"Well, why didn't the Great Spirit or whoever make him go back to where he belonged?" I said.
"Free will," Grandma said. "Kalona was free to choose his path, just as you and Aphrodite are free to choose your paths."
"Free will sometimes sucks," I said.
Grandma laughed and the familiar happy sound made my insides relax a little. "Indeed it sometimes does, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. But in this case, the free will of the Ghigua women is what saved our people."
"What did they do?" Aphrodite said.
"They used the magic of women to create a maiden so beautiful, she would be impossible for Kalona to resist."
"Created a girl? You mean they did some kind of magical makeover on someone?"
"No, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, I mean they created a maiden. The Ghigua who was the most gifted potter formed a maiden's body from clay, and painted a face for her that was beautiful beyond compare. The Ghigua known as the most gifted weaver in all the tribes wove long, dark hair for her that fell in waves around her slim waist. The Ghigua dressmaker fashioned a dress for her that was the white of the full moon, and all of the women decorated it with shells and beads and feathers. The Ghigua who was the most fleet of foot stroked her legs and gifted her with speed. And the Ghigua who was known as the most talented singer of all the tribes whispered sweet, soft words to her, giving her the most pleasing of all voices.
"Each of the Ghigua cut their palms and used their own blood as ink to draw on her body symbols of power representing the Sacred Seven: north, south, east, west, above, below, and spirit. Then they joined hands around the beautiful clay figure and, using their combined power, breathed life into her."
"You've got to be kidding, Grandma! The women made what was basically a doll come alive?" I said.
"That's how the story goes," she said. "Young lady, why is that any more difficult to believe than a girl having the ability to call forth all five of the elements?"
"Huh," I said, feeling my cheeks getting warm at her mild rebuke. "I guess you have a point."
"For sure she has a point. Now be quiet and let her tell the rest of the story," Aphrodite said.
"Sorry, Grandma," I muttered.
"You must remember that magic is real, Zoeybird," Grandma said. "It is dangerous to forget that."
"I'll remember," I assured her, thinking how ironic it was that I could doubt the power of magic.
"So, to continue," Grandma said, drawing my attention back to the story. "The Ghigua women breathed life and purpose into the woman they called A-ya."
"Hey, I know that word. It means 'me,' " I said.
"Very good, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. They named her A-ya because she had a piece of every one of them within hershe was, to each Ghigua woman, me."
"That's pretty cool, actually," Aphrodite said.
"The Ghigua told no one about A-yanot their husbands or daughters, sons, or fathers. With the next dawn, they led her out of the cave to a place near the stream where Kalona came every morning to bathe, all the while whispering to her what she must do.
"So it was there, sitting in a little patch of morning sunlight, combing her hair and singing a maiden's song, that Kalona saw her, andas the women knew he wouldhe became instantly obsessed with possessing her. A-ya did what she had been created to do. She fled from Kalona with her magical speed. Kalona followed her. In his fierce need for her, he barely hesitated at the mouth of the cave into which she disappeared, and he did not see the Ghigua women who followed behind him, nor did he hear their soft magical chanting.
"Kalona caught A-ya deep within the bowels of the earth. Instead of screaming and struggling against him, this most beautiful of maidens welcomed him with smooth arms and inviting body. But the instant he penetrated her, that soft, inviting body changed back into what it had once beenearth and the spirit of woman. Her arms and legs became the clay that held him, her spirit the quicksand that trapped him, as the Ghigua Women's chanting called on the Earth Mother to seal the cave, trapping Kalona in A-ya's eternal embrace. And there he still is today, firmly held to the bosom of Earth."
I blinked, like I was surfacing after a long underwater dive, and my eyes found the poem lying on the bed beside the lavender pot. "But what about the poem?"
"Well, Kalona's entombment wasn't the end of the story. At the moment his tomb was sealed, each of his children, the terrible Raven Mockers, began to sing a song in a human's voice that promised Kalona would one day return, and described the horrible vengeance he would take against human beings, especially women. Today the details of the Raven Mockers' song are pretty much lost. Even my grandmother knew only snippets of what it said, and only that from words whispered by her grandmother. Few people wanted to remember the song. They thought it bad luck to dwell on such horrors, though enough of it has survived by being passed from mother to daughter that I can tell you it spoke of the Tsi Sgili and the bleeding earth, and how their father's terrible beauty would rise again." Grandma hesitated as Aphrodite and I stared in horror at the poem. Finally she said, "I'm afraid the poem from your vision is the song the ravens sang. And I think it's a warning that Kalona is about to return."
CHAPTER 23
"It is a warning," Aphrodite said solemnly. "All of my visions are warnings of a tragedy that could happen. This one really wasn't any different."
"I think you're right," I said to Aphrodite and Grandma.
"And aren't Aphrodite's visions warnings that, if heeded, prevent the terrible outcomes from occurring?" Grandma said.
Aphrodite looked doubtful, so I answered for her, making my voice sound much surer than I felt. "Yes, they are. Her vision saved you, Grandma."
"And several other people who would have died on the bridge that day, too," Grandma said.
"All we had to do then was figure out how to prevent the accident from happening the way she saw it, so that's all we have to do with this warning, too," I said.
"I agree, Zoey. Aphrodite is a vessel of Nyx, and the Goddess is clearly warning you."
"She also clearly wants you to help us," Aphrodite said. "It was you who I saw reading the poem." She hesitated, looked at me, and I nodded, understanding what else she wanted to say to Grandma. "When I copied the poem, it came out in your handwriting."
I heard Grandma's small gasp of surprise. "You're quite sure of that?"
"Yeah," I said. "I even got one of your letters and double-checked. It's definitely your handwriting."
"Then I must agree that Nyx wants me to play a part in this," Grandma said.
"That's not surprising," I said. "You're the only Ghigua Woman we know."
"Oh, sweetheart! I'm not a Ghigua Woman. That's something an entire tribe votes on, and besides, there hasn't been an official Ghigua Woman for generations."
"Well, you've got my vote," Aphrodite said.
"And mine," I said. "And I'll bet Damien's and the Twins', too. Plus, we're kinda a tribe all our own."
Grandma laughed. "Well, I wouldn't think of arguing with the will of the tribe."
"You should come here," Aphrodite said suddenly.
I looked at her in surprise, and she nodded her head slowly, deadly serious. I listened to my gut instinct and knew with a sickening thud of my heart that Aphrodite was right.
"Oh, Aphrodite, thank you, but no. I really don't like to leave my lavender farm. We'll just talk on the phone or instant-message each other and figure this out."
"Grandma, do you trust me?" I said.
"Of course I trust you, daughter," came her unhesitating reply.
"You need to come here," I said simply.
The phone was silent, and I could almost see Grandma thinking. "I'll pack just a few things," she finally said.
"Bring some of those feathers," Aphrodite said. "I'm betting we're going to have to do more smudging."
"I will, child," Grandma said.
"Come now, Grandma." I hated the sense of urgency I was feeling.
"Tonight, Zoeybird? I can't wait a few hours until morning?"
"Tonight." As if to punctuate my request through the phone, Aphrodite and I heard the chilling sound of a raven's deep, creepy, croaking cry. It was so loud, it could have been in her warm, tidy living room with her. "Grandma! Are you okay?"
"They're spirit creatures, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. They can cause me real harm only if I am near death, and I can assure youI am nowhere near death," she said firmly.
I remembered the freezing fear they'd brought with them and the stinging welt that had risen on my hand, and wasn't convinced she was one hundred percent right about that. "Just hurry, Grandma. I'll feel a lot better when you're here," I said.
"Me, too," Aphrodite said.
"I'll be there within two hours. I love you, Zoeybird."
"I love you, too," Grandma.
I was just getting ready to click the phone closed when Grandma added, "And I love you, too, Aphrodite. This might very well be twice that you are responsible for saving my life."
"Bye. See you soon," Aphrodite said.
I did click the phone closed then and was surprised to see that Aphrodite's eyes, which were now almost entirely clear blue again, had filled with tears and she was pink-cheeked. She felt me watching her and shrugged one shoulder and wiped at her eyes, looking totally uncomfortable. "What? So I kinda like your Grandma. Is that a crime?"
"You know, I'm beginning to think that somewhere inside you there's a nice Aphrodite hiding."
"Well, don't get all warm and tingly. As soon as I find her, I'm going to drown her in the bathtub."
I just laughed at her.
"Don't you think you should get going? You have a lot to do."
"Huh?" I said.
She sighed. "You have to round up the nerd herd, brief them on the poem and whatnot, and figure out where your grandma's staying, which means you'll probably have to okay something with Shekinah, since I'll bet you don't want to have a cozy one-on-one with Neferet, and there's still the nanny cam you have to have Jack set up in the morgue. Good luck with all of that."
"Crap, you're right. While I'm doing all of that, what are you gonna be doing?"
"I am going to be resting so I can be refreshed and ready to put the scarily awesome powers of my brain to work on the poem puzzle."
"So you're gonna take a nap?"
"Basically. Hey, cheer up. We managed to skip out on a whole day of school," she said.
"You managed to skip out on a whole day of school. I managed to make the one class my ex-boyfriend is teaching just in time to do a really uncomfortable and more than slightly embarrassing improvisation scene with him in front of the entire class."
"Ooooh! I want to hear all about that!"
"Don't hold your breath," I said over my shoulder as I went out the door.
Damien and the Twins weren't hard to find. They were downstairs in the main room of the dorm, snarfing down bags of pretzels and baked chips. (Ugh! It was such a pain in the butt that the vamps made us eat healthy stuff.) It was obvious when everyone shut up at first sight of me and then all began to babble at once that they were also gossiping about me.
"Oh, honey. We just heard about Erik and Drama class," Damien said, giving me a little sympathetic pat on my arm.
"Yeah, but we haven't heard enough about it," Shaunee said.
"We definitely need details from the horse's mouth," Erin said.
"And you're the horse," Shaunee finished.
I sighed. "We did an improv scene. He kissed me. The class went nuts. Everyone left when the bell rang. I stayed. He ignored me. The end."
"Oh, nuh-uh. You're not getting away with just those little details," Erin said.
"Yeah, we got better dirt from Becca. You know, Twin, I do believe that girl has a crush on our Erik," Shaunee said.
"Do tell, Twin? Should we claw her eyes out for Z?" Erin said. "I haven't done a nice eye-clawing in ages."
"You two are so banal," Damien said. "Erik and Zoey are broken up, remember?"
"Yeah, well, your vocab is a ba-pain in our ba-asses," Erin said.
"Ba-exactly," Shaunee said.
"Holy crap! Would you guys stop bickering? We've got some major life stuff going on that makes my pathetic love life stuff seem even more ridiculous than it already is. Now I'm gonna get myself a brown pop and try like hell to find some real chips in the kitchen. While I do that, get your butts upstairs and meet me in Aphrodite's room. We have stuff we have to figure out."
"Stuff?" Damien said. "What kind of stuff?"
"The same old stuff of the scary, life-shattering, world-ending variety we're so familiar with," I said.
Damien and the Twins blinked at me for a couple of seconds; then all three muttered, "Okay, cool. We're in."
"Oh, and Damien," I said. "Get Jack. He's part of this, too."
Damien looked surprised and then happy, and then a little sad. "Z, is it okay if he brings Duchess? The dog won't let him out of her sight."
"Yeah, she can come. But warn him that Aphrodite has a new cat, and the cat is a weird furry clone of Aphrodite."
"Oh, ewww," the Twins said.
Shaking my head, I disappeared into the kitchen, determined not to let any of them give me another headache.
"Ohmigod, I feel faint!" Jack fanned himself while he looked really, really pale and kept shooting glances at the heavily draped window. Duchess, who was crammed into Aphrodite's room in the midst of all of us and her snarling cat, leaned against him and whined. Jack had been the first to speak after the long silence that followed Aphrodite and me clueing them in on her vision, the poem, and Grandma's story about the Tsi Sgili, Raven Mockers, and Kalona.
"Okay, that's the creepiest story I've heard in ages." Shaunee sounded practically breathless. "I swear it's even scarier than all of the Saw movies put together."
"Ohmygod, Twin. Saw Four scared the bejezzus right outta me," Erin said. "But you're right. This Kalona stuff is even freakier. And I think it was a good idea to get your grandma here, Z."
"Ditto, Twin," Shaunee chimed in.
"Oh, Z!" Jack cried, petting Duchess's ears frantically. "Just thinking about those disgusting raven things croaking at your sweet grandma sitting there in her little house on that lavender farm way out in the boondocks gives me the heebie-jeebies."
"Nice," Aphrodite said. "As if Zoey isn't freaked out enough without you three feeling the need to twist the knife in her gut."
"Oh, jeesh! I'm so sorry, Zoey!" Jack was instantly contrite, clutching Damien with one hand and petting Duchess with the other. He looked like he was going to cry.
I expected the Twins to puff up and hiss at Aphrodite as per usual, but instead they shared a look and then turned to me.
"Sorry, Z," Erin said.
"Yeah, the hagI mean Aphroditeis right. We shouldn't have freaked you out about your grandma," Shaunee said.
"Damn. Did the Dorkamese Twins just say I was right about something?" Aphrodite pressed the back of her hand against her forehead and pretended to be about to faint.
"If it makes you feel any better," Shaunee said.
"We still hate you," Erin finished.
"Uh, can we please remember that Duchess has been through a bunch of bullpoop in the past day?" Crouching in front of the big blond Lab, I took her face between my hands. Her eyes were calm and knowing, like she already understood way more than we ever would. "You're a better girl than all of us, aren't you?"
Duchess licked my face, and I smiled. She reminded me of Starkthe living, breathing, confident Starkand I felt a rush of hope that maybe he would come back for his dog (and for me). Even though that would only add to the complexity of my life, it also somehow made me feel like maybe things weren't so scary as I'd thought they were. Then Damien shattered my illusion.
"Let me see the poem." Typical for Mr. Studious, he went right to the point, bypassing a good portion of the drama.
Feeling utterly relieved to have another brain trying to figure it out, I stood up and handed him the poem.
"First, you know calling it a poem is really a misnomer," Damien said.
"Grandma called it a song," I said.
"It's not actually that, either. Or at least in my opinion it's not."
I had some major respect for Damien's opinion, especially on anything vaguely academic, so I said, "If it's not a poem or a song, what is it, then?"
"It's a prophecy," he said.
"Well, shit! He's right," Aphrodite said.
"Sadly, I have to agree," Shaunee said.
"Gloom and doom to come put in confusing what-the-fuck language. Yep, definitely a prophecy," Erin said.
"Prophecy, like in Lord of the Rings about the return of the king?" Jack said.
Damien smiled at him. "Yes, just like that."
Then they all looked my way. "Feels right to me," I said lamely.
"All right. Let's get to work deciphering it." Damien studied the prophecy. "Okay, so, it's written in an abab cdcd ee rhyme scheme, breaking it into three stanzas."
"Is that important?" I asked. "I mean, we're calling it a prophecy now instead of a poem, so do we care about that abab stuff?"
"Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure, but it is written in poetic form, so my best guess is that we should use poetic rules to decipher it."
"Okay, sounds logical," I said.
"Poetic stanzas are roughly synonymous to paragraphs in proseeach one being self-contained with its own subject, even though it has to fit together as a whole."
"That's my boy!" Jack said, grinning and hugging Duchess.
"Damn, the kid is smart," Shaunee said.
"Seriously a brainyack," Erin said.
"Just watching him gives me a headache," Aphrodite said.
"And it means we need to look at the stanzas separately at first," I said. "Right?"
"It can't hurt," Damien said.
"Read it out loud," Aphrodite said. "It was easier to understand when Zoey read it out loud."
He cleared his throat and read the first stanza in his excellent reading voice.
Ancient one sleeping, waiting to arise
When earth's power bleeds sacred red
The mark strikes true; Queen Tsi Sgili will devise
He shall be washed from his entombing bed
"Well, it's obvious that the ancient one it's referring to is Kalona," Damien said.
"And Aphrodite and I already decided that the earth bleeding could come from someone being killed, like Professor Nolan." I paused and swallowed. I should have added Loren, but I couldn't make myself say his name.
"When I found her, there wasthere was so much blood all over the grass that itit hadn't soaked in, so it really did look like the earth had been bleeding." Aphrodite's voice was shaky with the memory.
"Yeah, it definitely could have been described as the earth bleeding," I agreed. "And if the person or vamp who had been killed was powerful, that would fit with the reference to power."
"Okay, that works, especially when you add the next two lines. Obviously this Queen Tsi Sgili devises the whole thing." Damien stopped and squidged his forehead, then added, "You know, it could be a trick reference. Tsi Sgili devises, or brings about what happens, but it's her powerful blood that makes the earth bleed and washes him from his bed."
"Ugh, nasty," Shaunee said.
"So who's the Queen of the Tsi Sgili?" Erin asked.
"We don't know for sure. Grandma had no idea. Actually, she doesn't know much about the Tsi Sgili, except that they are dangerous and feed off death," I said.
"All right, then we need to keep our eyes open for a potential queen," Damien said.
"Even though we don't have a clue who she or he could be?" Shaunee said.
"We do have a clue," Erin said. "Zoey's grandma said the Tsi Sgili feed off death, so it has to be someone who gets stronger after someone dies."
"Also Zoey's grandma said that often the Tsi Sgili have something called . . . uh . . . ane liwhat was it, Zoey?" Aphrodite said.
"Ane li sgi," I said. "It means they're majorly psychic." I took a deep breath and barreled on. "I think we all know one particular vamp who might fit into this description."
"Neferet," Damien whispered.
"Okay, we know that she's not what she appears to be," Erin said.
"But does that mean that she's as evil as it sounds like a Tsi Sgili has to be?" Shaunee said.
Aphrodite and I exchanged a look. I made the decision and nodded.
"She's chosen a different path from Nyx," Aphrodite said.
The Twins gasped. Jack hugged Duchess, and I swear he made a little doggy whining sound.
"You know that for sure?" Damien said, his voice sounding shaky.
"Yes. We know it for sure," I said.
"Then chances are Neferet is the queen the prophecy refers to."
I felt my stomach turn as more pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. "Neferet has been different ever since the deaths of Professor Nolan and Loren."
"Oh, Goddess! Are you saying she had something to do with those horrible murders?" Jack gasped.
"I don't know whether she had something to do with them, or whether she just fed off their effects," I said. And I remembered the scene I'd witnessed between Loren and Neferet shortly before he was killed. They'd been loversthat had been obvious. And he'd been in love with her, but she'd used him to get to meused her lover to seduce and then Imprint me. How could she really have loved him and sent him to do that?
What if her version of love was as twisted as she had become? Did that mean she could murder what she professed to love?
"But we all thought the People of Faith had something to do with those killings," Shaunee was saying.
"Maybe that's what the Tsi Sgili queen wanted us to think," Damien said, avoiding the use of Neferet's name, which I thought was smart.
"You're right. First those murders, then Aphrodite has a couple whammy visions one right after another about me being killedand Neferet was definitely involved in at least one of those, and then another vision and this prophecy surfaces? It's too much of a coincidence. Maybe it was supposed to look like a religious hate crime," I said, thinking about the really nice nuns I'd just met who had definitely made me think twice about believing all Christians were narrow-minded jerks out to get anyone who believed differently.
"When really it was a power crime," Aphrodite said. "Because Neferet wants Kalona to rise."
"Uh, let's just call her the queen for right now, okay?" I said quickly.
Everyone noddedAphrodite shrugged. "Okay with me."
"Wait, the prophecy could mean that the queen's death makes it possible for Kalona to rise. Let's just say we might know this queen, and if she's who we think she might be, no way do I see her sacrificing herself for someone else to come into power," Damien said.
"Maybe she knows only part of the prophecy. I mean, Grandma said that no one had written the Raven Mockers' song downthat it's remembered only in little tiny bits and pieces, so it's basically been lost for a zillion years."
"Uh-oh," Aphrodite said.
We all looked at her. "What?" I said.
"Okay, I might be wrong, but what if Kalona is somehow reaching out from his grave or whatever you want to call it? He's been there a long time. What if the earth that has been holding him is losing its grip? He's an immortal. Maybe he can reach from where he is and get inside people's brains. Nyx can do it. She can whisper things to us. What if he can, too?"
"Whisper! That's what Nyx saidthat Neferet was listening to the whispers of someone else." I shivered at the thought and at the gut feeling that told me we were on to something.
"It would be logical that the people whose minds he could reach easiest would be those who were open to death and evil," Damien said.
"Like the Tsi Sgili," Erin said.
"Especially their queen," Shaunee said.
"Ah, crap," I said.
CHAPTER 24
"Okay, let's go on to the next stanza," Damien said. Then he read:
Through the hand of the dead he is free
Terrible beauty, monstrous sight
Ruled again they shall be
Women shall kneel to his dark might
"Then, of course, the couplet at the end concludes it." Damien finished it by reading:
Kalona's song sounds sweet
As we slaughter with cold heat
"Sadly, most of the rest of it isn't too tough to figure out," Erin said. We all gawked at her. "Okay, I'll admitunder duressthat I actually learned something last semester in Poetry class. So sue me. Anyway, except for the first line, it's just saying that he's gonna start raping and pillaging women again when he's free."
"But it's how he's set free that's described in the first line," Damien said. "Through the hand of the dead, and if we're keeping the first stanza in mind, that hand is going to cause something so bloody and nasty, it'll make the ground bleed."
"Yeah, and in the first stanza it sounds like the person who's gonna cause the ground to bleed is the Queen Tsi Sgili. If she's who we think it is, that doesn't fit here. She's not dead," I said.
"Couldn't it be just symbolism? 'Cause how does something that's already dead cause anything to bleed? It just doesn't make sense, which is yet another reason why I've never liked poetry," Aphrodite said. "Plus, let's say it's all jumbled up into one person and this Tsi Sgili is dead and she bleedsdead people don't bleed. Or at least not for long after they're dead they don't."
"Oh! Oh, no!" I suddenly knew what the prophecy had to mean, and I sat down on the bed hard as my knees buckled.
"Zoey? What is it?" Damien asked, fanning me with the slip of paper.
"If you puke on my bed, I'm going to kill you," Aphrodite said.
I ignored Aphrodite and grabbed Damien's arm. "It's Stevie Raeshe was dead, and now she's undead. She bleeds. She bleeds a lot. Plus she has psychic powers, along with other major earth powers. What if she's the queen?"
"And she has a red tattoo. Just like in the story about the hot chick the Ghigua women made for Kalona," Erin said.
"That's definitely a connection," Shaunee said.
"Stevie Rae! Ohmigod! Stevie Rae!" Jack said, looking even paler than I did.
"I know, honey, I know. It's a lot to take in," Damien said.
Aphrodite met my eyes. "I gotta agree with the theory that it might be Stevie Rae."
"But no. Stevie Rae was horrid when she was losing her humanity," Damien said slowly, thinking it out. "But she Changed, and now she's back to her old self. I don't think she could be the queen Tsi Sgili, because Stevie Rae is definitely not evil."
Aphrodite gave me a hard look, then said, "Look, Stevie Rae isn't the same as she used to be."
"Which is only logical because she's been through a lot," I said quickly. No matter what, I wasn't willing to believe that Stevie Rae was bad. Different, yes. But bad, no way. Then I had another thought. "You know, it really makes more sense that one of those other gross kids could be the Tsi Sgili. I mean, you even said they were still" I stopped, finally realizing that Aphrodite was making a small Cut! gesture while Damien and the Twins stared openmouthed at me.
"Uh, yeah. Are you remembering not everyone knows about the other kids?" Aphrodite said. Then she rolled her eyes at the dumfounded looks on my friends' faces. "Well, oopsie. Hey, I'll just let Zoey handle this one. Go ahead, explain the freaks to the geeks, Z."
Ah, crap. I forgot they don't know about the red fledglings.
I decided to be firm. Just tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and get it over with. And if all else failed, I would burst into tears.
"Okay. Remember all those other dead kids?"
They nodded kinda woodenly at me.
"Nasty Elliot and Elizabeth No Last Name and, well, some other kids, too?"
They nodded again.
"They didn't die. They did what Stevie Rae didonly, well, different. It's really kinda awkward to explain." I hesitated, trying to find the right words. "But basically they're still alive, and their blue crescents have changed to red crescents and they live in the tunnels with Stevie Rae."
Weirdly enough, it was sweet Jack who saved me. "You mean this is more stuff you couldn't tell us 'cause you didn't want us accidentally thinking about it and having Neferet, who really isn't one of the good guys, listening in to our minds and finding out that you knew?"
"Jack, I could kiss you," I said.
"Oh, hee hees!" Jack giggled, ruffling Duchess's ears.