I was grubby and rumpled from the journey and fretted about Cora’s reaction to the unexpected visit. Then, before I even rang the bell, the bolt behind the front door slid free.
Suddenly, Cora’s colorful countenance filled the doorframe and a warm smile spread across her face. At the sight of her, a wave of nostalgia washed over me and with it all the darkness of those days after my mother disappeared gripped me like a vice. But Cora wasn’t shaken.
Without a word, she gathered me in her arms and held me like she did so many years ago. In that instant, my reservations about coming to her with such a daunting request fell away. She pulled me across the threshold and pressed me into a chair at her dining room table.
Carefully lowering herself into a chair opposite me, her plump arms rested on the table. Her smooth brown skin melted into the deeply stained wood. Her head fell to one side and eyes puckered as she stared at me in silence.
“You’ve grown, child.” She said softly, her voice smooth and rich as honey. Unprecedented tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
Taking a deep breath, I met her gaze with even confidence.
“The shrouding spell’s been broken.” I declared in a clear voice, taking care not to leave a hint of question in my tone, proving to Cora that I knew she was the one who cast it.
With an unwavering gaze, the edges of her lips spread to something between a smile and a grimace.
“It has.” She replied, low and calm.
It was then that I sensed the steady vibration in the air around us like a low baritone stuck on one note, so subtle I may not have noticed it if my attention was less focused on Cora. I wondered if it had always been there, if it was something that I’d felt as a child but never paid attention to or if I was just picking it up now that my powers were stronger.
“Cora, I know what I am and what you are too.” I said.
Cora inhaled deeply and reclined in her chair. Her eyes softened and creased with stress.
“You don’t know all of what I am or what you are, child, but I suppose, it’s time you found out.” She confided.
“Stay here.” She instructed solemnly.
Cora stood. Her joints creaked audibly and she groaned as if the effort pained her. She walked out of the room without a backward glance.
I had come to Moco unsure of where my quest would lead and now the road was already bending, veering off in a direction I had not anticipated. I slumped back into my chair and looked forlorn around the room waiting for Cora to return. The question of whether or not she would help me find my mother weighed heavily on my shoulders.
Cora’s house was small and tidy. The living room and dining room were both the cool blue, usually reserved for porch ceilings. Sepia toned family portraits lined the room and the eyes of generations past stared at me from every direction. The tick of an old fashioned clock hanging on the wall was the only distraction from silence. My gaze lingered on the pendulum watching it sway predictably from side to side.
From beyond the swinging door to the kitchen, Cora’s slow heavy footsteps approached. When the door swung open, she emerged cradling an armful of books. She carefully deposited her load onto the table and laboriously lowered herself back into the chair across from me. Her gaze flitted pensively between the books and my face.
Too tired and confused to know what to say, I sat silently waiting for Cora to sort her thoughts. She sifted through the pile of books and pulled one from the stack then shoved the rest of the pile down the table. She set the book in the space between us and began to flip through translucent vellum pages containing a combination of photographs, script and mementoes. When she found the page she was looking for, she stared at the photograph for a moment before turning the book toward me.
The page was decorated with pressed flowers arranged around a photograph of a girl in a graduation gown. The girl was smiling with her graduation cap cocked playfully to the side like a beret. My heart skipped a beat and the blood drained from my face. The girl in the picture was my mother.
“Where did you get this?” I asked, my voice a mixture of confusion and suspicion.
Cora’s eyes clouded with emotion. She lifted the page to reveal another set of photographs, all of my mother, when she could not have been much older than me posing comfortably with her arms around Cora.
“You knew her, even then?” I asked incredulous, my voice a hoarse whisper.
With a slow nod, Cora’s eyelids fell and a tear slid down her cheek. When she opened them there was a new sense of resolve in her eyes.
“Your mama is my daughter.” She said softly.
My stomach plummeted like I’d fallen off a cliff. Cora was my grandmother? Besides the fact that my mother never told me anything about my grandparents, much less that I had a grandmother right here in Moco, we didn’t look alike. But yet, Cora was a witch and so was I. I shook my head in disbelief.
“But why didn’t you ever tell me? And we… look different.” I added stumbling over my words.
Cora assumed a stoic expression before responding.
“Your mama and I had words when she was not much older than you and we never spoke again… until the night she asked me to come for you. Understand now, I didn’t want that for us. I love your mama.” She said, with a passion flowing from deep within her.
“As for our looks, child. Are you so sure, you don’t look like me?” She said tenderly and her eyebrows peaked.
For the first time since I’d met Cora, I noticed speckles of gold in her mossy green eyes, just like mine, staring back at me. A tremble ran through my body so strong it made my teeth chatter, my stomach churned and tears began to build up behind my eyes causing my head to hurt.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I was so afraid…and so alone.” I asked trying hard not to cry.
Cora’s eyes softened and her arms stretched across the table to hold my shaking hands. Her touch was warm and soothing and somehow told me things her words could not.
“Eliza, I have loved you all your life but, child, you needed to leave this place. They were comin’ for you. Telling you then would have just made leavin’ harder.” She whispered as twin tears slid down her cheeks.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to process Cora’s confession. It felt like the roots of my life, at least what remained, were being tugged from the ground like a tree in a hurricane.
“Why didn’t she want me to know about you?” I asked as calmly as possible.
Cora’s hands released mine and her fingers twined with each other joining and releasing as she thought.
“Your mama found out I’d shrouded her, like I did you.” She divulged hesitantly as if this was a topic she didn’t want to elaborate upon.
But I was not about to let Cora hide anything more from me. Not after I’d come this far.
“Why did you do it then?” I pressed, frustration creeping into my voice.
Cora folded her hands together, letting them rest on the table.
“Now Eliza, don’t you snap at me, child. I shrouded your mama and you for the same reason. To protect you.” She said firmly.
“From the nereids?” I ventured boldly, testing her.
Cora frowned.
“Some call them that. Around here, we call them swamp haints. When Nia was a girl, the haints came to her first in dreams, just like they came to you. I did the only thing I could to protect her. I hid her from them.” Cora explained patiently.
“But they crossed over, didn’t they?” I asked.
A look of surprise washed over Cora’s face.
“That’s right. Eventually, they crossed over and found her. They squirmed their way like worms right through my spell and went to work on your mama.” She said sadly.
“They showed her the magic that lived inside her and fed her lies. Nia didn’t trust me anymore. She cut me clean outta her life. She thought I was the evil one, keepin’ her powers from her.” Cora said, her voice dropping low. “She invited them in and then they took her away.�
� Her voice cracked.
But one thing didn’t make sense. The nereids hunted bloodlines. Cora was my grandmother and my link to the magic they wanted. Why hadn’t they gone after her?
“Why didn’t they come after you? Don’t you have the magic they want just as much as my mother and me?” I asked.
Cora pursed her lips and frowned defiantly. “Oh they tried alright but understand now, they didn’t find me until I was a grown woman. I wasn’t fallin’ for their tricks. But poor Nia, she was just a babe. They coulda lured her away in the night right out from under my nose… course, in the end that’s just about what happened.” She said sadly.
My heart sank at the memory and broke not just for me but for Cora too. But this was the part of the story I already knew and I hadn’t come back to Moco to sit around and feel sorry about things we could not change. I came to rescue my mother, if it could be done. I reached into my pocket and grabbed the water lily amulet that Uncle Harold gave me. I slapped my palm on the table and slid my hand away, leaving the amulet between us.
“I was given this. Will it help me find her?” I asked carefully watching Cora’s expression.
Recognition and surprise flashed in her eyes.
“Who gave that to you?” She demanded.
“A wizard, a very old one. Do you know where the haints took my mother? Will this help me?” I persisted.
Cora pursed her lips and shook her head. I could see she was beginning to understand why I’d come to Moco and she didn’t like it.
“No child. That won’t help you and neither will I. The haints want you as bad as your mama. There’s no sense in you goin’ after her, they’ll just trap you too.” She resigned.
I slumped in my seat and glared silently at my clasped hands for a moment before speaking.
“Why do the nereids want us so badly anyway? What do we have that’s so special?” I fumed.
Cora frowned and pressed her lips together tight as if considering the affect her response might have on me. “Eliza, look at me child.”
I lifted my eyes to her, surprised by the sudden softening of her tone.
“Do you see my skin? It reveals the place of my ancestors and yours too. Our blood runs straight to the womb of human life. We are the children of the oldest magic.” She said reverently.
“Why does that even matter? I can hardly do anything.” I exclaimed.
Cora shook her head. “Don’t matter what you know how to do, child. With your magic, the swamps haints can do a whole lotta things. They’d take what you have and mold it like clay to their liking. If on their own they can light a candle, with your magic, they could set a whole forest on fire.” She said with dismay.
“So they can do more with my magic than even I can?” I asked with frustration.
Cora gave me a stern look. “Now do you understand why you shouldn’t be messin’ with this business?”
I took a deep breath and stared at the table, trying to quell my fear and temper my anger.
“I came to see you because you’re a witch and I thought you could help me. I knew you were the one who cast the shrouding spell on me. I thought you might help me because you care about me. But now that I know you’re my family, I would think you’d help me because you love me and your daughter no matter how dangerous the nereids are.” I sighed and stared at the amulet on the table.
When Cora didn’t respond, I reached out and laid my hand over the amulet, ready to place it back in my pocket and go on my way.
Cora’s warm hand covered mine.
“You mean to do this, don’t you child? Even if it’s unwise?” She eyed me warily, her broken heart heavy in her gaze.
“I have to at least try to find her. I have to help her.” I replied with certainty.
Cora’s eyelids dropped. She grimaced but her head bobbed in assent.
“Then you won’t try alone.” She said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
“But not today. Today you rest. Tonight, at sunset, you can go.” She instructed solemnly.
Cora settled me in a small guest bedroom with little to look at but the four blue walls and the Spanish moss swaying from the branches of a live oak beyond the window. In the calm silence of her house, I fell into a deep dreamless sleep only to wake to her gentle nudge. Orange light accented the bark of the oak tree outside the window and cast a warm glow on the wall opposite the bed.
“It’s time for supper, child. You’ll need the strength for where you’re goin’ tonight.” She said somberly.
We sat down to a dinner of shrimp gumbo, a meal I hadn’t enjoyed since I was a child. Cora’s face was stern and thoughtful. She stared at me in silence from time to time, flashes of sadness and anger alternating in her gaze.
“You can’t go there whole. You’re too vulnerable that way. We’ll send your Shadow.” She said evenly.
I choked on my gumbo.
“I… I don’t want to do that. I’ll just go, that’s what I planned. Just the way my mother did, I’ll go there and face them.” I argued nervously.
Cora’s head swayed stubbornly from side to side, a firm expression on her face.
“No. Only your Shadow can slip in without their help. Your best chance of findin’ your mother is to find Eudora, queen of the swamp haints, before the scylla catch you. Understand, child, you can’t go into the haints world whole, unless they take you, but your Shadow, it needs no help. It goes where it pleases.” She explained.
A light sweat sprang to my brow and I swallowed the spicy gumbo in large bites.
“What’s the scylla?” I asked warily. Uncle Harold had mentioned that there would be a queen but he hadn’t said anything about a scylla.
Cora shook her head and frowned before responding. “It guards the queen. Tricky thing they is. See the scylla look like different creatures but really they’re one. They’re clever, can share thoughts and all. You got to sneak past the scylla to get into Eudora’s castle.”
“Oh… then what should I do, when I find Eudora, that is?” I asked meekly, feeling the weight of my plan.
Cora reached across the table, her palm up and arthritic fingers curled inward.
“Let me see it again.” She said quietly.
I fumbled in my pocket for the amulet, pulled it out and placed it carefully in Cora’s outstretched palm.
“This…” She said staring incredulously at the amulet, “came from her.” Her fingers stroked the edges of the smooth scarlet flower.
“Big magic, here, child.” She said her head shaking, a wry smile spread across her face.
I couldn’t suppress a grin. I’d suspected Cora was lying when she’d denied the amulet’s significance.
“Some time, long time ago, the swamp haints made a promise to our kin that they’d leave us be if we shared some of our magic with them. We did. Now, that was a long time ago and they think there’s no one left who remembers. But this...” She said with a smile shaking the amulet.
“This here will show them that we remember. Eudora knows what it means. When you go, you show her this amulet and you’ll leave unharmed.” She added hopefully.
Cora slid the amulet across the table into my hand and shoved back her chair to stand.
“Now, come with me.” She motioned with her hand for me to follow.
She led me through the kitchen and out the back door to a large covered porch overlooking the backyard. The air was moist and unseasonably warm for the time of year. Birds called to each other as the sun fell.
Cora walked stiffly toward the far side of the porch and lifted a covered pot from a small table then walked back toward the center of the porch and laid it on the ground. She returned to the table and retrieved a basket. From the basket she drew nine white pillar candles and positioned them in a large circle.
The last drops of sunset crept behind the trees, leaving behind the blue haze of evening. Cora struck a match and methodically made her way clockwise around the circle lighting each candle. The glow of the candles lit the space in
side the circle separating it from the encroaching night.
“Step into the circle, child.” She commanded without looking at me as she rummaged through the contents of the basket.
I stepped through a space between two candles and immediately felt hot and lightheaded. I couldn’t see past the circle of light as if everything beyond it had disappeared into a black void.
Cora was kneeling on the ground holding the bowl between her hands. She tipped it and a mound of creamy yellow powder spilled before her followed by a cloud of fine dust that hovered in the air.
I coughed, accidentally inhaling the dust.
“What is it?” I asked anxiously waving my hands in front of my face.
“Hominy.” She answered, without further explanation.
She lifted her face and stared intently into my eyes, then reached across the mound and pressed her hand over my heart.
“Your Shadow is your essence, child. It is the vapor that existed before you met your body and the dust that will move on when your body doesn’t. When you travel as a Shadow, you will think your heart beats and your lungs breathe but they don’t. Your Shadow is free in a way your body isn’t. Your body needs the earth and air to live. Where you’ll go tonight, there is no earth and no air but your Shadow won’t mind.”
With a slow smooth motion, Cora brushed her hand over the mound spreading it in an even circle.
“You’ll go to sleep and when you wake you’ll be on your way.” She said, her voice deep and thick.
Dipping a crooked finger into the grainy dust, she dragged it toward the middle of the circle leaving a line.
I grimaced but nodded for her to continue. My stomach twisted at the thought of going to that place that had haunted me for so many years. I knew the road, the darkness, the forest and the water at the end of it.
“Don’t you go off the road, you hear? You walk till you meet the water.” Cora instructed sternly, all the while her finger traced lines in the grain creating a primitive map.
Eliza's Shadow Page 25
