scared, what’s happening?”
“It’s okay, stay there, we’re coming back!”
“We’re going to lock the door,” Amber said. “The old hag deserved it, she was going to do something really bad to us, let’s get out of here before Coral comes in.”
“Why are you awake?” Coral asked.
“We were hungry, but we’re back now,” I stroked her hair and gave Coral a hug. ”We’re going to bed too, go to sleep.”
I tucked Coral into her bed next to Davina who had slept through all the noise, after a while Coral was asleep again.
Downstairs, sitting and staring at the glowing embers of last night’s fire, Amber and I made a plan. We needed supplies and had to get out before dawn. What would we tell Coral and Davina? We knew that our only hope was to make it to Jasmine’s house after her
Madame Tutella had gone to her meeting. But we had a big problem. When our Madame Tutella doesn’t turn up at the meeting, someone will come looking for her, our only hope was to find Kylar, to find all of them, Elektra, Kira, and Sin-dy too.
Chapter 9
An Ugly Demon and a Rolling Head
Kira wanted to know what my plan was but I wasn’t certain if it was such a good idea. Sin-dy would be dealing with some of Hell’s nastiest demons, possibly endangering all of us, and any hope that the girls of Sarturas had of freedom.
“We’re waiting Kylar,” Elektra said. “Lay it on us, or did Sin-dy’s ‘kiss of death’ scramble your brain?”
I ignored Elektra’s remark. “This is something only Sin-dy can pull off, but I’m not sure if it’s too much of a risk.”
“I’ll do it, whatever it is,” Kira said. “I came all this way for Davina, I’m not leaving without−”
“We’re all here for the same reason,” Sin-dy cut in. “What is it Kylar?”
Did I really want to put the woman I was falling in love with, in so much danger?
“Do you remember when you said some of Lucifer’s daughter’s closest allies were against her crazy plan?” I asked. “Well what if we could convince some of them that this plan is so insane, that it could actually jeopardize her life?”
“Whose life?” Kira asked.
“I’m saying that Lucifer’s daughter, whatever her name is−”
“Sarine,” Sin-dy interrupted. “Her name is Sarine.”
“What did you just say?” Elektra asked, as she touched her neck. “Satan’s daughter’s name is Sarine?”
“One of his daughters, He has, why are you all touching the backs of your necks?” Sin-dy asked looking puzzled. “It’s kinda weird.”
She was right, all three of us were touching the back of our necks, why?
“Kylar,” Elektra enquired. “Kira and I noticed earlier, when we were outside watching the freak show in the sky that you touched your neck there too.”