Aishling shook her head and opened her mouth to argue.
“Don’t say anything until I finish. Didn’t you say you wanted to get your amulet back? I’d definitely want to if it were mine. Is it made of stones?” Aishling nodded. “Do you remember what stones are in it and what they’re for? What about your mother’s grimoire? Do they have that? What other books or stones do they have?”
Distracted by Morrigan’s questions, she placed her hands on the side of the bed and blew through her lips. “I don’t remember what the amulet looks like anymore. All I remember is when they brought me here they cut my hair—” Aishling scowled at the doorway “—then they took all my things including the amulet and put them in a box. I don’t even know where the box is.”
“Those things might have clues about what happened to your mother. We need to get them back before we leave.”
Aishling hopped off the bed. “You’ll go with me?”
Morrigan sat up. “Yes. But not until we get your amulet and other things. You should go apologize to the preacher before he calls you into his office. It would look better. Tell him you started your monthly cycle in church. That it’s your first time … and you didn’t know what was happening. Yes, that’s good. You can say that’s why you lost it and acted the way you did. Ask him to forgive you. Tell him you’re ready to repent. Don’t shake your head, Aish. He could have you sent somewhere else. You don’t want that, do you? We wouldn’t be together anymore. You’re my best friend.”
“But that’s lying.”
“He needs to think you’re really sorry. You should cry when you talk to him.” Morrigan stood and picked up some of Aishling’s clothes.
“I can’t—”
“Come on. Let’s put these things up quickly so you can go.”
After hanging one of her shirts in the closet, she said, “Morri, Ma says if you lie, sooner or later the lie will come back and slap you in the face, and you’re lucky if it’s sooner. Anyway, if I lie, then I’ll be lied to three times.”
Morrigan continued putting Aishling’s clothes away. “Hurry up, before he comes looking for you.”
*******
March 10
I lied today. I had to.
The preacher’s face turned so red. I almost laughed. But, I did what Morri had said and begged him to forgive me. I even cried a little. He took me to Mrs. Sloan for a “girl’s” talk, and I had to tell more lies. For punishment, I have kitchen duty until the end of April. Drat!
But, one good thing happened out of all this. I asked Mrs. Sloan to talk to Mrs. Dawes and tell her I needed time to sort all this girl stuff out before meeting that new couple. She called Mrs. Dawes at home and talked her in to giving me two more weeks! Isn’t there a time when lying is okay?
Oh, I forgot with everything that’s happened today. I had another dream about Morri last night. First, I was watching her write in her diary here in our room. Then, I was standing in a strange house. I walked into the living room and saw a woman reading a diary. I couldn’t make out her face, or I don’t remember it. In the dream, I knew the diary she was reading was Morri’s diary.
What’s weird though is that the woman was reading Morri’s diary there at the same time Morri was writing in it here. What does that mean? Are you telling me you can read my diary, Ma? That you know what I’m writing? Well, if you are, and you’re mad at me for lying, come get me and teach me a lesson!
*******
6
Monday, March 11
Aishling looked up from her desk. “Good morning.”
Morrigan stretched. “Good morning.” She hopped out of bed and dressed.
“Have you been writing in your diary all night?”
“No.” Aishling giggled. “I got up early to write about this dream I had last night. I didn’t want to forget any of it.”
Morrigan combed her hair. “What was it about?”
Aishling glanced at her clock and jumped up. “We have to get breakfast. We can’t be late for school. I’ll tell you later.”
“Oh—” Morrigan stretched again “—I don’t want to go to their ol’ school.”
“You know you have to. Come on.” She grabbed Morrigan’s hands and pulled her toward the door.
When they reached the dining room and Aishling sat at the table next to Kelile, he whispered, “What happened after Lance and I left yesterday?”
“I apologized to Preacher Collins, and now I have kitchen duty until May.”
“Way to go, girl.” He chuckled.
That afternoon after classes, Kelile caught up with her on her way back to Weaver House. Nudging her on her right arm, he said, “Hey, let’s talk about gettin’ outta here.”
“What?” Aishling stopped walking. “I thought you told me yesterday not to do anything stupid.”
“I didn’t mean running away was stupid. I just want ya to be smart about it and not get caught.” They walked in silence a moment. “I think we can help each other get away from here.”
“Aish,” Morrigan called, jogging up to them. “Slave boy.” She rolled her eyes.
“Prissy queen.”
Morrigan tugged Aishling away from him and whispered, “Let’s put our backpacks up and go to the swings. I want to hear about your dream last night. Come on, hurry.” She ran ahead.
Aishling waved goodbye to him. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Make it sooner, girl. We need to talk.”
When they arrived at the swings, Morrigan plopped on hers first and pushed off. “Why do you talk to slave boy?”
“Because he’s nice and I like him.” She rocked the swing back and forth with her toes. “Why do you treat him that way?”
“I think he’s got the wrong attitude for a black boy. He’s not respectful of us. And … white girls don’t hang around with black boys. You don’t want the preacher disapproving of you anymore than he already does.”
“Morri, you’re prejudiced.”
Morrigan skidded to a halt. “Oh? Then tell me, how many black people have you hung around with before?”
“He’s the first. But, it doesn’t matter.” She thought a moment. “Lance is Cherokee, and you still like him.”
“That’s different.”
“Not really.” She stared at the ground a moment. “Maybe I shouldn’t like you because my hair is red and yours is black.”
“Oh, don’t be silly.”
“Morri, I don’t think you’d like it if someone was mean to you because you’re a witch.”
“Shh!” Morrigan looked behind them. “Don’t get all upset, Aish. I’ll try to be decent to him if that’s what you want. But you do need to be careful. You don’t want to draw attention to yourself anymore right now. Oh, there’s Lance. I’ll talk to you later.” She hopped out of the swing and ran to him.
Aishling’s cheeks tingled when he waved to her and smiled. She watched the sunlight gleam in his chestnut hair. What would it be like for him to look at her the way he looks at Morri? He was so nice yesterday. She shoved her swing into the air and closed her eyes, working her legs until she had the sensation of gliding.
After leaving the swings, she walked back to the bedroom. Morrigan shuddered and dropped something when she walked in. Upon realizing it was her diary Morri had dropped, she said, “What are you doing?”
“You didn’t put it away very good. And, I wanted to read what your dream was last night. You don’t mind, do you? Aren’t I your best friend? Best friends tell each other everything.” She picked up the diary and handed it to Aishling. “Why haven’t you put a shock spell or some other kind of spell on it so no one but you can read it? I put a good spell on mine.” She smiled.
At first, Aishling quietly stared at her diary. Had Morri even realized what she had done? True, she was her best friend, but to read her diary without asking permission?
“You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. It was sticking out, and I was going to hide it behind your desk again. I dropped it, and it fell
open. Don’t be upset.”
Aishling thumbed through it. “I use an enfolding enchantment on it, blending it into wherever I hide it. That way, no one even sees it. I must have forgotten when we rushed out this morning.”
Maybe Morri could help me. “I’ve been trying to figure out what my dream means.”
Morrigan bounded over and hugged her. “Good. You’re not mad. Read it to me. We’ll figure it out together.” She plopped on her bed and pointed for Aishling to sit on hers.
As she sat, Aishling asked, “What kind of spell do you use on your diary?”
“You want to know?” Morrigan hopped up and got hers from her desk drawer. She opened it to the first page and read aloud, “This diary belongs to Morrigan Shae MacAuley, and is only for her eyes and the eyes of her—Oh, I lost my place. It’s for my eyes only. All others—Read this warning. Take this heed. If not yours, you may not read. Once you do begin to read, your eyes will itch, burn, and bleed. So mote it be.” She grinned. “Isn’t that cool? If anyone reads it, their eyes will do that.”
Aishling paused, speechless. Something about what Morrigan had read made her feel uneasy. Was it because the spell would cause harm? “Morri, Ma told me whatever magick you conjure always comes back to you threefold. You know, you’ll receive three times the love or three times the pain.” She hesitated again, reminded of something else. Unable to pull the memory together, she continued, “Ma wouldn’t teach me any enchantments or spells which could hurt. What about your mother? Would she have wanted you using magick like that?”
Morrigan shrugged. “You can do magick in self-defense, even if it does hurt someone else. If it’s in self-defense, it won’t come back at you. Reading someone’s diary without per—Let’s don’t argue. Come on, tell me your dream.”
Vague memories and faint warnings troubled Aishling, but she didn’t want to argue with Morri. She pushed those thoughts out of her mind and said, “Okay, here’s the dream. And what’s so important about it in the first place is that I remembered all of it. I’m getting my gift back.” She read:
“At first, I was walking through a forest. It was foggy, but I found my way through and came to a large green meadow. All kinds of pretty flowers grew in the meadow. I skipped to the flowers and picked some of them, putting them into a heart-shaped basket. It felt like I was collecting something precious. But then, I noticed movement out of the corner of my right eye. I turned, and by the edge of the forest was a large raven that was—and this is gross—eating three bodies lying in the field. I ran away as fast as I could. In the next part, I was looking in a big mirror, holding my basket of flowers. The flowers started fading, and I got sad. When I looked closer, though, they weren’t really fading. They were turning into a dress of flowers. I put the dress on. As I looked in the mirror again, the dress melted into my skin, turning into flower paintings all over my body. Then the paintings faded. That large raven appeared again, right next to me. It picked at my eyes. I didn’t feel it, though. I only saw it happening in the mirror. Blood poured down my face. Then I woke up.”
“Wow, what a dream. Were you scared?”
“No.”
“Even when you saw the raven eating your eyes?”
“No.”
“Well, we know your middle name means raven.”
“Maybe that’s it. I thought about it earlier, and I understood most of my dream. But I couldn’t figure out the part about the raven.”
“What did you think the flowers meant?”
Aishling closed her diary and laid it next to her. She lifted her legs up on the bed and wrapped her arms around her knees. “You know the day you came here? I know, it was only three days ago, but it seems like three months. Anyway, after leaving Mrs. Dawes’ office that day, I thought about the time when Ma told me what a person feels like after losing pieces of their soul.”
Morrigan shifted her hands into a timeout signal. “What?”
“Your mother never told you about that?”
Morrigan shook her head.
“Mine did. But, that’s one of the things she does. People come to her for help in healing different problems. Besides doing things with herbs and teas and stuff, she also goes on spiritual journeys searching for missing pieces of people’s souls. She brings the pieces back and helps people become whole again.”
Morrigan stared at her wiggling feet. “Your mother was a healer?”
“Is a healer.” Aishling frowned. “I think the flowers were missing pieces of my soul. Because the day you came, I had been wondering how to put my own soul back together. In the dream, that’s what I was doing. When the flowers turned into a dress that melted into my body, I became whole again. But, I couldn’t figure out what the raven meant until now.”
Morrigan hopped up and sat next to her. “What do you think the raven means?”
“That I’ve been plucking my own eyes out, keeping myself from seeing some truth.”
7
*******
March 16
I think Morri’s jealous when I talk to Kelile. I don’t know why. Anyway, he was upset today. After lunch, he told me he needed to talk to me, alone. That’s when she got mad and stomped off.
He said he had called home and his little sister answered the phone. She was crying and told him that her daddy had hit mommy. He is so mad. He thinks his mother’s in danger and he wants to run away now. I told him I couldn’t leave yet, that there’s something I had to do first. I don’t want to leave until I get my things back. Besides, Morri’s insisting I get my things first. She said something about a Suti Stone, that I might have it. I told her I doubt it. But she’s going to help me get my things back. If anyone can do it, she can. And I want her to come with me when I run away. Anyway, I told Kelile he didn’t have to wait on me. He just shook his head and walked away. I’m sorry, Kelile. I hope your mother is okay.
When I found Morri later, she said she was sorry but she had been excited and wanted to tell me something. She wants me to become her soul friend on Ostara this coming Thursday. I can’t believe it. I’m so happy she likes me that much.
*******
March 17
I had nightmares last night. I remember all of them, too. It seems I have no trouble remembering my dreams now. Anyway, I thought I was going to die in my sleep. First, I was looking in a mirror and I saw this shadowlike woman in black robes hovering around me. I heard her chanting, I think in Gaelic. I couldn’t understand her, but I could tell she wanted to hurt me. I could even smell the evil, like rotted vomit. Though her body looked like a dark shadow, her eyes stood out because they were blood red. Then I heard heavy breathing. When I stared in the mirror, I realized it was me because the shadow-woman was suffocating me.
Then I found myself buried in dirt up to my neck, being crushed to death. I could still see those eyes. I heard laughing, and I knew she was going to rip my head to shreds.
Then I was under a canoe that had turned over and trapped me underwater, my feet felt like they were weighed down. I knew I would drown. But this time, I heard a soft voice saying, “Breathe. Breathe through your fear. Breathe through your grief. Breathe through the water.” I did, hoping it would stop the nightmare. It did.
*******
Monday, March 18
After classes, Morrigan stood on the dock by the storage building with her hands on her hips, a stern look on her face. “Okay, now, repeat it back to me.”
“Why are you looking like that?” Aishling rolled her eyes and grinned.
“I’m in character, remember? I’m Mrs. Dawes. Now, what do you say next?”
“But you’re not Mrs. Dawes, and you look funny.”
“Come on, this is important. We’ve got to get your stuff back. We talked about it. Your amulet could have the Suti Stone in it.”
“You keep talking about that stone. I don’t know what it is or what it looks like.” Aishling sat on the dock. “Since I don’t know what it is, it probably isn’t in my amulet.”
“But wha
t if it is? I’ve told you, it’s a very magical stone. Like I said before, that stone is so powerful that the one who controls it could predict the future, see into the past, reign over other realms. And,” she hesitated, “I haven’t told you this before, but it could be used to bring people back from the dead.”
“What? But what makes you think it’s in my amulet?”
Morrigan sat next to her and picked up a piece of bark. “My mother told me that the last place anyone had seen the stone was in the Snowbird Mountains. You’re from that area.” She broke off pieces of the bark. “She said it could only be handled by a Celtic healer with special powers. Your mother fits the description. Just think, Aish, we could get our mothers back!”
“Wouldn’t I know if I had this stone? Ma would have told me if it was so special.”
“Look, I know you have it. I had a vision. I have to get it. I know it’s in your amulet or with your other things. Is your mother’s grimoire or any other old book with your stuff?”
“You asked me that before. I don’t know. And wouldn’t Ma keep it with her? What about your mother’s grimoire? Couldn’t it lead us to the Suti Stone?”
Morrigan threw down the pieces of bark. “It burned up in the car accident.”
Not wanting to bring up any more bad memories, Aishling stood and stretched. “Okay. Let’s act it out.”
“Yes.” Morrigan bounced up, placing her hands back on her hips. “Okay, Ms. O’Brian, what is it you want to ask me?”
Thursday, March 21 (Ostara)
“I added three white candles and a lighter to the bag,” Morrigan whispered before crawling out their bedroom window after curfew. Tonight, they would do the soul friend ceremony.
“How did you get all that?” Aishling handed Morrigan the bag that also contained their soul friend gifts and the items she had smuggled from the kitchen—three plastic cups and grape juice. She crawled through the window next, stopped midway, and backed up, whispering, “I forgot the blanket.”
Dead Moon Awakens: A tale of Cherokee myth and Celtic magic (Mystic Gates) Page 3
