Seeing Magic (The Queen of the Night Series Book 1) (18 page)

I stood up to join him and turned to say goodnight to the Judge. He looked from me to Evan and for a moment there was shrewdness in his gaze as he put together the story I’d asked for, who I was and who was my date. Fortunately, his insistent wife and the alcohol he’d consumed made him forget any concerns, and he mumbled goodbye as he followed her out of the glass ballroom. Evan dragged me out a door in the opposite direction.

We were outside in the nighttime darkness. The area was lit by landscape lights which followed a path to a tiered garden built into the side of a mountain with a steep, stone staircase cut through the middle. The Japanese style garden had a meditative quality to it. The dim lighting and uneven stairs made Evan reach for my hand instinctively as we climbed to the top in silence. When we reached it we found a secluded patio and sat in old-fashioned, two-seater glider. From our perch we could see all down the side of the mountain, onto the party spilling out of the conservatory and beyond to Washington Street. Evan forgot to let go of my hand. I didn’t remind him.

After a while I noticed another strain of music, separate from the party. Singing came from the woods behind us, beyond the grounds of the resort. Something about the a capella chorus pulled at my heart. I didn’t recognize the language of the song, but the music sounded sacred, like a prayer. It sounded like a dirge. I asked Evan about it.

“It’s the Nyad’s Song,” he replied. “The Sidhe Council has decided Easnadh is too sick to continue in her capacity of nyad. She’s being carried to their world, the Land of the Young. They hope that since time moves so much slower in the fairy dimension they can delay her death. They’re trying to buy time in the hope we can find a cure for her before it’s too late. All of the nyad’s have come together to pray to Mother Earth to help her.”

“Will we?  Will we find a cure in time?”

“I can’t see that future. I just don’t know.”

Chapter Nineteen

Lammas Tide

“We’re here,” Evan said. “This is as far as we can go.”  He put the Jeep in park and we stepped out onto a dirt road. We’d followed it to a chain-link fence with a gate encompassing the width of the road. Signs hung off it. In the upper right a faded metal sign said, ‘Ray’s Salvage Yard’. The signs on the left said, ‘Private Property’, ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Keep Out’. Nowhere did I find a sign listing the hours of operation for the business. There was no phone number either so an interested customer could contact the owner of the junkyard. This seemed extremely odd for any kind of a business.

I looked at Evan and said, “What now?”

“Nothing…we go back home. Until we can get in contact with the owner, we can’t do anything else.” 

I turned to walk back to the car, but stopped because I’d heard noises coming from beyond the gate. “Did you hear those?”

“Yeah, it sounds like industrial machinery.”

“Do you think it’s one of those car-mashing machines?  It would mean someone’s inside the junk yard. Do you think we should try shouting?”

Evan called out, “Hello…is anyone there?” a few times but we didn’t get a response. Eventually, we gave up and headed back to the store.

***

A week had passed since the wedding. Evan and I had used all of our spare time tracking Warm Spring Run. The junkyard was at the top of a mountain a short distance south of Smith Crossroads. We deduced that the source of the stream must be somewhere on this property, perhaps in an underground aquifer. From what we’d found out at the Hall of Records, this plat was 98.5 acres and covered pretty much the whole top of this particular mountain. The land was privately owned by a local man named Jeremy Rogers. Evan had never met him.

The closest point I scanned of Warm Spring Run carried a pewter haze much darker and denser than downstream, but most frightening was the acidic green color clinging to the pewter haze. It was the ugliest, scariest aura I’d ever sensed, and it was just like the toxic gas in my nightmares. I’d concluded that the source of the contamination must be somewhere at the source of the stream itself.

Once back in Fiona’s store, I checked her copy of the local yellow pages while Evan searched the Internet. We found no listing or information at all on Ray’s Salvage Yard.

In exasperation I asked Evan, “Why don’t you just have a vision about the source of pollution and tell us what’s going on?”

He looked startled. “I can’t control what I see in my visions.”

“When you found the Druid’s Egg, you had a series of visions leading you to it, but you haven’t had any visions about what’s contaminating Warm Spring Run.”

“When we found the Druid’s Egg, I deliberately kept myself out of the hunt. I stood on the side of the meadow and let the hunters and John work until the very end, when I knew my presence was more necessary than my visions.”

“So…” I prompted.

“So…I can’t have a vision about my own future. I’m the one searching for the pollutant; therefore I can’t see where our investigation will lead us.”

“Why can’t you see your own future?”

“That’s just the way it is. In the Grand Design of the Universe, Seers can’t sense anything related to their own future. Think about it, Maggie. When you look in the mirror, can you see your own aura?”

How did he know I’d tried to do that
? “No…”

“Because you can’t sense anything related to yourself. Look down at your own hands and feet. Can you see your aura?”

I tried it. “No,” I responded again.

“There you go. No handy visions will be forthcoming about Warm Spring Run. We have to investigate the hard way.”

“Wait,” I thought. “Why don’t I just go looking around Smith Crossroads by myself?”

He started listing reasons. “One — I’m not letting you wander around strange neighborhoods alone. Two — we’ve already covered as much ground as we can without trespassing on private property, and three — for some reason…”

I remembered, so I echoed the rest of his sentence. “You can’t see my future either. I wonder why?”

“I dunno.”  He shook his head. “My mom thinks my future is too closely intertwined with yours.”  He blatantly changed the subject. “Look, we should get back to work. I’m going to call some people on the council and see if one of them can get us access to that salvage yard.”

“Okay.” It seemed best not to dwell on why or how my future intertwined with Evan’s. As I left Fiona’s office, I caught my reflection in the mirror she’d hung on the wall. Wistfully, I murmured to myself, “I’d like to see my own aura.” 

From behind me Evan nodded in agreement. “Me too, it’s a really beautiful aura,” which made me smile.

***

A couple of hours later he found me at the herbal products counter and said, “I take it back.”

“You take what back?” I was busy organizing the P’s. I muttered, “Palmetto, Pansy, Pao D’ Arco, Parsley, Passionflower, Patchouli, Pennyroyal, Peppermint, Pokeweed, Prickly Ash…oh here it is, Psyllium…what?”  I looked up at him wondering why he had a stupid grin on his face.

“I can show you your own aura.”

“Really?  How?”

“It’s a secret, but I can only do it on Lammas Tide at high noon.”

“What’s Lammas Tide?”

“It’s the next holiday. It’s not as big a deal as the Summer Solstice but we still have fun, and it’s less than a week away.” 

I decided I’d done enough straightening up for one day. “Okay, let’s get a cup of tea and you can tell me all about it.”

When we’d settled into a couple of club chairs upstairs, he continued.

“On August first we celebrate Lammas Tide. Traditionally, in Scotland it marked the start of the harvest season.”

“Does it not start the harvest season here?”

“At our latitude we have a much longer growing season than they do. We start harvesting in September, but we still celebrate Lammas Tide on the same day. Mostly for our clan, we use the holiday to pray to Llew, Mother Earth and Father Sky to protect us. August is the most dangerous time of the year for farmers.”

“Why?”

“The hottest time of the year is when the greatest chance of drought or wildfire exists.”

“Oh, so the clan prays for rain.”

“Yeah, basically we pray for rain. We meet at sunrise on August first and say a prayer and have breakfast. In the old days, they used to harvest the first wheat fields and use the wheat to make magic bread, but now it’s more of a bake-off competition. We celebrate ‘first fruits’.”

“What are ‘first fruits’?”

“For our region, they’re apples. Around here we have more orchards than crop fields. The farmers go through the orchards looking for ripe apples, and we cook with them.”

“The breakfast sounds yummy, but what does it have to do with seeing my own aura?”

“After breakfast we can hike over to my secret place. At noontime the sunlight shines in a certain way and you’ll be able to see your own aura.”

“Okay, I’m game.”

“Good, then plan on wearing your old, comfy sneakers to the Lammas Tide celebration.”

“Why?”

“The only way to get there is on foot. And it’s a three-hour hike uphill from the sacred meadow to my secret place.”

“Oh.”

***

On Lammas Tide morning, I helped Fiona carry several dozen apple turnovers to the clearing. The picnic tables were already set up when we arrived and a variety of apple dishes covered the tables. Apple Brown Betty, apple fritters, and of course, apple pies of every kind were proudly displayed.

Suddenly, Sue Ann MacGregor, Duncan’s sister-in-law, announced that her first fruits had outdone everyone else’s. “Everyone knows peaches ripen before apples!” she announced to the crowd. Then she and her children produced ten homemade peach pies and several jars of peach preserves.

Old Farmer MacGregor offered the blessing and prayer at the altar asking for good weather and good luck in the rest of the growing season; they served breakfast. I enjoyed it as a light-hearted and delicious affair free of fairies. Afterward, I chided myself for eating so much though, because we had a long hike ahead of us.

Before we rose to leave, I took a good look around the clearing at my new extended family. Several of the people coughed. I opened my aura vision. At least ten people carried the brown-gray haze in their chests and stomachs. Little Zoe had an almost solid mass in her tummy. The mass looked a lot like the ones spread throughout Easnadh’s body. Worried about more sick people, I vowed to figure out what was going on soon.

Evan had packed a rather large backpack with supplies and a picnic lunch. He swung it over his shoulders and grabbed a tall walking staff constructed from a single tree branch. Short finger-like branches protruded from the top of the staff. I laughed at him because I doubted he needed the staff for support. I tied my bandana around my forehead and we started our hike.

We took a trail leading out of the meadow on the opposite side from the parking lot and headed into the deepest part of the old-growth forest. It was a challenging hike. In several places Evan offered to help me climb rocks which jutted out into the path because they were slippery with loose shale. I didn’t really need his help, but I let him pull me up anyway.

We stopped once an hour to drink water and look at the natural beauty of the forest. As we climbed, the trees grew fewer and farther apart. The sun beat down on us harshly without the shade, and I was glad I’d remembered my bandana. Finally, I saw our destination. We had reached the top of the mountain…Fiona’s mountain. The huge boulder forming the top was completely empty of trees, plants or even dirt. Yet its smoothness was marred by a crevice running vertically, about two feet wide at the base of the opening and at least as tall as Evan.

“Is that a cave?” I asked him.

He smiled. “Yup,” he replied, as he took off the backpack and stretched. “Hardly anyone knows it’s here. I like to come up here sometimes to be alone. Have you tried opening your aura vision?”

I opened my senses. “I see nothing!”

“That’s right. Up here, at the top of the mountain, there’s nothing but rock. It’s relaxing to lower your defenses. You’re so used to filtering out the auras you probably don’t even notice the energy you expend to block it all out.”

“You’re right. It’s like I’ve been scrunching up my face non-stop for weeks and I can finally relax those muscles and let my expression go slack.”

“Yeah, it’s a good place to sit and think. On the other side of this rock is a flat area where we can set out the picnic blanket and lie down under the sun, but it’s almost noon so we can’t do that just yet.”  He unzipped the backpack and pulled out a flashlight. Then he re-zipped it and slung it over a shoulder. “We have to go inside.”

I followed him. He had to duck a little. I didn’t. We turned sideways to get through the opening. He turned on the flashlight. Immediately, the path slanted downhill. After traversing a short, spiral path cut in the rock leading down deep into the mountain, we entered an open space as big as a normal-sized living room. A fissure in the ceiling let in a small amount of sunlight which cast a beam on the floor of the cave. A space on one of the walls looked different. A large vein of quartz created a smooth surface on the wall about four feet wide and six feet tall. It reflected the light from the flashlight and looked like a wardrobe mirror. Fascinated, I walked toward it.

“Wait,” Evan said.

I stopped in my tracks and looked at him.

He reached into the backpack again. This time he pulled out a large hunk of raw crystal. He placed it into the finger-like branches in his staff and I was overwhelmed with curiosity. Immediately, the crystal began to glow. Evan held up the staff so the rock caught the ray of sunlight pouring in from the hole above us. Light bounced around the cave and reflected off all the surfaces. It was as bright as if he’d installed halogen lamps.

The mirror made of quartz crystal began to glow.

“Now,” Evan said.

I stood in front of the mirror and looked at my own reflection. I saw myself, surrounded by a myriad of colors. I had as much gold in my aura as Evan did in his. Underneath the translucent haze of gold, I had a spectrum of greens and pinks with quite a few spikes of yellow.

“See?”  Evan asked as he stepped into view behind me. He put a hand on my shoulder and the colors in his aura swirled and interacted with my own. It was beautiful.

“Wow,” was all I could think of to say.

“Yeah.”

***

We’d only been standing there a few moments when suddenly, dark, shadowy shapes were reflected behind the magic mirror.

“Uh oh,” Evan said and he pulled me away from the crystal wall. We backed up until we were pressed against the far wall of the cave. Several Sidhe walked out of the mirror and materialized in front of us.

“I didn’t think we’d have company,” he muttered in my ear.

“It’s another portal?”

He just nodded. A couple of the Sidhe started walking around the cave. They didn’t speak or even acknowledge us. We stayed quiet and out of the way. They picked loose stones up from the floor.