Skylar robbins, p.5
Skylar Robbins, page 5
“I feel something outside waiting for us to discover it. Let’s go see what it is.” Kat led the way down the stairs, and I looked over my shoulder to make sure Gwendolyn wasn’t following us. We ran out the back door and hurried up the path. The sweet scent of hay and a faint smell of animal poop crossed on the breeze as we hopped over the stream.
A goat bleated from the other side of the yard and Kat looked at me. “Was that a goat?”
I nodded, and watched her face go still. “My cousin’s. The little ones are cute, but they’re loud. And stinky,” I said, but Kat didn’t answer. She looked past the pines and up into the mountains. The same place where Aunt Caroline always stared at dusk, worrying her fingers. “Why do they call those Shadow Hills?” I asked. A cloud slid past the sun, dimming the yard.
Kat didn’t answer right away. She just stared mutely into the hillside, her eyes glassy. Finally, she turned to look at me. “Because there are more shadows than there should be, with the angles and the sunlight.”
“What do you mean? There’s like, extra shadows?” I asked, and Kat nodded seriously. “How can that—”
“The extra shadows were made on purpose.”
“Made—what?”
Kat glanced back into the hills with a strange glint in her eyes. Like she knew something she wouldn’t tell me. “You ever explore up there during a full moon?” She raised her eyebrows and looked at me sideways. It felt like a challenge.
“No. My aunt said I’m not allowed into the hills, especially after it gets dark.” Staring up at the mountainside, I wondered if it was the setting sun that shifted the shadows, or something more sinister. “Why? What happens up there at night?”
Kat shook her head and walked a little faster. I could tell she was debating something. Weighing whether she should tell me some secret. The foggy air felt damp, and I wrapped my arms tightly around myself, like I was keeping something in. Or trying to keep something out.
Kat stopped suddenly and turned toward me. “OK, don’t freak out.”
The way she said it gave me the chills. Spine chills, not like my skin was cold from the ocean breeze. “Why? What’s wrong?” I asked, rubbing my arms. Like that would help.
She looked at me intensely. “You can’t tell anyone.”
I held out my pinky to swear, but Kat barely looked at it before she started walking again, even faster. She pointed into Shadow Hills and looked at me over her shoulder. “There’s a coven called Demonia that practices up in the mountainside.”
“What’s a coven?” Maybe something I read about in Twilight? I grabbed her arm and made her stop walking.
She stared at me, like I really was a little dense. “Thirteen witches.”
“What do they do up there?” I had a feeling I knew the answer, but needed Kat to confirm it.
“Black magic, Sky.” She looked hard into my eyes. “My sister Diana told me all about Demonia, and they’re evil.”
“What do you mean?” My mouth went dry.
Kat’s voice got dark and husky. “Like to replace wine in their ceremonies, they use water from a well where an unbaptized child drowned.”
The breeze suddenly stopped, like it was waiting for my reply. I wondered if there were any wells nearby, and how often children fell into them. “And they—drink it?” I tried to swallow but my throat wouldn’t move.
“Yes. They drink the well water. And the goat is the symbol of their leader. So keeping goats outside around here is a little dangerous, don’t you think?” Kat started walking again and I had to hurry to keep up. It felt like she was leading me, instead of the other way around.
This was getting really creepy so I tried to make a joke. “Not unless you stand behind them after they’ve eaten dried apricots.” I waved my hand in front of my nose like I smelled goat farts, but Kat wasn’t even close to smiling.
“I mean keeping them out in the open like that, where anyone could, you know, take one.” She looked back at the goats and then at me.
“Take one? Steal a goat? Why would—”
But Kat just put one hand in the air and shook her head, like she shouldn’t have to explain.
When we passed the weeping willows, Kat stopped walking and tilted her head as if she was listening. Then she smiled, like the conversation about drowning babies and stolen goats had never happened. “The vibrations here are awesome,” she said quietly, bending down and looking at the earth. “We could find amethyst and even jade here if we’re lucky. Those stones would be perfect for our baskets.”
Kneeling down, I ran my fingers over the earth, looking through my magnifying glass for precious stones. I didn’t find any, but I wasn’t that surprised. I knew a better place for us to search.
“Follow me.” I led her through the pine trees and down the fern-lined path, looking forward to sharing my secret place with my new friend. “I have something to show you.”
“The vibrations are getting stronger,” Kat said. We walked through the rusty gate and into the forgotten garden. “Oh Sky,” she said in a hushed voice. “There is so much magic here.” She looked around slowly like she was memorizing every detail. “This garden can be our sacred place: the doorway to another dimension.”
Kat was the most exciting friend I’d ever had. Time to quit worrying about some coven practicing black magic in the hills behind Gwendolyn’s yard. I couldn’t wait to hear more about the doorway. “What do you mean?”
She stopped exploring and looked at me. “To perform spells, you need a private, sacred place where the vibrations are right. This garden is perfect. If you want to do magic—white magic,” she looked like she was waiting for me to agree so I nodded quickly, “then we need to set up an altar, right here.”
“OK,” I agreed. “How do we do that?”
“First we need to find objects representing the four elements: air, fire, water, and earth.” Kat pointed at the chipped fountain, perched unevenly on its cement base. “The chalice, or Spirit Bowl, represents water. In ancient times they just used a big seashell. This old fountain will make the perfect chalice. Does it work?”
I shook my head. “I doubt it.”
“Doesn’t matter. Then we need two candles, a wand for air, an athame—or sword—for fire, and a pentacle for earth.”
I whipped open my notepad and started scribbling a list.
“An incense burner would be good too, but it’s not mandatory,” she added.
“Wait—what’s a pentacle?”
Kat looked like she was surprised I didn’t know. “It used to be a smooth, oval rock, marked with a five-pointed star. Now it can be anything that shows a star inside a circle.”
Wondering where we could possibly find a sword, or if maybe we could make one, I felt really happy for the first time since my parents left. Even more excited than when I’d found the forgotten garden. I sketched a star inside a circle and wrote, “pentacle” underneath it.
“Why does a sword represent fire?” I asked. “Can’t we just use a candle?”
“No. And it’s athame, not sword.”
“Spell it.”
Kat quickly spelled athame while she walked farther into the garden. She pointed at some sweet-smelling green shrubs with little white flowers growing along the stems. “Look.”
“What’s that?”
“Jasmine. It gives psychic protection. If you wrap some around your amulet it will make it even stronger. Pick a little bit of it,” she said. “We’ll turn your oval stone into an amulet later. And here,” she bent down by the pond and pointed to some silver-green leaves. “This is sage. It cleanses evil. Break off a sprig. If you burn some and wave it around it gives great protection.”
“How do you know all this Harry Potter stuff?”
“Harry Potter? Puh-lease.” She gave me a dirty look.
“Sorry.” I knelt down and tore three sage leaves off their stems. “But how do you know all these spells and things?”
“From my sister Diana.” Kat looked at me seriously. Like she was wondering if she could trust me with an important secret. “She’s a witch.” Kat stared into my eyes, waiting for my reaction.
I felt like I had to pass some test, and stayed quiet so I wouldn’t fail.
“And so am I,” Kat said.
Wait a minute. What? I couldn’t decide if this was the coolest thing I’d ever heard, or if it was kind of scary/creepy. “How can you be—I mean aren’t you like thirteen years old?”
Kat laughed. “There’s no age limit. Witchcraft isn’t like driving. You don’t like, ‘take a test and get a license,’” she said, curling her fingers and making quotation marks in the air. Kat looked at me like I was a child who didn’t make it to the bathroom on time. Then her whole face changed and she smiled nicely. “My sister’s training me. She’s been practicing for years. Diana’s named after the Wiccan moon goddess.”
“Goddess?” I repeated dumbly.
Kat spoke slowly in case I had trouble understanding new things. “The Goddess Diana was the queen of all witches, who she calls her Hidden Children. Diana ruled the night and gave light to the darkness. The moon is her sacred symbol.”
“Oh.” I had no idea what she was talking about and really felt like that slow child. “So your sister is a good witch?”
Kat laughed. “Yes. She’s part of a coven called Wister. They practice white magic. I’m going to join too, as soon as I turn eighteen.”
“But wait—I thought you said there’s no age limit.”
“To be a witch,” Kat explained. “You have to be eighteen to join a coven. Usually covens are twelve women and one man, but Diana’s coven is all females. They meet to pool their energy. It makes their spells more powerful.”
I put the sage leaves in my pocket with the jasmine. “Are you serious?” Looking at Kat’s green eyes and black hair that swirled like storm clouds, I thought that just maybe she was telling the truth.
“Of course. Diana has a magic herb garden. Next time I come over I can bring some cuttings, and we can plant what we need.”
“OK,” I agreed quickly, before she could change her mind. “What we need for what?”
“For our sachets. And for other things,” she hinted, picking up a foot-long twig. “We can use this for the wand. Now let’s try to find some good stones.” We hunted for them on our hands and knees. Crawling through the garden slowly, we picked up trailing vines and piles of dead leaves and peeked underneath them. I aimed my flashlight through a leafless bush and into a corner. Behind the brittle branches, a shiny object glistened. I looked at it through my magnifying glass. A cool breeze lifted the hair off my neck as I turned to smile at Kat. “I found one.” The stone was similar to my amulet, but this rock was round and larger with more purple veins.
“Excellent,” she said, then went back to looking at the ground around the edge of the old fishpond. It wasn’t long before Kat was grunting and pulling at something. “Amethyst,” she said, holding up a dirty purple rock. “I knew it.”
“How did you know?” Was she psychic? Maybe she was really a seven. I wondered if she would be if she factored in her last name.
“Shadow Hills are full of amethyst,” she said, turning around to look up at them. Her forehead wrinkled before she looked back at me. “Keep digging. You’ll find some. Then we have to do a ritual to cleanse the stones to make them powerful.”
I could smell the moist earth as I dug into it. A minute later my fingers hit a hard object. I wiggled it back and forth and pulled out a sparkling stone. “Is this anything?” I showed it to her.
“That’s quartz. Awesome. I knew we’d find great stones here.” We scouted around until we each had three. Then we passed between the pines and carried them to the stream for the cleansing ritual.
“You have to either wash magic stones in salt water, or hold them under natural running water to remove any negative vibrations,” she explained. We let the stream wash the dust and dirt off our rocks. When we picked them back up the amethyst and quartz sparkled like crazy. Even my little speckled rock looked happy. Before we went inside my aunt’s house we took a last look inside the forgotten garden. “Whoever planted this garden really knew what she was doing,” Kat said.
“What do you mean?” I asked, thinking of my great-aunt who had passed two years ago. Her almost-dead garden made me kind of sad. No one had sat on that moldy pink cushion in a long time.
“There are way too many magical elements to be here by chance. If we practice, I think we’ll really be able to perform strong spells here,” Kat said.
We walked across the steppingstones, and I looked up at the attic window above my bedroom. I touched Kat’s shoulder and pointed. She stared up at the window and drew a large star in the air with her ring finger.
There was a shadow moving around behind the glass.
10
Oval Stone Amulet
During dinner Gwendolyn didn’t say one word to Kat. It was like she was pretending I didn’t have a friend over. Gwendolyn just chewed—occasionally with her mouth open—belched once or twice, and slurped her milk. Kat nudged me when Gwendolyn wasn’t looking and rolled her eyes.
When the meal finally ended, Kat and I excused ourselves and went up to my bedroom. “This is the coolest room. That window’s sick.” As the last of the daylight disappeared and the shadows darkened, the trees outside my window started to look threatening. The oak’s twisted branches stretched down into the dark backyard like arms with grasping hands. Fog filled the valley between the hills. It looked like something you could drown in.
We sat down on the cushioned bench and emptied our pockets. “We’ll make a basket another time to hold the magic stones,” Kat said. “Tonight we have to make your amulet. You need protection right away.”
I fingered the rocks I’d rinsed in the stream. “From what?” The look on Kat’s face made me nervous. Whatever was roaming around the attic? Or whatever was happening up in Shadow Hills?
“There are evil forces at work in this house.” She pushed masses of black curls over her shoulders and stared at me with her piercing emerald eyes.
I looked up at the ceiling, wondering if she meant my dead great-aunt. “What do you mean?”
“Your cousin Gwendolyn. No offense, but she may be an evil spirit.”
So it wasn’t just me. “I think you’re right.”
“We’ll take care of her later,” Kat promised. “Don’t worry, we won’t do anything to her personally. We’ll just weaken her powers. But first, your amulet. Can you go get some salt and a bowl of water? We’ll also need a candle. You don’t have a purple one, do you?”
“I don’t think so. I know where there are red and green ones though, in the Christmas stuff.”
“Get a red one, and we’ll need to anoint it with oil.”
“What’s anoint?” I felt my forehead scrunched up.
Kat looked at me like, Duh. “Rub.”
“OK. What kind?”
“Olive oil’s fine and your aunt probably has some in the kitchen. Do you have any clear plastic and liquid lead left from making the stained-glass windows?” I pulled them out from the drawer where I kept my art supplies and held them up. “Good. Go get the candle and the olive oil, a bowl of water and some salt, and I’ll make an altar.”
Jogging down the stairs with my heart racing, I ran into the kitchen and stopped suddenly. My aunt was washing dishes and Gwendolyn was drying them. The saltshaker sat innocently on the kitchen table. When no one was looking, I shook some salt into my pocket and kept on walking. I knew the Christmas decorations were in the den closet, reached in and grabbed a red candle. Then I walked casually back into the kitchen. “Do you need any help?” I asked politely.
“Sure do.” Gwendolyn tossed the towel at me and ran out of the room.
This was fine with me. They had almost finished the dishes, and now I had one less pair of eyes to worry about.
“Is it OK if we light a candle in my room?” I asked.
“Sure. Just be careful with the wax.” Aunt Caroline kept looking at me while we dried the last things, like there was something she didn’t know quite how to say. Or something she guessed I wouldn’t want to hear. Finally she shook her head the slightest bit and said goodnight. My aunt started to walk away and a minute later I wished she’d just kept going. I could tell by the slow way she turned back to look at me that I wasn’t going to like what she was about to ask me.
“My trainer will be here Saturday afternoon. How would you like to take a horseback riding lesson?” she asked, and my stomach plunged. “I can arrange it.” Aunt Caroline smiled nicely at me, then cocked her head to one side when she saw the look on my face. “Is everything all right?”
I nodded. “Uh—it’s very nice of you, but I’d rather not.” I stared at my aunt’s feet, embarrassed.
“Skylar?” She put her hands on my shoulders and I stiffened, forced to look up at her. To my horror, my eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.” It came out in a whisper.
“Honey, do horses scare you?”
Oh God, she knows.
I shook my head. “Not really,” I lied. “Well maybe a little.” My aunt stared at me until I had to look away. “Please don’t tell Gwendolyn,” I mumbled.
“Your secret is safe with me,” she said. “But a lesson with a professional might help you conquer your fear. You don’t have to decide now. Just think about it.” The soft voice she was using made me realize that she’d known I was afraid of horses all along.
“I will,” I promised. But I knew that what I’d be thinking about was ways to get out of it.
“OK,” Aunt Caroline finally agreed. “Have fun with your friend, Sweetheart,” my aunt said, planting a firm kiss on my cheek. This made me remember how much I missed my mom, and my throat started to ache. I had to open my eyes really wide to keep the tears back.
