by Geof Johnson
“Boy,” she sighed, “I don’t know. European witches must know stuff that American witches don’t.”
“Has Cage repaired his runway yet?” Jamie said.
“Still too cold, but he’s fixed his access road. He’s using that to drive to the closest airport, we think, and flying to his targets.”
“And that’s good to know,” Eric said. “The agency is planning an ambush for him on the highway leading away from his monastery. He’s more vulnerable there because he doesn’t have enough men to guard the public roads. In fact, it looks like he’s shut down his other two strongholds, and I’m guessing it’s so he could incorporate those security squads into his main force at the monastery.”
“So we’ll try to get a couple of teams of snipers to Romania and position them where they can get a shot at Cage while he’s on his way to the airport.”
Fred wrinkled her brow. “Won’t they have to wait in the snow? What if it’s weeks before Cage drives by?”
“It might only be a matter of days. They can handle that. They’re trained for it.”
“We have some other information on Cage,” Terry said. “We think it has something to do with why Cage turned.”
“Turned?” Jamie said.
“Became a bad guy, in layman’s terms.” She rubbed the end of her chin with a fingertip and gazed at the floor. “It took some doing, but I managed to find a report on Cage’s last mission with his Delta Force unit, one that ended very badly. They were assigned to capture a top Al-Qaeda leader in a village in the mountainous border region of Pakistan. That’s a really dangerous area, by the way, especially for Westerners.
“The mission was a failure. Two men from the Delta team were killed, and three were injured and captured. The rest of them managed to get to the extraction point, but they didn’t want to leave. They wanted to go back to rescue their buddies but were ordered to stand down. A few days later, the captured men’s bodies were found on the side of the road, beheaded. Cage left the force soon after that, and he became a mercenary and an arms dealer.”
“And then he became an assassin,” Eric said. “We think the bitterness over that experience changed him. The men on those Special Forces teams are tight. They have a bond that’s closer than family, from what I’ve been told. Cage probably felt betrayed when he wasn’t allowed to go back for his wounded comrades.”
“That doesn’t justify becoming a murderer,” Fred said.
“No. But that’s what he is, and we have to deal with it.”
“Um….” Terry folded her lips into her mouth and a pained look filled her eyes. “I want to talk to you about something else. I want….” She cleared her throat. “Did you talk to the healer?”
“She said she has to see Stacey before she can tell if Stacey can handle the treatment,” Fred said. “What did Stacey’s doctor say?”
“The last treatment didn’t help. The tumors are worse.” Terry squeezed her eyes shut. “We might have to put her in hospice care soon.”
“Oh!” Fred drew in a sharp breath. “That means…oh, gosh Terry!”
“Yeah, I know.” Terry nodded sadly. “I can’t take it anymore. I can’t let her go on like this, just wasting away. It’s awful.”
“I’m sure it is,” Jamie said. “Do you want to take her to Keeva right away?”
“She’s really sick to her stomach right now. Even the slightest movement is torture for her. If we wait a couple of days, she might feel a little better, at least good enough so that I can lift her out of her bed.”
“Boy, she really is sick, isn’t she? I can take her this Saturday afternoon, if you want to go. I have a track meet in the morning. Will that give her enough time?”
“I hope so. I don’t want to wait any longer than that.” Her lips started to tremble and she pressed them tightly together for a moment. “But this could kill her, couldn’t it?”
“We don’t know.” Jamie spread his hands wide. “Keeva said there’s always that risk for someone who’s really weak.”
“I guess I’ll have to make a decision, won’t I? Whether to take a chance on the healer’s treatment, even if it kills Stacey right away, or do nothing and watch her die slowly and painfully.” Terry clinched her jaw tightly and stared at the floor while the rest of the room grew silent. Then she raised her head and nodded once. “Let’s take her to the healer.” Then she nodded again, firmly. “Yes. That’s what I want. I don’t know what we should do about my mom, though. I don’t want to tell her about the magic, but she lives with us and she’s looking after Stacey now. She’ll want to know why we’re taking Stacey out of the house.”
“Don’t worry about your mom,” Fred said. “I’ve got a spell I can use on her. She won’t even notice that Stacey’s gone.”
* * *
Jamie couldn’t take his eyes off the thin little girl, sleeping in her bed in Terry’s house in Virginia. Her hair was nearly all gone, with only a few limp strands remaining on her scalp, and her skin was practically colorless. A tube ran from her arm up to a drip bag full of clear liquid, hanging from a rack on a rolling stand nearby. The air in the room smelled musty and sickly.
Fred put her hand to her face and moaned, “Oh, Jamie, she looks so awful.” She leaned against him and he wrapped one arm around her shoulders.
Jamie turned his head when he heard the bedroom door creak open, and Terry entered. “Did the potion work on your mom?” he asked quietly.
“Like a charm. Mom knows we’re taking Stacey, but she thinks I’m taking her to another specialist.”
“Jamie,” Fred said, “should we have Stacey do the oath before we go?”
“I don’t want to wake her, and besides, she’s only four. Who’s going to believe her if she talks about magic doorways and witches and wizards? We can do that when she feels better.”
“Oh,” Terry said, her voice strained, “I hope does she feels better.”
“I believe she will,” Jamie said. “I already called the clinic and they’re expecting us. Anything you want to bring with you? They might want to keep her for a day or two.”
Terry opened the closet and pulled an overnight bag from the top shelf, unzipped it and looked inside. “This should have the basic stuff. Nightgown, underwear, toothbrush, and whatever. Though she doesn’t need the toothbrush because she hasn’t been able to eat real food in weeks.” She glanced at her nearly bald daughter and her mouth tightened. “She doesn’t need a hairbrush, either.”
Jamie opened the front door of the clinic in Rivershire and held it for the others. Fred carried Stacey’s overnight bag, and Terry cradled her sleeping daughter in her arms as if she weighed next to nothing, and they went inside. Dr. Burke, Dr. Shelby, and Keeva were waiting for them, and they wasted no time getting started.
“Put her right here,” Dr. Burke said and patted the examination table, which had been moved to the center of the room.
Stacey’s eyes flickered open as Terry gently laid her on the paper-covered padding. “Mommy?”
“It’s okay, baby,” Terry said and stroked her forehead tenderly. “I’m right here.”
“Where are we?”
“We’re at the doctor’s office. It’s a special one.”
“Hello,” Dr. Burke said and introduced herself and the other two women. “We’re going to make you feel better today.”
“Everybody says that,” Stacey mumbled sullenly.
Terry squeezed Stacey’s hand with both of hers. “These ladies are going to do something we haven’t tried, yet.”
Keeva stepped to the side of the table and took Stacey’s other hand, and gave her a gentle smile. “I am a healer, Stacey. Have you ever met one before?”
“Is that like a doctor?”
“I am a witch. A special kind of witch.”
“No you’re not. You’re too pretty.”
“But I am. She is, too.” She gestured toward Fred, and Fred nodded.
“Nunh unh. You can’t be.”
“I am,” Fred s
aid. “And Jamie’s a wizard.” She poked Jamie on the shoulder. “We decided that you needed some extra help to get well, and maybe it was time to use magic.”
Stacey locked eyes with Fred for a moment, and seemed to accept it without question.
Keeva smiled at Stacey again and said, “I need to take a measure of you now.”
“Will it hurt? No needles!”
“No,” Dr. Shelby said. “Keeva doesn’t need them. She uses her magic.”
“You know, Keeva,” Jamie said, standing to the side with Fred, “I’ve never seen you use your magic before.”
“I have seen you use yours. At the Founders’ Festival. I came to Rivershire last year for that.” She leaned closer to Stacey and grinned playfully. “He can fly!”
Stacey rounded her eyes. “Really?”
“Yep,” Jamie said. “And I’ll show you, if you’re really good for Keeva and the doctors.”
“She’s always good,” Terry said. “She has a lot of experience with doctors.”
“Very well.” Keeva stood up straight. “I require silence to examine her.” No one spoke as Keeva laid her hands on Stacey’s chest. The dark-haired healer seemed to be sensing the young girl in a way that Jamie couldn’t understand. Witch’s magic, he knew. Then Keeva placed her fingertips on Stacey’s head for several seconds before frowning. “The disease has spread. It is all over her body.”
“We already knew that,” Terry said. “Does that mean it’s—” She swallowed hard. “Is there anything you can do?”
“Yes, but I shall have to visit Mrs. Malley and Momma Sue, first. They will have some special ingredients that I require.”
Fred nudged Jamie’s arm with her elbow. “Make her a doorway.”
“Fred, you should come with us,” Keeva said, “in case we must use your magic, also.” She nodded toward the two doctors. “And both of you. We may have need of your expertise.”
“I’ll stay here with Terry and Stacey,” Jamie said and began drawing the glowing outlines of a doorway. Stacey watched, her mouth and eyes wide.
“Pretty awesome, isn’t it?” Terry said. “He can go just about anywhere by doing that.”
“Let me go first,” Fred said, “so I can let Momma Sue and Mrs. Malley know what’s up.”
Jamie pushed the portal open to reveal the front of Momma Sue’s old house in Louisiana, and he moved aside while Fred walked through. Keeva, Dr. Burke, and Dr. Shelby waited a minute and then followed.
Jamie left the portal open and attempted to entertain Stacey with a few simple magic tricks while they waited, but she faded quickly and fell asleep again.
Terry paced the clinic floor with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. After a while, she checked the black sports watch she wore on her left wrist and said, “Jamie, what’s taking them so long? It’s been almost an hour.”
“Heck if I know. But those are some powerful witches, and they know more about that kind of magic than anybody. Whatever they come up with, it’ll be good.”
“Why does Keeva need Fred?”
“Probably so that she can combine Fred’s magic with hers. The two old witches, too, if necessary, for extra mojo. Fred described how that works, but I’ve never seen them do it. With all four witches working on it, it’ll be powerful, no doubt.”
Terry got quiet and resumed her pacing, but suddenly stopped and said, “I forgot to ask you how your track meet went this morning.”
“Oh,” he said, taken aback. “Pretty well, actually. We won. I didn’t do that great, but that’s okay. Coach was happy. The whole team was, which is amazing, considering that we were on the verge of falling apart just a few weeks ago.”
“I wouldn’t know what it’s like. I never got to do college sports.”
“I might not anymore, if I get any busier.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you do this today.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’d rather do this than anything else right now.”
She opened her mouth as if to reply, but turned away and faced the windows instead.
A few minutes later, Dr. Burke hurried through the portal from Momma Sue’s house and said, “We need something to put the potion in,” and she walked past Jamie to a cabinet on the far wall, opened it and pulled out an empty one-liter plastic bottle. Then she went back to Momma Sue’s while Jamie and Terry waited silently.
Soon, all of the women returned, Keeva carrying the bottle, which was full of a dark liquid. “We have it,” she announced. “Terry, you need to wake your daughter.”
“You’re going to give it to her now?”
“The sooner she gets it, the sooner she will recover.”
Terry gently rubbed the side of Stacey’s face. “Wake up, baby. You have to take some medicine.”
Stacey’s eyes fluttered open. “Mmmm? More medicine?” She made a miserable face.
“Yes, but it’s magic medicine. You’ve never had that before.”
She sat up on the examination table with Terry’s help. “Will it taste bad?”
“Probably,” Fred said. “But give it a try, Stacey. We linked up and put some heavy-duty magic in it.”
“You should’ve seen it glow when they finished!” Dr. Shelby said. “Like white fire. I’ve never seen anything like that before in all my years of practicing medicine. That must be one potent potion.”
Keeva poured some of the dark liquid into a paper cup, and Terry took it and handed it to Stacey. Stacey held it beneath her nose and sniffed. “Ugh.” She stuck out her tongue. “Smells yucky.”
“Drink it fast,” Terry said, “like when you take the other medicine.”
Stacey held her breath, then raised the cup to her lips and drained it. “Bleah. It’s bad!”
“Give it a minute,” Fred said with a nod. “See what happens.”
Jamie sensed something but couldn’t pinpoint the source. It seemed to be coming from Fred instead of the little girl. Jamie turned to Fred and whispered, “Is that you?”
She shook her head. “I’m feeling something from Stacey, something strong. You must be feeling an echo of it from me.”
“That’s a new one.” He focused his attention on Stacey again, along with everyone else in the room. No one blinked. No one breathed.
Stacey’s cheeks began to turn pink, then her whole face changed color, a rosy glow that washed over her like sunrise. A tentative smile flickered across her lips and she said, “Oh.” Then her smile widened and she looked up at her mother. “I feel a little better.”
“Oh, baby.” Terry leaned close to her daughter and smiled, too. “You look better.” She turned to Keeva, who stood nearby. “Does that mean it’s working?”
She nodded and blinked several times, and Jamie thought she was holding back tears. He blinked, too, and felt something wet in the corners of his eyes. Fred grabbed Jamie’s hand and squeezed it, and he said, “Wow.” He cleared his throat and tried for something more eloquent, but all he managed was another wow.
“I think she should stay with us for the night,” Dr. Burke said, “so we can keep an eye on her. We have a room in the back, and we can set up a cot for you, Terry, if you want to stay with her.”
“Of course I’m staying with her. I can sleep in what I’m wearing, but is there someplace around here where I can get something to eat? I’ve been so nervous I haven’t eaten since yesterday. All of a sudden, I’m starving.”
“We have a little kitchen in the apartment,” Dr. Burke said and pointed at the ceiling. “We can whip something up.”
Jamie and Fred returned the next morning and found a note taped to the front door of the Rivershire clinic: We’re upstairs.
They went inside, and as they walked up the wooden steps to the second floor, Fred sniffed and said, “Do you smell maple syrup?”
“Yeah. Smells good.”
They found Dr. Burke, Terry, and Stacey in the little kitchen that was part of the apartment that was over the clinic. Stacey was sitting at the small round table
with an empty plate in front of her, and the two women stood nearby.
“Wow, Stacey,” Fred said. “You look great!”
Stacey grinned at Fred, and Terry said, “She just ate three whole pancakes. That’s the first real food she’s had in ages.”
“So you’re feeling better?” Jamie said.
“I walked upstairs by myself,” Stacey said. “Mommy didn’t carry me even a little bit.”
Terry shook her head. “Scared the you-know-what out of me, but she’s stubborn. Maybe more stubborn than me.”
“Dr. Burke, where is everybody else?” Jamie said.
“Keeva went home to the boarding house, and Dr. Shelby went back to Hendersonville to get some sleep. They stayed up all night to monitor Stacey while I got a little shuteye up here. Now it’s my shift.”
“Stacey woke me up a little while ago,” Terry said, “saying she was hungry as a bear.” She rubbed Stacey’s back. “And I believed it. She looks so much healthier now. She doesn’t look like a little zombie anymore.”
“Miss Keeva gave me something for my hair.” Stacey patted her scalp. “She rubbed it on and said it would grow back really, really fast.” She grinned again. “I can already feel a little bit. Wanna see?”
She tilted the top of her head toward Jamie and he said, “I’ll take your word for it.”
Dr. Burke held up the bottle with the dark liquid in it and offered it to Terry. “We’re going to send you home with this. Keeva said for Stacey to drink half a cup every day until it’s gone, and then she should be completely recovered.”
“No more cancer,” Stacey said firmly. “I can play with my friends and everything.”
“Speaking of friends,” Fred said, “my little sister Sammi wants you to come over and play sometime. She’s a little older than you, but you’ll have fun, I promise. She’s a witch, too.”
Stacey bobbed her head and then her small face turned serious. “I want to be a witch when I grow up.”
Terry laughed and rubbed Stacey’s back again. “I think you have to be born one, baby. It’s not a career choice.”
