by P. C. Cast
“Yeah, I’m listening to you. The tree’s big.”
I could see her frown through her eye peepholes. “I said way more than that, but never mind, now you’re listenin’. Have you ever been here before? It’s way cooler than I thought it was gonna be.”
“I’ve been here before with Grandma,” I said, trying to shake off the unease I felt at leaving Stark behind. “She likes to come for the New Year’s Busk, even though that’s a Creek ceremony, not Cherokee. Grandma says the tribe doesn’t matter as much as the positive energy.”
“Your grandmother is a wise woman,” Thanatos said.
“What is a Busk?” Shaylin asked from where she was hunkered down next to Stevie Rae. She was holding as tightly to her blue water element candle as she was to the blanket that protected her from the setting sun. I didn’t blame her for being nervous. I had practically picked off all my fingernails because of my nerves.
“I looked it up,” Damien answered her because I was busy inner-babbling. “It’s a sacred and lovely ritual—the most important yearly ritual of the ancient Creek peoples. Tribes would come together to do everything from cleansing themselves to settling disputes and debts. It was established here in Tulsa in 1836 by the Loachapoka clan of the Alabama Creek Nation. They had been forced to leave their homes. It was a terrible ordeal for them, not unlike the tragic Trail of Tears. The survivors held a Busk Ceremony around the tree where they deposited ashes from their home fires in Alabama, proclaiming that they were Tulsa-Loachapoka, and this was their new home.”
We were all quiet, peering through the front window of the van, studying the tree and thinking about what Damien had said. I’d known the story. Grandma had told it to me the first time I’d come to the little park that now surrounded the Council Oak Tree.
“Sounds like a place filled with energy,” Aurox said from behind me.
“Yes, and let’s be certain that energy is positive,” Thanatos said.
“You’re going to have to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do,” Detective Marx said. He’d driven us. Thanatos had decided that he and Aurox would be the perfect guardians for this ritual. The detective could deal with any problems with the locals, and Aurox could deal with anything supernatural. Neither of them looked particularly frightening. Marx was tall and in good shape. Actually, he kinda reminded me of John Reese from Person of Interest. (All he needed was the black suit!) And Aurox, well, Aurox looked like a cute boy. Tall, blond, built. The only weird thing about him, unless he morphed into a hideous beast, was his eyes, and they weren’t that bad. Unless you really stared at him, they just looked baby blue and—
“Zoey Redbird! You must focus!”
Thanatos’s voice cut through my mental fog and I jumped. “I am focusing,” I said automatically.
“Then what did I just tell Detective Marx?” she asked, turning around in her seat to give me a stern look.
I sighed. “Sorry. You’re right. I wasn’t focusing. I’ll try harder.”
“Don’t try! Do!” she commanded.
Damien lightened the mood when his whispered, “Yoda?” carried through the Hummer. Stevie Rae giggled and Shaylin whispered back, “You’re such a nerd!”
Thanatos sighed deeply and her expression relaxed. “We are all nervous. We are all on edge, and it does no good for any of us to snap at one another. I apologize for my harsh words. So, let me begin anew.”
“Thank you,” I said. “You have all of my attention.”
“Mine as well,” Damien said.
“Yep, I’m listenin’,” Stevie Rae said.
“Me, too!” Shaunee and Shaylin said together.
Aurox and Marx didn’t say anything, their attention had been focused on Thanatos the entire ride.
“Well done, all of you,” Thanatos said. “As I was saying to Detective Marx, I appreciate that he visited the site earlier to unlock the gate so that we can access the sacred tree.”
“You’re welcome,” Marx said. “I also brought the wrought-iron table you asked for. I placed it under the tree, a few paces south of its base, like you said. Does it look good to you?”
We’d parked where the sidewalk fed into stairs leading up to the little Council Oak Park. The plot of land the tree sat on was a raised knoll, now in the middle of a neighborhood. It had been fenced in for protection but the gate was open and there was a finely built wrought-iron table placed under the tree.
“It looks excellent,” Thanatos said. She lifted the basket she’d brought with her and continued to explain. “Beginning at this moment, it is of the utmost importance that each of you focus on what it is you wish to protect—Tulsa from Neferet’s Darkness. And why it is you wish to protect it—because you want to restore the balance of Light and Darkness.”
“Even Aurox and me?” the detective asked.
“Absolutely,” Thanatos said. “You will not be within the circle, but your energy will affect it. Why do you think I chose the two of you as our Guardians?”
Aurox spoke up, “You’re using us because we’re expendable.”
Marx’s brows shot up. He started to speak, but Thanatos responded too quickly. “You are not expendable,” she said sternly. “I chose the two of you because your ethos is one of guardianship. That is exactly the energy this ritual needs surrounding it. And, young Aurox, let me assure you—I do not use people.”
Aurox nodded slowly. “Thank you for explaining that to me, High Priestess.”
“Yeah, it’s good to know,” Marx said.
“Now, Shaunee, as you know, the element that is most important in this ritual is fire.”
“Yes,” Shaunee said.
“I would ask that you carry the sacred chalice, the ritual matches, and the oil-and-cinnamon mixture I’ve brought in this bull bladder to the iron table.” Thanatos passed a large crystal chalice, beautifully made with the image of Nyx etched around it, a floppy brown bag-thing full of sloshy liquid, and a long box of ritual matches to Shaunee. “Before you take your place in the south, pour the cinnamon oil into the chalice and leave the matches on the table.”
“I can do that,” Shaunee said. “And I reread the ritual in my Fledgling Handbook. I’m ready to do the rest of my part, too.”
“Good. I am counting on the support of you and your element.”
“You’ll have it. I promise.”
“Thank you, daughter,” Thanatos said. “Other than that, I ask only that the five of you set and keep your intention strong, no matter what happens outside—or inside—the circle. I shall do the rest.”
My intuition was like an itch I couldn’t scratch, and I couldn’t help asking, “Is something weird going to happen inside the circle?”
“Weird, no? It isn’t weird for a Major Ritual to drain the High Priestess casting the spell. But you should be prepared for what might happen to me.”
“You’re gonna be okay, right?” Stevie Rae said.
“I believe I will be, but perhaps not until after I no longer need to maintain the spell.”
“Until then, what can we expect?” Damien asked. “I’ve studied Cleopatra’s protective spell. Nothing happened to her when she cast it.”
“Cleopatra had time to fast and prepare. I do not have that luxury. Just know that even after I tell you to close the circle, you cannot move me. I must remain at this place of power, channeling protective energy from the land, if the spell is to remain effective.”
“But we can’t just leave you here by yourself,” Damien said.
A movement outside the van caught my gaze, and my eyes widened in happy surprise. “I don’t think Thanatos is going to be all by herself,” I said, pointing to my little blue Bug that had just pulled up across the street from us. While we watched, Grandma, Sister Mary Angela, Rabbi Margaret Bernstein and Suzanne Grimms piled out of my car.
Grandma led them to the passenger’s side of the van, where she waited, patiently, for Thanatos to crack the window.
“Merry meet, High Priestess,” Grandma said, smiling
broadly.
“Sylvia? Whatever are you and these ladies doing here?” Thanatos asked.
“My spirit told me you would need to be watched over. We are here to do so,” Grandma said simply. “I have smudged each of us and set our intent to protect Tulsa. We are ready to proceed when you are.”
Thanatos reached through the open window to grasp Grandma’s hand. “Thank you, my friend—my friends,” she said, her voice husky with emotion.
“The sun just set!” Stevie Rae said, pulling off her blanket.
“Perfectly timed now that we are all here,” said Sister Mary Angela.
“Then let us proceed,” Thanatos said. “Zoey, as spirit, please lead your elements into the space around the tree. Position yourself at the head of the table, facing away from Stevie Rae. You will turn with me as I invoke each element.”
“Okay, I got it,” I said.
“Does everyone have their candles?” The five of us held up our ritual pillars. Thanatos smiled. “I see my circle is ready. Zoey, proceed, and may Nyx be with us.”
Automatically, I whispered, “May Nyx be with us” in response—and so did every person gathered there, so that the blessing seemed to echo around and through us with magickal intensity.
That’s good, I thought. That’s really good.
I drew a deep breath and slid open the van door. I waited on the sidewalk until my five friends fell into step behind me, and then, like a Pied Piper, I led them up the stairs and through the gate to the tree.
The ancient burr oak seemed to grow bigger as I approached it. Its branches spread high, wide, and low. I could see that it was budding up, but no leaves had formed yet. Even so, some of its massive boughs brushed the ground. I moved around them, making my way to the iron table placed beneath it. Shaunee stayed with me, but Damien, Shaylin, and Stevie Rae silently took their places, forming a circle around me. I could see that Grandma and the other ladies came inside the fence but were careful to stay outside the circumference of the circle Thanatos would soon cast. Detective Marx and Aurox remained outside the fence. Keeping their attention turned outward, they began walking around the area, vigilant and ready to act.
Shaunee poured the thick liquid into the crystal chalice. I inhaled deeply the familiar scent of cinnamon. She met my gaze briefly when she was done.
“Blessed be,” I said softly.
“And blessed be to thee,” she responded before moving to her position at the southernmost part of the circle.
A movement by the gate caught my attention. Thanatos was taking off the cloak she’d been wearing. My breath caught as she stepped forward. The High Priestess was dressed in a long scarlet dress that seemed alive. As she moved, the silk train of the dress lifted and rippled. Except for that train, the dress was formfitting—high necked and long sleeved—so that it looked as if she had been dipped in fresh, shining blood. She wore no jewelry. The only adornment on her was a slender woven leather belt that wrapped low around her hips. From it hung a sheath. The hilt of the athame, a ritual dagger, that rested there was covered with rubies that twinkled even in the fading light.
She began immediately, picking up the box of ritual matches and going to Damien. I faced east with her. Thanatos lit the candle and touched the flame to Damien’s yellow air candle. “Air, in Nyx’s name I summon thee to this circle.”
Damien’s hair lifted as his element rushed to join him.
Thanatos moved deosil to where Shaunee waited expectantly with her red candle raised.
“Fire, in Nyx’s name I summon thee to this circle.”
Thanatos didn’t even have to touch the match to Shaunee’s candle. It burst into flame all on its own and Shaunee’s smile was as bright as her element.
Thanatos continued to the west and Shaylin. “Water, in Nyx’s name I summon thee to this circle.”
I smelled the salt of the ocean on the fire-lit breeze that swirled around the circle.
The High Priestess moved to stand in front of Stevie Rae, touching her green candle with her match and saying, “Earth, in Nyx’s name I summon thee to this circle.”
The scent of Grandma’s lavender field drifted through the circle. I heard Grandma’s joyous laughter, and I knew our elements were filling the sacred space.
Then Thanatos was standing before me.
“Spirit, in Nyx’s name I summon thee to this circle.” She lit my purple candle and I felt a rush of happiness as spirit completed the casting.
“Oh, that’s so beautiful!” Rabbi Bernstein exclaimed, and I looked up from my candle to see that a shining silver thread floated around the circumference of the circle, connecting each of the elements.
“Thank you, Goddess. Please continue to be with me and to strengthen me. Whatever comes, I accept it willingly as my fate. So I have spoken; so mote it be,” Thanatos spoke softly, reverently. She closed her eyes and drew in and let out three deep breaths. Then with no further hesitation, she took the sacred chalice in her left hand and, scooping the liquid with her right hand, she moved to Damien and began walking slowly around the circle, sprinkling the oil onto the ground. As she moved, she cast the spell:
I call upon the element fire to watch, bless, and guide this Ritual. To honor fire I anoint the circle with cinnamon oil poured into the goblet by the fledgling Shaunee, beloved of the fire element. I proclaim my Intent to seek fire’s protection over Tulsa. To show my Intent is pure, I proclaim these ancient truths first spoken long ago when Cleopatra, another child of Nyx, called upon you.
In a loud, clear, power-filled voice, Thanatos cried out the ancient Egyptian proclamation:
Hail, Nyx-Strider! Coming forth to cast this spell I do no wrong!
Hail, She-Whose-Two-Eyes-Are-on-Fire! I have not defiled the things of the Goddess in thought or deed!
Hail, Disposer-of-False-Speech! I have not inflamed myself with rage!
Hail, All-Seeing-Goddess-Provider-of-Her-Children! I have not cursed using Your name!
By this time Thanatos was back in the center of the circle, which was filled with the scent of cinnamon and the wonderful, electric sense I’d learned that powerful magick brought with it.
Thanatos lit the oil that was left in the chalice, and it blazed with a bright flame as red as her dress—as red as Shaunee’s candle. She lifted the flaming chalice over her head, saying:
With pure Ritual Intent I hold fire to this oath of protection. Its strength is in me, and through me its flame will be lasting, consuming with fierceness any who wish ill or violence to Tulsa. I ask especially that flame protect the heart of the city, where Darkness dwells. Entomb all there with ill intent and do not allow evil to escape this flame!
While Thanatos’s words still echoed around us, she grasped the hilt of her athame, pulling it free of its sheath. Still holding the flaming chalice, she approached Shaunee, who offered her pillar to the High Priestess. Thanatos bowed her head respectfully, saying, “I thank you, Child of Fire, for the gift of your element.” Then she took the pillar from Shaunee and dropped it into the chalice. As the flame ate the candle, growing higher and hotter, Thanatos didn’t flinch. She held the chalice up and slowly passed the blade of the dagger through the flame three times, speaking power-filled words:
I am one with the flame. Even in the midst of sunshine, I enter into the protective fire. I come forth from the fire, the sunshine has not pierced me, thou who knows my pure intent has not burned me, but thy fire will keep this city safe, cutting like this knife through wax any who dare defile this Ritual!
With the blade of the athame hot and glowing, Thanatos carved TULSA into the skin of the flaming red candle. Then she walked to me. She glistened with sweat. Her long silver-streaked hair was slick with it. She was breathing heavily, but she didn’t look burned—she just looked hot and tired.
“Thank you, spirit, you may depart. Blessed be,” she said, and I blew out my candle, sad, as always, to say good-bye to my favorite element.
Thanatos then went to Stevie Rae, Shaylin, Shaunee, and
Damien—thanking and blessing each element, until the silver thread disappeared in a poof of glitter. Thanatos rejoined me at the table at the center of the circle, placing the still flaming chalice on the table, watching it carefully until the entire candle was consumed by fire. As the flame went out, Thanatos lifted her athame and drove it into the earth at her feet, crying, “And so I have set the protective spell for thee, what Nyx decrees next, so mote it be!”
As the dagger buried itself to its hilt, the sky north of us, in the heart of downtown Tulsa, flashed red with an explosion of blood-colored light. It was followed by a shriek filled with madness and rage that echoed across the night sky.
“Oh, blessed Goddess, thank you. The spell is set,” Thanatos said, and then she collapsed, falling lifelessly to the ground.
“Thanatos!” I meant to hurry to her, but all of a sudden my legs wouldn’t work. In one step they turned to jelly and I dropped to my knees. Dazed, I could see that Shaunee had toppled over, too. I turned to call out to Damien in time to see his eyes roll in the back of his head as he fainted. And then the power-filled earth beneath me seemed to spin, and somehow I was flat on my back with a weird ringing sound in my ears, looking up through the limbs of the Council Oak at the clear night sky. I saw specks of light as my vision tunneled, and then everything went silent and black.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Neferet
“Lynette, my dear, you look lovely in black, and the classic lines of those slacks suit you. I think slacks are so much more feminine and attractive than jeans, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. Wearing jeans denigrates women’s fashion.” Lynette shuddered. “I especially dislike the so-called boyfriend jean. Do those girls not own mirrors? Where are their mothers? It’s shameful.”
Neferet beamed at her supplicant. It was this frankness and bigotry toward her own kind that the Goddess found so refreshing about Lynette. Even now, when Neferet could feel the waves of fear and nervousness flowing through the woman, Lynette was able to engage in an honest, interesting conversation with her.
