the end...?

After having more than a few people nag me about posting the rest of the story, I have finally acquiesced. The final chapters of Witches' Brew -- all unedited, rough drafts of which I've not even done a quick read myself -- have been posted.

I had hesitated to make all of the chapters available on the blog, since this story is intended for publication, and I was concerned about any rights issues that might arise from its first public appearance here. But given both the 'net medium and the extent of the edits I have planned for Witches' Brew, this shouldn't present any obstacles down the road.

Witches' Brew is one of the winning projects from NaNoWriMo 2004, and I am looking forward to participating again next year. To further the insanity, I've already launched a new project -- a "chick lit" story called Last Maid Standing, about a thirty-something woman [the last unmarried member of a large family] as she serves as bridesmaid in a series of catastrophe-prone weddings. Inspired by true events -- believe me, I've been there, done that. Of course, I've not yet made the same "do or die" commitment to this new project as I had to Witches' Brew, so it hasn't taken over my life in quite the same way. Yet.

Enjoy Witches' Brew, in its current brutal form, while it's available. I look forward to receiving your feedback, should you care to share. In the meantime, I've got my plate full with edits and new projects. I'll also be looking for new representation, so if you have any recommendations, send them my way.

[please send all comments directly to me at comments@ravenwald.com; Blogger is currently working out an issue with its comments system.]

Chapter 14

The sun beat down unmercifully, and it wasn't yet 10am. Aubrey Jones pulled his baseball cap down tight to shade his face and eyes from the glare above as he knelt in the landscaped garden and pulled up weeds.

It was 102 degrees out, he decided, without bothering to check the gauge on his converted golf cart. The sticky sweetness of the Georgia summers had never bothered Aubrey. He even seemed to thrive on the heat and humidity that sent decent people running for air-conditioned cover. Aubrey always laughed to himself when he saw the sweat pouring off of their bodies, staining their clothes. Look at the white people melting, he thought.

Aubrey mopped his brow quickly, then stuffed the bandana back into his pocket.

He inspected the stems of the day lilies as he uprooted the unwanted volunteers around them, then he moved on to the next cluster of azalea bushes. Aubrey had worked these grounds since he had been a teenager, and thirty some years later he was supervising manager of the grounds crew for the exclusive, two-hundred-year-old Magnolia Grove Country Club . Not bad for an uneducated black man in Savannah, or so his employer frequently reminded him.

Uneducated. He always laughed at that designation, too, as though studying to be a master gardner were no more difficult than applying for a gun permit.

He heard the crackle of conversation on his radio. It was the usual banter from the high school and college kids working their summer jobs. Aubrey shook his head. These kids today had no idea how easy they had it, not having to pretend they were ignorant simpletons, singing "We aims to please" just to get a minimum wage job. Nowadays, Aubrey's own children could walk onto the Magnolia grounds, their dark faces causing nothing more than a whispered stirred through the rest of the membership. "Not like back days," Aubrey whispered to himself, though silently acknowledging that Savannah still had a ways to go.

Aubrey reached down to his belt and turned down the volume on the radio, then stepped deeper into the pink azaleas. He got down on his knees to push deep in, bending low to inspect the roots and trunks of the flowering shrubs. Spotting a clump of weeds, Aubrey reached out to pull up the offenders, and then stopped. He crawled in closer to get a better look. Gently, he touched the felt-like leaves, studying the patterns of dark and light green on their faces. He examined the patterns of the clustered leaves in wonder.

"It can't be," he whispered to himself. Aubrey snapped off a small leaf from the cluster and crawled back out onto the grass. He sat on the ground, turning the tiny specimen over in his hands, holding it up to the bright sunlight and then studying it in shadow. At last, he broke off a small piece of the leaf and placed it on his tongue. He chewed it lightly as his face brightened.

"I'll be damned!" Excited, Aubrey crawled back underneath the azalea bushes and spied the prized herb plant that had sprung up on the country club grounds. He checked for the root network he knew would be there, then rested back on his knees and smiled. All of the ancient names echoed through his head -- angel balm, aengus wort, pandora's trove, dog's ear, honshawe, oberia leaf, kehmut.... It had finally come to Savannah.

Chapter 13

The morning sunlight streamed in through the bedroom window, the tree branches swaying gently in the breezing casting shadows on Susana's face as she slept. She squinted against the light falling on her closed eyelids and stretched the full length of her body beneath the light bedspread. Her eyes blinked open, and she was surprised by the brightness of the sun in her room. Groggily, she reached for the watch on the night stand. It was just after 8am.

She sat up in bed and yawned. How late had she stayed up, with all of the madness in the house? She had no idea. But at least she felt rested. And calm. She took a mental inventory, checking for any signs of lingering impatience or aggression. The rage that had fueled her during the night's activities would have frightened her before, but this experience had been liberating. Perhaps she was truly coming into herself after all.

She showered and dressed, as if in a dream. Susana felt lighter and surprisingly more awake than ever. Whatever shift had occurred, she wondered if it would last. Slipping on a pair of sandals, she opened the bedroom door and headed down the staircase.

Roy was at the breakfast table, reading the morning paper. A fresh pot of coffee waited in the coffee maker, and there was an ample spread of fruits, toast, and condiments on the table.

"You made breakfast," Susana greeted him cheerily.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." He smiled at her quickly, then returned to reading. "I've still not seen Lily, but I think I heard her stirring."

Susana poured herself a cup of coffee and looked out the window over the sink into the backyard. Only Baird stood watch over the aengus wort.

"Where are the others?" Susana ran her hand through her wet hair, lifting it off the back of her neck. She heard the mail slot on the front door open, followed by the sound of the day's mail falling to the floor in the front hallway.

"They're around." Roy turned the page of the newspaper. "There's not as much of a threat during the day. At least for now."

Susana sat down across from Roy. She heard Lily's bedroom door creak open upstairs. "What's in the news this fine Monday morning?"

Roy peeked around the side of the paper at her. "It's Tuesday morning."

Susana frowned. "Yesterday was Sunday..."

"No," Roy smiled. "Yesterday was Monday. You went to bed late Sunday night and slept all through Monday."

Susana put her coffee mug down on the table. "What?"

"Yep." Roy continued reading. "It's Tuesday."

Susana stared at her coffee mug. Had she really slept more than twenty-four hours? She stretched her arms out to her sides and rolled her wrists, then leaned forward to check the date on the newspaper in Roy's hands. Sure enough, it was Tuesday.

She picked up her mug and pulled her knees up to her chest. "So, what's in the news this Tuesday morning, then?"

"Well..." Roy rested the paper on the table and looked down at the stories in print. "Quite a bit of turbulence in the city, as you might imagine."

Susana leaned forward, reading the article titles upside down: "Poltergeists or Pranksters?" read one headline; "Local Ghost Tours Lose Ghosts," read another, followed by, "The Spirit of Richmond Tourism."

She rested back in her chair and took a sip from her mug. "You think we did all that?"

"We certainly set things in motion." Roy reached for an apple from the fruit bowl and sliced it into quarters.

Lily padded down the stairs in her bare feet and picked up the pile of mail from the floor. She sorted through the bills and advertisements as she made her way back to the kitchen. "Susana?" She was still looking down at the mail as she cross the threshold into the kitchen. "Were you expecting a letter from Simone Carver?"

Lily placed the envelope on the table in front of Susana. Roy rustled through the newspaper.

"Hmm," Susana commented curiously, tracing the flowery handwriting on the envelope with her finger.

"I meant to tell you...." Roy folded the paper and pushed it across the table to Susana. He tapped on Simone's name. Susana blinked. It was the Obituaries page.

"What?" Susana sat up straight in her chair and read the text. "She... died in her sleep Sunday night. She seemed perfectly fine Sunday afternoon!"

Lily leaned over her cousin to read the newsprint. "Gee." As the weight of the announcement hit her, Lily glanced nervously back and forth between Susana and Roy. "You don't think.... We killed her?"

Susana looked up at her cousin standing above her. "What are you talking about?"

"The tea!" Lily took a seat beside Susana. "She drank the tea, and now, now she's dead."

Susana's own alarm softened into a smile. "So did you," she reminded her. "We all drank the tea. And we turned out okay."

"I guess...." Lily reached for a piece of toast and slowly spread some strawberry preserves on it.

Susana checked the postmark on the front of the envelope. "This went out yesterday." She paused, still staring at the postmark. "She must have put this in the mail Sunday afternoon...." Susana carefully opened the envelope with her pinky. "Let's see what she wrote to us."

"But yesterday was Sunday?" Lily asked, confused. Roy handed her the newspaper, pointing first to the date, and then to the stories he was showing Susana. Lily frowned.

Susana glanced over at her. "Don't ask. Just eat."

Lily dutifully took a large bite of toast and started reading the story on Richmond tourism.

Susana pulled the folded piece of stationery from the envelope and began to read, tears springing to her eyes before she was even halfway through.

Lily looked up from the newspaper. "Well?" She took another bite of toast.

"It's just a short note really." Susana sniffed and quickly wiped at her eyes. "A simple thank you for our visit with her, for bringing her the tea."

"So what are you getting all sniffly about then?" Lily got up from the table to pour herself a cup of coffee.

"It's just this bit here." Susana held up the letter and read aloud: "I am still basking in the glow of our short visit this afternoon. The balm of your company has done me a world of good. I feel a lightness in my heart this evening that I've not felt in decades, as if all of the worries and burdens have simply fallen away. I am grateful to you and your friends for such a simple gesture. I know I will sleep at peace tonight."

Lily sat back down at the table and looked over at Roy. "I guess that tea did the trick, then?"

Susana quietly returned the letter to its envelope.

"So they're gone, huh?" Lily asked Roy. "All of the ghosts downtown. Even the ones on the plantations. I guess the business owners are pretty pissed."

"Language, you lady!"

Lily, Roy, and Susan jumped and the strong voice. They were startled to find Tic standing just inside the doorway to the back yard. Tic was wagging a finger at Lily playfully.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "You scared me half to death, old man!"

"Half to death, eh? Then you'd be half-way to where I am." Tic stepped into the middle of the kitchen, and his entourage of at least a dozen other partially translucent men and women followed him inside.

Susana got up nervously from her chair. "Okay.... What's this?"

Tic smiled at Roy. "I'm glad to see the personalities are coming back into balance." Tic turned and gestured toward the uncertain faces crowding the small kitchen. "This is my corps of volunteers."

"Volunteers for what?" Though she stood behind her chair as a kind of protection, Susana found herself stepping up as the leader once again. She heard her own voice and watched her actions, and smiled inwardly. A dozen ghosts in the kitchen? Big deal. She could handle this. She could handle anything.

Roy folder up his napkin and placed it on the table. "Volunteers for tourism." He shook his head and laughed. "To replace the ghosts that left. That's brilliant."

"Some of us are sticking around of our own free will, you know." Tic commented. He smiled at Lily and Susana. "First, I wanted to see how my girls were getting along. And then you show up with your E.T. investigators," Tic gestured toward Roy. "I had to stand by and guard that herb!"

"Your what?" Lily asked Roy.

Roy stood up and laughed nervously. "They aren't 'E.T. investigators,' but that's not a bad description." He rested his fingertips on the table and looked at Lily and Susana. "They're the men in black, tracking me under the auspices of my father's crimes in this country."

"But they really know who you are, don't they?" Susana let go of the chair and stepped out from behind it.

Roy pointed out to the yard. "And they know what that plant is. They knew before I even got here. Before it first sprouted, even." He glanced at Tic. "They would have come, whether I was here or not."

"The dark forces...." Tic said quietly.

The wind kicked up a bit outside. Roy glanced out the window behind him. "I don't think that's going to be an issue much longer." He walked toward the door. "Susana, come with me. Lily, turn on the television."

Susana followed Roy out to the back porch while Lily went into the den. She flipped through the local channels, but they were all broadcasting the same thing. "An unexpected collision of fronts appears to be convening in our area. Again, we have no word from the National Weather Association on prior warnings." Lily watched the Channel 6 forecaster step in front of a huge weather map, showing the same weather progression over and over again. "It's early in hurricane season yet, and unusual for metro Richmond to experience this kind of weather. Uh, we've really been scrambling here folks. Agatha is the first official hurricane of the season, and she's just blowing in out of nowhere, coming up in land from Norfolk. We're stressing again that this storm, the hurricane is heading right for us. It looks like Agatha is going to give us a real pounding...."

Lily stepped away from the television in disbelief. "Are you shitting me?!" she shouted at the weather man.

"Lily...." Tic stood in the doorway.

"Yeah, yeah. Language." She waved him off, keeping her eyes on the screen. "This is just, unreal."

Roy ran to the greenhouse and grabbed a shovel. Susana ran after him, he hair flying about her face in the wind. "Roy? What is it?"

Shovel in hand, Roy walked quickly to the honshawe plants. He was about to start digging, then stopped himself. "Do you have a harvesting knife handy?" he asked Susana.

"The boline? Sure." Susana jogged over to the greenhouse and slipped the scythe-shaped knife from its hook on the wall. She stopped for a moment and grabbed a large, woven basket from the greenhouse floor. Susana crossed the grass to stand beside Roy, who was staring down at the massive leaves of the plants.

He rested the tip of the shovel on the ground. "It's grown again. Overnight."

"What do you want me to do?" Susana balanced the knife in her hand.

Roy lifted his eyes, gazing toward the garden gate. "Start cutting," he told her. "Now."

Susana knelt down and reached into the leaves of the plant, feeling for the base of the stems. When had the plants grown so thick. The wind picked up even more speed as she whispered her prayer of thanks and blessing to the sacred herb. The she began cutting, talking to the plants as she went. "I don't even know what to call you any more," she murmured to the leaves, so close to her face. The fragrance was heady, and she made a conscious decision to keep her wits about her. "So many names," she said quietly. "So many places, so many generations."

Baird began barking on the back porch. She sat up and dropped her first handful of cuttings into the woven basket at her side. Looking around, she saw that Roy had stepped several yards away, holding the shovel as a weapon. Then she saw them: three men, all of slight build, all dressed in black, from their shoes to their sunglasses. They stood facing Roy, and she could just barely make out what they were saying over the strong wind. What was with all of this wind?

"You can't take me in," Roy shouted to the men coldly.

"What would be the fun in that?" One of the men stepped forward, coming face to face with Roy. "We've come for the plant. You're still more valuable to us on the outside."

Susana knelt down again and resumed harvest the herb's leaves. She worked as quickly as she could, still catching bits of the confrontation.

"And what do you think you could possibly do with it?" Roy demanded. "Your studies won't show anything. You know that. Your science doesn't yet have the capability to analyze starseed material."

Starseed? Susana turned the word over in her mind as she clipped the leaves and dropped them into the basket beside her. She paused, gazing through the tangle of leaves to the plant stalks, seeing the root network in her mind's eye. Starseed material?

"Stand aside!" one of the men yelled at Roy.

Susana worked fervently, cutting the leaves as quickly as she could. But with each leaf that she cut off, she swore that five more instantly appeared in its place.

"Agatha has other plans for you," Roy shouted at the men in black and the tree limbs creaked overhead in the powerful gusts of wind.

Agatha? Who the hell was Agatha? Susana sat up again quickly and found that Whispering Crow stood at Roy's side, looking as solid and real as he must have in life -- assuming he had ever really been alive. The basket beside her was nearly overflowing with herb cuttings, and yet the plants in front of her looked untouched by her blade. Where the hell did this herb come from?

Susana heard a loud crack above, and one of the limbs from the mighty oaks trees came crashing down between Roy and the men in black. Baird ran to Susana's side in fright. The dark-clad intruders jumped back in alarm, but Roy stood his ground and smiled. "She's coming," Roy taunted them. "And the herb and I will be long gone by the time she blows out of town."

The winds whipped at their faces as leaves, twigs, and debris blew through the yard and out into the street. More branches groaned and creaked overhead, tested and twisted by the approaching hurricane. "I think we're looking at a category three, boys." Roy climbed over the fallen limb and faced the black suits. "You can't do your work in this kind of weather. Go on home now. Live to fight another day."

A huge gust a wind stirred up, lifting the men off of their feet and tossing them over the hedge like rag dolls. Roy smiled, unaffected. He turned to Whispering Crow. Tend to your tree," Roy suggested to him.

With a solemn nod, the medicine man turned and made his way to the front yard, headed in the direction of the ancient magnolia tree.

Roy tossed the shovel in the direction of the greenhouse and climbed back over the fallen limb. There was another snap overhead, and a smaller branch hit the ground just behind him. He ran to Susana's side. "How are we doing?" he shouted over the roar of the wind.

"I don't understand it!" Susana fought for her voice in the building storm. "I cut and I cut, and it just keeps coming back!" She gestured to both the overflowing basket behind her and the even larger cluster of plants in the ground.

"It's okay! Leave it!" Roy picked up the basket and grabbed at Susana's arm, pulling her to her feet. "We've got to get inside!" Roy took off for the house, easily scaling the steps two and a time. Baird ran ahead of him, ducking into the house through the dog door.

Susana glanced quickly back down at the herb plants and smiled. She had no words to describe what she was feeling, or to explain what was raging all around her. Gripping the small scythe in her hand, she ran up the stairs to the back porch and into the house.

* * * * *

The storm had raged the rest of the day into the night, the dark clouds overhead blocking out the sun. They followed Agatha's path as broadcast by the local and national meteorologists but thad then lost power just as the full force of the hurricane hit the city. The eye finally passed over close to 6pm, and in those moments of sudden silence, Susana, Lily, and Roy just looked at each other dumbly as they huddled under blankets in the hallway corridor, halfway between the kitchen and the front door. Baird had curled up in a ball between Susana and the wall.

Susana jumped up and ran into the kitchen, grabbing as much food out of the refrigerator and cabinets as her arms could hold, then dashed back into the hallway and dumped her load and Lily's feet. Then she was off again, returning with every bottle of water she could carry.

Lily looked up at her in surprise. "What's with this?"

Susana crouched down beside her and opened up three bottles of water, distributing them around. "We've not eaten since breakfast. I am not running back into that room full of windows once the storm starts up again."

The wind began to pick up outside just as she finished her sentence. Susana reached for her blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. "It could be a long night...."

* * * * *

Susana awoke to the sounds of birds chirping. Her entire body was sore from sleeping on the hardwood floor all night long, and her stomach was protesting the dinner of sweet pickles and canned almonds. She dropped the blanket from her shoulders, seeing that Lily and Roy were also beginning to stir awake. Susana got to her feet and stepped lightly into the kitchen.

Early morning sunlight was creeping in through the windows, a good half of which were broken. Susana checked her watch: 6:17am. She tried the light switch on the wall, though she knew there was no way the power company could have restored electricity overnight. They would be without power for days, weeks even. Hurricane or not, when disaster struck Richmond, she reminded herself, it struck with a fury.

Susana lifted the receiver of the telephone on the wall and listened for a dial tone. The phones were out, too.

"How bad is it?" Lily voice shook as she climbed her feet and took a few steps into the kitchen.

Susana looked down at her cousin's bare feet and held up a hand to stop her. "Lily, there's glass all over the floor in here. Go put some shoes on. I'm going outside to survey the damage."

Susana grimaced as Baird trotted across the broken shards on the floor on his way out through the dog door. Susana reach for the doorknob and followed him outside.

Nothing could have prepared Susana for what awaited her. The carefully manicured and maintained gardens were unrecognizable, the shredded plants tangled in the nearby shrubs. The greenhouse had been ripped apart and lay in impossibly small pieces strewn about the yard. Whole trees had been uprooted and had crashed through the hedges that marked the perimeter of the yard, taking power lines down with them. Stepping down from the shelter of the back porch, Susana looked up at the house. Other than the broken windows and shutters hanging at precarious angles, she was surprised to find the house largely intact.

Baird dashed back and forth across the yard with a small branch gripped between his teeth, dragging the attached leaves across the grass like a broom. His tail wagged wildly as he tried to entice Susana to chase him. She just watched him and smiled.

Roy stepped out onto the back porch, followed by Lily, who had pulled on Susana's hiking boots. Susana looked at her feet and raised her eyebrows. "Those are mine you know."

"Yeah. Get over it." Lily jogged down the steps and wandered across the yard, looking for the familiar gardens. "It's all.... just, gone."

"Pretty much." Susana stepped over to where the honshawe had been. The plot was covered by a collection of stray branches, and she began tugging at them, trying to pull them out of the way. Roy kicked his way through the twigs in the yard to help her. Excited by the activity, Baird dropped his toy and ran over, grabbing part of the branch Susana was pulling on his teeth, hoping to engage her in a tug of war.

"Baird!" she yelled at him. He let go immediately and put his head down, looking up at her sadly from beneath his lowered brow. Susana's sharpness fled. "Not now, puppy."

Baird dashed back across the yard to reclaim his own small branch, prancing about proudly as Lily joined the others to help clear off the honshawe plot. They pulled the last bits of debris from the plot, and discovered it empty.

"What the hell?" Lily rested her hands on her hips. The soil lay flat and smooth, as though it had never been disturbed, as though nothing had ever grown there.

Susana looked to Roy in a panic. "Those men! Did they come back and steal it?"

Roy knelt down on the ground and pressed his palms against the wet soil. He cocked his head, listening. "no." He stood up and looked around the yard. "No, they weren't here."

"So, what? It's just gone?" Susana picked up a stick and dug it into the dirt, trying to find any traces of the herb. "Not even the roots?" She dropped the stick. "That's impossible."

Roy laughed aloud. "After everything you've seen these past few weeks, you actually still believe in 'impossible'?"

Susana rested on her knees in the dirt, getting her clothes muddy. She knew Roy was right. That day that she had lost her job, she had said a prayer asking that she might let go of expectations and her attachment to "common reality." She just hadn't been prepared for everything to be turned upside down like this. But really, when she thought about it, life was so much more interesting this way.

"Yeah," Susana nearly laughed. "Okay." She got up to her feet and made an attempt to brush the dirt off of her clothes.

"I don't get it." Lily frowned. She stared down at place where the aengus wort should have been, then glanced around the torn up yard.

"That's okay. You will." Susana spotted the shovel from the day before and crossed the few yards across the grass to pick it up. She carried the shovel toward the back porch. "We'll start over, Lily," she called over her shoulder. "Right back to the beginning."

* * * * *

They had spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon clearing debris from the back yard. The heavy branches they had stacked as neatly as possible in the nearby alley, with the larger limbs left for city maintenance crews that might take up to a month to reach them. They had even banded together with the neighbors -- the very ones who had eyed them so suspiciously these past weeks -- to clear the streets of fallen limbs, stray trash cans, and even building materials. However, the three trees that had been uprooted and stacked on top of each other in a pyramid shape, still lay across the road in the middle of the block.

But there was no saving the great magnolia, the tree that had watched over the house since it was first built before the Revolutionary War. Not only had the great tree been entirely uprooted, but it had also been smashed into thousands of pieces -- none larger than fire logs. Its roots had been scattered like massive snaked across the entire neighborhood. Not surprisingly, there was no sign of Whispering Crow.

Sitting on the front steps, Lily and Susana enjoyed tall glasses of regular iced tea -- no herbs added. Lily studied the pyramid sack up the street. "It's funny, where those trees fell." She took another sip of tea, watching the neighbors on this side of the tree stack laughing together as they worked and sharing food that would otherwise spoil in warm refrigerators; those on the other side of the tree pyramid hadn't shown themselves beyond sneaking quick peeks outside their front doors. "It's kind of like the new Mason-Dixon line."

Susana laughed. She heard a car approaching and rose to her feet as she recognized Bitsy's massive Suburban pulling up the drive. If you're going to go out driving in this mess, Susana thought, might as well take the tank. "Well, my step-mother is here."

Bitsy pulled the mammoth machine to a stop, parking awkwardly in the stone cul-de-sac in front of the house. The heavy door swung open, and Bitsy slid down from the driver's seat., landing with a "clack" as her leather pumps touched the cobblestones. She straightened her dress and adjusted her pearl necklace.

Susana smiled. Even in the aftermath of a massive hurricane, Bitsy was dressed for a tea party.

"My God, honey!" Bitsy hurried across the cobblestones, taking small, lopsided steps due to the constraints of her tailored dress and high heels. "Are you alright? We've been worried sick about you!"

"So... where's your Dad?" Lily asked Susana as Bitsy clambered up the steps to the porch.

"Don't ask," Susana responded in hushed tones.

Bitsy reached the top of the stairs and stopped to catch her breath. She leaned against one of the porch columns and held a hand over her heart, in high dramatic fashion. "Isn't is simply dreadful?" she complained at last.

"I don't know," Susana replied. "It could have been worse."

"Just look at this neighborhood!" Bitsy stood upright and waved her arms around frantically. "Destroyed! Oh, darling! How will you ever recover?" Bitsy grasped Susana's arm plaintively, her meaning immediately clear. She didn't want Susana to recover. She didn't want the herb business to survive this catastrophe. She wanted Susana to give up this temporary fairy tale and do something sensible with her life.

"I think we'll be just fine." Susana gestured to the neighborhood clean-up crew laughing as they worked together in the street. "The garden is gone, of course, but that's easily resolved."

"But Susana," Bitsy lowered her voice as if imparting a scandalous secret. "This was an act of God." She emphasized each word, speaking slowly."

"Ha!" Lily exclaimed, immediately clapping her hand over her own mouth. Bitsy shot her an uncomplimentary look.

Susana assumed an air of cheerful diplomacy. "But remember when St. James's caught fire, and the roof collapsed? You all chose to 'rise up and build.' You didn't let some silly little thing like a lightning bolt get in the way of your faith, or your church."

Bitsy stiffened. "That was entirely different."

"That was pretty funny." Lily stepped up beside Susana. "The church got hit by lightning right?"

"Yes," Bitsy responded coldly.

"That's an act of God!" Lily exclaimed with glee. "It was a church. Don't you get it? God's up there, like Thor with his lightning bolts..."

Susana turned to Lily. "Lily, it's okay."

Roy stepped out onto the front porch. Looking him up and down, Bitsy was visibly shaken, especially when he smiled and nodded to her.

He touched Susana's shoulder, deliberately raising Bitsy's already heightened suspicion. "I think you can take it from here." He smiled quickly at Lily and then headed down the front steps.

"You're leaving?" Lily protested. "Just like that?"

At the bottom of the stairs, Roy turned to face the women. "The honshawe has moved on, and so must I."

Bitsy leaned close to Susana. "Susana, what is this young man talking about? Were you having him do some work for you?"

Susana ignored her step-mother. She gazed down gratefully into Roy's face. "I'm not sure what we would have done without you, Roy. I, we're sorry to see you go."

Roy nodded, then held Susana's gaze for a long moment. She took a deep breath in, feeling her body and mind flooded with light, and with the visions to come that he imparted to her with his eyes. Susana blinked and smiled. Without another word, Roy turned and walked away.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Bitsy grabbed Susana's arm. "Did you see his eyes? I'm certain he was on drugs!"

"Bitsy..." Lily warned.

"But what do expect from hired help like that," Bitsy continued. "That's what happens when you hire negroes off the street."

"Bitsy!" Lily shouted. "Using such a word...." she pointed angrily in the direction of Roy's departure. "That man is our friend!"

Susana held up a hand to restraint Lily. She smiled at her step-mother and gestured toward the front door. "Bitsy, would you like to come inside? We have some lemonade iced tea that I think would really hit the spot."

Susana held the door open for her step-mother, and Bitsy stepped inside. Lily followed them in. "Yeah, it really takes the edge off."

Chapter 11

Susana awoke the next morning with a start. It was suddenly silent upstairs in the attic above her, and the dog had stopped barking.

It had been chaos in the house the night before. The ghost in the attic had been banging up a storm, sounding as though he were throwing furniture across the floor and then stomping about for good measure. The spectre of Tic kept walking through the house, over and over again, though thankfully had avoided her bedroom. Had he been looking for something, or just killing time? Baird had followed the ghost happily through the hallways, wagging his tail and dancing around, but the rustling in the hedges outside had soon grabbed his attention, and he was a nonstop barking machine from that point forward.

What the hell was in the hedges? Lily made some off-hand comment about Yankee soldiers staking out the house, and Susana had been too tired to protest. Whatever it was, though, it had only further aggravated Johnny Reb in the attic.

Susana wasn't sure how she had managed to fall asleep in the midst of all of this. It must have been pure exhaustion. She stared up at the ceiling, tracing the lace-pattern of the white wall-paper with her eyes. Why did people put wallpaper on the ceiling? The sunlight was already streaming in through her windows. Susana reached to the night stand to look at her watch. It was nearly 10am already. Good thing Bitsy wasn't expecting her in church, she told herself.

By the time Susana dragged herself downstairs, Roy had already arrived and had sat down to a simple brunch with Lily. The smell of hot coffee perked Susana's senses as she stepped into the room, greeting the others with a large yawn.

"Why, if it isn't sleeping beauty," Lily teased her. Roy seemed engrossed in a story deep in the metro section of the newspaper.

"Uh-huh," Susana grunted, pulling a mug down from one of the cabinets. She reached for the glass pot of the coffee maker and poured the last bit of coffee into her mug. It was just enough.

"Actually, I'm surprised you managed to get any sleep last night." Lily buttered a piece of toast and put it on Susana's plate for her.

Susana sat down at the table and reached for one of the pears in the fruit bowl. "What was all of that? I mean, I know some weird stuff goes on around here, but really." She bit into her pear and dabbed a napkin at the tiny rivulet of juice that ran down her chin.

Lily pushed the last bit of toast into her mouth and shook her head. "Maybe something with Maimie?"

Susana shot her a look.

"Ella," Lily corrected herself. "I meant Ella. It was about that time, maybe an hour or so after, that the craziness started, right?"

Roy put down the paper and looked at Susana and Lily. "It wasn't just here."

"What do you mean?" Susana put the ear down on her plate and reached for her piece of toast.

"I mean," Roy sighed, "that what you ladies had going on here last night, was also going on all around town."

Susana frowned and reached for the newspaper he had been reading. Pages six through eight of the Times-Dispatch's metro Richmond section were filled with stories of strange knocking sounds, ghostly appearances, mysterious vandalism, and general spectral chaos in the city's older neighborhoods and warehouses. "What could have cause such a thing?" she asked Roy.

He finished off the last of his orange juice. "Balance," he responded simply. "Equilibrium."

Lily reached across the table for the newspaper and leaned back in her chair. "So all of this was because of Ma-, Ella, then?"

"Probably."

"Great." Susana was exasperated. With Ella's release the previous evening, she had finally felt as though some of the madness of the past month was finally beginning to make sense, and that she had some vague understanding of how she fit into the equation. And now, all hell had broken loose. Literally. "So what do we do now? Bring Ella back. conjure up some ghostie to take her place, so the rest of the supernatural world will calm down a bit?"

Roy smiled across the table at her. "What do you think we should do?"

Susana stared down at the table in front of her. "I don't know," she said quietly. She grabbed her half-eaten pear by the stem and turned it over and over on the plate. "Maybe..." She took a deep breath and sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. "We could just stop everything. Or..." She leaned back in the chair and glanced between Lily and Roy and pointed at the newspaper in Lily's hands. "Or, maybe we could take these stories, load up the car with our little witches' brew, and hit every one of those spots."

Lily's eyes lit up, and a mischievous smile grew on her face. "Damn straight! I like that plan, cuz."

"Right." Roy got up from the table, dropping his napkin on top of his plate. He turned to Lily. "How much tincture is available?"

"Wait." Susana held onto the side of the table. "You're serious?"

"We've got about two gallons, total. Day and night combined." Lily did the math in her head. "But I figure that we really only need a couple of drops per pint, cutting it with water." She waved her hand at Susana. "I think what she did last night, using the whole bottle, was probably overkill."

Roy nodded. Baird trotted happily into the kitchen. He jumped up, resting his front paws on the breakfast table and barked. Susana smiled and reached out to pat his head.

"Baird says you're right." Susana wanted nothing more than to run out of the house and go on a week-long drinking binge. Was she actually a part of this?

Lily got up from the table and cross the kitchen floor. She started going through the cabinets, looking for any container with a lid on it. Pulling out thermoses and tupperware, she called over her shoulder to Roy, "How much do you think we'll need?"

Roy picked up the newspaper and scanned the stories. "Let's put together a couple dozen treatments, for now." He looked down sympathetically at the incredulous expression on Susana's face. "We'll also want to harvest more of the honshawe, to make more. It's a big city, with a big history."

"Right." Susana reached forward to play with her pear again. "A city that burnt itself to the ground."

Lily stopped her activity at the kitchen counter. "What did you say?"

"At the close of the Civil War," Susana explained. "Richmond burnt itself down."

Lily leaned back against the counter. "Wait. The Yankees did that."

"No. " Roy interjected. "Susana is right."

Susana turned in her chair to face her cousin. "The Confederate government fled the city as the Union Army was approaching. The area had been pretty much under siege for most of the war, so there wasn't much in the ways of food or supplies to claim. And even though it had been the Confederate capital, the people in Richmond were pretty desperate, nearly starving. But the Confederates didn't want there to be anything for the Yankees to claim. So they put torches to the warehouses and granaries."

"I'd never heard that." Lily was dumbfounded.

"Yeah." Susana stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "Richmond likes to think it was a victim, but it lit its own pyre."

"See," Lily wagged a finger at her cousin. "I told you you went to better schools. St. Catherine's, right?"

* * * * *

Susana and Lily stood together on Simone Carver's front porch, while Roy waited in the sidewalk. Susana balanced the glass jug of tea as she reached to ring the door bell a second time.

"Look, maybe she's not home," Susana said nervously. "Besides we don't know what this witches' brew might do to her."

"Stop calling it that!" Lily cocked her head and heard footsteps approaching from inside. "It's just lemonade iced tea, with a little herbal kick. The worst it can do is that nothing happens."

The heavy wooden door swung open, and Susana smiled at Simone through the screen door. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Carver! I hope we're not disturbing you."

"Why, no, dear." Simone pushed open the screen door and stepped into the doorway. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, ma'am." Susana gestured toward Lily. "This is my third-cousin, Lily Frye Scott."

Simone clasped her hands together and smiled. "Oh, lovely. Another Frye girl. I am Simone Carmichael Carver," she introduced herself to Lily. "However, I must insist you call me Simone. This one seems stuck in formalities," she added with a nod toward Susana. "What may I do for you two ladies?"

Susana raised the bottle she was carrying. "We were making some tea yesterday. Lemonade iced tea. We wanted to bring some to you, since you were so kind in your assistance yesterday at the library."

Simone's face lit up, and she stepped aside to let the girls pass into the house. "My gracious, how kind of you. Do please come in, young ladies. But what about your friend?" Simone studied the dark-skinned man watching from the sidewalk.

"Oh, he's okay..." Lily's voice trailed off. You could just never tell, with these old Southern families -- which ones accepted people of color, and which ones didn't.

"Young man!" Simone called out to Roy. "You come right on in here, too."

Roy jogged up the sidewalk and mounted the steps with a good-natured laugh.

"Any friend of the Frye girls is most welcome in my house." Simone held the door for him and led her visitors inside.

Simone settled her guests into generous rocking chairs on her screened in back porch. She had refused all help in the kitchen, and soon appeared with a tray carrying four tall glasses filled with ice and the lemonade iced tea. She handed a glass to each of her guests, taking the last one herself. Simone sat down and smiled at her visitors.

"It does an old lady good to have such pleasant company," she told them, before taking her first sip of tea. Her entire face lit up with the taste of it. "Susana!" she exclaimed. "This is marvelous tea. You said you made this yourself?"

Susana switched her glass nervously from one hand to the other. "It was Lily who made it."

Simone took another sip while the others watched her. "Well, it is just delightful."

"It's an herbal tea," Lily offered. Neither she nor the other two had touched their tea, while Simone was half-way through with her glass.

"I hope I didn't alarm you, dear," Simone confided to Susana, "with the family stories I passed along to you."

Susana smiled graciously. "No, ma'am. My time with you was actually quite enlightening."

Simone looked around, noticing that no one else was drinking. Before she could say a word, however, Roy lifted his glass and drained it all at once. He swallowed and smiled at Lily. "Yes, this tea is quite good. You'll have to give me the recipe."

Susana and Lily looked at him in alarm at first, then reluctantly followed suit. They each sipped sparingly at their tea.

"And how do you know the young ladies?" Simone turned to Roy.

"I am a neighbor. I'm in Richmond temporarily, from out of town."

"Out of town!" Simone exclaimed. "You have the most charming accent. I would venture to guess that you are from, somewhere in the islands?"

"A bit further away than that," Lily commented under her breath. Susana would have smacked her if she had been sitting close enough.

(more conversation and tea-drinking here)

Simone held her hand over her heart and smiled, closing her eyes for a moment. "You all have brought such cheer to my heart today." She opened her eyes and turned to Susana. "I don't know if there is some magic in this tea, or in the pleasure of your company, but you have definitely brought the sunshine with you into my home today." She reached out and patted Susana on the hand. "Bless you, child."

Simone put her empty glass down on a side table and slowly worked her way up to standing. "Now, I know you young people must be running along, so I'm going to shoo you out of the house before you feel like you're stuck here."

After waving a final farewell to Simone, still standing in the doorway, Lily, Susana, and Roy walked back to the car.

"What next?" Lily asked.

Roy pulled the list from his pocket and handed it to Susana. "This is your show," he said to her.

"Yeah? When did that happen?" she nearly laughed.

"Just trust your gut and go with it." Roy advised.

Susana glanced at the list of locations Roy had jotted down around the breakfast table. "I say we hit the Manchester Docks. Might as well start at the top."

* * * * *

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Susana looked around at the tour groups surrounding them. The pint-sized bottle of "tea" concealed in the inside pocket of her jacket seemed to grow heavier with each passing minute.

"We could try coming back again after dark, I guess." Lily shielded her eyes against the bright sun. The humidity was vicious today, and she felt every inch of her cotton shift sticking to her.

Susana looked to Roy for his opinion. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think there's any law against spilling tea on the ground. Might as well give it a shot, while we're here."

Glancing around for the best spot, Susana side-stepped an approaching group of tourists, all overdressed for the heat but at least wearing comfortable shoes.

"The Manchester Docks have a long history here in Richmond, dating back tot he founding of the city in the 1600s," the guide shouted over the tops of the tour group's heads. "It was here that slave ships were unloaded during the African slave trade. Some days, when several ships came into port, there were literally hundreds of new slaves that were marched in on these docks, and then taken to the block for auction."

Susana edged her way over to where the docks met land. Roy and Lily followed her. "If they came off of the boats," she whispered to them, "then they had to step on to land right about here, right? Every single one of them."

"Of course, the importation of slaves into the United States was officially banned in the early 1800s," the guide continued. "And this boosted the importance of the domestic slave trade."

Susana pulled the old honey jar from her jacket and slowly unscrewed the lid. She kept her eyes on the tour guide and the sights he was pointing out, doing her best to blend in with the group. Roy and Lily moved to stand in front of her as she leaned down slightly. Before she poured anything onto the ground, Susana tapped Lily on the shoulder. "Is there anything I should say?" she whispered.

Lily turned her head. "What do you mean?"

"You know," Susana replied, slightly embarrassed. "Like an incantation or something."

Lily was unable to suppress a smile. "No," she said at last. "If you want to say something, then just say what's in your heart. That's what it's all really about, anyway."

Susana bent closer to the ground and closed her eyes. After a moment of quiet reflection, she opened her eyes again and slowly began pouring the brew onto the ground. "For all those who have tread this path," she whispered, so that only she could hear. "I offer this humble gift, to relieve your pain, to end your suffering, to release your souls." She took a few steps, to make sure she was covering the entire area. "May this healing seep deep into the roots of this place -- past, present, and future -- that hearts, minds, and spirits might be mended, for the greatest good."

She shook the last few drops out of the jar, then screwed the lid back on. Tucking the empty jar back into her jacket, she nudged Roy and Lily. "Okay, it's done."

They quietly separated themselves from the tour group and walked back to the car.

"Flooding from the James River has left sediment and debris here over the years, and the area had become overgrown," the guide droned on. "but various volunteer and student groups have given their time to clean up the docks, cut back the encroaching vegetation, and clear away litter."

They had gotten no more than a couple of yard away when a sudden wind kicked up. Newspapers and fliers bustled by, and men chased their hats down the street. Scarves blew off into the river while ladies planted their hands on their thighs in an effort to keep their skirts down.

"What's happening?" Susana cried out over the whirlwind.

Roy braced himself against a lamp post and held onto both Lily and Susana. "Just some old ghosts, kicking up dust, I guess."

A deep, guttural howl spiraled up from underneath the pavement and cobblestones. Susana could hear the vibration of the desperate moan under her feet. She gripped Roy's arm tighter and glanced up the street toward downtown. Just three blocks away, people stood and stared at what was happening below.

The anguished cry broke the surface and cracked the pavement, shooting up clouds of steam and dirt. The air filled with wail of thousands of souls as the wind whipped with ferocious velocity. The tourists were screaming, down on their knees and clinging to park benches to keep from being blown away. Those who could covered their ears against the horrific sound.

The, just as suddenly and violently as it had arisen. the whirlwind dissipated. The wind slackened to a gentle breeze, then fell still. The massive voice that had threatened to burst ear drums fell silent.

Lily, Susana, and Roy released each other and straightened their clothes. "Well!" Lily exclaimed with a smile. "That was entertaining. Mission accomplished, I guess."

"Jesus," Susana cursed under her breath. "What the hell was that?"

Roy looked down at her and smiled. "You were the one who wanted to start at the top, remember?" He winked at her, then turned around and headed toward the car.

Susana's knees were shaking. Lily grabbed her elbow to help steady her. "You alright?"

"Yeah." Susana held a hand to her forehead, then turned to watch the tour group recovering. Astonishingly, they were all back on their feet already, slowly moving along to the next step on the tour as though nothing had happened.

"Amnesia," Lily commented. "That's convenient. Not uncommon here, though."

Susana turned to her cousin, wanting to ask a question, but having no idea what it might be.

"Come on," Lily nudged her along. "You said you wanted to head over to Hollywood Cemetery next, right?"

* * * * *

It was late afternoon, and it wouldn't be long before the mosquitoes were out in full force. They had stopped off at Stuffy's Subs on Harrison Street to pick up a couple of sandwiches and drinks -- a picnic was the perfect disguise, Roy pointed out, for bringing a jar of brew with them into the cemetery.

Susana parked the car outside the cemetery gate, and they walked in, slowly, careful not to arouse suspicion by hurrying along too quickly.

"This is creepy," Lily commented as they strolled past so many headstones, elaborate stone crosses, and mausoleums.

Susan was surprised. "I thought you held a more enlightened view of death. From the way you handled Tic's passing, with that thing you did, the little ceremony in the garden...?"

"That was different. What I meant was, it's creepy to see so many monuments commemorating death, cluttering up the gardens with useless rocks." Lily shuddered. "It's like a death cult. How can life go on if you let death clutter up a place like this? You keep burying and memorializing everybody, eventually you run out of room. Your whole city becomes a cemetery."

The paved pathway curved left and right, snaking through clusters of worn headstones.

"Cemeteries are for the living," Roy commented as he walked on. "It gives them something to hold onto, when they're not quite ready to let go."

"But who really needs headstones from the 1860s!" Lily complained, pointing to a few stone crosses as they passed by.

"Richmond loves its history," Susana offered in explanation, but Lily ignored her. They rounded another bend and the great pyramid came into view. Ninety feet tall and built of granite stones, the monument to the "Lost Cause" had always given Susana the creeps. She clutched her bag lunch tighter.

"See, this makes more sense to me." Lily gestured toward the pyramid. "Eighteen thousand guys, and one big pile of rocks. It makes its point without taking up a lot of space."

Roy shook his head and laughed. He turned to Susana. "What do you want to do first? Have something to eat, or do what we came here to do?"

Susana smiled anxiously. "I think I'm too nervous to eat anything, right now," she apologized. "But I'm not too sure about this. Is it going to be the same as it was down at the docks?"

Lily walked away and settled down under a nearby tree. Listening to the conversation, she unwrapped her sandwich and started eating.

"I don't think so." Roy looked up to the top of the pyramid. "Eighteen thousand soldiers, eh?"

"Yeah, it's a lot."

"That's nothing compared to the number of people who had come into town by way of those docks, down on the river." Roy uncapped his bottle of lemonade and took a healthy gulp. "That was more than just slaves back there, who had crossed that threshold. You released everyone who had set foot there, at one time or another, and their children, generations of souls, of bonds to this place."

Susana looked at him in wonder. "How, how do you know all this?"

Roy smiled at her sideways, then looked back toward the pyramid. "It's not so much something you know." He tapped the side of his temple. "It's something you feel. Plus, that little commotion by the water? That wasn't the only whirlwind that blew through town."

Susana laughed nervously. "Okay. I can't think about that right now."

Lily called out from under the tree. "Spoken like a true Scarlet O'Hara!"

Susana frowned. "I guess I should just get on with this." After pulling the old spaghetti jar full of potion from her bag, she handed her bag lunch to Roy and walked up toward the base of the pyramid. She was about to call back to them to ask what she was supposed to do, but she knew they would just tell her to go with her gut.

"Hmm." Susana reached out and touched the granite stones, some of which were surprisingly cool in the summer sun. She knew what that meant. "Yes, someone is holding on here.... Several someones." She walked around the base of the monument, running her hand along the stones as she passed. After making a full circuit, she stopped and looked up the length of the structure. She uncapped the jar. "Here goes nothing," she muttered to herself.

She poured out the contents of the jar in a steady stream as she again circled the pyramid. "Release, release," she chanted with each slow step. Coming back to the place she had started, she shook out the remaining drops of liquid and screwed the cap back on the jar. Then she waited.

There was no wind, no earth-shaking howl. Just a gentle song from a chorus of birds in the nearby trees.

Susana blinked at the stones in relief, then turned and walked back to Lily and Roy with a smile. Behind her, she felt -- rather than heard -- a single sigh. She slowed her pace for a moment, then continued on and joined the others for late lunch beneath the shady trees.

Chapter 12

Just as Susana was preparing for bed that night, the clamor began again in the attic above. She finished pulling on her pajamas and slippers, then stomped out into the hallway in frustration.

"Lily!" she called out. "I really don't think I can take this anymore."

Lily stepped out of her bedroom down the hall. She looked absolutely exhausted, as though she had aged ten years in just a few hours. "I know what you mean. But there's only one way around this..."

Susana froze where she stood. The idea of climbing up into that attic terrified her. Spilling some tea on the ground at the river and in the cemetery, in broad daylight had been easy, and though her face-off in the greenhouse with Ella had required her to reach down into her depths for courage, it hadn't turned out so badly. But this sounded like a full-fledged poltergeist in the attic, and she had no interest in coming face to face with whatever was making all of that noise.

Just as she was a about to respond to Lily, Baird began howling at the top of his lungs. He ran from Tic's bedroom at the front of the house to Lily's bedroom at the back, standing with his front two feet resting on the windowsill. She stared out at the hedges, baying.

Lily held a hand to her head. "Not this again."

Susana stepped up behind Baird to get a look at what was drawing his attention. "What the hell is that?"

Lily walked over to the window and leaned down to see. "I thought it was just the Yankees again...?"

Susana stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. "No, they're still there, too. But there's somebody else."

Lily saw the dark shapes moving inside the thick hedges, alongside the familiar shadows in blue coats. She frowned. "Yeah, I don't know." One of the dark men, and then a second one, darted from the hedge into the back yard, heading straight for the aengus wort plants. "Hey!" Lily shouted down to the figures below, but they kept on their path without pausing.

Lily stood up, angry. "To hell with this!" she yelled as she stormed out of the room and down the stairs.

Susana heard the crash of the back door as Lily threw it open and stepped out onto the porch. "Hey! You! What do you think you're doing?" Lily shouted.

Susana ran down the stairs after her. When she came out onto the back porch, the yard was empty save for Lily, gently bending down over the aengus wort. Susana dashed down the stairs and hurried over to Lily's side.

Lily got down on her knees, touching the leaves of the plants lightly with her fingers. "It's okay," Lily reassured her without looking up. "I think I scared them off."

"But who was it?" Susana demanded. She scanned the perimeter of the yard, but all was quiet -- even the Yankees in the hedge. "What do they want? Were they after the plant?"

Lily smiled wearily at the sacred herb, then looked up at her cousin. "I suppose so." She got up to her feet and brushed the soil off of her knees. "Our little secret must not be much of a secret anymore."

"I will guard the honshawe," a deep but gentle voice came from behind them. Lily and Susana spun around immediately, startled. Standing just a couple of feet away was an elderly native american man, dressed in simple woven garments the same color as his wrinkled skin.

"Who–?" Lily began, but Susana grasped her arm to stop her question.

"We would be most grateful," Susana replied, surprised by the strength in her voice. It was like listening to someone else speak. "We hadn't realized that the sacred herb was vulnerable."

"There is much change afoot," the medicine man replied. "The honshawe is a powerful healer, and it has enemies. So much releasing and mending is uncomfortable, and there are those who would try to stop it. There are also darker forces at work here."

Susana nodded, while Lily stood at her side, dumbfounded. "What can we do?" Susana asked him.

"Continue with your healing work. I will guard the honshawe with my life."

"But, but you're already...." Lily stammered. Again, Susana stopped her.

"Thank you," Susana replied. She took Lily gently by the elbow and led her inside. The shaman's spirit stepped lightly across the grass to the plants and began his vigil.

Susana and Lily stepped back into the house to the thunder of the poltergeist in the attic. Susana balled her fists, steeling herself, then looked at her cousin. "Okay." She resigned herself to the task at hand and went to the kitchen counter for another pint of potion. Still stunned, Lily walked over to the breakfast table and sat down.

"Oh, no you don't," Susana chastised her. "You're going up into that attic with me."

Lily dutifully rose from the table and followed Susana into the front hallway. The noise from the attic had become a serious of loud booms that seemed to shake the whole house. Baird had stopped howling and was no doubt cowering under a bed. Despite the terror she felt gnawing inside her, Susana was on a mission. The two women started up the massive staircase but were barely halfway to the second floor when a brick came crashing through the living room window.

"Christ! What now?!" Susana tromped back down the stairs to assess the damage in the living room. She handed off the glass jar to Lily and bent down to pick up the brick, with a note tied to it. "I didn't realize they still did this kind of thing," Susana commented. "Foolishness."

But that's when she saw it. Standing there in front of the broken window, the bright, red-orange flames caught her eye, and Susana could almost feel the heat from it. "Good.... Lord." She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Following her cousin into the living room, Lily saw it, too. "Holy shit! Holy shit!" A burning cross, right there in their front yard!

Susana hastily unwrapped the note attached to the brick, but she couldn't open it quickly enough.

"What the hell does it say?" Lily demanded. She put the jar of potion down on the window sill and angrily wiped away the tears that were streaming down her cheeks.

"'Witches will burn,'" Susana read aloud, then turned the paper over. "'Compliments of the KKK.' Oh, how nice," Susana spat.

"We've got to do something about this!" Lily grabbed the brick from Susana's hands and ran out onto the front porch.

"Lily! Wait! They might still be out there!" Susana picked up the portion and ran after her, but Lily was already outside.

"You fiends!" Lily cursed the darkness. "You ignorant, abusive cowards! Show yourselves! I dare you!" She came half-way down the front steps and heaved the brick out into the night. "I'll show you what a real witch can do, you bastards!"

Susana placed a firm hand on Lily's shoulder, pulling her back up onto the porch. The cross burned fiercely, angrily. But if there was anyone still on their property, they were lurking silently in the shadows.

"Lily." Susana tried to soothe her cousin who wept desperately. "Lily!"

Lily looked into Susana's eyes. "But why? Why would anyone do such a thing? So hateful. So, so incredibly hateful!" Lily collapsed on the porch in sobs.

A figure came running toward them out of the darkness. The hairs in the back of Susana's neck bristled as she prepared to flee into the house, but a familiar voice called out. "Susana! Are you okay? Are you alright?" Roy ran up the porch steps and took Susana's face between his hands. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she responded without emotion. "Lily's pretty upset."

Roy knelt down beside Lily and tried to comfort her. "You're alright, Lily. Everything's okay. Everything is going to be alright."

Slowly, Susana descended the front steps and approached the burning cross. She'd never actually seen one of these before, though they still appeared in newspaper stories from time to time. Susana never thought she would come face-to-face with one of these hateful displays, and she was surprised to find that she wasn't afraid. Whoever had done this wast the one living in fear, too frightened to confront the Fryes personally, having to hide behind fire and darkness.

Susana smiled, realizing that for the first time, she honestly thought of herself as a Frye. Not a Randall with her proper upbringing and private school education, with her cotillion classes and equestrian lessons. But a Frye -- raw, uncompromising, and powerful.

Remembering the jar she carried in her hand, her eyes narrowed as she studied the flaming cross. Without stopping to unscrew the lid, she raised the jar and hurled it with all her might at the cross before her. She heard the breaking glass, almost drowned out by a loud hissing sound, as though she had disturbed a snake's nest. The fire sputtered as the hissing grew louder, and then went out all together in a cloud of fragrant steam.

Susana closed the distance between herself and the cross. She reached out and touched the blackened wood, surprised to find it cool, as though it had never been ablaze. With a slight shove, she toppled it with little effort, and it dissolved into dust as soon as it hit the ground.

"Nothing to see here, folks," she said to no one.

Susana turned and headed back for the house. Roy had helped Lily to her feet, and she was beginning to shake off the shock that had nearly paralyzed her.

"Are you guys okay?" Susana asked them at the top of the front steps.

"Yeah, just a little shaken up." Lily wiped her face on the sleeve of her sweatshirt and stepped away from Roy. "I just, it just never occurred to me to be worried about something like this." She gestured to the darkness, where the cross had burned only moments before. "I thought all that crap was ancient history."

"Come on inside," Susana suggested as she crossed the threshold back into the house. Roy and Lily followed, and Susana gestured toward the living room. "Roy, if you wouldn't mind sweeping up that glass? There's a broom and dust pan in the closet beneath the stairs. Lily, I think you should just sit down for awhile. I'll make us some tea."

Lily nodded, too tired to be useful. She stepped into the living room and took a seat as far from the broken window as possible. Roy followed Susana down the hall toward the kitchen. She stopped and opened the utility closet for him.

"What kind of tea?" Roy asked, though her already knew the answer.

Susana nodded. "I'll put in a few drops. I think it could do us all some good."

Roy reached for the broom and smiled. "It's not like you've not already had any."

Susana was confused. "What do you mean? We've not given ourselves any of that stuff."

"Sure, you have." Roy rested the broom against the wall. "We had iced tea with Simone."

Susana suppressed her initial reaction of alarm. "Huh," she said finally. "What do you think it's done?"

"You're kidding right?" Roy rested his hands on his hips and nodded toward the living room. "For one thing, Lily had spent her whole life playing it cool, when she was really just frightened inside."

Susana looked toward the living room, then back at Roy. "So you're telling me this is the real Lily? For the past hour, I feel like I've just been baby-sitting her."

Roy laughed softly. "And what about you? You've spent decades tied up in knots inside, always polite, never wanting to do the wrong thing, timid. Always a follower, never a leader."

"I can think for myself!" Susana protested.

"And now, this evening, you are strong and impatient." Roy smiled at her warmly, though Susana crossed her arms over her chest defensively. Timid, perhaps, but she was not impatient!

"Don't get upset," Roy said softly. "Remember the turbulence down by the river? When the release comes, it takes us off-guard, and we overcompensate for awhile. You'll both come back into balance, to your true selves."

Susana looked at him hard. "And what about you, then?"

Roy shook his head. "That remains to be seen."



Having broken out the old family china tea service, Susana carried a large tray into the living room and set it down on the coffee table. She poured a cup for Lily and handed it to her.

"Thanks." Lily accepted the steaming cup gratefully.

Roy finished sweeping up the last bits of glass from the hardwood floor and emptied the dust bin into a nearby trash can. He leaned the broom against the wall and sat down on the sofa. Susana placed a cup of tea on the coffee table in front of him, then poured one for herself and sat down with her back to the shattered window.

"We'll want to get that covered up with plastic or something." Lily motioned toward the broken window with her tea cup.

Susana nodded. "But for now, let's just relax."

The three enjoyed a blissful few moments of silence, but then Lily waved her hand toward the front yard. "So, forgetting about all of this for a minute.... You want to explain to me the Indian in the back yard?"

Roy raised his eyebrows and looked at Susana. She wrapped her hands around the warm cup and inhaled the steam rising from the tea, then looked up at Lily. "Well, I'm guessing that it's the medicine man you told me about."

Lily frowned.

"You told me, when you first convinced me to live here, that some shaman had been by years ago, and said that there was some spirit of a medicine man living in that magnolia tree." Susana pointed toward the front door.

"You've see Whispering Crow?" Roy asked.

Both Susana and Lily turned to stare at him. Finally, Susana laughed in frustration. "I don't know, Lily. Should we be surprised?" Susana gestured toward Roy with her elbow. "This guy shows up at of nowhere, says he's some kind of extraterrestrial body snatcher spirit, and knows all about our little mystery plant growing out back. We should have expected he'd know all about our indian ghost guy, too." She was exasperated.

Roy smiled. "Impatient," he reminded her gently.

Susana wanted to throw her tea cup at his head, but she fell silent instead. Just as she raised the cup to her lips, the pounding resumed upstairs. Susana nearly spilled her tea down the front of her pajamas. "Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed.

"What's that?" Roy asked, looking out into the hallway.

"The ghost in the attic," Lily replied calmly, still sipping her tea.

Susana put her cup down on the coffee table and sprang angrily from her seat. "We are not done with this," she addressed Roy sternly, then strode down the hallway to the kitchen. Susana grabbed another jar of brew off of the counter, and stormed back toward the staircase. "Now you're really pissing me off!" She yelled up at the ceiling as she mounted the stairs.

"See?" Roy called out to Susana from the sofa. "Impatient. And now, aggressive."

Susana stopped on the stairs and practically glared at him. "Are you going to help me with this, or just sit there?"

"Demanding, too." Roy smiled as he put his cup down on the coffee table and got up from the sofa. "Maybe you'd better sit this one out," he said to Lily. Roy stepped out into the hallway and followed Susana up the stairs.

Lily remained seated, calmly sipping her tea.

There was a slight moment of hesitation when Susana reached the trap door to the attic, but a fresh racket of pounding came from upstairs and her anger got the better of her. She reached up for the cord and pulled down on it in a fury. The collapsible staircase exploded out of the ceiling and unfurled itself. There was a momentary pause in the banging, but it started up again in full force.

Baird, who had been hiding underneath Tic's bed in the front bedroom, dashed out into the hallway and ran down the stairs in a panic. He passed Roy on the staircase without a second look and bolted out into the back yard through the dog door.

Seething, Susana started climbing the attic ladder just as Roy reached the top of the main staircase. Roy grabbed her arm to pull her back. "What!" she barked at him.

"Just suggesting that you take a moment to calm down." Roy spoke gently, his voice soothing and calm. "Charging up there in a fit of rage isn't going to do anyone any good."

Again, she fought her impulse to strike him. What was happening to her? She was not a violent person. Where had all of this anger come from?

As if reading her thoughts, Roy took the jar from her hands and led her back down the ladder. "Remember, you've got the brew in your system right now, and it's working on you." He rested the jar on the attic stairs.

"You make it sound like some kind of venom." She still couldn't shake the hard edge in her voice. She swallowed hard, trying to get herself back together.

"No, don't push it back down." Roy took her by both shoulders and looked into her eyes. He could see the storm that was raging there. "Whatever you've got brewing inside you, Susana, it's been there, beneath the surface for a long, long time. Don't you see? That's what's going on here? This house, the whole city. That's what the herb does. It released Baird from his grief over losing his master so that he could feel real joy again. It released the slave woman in the greenhouse from her bitterness and shame. It's releasing you from all of the expectations and restrictions you've had heaped on you all your life."

Susana's eyes filled with tears, and she looked down at her shoes.

Roy laughed gently. "There's nothing to be ashamed of here," he reassured her. "Just take a deep breath."

Susana filled her lungs as a few tears trickled down her cheeks. She was still looking at the floor. She exhaled and wiped at her cheeks, then looked up into Roy's smiling face.

"Feel better?"

Susana nodded, then suddenly realized that the commotion in the attic had come to a standstill.

Roy gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze then reached for the brew and placed the jar back into her hands. "Let's go."

As son as Susana stepped onto the ladder staircase, she heard a rustling sound coming from the attic above. She kept climbing up, and Roy followed after her.

Reaching the top of the rickety stairs, Susana reached up to pull an old string to turn on the overhead light -- a single bulb illuminating a space that ran the entire length and breadth of the house. She stepped aside to let Roy pass and looked around the attic, filled with old antiques, boxes, metal shelves of family china and crystal, and various knickknacks. Her eyes came to rest on a collection of antique rifles and swords resting against the bare wall, and the shimmering figure that stood beside them.

Susana took in his battered uniform, his dirty face, and the holes in his homemade shoes. She knew immediately that, as suspected, she was dealing with the ghost of a Confederate soldier. All this fuss over one guy? His eyes were large as he looked back at her, his hands gripping his rifle as he caught sight of Roy.

"Well?" she demanded of the shadow. "What's all of this about, then?"

"The Yankees!" He pointed nervously down toward the hedges below. "They'll attack the house at any moment."

Susana watched the anxiety on his face. He couldn't have been more than fourteen years old, she decided. She stepped toward him, making him even more nervous. "They'll never get in," she told him calmly.

"But they're taking over the city!" he cried in desperation. He gripped and re-gripped the rifle in his hands. "I don't care what the general says. I won't leave the capital undefended!"

Susana tilted her head as she watched him, still taking careful steps toward him. Roy followed several yard behind her. "Why would the city be undefended?" Susana asked the young man gently.

"The president has fled! Richmond is falling! They say the war is lost." He grimmaced, and tears sprang to his young eyes.

Susana stopped short and sighed. She looked over her shoulder to Roy. "What he says is true. The Confederate government fled the city before the Union troops came marching in." She turned back and regarded the frightened young man standing several yards away by the window. "But I didn't know that any rebel soldiers remained behind?"

"I won't go!" he cried out, the tears running down his cheeks. "This is my family's place, and I won't let them dirty Yankees set one foot in the door!"

A surprised gasp escaped Susana's lips. She thought back over the family genealogies she'd skimmed in the Virginia Historical Society, and the family journals she'd read here in the house, searching her memory for the young man's name. At the close of the Civil War, there had been a boy -- Tic's grandfather's uncle -- found in this house, shot through the head. He had been thirteen.

"Why were you making so much noise?" Roy asked the boy.

"To frighten off those cowardly dogs!" he responded defiantly. "Make them think there's a whole division here in the house."

"Jason?" Susana took a step closer to him. "Jason Frye?"

The butt rested the butt of his rifle on his worn out shoe and wept freely.

Roy stepped up behind Susana. "Jason, where is your family?"

"I, I don't know!" he wailed. "They said they were witches and drove them out of town!"

Susana held her hand over her heart and moaned. "This really is ancient history," she whispered to herself.

"Healing begins at home," Roy offered.

"Jason isn't, wasn't a soldier," she explained to Roy, her eyes still on the weeping boy before her. "What do you mean, your family was driven out of town?" she asked Jason.

"I don't know why," he sobbed. "I don't know where they are. It's just me now."

"You said that people called them witches?" Susana shifted her weight from one foot to the other and heard the boards creak beneath her. It wouldn't take much to make noise up here, she thought.

"They–" Jason sputtered. "They called us foul witches, working for the enemy. They said we were helping the Yankees!" Jason turned to the window and yelled down to the shadows in the hedges. "You filthy slime! You will never take this house! I swear by my life!"

Roy sighed. "And I guess that's pretty much how it happened then."

Susana turned toward Roy. "What do you mean?"

"That the Yankees took the house. He tried to stop them." Roy gestured toward the ghost at the window. "And he paid with his life."

"Except that he's still here." Susana turned back to face Jason, weighing the jar in her hand. She approached closer, coming to within just a few feet of him. "Jason," she called to him gently. "What if I told you I could make it all better?"

Jason sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "What do you mean?"

"I can make it so all this goes away, so that you can be with your family again." She raised the jar of brew for him to see.

He studied the liquid, glinting in the faint light of the attic. He shifted his gaze from the jar to Susana's face, and his eyes grew wide. "You're a real witch, ain't you? Just like Aunt Maggie?"

Susana had no idea what he was talking about, but nodded anyway. "I suppose I am."

"And can you make it," the boy cleared his throat and gestured toward the window and the yard below. "Can you make it so the Yankees can't get in?"

"Yes," Susana lied.

Jason smiled through his tears. He put his old rifle down and stood up straight. "Yes, ma'am! I think I would like that very much, please."

Susana uncapped the jar in her hands, then glanced quickly back at Roy. She smiled at young Jason. "May all blessings rest upon you, son."

He held his head up high, excited. In one swift motion, Susana threw the contents of the jar onto the ghost. As the brew passed through his and splashed onto the wall, Jason disappeared.

Susana wiped her own tears from her cheeks as she re-capped the empty jar. Roy placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "No one said this was going to be easy," he said.

She turned around to face him with a broad smile. "But it is!" she exclaimed. "Every time one of these souls lets go, I can feel it." She hiccuped through her tears. "It's really, quite wonderful."

There was a commotion in the yard below, and Baird began howling at the hedges. Susana leaned out the window and saw a collection of shadows slowly emerge from the hedges into the yard.

"Yankees!" Susana heard herself gasp, then enjoyed a quiet laugh at her own expense. She stepped back and headed toward the steps. "It's easy to get caught up in the drama, huh?" she commented to Roy.

They turned out the light and headed down.

On the first floor, Susana and Roy found Lily standing in the doorway leading to the back porch, stilling holding her cup of tea. Hearing their approach, Lily turned her head toward them. "You want to tell me what's going on out here?"

Susana pushed past her and stepped out onto the porch. In the darkness of the back yard, she saw the wavering forms of four soldiers in blue Uniforms in a stand-off against the medicine man, the howling Baird, and a third figure.

"Is that Tic?" Susana asked her cousin.

The spectre of Tic turned toward Susana and smiled, then faced the encroaching Yankee soldiers, his face dark.

Susana strode down the steps and out into the yard, the wet grass sticking to her fuzzy slippers. "Okay," she announced. "I've had just about enough of this."

The Yankee ghosts eyed her suspiciously but kept their weapons trained on Tic, Whispering Crow, and the dog.

"Go home! Go away!" Susana tried to shoo them off with her hands. "It's late, and I want to go to bed. Can't you see I'm in my pajamas here?" She gave them a minute, watching the Union soldiers carefully. "Okay." She threw her hands up in the air. "Have it your way."

Susana turned back toward the house and locked eyes with Roy, who was standing next to Lily, watching.

"Roy...?"

He nodded and stepped back inside, emerging a moment later with a full jar of potion. He tossed it down to Susana.

Cradling the jar in her hands, Susana turned back to face the quartet of soldiers. "You don't want to get lost? I've got a brew bomb here that says different." She raised the jar and began to screw off its lid.

"Wait."

Susana looked up to find Ol' Tic holding her off. She could see the soldiers speaking to each other, but heard no voices. She saw one point up to the attic window where young Jason had had his lookout. Their images appeared unstable. After a silent discussion, it appeared that the Yankees had agreed to move off. They backed away, slowly, their images disappearing completely before they reached the hedges.

Susana was disappointed. She had begun to enjoy flinging this brew about, causing minor earthquakes and watching troubled spirits disappear before her eyes. "What happened?"

"You broke their cycle," Roy explained as he descended the stairs into the yard. "Jason and these soldiers had been tied to each other, replaying their drama in an endless loop. When Jason disappeared, the Yankees were no longer trapped here."

Susana tightened the lid on the jar in her hands. "If you know so much, why don't you take care of it?" she asked sullenly.

"Take care of what?"

"You know. All of it." She gestured toward the two ghosts -- Tic and the medicine man -- still standing in the yard.

Roy laughed at her stubborn disappointment. "I'm just a guide, Susana. You know that." He took the jar from her. "Why don't you go back inside? You said yourself that you wanted to get some sleep. Give the honshawe a chance to balance out your system."

"Yeah." She was feeling sleepy. She headed back up the steps and followed Lily inside.

With a nod to Tic and Whispering Crow, Roy moved into position around the sacred herb plants Sitting down in the damp grass, they formed a triangle around the plot, settling in to guard the plants for the night. Baird lay down behind his master and kept a careful eye on the hedge.

"They're after you, you know."

Even though Tic sat with his eyes trained on the plants in front of him, Roy knew that the comment had been directed at him.

"I know." Roy shifted his sitting position. "But they don't know what to make of me yet, and so are keeping their distance."

Tic turned toward him. "For now."

Roy nodded. "By then, I'll be gone."

Whispering Crow smiled grimly. "So will the honshawe."

Chapter 10

Lily was exhausted. She had been trailing behind Baird on his leash for the past two hours, and they had easily covered five miles in that time.

After Baird had gone bounding through the gardens, threatening to trample every plant insight, Lily had hooked him up to his walking leash, which she was sure hadn't been used in years. Hearing the once familiar click of the leash snapping onto his collar, Baird had immediately taken off down the sidewalk in the direction of Bryan Park, more than a half-mile down the road. He had raced along the pavement, stopping to chase squirrels and bark at cars along the way. Lily had been jerked around so much by the suddenly exuberant canine that she felt certain one or both of her arms would be pulled out of their sockets.

He dragged her through the park -- she couldn't keep track of how many circuits they had made -- and enthusiastically greeted any other people and dogs they happened to meet on their outing. Everyone smiled and laughed at Baird's excited friendliness, asking Lily how old her puppy was; they were all astonished to hear that, in her estimation, he had to be at least fifteen. And then he had taken off again.... Every time he felt that Lily was slowing him down, he would turn to bark playfully at her and take up the leash in his own mouth to pull her along. Passersby called out, "Is your puppy taking you for a walk?"

Lily was relieved to see the Frye house coming back into view again. Baird himself was leading her back here, so perhaps he was finally wearing down. "Only three drops did this," she reminded herself. How was such a thing possible?

Susana was on the veranda at the side of the house, sitting in the wicker rocking chair and engrossed in Tic's journal. She heard a dog barking nearby and looked up. She couldn't believe her eyes, seeing Lily being dragged up the front walkway behind a dog who could only be.... Baird? She rose to her feet.

"Is that Baird?" she asked incredulously.

"One and the same." Lily was out of breath. As she jogged up the front steps behind the dog -- so as not to fall flat on her face -- she unhitched him and let him run inside. She reached out for one of the porch columns for support and gently leant her body against it. "I am too old," she complained, regaining her breath, "to go walking a fifteen-year old dog!"

"What happened?" Susana could hear Baird inside the house, lapping up what was left in his water bowl.

Great, Lily thought to herself. Now he's drinking the rest of it....

"Lily," Susana brought her cousin back into focus. "What happened with Baird?"

Lily dropped the leash to her feet and started laughing. "You're not going to believe this," she began. "You know how I was telling you about how herbal rememdies work, that they help the body detox and boost natural immunity, stuff like that?"

"Yeah," Susana responded warily.

"That there aren't any miracle cures? Well, forget all that."

"I don't...." Susana found Baird standing beside her, wagging his tail and hopping about. "What did you do to this dog?"

"Aengus wort," Lily told her. "I put just a couple of drops into his water this morning."

"You experimented on the dog." Susana crossed her arms over her chest, but Baird yipped at her, demanding that she pet him. She knelt down beside him and scratched him behind the ears.

"He took a nap for about three seconds, and then.... this. He's been going like this all day."

Susana looked into the dogs eyes and face. "Well, he doesn't look like he's been drugged...."

"It's not a drug, Susana," Lily said impatiently. "Whatever that herb is, whatever it does, it does it quickly. And it's pretty extreme."

"I'll say." Susana was scratching Baird belly now, and he was wriggling about joyfully.

"But how did your research today go?" Lily knelt down beside them on the cool floor of the porch.

Susana laughed, revealing her stress as she ran her hands through her hair. "You know how sometimes your whole world gets turned upside down, when you don't know your right elbow from your left?"

"Yeah...."

"Well, this whole past month has been like that for me," Susana complained. "Maybe I should get used to it, but it's just exhausting."

"It's the Tower," Lily commented quietly.

"What?"

"The Tower. The Tarot card, the Tower," Lily said distinctly. She looked at Baird. "Geez, I just hadn't expected anything like this." Just wait, she heard her inner voice urging her.

"Whatever it is, we've got more book appearing out of thin air." Susana climbed to her feet and walked back to her rocking chair. Lily followed her.

Susana sat down in her rocker, and Lily took a seat across from her. Susana held up the journal for Lily to see. "This was on my bed when I got home this afternoon, and wouldn't you know it? The timing couldn't have been more perfect."

"What do you mean?"

Susana laid the book on her knees. "This is Tic's journal, from when he was a young man. Just this afternoon..." Susana threw up her hands. "Geez! It's like deus ex machina! Over and over again!"

Lily frowned. "It's like, what exactly?"

Susana settled her hands into her lap but shook her knees to relieve her agitation. "Deus ex machina. It's Latin."

"Of course," Lily replied sarcastically.

Susana was losing patience. So what if she had gone to private school? Would Lily always be throwing this back in her face? She sighed, realizing she was only facing her own demons. "It means 'god from the machine,' and it refers to ancient plays, when the characters would find themselves in a real mess, but then suddenly a god would appear to set everything right."

Lily leaned back into the rocking chair, a satisfied smile on her face. "Well, sure. Isn't that always how it happens."

"I just meant that there's a bunch of crazy stuff going on, all around, and it's just all so convenient how everything fits together. "Susana was exasperated. "Like nothing's a coincidence."

"Yes." Lily rocked herself slowly in the chair. "Exactly. And that's what I meant. Ex deus whatever," she waved her hands in the air. "Whatever you want to call it, it's still magic."

Susana pressed her lips together. She needed to keep herself focused on what was right in front of her, because she wasn't sure she could handle the big picture just now. "Anyway...." Susana opened the book and flipped forward a few pages. "What I've found in here has been particularly enlightening. Did you know that Tic fought in World War II? That he was a kind of war hero?"

Lily frowned. No one had ever mentioned such a thing. She shook her head.

"Yes, and this journal, part of it anyway, was written while he was overseas, fighting in Europe."

"Okay....?" Baird slid himself in front of the rocking chair, and Lily used him as a footstool.

"And that he had gotten his heart broken?" Susana looked up from the book and up at her cousin. "I think I know why Tic was researching the plant. Aengus wort."

"It's also called honshawe," came a voice from the lawn, startling Susana out of her wits. Jumping to her feet, she found Roy smiling up at her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you." Roy walked around to the front and climbed the stairs to the porch. "May I join you, ladies? I think it's time we had a talk about what's been going on here."

Lily was also on her feet now, her eyes narrowed as she regarded the intruder. But Baird jumped up and skipped over to welcome the guest. Susana studied the dog's movements, then looked up at Roy. "It's okay, Lily," Susana said, her voice softening.

Lily glanced at her in surprise, but Susana stopped her before she could voice a protest. "Baird recognizes something in him," Susana offered. She stepped back toward her rocker and offered Roy a chair. "Please sit down."

"Would you like something to drink." Lily's voice was strained, full of disdain. Still, Roy offered her a genuine smile in response.

"No, thanks you. I know it was rude of me to interrupt you like that. I hadn't meant to eavesdrop," he apologized. "But I realize that you might need some assistance."

"Assistance?" Susana fingered the leather-bound journal in her lap.

Roy leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "With the plant in your garden. Your uncle called in aengus wort, but it has had many other names over the years."

"Yes, that's what we've already uncovered." Lily's demeanor, still exhausted after being dragged behind Baird all afternoon, was a mixture of weariness and vague hostility.

"Right." Roy glanced at the huge magnolia tree in the front yard, then continued. "The native americans called it honshawe, and considered it to be a very sacred plant. And it still is today, a very special plant." He glanced back and forth between the cousins. "That it showed up here is no accident."

"The plant chose us?" Lily's curiosity was getting the better of her.

"It chose this time and place." Roy leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "And that's why I'm here."

"What? Are you some kind of plant guardian?" Lily snorted.

Calmly, Roy opened his eyes and looked deeply into Lily's face. She felt a great calm come over her. In a flash, she remembered the Star card he had drawn in his Tarot reading with her, and her mind filled with the vision of a streaking light -- not quite a meteor, but something sparkling and pure -- spiraling downward from the stars toward planet Earth. She closed her eyes against the image in her head, but she couldn't shake it. Opening her eyes again, she looked at Roy, an expression of understanding growing on her face.

"Susana...." Lily began, her eyes still on Roy. "I think we need to listen to what he has to say."

* * * * *

The three sat around the coffee table in the living room, finishing the simple dinner of spaghetti that Susana had prepared. At least they hadn't ordered out again, Susana told herself as she took her last bite and then set down her plate. In the center of the table sat the collection of bottles that Lily had been working with earlier in the day. Susana kept the journal close by, wedged between her hip and the inside of the upholstered chair.

Roy had given them a sparse overview of his life in Trinidad. His father was an American who had fled the country on charges of embezzlement, landing in Trinidad where he had met Roy's mother. "My father can never return to the United States," he had told them, "but he wanted me to see his homeland, and to study here. Of course, we knew that I would be watched," he had said, with a quick glance out the window. The black sedan monitored his every movement, and he was certain that his small apartment was bugged. Curiously, it didn't bother him.

"They are trying to look like the FBI," Roy told them as he put his empty plate down. He smiled his thanks to Susana, then sat back in his chair. "You've heard of the 'men in black,' right?"

"So you've got the galaxy defenders after you, then?" Susana asked with a teasing smile. She was surprised to see Lily taking the suggestion seriously.

"That's exactly who they are, isn't it?" Lily asked Roy. "And you've been sent here.... because of this plant?"

Roy nodded. Lily had grown up in a magical world, and while she hadn't trusted him initially, she trusted her vision. Susana was still caught up in restrictive logic, despite the cataclysms of the past weeks. She was still holding onto to what she believed was her anchor of sanity. It was Roy's intention to sever that link, to finally set her free, so that she could become the healer he knew her to be.

"Susana." Roy leaned forward, engaging her. "I know that your world has been turned completely upside down recently, several times over. But I'm have to ask you to take one more leap of faith, with me."

His eyes were soft, and Susana found herself melting. She wanted to trust him, wanted to believe anything he had to say. But she also didn't want to lose her grip on reality, as slight as it might be.

Roy watched her thoughts and smiled gently. "I want you to take a deep breath, right now." Susana complied, and he could see the change in her energy as she released just a little bit more of her skepticism. "That's good," he encouraged her. "Now, once more."

Susana inhaled deeply, feeling the breath fill her down to her toes. Involuntarily, she closed her eyes. Curiously, her scalp was tingling, and she felt a peaceful calm spread down her arms and legs. She opened her eyes to Roy's waiting smile.

"Susana," he began gently. "Lily knows what you don't."

Susana glanced quickly to her cousin, but Lily was watching Roy.

"She had more time to prepare for this," he continued. "But you need to know, too. You need to be a part of this."

"Okay." Susana relaxed in her chair, softening her hands. If Lily trusted this guy, she supposed that she could, too.

"I am a walk-in soul," Roy told her, his voice confident and strong. He gave her a moment, watching for any changes on her face. "Do you know what that means?"

"Not in the least." Susana looked back at him, almost embarrassed by her ignorance.

"That's okay." Roy's voice immediately put her at ease. What was it about this guy? Susana relaxed her shoulders and waited for him to continue.

"Sometimes a person is done with life, before the body is ready to be surrendered." Roy slipped off his shoes and pulled his feet up to sit cross-legged in the chair. "Sometimes it's a suicide, or an illness, or an accident. The soul is ready to move on, but the body is still usable."

Susana stiffened. What was he talking about? Body snatchers? She looked to her cousin for reassurance but found that Lily's gaze was still focused on their guest.

"There's no need to be alarmed," Roy said calmly, reading her body language. "This has been going on since the beginning of time. There are other souls, who have very important work to do, who don't necessarily have time to waste being born and growing up. They need to get in very quickly, to get the job done."

"What kind of job?" Susana would ask an question she could in order to avoid the image of body-snatching she now had running through her head.

"Usually we come in as healers or teachers," Roy explained. "In my case, as Lily said, I'm not exactly the guardian of this herb you have growing in the yard, but it is along those lines." He gazed into Susana's eyes for a long moment, making sure that she was still with him. "I'm kind of guide for those who would use the plant, to help in the healing process."

Inexplicably, Susana found stray tears meandering down her cheeks. "Are we in so much pain then," she said, gesturing to her cousin, "that we warrant this kind of, of divine intervention?"

"There is no pain that is any worse or more important than anyone else's." Roy watched Susana brush the tears away from her face. "This herb, honshawe, aengus wort -- whatever you choose to call it -- didn't appear here just for you. But it did choose you -- you and Lily, and Tic even -- for a reason."

"Oh, geez!" Susana exclaimed, reaching for the journal at her side. "Tic! Lily, I know why Tic wanted to work with the plant, why he got so excited about it." A frown grew on her face as she looked at Roy. "But that was before you came.... How long has it been growing here?"

Roy's face brightened. Susana was accepting the truth, at least for the time being. "It has always been here, Susana. But it only sprang out of the ground a few months ago. And Tic had been expecting it."

Lily looked up in surprise. "His grandmother..." she wondered aloud.

"It's no accident," Roy continued, "that this property for generations would be held by the Fryes, a family of witches, people who respect and care for the earth. People who recognize their own power." Roy looked directly into Susana's eyes. "You and Lily are simply the latest in a long line of stewards."

* * * * *

May 13, 1947

This is the last journal entry I intend to make, at least on this subject. I will lay it all down, once and for all. I will get this out of my system and then will spend the remainder of my years trying to rectify this situation I have provoked. Or at the very least, trying to forget it ever happened.

Simone! How I loved that girl. She was my best friend growing up, my sunshiny confidante. She wasn't like the other kids, who liked to taunt me by pointing and screaming, "witch!" when my grandmother went out walking -- and later on, screaming and pointing at me. Some children haven't yet been spoiled by the prejudices of their parents, and Simone was one of those precious creatures.

As we grew older, naturally I assumed that we would marry. We were an easy pair, already the best of friends. I couldn't imagine another woman in my life, one who might separate me from time spent with Simone. My love for her went beyond the simple spark between men and women, more than the warm bond shared between friends. It made all the sense in the world to me.

But she fell in love with Henry. Why could I have not been happy for her? And she was happy, if I would have only opened my eyes to see it. I was so caught up in my own anguish, loving and hating her at the same time, hating Henry. If I had only had an ounce of wisdom then, to know that the heart always mends, and that sometimes we don't get what we want because there is something better waiting around the corner. But I was not wise. I was jealous, and called it love. I was angry. I was possessive, and it turned me mean.

There is no true forgiveness for the action I took. I curse the day I even thought of casting a binding spell! Yes, I thought myself a great wizard then, at the young age of twenty. Certain that I could bend the world -- and Simone's heart -- to my selfish will.

For years afterward, I blamed my grandmother for having such books in the house, but there is no way she could have known what I meant to do. I was in so much pain in those years that followed, and I looked for any opportunity to place blame outside myself.

But I had made the choice to cast the spell, the spell that simultaneously bound Henry so that he was inaccessible to love, and that called Simone's heart back to me. In my blindness, I had assumed that Simone's love was mine for the taking, that Henry was a mere distraction that could be easily eliminated. And that once he was out of the way....

The results were disastrous. Henry did indeed become inaccessible. He joined the military and found himself stationed out west. Simone was heartbroken, but I was overjoyed! When she asked me to cast a spell for his protection, I cast a spell alright. Only I reinforced the curse I had already let loose. And she did indeed turn to her old friend for comfort, though it was not her heart that she offered to me at first. Still, I knew that she would come around in time. She was my soul mate, I was certain of it.

And then there as the attack on Pearl Harbor. Like so many other young men across the country, I enlisted in the Army that very day, outraged and heeding the call to duty. It was days before Simone had told me that Henry had been killed in that raid. She had wept in my arms, and I have never heard such agony in a woman's voice, the way she moaned and sometimes even screamed. They had been engaged, secretly, waiting for Henry to get settled in his new career before they made plans.

And now he was gone. The spell had worked! Henry was completely inaccessible. But I couldn't be happy to see my dearest Simone in such pain, and I was too wracked with guilt to be sensible about it. It was bad enough that I may have contributed to Henry's death -- there's no way I had killed him, but his death could not have been coincidental, not after the curse I had put on him -- but I was foolish enough to admit to Simone what I had done. I can hardly believe it to this day. What had I expected from her? Sympathy? Understanding?

Cold hatred. I will never in all my years forget the look in her eyes as she began to comprehend what I had just told her. I had betrayed her. I had betrayed her trust and had separated her from her true love, so she told me. I tried to laugh it off at first, confident that the second half of the spell -- drawing her into my arms -- would take effect at any moment, and that all of her protestations and anger would melt into charming endearments, that none of it would matter. But none of that happened, of course. Free will is free will. And she cursed me with hers.

I was shipped overseas, which was fine with me. I felt I deserved to die, after what I had done. And I knew that I would never have Simone's love, so it was all the same to me. But then I met Marie in Paris. She was so bright and cheerful, even in the midst of the hell all around her. I don't know how, but she reached inside me, touched my heart, and brought my soul back to life. Hearts do mend, she taught me. Still, I couldn't tell her about Simone or my own wickedness, but I began to feel hopeful again. Perhaps there was such redemption in the world.

I would have married her anyway, my Marie. That she was Catholic and found herself pregnant with my child only gave us the excuse to do it sooner than later. May 14, 1943 was a happy day indeed. Her family wasn't quite as excited about the whole thing, especially that their daughter -- and their coming grandchild -- would soon be on a transport ship bound for the United States. But there was no way that my wife and child would remain in harm's way, not if I could help it.

Tomorrow would have been our fourth anniversary.

Of course, they never reached America. Their ship was targeted by a German U-boat. No survivors, I was told.

And then I was dead again. It's a wonder I survived the war. I deliberately threw myself into the line of fire, over and over again. I was determined to get myself killed, hopefully in some noble or heroic act, so that my precious Simone might someday look back on my memory and find it in her heart to forgive me. Yes, make me a martyr. Let my blood be spilt, as Henry's had.

But I survived, with a chest full of medals. To me, each and every one was a badge of shame. They were so heavy. I couldn't wait to take off that uniform, burn it, bury the medals. Just let the earth swallow me up somehow. I returned to my grandparents house. Grandfather had died while I was away, so it was just my grandmother and myself. She seemed to understand me without my having to explain myself, if I could have even found the words then.

Henry was dead. Marie and our child were dead. Simone hated me.

She hates me still. Only now she is trapped in a loveless marriage, My grandmother told me how Brad Carver wasted no time swooping in to claim her, once I was gone, and how Simone had been too heartsick to fend him off. She will have big houses and hearty children that go to the best schools. She will have every comfort, will want for nothing. But will she ever have love? Have I frozen her heart so completely?

I will cast no more spells. Even the good, constructive ones, my heart just isn't pure. I wouldn't want anyone to have to deal with the consequences of the darkness that has descended upon me. Grandmother keeps pressing her herbal cures on me, but I know they won't do any good. They call me "Tic," and I deserve that blood-sucking nickname. I will walk in this shadow the rest of my life.

* * * * *

Lily had listened in stunned silence as Susana read from Tic's journal, the very last entry in the book. Susana closed the volume carefully and looked up at Lily and Roy, not trying to hide the tears in her eyes.

"I never knew that Tic had been married." Lily blinked, trying to get her mind around what she had just heard. "I mean, all the time I've known him, he's been alone."

Susana nodded, looking down at the journal in her lap. "If he'd had any kin, I imagine he would have left his property to them. Instead of to us."

"So you think the honsha-whatever, the plant, that it came here because Tic called to it, something inside him?" Lily was looking to Roy for the answer.

"But there's more to it," Susana interrupted. "Something in this entry, Tic talked about Simone cursing him with her free will. I think he was more right than he could have known."

"What do you mean?" Lily reached for her glass of wine on the coffee table.

"It's something that Simone told me today, at the historical society. She didn't get into all this business." Susana tapped the cover of the journal. "But she did say that she and Tic had argued over something, and that in her heart, she had cursed him. That she had wished that he might spend his life alone."

"She wanted him to know what it felt like to have real love ripped away from him, as she had," Roy suggested. "And since Simone herself ended up in a marriage of convenience, from what it sounds like, Tic never got to love again either."

There was a commotion in the front hallways behind them. Baird was jumping about, barking happily. The three turned to see what the trouble was. Susana jumped out of her chair, and Lily's jaw dropped her her chest.

"Jesus!" exclaimed at the spectre looking in at them. From the photos she had seen, it was unmistakably Tic. Tic was standing in the hallway.

"Good Goddess!" Lily's eyes grew wide. Though she had initially expected to find Tic somewhere in the house, haunting the place, the weeks that had passed with no sign of him had left her believing he had in fact moved on.

Roy remained calmly in his seat, smiling. "I think we're onto something," he commented.

Lily grabbed one of the brown bottled from the coffee table and ran to the kitchen, slowing only as she passed Tic in the hallway. Running straight through her great-uncle's ghost was not something she wanted to experience right now. Tic's shadow appeared to glide down the hallway, following her.

Susana stepped out into the hallway, but wasn't about to get anywhere near the ghost. "What are you doing?" she called out to Lily.

"We're going to fix this." Lily was banging around in the kitchen, running water, and clinking bottles together. Finishing up, she side-stepped Tic's ghost in the doorway and strode back toward the living room, carrying a large bottle of brown liquid with her.

Susana pointed at the shadow at the end of the hall. "I don't know how you can just go waltzing around.... that."

Lily smiled at her cousin. She placed an arm around her and led her back into the living room. "Did you ever think that maybe he was asking for help?"

Susana went back to her seat, grateful that Tic -- or whatever it was -- hadn't followed. Lily proudly put the bottle down on the table.

"What is that?" Susana asked.

"Just some lemonade iced tea." Lily plopped back down onto the sofa. "It's for Simone. You'll take it to her first thing tomorrow morning, as a thank you for her help at the library today."

"Uh-huh," Susana responded suspiciously. "Why do I think that's not really iced tea."

"It is." Roy smiled at Lily. "Just with a little herbal tincture added." He winked at Lily.

Lily turned to Susana. "Don't you get it? It was a binding spell, the one that Tic cast. Those things always come back to bite you."

The shadow had reappeared in the doorway. Baird ran happy circles around and around the ghost of his master. Susana burst into tears.

"I just can't take this anymore," she cried, curling up into a ball in the chair.

Lily knelt down beside her. "Susana." She placed a comforting hand on her cousin's knee. "Susana, Tic bound himself when he placed his binding curse on Henry, and when he tried to bind Simone's heart to his own. He bound himself." Lily brushed the hairs away from Susana's face so she could see her eyes. "Magic can backfire like that all the time."

"What? So you think that giving this woman some kind of potion is then going to just make everything all better?" Susana sat up in the chair, looking to Roy for support.

"It's a different kind of magic," Lily explained. "We say a blessing over it, that it will only act toward the highest good, that old wounds may be healed, replaced instead by love and light."

"For the best outcome for all concerned," Roy added.

Susana held her hand over her lips, thinking. "Okay," she said finally. "You want to want to release people from what binds them?" Susana jumped up out of her chair and dashed toward the doorway, where she stopped short, facing Tic's shadow. She faltered, reaching for the wall to support her. With the flicker of a smile on his face, the ghost pulled back, allowing her a wide berth. Susana dashed around the corner and headed to the kitchen, where she grabbed one of the brown bottles from the breakfast table on her way out the backdoor.

It was twilight, the last remnants of the sunset having faded from the sky. Baird bounded out the door behind her and danced around her feet and Susana stood still for a moment, surveying the garden. She looked hard at the aegnus wort plant, which seemed to have doubled in size since she last saw it the day before. Shaking her head, she made a beeline for the greenhouse.

Roy and Lily stepped out onto the back porch. "Susana! What are you doing?" Lily called out to her. With a quick glance to Roy, Lily raced down the steps and followed her cousin across the grass.

Susana threw open the greenhouse door and flipped on the lights. She took a coupl