Kanti

by J. R. Erickson

  "It's not new," Oliver continued. "Just new for us."

  "Which is my point."

  "She did it," Victor announced, striding into the room. He held a brush thick with long silver hair.

  "I hope they don't hurt Audra," Lydie said, staring at the brush. "She shouldn't have taken the whole brush. The lady might notice it's missing."

  "Audra said there wasn't time to steal hairs, so she grabbed the brush and brought it to me in the alleyway," Victor explained. "I'd say the lack of time applies to us as well, so let's get moving."

  Kendra took the brush and pulled out a handful of the hairs. She took a small doll from a paper bag. The doll had button eyes and large black stitching around its arms and legs. Abby felt a stir of uneasiness looking at the thing. She knew very little about voodoo dolls, but this one gave her the heebie-jeebies.

  "Have any of you used one of those before?" she asked, nodding toward the doll as Kendra quickly sewed the hair onto its head.

  "I have," Oliver admitted. "Sort of. Julian taught me. We used a doll to heal a woman who'd been attacked by a Vepar."

  "It worked?" Sebastian asked, looking skeptical.

  "Julian made the doll right there in the woods. He ripped off part of the woman's shirt, stuffed it with leaves and sewed it with fish line. He took some of the woman's hair and added it to the doll. Then he performed the ritual to animate it with her spirit. I wasn't much help, as you can imagine. I mostly just watched with my mouth hanging open catching flies. Then he took a bottle of anti-venom and soaked the doll. The woman was unconscious in the woods and had nearly bled out. He was concerned that giving her the potion directly might poison her, and we didn't exactly have a lot of options."

  "And?" Abby asked, incredulous.

  "It worked, or seemed to. The woman came to about twenty minutes later. She needed a blood transfusion so we took her to the hospital and dropped her off. Julian muddled her memory a bit, but he checked on her later and found no traces of the venom."

  "Traces?" Sebastian asked.

  "For most humans, the venom of the Vepar kills them outright," Oliver admitted. "The ones who aren't killed usually wander around until their bodies go completely toxic, and that kills them."

  Sebastian frowned.

  Abby knew that he thought about his own experience with Vepars. He had been bitten more than once and not suffered those horrific outcomes.

  "You're strong," Abby told him.

  "Some people have a certain immunity," Oliver added. "Possibly because your sister was a witch."

  "Well she obviously wasn't immune," Sebastian snapped.

  "I didn't say she was," Oliver challenged.

  Abby put her hand on Sebastian's arm. She could feel his pulse thumping against her fingers. He looked at her for a moment as if enraged that she had stopped him, and then his eyes softened.

  "If you guys are done, maybe we could begin?" Kendra asked.

  The tension in the room buzzed like a live wire. They were attempting unexplored magic and dabbling with a witch who'd likely make vengeance a priority if she discovered what they were up to.

  Kendra finished the doll.

  Oliver set up a ladder and climbed to a chandelier suspended in the center of the room. He tied a string around the waist of the doll and then fastened the other end to the fixture. The doll dangled above the circle. They placed a chair in the center of the circle and Kendra sat down. They had only one broom. Abby walked through the space sweeping the floor and whispering the incantations Elda had taught her to purify a space.

  "Why can't you just set the doll on the floor?" Sebastian asked, watching the grim little doll sway back and forth.

  "We're entering the land of dreaming," Victor said. "It's all about air and fluidity. If the doll were on the floor, we might wake Ethel up, bring her back to the physical world."

  ****

  Lydie arranged herbs in a mesh pouch. Each of the witches would wear one during the ritual. Some of the herbs would be the same: peppermint for help in dream travel, frankincense as an offering to their element and fennel seed for protection from psychic attack. Additional herbs magnified their individual elements. Lydie would add cinnamon to her own pouch, aloe leaves for Abby, for Oliver bark from the cypress trees and a handful of dirt, and for Victor and Kendra anise. Oliver and Lydie had found most of the herbs and stones at a new age bookstore in town. The health food store Mama's Miso sold the rest of the herbs in bulk. Kendra's pouch would contain extra herbs and stones because she would be their primary conduit during the ritual.

  They arranged themselves in the four directions according to their element. As an earth element, Oliver took his position at the north of the circle, Abby at the west, Lydie to the south and Victor to the east. Kendra sat in a wooden chair in the center of the space. The chair was positioned directly beneath the doll.

  "Ready," Victor said and Sebastian flicked off the lights, leaving the room awash in candlelight.

  The four witches on the perimeter of the circle gazed at one another a final time, and then they each closed their eyes.

  Oliver began:

  "I call to the Watchtower of the West, energies of the water, goddess of dreaming. Guide and protect us as we navigate your fluid scape. Protect us with your strength and your grace."

  Abby joined him as he repeated the call a second time. She felt a heartbeat in her belly, but did not know if it belonged to her or the baby. As Abby's voice rang out, she sensed the ball of blue energy at the base of her spine igniting and growing stronger.

  "I call to the Watchtower of the South, energies of fire, sun god Ra. Guide and protect us as we navigate the land of dreaming. Shield us with your fierce energy."

  Lydie joined him during the second invocation.

  "I call to the Watchtower of the East, energies of the air, god of the mind. Guide and protect us as we move into the realms of memory. Protect us with your wit and cunning."

  Victor repeated the call.

  "I call to the Watchtower of the North, the energies of earth, of my own true nature, goddess of Gaia. Guide and protect us as we move away from your solid bearings. Protect us with your steady hand."

  As Oliver invoked the elements, the candle flames danced and flickered. Outside the wind grew fiercer. Leaves and branches scraped the windows.

  As the witches felt their energy heighten, they directed the flow toward Kendra. She held a sharp silver blade in her hand. Carefully, she stood on the chair and drew the blade across an emptiness in the air above the doll. Though she appeared to cut nothing at all, she created a doorway into the world of dreaming. She sat and closed her eyes. Her body hummed with the funneling power and her chair knocked rhythmically on the wood floor.

  ****

  In her astral body, Kendra left the circle. She directed her energy up, beyond the earth and the sky and the universe. She pressed harder and higher until she burst through the barriers of consciousness into the land of dreaming. The blackness terrified her, but soon it gave way to a thousand images flashing in every direction. Colors and streaks of light and ghostly drawn faces wove and cascaded around her. A cacophony of sounds penetrated her mind—music, laughter and crying. She lifted a hand, stared at her own shimmering body, and tried to remember. She had a purpose, a mission, but found only a million glittering worlds, and she longed to fall into each one. A slithering darkness moved past her. She felt her astral body begin to melt toward the shadow.

  In her mind, Victor appeared. Not in the astral plane, but in her thoughts. He held up an image of the doll and she remembered: Ethel.

  She focused on the doorway above the doll, turning through space until she noticed a sliver of red light. She moved toward it, ignoring the dreams that swirled around her. She reached out and allowed her hand to pass through the opening. Immediately the dream pulled her into its scape.

  Kendra stood in an old shack. Rain beat against the tin roof and dripped onto sodden rugs and a dirt floor. Candles stood on a stack of planks in
the center of the room. Half-empty plates of thin stew surrounded the candles. A young woman, her back to Kendra, stood at a washpot near the door. Two snoring women slumbered in sagging cots against a wall.

  Kendra did not recognize Ethel, but knew her to be the angular girl washing dishes. She might have been fifteen. Malnourishment gave her the appearance of a boy. Her black hair hung down her back in tangles. Sharp shoulders and ribs stood out in her gray cotton dress.

  Ethel glanced at the women sleeping and then began to whisper under her breath. Outside, the rain grew louder and the wind began to howl. The shack shook and groaned. One of the women woke, scared, and turned to Ethel. Ethel stared back at her and then a streak of white lightning, followed by a deafening clap of thunder, struck the shanty. Kendra smelled smoke and flinched as the front wall burst into flames.

  She started to cry out, but the shack, the women and the fire dissolved. She looked around, confused, at a long stretch of stony beach. The gray half-light of dawn revealed a choppy, cold-looking lake or ocean. Ocean, Kendra thought. She tasted salt in the air.

  Ethel, older now, stood waist deep in the water. She drew her hands up and the water followed in streams and tornadoes and cyclones. In a burst, she flew straight out of the water and spun with her arms outstretched to either side.

  She's dreaming, Kendra reminded herself. Of course she can fly.

  Kendra joined her. She drifted up and began to spin around and around. Ethel did not seem startled, only continued her twirling and then dove, hard, into the dark waters below. She emerged and flew up again. Kendra followed her. She dove into the water and then rose into the sky. It was strange manipulating her astral body in such a way. She always knew that she could defy natural laws in the astral space, but rarely did so. Finally, Ethel tired of her game and returned to the shore.

  Her black hair was now cropped short above her shoulders. No longer the sickly teen girl, she appeared as a healthy, glowing witch. Her green eyes, like two shards of beach glass, regarded Kendra with interest.

  In dreams, the tangible world with all its stories ceased to exist. Ethel might know Kendra and she might not. Kendra hoped for the latter.

  "Tell me about Dafne," she said.

  "Dafne?" Ethel asked, but something sparked in her eyes. Recognition and memory.

  If Ethel had not remembered Kendra, she did now.

  "Clever witches," she said, staring out at the sea. "Clever and stupid to approach me this way."

  "No, I don't think so. I think this was the only way."

  Ethel smiled meanly.

  "Don't assume I'll make it easy."

  She vanished and Kendra reached out, grabbing at nothing.

  Another scene materialized. Ethel could shift her dreamscape, but Kendra had already entered it. Wherever Ethel disappeared to, Kendra emerged as well.

  Kendra looked at a towering medieval castle. Angry black turrets stretched toward a sweltering red sky. Black roses grew in massive heaps along the road that wound toward the castle gate. Kendra saw Ethel standing on the stone steps. She turned and ran toward the castle entrance and Kendra raced after her. She had to reach her before she crossed through the door—something horrible awaited them on the other side. So close, she reached out and clutched for Ethel's black cloak, but the door swung out and Kendra stumbled back, terrified. Ethel disappeared into the black interior. Kendra heard screams and laughter and howls of pain.

  "This is a dream," she reminded herself, but suddenly felt less sure. She paused and allowed her mind to connect with the other witches who sat around her body in New Orleans. She felt Victor, Lydie, Oliver and Abby. They could not see what she saw, but they surely felt her panic.

  Kendra drew her attention back into the dream and to the doorway.

  "She cannot hurt me," she whispered and strode into the darkness.

  ****

  A huge stone foyer greeted her. Far away she could see a hearth as tall as a house. A massive fire blazed and she moved toward the flames. She searched for Ethel, but the flames seemed to stretch and fill every space. She could no longer see anything, except the flames. Inside the blaze, another scene materialized. Kendra moved closer, watching as a dark street slid into view. A beautiful house surrounded by a heavy black iron fence. Now she could see a window with white curtains billowing. Beyond the flickering candlelight, she saw her friends sitting in a circle, their eyes closed, their lips moving. In the center, Kendra saw herself. Above her hung the doll.

  ****

  Sebastian paced around the witches. He stared at Abby's face, searching for any sign of distress. If something happened, he would rip her out of the circle. None of the witches moved, only Kendra shifted and moaned. Sometimes her fingers twitched and her eyes blinked open, but he knew that she did not see.

  Outside the wind continued to rise. Leaves and branches pelted the roof and windows. The sound grew in intensity until it thundered through the entire house. The candles started to flicker and then all at once blew out.

  Chapter 15

  "Run!" Kendra screamed in her dream, and the scream traveled through dimensions until it exploded into the witches' minds. Abby felt the scream burst within her. Her eyes snapped open, but darkness met her searching gaze. She fumbled out of her chair and tripped over a soft form in the darkness. A person. Dead? She knelt down, trying to steady her breath, and felt the shape beneath her. Her hand trailed over long hair—Kendra. Pressing a hand on the woman's chest, she felt the rise and fall of her breath. She was alive.

  "Abby?" Sebastian whispered, and she nearly cried out in relief.

  "I'm here," she said and held out her hands, standing and moving toward his voice. When she finally felt his strong hands grasp hers, she pressed her face hard into his chest.

  "Guys?" Lydie's voice now.

  "We're here," Abby whispered. She moved away from Sebastian, but kept one of his hands clutched in her own.

  "What happened to the light?" Oliver asked.

  "Sshhhh," Lydie croaked.

  They all listened. The wind continued to howl beyond the house, but they heard another sound too, a crackling.

  "What is that?" Victor chimed in. His voice was high and alert.

  "It's fire," Lydie shrieked. "I feel it everywhere."

  The light from the fire began to pour into the room then as it grew in the trees surrounding the house. Through the windows, they saw the trees burning.

  "I can't stop it," Lydie yelled, her fingers stretched toward the flames.

  Abby moved toward the window at the front of the house. A woman stood in the street. Her silver hair flew wild around her head and a mad-looking grin stretched across her lips. She fixed her gaze on Abby and in the firelight, Abby saw her light eyes turn darker, black.

  Abby felt a terrible pain shoot through her head. She stumbled and fell against the wall. Sebastian ran to her. He looked toward the window and saw the witch outside.

  "It's Ethel," he yelled.

  Abby braced her hands on the windowsill to keep from throwing up. She watched the witch lift her hands toward the sky. The fire from the tree snaked into her hands and up her arms. She conjured the fire into a massive roiling ball and turned back to the house. Abby knew the witch would throw the ball of flames at the house. She would burn them all alive.

  And then a shape darted up behind the woman. Slim and dark with a long woven braid. Kanti.

  Suddenly the fire dissolved in Ethel's hands. Her face screwed up in pain and she dropped to her knees on the pavement.

  "She's fallen," Abby croaked, gesturing wildly at the window.

  "Go get her," Kendra cried weakly from the floor.

  Oliver, Victor and Sebastian ran into the street, but Ethel had already disappeared.

  ****

  "Makes me feel like the techies are the real wizards," Helena told Julian as they watched the pile of papers queue up at the scanner and then zoom to one of the boxes on the floor.

  "Agreed. I keep trying to read the files as they sho
w up on the screen, but they disappear before I make it through ten words. I may be going blind at this point."

  "Time to tackle that box then? According to Victor, the important stuff would get sorted into that one." She pointed to the box labeled "Important."

  "Kind of obvious, huh? It's almost like he thought we're old geezers or something." Julian laughed.

  Helena laughed too.

  "Since that attack, I do feel like an old geezer."

  "Maybe I could work on you?" Julian asked. "I spent a lot of years in study after I left Ula. A good portion of that time I devoted to energy healing. I might be able to help."

  "I'd take a miracle cure from an infomercial if I thought I might feel better. Yes, please."

  "It's settled then. How about we devote an hour to reading and then we'll spend some time in the healing room ."

  Julian carried a stack of papers from the box to a table by the fireplace. They found seats and divided the paperwork between them.

  "Mostly journal pages," Helena complained. "Not exactly easy reading."

  Julian pressed his face close to a page.

  "No they're not. I get the feeling penmanship wasn't a priority for a few of these folks. The Sydney journal pages are quite legible though." He held up a page with Sydney's initials, SBA, monogrammed across the top.

  "I would have liked to have met her," Helena said. "Abby described her as larger than life."

  "You know, I can feel that? It jumps off the page. Pretty strong energy if I can still feel it through these notes."

  "Have you spoken with Oliver much?" Helena asked, wondering if Oliver had confided the details of Sydney's death.

  Julian had trained Oliver when he first arrived at Ula. Helena traced Oliver's bloodline, but Julian became his mentor. Oliver took it hard when Julian left the coven. She knew that he took it a bit personally too.

  "Very little. I get the feeling he's still sore with me."

  Helena nodded.