by Lynne Ewing
Kendra stood abruptly. Her chair fell back and crashed to the floor. She stepped around it and eased to the back of the kitchen. Her eyes never left Catty.
“Kendra, what’s wrong?” Catty started for her again, but stopped when she realized Kendra was afraid of her.
“I finished translating it.” Kendra tapped the manuscript. “And now I know the truth.”
“The truth about what?”
Kendra held the manuscript up and it flapped in her hands. “Demere personam tuam atque ad dominum tuum se referre!” she shouted roughly.
Catty stared at her in disbelief. She knew the words were Latin. She repeated the sound of the words to herself, trying to find their meaning. “Day-mair-eh pear-so-nahm too-ahm aht-kweh ahd dom-in-oom too-oom say reh-fair-reh.”
Kendra seemed empowered when she spoke the words. She repeated them, the words scraping from her throat. “Demere personam tuam atque ad dominum tuum se referre.”
Catty was totally confused now. “Take off my mask? Return to my master? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kendra collapsed against the back wall. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. “Who are you?” she asked in a low voice.
Catty shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“What are you?” Kendra demanded.
Catty didn’t know what to say.
Kendra’s head lolled against the wall. Her eyes were only half-open. “All these years I thought I had been protecting a space alien from the government.” She laughed and it was dry and filled with sadness. “And now I find out that I’ve been protecting something evil.”
Catty started shaking. “What did you read?”
Kendra looked down at the manuscript. Her finger ran across a line as she translated it. “The child of a fallen goddess and an evil spirit will take possession of the Secret Scroll without fear of its curse.”
“You think that’s me?” Catty asked nervously. Could she be the daughter of a fallen goddess and an evil spirit?
Catty slumped into a chair and stared at nothing. “I’m not evil. I’m a goddess,” she confessed softly. “I didn’t know until this year. When I found out, I tried to tell you. I started to tell you.” Her voice trailed off.
Kendra dragged a chair to the table and sat down facing Catty.
“Tell me now.” Kendra started to shiver again but Catty suspected that this time it was from fever, not fear.
Right now, sitting across from Kendra, Catty believed that the manuscript did have a curse and she had to do something to find out how to free Kendra from its spell.
Catty began slowly, repeating what Maggie had told her. “In ancient times when Pandora’s box was opened—”
“Pandora?” Kendra interrupted. “Are you talking about the myth?”
Catty nodded solemnly. “It isn’t a myth,” she stated firmly and continued, “The last thing to leave the box was hope. Only Selene, the goddess of the moon, saw the creature that had been sent by the Atrox to devour hope. Selene took pity on the people of earth and gave her Daughters, like guardian angels, to perpetuate hope. I’m one of those Daughters. A goddess.”
“And the Atrox?” Kendra asked.
“The Atrox and its Followers have sworn to destroy the Daughters of the Moon because once we’re gone, the Atrox will succeed.” She looked at Kendra. “I’m a source of good.”
Kendra’s lips trembled. Her eyes searched over the text of the manuscript and then she found what she was looking for and translated, “A soulless creature who defied God and gave itself life.” Her voice seemed haunted. “The Atrox.”
The room suddenly felt crowded with hostile forces as if saying its name had summoned it. The temperature dropped, and a chill tingled up Catty’s spine.
“And your gift?” It seemed to pain Kendra to speak.
“It’s not teleportation. It’s a form of time travel. It’s part of what I need to fight the Atrox,” Catty explained.
“An entity that has existed since before creation.” Kendra spoke more to herself than to Catty. “And this.” She held the manuscript more tightly. “This tells how to destroy it, and…” She looked back at Catty now. “You’re the one chosen to destroy it.”
Catty nodded, then looked down selfconsciously.
Kendra regarded her in admiration. “What can I do to help?”
“I need to see my mother,” Catty started. “I need to go back in time before her death and talk to her so that I can find out who my father is and why I was the one given the manuscript.” She didn’t add that she hoped her mother would also know how to free Kendra from the curse.
Kendra nodded and stood on shaky feet, set the Scroll on her chair, then walked slowly to the kitchen cupboard where she kept messages, notes, and telephone numbers. She pulled out a scrap of paper. When she turned back, her eyes held Catty’s. “It’s the curse of the manuscript, isn’t it? That’s why I’m so ill.”
“No,” Catty lied. “I’m sure it’s the just the flu. You don’t believe in curses anyway, do you?” She tried to laugh but it sounded forced.
Kendra smiled weakly. “I do now.” She handed the piece of paper to Catty. “This is the address the coroner’s office gave me.”
She leaned back against the counter as if standing for such a short time had weakened her.
Catty prayed that she had enough time. “Maybe I should take you to the doctor before I go,” she offered.
Kendra shook her head. “I don’t think modern medicine can cure what I have.” Her hand touched Catty’s cheek and her tired eyes filled with love. “I’ll have to rely on you, Catty.” She hesitated a moment. “And to think that all this time I thought you were a space alien.”
“No regrets?” Catty asked.
“Of course I have regrets.” Kendra tried to chuckle but burst into a hacking cough. Finally she was able to speak again. “I had always hoped you were going to take me to another planet someday so I could see what outer space really looked like.”
She leaned over and kissed Catty’s cheek. Her skin felt too hot and dry.
Catty watched Kendra wave good-bye as a glaring white explosion burned the kitchen away and Catty zoomed into the tunnel at a speed faster than light.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CATTY RECOGNIZED THE street with all the magnolia trees and suddenly she became aware of how close her mother had lived to her all these years. The knowledge filled her with deep sadness and longing. She stopped in front of a narrow house with a pitched roof, took a deep breath, and headed up the brick path. Roses in every color lined the walkway and perfumed the night with their sweet fragrance. A rake rested on the porch step next to a paper bag filled with leaves and a pair of gardening gloves. Catty knocked on the door hesitantly, then rang the doorbell.
The door opened with a suddenness that surprised her. A hand reached out, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her inside.
Catty started to speak but warm fingers pressed against her lips to silence her. The sudden touch surprised her.
“Mom?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Zoe whispered back. Her hand lingered on Catty’s lips and the touch brought tears to Catty’s eyes.
Zoe switched off the lights before she pulled Catty into the living room.
“Stay here,” she ordered softly. She walked to the picture window and held back the lace panel with the side of her hand. She studied the outside for a long time, then finally satisfied, she drew the drapes, turned on a small lamp, and sat on a sofa filled with quilted pillows. She smiled at Catty. She had a pretty smile.
“So,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry for the intrigue. There are Regulators watching me from the corner house. I guess they think their disguise has fooled me. I had to make sure they hadn’t seen you come here. Very sloppy of them not to have seen you turn the corner.”
“I didn’t come that way,” Catty answered.
“No?” Zoe patted the sofa for Catty to sit next to her. “Of course not. You have special powers of your own.�
�
Catty started to join her, but then she looked down and saw the geometry test she had hurriedly written on and given to Zoe that day on the desert.
Zoe caught her look and picked up the test from the coffee table. “I always keep it with me,” she explained. “It’s the only thing of yours I own.” She folded it gently and tucked it in her pocket. “Besides, I can’t chance having a Regulator discover it.”
“Don’t they know where I live already since I’m a Daughter?” Catty wondered.
“Possibly,” Zoe answered. “But I’m sure they don’t know you’re my daughter or you wouldn’t be here.”
Catty felt a chill run up her back.
“Right now they may think it’s Serena or Jimena or not have a clue at all. They’re extremely evil and powerful, but putting so much energy into their disguise makes them a bit sluggish sometimes.”
Catty hated to think what one of the Regulators would be like without a disguise but then she thought of something else. “You know about Serena and Jimena?”
“Yes, I know most everything about your life.”
A warm feeling spread through Catty’s chest. “Everything?”
“All that I could learn.” She smiled, then became serious and continued. “So I suppose something important has happened for you to find me? Who told you where I live?”
Catty sat down and started to tell her but stopped. How could she explain to her that she had gotten the address from the coroner’s office?
“So you can’t tell me,” Zoe concluded. “Or won’t, because it’s something I shouldn’t know or wouldn’t want to know.” She shrugged. “But you can at least tell me why you are here.”
“I’ve received the Secret Scroll.” Catty’s voice caught. “I was hoping you could explain why all this is happening to me. Why was I given the Scroll? I can’t even read it.”
Zoe leaned back on a pillow and looked at the ceiling. “I had planned on telling you before now. I should have but I was too ashamed.”
Catty cast a brief look at Zoe. “Ashamed of what?”
“I had been a Daughter of the Moon like you. I had a special power, too. I could move objects with my mind.” Zoe’s words seemed filled with regret. “But I became too frightened of the change.”
Catty nodded. She didn’t like to think about the change. Their gifts only lasted until they were seventeen and then there was metamorphosis. They lost their powers and their memory of what they had been, or they disappeared. The ones who disappeared became something else but no one, not even Maggie, knew what that was.
She continued softly. “So I turned to the Atrox.”
Catty’s eyes widened.
Zoe drew her moon amulet from beneath her blouse for Catty to see. It still looked dull and blackened.
“The Atrox promised to give me immortality,” she continued. “But it tricked me. I had failed to ask for perpetual youth and now I’m doomed to age for eternity. It’s not a problem now but eventually…Can you imagine what it will feel like to continue aging until the end of time?”
Catty shook her head.
“The Atrox must have sensed that I made my commitment out of fear.” Zoe stared off for a long while, then finally she spoke again. “That day on the desert, I was still blaming Maggie for what had happened to me. I thought for a long time that if Maggie could have told me more about the transformation, then I wouldn’t have been afraid and I wouldn’t have turned to the Atrox. But I know now that it was my own lack of courage that made me do what I did. I wish I had listened to her.” Zoe shrugged. “But then maybe all things have a purpose.”
She stared at Catty and Catty could tell from the look in her eyes that she didn’t want to hear what she was going to say next.
“You never would have come into the world if I hadn’t become a Follower,” Zoe uttered softly.
“I don’t understand.” Catty tried to catch her breath.
“I fell in love with a Follower.” Zoe smiled sadly. “A member of the Inner Circle.”
Catty felt devastated. “But members of the Inner Circle are renowned for their evil.” She tried to keep her voice steady but the words felt like bricks falling from her tongue. “They’re incapable of loving.”
“Yes,” Zoe agreed. “But they’re also very seductive and captivating.”
“Who?” The simple question scraped from her throat. Did she really want to know?
Zoe stared at her as if considering, then she shook her head slightly. “You’ll know who your father is only when it is essential for you to find out.”
Catty could feel hot tears pressing into her eyes. She fought to keep them from rolling down her cheeks.
Zoe continued. “I feared that you were the destined heir to the Secret Scroll because of the prophecy.”
“What prophecy?” Catty hated the tremor that had crept into her voice.
“Only the child of a fallen goddess and an evil spirit will inherit the Scroll,” Zoe recited.
Catty’s heart sunk. Her mother was a Follower, her father an evil member of the Inner Circle. She suddenly felt damned. How could she overcome such a birthright?
Zoe took Catty’s hand. “You must never worry that you are evil because of your heritage. The manuscript can only be given to someone with a pure heart and the strength to fight the Atrox.”
Catty looked at Zoe’s hand holding her own. Finally she had the courage to ask her the question that had been bothering her all these years. “Why did you leave me by the side of the road?”
Zoe waited a long moment before she answered. “It was the only way I could think of to save you.”
Catty looked up at her and saw that Zoe’s eyes were shimmering with tears.
“When I heard about the legend of the Secret Scroll, I assumed that you were its heir. I couldn’t know for sure but I lived in terror. I feared that if you were given the manuscript, the Atrox would destroy you and the Scroll. I had to do something. I would have preferred to never see you again and know you were safe than to let the Atrox have you. So I abandoned you. I crashed the car and set it on fire, planning to say that I had lost consciousness and that you must have wandered off.”
“But in the desert,” Catty said accusingly, “I could have died so easily.”
Zoe reassured her. “I assumed that anyone seeing a child walking along the road in a deserted stretch of highway would stop.” Then she quickly added, “Besides, you know that I was watching over you until someone did stop.”
“But why didn’t the Regulators find me? They could have found me through my dreams.” She stopped. She was remembering what her mother had said to Stanton that day in the desert. She had begged him to take Catty’s memories from her so she’d be safe.
“That’s right,” Zoe said as if she understood what Catty was thinking. “Without your memories, it would be hard for the Regulators to find you and destroy you.”
“But you didn’t know Stanton would show up.”
“No, I didn’t. Until he showed up my plan was risky, I know, but I’d hoped that if a stranger reared you, you’d be safe. I hadn’t counted on Stanton. I don’t have the powers he has. I knew then that my plan might work. Without memories for the Regulators to explore, they wouldn’t be able to find you.”
Catty suddenly understood that Stanton had saved her. It was hard for her to imagine that he would do anything to help her. “Why would Stanton help me?”
“You don’t understand how valuable the Secret Scroll is and how many people want it,” Zoe answered. “I’m sure he hoped that if he took you back in time to see me that I would convince you to give the manuscript to him.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.” Zoe brushed her hand against Catty’s cheek.
“I’ll find a way to release you from what the Atrox has done to you,” Catty promised suddenly.
“It’s too late for that,” Zoe acknowledged.
“Let me try at least,” Catty urged. “I know I can do something.”
Zoe shook her head. “I’ve been dreaming about the goddess Selene. She comes to me in my dreams and offers me a second chance because I’ve done so much to protect you.”
“Are you going to accept her offer?” Catty instantly felt reassured.
“Yes.” Zoe nodded.
“Then why haven’t you?”
“Because I know that when I accept her offer, I’ll leave this body behind and become something different. I’ve only been waiting to talk to you again before I go.”
Catty looked at Zoe and felt a terrible ache and yearning. “Why didn’t you ever try to see me? You live so close. It hurts to know you were always right here and never even called me.”
“I did see you,” Zoe confessed. “When it was safe and I knew the Regulators weren’t following me, I watched you. Sometimes I was even bold enough to go into your room at night and sit by your bed. I would speak to you while you were sleeping.”
Catty was startled and wondered if the presence she had sometimes felt had been her mother.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to continue to visit you after.” Zoe grinned. “But you won’t be able to see me. I think of how much I feared the transition when I was young, but now I’m eager for it. I think we become guardian spirits so I’ll always be watching over you.” Zoe stood abruptly. “I’m ready.” She held out her hand. “Stay with me until Selene comes.”
Catty stood and followed Zoe through a back bedroom to a door that led to a small enclosed garden. Catty saw a small ornate mirror on the dresser. She wanted to have something that had belonged to her mother. She slipped it into her pocket, then held her hand protectively against it.
They sat outside in the backyard. They hadn’t been there long when the lunar glow began to brighten. Soon an eerie whiteness covered the lawn. A blazing light stretched from the moon and Zoe lifted her hand as if she could see something in the frosty beam. When her hand fell back, the light twirled up and up, scattering stars.
Then the yard was dark again and only her mother’s body remained.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
