A Chalice of Wind b-1 Read online

  Except. I would have the house to myself.

  Andre could come over. Scared was one thing I wouldn't be feeling if he were here.

  Nan came over and put her hands on my shoulders. Looking deeply into my eyes, she said, "You'll be okay,

  Clio. You're seventeen, and the house is spelled with layers of protection. Just watch yourself, refresh the spells every night before you go to bed, and everything will be fine," She put her head to one side, considering. "Do you want me to ask Racey's parents if you can stay over there for a few days?"

  "Let me try staying on my own," I said. "If I get too freaked out, I'll go to Racey's,"

  "Okay," Nan hefted Q-Tip out one last time and closed her suitcase, I followed her downstairs, still in my nightgown, feeling a rising excitement, I would have the whole house to myself! The situation was clouded by worry about what Nan was going to "take care o?" but still.

  At the front door, Nan put down her suitcase and we hugged. I had a sudden, unreasonable fear that this would be the last time I saw her or hugged her; that from this moment on I was on my own. Sappy tears sprang to my eyes, and I blinked them back. Everything was fine- Nan said so. I would be fine, she would come back. I would have a fun little free holiday, and then she would return and our lives would go on as they had before.

  I was sure of it.

  "Well, that's bizarre," Racey said, frowning. She'd met me at Botanika after lunch. The morning, after Nan had left, had stretched out surprisingly long and quiet, I'd called Racey and left a message for Andre. He never answered his phone, it seemed, 'And she didn't tell you where she was going or for what?"

  "Nope. She was going out of town, not just off to a job or something" In Nan 's work as a midwife, she had been gone overnight before, but just in the city. "It was weird, a bit alarming, yet-not without possibilities." I gave Racey a meaningful look.

  Her eyebrows rose. "Like what?" she asked, her tone hopeful

  "Aparty, for starters" I said."Muchas fiestas. All manner of merriment." I waved my hand expansively. "Blender drinks. Fun magick, depending on who we invite. Unbridled teenage mayhem."

  Racey's face lit as various possibilities bloomed in her mind. "Sweet! How many people do you want to invite?"

  "Enough to make it fun. Not so many that the neighbors will call the cops."

  "Okay. Let's make a list," said Racey, pulling a pen out of her purse. I grinned. Racey was always very big on lists.

  "The usual suspects, I assume," she said, busily writing. And guys. I'll ask Delia and Kris and Eugenie for ideas."

  "Good. And let's make margaritas," I said, 'And oh! Get this! I'll do a dampening spell around the house so people outside can't hear the noise from inside! Then we can have loud music!"

  "Brilliant," Racey said admiringly, writing it down. "And food?"

  Just then my macrame purse started wriggling on the table. Racey glanced up. "Your purse is ringing," she said briefly while I dug for my phone.

  Its small screen said unlisted numher. I clicked the answer button.

  "Hello?"

  "Hey, babe." Andres voice made my skin tingle, "I got your message. What's up? Do you think you can see me today?"

  "Oh, yeah," I said with feeling. Smiling hugely, I leaned back in my chair and tried to ignore how Racey s face had assumed a look of careful neutrality. "I can see a lot of you. In fact, I'm giving a party tonight-Just you, me, and forty of my closest friends. Can you come?"

  "At your house?" Andre sounded surprised-I'd never invited him over before,

  "Yep," I gave him the address and directions on how to get there. Uptown isn't built on a grid-the streets follow the curve of the river, "Like, at nine? And- maybe you can stay and help after everyone else has gone," I was practically quivering with anticipation.

  "Help with what?" Andre sounded wary,

  I shrugged. "Anything that needs doing. After all, with my grandmother out of town, I’ll be on my own, I'll need all the help I can get,"

  I could almost feel his interest quickening over the phone. "Your grandmothers out of town?" he asked, "Since when?"

  "Since this morning. I didn't even know about it till I saw her packing. She'll be gone a couple days at least," For right now, I put away all my unease about when she was coming back, I would deal with it when the time came.

  Andre was silent for a minute. "So you're saying that your grandmother is out of town, leaving you alone in the house "

  "Uh-huh" I took a sip of my drink, careful not to make slurping noises into the phone,

  'And you, being the good granddaughter who gets home on time because you promised, are immediately seizing this opportunity to raise hell,"

  I considered, "Pretty much, yeah,"

  "And, tell me if I'm getting your meaning correctly, little Clio," said Andre's dark, delicious voice, "but are you suggesting that I stay with you after everyone has left, to, um, help you with… something?"

  I could hardly breathe. The minute the front door closed after the last person, I was going to rip his clothes off. "That's right," I managed to get out,

  "Well, well, well," he said, his tone making my heart beat faster. "That sounds like a very good idea, I would love to stay later and help you-with anything you want,"

  With great self-control I avoided whimpering. "Terrific," I said, trying to sound together. "Anytime after nine"

  "Can I bring anything? Besides myself?"

  "Urn, let's see," I thought quickly, glancing at Racey's list, "Can you bring some tequila? For the margaritas?"

  "It will be my pleasure''

  My eyes shut slowly and I swallowed, "Okay," I said, barely able to speak. "See you then," I clicked off my phone and took some deep breaths, as if recovering from running,

  Racey was watching me shrewdly from across the table, "Don't tell me" she said, "Let me guess. He is, by some miracle, going to take you up on your offer.'

  I regarded my best friend, "How come you don't like him?" There, it was out in the open,

  Racey looked taken aback, "I never said I didn't like him. Its just ... you're moving awful fast. You don't really know him,"

  "That's never stopped us before," I pointed out. Since we were fifteen, Racey and I had been wrapping the lesser sex around our pinkies. This was the first time she had encouraged me to put on the brakes, "What is it?"

  Racey shifted her weight in her seat, looking uncomfortable, "I don't know," she admitted. "He's different somehow than all the others,"

  "Yeah" I said. "Absolutely,"

  Racey still looked hesitant, "I don't know what it is. He just makes me feel, cautious"

  I looked at her speculatively. Did Racey have the hots for Andre? I didn't think so. I'd be able to pick up on it if she did. Well, they just didn't click for some reason. I wasn't going to worry about it,

  "Okay" I said, switching into party mode. "Show me your list. We gotta hit the store."

  Thais

  “Damn it! Damn it! Where the hell are they?" Crash.

  As a way to wake up, this was worse than an alarm clock but better than having a bucket of cold water dumped on my head. Next to me, Minou yawned and looked offended, I blinked groggily at my clock. Ten a.m. Another restless night had led me to sleep in.

  But what was Axelle doing up so suspiciously early?

  "They were right here? she shrieked from the living room.

  I pulled on some gym shorts and cautiously made my way out to the main room, Axelle had torn the place apart-sofa cushions on the floor, a table overturned, the basket of kindling by the fireplace knocked over. Newspapers, magazines, and clothes were strewn everywhere.

  In short, the place was even more of a wreck than usual, and guess who was the only person who would care enough to clean it up?

  Still shouting, Axelle picked up my French-English dictionary and heaved it across the room. It smacked the opposite wall with force, which showed me that the door to the secret room was wide open, as if the search had started up there and spilled
over into the secular area of the apartment,

  "Hey!" I cried, hurrying over to get the book. "That's mine!"

  Axelle looked up at me, wild-eyed. I'd never seen her so wiggy — usually she moved at a slinky, feline saunter, summoning energy only to decide what shoes went with which purse. But now she looked like shed been up for hours, and even her characteristic silky, shiny black bob was totally mussed,

  "What's wrong?" I asked. "What are you looking for?"

  "My cups!" she shrieked, grabbing handfuls of her hair, as if to keep a tenuous grip on her sanity, "Family heirlooms!"

  I looked around, trying to remember whether I'd seen anything like that, "Were they silver, or crystal, or what?"

  "They were wood? Axelle cried, distraught, "Carved cypress! They're invaluable! I mean, for personal reasons! This is a disaster?

  "Wooden cups?" I felt a sense of dread come over me, "How many?" I already knew.

  "Four!" Axelle cried, looking near tears, "Four wooden cups!" Then she seemed to catch something in my voice and looked up, her black eyes locking on me like lasers. "Why? Have you seen them? Four wooden cups:

  "Uh-"I froze like a frightened rabbit.

  Axelle's eyes narrowed, and then she rushed past me into my room. I saw my pillow fly out into the hall, heard her sweep all my stuff off my desk Minou raced out of my room and disappeared, I clenched my hands at my sides, and then Axelle tore into my small bathroom.

  Her howl was a mixture of relief, rage, and triumph.

  Head bowed, dreading the inevitable, I shuffled toward the bathroom, Axelle was holding her carved wooden cups-the cups that had seemed so old and battered I was sure no one would miss them from the living room armoire. Her face glowed with intense emotion as she stared at the one that held cotton swabs, the one that held cotton balls…,

  When she spoke, her voice was low and trembling, "These four cups are the most valuable things you'll ever see in your whole life. If you had ruined them-"

  There was nothing I could say, I hadn't known. If they were so valuable, why weren't they upstairs in the locked room? I mean, they weren't much to look at- just four old wooden cups.

  With great effort, Axelle seemed to get herself under control, "From now on, ask if you borrow anything of mine.

  This was much more reasonable than she usually was, and I nodded, embarrassed. She swept out of the bathroom, having dumped the cups' contents onto the floor, and then I heard her heading upstairs,

  I sank down onto the closed toilet lid, my head in my hands. What a way to start a Sunday, I needed to get out of here. After all the emotion last night with Luc, I felt self-conscious about going to the garden to find him, like I needed to give us both a little time and space, I was also still burning to see Clio and Petra, get some more questions answered, spend time with them, I got up and headed for the phone.

  Clio

  “Out where does the magick come from?"

  I tried to summon up patience-never my strong point. When Racey and I had gotten home, there'd been a message from Thais, wanting to come over. Well, we were having a party, the more the merrier, and after all, she was my sister.

  We'd gotten a pizza for dinner, and she'd started asking about magick.

  To hide my resigned sigh, I got up and went to the fridge. '’Want a beer?"

  Thais paused in mid-bite. "But-we're only seventeen," she said, her mouth full,

  I looked at her blankly. "And… “

  "Oh, No thanks," she mumbled, and I could swear a faint pink tinge flushed her cheeks,

  Racey and I exchanged a look over Thais's head, I sat back down and Racey and I popped the tops on our bottles. This was like a science experiment: the whole nature versus nurture thing. Thais had grown up with our dad, who, even though I so wished I could have met him, seemed to have raised her to be a straight-arrow weenie. Then there was me. Even though Nan was strict about some things, she was pretty cool about others, and I had grown up blessedly free of most hang-ups and willing to experience life to the fullest,

  "But where does the magick come from;1" Thais asked again,

  "Everything" Racey said, Q-Tip jumped up on the table, and she gave him a piece of her pizza cheese,

  "Like Nan said, there's a bit of power, or energy, or magick in everything in the natural world," I said, "In rocks, trees, water, the earth itself. The art and craft of magick is all about learning to tap into that power,"

  "For what?" Thais asked. "Can I have some iced tea?"

  "In the fridge," I told her, "For what? Because you can. Using magick ties you into the earth, into nature more powerfully than anything else. Its incredible,"

  "It's also useful" Racey pointed out, "Magick can help us make decisions, figure things out. Or be used for healing, fixing things. Or people,"

  "Hmm," Thais poured herself some iced tea, looking thoughtful,

  "Look, I’ll show you," I said, taking my plate to the sink.

  "I think I'll run out and get some last-minute stuff," said Racey, getting up, "And I’ll swing by my house and get some more CDs,"

  "Good idea," I said.

  Thais looked hesitant-she'd been spooked the last time, when I'd rearranged the salt, which I had thought

  was so funny. But magick was one of those things that was better to experience than to hear about.

  "Come on" I said briskly, looking at the clock, "We have a little bit of time before we have to get ready for the party."

  Our workroom was bare except for the wooden altar and bookcases, A small cupboard stood beneath the window. I took out a piece of chalk and our four pewter rite cups. They'd been made for Nan by a friend of hers and had zodiac symbols around the edges.

  First I drew most of a circle on the wooden floor but left: it open. Then I got the four cups ready. "These four cups will represent the four elements," I explained.

  "Four cups " said Thais, in an "ohhh" kind of way.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Axelle has four cups too," she said briefly, and I nodded.

  "Well, she's a witch. Now, this one, in the north position, is for water, or l'eau. In the south, this cup holds a candle." I lit it, "Which stands for fire, or le feu. This incense, with its trail of smoke, represents air, or as we say in French, l'air" I grinned and looked over at Thais. She still looked wary, as if deciding whether she should bolt now before the naughty magick got her.

  I kept on. This stuff was all so familiar and basic: Bonne Magie's ABCs. "And lastly, this cup holds literal dirt, to represent la terre, but it could also be sand, pebbles, stuff like that. Now, step into the circle."

  Thais stepped in, and I drew the circle closed, Q-Tip wandered into the room and sat right outside the circle. He never crossed a circle line.

  "Okay, now it's closed, and you cant break it until we open it again. I'm going to lead you through a basic visualization exercise" I explained. Nan had first started doing this with me when I was three years old, "Don't worry, you're not going to freak out and start tripping. Here, sit down across from me,"

  I set a white candle between us and gave Thais a box of matches. "Conjure fire. Just strike the match like you normally would, but say"-I did a quick translation in my head rather than start trying to teach Thais Old French- "Fire, fire, hot and light, help me have the second sight." I was pleased with myself for making it rhyme.

  Thais murmured the words and struck the match as if she thought it might explode. It went out before the candle caught. She did it again and lit the candle, and then I took her hands in mine.

  "Now, we both just look at the candle and sort of let our minds go," I said. "And magick will show us what we need to see,"

  "Is this like self-hypnosis?" Thais asked.

  "Well, with self-hypnosis you're putting yourself into kind of a magickal state," I said. "You're releasing outside influences and concentrating on your inner knowledge, your subconscious. It's your subconscious that's attuned to magick."

  "Oh."

  "Just let your boundarie
s dissolve," I told Thais in a soft, slow voice. "Become one with the fire, with me, with your surroundings. Open your mind to anything and everything. Trust la magie to show you what you need to know Focus on your breathing, on slowing it down, making it so shallow and smooth you can hardly feel it."

  It was interesting-when you're little and learning this, you often practice in front of a mirror. I'd spent countless hours in front of a mirror with a candle, working on being able to sink quickly and easily into the trance state that makes magick possible. Looking at Thais, holding her hands, it was eerily like those days, only this time, Thais was the mirror.

  I felt myself sinking and drew Thais along with me. This was working well, despite the slight distance I felt because I'd drunk half a beer. I really had to remember the negative effect alcohol had on magick. It was a bummer.

  Then, with no warning, Thais and I were standing in a cypricre-a swamp. It happened suddenly and abruptly, which is not usually how a vision works. And this was utterly complete-there was no sign of my workroom. I started to get a bad feeling.

  Thais looked at me, startled, and I tried not to let her see my concern. "This is a swamp," I whispered, figuring they didn't have too many back in Connecticut. It was dark all around us, nighttime, and I felt a heavy, oppressive weight in the air.

  Thais nodded, not looking thrilled. "I've been in a swamp," she said.

  Then we saw a group of witches through the trees.

  Thais gripped my hand, and I realized we hadn't let go of each other.

  With dismay I recognized the huge cypress tree and the dark water bubbling up between its roots from my vision with Nan. Deesse. No way did I want to go through this again, and no way did I want this to be Thais's first experience with visions.

  I literally backed away from the tree, starting to murmur words that would take us out of here. Nothing happened. I said the words again, sure I was remembering correctly, but still nothing happened.

  "Who are they? What are they doing?" Thais whispered.

  I didn’t know. “I'm trying to get us out of here," I said in a low voice, as if speaking loudly would draw attention to us. The witches, all wearing long robes of different colors, some with hoods, started moving dalmonde, clockwise, in a circle before the tree. We heard a faint humming sound, their chanting, but I couldn't make out any words.