The witchery, p.44
The Witchery, page 44
…Bien, here is Grania now.
Under cover of morning’s dark—not to mention that fear of contagion that has given Miss Lucy and me peace, as I’d hoped and supposed it would—Grania has slipped into this cabin from the one adjoining to report that no other passenger has fallen to fever. This is good news: The disembarkation in Boston won’t be slowed by quarantine. Yet it is likely that the captain, upon learning (albeit belatedly) of little Lucy’s death, will persuade her mourners to confer her unto the sea, soon, today, whilst still the waters beneath us are suitably deep and distant from port. And so I must speed in speaking of our plans:
Grania is to meet the trinity some days hence—a date dependent on both the successful disposition of the Hecate and the vagaries of stage travel; whereupon, if the witches deem it wise, they all four will settle themselves in the Chariclo’s finest suites and set out seaward. Will I descend? Doubtful, as bodies are typically not let to linger aboard ships; but I will do my best to be near. And will seem as near as Léopoldine; for it’s likely she will Sight and smoke herself into a stupor, la pauvre, the better to forbear the sea crossing…. Yes, I must now surrender this child’s body to her family, and to its lot, its watery plot, and ascend; but Grania sails with all her summoning stuff, and I know I shan’t be gone for long.
Enfin, the sun rises now and this porthole burns like Brù’s athanor of old. Grania has cleared the candles by which I’ve written, ranged the room, and now she is settling the bunk upon which I must lay this body down; for my love reminds me that the surgeon is soon to come. And when he does come there can be no one present but Grania; who, days ago, offered to nurse the girl and “help her go.”
My love. My Grania…Blessed be she who loves me despite this discorporeality, who loves the ghost or godhead I’ve become. And though neither of us would choose a love of this sort, let me say that still it is far better than its opposite: loss…. And lest I doubt Grania’s abiding love, there it is, there; for she wears it.
To explain:
Naught of worth could be culled from the ruins of our warehouse—it all went up as all the colors came, as the alchemists’ cauda pavonis, or peacock’s tail, spread its colors amidst the transmogrifying fire; and there was only ash, and mud. Oh, but Calixto—loyal, loving Cal—dug in the muck in the days before my first descent, and he found it.
It: all that had become of me: an egg-size stone bright as light, perfected: the One Stone, the Philosopher’s Stone…. This Calixto presented to Grania Byrne. This she has had set in an emerald casing, its clasp gold-filigreed. And this she wears ever and always—sometimes as a brooch pinned to her omnipresent collar; sometimes pendant from a gold chain long enough to let the Stone hang over her heart.
…Commotion. I hear crying: mourners. The surgeon comes.
I must and will ascend, to Aeternitas. Oh, but first I wait for…Yes: There it is: Grania’s kiss, set upon this jaundiced and hardened hand. “Rise now, love,” says she, “and listen for me heart’s-call. It won’t be long in comin’, that ye know.”
And so I must go, and do, conferring this, my last Book of Shadows, unto Grania Byrne, asking that she sign her name beneath mine as Possessor of the Stone and keeper of all my secrets, truthfully told this sixth day of August, eighteen hundred and forty-seven.
Blessed be,
H.
And may the goddess go well,
Grania Mary Byrne
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my agent, Suzanne Gluck, and my editor, Sarah Durand, as well as their respective assistants, Erin Malone and Jeremy Cesarec. And heartfelt thanks to my family, without whom…
About the Author
James Reese has held various jobs in the nonprofit sector, working on behalf of the arts and the environment. He lives in South Florida and Paris, France.
www.jamesreesebooks.com
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ALSO BY JAMES REESE
The Book of Spirits
The Book of Shadows
Credits
Jacket design by Julie Metz
Jacket photograph by Suza Scalora/Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE WITCHERY. Copyright © 2006 by James Reese. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition September 2006 ISBN 9780061758607
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-056108-6
ISBN-10: 0-06-056108-4
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James Reese, The Witchery
