Veiled (27 page)

“
Yes, trained,” I said
approaching him now. “What are you hiding? Why are you so
suspicious?”

“
Ah!” John jabbed the air. “Good!
I was just testing you, you see. I wanted to make sure you knew
when someone was trying to hide something, and you did!” Then he
let his emotions show, and we were able to discern him
fully.

* * * * *

Chapter 23

Once his mind was opened to
us we were able to see the whole situation, straight from his head.
Apparently he had been on the trail of a woman who had been putting
together a book that contained all the secrets of the Cast-outs. In
it, the Second One had taught the willing woman to do things that
in this day and age would seem like miracles. It contained ways to
heal with herbs and powders, which the scientists of the day had no
knowledge of. It also contained tricks like levitations, bindings
or stiffening of physical bodies and other useless shows of power
that most likely looked like magic to the people.

“
Her name is Gertrude. And
she has taken residence around here somewhere. She is a witch in
possession of a book that holds the secrets to the dark
arts.”

“
Yes, we see that now,”
Irene said in her sweet soft voice.

“
Oh, well…then you know
all about her.”

“
What I don’t understand
is how she performs these tricks exactly,” I asked. “Surely most of
these tricks are too complicated for her to do. You need knowledge,
instruction, and practice.”

“
She’s had that, you can
be sure of it!” John said as he took the whistling pot off the
stove and set it aside. Then he filled a small strainer with tea
leaves and set it on the rim of a cup. “The book contains the
instructions on how to perform the tricks, only it is written in
the First Language—to make it more impressive I suppose. The Second
One doesn’t lack in finesse, that’s for sure.” John poured the
steaming water over the leaves and the cup began to fill. He made
the process look so enticing, I wasn’t sure why, but I really
wanted to taste that tea. Tasting…what would tasting be
like?

“
First Language, as in
Adam and Eve’s language?” Irene asked, and John nodded as he took a
sip of the hot liquid.

“
So Gertrude understands
the First Language?” Leo asked.

“
I doubt it. She calls
them spells, and she knows what each one of them is about and what
they are supposed to accomplish. She recites them and the Second
One does the rest. Then she’s got her recipes for healings. Those
are in English. But she blesses them in the First Language.” He
laughed out loud. “The Second One is having a heyday with this one
for sure!”

John was now sitting in a
comfortable chair, sipping his tea, and talking to us as if it we
were his next door neighbors who dropped by for a visit. He seemed
to enjoy his tea and I watched him intently as he savored every
drop.

“
The point is, that woman
is committed to her witchery and has crossed the line. Up until
now, she has created a following thanks to her healing potions. She
has scared others, and made love potions too.” He rolled his eyes.
“But now, she got paid to kill someone—and she did it!” John set
the cup on a little side table and leaned forward, instinctively we
moved in closer as well. “Apparently a woman, who believes in her
greatly and has a lot of money, fell in love with a married man. So
she paid the witch to get rid of his young wife. Then with a love
potion she got the man to marry her! There is a young child left
from that first marriage, and I fear greatly for his safety—he must
be saved, he has an important mission to perform in this
life.

“
Both women need to be
stopped and that book has to be destroyed, hidden or…whatever you
Sentinels do with those things,” John said dismissively with a
sweep of his hand, and then he leaned back into his chair and
picked up his cup again.

Leo, Irene, and I looked
at each other and shared the same thought.
“They didn’t tell us what to do with ‘those
things’.”

“
Well…we will do our best
to stop her,” Leo said to John, and to Irene and me he added, “and
we’ll figure out what to do with the book later.”

John yawned and stretched
his arms and legs. “One more thing, before you go looking for her,”
he said as he stood up and scratched his head. “The Cast-outs have
been getting help.” He eyed us carefully.

“
Help? What kind of help?”
I asked.

“
Well…I saw spirits
working with her as well.” He paused and looked hesitant for a
moment.

“
You mean…” Irene couldn’t
finish, and John nodded.

“
Yes. Well…I still need
sleep, believe it or not, so I’m going to turn in for a few hours
while you look for her,” he said as he walked right through us. “I
know I’m close. She should be right around here somewhere, but
looking for one hag in London is like looking for a needle in a
haystack.” He finished his sentence from his bedroom and we were
left in his sitting room alone.

“
OK, Gertrude the witch!”
I said, ready for action.

“
Should we split?” Leo
suggested, but Irene looked unsure.

“
What are you afraid of?”
Leo asked her tenderly while running his fingers through her long
dark hair. I noticed that her hair was just like mine, long, black
and straight, only her eyes were dark, almost black.

“
Oh…I know…I…Cast-outs,”
Irene finally admitted.

“
They can’t hurt us,” Leo
soothed.

“
I know. I’ll be fine
really. Who is helping her, that’s what I want to know,” Irene
said, still apprehensive.

“
John seemed to think they
were spirits from our side,” Leo said.

“
We’ll know soon enough,”
I said. “Irene, you don’t have to go it alone if you don’t want to.
I would love some company.” She seemed to brighten up at the
invitation, and she agreed, so Leo went north and we headed
east.

“
Don’t hesitate to call me
if…you run into trouble,” Leo yelled as we parted.

We decided to be thorough,
so we entered each house starting with the one next door. I felt a
little silly barging in on people like this, fortunately they were
all asleep, and so it seemed a little less intrusive.

“
How do you suppose we’ll
know her?” Irene asked as we exited the first house and went to the
next.

“
Hopefully we’ll just be
able to discern her…dreams,” I said and we both laughed. Irene was
usually so sedate, but now I was starting to see her in a different
light…literally. Her aura looked different to me right now, she was
not very adventurous by herself. Leo brought that out in her. She
was more intellectual, very sensitive, and very
cautious.

The next few blocks yielded
no results either, but then we found a house that seemed
interesting.

“
Do you feel that?” Irene
said cautiously.

“
No…are you sensing
something?”

“
Yes…it’s…it’s…” she
closed her eyes and focused on whatever she was feeling.
“It’s…mourning.”

“
Mourning?” I asked
confused, that did not match at all the type of feeling that I was
expecting her to have. I thought she would have said evil, cruel,
vicious, but not mourning.

I followed her as she
entered one room and stayed there a while, eyes closed, focusing.
Then she would enter another room and do the same. Sometimes she
would linger longer, and other times she would only step in and
step out. She looked like she was on someone’s trail, but whose…I
couldn’t tell.

“
Can’t you feel it?” she
asked a little annoyed.

“
No, I…” I didn’t finish
that sentence because suddenly I heard something unearthly. “Did
you hear that?” I asked her.

She looked at me, her brown
eyes wide with fear. “No…” she whispered. “What…what did you
hear?”

“
A wail, like a…” I
focused much like Irene had been earlier. The noise I heard was
faint and sudden, it came and went quickly. “It’s like a
moan.”

“
You mean like someone who
is mourning?” she said with a sarcastic look.

Right when she said that,
it dawned on me why we were not able to find the source of the
feeling, or the wailing. Then the sound passed right by me like a
breeze, and Irene and I both turned our heads as it did.

“
Do you suppose we are
chasing a ghost?” I said with wonder and excitement. It would only
make sense that we were sensing, a spirit from another realm. Since
we had found out in Gift’s class that I was Clairaudient, and Irene
Clairsentient, and Leo Clairvoyant, we had been eager to see that
part of our gift in action—and apparently here was our
chance.

“
There’s only one way to
find out,” Irene said with an eager smile and wasted no time in
calling Leo.

Leo flew through the front
door and halted. “Hello!” he said, taken aback a bit. “Who’s she?”
he asked, perplexed.

“
A dead spirit, we think,”
Irene said, while Leo kept moving out of the ghost’s way, as she
apparently moved around the room.

“
What’s wrong with her?”
Leo asked grimacing.

“
She’s sad, and mad, and
mourning,” Irene said with more sass than I had ever seen her to
have.

“
OK, Tess, it’s all up to
you I guess. All I can tell you is that she keeps moving around,
shaking her fists in the air, and is yelling something,” Leo said,
still trying to get out of her way while Irene and I exchanged
eager looks. It would take the three of us to get a clear picture
of what was going on here.

“
OK…” I said, trying hard
to concentrate. “Try not to think anything.” And I felt their minds
wall up and I had less background noise to worry about.

I closed my eyes and
focused. At first all I could hear were zooming noises, and then
slurred whispers, then…
“Oh…my sweet, sweet
boy! What did I do? What did I do? Why can’t you see me? I want to
die…nooo…I am dead…what is there left for me? Oh!”
and the crying resumed. Then it faded, and then
started again.
“She did it! That awful
woman…I know she did it! I will haunt her forever!”
Her voice was now rancorous and mean.

I told Irene and Leo what I
heard, and they remained silent for a moment.

“
Do you think this might
be at all related to Gertrude?” Irene asked.

Leo and I
shrugged.

“
Come on, she’s moving!”
Leo said exitedly, and we followed him as he made his way up the
stairs to a little room. Inside the room was a small child
sleeping.

“
Regret, anger, sadness,
utter misery, love.” Irene translated the woman’s
feelings.

“
Oh!”
The ghost wailed. I could hear her clearly now, but all she
did was weep for a long time.

The door to the nursery
opened, and a woman in her nightgown peeked in, she was holding a
lantern in her hand. A dim ray of light passed through the crack,
shining on the boy’s face. He stirred a little and turned away from
it.

“
There he is,” said the
woman in hushed tones. “Why do we have to do this now?”

The door creaked open a
little more and she passed through it, then another woman in a dark
cloak followed behind. The dead woman stopped her wailing suddenly,
as if she had just become aware of the intrusion.

“
She’s angry now, very,
very angry,” Irene said quietly, as if not wanting to be
overheard.

“
You witch!”
the ghost shouted with vile.
“You get away from my baby! You will not do to him what you
did to me! You get away!”

Like Irene, I too did my
part in the translating. And Leo said that she was no longer by the
boy’s side, but by the woman who was holding the lantern, as if
trying to block her way to the boy.

I made the comment that it
was interesting how the realm of the dead and the realm of the
unborn could see the world of the mortals, but could not see each
other—unless by special abilities. Furthermore, the mortals could
see neither one of us, or so it seemed.

I was focused on the first
woman and had neglected to see what the one who came behind was
doing. She was completely covered by the black cloak and I could
barely see her face underneath it.

“
Is the woman in the cloak
looking at me?” I asked Leo and Irene, who turned their heads up
suddenly to see what I was talking about.

Indeed the woman in the
cloak was looking straight at me with curious eyes. She then turned
her head slightly and looked at Leo and Irene. I couldn’t see her
aura, but I could feel that she was the one for whom we were
searching. Her eyes held all the information that her aura could
not give us, there was malice and hatred in them—the kind you only
see in those who have given their wills to the Second
One.

I was now sure that the
cloaked woman was behind the tragedy in this room. The cloaked
woman’s piercing eyes made me feel very uncomfortable, and I feared
that she might be more skilled than she let on, so I put to use the
latest mind blocking technique to hide my own feelings, or rather
drown them in my peaceful ocean. This gave me the courage I needed
to approach the hooded figure.