"Of course."
She punched him in the arm.
"What?" Alex rubbed his arm. "I was in the military!"
"Our tax dollars hard at work?" Susan glared.
He narrowed his eyes right back. "You never paid taxes."
"Touché," she mumbled. She buried her nose in her own pint.
"Men at a strip club are relaxed, calm, and very businesslike. Ladies' night, on the other hand, is completely out of control."
I almost choked on my Tang. "You've been there on ladies night?"
"Well, yeah." His cheeks turned red. "I worked on stage; the military doesn't pay very much."
Susan punched him again. This time, her hand lingered near his bicep. "I think he does have the body for it." Her eyes flickered to me. "Don't you?"
"Oh, please." I rolled my eyes. "As if you didn't know. I've shared the same campfire with you two for a loooong time."
Now her cheeks turned red.
I looked at Bee. "But why would they just…push me away like that?" Many of the female Shades in the Athame befriended me; trained me, even. Granted, I had to bargain away control over my body, but they never tried to oust me – not as a coordinated group, anyway.
I rubbed my eyes, trying to ward off sleep and the inevitable nightmares. After my brief fling with the land o' plenty men, I worked off my adrenaline rush by charting the rest of course with the captain, and comparing its timeline to an estimate of how long our supplies would last. Once Bee woke, I spent the rest of the morning tending to her and trying to avoid First Mate Arnold's persistent arguments that nuclear was the way to go.
"Not enough sleep?" Alex asked.
"Not in months."
I caught Alex and Susan exchanging a glance. "What—?"
Bee spilled her drink, cutting my question short. The already dirty carpet was now tinted a bright orange.
"Dang it!" I stooped to grab the cup. "This is how we get ants."
"Is that even possible in the middle of a river?" Susan asked, searching the bar's cabinets. "Where would they keep the towels?"
"Why do you need them anyway?" Alex asked, refilling a cup for Bee.
What we needed was sipper cups.
"Why do we need towels?" I was on the floor on my hands and knees, doing what I could to clean up Bee's mess.
"I mean the men – in the Chalice."
"Oh – ow." I bumped my head underneath one of the chairs. "Because it matches Shawn's advantage with the Athame."
Alex handed Bee the new cup. We all straightened at the same time. Susan eyed the forming bump on my forehead, sighed, filled the towel she found with ice and handed it to me.
"Thanks," I mumbled. "Wait – we have ice?"
"The fridge and freezers are powered when the boilers produce excess steam," Alex said, chomping on something hard. I looked at his glass, failing to realize until now their pints of Tang contained refreshing, cold, cubes of goodness.
I immediately dumped the contents of the towel into my glass and took a sip. "Mmm, that's the stuff. By the way – no Tang for Bee tomorrow. We have just enough for one glass a day for everyone on the ship. No going over."
Susan frowned into her empty glass. "I think we need to put someone else in charge of food storage."
"Fine by me; it'd give me more time to figure out this Chalice." I looked at the cup in question, sitting on the bar.
"So, with the Chalice and Athame pair, the two location pairs, and the Book of Shadows…" Alex was counting out on his fingers. "That makes six points of power that balance each other out," said Alex.
"And?" I asked, not following.
"They sort of correspond to six of the chakras on the human body. Maybe together they’ll reach The Seventh – Sahasrara. This is, in a way, just like Akasha. It is the state of pure consciousness, transforming the divine. The 1,000-petalled lotus."
"Buddhist much?" I asked.
"Yes, yes," Susan chimed in. "That might be just what we need to beat Shawn."
Now my mouth hung open. "What – meditation?"
She rolled her eyes. "Maybe there’s more to the names—'The Seven' and the Chakra—that we've been missing all along." She turned to Alex. "These seven vortices on the human body are focal points for receiving and giving energy."
He nodded.
She continued, ignoring my raised hand. "What if there can be such a thing on the body of Mother Earth, so to speak."
"Oh, I get it," I said.
"Congratulations." Susan smiled, turning back to me.
I cleared my throat, and all eyes traveled down to the cup still sitting on top of the bar.
"Drink!" Bee exclaimed.
"Not from that thing, honey. Not ever." I glanced at Alex. "So what are the chakra points on the body?"
"Let's see – there is Muladhara, set at the base of the spinal cord and associated with the element of earth. Then there is Manipura—"
"Okay," I said, cutting him off. "You lost me at Mu…Mula…"
"Muladhara," he helped.
I shook my head. "We're going to have to come up with code words or something."
"What, like 'head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes'?" Susan began singing the song and going through the motions. I put Bee down so she could join in.
"More like head, throat, stomach, and prostate," interrupted Alex. He snorted, the only one laughing at his joke.
Bee was still singing, but now substituting 'puh-state' when she touched her toes.
I glared at Alex. "Well that wasn't very Buddhist of you."
Susan picked up the Chalice and tucked the stem under her belt. She took my arm. "Come on, let's go see if we can find a real Buddhist on board."
"Why?" I asked.
"So they can teach you how to meditate."
"I know how to meditate; my mom taught me."
"Not like this, she didn't," Susan mumbled. She looked over her shoulder at Alex. "You have prostate duty!"
He sighed, looking down at Bee now doing a squat dance. "Puh-state, puh-state!"
Chapter 17
One of the Guys
Our search around the ship for a Buddhist provided none. Apparently, we didn't attract the type. Susan left to put Bee down for a nap while I stayed to help in the kitchen, peeling the last of the potatoes uprooted from Robert's farm. Speaking of the devil, ten minutes into peeling, Robert entered the kitchen and everyone else left. Most preferred to avoid him if they could; I refused to be chased away that easily.
Robert eyed me, picked up an unwashed carrot, and started to chew, loudly. I took a deep breath.
Meditation would come in handy right about now.
"Not many trees around here anymore," he said.
I paused, setting my peeler down on the counter, but didn't retort. By now, he surely didn't think lightning and trees were the extent of my power.
He took another bite of carrot. He pointed the nubby end at me and said with a full mouth, "I'm warning you, if you ever do anything like that again—"
"Let me ask you something, Robert."
His eyebrows rose in shock at my interruption, but I’d thought of a use for him, which was just as shocking for me.
"If I wanted to break into a group of tightly knit men; be one of the guys – so to speak, what would be the best way to do it?"
He resumed chewing, mulling over the question, probably trying to figure out where I was going with it.
"Not your group, Robert." I rolled my eyes. He didn't have a group.
"Well." He cleared his throat. "I suppose you'd have to prove yourself to them."
"Prove myself? How, exactly?"
"Equal them. Show you are one of them."
Equal them? I snorted; that might be kind of hard. Any woman who seeks to be equal with men lacks ambition.
"Don't get all high and mighty," Robert said, as if he knew what I was thinking. He pointed the nub at me again. "If they catch on to that attitude, they'll never let you in. And don't show them up. That'll just
piss 'em off." He stopped himself. His eyes opened in surprise again, then his brow furrowed. He’d caught himself helping me with a problem.
How did that happen? I smiled to myself, picking up the peeler and resuming my work.
"Anyway, as I was saying…" he trailed off when I raised my eyebrow, looking at him. "Oh forget it." He threw the rest of his carrot stick on the table in front of me and left the room.
* * *
"Susan!" I shouted across the deck.
She turned, putting her finger to her lips. "She's still asleep," she whispered as soon as I was close enough, gesturing to a snoring lump at her feet.
I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Do you still have the Chalice? I want to try again."
"Right now?"
I looked at her. "We're running out of time."
Bee's eyelids fluttered. She was dreaming. Hopefully about something good.
"Maybe not this close to her, but somewhere high – I feel like the higher the better."
Susan nodded to the captain's bridge on the other end of the deck. "How about on top?"
"Looks good to me."
"Here." She removed the Chalice from her belt and wrapped it in one of the smaller blankets surrounding Bee. "I know I don't have to say it, but—"
"But you'll say it anyway," I interrupted.
"Be careful."
As I took the wrapped Chalice her nose crinkled. "You smell like potatoes."
"Thanks." My mouth tipped up in a smile. I darted off like a teenager with the keys to mom's car.
I poked my head into the captain's deck before scaling the ladder to the top. I sighed, Arnold was at the wheel. "Hey, First Mate." I cleared my throat. I really didn't know what to call him. "Er… Arnold. If you hear anything up top, it's just me. I need some privacy."
He smiled. "Well, hell. Feel free to hang out in here. I won't bother you none."
"Oh, thanks. But I'm going to try to…meditate. It'll be easier alone." I took my leave.
"I hear ya, I hear ya," his voice floated out before I could close the door. "Oh hey, Kaitlyn!"
I poked my head back in, sighing. I’d almost gotten away. "Yes?"
"Did you know the Antarctic has their own nuclear power station? McMurdo Power Station on Ross Island. You can build these things away from the population."
I frowned. "Antarctica? That anywhere near Heard and McDonald Islands?"
Arnold smiled. "Yes, actually. The nuclear reactor was shut down early 70's, but the infrastructure is still there."
He went on, citing the potential for various nuclear reactors located in desolate areas. I tuned his voice out. One of Shawn's bases of operations was awfully close to that reactor. That couldn't have been a coincidence. Was that his plan? To run the world on nuclear?
"…take Russia for example," Arnold continued, unabated. "They built the first floating nuclear station. It's not in danger of earthquakes like Fukushima, and in a worst case scenario, the entire station could be sunk. Cold sea water cools the core and prevents atmospheric release." He paused, laughing. "I don't mean to talk your ear off on the matter, but that McMurdo plant—"
"How would they transport energy to the rest of the world?" I asked, interrupting him.
"What?" He looked dumbfounded.
"Floating stations are a good idea, but you still have to bring danger to nearby populations in order to transfer the power. How do you safely transport energy to the population with Antarctic nuclear stations?" I asked again.
"Well…you could…I mean I would just…" he stuttered out no solutions.
"You think on it. Listen, I need to get my meditation done before Bee wakes up." The door swung shut behind me and I scurried up the ladder before he could protest.
Positioning myself in the middle, I waited a few minutes to make sure he wouldn't follow me up. I unwrapped the Chalice partly, balancing it in front of me without touching it.
"Equal them, but don't better them," I said to myself. My conscience sneered. At least not to their faces.
I took a deep breath and grasped the cup with both hands.
Chapter 18
Righting the Wrong
"Sir?" David asked, pen poised over a notebook. Both highly prized processions, as they were hard to come by these days.
"Don't call me…never mind." Shawn sighed, putting a few handfuls of dirt into the bowl he held. If they hadn’t gotten it by now, they never would. "We're going to St. Louis via river. I'll need you to find several motorboats and gas, and anything else that is sea-worthy that we can slap a motor on. Much of it is upriver."
"Yes, sir." David wrote furiously in his notebook.
"Bottle up what you can of the well water – and do the same for anything edible in the gardens."
David paused writing, then cleared his throat. "Sir, the water source has dried up."
Shawn sighed again, standing up and wiping his hand on his pants. "Just do what you can. Oh, and David?"
"Yes sir?"
"There is a man tied up in the basement of the capital building. Send word to the Wiccan camp. They'll go release him, and we'll be long gone."
"A man, sir?"
"Just do it." He didn't need his list to get any longer. Shawn walked into his tent, bowl in hand, zipping the door flap up behind him.
He set down the bowl of earth, right next to the one of water. Further away was burning incense to represent air, and a lit candle for fire. Shawn took out his Athame, and sat down in the middle of a pentagram drawn on the nylon tent floor with chalk. He turned the black, worn handle of his Athame over in his hand, thinking about his father.
My father.
Shawn had never pinned those words to Cato until after it was too late. As a boy, ever since Cato had passed the Athame to Shawn on his thirteenth birthday, Shawn had studied the magical history of the Athame ad nauseum. He’d adhered to guidance from the book of The Order of the Golden Dawn. According to the book, the consecration needed to happen on the day of Mercury, meaning Wednesday, and the knife needed to be tempered ‘thrice’ by fire and dipped into the blood of a black cat and juice of hemlock. It had taken some time to find hemlock, and even longer to find a black cat. Eventually, both were procured through local Wiccan covens.
It was doubtful the Shades would give him their power of Akasha willingly; he was on his own with that. But Shawn knew exactly what he had to do to obtain it.
Make amends with all those you have wronged.
Ahi's words flitted through his head in a whisper. Shawn sighed again, thinking of the one at the top of his very long list. Sarah.
She was long gone, but her Shade remained. The only thing he could think to make things right was to release her. First, he need the Athame back – allied with him and not Kaitlyn.
He took a deep breath, and began the spell, "I cleanse and purify this tool from all my past negative energies. Spirits of Earth, bless this Athame. Lend your strength and stability to my magic." Shawn sprinkled the briny earth, direct from the bottom of the Great Salt Lake, onto the blade.
"Spirits of Air, bless this knife with the power to direct my magic on my journey, penetrating through space and time." Shawn waved the blade through the rising, smoky incense.
The tent flap opened, intruding Shawn's circle with light and a breeze that doused the flame on his candle.
"Did you say something, Sir?" David asked, poking in his head.
"Not to you," Shawn hissed over his shoulder. "Please don't interrupt until I come out. And make sure no one else does either."
"Yes, Sir!" David closed the flap.
Shawn took another deep breath, trying to release his anger. He relit the candle and continued the spell, "Spirits of Fire, who forged this blade, bless my Athame to be the instrument of my will, pure in its direction of my energies." Shawn held the blade over the flame, turning it so both sides grew hot.
"Spirits of Water, bless this magical knife to be a tool used with love, and in respect for the Shades." Shawn dipped the blade
in the bowl of water, cooling it. "I bless this Athame in the true will of my spirit."
He touched the blade to his forehead, giving in to the consecrated knife and his subconscious. He fell forward, but didn't stop at the chalky outline of the pentagram. He floated right through it. His feet drifted down to the ledge of a platform inside the cave. Shawn looked around him. Gaseous forms of Shades flit around, filling the cave and the water below in deep, shimmery blues, golds, and reds.
One single form descended from a far corner of the cave, placing herself in front of Shawn and taking form.
"Hello, Arianna."
She nodded her head once.
Shawn looked past her, stepping toward Sarah's cove – the entrance high on one of the cave walls.
Arianna blocked his way. "She knows why you have come, Athame wielder, and she has a demand."
Shawn narrowed his eyes at Arianna. "Let her tell me herself."
Arianna shook her head. "She refuses to see you until the task is performed."
Shawn moved to step around Arianna. She placed one, solid hand on his chest. "To force yourself in would be bad. It would nullify the consecration, and the blade's magic would become useless to you – without the possibility of restoring the relationship."
Shawn's jawline tightened, and he released a slow, controlled breath. "What is her request?"
Arianna lifted her chin, looking Shawn in the eyes without blinking. "To release every one of the Shades here before Sarah. Only then will she see you."
"And your powers will go with you?" Shawn asked, wondering what would be the point of having the Athame at all in that case.
"Yes," Arianna said. "But to find what you seek, you must let go."
Shawn resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He crossed his arms. "Fine – who’s first?"
Arianna stepped to the side, revealing a long line of Shades waiting patiently on the stairs.
"All of them? Now? That would take all night!"
"Have somewhere to be?"
Someone in the line cleared their throat, bringing Shawn's attention back to them. They had all taken solid form now. Shawn grumbled, lifting his hand over the first Shade in line.
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