I looked for more information on the Sidhe, but didn’t like what I found. Fairies weren’t cute glittery girls with wings. They were terrifying monsters who lurked in the shadows searching for mortals to torment. The more I read about the Sidhe the more I didn’t ever want to cross paths with one. I’d rather take my chances with the spirits of the dead.
I read tale after tale of the bloody history of the Sidhe. My hope was that I would learn how they managed to control the spirits of the dead on Samhain. Was it an innate power combined with their own immortality, or was there an item or ritual that they used?
The legend that I came back to over and over again was the Echtra Nerai, The Adventure of Nera, from the Ulster Cycle. The story was a fascinating one. During a feast on Samhain, king Ailill proposed a test of bravery. He offered up his golden sword as reward to any man with courage enough to go out into the demon and spirit plagued Samhain night and tie a circle of twigs around the ankle of one of the men hanged the day before. To win the sword the man must do this and return to the king’s feast hall. Though many men tried they all were attacked by demons and spirits and came fleeing back to the feast hall unsuccessful, all except for one man, Nera from Connacht. Nera braved the spirit filled night and tied the circle of twigs to the ankle of the hanging dead man.
At this point the story got weird or, well, weirder. The corpse became animated and Nera, for some reason I hadn’t quite worked out yet, ended up carrying the dead man around on his back. I so hoped that wasn’t the magical way to survive the spirits of the dead. I did not want to carry around a smelly corpse all night.
No. Way.
Anyway, while he was giving the animated corpse a piggyback ride around town, it asked for water so Nera carried it to a house, but the house burst into flames. The next house they tried was surrounded by a moat of water that they couldn’t cross. When they approached the third house they were finally able to enter and the corpse drank three cups of water, but then spit the last few sips of water on the people living there which killed them. Again, not real clear on the water spitting of death, but that’s what the stories all said.
This was where the different versions and translations of the story diverged. Some claimed that Nera went willingly to the underground kingdom of the Sidhe, while other accounts say that he was taken prisoner, and other stories said that he was either aided on that night by a Sidhe woman, or that he stole something from her. Whether he was said to stay with the Sidhe for a year, willingly or not, or if he only had the one interaction, the story always ends with Nera surviving the spirits of the dead and successfully returning to the feast hall of the king. More than one account bragged that Nera stole, or was given, a treasured item of the Sidhe. What if this item was what helped him survive the spirits of the dead?
So much for sleep tonight.
I crept down to the kitchen and turned the coffee maker on. The smell of freshly brewed coffee flooded the room, blending with the ever present odor of burning brownies. I grabbed my mug and stuck it under the stream of coffee.
Don’t try this at home kids.
As soon as I had a full mug I carried it back upstairs and turned on my computer.
I now could narrow my focus to items the hero Nera may have taken from the Sidhe. I grabbed my notebook and pen and settled in for a long night of searching. The probability of figuring out what the item was, if it even existed, was not good and the odds of being able to locate it were even worse, but I tried to remain hopeful. The power of positive thinking and all that, right? But even I wasn’t prepared for what I found.
Chapter 11
October 24
th
I just may survive Samhain after all. The idea was intoxicating. I was also a bit giddy from lack of sleep, so I began my day laughing maniacally. I would have made a good stand-in for any mad scientist.
Dr. Frankenstein eat your heart out.
Today wasn’t a school day which meant I could have slept in if I had fallen asleep at all, but Emma had sent me a text asking to come over early and I eagerly accepted. I couldn’t wait to tell her about what my research had uncovered. I pulled on a clean black cami top, black paratrooper pants, and my 14-eye doc martens. I layered a black mesh top over the cami and grabbed a hoodie for later. I wanted to be prepared in case we joined the search teams this afternoon. My hair was a nightmare, I really should have combed it last night before it dried, so I split it down the middle and tied it into braids. Looking in the mirror I was pleased at my reflection. The magic marker crosses on my arms were a nice touch. Laura Croft meets Wednesday Addams.
I was just finishing attaching a row of safety pins to my arm warmers when there was a knock on my bedroom door. Emma came in two seconds later looking like she hadn’t had much more sleep than I did. She shuffled over to the bed where she dropped into a slouch. Was she sick? Emma always had perfect posture.
Always.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I think I have a problem,” she answered.
“The snake thing?” I asked. “We can work on that together and I’m sure we can get Simon to include you in our lessons. You’d be surprised at how much he knows about working with spirit. Once you learn to control it better, the headaches shouldn’t be as bad.”
“That’s…good, but talking snakes actually isn’t the problem I meant,” she said. “I have boy problems.”
Son of a dung beetle.
“Did Gordy do something?” I asked. “If so, Cal will totally talk to him.”
He’s so dead.
“No, he hasn’t done anything,” Emma answered, quickly. “In a way, that’s part of the problem. He never does anything. It’s always the same thing with Gordy. Watch anime in the media room after school or go to the movies on the weekend. I feel bad, but I’m just so bored.”
“Well, I was kind of surprised when you two hooked up,” I said. “Gordy’s a great guy, as a friend, but he’s not all that exciting. He’s not on the same level as you Emma. You’re all about being proactive and he’s just not. You two did seem to have some chemistry though.”
“I know,” she said. “It was fun at first. I tried giving us some space this week to see if I missed him, but I think getting space just made me want more space.”
“I noticed you two weren’t spending a lot of time together this week,” I said. “I just thought it was due to the werewolf killer, talking snake, spirit ward search stuff. It’s not like you can invite Gordy to come with. He doesn’t even know these things exist outside of anime.”
“Yeah, that’s part of the problem too,” she said. “All of my concerns these days are about if my friend will go crazy from a spirit attack, or if my other friend will get jumped by some psycho werewolf killer, meanwhile I’m obsessing over snakes talking directly into my brain and I can’t share
any
of it with Gordy. When I’m with him I just sit there counting the seconds until I can leave. That’s just not fair to him…or to me.”
“If you aren’t happy, then make a quick, clean break,” I said. “Gordy’s too good of a friend to string along.”
“You won’t be mad if I break up with him?” she asked. “You were friends first.”
“No way,” I said. “I’d be mad if you stayed with someone who didn’t make you happy. You’ve only been dating for a few weeks and you’re already feeling bored and guilty. Just think of how unhappy you’d be a year from now.”
Emma jumped up and gave me a quick hug. “You’re the best!” she said. “I feel better already.”
“You do?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” she answered.
“Good, because we have work to do,” I said, grinning.
*****
When I told Emma about discovering Nera’s amulet as a potential ward against the spirits coming on Samhain, she couldn’t wait to visit the library for more research. She drove us there like it was a matter of life and death.
Perhaps it was.
The library’s stone and brick edifice had never been such a welcome sight. I took the steps two at a time and nearly leapt through the front door. My enthusiasm was contagious and Emma was grinning from ear to ear as she caught the door behind me.
“Ready to find your amulet?” she asked.
“Oh yeah,” I answered. “I was born ready.”
I was still in my tough girl outfit and feeling the warm glimmer of hope building inside my chest. I could feel a wild smile spread across my face to match Emma’s frenzied grin.
Maybe that’s why everyone is inching away.
Stifling the hysterical laugh rising in my throat, I slipped into the stacks. I felt as though the answer to my salvation was just on the periphery. If I were fast enough and smart enough, I could catch it and survive Samhain. It was an empowering feeling and I wondered idly if this was how Cal felt when he was following a scent trail. I was on the hunt for Nera’s amulet and the trail of clues was leading me to unexpected places.
Very unexpected.
During my initial search for information on Nera’s amulet I was surprised to see old sketches and ancient carvings that looked vaguely familiar. The more I stared at images of the amulet the stronger the nagging sensation that I had seen it before. After my tenth cup of coffee, I finally remembered where.
Could it really be that close?
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, only to have them dashed on the rocks of reality, so I enlisted the help of Emma, researcher extraordinaire. If we could find more evidence to link the amulet I had seen with Nera’s legendary amulet, then I would begin to breathe easy and bust out my happy dance. Well, not a happy
dance
. No way was I risking accidentally calling out Cal’s wolf spirit. If there was reason for celebration, my happy feet would just have to settle for jumping for joy.
With arms heavily laden with books, Emma and I clomped up to the third floor study area. Our usual cubical was available, not many people were in the library first thing Saturday morning, and began sorting through the books we had found. Whoever had the unlucky task of shelving these was going to have their hands full. We had books from numerous sections including archaeology and ancient artifacts, Celtic and Gaedhilic mythology, history of the Salem Witch Trials, and goldsmithing and the art of jewelry making. Emma even had an auction catalog.
Why gather information on the Salem Witch Trials? The connection was tenuous at best, but the place I was sure I had seen the amulet, like the one used by Nera, was in an occult shop in Salem Massachusetts. If I remembered correctly, the amulet was in a glass case, on display as a historical piece. Now I just had to find out if they really were one and the same.
“Why the books on jewelry making?” Emma asked, raising one eyebrow.
Was I the only person incapable of doing that?
Whenever I attempted to raise one eyebrow I looked like I was trying to join both brows to my hairline.
So not fair.
“If the amulet in Salem really is Nera’s, then it won’t be for sale,” I answered. “The shop owners had it on display to attract visitors, like a museum piece, so I may have to…borrow it.” This was the part that made my stomach churn and palms sweat.
“Wait a minute, didn’t you say the shop was owned by witches?” Emma asked.
“Yeah,” I said, shakily.
“So if this is the right amulet, you’re going to go steal it from a bunch of witches?” she asked.
“That’s the plan so far,” I said, nodding slowly. “But if I do have to take it, I’m going to leave a replica in its place. Maybe they won’t even notice.”
Okay, I knew this was wishful thinking, but it was the best I could come up with. We were growing short on time and the spirit storm front was moving closer. I was diametrically opposed to stealing in principal, but I was even more against the idea of death and insanity.
Blame it on the rain.
“Right,” she said, pushing the goldsmithing books to the side and rolling her eyes. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I’ve seen your art projects and, girl, you are no Michelangelo.”
“Great,” I said. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Like I needed another reason to freak out.
I really didn’t want to be turned into a toad. They eat flies.
Gag me.
“Just keepin’ it real,” she said, nose already in a text.
*****
After three hours and eleven minutes of research, not that I was counting, we dragged ourselves to the photocopier. I fed the machine money while Emma made copies of any pictures we had found of Nera’s magic amulet. When we finished I lugged the books to the returns cart and we walked to the media lab.
Finding an available computer we searched for the shop in Salem where I had last seen the amulet. Unfortunately I could picture the exact layout of the store, but couldn’t remember the shop name. Unless it was called Dark and Spooky, we were in for a long search. Emma called up a map of downtown Salem and I tried to visualize walking the brick and cobbled pedestrian streets with Calvin last year.
Cal had always been into all things mystical which was what initially drew us to Salem years ago. We would visit the New Age shops, bookstores, and palm readers for Cal and then go shopping in the Goth clothing and accessory stores for me. Heck, I had found some of my favorite outfits in the year-round Halloween costume outlets.
I suddenly remembered going into a witches’ apothecary shop that had these cool dark fairy prints in the window. Cal had gone to the back wall which was covered in small bags of dried herbs and other witchy ingredients. The reason the shop stuck in my mind was that we had nearly been kicked out. When I clomped up beside Cal and saw the price tag on a tiny bag of oak tree bark, I nearly had an apoplectic fit. Living in Maine meant there was no shortage of tree bark. Was my backyard a goldmine? According to Cal, I had made my exclamation a bit too loudly, and it didn’t help that the salesperson was standing right behind me. Before we could be scolded by the staff, Cal turned and led me out the door onto Wharf Street. I scrutinized the map and found Wharf Street down by the waterfront. I then followed the roads in the direction we walked until I came to a recognizable landmark. I recalled facing the Hawthorne Hotel, named after the Salem born author, and turning left. According to the map this was Essex Street.