The Gemini Child

by Shea Meadows

  “I come to that now,” Ta Yi replies. “I have duplicated his device. That which you hold is full of the ghosts from all of Xian for the last three months. If we bring them forth, they will be the most auspicious warriors the generals have ever commanded. You can take out as many or as few as you wish and they will follow commands without fear. They are already dead. It does not matter what others do to them.”

  The Emperor Jingdi turns the cube around in his hands. “How do I know it works? Could you demonstrate with, perhaps, one ghost?”

  Ta Yi bows deeply and sets the Bi Mo Chu on a small altar at the back of the room. He rolls out two very old scrolls that Ging Dee has handed him and searches the texts of both for the proper working to release only one ghost. He finds the needed words on one scroll, and the needed objects on the other.

  He whispers in the ear of Lee Gee, who opens both levels of the basket. From one she takes a small jar of mercury and three aromatic separate herbs. Sima Qian can smell the herbs from his hiding place. From the other, she liberates a bowl made of the semi-precious stone malachite, that is polished to a bright green sheen and a mortar and pestle made of ebony.

  Ta Yi takes the herbs and pounds them into dust while speaking an incantation, and places them in the malachite bowl. He then pours the mercury over them and quickly stirs the herb dust in, saying yet another working. This complete, he takes the mixture to the altar and claps his hands, making a strange, echoing noise that reverberates throughout the room. Flames shoot up from the mixture, and he holds the Bi Mo Chu above the vapor that had been created and quickly sits the cube back on the altar. A grinding sound can be heard from the cube as a small portal opens on one side. A long stream of spirit web pushes out from the object, swirls around in the center of the room and coalesces into a form. Ta Yi continues to chant the same phrase over and over again in a dialect unused for centuries.

  The ghost takes on features of an old man, maybe a Bo in height, with twisted limbs, an injured skull and a toothless mouth. Ta Yi changes his chant, and the features of the ghost change again and his form appears more solid. When the process is finished, a warrior is present, dressed in ancient body armor, holding a long spear.

  Ta Yi speaks to the phantom. “You are in the service of the Emperor Jingdi and are responsible for guarding his person. Nothing, or no one, can harm him while you are at his side. Do you understand?”

  The ghost stomps twice on the floor and nods. It then gives a bloody war cry in the same strange dialect that had been used to free him from the cube and then stands at attention.

  “He looks and sounds like a warrior from the oldest dynasty,” Emperor Jingdi comments. “Why does he not have the aspect of a Han?”

  “The chants and spells are of that time. I have found if I try to change their construction, the spells no longer work. But what do we care about what he says or what clothes he appears in? He is a deathless opponent to our enemies,” Ta Yi replies.

  The Emperor nods his agreement but looks with distaste at the ghost. “Now is this one going to follow me around, with his odor of the tomb clinging to him? He depresses me.”

  “As you wish, Celestial One.” Ta Yi looks to the scroll of chants and picks the right one. He chants less than a minute before the ghost starts to dissolve and turns again into spirit web and is pulled back into the Bi Mo Chu.

  Jingdi makes a satisfied grunt. “How many collected spirits are in the cube at present?”

  “There are three hundred within the cube, which we can use as we need. Looking at the workings written by my ancestor, the Bi Mo Chu will hold 10,000 ghosts. When that number is reached, the essence of the spirits will start to seep out of the enclosure, causing damage to the energy of those around the vessel. The device must be monitored by a shaman conversant with the process of releasing and retaining ghosts.”

  “So your proposition is to continue storing ghosts up to the maximum number and using them only when they are needed against our enemies?”

  Ta Yi nods and bows. “We can also incorporate this working into the construction of your burial chamber. You are creating beautiful replicas, subtler and less demanding than those of the Qin.

  “They will take up less space and represent the members of the court more accurately. I have the chants used by the Qin sorcerer, so I can again take a tenth of the energy leaving most of the essence of your retainers intact as they toil for your honor.”

  “I see what you are doing. I can give this army of ghosts to my son who will be Emperor after me. He will have the means of continuing the strength of our dynasty for many generations. This plan is good. But we will use it as it is needed. The three hundred you have within the Bi Mo Chu will be our secret weapons in the next battle. If soldiers of either side die in the back and forth of battle, you will collect their essence. It is decided. The Emperor Jingdi of the Dynasty of Han has spoken. May it be so.”

  Everyone sat quietly after the record concluded. Nory spoke first. “This is so much worse than I thought. According to my former father’s letters, he felt triumphant sending the Bi Mo Chu to America. He was okay with having it in the same home as his family. He mentions reading the scrolls so he knew its purpose. Why would he do that?”

  Ricky moved closer to her daughter and wrapped her arms around Nory. “There was something wrong with him, darling. The fault wasn’t that of his family. It sounds like your mother tried to get it away from you, and William refused to work with him. And here you are, incarnating again so you can have a life with a father who loves you and be part of solving the problem Norton Reston created.”

  “Nory, it is what it is. We can’t change his actions, but we now have some clues as to what we are dealing with,” Moon said. She turned to Shri Kria Baba. “Shri, could you devise a new gemstone configuration that will seal the energy being emanated by the cube into the bottom level of the York street house?”

  “Perhaps. I have been doing some experimentation. Mel Shank is also working on the problem with his students. Our hope is to make portable shields as well if Ricky and David decide they need to go to China to track down Norton Reston’s ghost in person,” Shri answered.

  Susan Fry had been listening quietly and added to the conversation. “Another reason for Ricky and David to go in person might be to visit the Shanghai Museum. I can’t imagine Norton Reston was able to smuggle the scrolls with the incantations out of Shanghai. I think, instead he copied,-or had someone else copy-the scrolls. I have the feeling he may not have copied all the text, but only the parts he thought he could use.”

  “I see from your record, Dr. Fry, you lived in Shanghai and even worked in the museum,” Moon replied.

  “That’s correct. I also have a friend who has a collection of artifacts that were taken from the museum over time to save them from destruction by the government. He might have access to the scrolls we’re looking for. His father started this collection in the 1930s when Reston lived in China. That may be how Nory’s former father came to view their contents.”

  “That is one of the reasons I invited you to this meeting. Ricky and David might need your guidance at some point in the future,” Moon replied.

  Susan smiled and nodded. “I would be honored to be part of this. My schedule is tight but if I know somewhat in advance, I can make time. One thing I must add: the scene we saw seemed familiar to me. I wonder if I was around during the Han Dynasty. It is something to explore.”

  Moon turned to Bonta. “Your natural talent for actualization through art has been recently revealed. I am sure you will be much more than a mother’s helper while in Minneapolis. Are you willing to be part of the team?”

  Bonta hugged her mother and sister closely. “Yes, I will use my skill. If it comes to extending my stay with the Clark family, I am willing, as long as out-of-body time is allowed for basking in my mother and sister’s energy.”

  Katera smiled at her daughter. “You can always start school in the winter, darling, if that’s what it takes.”

/>   “Now to Mr. Milton Running Deer. You were recommended by your guides as an expert in shamanism. I know the type of shamanism that Ta Yi practiced was different from yours, but the basic tenants remain the same. Might you be available to assist in that area?” Moon asked.

  Milton nodded. “Watching what you ladies can do, I don’t know how much more I can offer, but I am fascinated with the problem. Ricky sent the ghost of Charles Burton the third to your domain without any sign of a struggle and without damage to my niece. But there are some Earth energy techniques that might be helpful since the ghost of Mr. Reston is removing the statues and their trapped essence from the ground. There are things I can explore that might give us answers.”

  After much discussion, the occupants of the physical reality returned to their bodies, and the spirit beings started in on more exploration.

  Susan Fry opened her eyes to find her body comfortably reclining on a pillow and the clock showing only a half -hour had elapsed. She smiled at those around her. “I am grateful I was allowed to come. Such an honor to meet Moon Angel and all the others; I will no longer doubt when someone says they had an out-of-body experience.” She got up and stretched. “I’ll be going, but you have my phone number. Tomorrow evening I’ll rummage around for the building maps of the Shanghai Museum and library.”

  Ricky gave her a hug as she left then turned to Milton. “I am looking forward to what you find to help with this puzzle. Please call when you have something to add.”

  Milton smiled and wrote his phone number down on a piece of paper. “I have two possibilities. I will try them on my own but will invite you on when I see if they are useful. I will call with the time and place. Is that good?”

  Ricky nodded and gave Milton a hug and hugged Jessica, Dylan and Christina as well, making plans when they could get together again. As soon as Ricky plopped into the living room chair, Nory’s baby voice sounded over the monitor. The very long day would end with cuddle time for their daughter.

  * * *

  Chapter 10

  The spirit of Norton Reston paced back and forth within his cave, picking up the energy of the gathering happening on the other side of the globe and then feeling the shift as those involved moved into spirit world. Had they died? Were they ghosts now? Perhaps the Bi Mo Chu had absorbed their essence? But no, they returned intact, mulling around the newer house, leaving the sacred object unattended.

  How had his plan gotten off track? The child arrived in the physical. He felt his onetime daughter, but her essence moved easily between dimensions. Moon, the purchaser of the house on York Street, was no longer in the physical; someone new had taken her place. The present parents knew way too much about energy and what types of vibrations were uncommon. Were they a threat to the plan? This was the last thing he’d expected. He had been removed from the physical for too many years.

  He sat in the corner among the empty statues that had long ago released their captives. Now he had to go far afield from his comfortable nest to fill the cube. The Bi Mo Chu kept asking for more and more. The sun was long down, but Xian never slept. There were hordes of tourists mulling around the ancient burial sites, keeping him from his work. The place was lit up well past midnight with a carnival atmosphere. Loud music blared, people laughed and wandered among the stalls erected on sacred ground. Sometime after three in the morning the discordant din abated. It was time to travel to the Qin ruins. The Han burial grounds gave up its last ghost thirty years before.

  He projected himself into the massive archeological dig now known as the terracotta warriors. There were still statues haunted by the work of the Qin sorcerer, Luan Du, a powerful medium who held hands with the ghosts long before he left the physical.

  The ghost had learned from experience not to go to the necropolis with its row upon row of duplicate warriors. It was easiest to go to the work chambers, located near the pits. The statues were those of newly unearthed finds, many from the military gathering in pits one and two. The blasphemers were clearing off the crusted debris from the warriors. They would then move them into the battle formation that had become the pattern for the main exhibit.

  He floated into the work area, witnessing the attempts to reconstruct many of the replicas that had stood the test of time better than their companions. The archaeologists discussed attempting to paint some of them in their original colors, holding spears, flags, knives, swords and hatchets of the type used in the many battles of the Qin. They still had not solved the mystery of the fading paint. The statues remained faded by their long burial.

  After the workers left, he picked one statue that vibrated with the essence of the original being still residing in the clay shell. He knew the incantations without looking at his copy of the scrolls, which sat in a pile of dust in his dwelling cave. The dialect of the Xia came easily from what passed for a mouth, and the space vibrated with the call to arms of the first Xia sorcerer, Wing Yi, who devised these workings. With the first call, the ghost within the targeted warrior rocked back and forth within his casing. The second call pulled the ghost, who awakened with an angry protest and flowed out the head of the statue. With the third call, the ghost’s startled features formed then disappeared as the Bi Mo Chu in Minnesota gained a new resident.

  He repeated this exercise with several others, dispatching the essence of two generals, a warlord, a head archer, and a battle astrologer to the waiting cube on York Street. He could feel them being absorbed; the pull to join them becoming stronger all the time. How many thousand were there? He had made notches in the cave’s wall that covered much of its surface. Perhaps five thousand? It was evident it was more than the one thousand he had once thought to be the magic number.

  If the child was in the house, it would be relatively easy for him to stand outside the sacred object and release the captives. But if he succumbed to the energies and joined them, he may wander within the massive world of the Bi Mo Chu for centuries. He would not allow that to happen. It was his time to be Emperor, and they would be his army and his court. His daughter would be his concubine and sit at his right side as she had done many incarnations ago. Soon, he would come back to power.

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  Bonta sat in the front room of the house drawing on her sketch pad while baby Nory, now twelve pounds and two months old, wiggled her hands and legs in the playpen, trying them on for size. Ralph was paced back and forth in front of the door, knowing his afternoon dog walker, Stephan, should arrive any minute. They would walk around the lake and have a good squirrel chase in the backyard. Pigeon sat on top of the bookcase, watching the others in disgruntled silence; the cat was never allowed outside.

  Bonta finished her drawing and frowned at it. Ricky was in it, and a woman she didn’t know, in a house with a rather unhappy-looking ghost knocking over furniture. Bonta knew Ricky was ghostbusting that day so this must have been a scene from her upcoming experience. Bonta looked closely at the ghost; it had Asiatic features and wore strange robes. Perhaps it was one of the ghosts trapped in the Bi Mo Chu? She shuddered. What was that ghost doing out of the cube and in someone’s house? The doorbell rang and it was Blue, who was walking with her and Stephan. Bonta tried to put her discomfort to one side and enjoy the day with her new friends and the ever-excited Ralph.

  ***

  Ricky knocked on the door of the client’s house on Sylvester Street, a two-level brownstone from the thirties with a copper roof much like the one on the York Street house. She reached into her pocket for her gemstone pack which contained a newly created stone, a jade and gold pendant made from the deposits of energetic substances surrounding the burial grounds in Xian. Shri Kria Baba and Mel Shank had created six of them from a stash they purchased from a jewelry merchant in China. It was infused with energy that repelled the emanations that were seeping from the York Street cellar. After the ghost was cleared from this house, Ricky planned to meet David in what would someday be their home again.

  A tall woman with henna-rinse
d hair answered the door, exhaustion evident on her narrow face. “Thank heavens you’re here. You’re Ricky Clark, right?”

  Ricky nodded in reply.

  “I can’t stand another minute of this. My husband moved to an extended stay. He’s a lawyer and needs his sleep. Not that I don’t need sleep, too, but because I’m a writer, not making life or death choices, I get to housesit in the midst of this craziness,” she said, rambling on so quickly that Ricky could barely understand.

  “Why don’t you step outside for a minute?” Ricky said, pulling her on to the cement porch. “The ghost seems attached to the house, so we’ll stand by the tree in the front yard.”

  The woman took a deep breath and followed. “I’m Cindy Rogers. I’ve been living on coffee. I have to apologize for my version of crazy. I’m afraid to sleep in there. Furniture keeps falling near me or in front of me. A gong sound goes off before it happens, so I have a little warning.”

  “When did this start?” Ricky asked.

  “Yesterday morning. My husband and I were grabbing a bagel in the kitchen when the toaster oven flew across the counter. We stood there in shock. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. We picked up the oven with a badass dent in it and laughed about it so we wouldn’t run out of the house screaming.

  “Then it was quiet, so Brad went to work and I went upstairs to my office to finish an article for Vanity Fair. I was deep into the project when my printer started blinking on and off. It rattled around on the table and spewed paper all over the room. This had to be something electrical. Maybe the toaster oven had too strong a charge running through it, so it just looked like it was flying.

  “I was afraid to use anything with electricity. I went down to the basement and checked the breaker box. Everything was in the right position, but I figured why take chances? I called my brother Morrie, who’s an electrician, and he left a job to check it out for me. He found nothing and had no explanation. I didn’t know who to call next. I figured I’d just take the easiest course of action and pretend it didn’t happen. Back to work in the office, cleaned up the paper and the printer is dead. I didn’t really need it then anyway. Later I’d get a new one, but the article was on a deadline.