“He mentioned it,” she said. “It’s the only answer I got out of him, other than confirmation that he’s behind all this.”
“There’s some books I might be able to consult,” Granger offered, “back at my place.”
“OK,” Eliza said. “We need to figure out what it is.”
Robert checked his watch. “We ought to check on Lee, too,” he said. “I paid the motel through today. Might need to give them another payment.”
“Let’s go then,” Eliza said, looking up at the hall. It remained quiet and silent, completely at odds with the horrors she knew it contained.
●
“Are you OK, Lee?” Eliza asked.
Lee was lying on the motel bed, his hand over his face. “Not really,” he said. “My head hurts. My eyes.”
“How much time did you spend watching TV?” Robert asked.
“I’ve watched it ever since you left,” he replied.
“That’s why your eyes hurt,” Robert said. “You can’t watch it that long. You’re not used to it.”
“It really hurts,” Lee said. “I was so frustrated. There was a black woman with an exotic accent who could predict the future. And then they were selling things, but I couldn’t figure out how to buy them! Amazing things!”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t,” Eliza replied. She turned to Robert and Granger. “Do either of you have aspirin, or something like that?”
“I might have a bottle in the car,” Robert replied. He left to get it.
“Did you eat anything?” Eliza asked, examining the food they’d left for him on the table. It looked untouched.
“A little,” Lee replied. “I wasn’t hungry.”
Robert returned with a pill bottle, and Eliza prepared a glass of water for Lee. She watched as he sat up in bed and downed the pills, then fell back onto the pillow.
“I want to sleep,” he said. “I was just so tired of sleeping, all that goddamn sleeping in the cave; I didn’t want to go back to sleep now that I’m finally out of there. I kept watching the TV. It went all night long. It never stops. Now my brain is shutting down.”
“So much for taking him back to Waverly,” Granger said.
“I don’t know how he’d live in that house, anyway,” Eliza replied.
“I want to go back there,” Lee said. “I really do. But now I just want to sleep and keep my eyes closed.”
“I’ll leave the clerk some money for a couple more nights,” Robert said, leaving the room.
Eliza looked at Lee, lying on the bed, clearly in pain. He seemed weak and hollow. “OK, you sleep. We’ll come back later. And don’t watch the TV anymore.”
“Or, if you do, only for a little while,” Granger added.
They left Lee and returned to the car. Once Robert joined them, they headed back to Madison.
“What are we going to do with him?” Eliza asked. “I can’t imagine him living on the homestead. The place is falling apart.”
“We can’t keep him in that motel forever,” Robert replied.
“Perhaps we can clean the place up,” Granger offered. “Make it more habitable. He claims he owns it, there might be a way for him to put a trailer on the land or something like that.”
“He’ll have to get a job,” Robert said. “He’s got nothing right now.”
“Well, we’ll have to figure something out,” Granger replied.
“Right now I’m more worried about the hall,” Eliza said. “The new moon is only a couple of days away. I’m running out of time.”
Granger was sitting in the front passenger seat. He turned to look at her in the back. “We’re going to get this figured out, both for you and for Lee,” he said. “Rest assured. We’re gonna solve this.”
She gave him a weak smile. She appreciated his optimism. He didn’t speak with the shaman like I did, she thought. He doesn’t know what we’re really up against.
Neither do I, she thought, allowing her pessimism to completely overwhelm any positive thoughts Granger had been trying to plant.
Chapter Thirteen
They arrived at John Smoke’s house promptly at 7, the time he’d asked them to come by to meet someone. Once inside, John made introductions.
“Eliza, Granger, Robert, this is Kai,” John said.
They all shook hands. “Kai knows a lot about local native history. I think he can help us with your problem in Waverly. I’ve told him everything you told me.”
“Anything you can do to help,” Eliza said, smiling at Kai, “is greatly appreciated.”
“You spoke to someone?” Kai asked. “In the hall?”
“I’ve spoken to Scray and the shaman,” Eliza replied.
“Huh,” John grunted. “So the shaman’s not dead.”
“I don’t know if he’s dead or alive exactly,” Eliza replied. “He was kinda vague about that.”
“And it was the shaman who mentioned Aliashna?” Kai asked.
Eliza looked more closely at Kai. He was large, and had a barrel chest like Granger. His black hair looked short, but when he turned Eliza saw the long ponytail running down his back.
“He did,” Eliza replied. “Do you know what it means?”
“It refers to a future battle,” Kai replied. “In legend, it’s an epic battle between the forces of light and darkness. For years it’s been rarely discussed or talked about, since it’s usually only brought up by crackpots with delusions of grandeur who like to invoke it as a scare tactic. The only problem is…”
He paused, and she looked at him, noticing his facial expression. He looked worried. She saw that everyone in the room was hanging on his next words.
“…in the case of the shaman you’re speaking about, I don’t think he’s deluded.”
“What do you mean?” Granger asked. “He’s preparing to conduct some battle?”
“Yes,” Kai replied.
The room was silent for a moment. John broke the silence by inviting everyone to sit, and offering drinks.
“If Aliashna is only referenced by crackpots,” Robert asked, “what makes you think this guy is the real thing?”
“I belong to a group of elders who have been studying certain figures from local history,” Kai replied. “We began looking into Akal years ago. Some of us thought he was gone, after things quieted down in Waverly.”
“Akal,” Eliza repeated. “That’s his name?”
“What we call him,” Kai replied, “based on stories passed down for many generations. I don’t know that he’d respond to it.”
“You look worried,” Granger said.
“I am worried,” Kai replied. “If it is Akal, and the stories are true, he represents a real threat to the area. If he’s pursuing Aliashna, it could create real problems for my people.”
“What is Aliashna exactly?” Eliza asked.
“Again, legends,” Kai replied. “Some people believe it’s a climactic battle between good and evil. Both sides prepare for many years, and in the end, evil wins, holding dominion over all of the tribes for many generations.”
“I didn’t think the tribes believed in concepts like good and evil,” Granger said. “At least, that’s not been my experience. They’re fairly neutral about such things.”
“Most are,” Kai replied. “But there are factions who do.”
“Do you?” Granger asked.
“Doesn’t matter if I do or not,” Kai replied. “If Akal is pursuing Aliashna and has a way to make it happen, it could harm the spiritual community of our tribes. We cannot allow that.”
“You know that he derives his strength from the cannibal ghosts, right?” Eliza asked. “That’s why they’ve conscripted me, to keep the ghosts fed.”
“I know all about them,” Kai replied. “The story of Scray is something many of us are familiar with. In older times, the elders were satisfied to have exiled them, and they seemed contained in Waverly. Once Scray stopped recruiting from the tribe, the elders cared less and less.”
“So they’v
e known about him,” Robert replied. “They must have known about Akal’s connection to Scray, too.”
“I suspect some did,” Kai replied. “In the early days, I think Akal was seen as loco, and not taken seriously. His reputation strengthened over time, especially as he seemed to outlive his lifespan.”
“Why haven’t they done something about him before this?” Eliza asked. “They must have known he was a threat.”
“Things had been quiet for many years,” Kai replied. “Most of my group was interested in other things that seemed active. It wasn’t until I heard your story from John that we considered the possibility that Akal and Scray might be a current problem.”
“Any ideas how to deal with him?” Granger asked.
Kai sighed. “Yeah, I got a few ideas.”
“We were hoping we could take down the gateways,” Eliza said.
“You were thinking if the gateways were down,” Kai replied, “there would be no way to feed them.”
“Right,” Eliza replied.
“Gateways can be shut down,” Granger said. “I’ve read about it.”
“True,” Kai replied. “But there are two big problems with that.”
“Which are?” Robert asked.
“First, I’m not sure we can take them down at all,” Kai replied.
“Gateways can be reversed,” Granger insisted. “You deconstruct them by reversing their setup, performing the same steps used to create them, but in reverse. I know I’ve read that somewhere.”
“We can do that,” Kai replied, “but there’s a problem. Gateways are constructed for all kinds of reasons. These gateways were specially designed to issue tokens. It’s likely that you can’t receive a token from the second gateway unless you’re carrying a token from the first, and you can’t enter the hall unless you’re carrying tokens from both. We’d have to know the exact tokens involved to reverse everything. There’s no way to know that.”
“There must be,” Eliza said.
“Not that I’ve ever encountered,” Kai replied. “It’s almost like a key that’s encrypted; it provides you with permissions, but you have no idea what it is or its composition. You only carry it; you can’t examine it.”
“Damn,” Granger mumbled.
“It wouldn’t matter anyway,” Kai replied, “even if we knew the tokens. I don’t think it would have solved the problem.”
“Why not?” Eliza asked.
“The gateways aren’t the reason you have the compulsion,” Kai replied. “That came from Scray. The gateways are only a security measure, and a way to transform the meat so they can eat it. I highly doubt your compulsion would go away just because the gateways were inoperable. With Scray still alive and hungry, you’d be damned to that hunger with no way to rectify it. I don’t think it’s a good option.”
“That’s what Gloria thought,” she said, crestfallen, slumping in her chair.
“There’s got to be a way!” Robert said. “Maybe there’s some method to determine the tokens? Something you don’t know about?”
“You’re not listening to me,” Kai said. “Taking down the gateways isn’t a good solution…but I think there might be something else we could try.”
“What?” Robert asked.
“Instead of trying to take down the gateways,” Kai replied, a sly smile forming on his face, “why don’t we use them?”
“Use them?” Eliza asked.
“Yeah, use them,” Kai replied, “to send through a bomb.”
“A bomb?” Granger repeated, his eyes widening.
“Hear me out,” Kai replied. “In legend, the only story anyone’s ever heard of destroying Kanontsistonties involved a shaman who tricked them into eating coals that were cool on the outside, but still burning on the inside. The shaman tricked them into thinking they were acorns. After they ingested them, the coals burned them from the inside and killed them. The stories say they exploded.”
“Exploded!” Granger repeated, turning to look at Eliza with growing enthusiasm.
“Native stories aren’t always literal,” John said.
“True,” Kai replied. “We obviously can’t give them a pile of coals and expect that they’ll eat them. We need to be sure this will work, so I consulted with my group. They suggested we deliver a body filled with Cana stones. Scray and his group haven’t eaten real flesh in a long time, so they’re probably starving. We want to bring them meat they won’t question, just mindlessly devour. The Cana stones are very small, hardly bigger than a pinhead, so they probably won’t detect them.”
“What will the Cana stones do?” Granger asked, excited.
“Cana stones react to what’s around them,” Kai replied. “When we make the stones, we’ll design them to react to Kanontsistonties. That way, they won’t release until they’ve been ingested.”
“And when they release?” Granger asked, working himself up.
“It’s a River substance, kind of like phosphorous,” Kai replied. “Once enough of it accumulates, it explodes.”
Granger slapped the table in front of him. “Perfect!” he exclaimed.
“And if they’re all gone,” Eliza asked, “the compulsion will end?”
“Scray has to go for that to end,” Kai replied. “As long as he eats, he’ll die too. That should free you.”
“If the stones are customized,” Robert said, “I assume we’ll have to make them. Do you know how?”
“My father did,” Kai replied, throwing back his shoulders a little. “He showed me.”
“What about the gateways?” Eliza asked. “Will the stones make it through the gateways without setting off alarms or transforming somehow?”
“My friends think it’s unlikely the stones would be detected,” Kai replied, “either by the gateways or by Scray.”
“You’re not one hundred percent sure, though?” Eliza asked.
“Well,” Kai replied, “if you’re asking if I’ve ever sent a Cana stone-filled body through gateways in an attempt to blow up a colony of cannibal ghosts,” he paused and smiled, “no, I haven’t. So, one hundred percent, no. But I think it’s the best option, because it solves the problem.”
“What about Akal?” Robert asked.
“I doubt it will do anything directly to Akal,” Kai replied, “but it will eliminate his power source and that should end his dreams of Aliashna. The real problem it solves is you, Eliza. It should end the compulsion.”
“Will we get to see them explode?” Granger asked.
“I guess that all depends on where you’re standing when the fireworks start,” Kai replied, and the two exchanged a high five, clearly elated with the plan.
Eliza felt a sense of relief. It was the first good news in days.
“So these stones,” Robert asked. “How do you make them?”
“Well,” Kai said, his happy mood deflating a little. “That’s a little tricky.”
“Tricky?” Granger repeated, losing a little of his enthusiasm.
“They’re made in a special fire bowl,” Kai replied. “It’s huge, like six feet across. You have to have all the right ingredients. The good news is that I think I have all of the stuff, and one of the elders in my group has an uncle in Menasha who said we could use his fire bowl. I checked on it, it’s the right kind.”
“What’s the tricky part, then?” Granger asked.
“The fire itself,” Kai replied. “The bowl sits on a stand, and you build a fire underneath it, to heat the bowl and cook the ingredients until they ball up into little stones. The fire you use isn’t normal. You build it with wood that’s been soaked in naphtha, a special kind that is hard to get. I know where we can get some, but it’s a little problematic.”
“I’m guessing the problematic part is the tricky part,” Granger replied.
“You are correct,” Kai replied. “There was a contemporary of Akal named Dark Arm. He used to live on the rez in 1890, but some of the elders forced him off because of his practices, much the same way they ran Scray o
ff.”
“Practices?” Robert asked.
“Dark arts, primarily,” Kai replied. “Things that made certain groups within the tribe nervous, and when white people got wind of some of his activities, it just made them all the more anti-native. He set up shop in the forest outside of Black Creek. If there’s naphtha around, it’s likely there, amongst the other weird stuff he used to make.”
“Great, another shaman to deal with,” Robert muttered.
“We think Dark Arm is long dead,” Kai replied.
“Everyone thought Akal was dead, too,” Granger said.
“It’s not Dark Arm that’s the problem,” Kai replied. “It’s his land. When he died, we investigated his property, and found the whole area cursed because of what he had done there. It’s like a toxic waste dump of native River stuff that no one knew how to clean up, and some members of the tribe were worried that gifted people might stumble onto it by accident and discover what he had been doing — and get infected or killed in the process. That’s one of the reasons the group I’m part of was formed, years ago: to deal with the aftermath of Dark Arm’s work. We expanded to keep track of others, too, like Akal. We try to keep tabs on all the dark stuff that might be going on, and work in the background to take care of problems like this. Anyway, back to Dark Arm and his land; there’s lots of strange ingredients, River compounds and the like, that he stored in caches all over his property, if we can get to it. That’s the problem, getting to it.”
“Why?” Eliza asked. “A legend shelf blocks access?”
“No,” Kai replied. “I wish. A legend shelf would have made this much easier; we could just turn it off and go in. Natives have only embraced legend shelves recently, and we don’t have a lot of solid experience with them. My progenitors used an older method to seal off Dark Arm’s land: totems. Are you familiar with them?”
“Like totem poles?” Robert asked.
“Close enough,” Kai replied. “The best the Oneida had to deal with Dark Arm’s property wasn’t strong enough to keep people like you and me away — people with the gift. Years ago, when they decided to set up a protective barrier on Dark Arm’s property, they sought the help of an elder from the Pacific Northwest who had experience with totems. They wanted something strong that would keep people out, especially gifteds, and the type of totem that this elder offered was much more effective than anything the Oneida had.
The Haunting of Waverly Hall Page 13
