by Derry Sandy
The last two times she entered the sleep Kariega had been there when she awoke. He had been in limbo so long that he knew all the rules. It would be prudent to wait for him but there was no time to waste. She had felt Onyeka’s power and he was potentially strong enough to jettison himself from limbo and return to the Absolute.
She sniffed the air but scented only the rain and sea. She looked to the ground for signs of a man’s passage. Finding none she fashioned a crude spear, closed her eyes and allowed her mind to wander. Then, following her intuition, she picked a direction and set off, loping along at a quick pace.
She left the sands and entered the jungle where the trees shielded her from the worst of the wind and rain. She stalked through the undergrowth, low and quick. Her bare feet made almost no sound. Katharine had always been an avid hunter, and Kariega had honed her skills.
She hunted, constantly searching for some sign of Onyeka’s passage, wondering if he was also stalking her. A massive withered poui tree drew her attention, its bark had been blackened and its sparse leaves were covered in a mealy white blight. Kat had never seen dead vegetation in limbo but Kariega had once told her that the passage of an evil soul could cause things to die here.
A trail of dead and dying vegetation led from the tree. She followed its path, stalking from one patch of cover to the next silent as the wing beats of a jumbie bird. Then she saw him. He moved confidently, not bothering to slink or stalk. She was about fifty paces behind and from this range she could take him in the back with her spear. Killing him here would force his soul out of limbo and into the Ether, effectively ending him. She rose slowly and took aim, but at that moment he turned around and looked her directly in the eyes. He had known she was there.
“Clever dragging me here, Katharine,” Onyeka said through a sneer. “Very clever.”
Kat tensed to launch her make-shift spear at Onyeka. She would put his reflexes to the test, but before she could release the weapon, a wooden pike erupted through her chest as someone impaled her from behind. A second stake pierced her just below the first. She felt no pain which she thought was a bad sign. No pain meant she was not injured but dying.
Katharine fell to the leaf litter, her legs suddenly incapable of bearing her weight. With a massive effort she rolled over to look at her attacker. Fat, warm drops of canopy filtered rain spattered wetly onto her upturned face. Staring down at her were the yellowed eyes of Onyeka’s man-servant Gershon. He grinned at her with his tobacco-colored teeth. Faithful even in death his soul had somehow followed his master into limbo.
The forest around her began to take on a translucent nature and beyond the translucence she saw what she imagined was the Ether. Mostly it was just a bright expanse from which voices called her name. She had been mortally wounded while in limbo and now she had to cross to be with the ancestors.
She tried to focus on staying where she was, on not crossing over, but it was growing harder.
Onyeka approached her and stooped low. “Die knowing that it was all for naught, I cannot be trapped here. I’m going to go right back and take control of that pretty little body of yours. I will walk right up to your son and rip his arms off.”
Katharine tried to say something sharply sarcastic and cunningly insulting, but she could not come up with anything good. She managed to spit a wad of bloody phlegm into Onyeka’s face, cursing him darkly as jagged fingers of pain finally began to radiate from the site of the wounds.
“Katharine, the ancestors would have problems embracing you with that dirty mouth.” The words were from a familiar voice, a voice she loved. She turned her head to see a massive lion stepping out of the undergrowth and behind it, her beloved Kariega.
“You know that you should wait for me when you come here,” he said with a disproving tone, ignoring the two other men.
“I could not,” Katharine managed.
“Don’t worry everything will be alright. Hang on, think about our son and focus on being here.”
Katharine clung to a vision of Tarik like a drowning woman clinging to branch as a torrent swirled around her.
Kariega turned his attention to Onyeka and his lackey. “Son, step away from her.”
“You have the gall to command me? You passed your power and knowledge of witchcraft to this woman and here she lies in defeat, yet you dare command me?”
Kariega leaned on his spear and spoke. “You shame me and you shame the ancestors.”
“What? I have surpassed you in power, I have singlehandedly elevated obeah to its place of supremacy. I have mastered the arts of necromancy. I could drag your soul back to the Absolute and enslave you. How exactly is that shameful?”
“Shameful because you forgot that the first and most important lesson of obeah is to know the exact end result of every action.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kariega sighed. “You still don’t get it. You should not have killed Katharine here. If either of us had attempted to kill you and failed you could have simply reincarnated yourself, as you have done before. But now, that will be impossible.”
“You are mad.”
“And you have mortally wounded one of the two last surviving gets of Bazil’s line, the other being Tarik, your half-brother. In case you did not know Bazil was the first and most powerful soucouyant to ever enter the absolute.”
“What?” Genuine confusion blossomed on Onyeka’s face.
“Katharine’s mother was a direct get of Bazil herself, and one of the first soucouyant he made when he came to the Absolute, so in some way Bazil considers Katharine a grand-daughter. He will not be happy with how you have handled her. Also, the souls of all soucouyant return to Bazil in the end. He makes a point to collect them personally.”
A thunderclap sounded and a shadowy figure descended to the earth like lightning. The shadow was about the size and shape of a man, but Katharine could feel power rolling off it.
The being then spoke in a language that Katharine had never heard before but for some reason she understood. “Onyeka, I have watched you from across the boundary as you played at being a god and eluded the Ether with your necromancy. I watched as you leapt from body to body, infesting impressionable minds with your nonsense and filth. Your plan to bore a hole in the barrier reveals a fundamental disrespect for the order established by Moko, and a false assumption that we of the Grey want your help to enter the Absolute. I was not forced back into the Grey, I chose to return, and I choose to remain.”
In response Onyeka gestured to cast a spell and his servant rushed the shadowy figure, they both caught fire. For a full minute the only sounds that could be heard were the screams of Onyeka and his servant. Yet while the fire blazed upon their flesh their flesh remained whole. If Katharine had to guess she would bet that they could burn like this indefinitely. Just as suddenly as it began the fire went out. “That was but a taste of what I have in store for you, Onyeka. Now stay put until I am done talking,” Bazil said.
“Katharine, you are mine now, all soucouyant return to Bazil in the end you know that,” Bazil said.
Kariega cleared his throat. “I freed her from that fate Bazil. She is not yours.”
“You insulted me by breaking the tie in the first place now you add injury by questioning me here, Kariega?”
“You know it’s true otherwise, you would have taken her years ago.”
“Yes, but she was all the way in the Absolute. Now she is here in the Sleep, in the Sleep for which she has not properly performed any of the rituals and has also managed to get herself staked…twice. What is to stop me from simply taking her?”
“Well for one, she will probably usurp your place in the Loa. You’ve monitored her entire life. You know she is nothing but trouble. In addition, I have a bargain to make. Send her back to the Absolute and instead of going to the ancestors I will serve you for a hundred years.”
“Kariega, no, no,” Katharine managed. “Do not do this.”
“What is a hundred years to o
ne who has already been dead for several times that?”
“Tying yourself to Bazil makes you no better than I was before you freed me.”
“Katharine, you must live. Rohan needs you. The girl you marked needs you. Lisa needs you and our son needs you.” He turned to the shadowy form. “Do we have a deal? I know my way around limbo, I can enter and leave the Grey, and I know the magiks. You could use a messenger like me.”
The dark form exuded pensiveness for a short while, but then spoke. “You are right, I have kept an eye on her and she is nothing but trouble. We have a deal, but Katharine, you are not allowed into the sleep again. The next time you come, it will be to join me.” And with another thunderclap the being vanished taking Onyeka and his servant with him. The weird translucence dissipated. The surrounding forest solidified and Kariega and Katharine were enshrouded in the white noise of rainfall.
The stakes had vanished from Katharine’s chest leaving two puckered scars.
“Now you have scars like mine,” Kariega said touching the place on his chest where he had been speared through so long ago.
“What have you done Kariega?”
“Saved your life. You always tell me to cross over, now I’m going to do so.”
“I told you to cross over to be with the ancestors, not to serve the Loa.”
“It is only for a century.” Kariega grinned. “You must go now, and I must go too.”
Katharine realized that tears were falling from her eyes. “If I die before your service is done I will wait for you here, I don’t care what Bazil thinks.”
“Hush. Focus on living.” With that Kariega handed her one of the black travel boxes. “We will meet again, Katharine. Our destinies are entwined forever.”
She closed her eyes and Kariega kissed her forehead. When she opened them, he was gone.
She placed the box on the ground and allowed it to grow. Then she took a final look around and entered.
Chapter 39
They sat in a loose circle around Kat’s body. No one knew what to do. When they found her she was laying on her back with some sort of bone knife protruding from her chest. She was breathing but very shallowly. They debated over whether they should remove the knife and finally they decided not to, but Voss cut his palm and allowed blood to run down the handle of the knife and into the wound, the rest of them did the same even Lisa and Sam who were slowly regaining their faculties following the closing of the gateway.
The room where Kat lay had been empty but for one other corpse, that of the ugly little man. All they could do was wait, they were afraid to move the soucouyant or do anything that might exacerbate her condition. They kept vigil for about an hour when Voss noticed tears running from the corner of Kat’s eyes. Moments later she shot upright and began sobbing. The group first reacted with shock and then Lisa and Kamara hugged Kat and she clung to them. The women seemed to intuit that Kat had suffered some loss. Voss was just glad she was alive.
Kat, removed the knife and looked at the wound in her chest, crimson with the blood they had each donated. Though she only nodded and said nothing Voss sensed she felt gratitude. She looked tired and frayed, but then again they all looked similarly exhausted.
“Ghita, show us the way out,” Kat said when she had collected her composure.
“What about the things in the basement and the greyborn that escaped into the room and the maboya.” Lisa asked.
“This place is not easy to escape, and we are in no condition to enter more battles today. We will deal with those problems another time. For now we leave them to their own devices.”
Voss agreed. Even if the creatures escaped, humanity and the Order had been dealing with the odd rampaging greyborn for years. The far more serious threat of a constant stream of greyborn was averted and the problem could wait. As Ghita led them out of the room Kat caught Voss’ arm and whispered in his ear as the rest of the party moved on.
“I know what you are Voss.” Voss halted as Kat continued speaking. “Onyeka called you the betrayer and I know what that means.”
“What does it mean?” Voss replied.
“Coyness does not become you Voss. Onyeka called you the betrayer because you switched sides on him. You were supposed to kill Rohan when the opportunity presented itself. Weren’t you?”
“Seeing as lying is useless with you…yes I was supposed to kill him. Planned to do it the first day I saw him, while he was on his run.” Voss’ voice was cool.
“Why didn’t you?”
“I’m not sure. I was convinced that our position, Onyeka’s position, was right. Right in that the Order had weakened humanity by protecting them from the greyborn. But then I wondered why Rohan should be cut down for it, didn’t quite seem fair. If our position in the debate was so strong then it should be able to stand on its own merit. Regardless of who opposed it, the proof would be in the pudding and one more death or one less death would not turn the tide either way.”
“What do you believe now?”
“I believe that we should leave this place.”
“You know that is not what I meant Voss. If you change your mind again, if you make an attempt on the boy’s life I will kill you. It would be hard for me, but you should take me very seriously when I tell you I will do it.”
“I understand, and I believe you.”
As Voss turned to leave Kat spoke again, “One more thing, Voss. You’ll have to help me eliminate the rotten apples in the Watcher’s Guild and in the houses.”
“Why should they die when I live? We are all guilty of the same betrayal.”
“That may be true but that burden is yours to bear. I’m sure you understand my position. The Order is Kariega’s legacy, as much as Tarik is. We need to cleanse the houses and the Guild of anyone who sided with Onyeka.”
“Yes, that is fair, but by now those people know what happened, they know I did not assassinate Rohan. If they have any sense they will be long gone.”
“Perhaps they are gone or perhaps they are waiting to see if you return. In any case those who have fled must be brought to ground. Those who remain must also be executed.”
“They are powerful people.”
“As was Onyeka, and he is somewhere in the Ether or the Grey entertaining a master soucouyant.”
There was an uncomfortable silence between the two each waiting to see if the other had something to add. It was Kat who broke the discomfort at the end. “Lisa fancies you.”
“Does she?”
“Coyness does not become you. She will need a guard in the days to come, she still has Onyeka’s key and that will attract evil men and women.”
“I could think of more unpleasant situations.”
“Good, it’s settled. Let us be away from this place.”
“I know something happened with Kariega while you were in the Sleep. I’m sorry for whatever loss you have had to bear.”
“I appreciate that sentiment, Voss,” was all the soucouyant could manage.
Chapter 40
The primal beats of soca music invoked a thousand lively spirits which congregated to saturate the cool, pre-dawn air. During the mystical hours before the sun climbed above the horizon and while the dew still clung to the weeds at the roadside, J’ouvert masqueraders inhaled these spirits and became possessed.
They were compelled to dance. They were enchanted. They were rendered incapable of resisting the music’s call. Katharine was no different and like a cobra captivated by a snake charmer she swayed to the rhythms and rode them to euphoria. J’ouvert was very special to her, after all she had been there for the very first one and she understood the significance. Her preternatural ears could hear the sweet song chanted by the ghosts of emancipated slaves as they sang in remembrance.
It was not all for fun, the greyborn loved to mingle with the costumed masqueraders sometimes for nefarious purpose. Her senses were sharply attuned to their presence.
That they had survived was a miracle. But they had survived. Rohan was r
ecovering and was almost back to being his sarcastic self. Voss was acting as Lisa’s bodyguard while hunting down the faction of the Watcher’s Guild and the Order that had sided with Onyeka. Clarence, D’mara and Ghita had moved into Stone. Kamara had returned to classes and was trying to salvage her grades. Kat suspected that she had leaned on the Nights of Need to help her stay awake for six consecutive days to prepare for exams.
Tarik was also now living at Stone and would likely become an apprentice Orderman. Apart from the tattoos, Agrippa displayed no indicators that he was Kimani’s reincarnation, by all appearances he was a regular dog. After Lisa had moved back into her home, the dog had vanished from Stone and turned up in Belmont a few days later. Rohan conceded that Agrippa preferred Lisa’s company over his. Uriah had abandoned his practice in London and was now staying with Cassan. Kat surmised that after the loss of his family, staying close to his brother was therapeutic for him.
Stone, formerly a fraternity, had become a far more diverse and eclectic place virtually overnight. Rohan would have to rise to the challenge of being the head of Stone, he was young. In fact he was the youngest Chapter head to ever assume the role and it would not be easy for him.
Kat’s own path was also uncertain. She had devoted so much of her life to helping the Order survive this one specific challenge that she was at a loss about what she should do next.
As she danced amidst the early morning revelers, she spied a woman leading a man into an alley. Something about the woman drew her eye, the way she moved, the way the man seemed enthralled, the way the woman favored one leg. Her Victorian era costume was too authentic, her aura was too ancient. Kat separated herself from the crush of revelers and followed the pair.
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