The Fortune Teller

by Gwendolyn Womack

  From that first night on, Nettie shared Liliya’s mattress. The two slept side by side with their backs against each other, as if to protect one another in their sleep.

  “Are you awake?” Liliya asked one night. When Nettie answered yes, she asked, “Do you remember Harry Houdini?”

  “Of course,” Nettie whispered back. Though the magician had died the year she was born, everyone knew Harry Houdini.

  “Don’t you find it odd that he was obsessed with all things mystical, yet he didn’t believe in mysticism? He spent most of his life trying to prove everything was a fraud.”

  Nettie waited for Liliya to explain. Liliya rarely spoke of such things—she rarely spoke at all. So Nettie knew whatever was on her mind had to be significant.

  “Even though he said he didn’t believe, he had his wife memorize a code with him. He said whoever died first was to communicate the code from the other side, to prove that life after death existed. All he wanted was the proof.” Nettie remembered hearing about this story. Liliya went on. “A year later, a medium said he was in touch with Houdini—that his spirit could not move on and be at rest. Houdini was desperately trying to get the code to his wife. The man presented the code to her and it was correct. ‘Tell all those who lost faith because of my mistake to grab hold of hope again, and to live with the knowledge that life is continuous. There is no death.’” Liliya hesitated. “He supposedly said that from beyond the grave. Houdini’s code was ultimately declared a hoax, even though his wife had written a public letter defending it. People didn’t want to believe. But I do,” she admitted softly.

  Nettie lay in the dark, oddly comforted by the story. Nettie didn’t need a code. She didn’t need proof. She could feel her grandmother watching over her now. Kezia had been the first to die. Soon all of her family would be with her. Nettie would be the only one left to carry their memories.

  “What is your ability?” Nettie finally asked.

  Liliya hesitated. “It’s hard to explain.”

  “Try.”

  “When I close my eyes and focus, I can move out of the room with my mind’s eye and see other things.”

  “What things?” Nettie propped herself up on her elbows, astonished. “You mean you can see through walls?”

  “In a way. It’s like I’m traveling without my body. But I can’t go far.” When she saw the look on Nettie’s face she added, “Why are you so amazed? You’re the one who can see the future.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible. How far can you go?”

  “I’ve never been able to see past the monastery.”

  “But you can go anywhere on the grounds?”

  Liliya nodded. A dark look came over her eyes. “I’ve found it’s best not to.” They had heard the sounds at night, the screams of other prisoners. Evanoff and his team of scientists were not just experimenting on children. Nettie had caught glimpses of men and women undergoing brutal procedures.

  “Will you follow me, when they take me?” Nettie asked. When Liliya hesitated, Nettie said, “It will make me feel better, knowing you’re there.”

  “Will you tell me my future then?”

  Nettie agreed and a pact was made. She pulled her cards from her pocket. It was her first time using them since arriving at Makaryev. Soon Evanoff would have her use them repeatedly.

  Liliya looked on in fascination. “Is that how you do it? With fortune cards?”

  “Sometimes,” she said, although she didn’t actually need them.

  The future simply came to Nettie as knowledge. But the cards helped her focus her thoughts, and touching them made her feel closer to her grandmother. The parchment felt alive in her hands. Nettie believed that Kezia’s stories about Aishe, Simza, and Dinka lived within the cards, that they carried their spirits. These cards had saved her life.

  “They’ve been in my family forever.” She held them out to Liliya.

  Liliya gently took the cards. “They’re so beautiful.” She handled them like priceless treasures as she mixed the deck.

  Nettie laid them out in a crosslike pattern, like she had seen Kezia do so many times before. The faces of the cards were faint shadows in the moonlight, reaching out like a hand to guide her.

  When Nettie finished telling Liliya what she saw, Liliya looked at her with tears in her eyes.

  “Did you lie to me?” she asked in a timorous voice.

  Nettie shook her head, at first not understanding. “I told you what I saw.”

  “But does everything come true?”

  “So far,” Nettie said without any pride.

  Liliya bowed her head and covered her face as she wept. For Nettie had not only told her she would survive this place, she had told her the names of her children and grandchildren. She said the next chapter of Liliya’s life would be filled with love and beauty—two things Liliya had thought she would never know again. Her heart was filled with hope for the first time in years.

  “Promise me you’ll stay with me,” Nettie insisted again.

  Liliya could see the terror in her eyes and understood. Nettie had seen her own future. “What’s going to happen?” Liliya whispered. Nettie could only shake her head, unable to explain. Liliya took her hand. “I’ll stay with you, no matter what.”

  * * *

  Liliya kept her promise even in the darkest days. Evanoff was consumed with unraveling the mystery of their abilities and he had singled Nettie out. He used various aids—barbiturates, sensory deprivation, electric shock—to force her into hypnotic states. He threatened to hurt the other children if she didn’t cooperate.

  Most of the tests occurred in “the chamber,” an electromagnetically sealed, soundproof space. He would lock Nettie inside for hours, sometimes days. Her only respite was when he would go on trips for stretches at a time—to where, she didn’t know.

  Beyond the monastery’s walls, battles raged across the Eastern Front as war consumed the country. Nettie stayed locked inside Evanoff’s madness up until the end.

  Out of any country in Europe, Czechoslovakia was the most advanced in researching the paranormal, like ESP and clairvoyance, and integrating it into their military operations. They had separated psychic phenomenon from the occult and designated “psi” experiences as part of accepted science.

  Evanoff was driven by a maniacal desire to take command of the Czech research facilities. He traveled to the Ukrainian front to be there when Russia liberated Czechoslovakia from the Germans and brought his most promising psychics, including Nettie and Liliya, along with him.

  * * *

  Nettie had imagined the moment a thousand times, seen the events unfold like fractals coming into the sharpest focus. She had shared her vision with Liliya many nights during their imprisonment. Knowing this day would arrive was the only reason they had survived their time at Makaryev, the only reason they had survived what had been done to them.

  The caravan of trucks was deep in the forest making its way westward toward Prague when the explosions occurred.

  They were only a mile from the offensive front. The soldiers pulled their trucks over and climbed onto the hoods to look out over the valley. Nettie and Liliya sat in the bed of a covered truck, the last in the convoy. Lev, their guard, jumped out to join the others.

  Liliya stared at Nettie, terrified. “When do we go?” she whispered.

  “Wait,” Nettie said, her eyes closed, counting the seconds. Minutes passed. Finally she heard a cannon sound far off in the distance. “Now,” she whispered, and the two girls climbed out of the truck as quietly as possible.

  They were almost to the trees when Lev turned around.

  “Stop or I’ll shoot,” he ordered. But he had not yelled loud enough to alert the others.

  Nettie turned to face him without flinching. Lev had witnessed Evanoff’s atrocities. Every day he had escorted her from the children’s room to those malevolent doors. Nettie had gotten to know all her captors at Makaryev, and Lev was the only one she was sure would seek absolution for
his crimes.

  Nettie and Liliya only had moments before another soldier would discover them. Nettie stared into his eyes and said, “When you die, the only memory from the war that will give your soul any kind of peace is the knowledge that you helped us on this day. You will never speak about Makaryev to your wife or children. You will die an old man with a clear mind. You will carry the screams, the fear, the darkness, as we will.”

  Every word echoed like a hammer. Lev listened, his eyes bright.

  “Now let us live,” she commanded.

  Lev said nothing. He turned his back and climbed inside the truck. Nettie and Liliya ran toward the tree line, empowered, knowing that freedom was on the other side.

  When they reached the trees, the leaves kicked up under their feet and the forest enveloped them. They kept running long after the sounds of the soldiers had faded. They stopped when they found a small stream and finally rested, heaving with exhaustion as they drank their fill. Nettie began to shiver, succumbing to the shock of their escape. The two girls gripped each other tight and held one another as they cried. They had just done the impossible.

  Judgement

  Semele set the pages down in disbelief. She hadn’t finished reading yet, but she had realized something so shocking she couldn’t continue. She walked to the main room and caught Theo pacing.

  “Liliya was your grandmother,” she said.

  His eyes filled with immense relief that she finally understood.

  “But how?” Semele asked weakly, sitting down on the couch. “How did you get this manuscript?”

  Theo sat beside her and tried to explain. “Right after the Gulf War, antiquities began to make their way out of Iraq—a lot of them,” he stressed. “Museums and libraries were looted. When my grandmother heard that a manuscript about an ancient deck of cards had been taken from Baghdad to Jordan, she had her buyer make an anonymous offer. My family paid a fortune.”

  Semele was well aware of the ongoing looting in the Middle East. Countless manuscripts and artifacts had found their way to New York, London, Moscow, and Rome. Most were sold discreetly. The trade in stolen items was the ugly underbelly of her industry, but to her knowledge, Kairos had always avoided handling questionable works. “Then she translated it?”

  “No.” Theo shook his head. “She waited.”

  Semele frowned, not understanding. “For what?”

  “For me.”

  It took her a moment to realize what he was saying. “You translated the manuscript?”

  He nodded. “Nettie told her I would.”

  Semele remembered Ionna’s story. Nettie had told Liliya her future. Nettie had also told her tormentor, Evanoff, countless secrets while she was drugged. Liliya would have heard all of them. Her conscious mind had been with them in the room.

  “Nettie foresaw that Ionna’s manuscript would find its way to Liliya,” he said.

  “So Liliya knew she should look for it,” Semele finished. The thought made her head spin. Where did the thread begin and where did it end?

  “My grandmother was adamant that I learn Greek, and my parents supported the idea. I thought they were all mad collectors, that they were trying to turn me into one of them. I hated the lessons. You should have heard the arguments—and the bribes.” He smiled, remembering. “My grandmother gave me the manuscript when her health was failing. When I finished the translation, I finally understood. The story was my grandmother’s story too. She read my translation days before she died.”

  The look in his eyes made Semele’s breath catch.

  “Nettie saved my grandmother’s life. My grandmother made a vow to Nettie that she would safeguard the manuscript until her heir could claim it.…” His eyes would not let go of her. “You.”

  Semele couldn’t find the words. What he was saying was too much.

  “My grandmother made us promise we would do everything in our power to deliver the manuscript safely to your hands. But I didn’t know who you were, where you were. All I knew was your first name. When my father died he had already chosen a firm to handle the collection. Our estate attorney showed me the details. That’s when I saw your name. I realized my father had found you.”

  Semele felt goose bumps traveling down her arms. For the first time she could see the Bossards and what they meant to her family clearly. Theo Bossard was the ally she hadn’t known existed.

  “I’ve waited years to meet you, Semele.”

  His confession left her speechless. The powerful connection she’d felt since that first day they’d met enveloped her in the deepest warmth.

  Theo reached for her hand and leaned forward. His lips brushed hers with surprising gentleness, a tender introduction. She answered back with a feather kiss. Each touch was a question and an answer. Better than their stolen moment in the gallery, here he was telling her that he was hers.

  The sound of her phone brought them back. Semele pulled away. “It could be the hospital,” she said.

  She grabbed her cell, catching it on the last ring. “Hello?”

  As she listened to Oliver, her body began to tremble. He was crying. She told him she was coming and hung up, looking wildly around the room. “I … I have to go—the hospital. I have to…”

  Theo was already on the hotel phone calling for his car. “I’ll drive you.”

  She hurried to gather her things while Theo put the manuscript pages back in the case. They took the elevator downstairs without a word. Semele clutched her arms around her middle, as if it would keep her from falling apart.

  A driver waited outside in a Land Rover. Theo helped her into the back and climbed in beside her. Semele kept her mind numb, trying not to think. She didn’t want to break down in the car.

  They were halfway to the hospital when her cell phone rang.

  It was Mikhail. She answered immediately.

  “Semele, I just heard the news. I’m so sorry. I know how close you two were.…” Mikhail let out a pained sigh, followed by a long silence. “I know this is a difficult time. Can you call me this evening? I’m afraid we’ve been unable to push back the review in Beijing.”

  “You’re kidding. I’m not going to Beijing,” she erupted in disbelief.

  “I need you to go to Beijing. There will be repercussions if you don’t go,” he said with unmistakable firmness.

  “That doesn’t matter to me anymore. I quit.”

  “You don’t mean that. We can talk tomorrow—”

  “I’ve made up my mind.”

  “Semele, I’m trying to protect you!” Mikhail shouted. “Get on the damn plane!”

  His admission stunned her into silence. There it was. He knew.

  “I can’t do that,” she said and hung up.

  Theo gave her a questioning look.

  “Kairos is involved with the theft.” She drew her hand to her mouth, shaking with adrenaline. Mikhail had just confirmed his guilt.

  Ten of Swords

  A white sheet was draped over Cabe’s body, leaving his face uncovered. He looked like an empty shell, the room around him just as barren. All the beeping monitors and machines had been wheeled away, replaced by silence and a family devastated in their grief.

  Cabe’s mother, Cora, saw Semele hovering in the doorway and jumped up to embrace her. “Oh, Semele.”

  Semele felt a dam break within her as she hugged Cora back. Cabe’s father began to sob and Oliver had to leave the room. Cora pulled away to grab tissues. “I can’t believe he’s gone.” She dabbed her eyes.

  Semele couldn’t tear her eyes away from Cabe. Her tears ran unchecked. She didn’t hear when Cabe’s parents told her they were stepping outside to give her a moment, and she didn’t hear the door shut behind them.

  She sat down in the chair beside his bed and put her head in her hands. The pain inside her unlocked with such force that she began to break apart.

  “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry” was all she could say to her friend. The grief—she felt as though she would drown in it, and the wo
rd Doreen had whispered in her reading came back to haunt her.

  Despair. This was despair. Semele closed her eyes, unable to accept the reality around her. How could she not have foreseen this? Cabe had died because of her. With that thought, a feeling of fury consumed her. She would find who did this. Whatever it took, she would find them.

  * * *

  Oliver waited in the hallway, talking quietly on the phone. “Yes, I understand. Whatever you can do.” He hung up, rubbing his eyes, and turned to Semele when she joined him. “That was the police. They’re done interviewing witnesses. No leads.”

  Semele tried to process everything. She needed to talk to Theo before going to the police. Mikhail’s words were still reverberating in her mind.

  “Tell them to interview everyone at Kairos,” she said. “There was a high-level theft there a few days ago. Cabe had just left work—”

  She stopped talking.

  A vase of rare striped roses in brilliant gold and scarlet loomed from the nurses’ station at the end of the hall. The flowers looked just like the ones Rinalto gave Viviana at the ball.

  What were they doing there?

  Semele walked down the hallway in a daze. Oliver didn’t notice her leave; he was already calling the police back.

  The flowers looked strange in these surroundings, like an artifact from another time and place.

  A page from Ionna’s manuscript had just sprung to life.

  “Excuse me. Who are these for?” she asked the nurse behind the desk.

  It was the same nurse who was on duty right before Semele left this morning. “Your friend,” the woman said gently. “I was going to give them to his parents.” The phone rang and she turned to answer it.

  While the nurse had her back to her, Semele snatched the card from the flowers and hurried off.

  As she walked away, she opened the envelope.