Water and Stone (23 page)

He'd been caught.

Though it had taken all his strength Billy Ford managed to stand up out of his wheel chair, to lift the timber barring the door as he staggered outside, and to start down the path to what he hoped would be his eventual freedom. Within minutes, though, the spiders had sensed him.

Caught up as he was in the mirage that had become his life he thought snow had fallen... that winter had descended like it did out east and even in Texas at times. But it wasn’t snow at all. Cobwebs covered everything... the trees, all of them dead or dying and were laden with what he thought at first was mist. The branches seemed to sag under the weight and the ground was but a filmy mass of silken tendrils spun by monstrosities that he'd never even in nightmares had the temerity to imagine.

He could only shuffle his feet... the strength to lift them while he walked had evaporated like his youth. The cobwebs were as strong as heavy duty fishing line tangling around his feet and then his ankles. Though he tried his best to make his way through the thicket of spiders he tripped and fell face first into a vast tunnel constructed between the long lines of trees that once marked the edge of the front yard.

He felt the spiders like kittens pounce on him one after another until he lost count of how many flooded his body. Their thorny legs grabbed at his clothing tearing it away piece by piece to expose his precious flesh to the tiny fanged terrors. They pranced round and round over him until he was naked and covered instead in silk.

Within minutes he was wrapped up like a cocoon—like a demented mummy—a million of the black and vicious creatures marauding over his body weaving a tapestry of dread around him and slowly hauling him off like Lilliputians to a fate far worse than any death he'd ever dreamed of.

Suddenly Evalena was standing over him. She had a smirk on her beautiful face as if she enjoyed reveling in his predicament. Though he hated her at that moment he loved her more. She alone had the power to save him though for the life of him he couldn't comprehend how a little girl like her could command the attention of the multitude of malignant creatures bent upon making him their next meal.

"Help me."

He mouthed the words rather than spoke them and even that required a super human effort. A hundred thousand tiny puncture wounds had drawn off what little reserves of strength he had left leaving him little more than a mummified corpse that yet lived.

Evalena tossed back her pretty head of hair and laughed. At the sound of her glee the spiders scattered as quickly as they'd assembled scurrying back to the trees where their brethren waited.

"I should leave you here... I've never had such an ungrateful father, Billy Ford. You ought to be thankful for what I'm freely giving you yet instead you try to run away from me like a frightened child. Men of power would kill to be familiar with what you know but you refuse to open your eyes to the prospects."

She was right. Remorse filled his heart even as she turned to walk away. It wasn’t the fear of the spiders that drove him to call out to her as much as it was a longing to redeem himself in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Evalena... forgive me."

Though he tried to shout it out all that he could manage was a breath, a mere whisper, but she heard it... she must have for she turned around and came to him with tears on her cheeks and the fire burning in her right eye that he had come to cherish.

"Oh, Billy... I thought you didn’t care for me any longer. When I woke and found you gone I was sure I'd never see you again. Come... let us go home."

He felt as light and as hard and as dry as pumice.

Evalena peeled away the wrappings securing his arms and legs and gathered him up like a papoose carrying him home to the cabin on her back. He'd forgotten what it meant to be so close to her... to touch her satin skin and feel her warm pulse beating beneath, to breathe in her essence.

"I love you, Evalena."

"I love you too, father... please don't try to run away again. The next time I might not be there to save you, my darling."

Back inside the shack Evalena stripped off the remainder of the webs and tenderly washed the many wounds he'd suffered before applying an unguent to help him heal. She went about the whole process with such rapt attention to helping him that Billy understood for the first time that she really did love him... he'd never attempt to leave her again.

Once she'd seen to his injuries Evalena picked him up to carry him to bed where she tucked him in carefully against the chill of the encroaching night. Something was dancing on the sheet metal roof of the shack... perhaps raindrops were falling, or maybe the eager spiders sensed where he was and wanted to finish the meal they'd begun. He shivered involuntarily.

"Pay no mind to any sound you hear tonight, father. You're safe as long as I'm here."

"Please don't leave me, Evalena."

"Would you like me to sleep with you tonight, father?"

"Yes... I'd enjoy that."

The girl stepped out of her dress to slip beneath the covers where she cradled his emaciated body in her arms while humming a song that seemed oddly familiar though the few words Evalena sang were in Spanish.

She was fire or else he was ice... either way, the warmth of Evalena soothed his frozen blood making it pump more easily through his emaciated veins slowly invigorating him. The tapping sound continued on the roof like tiny footsteps dancing a samba on the tin... when Evalena leaned over and blew out the lantern the darkness took him down and he slept for the first time in what seemed like ages.

His mother was there. It puzzled him to see her at the cabin but then he realized that wasn’t where they were... instead they seemed to be inside the spider web tunnel... no, it was a cave. He could see the rocky walls and feel the water swirling around his bare feet as he shuffled forward in the darkness sensing the hard stone beneath... the place reminded him of somewhere else though when he tried to think his thoughts all ran together.

It was so quiet he could hear the sound of music nearby. It seemed to be the same tune that Evalena hummed to him earlier but as he listened more intently the melody morphed into the sounds of water on stone... or was it stone on water?

The air around him was chilly and damp yet refreshing too... he thought he could detect the odor of nearby trees—pine, maybe, and possibly pinion... he couldn’t be sure—growing lush and vibrant. He held out his arms to embrace mother. She was different, younger, slimmer, and more beautiful than he could ever remember her being yet her eyes were full of love as she pulled him to her ample bosom.

"You're a fool, Billy Ford, but you are my fool. Now, listen carefully for there isn’t much time. You'll be awake soon. You are not alone... there others who care about you. But unless you can defeat Evalena they too will perish."

"Why are you here, mother? I thought you were dead."

"Oh but I am, my son... but even death cannot keep a mother's love for her son at bay.... I'm here for you... always remember that."

"What can I do, mother? She's too strong and I'm so weak... why does she call me father? I don't understand any of this... help me."

"Evalena isn't a woman in the sense you think of one... I know that may sound absurd, Billy, but it's the truth. In order to defeat her, you must marshal all your resources and when facing the darkness, light is your only weapon."

"What's growing inside of me, mother? I feel it."

"You have a parasite in your stomach, Billy... it isn’t something to trifle with. Even if you found a doctor they wouldn't be able to find it or remove it... if this thing inside you runs its course you'll die giving birth to it... that is why Evalena calls you father."

"How do I remove it, mother?"

"Only Evalena can do that... if she thinks you're dying she'll breathe it away."

"But I am dying."

"We all die, Billy."

"I should have listened. Yani and Church tried to warn me about Evalena."

"There's no time for that, Billy. Listen... Evalena is using magic that exists outside of time and space as we think of it... Evalena may be the name she calls herself and she may look human but she isn’t what she seems. Unchecked, she'll gather up a great darkness around her much like those horrid spiders outside the cabin... when her power is ripe she'll remake the world in her own image."

"How can we stop her, mother?"

"In order to do that, she requires something that she gave up ages ago. That something's here, Billy. She knows that she needs it yet without the stone her command has faltered. She must rely on people like you... boys easily seduced by the thin veneer of beauty covering her heart of filth and degradation."

"I just want to die, mother."

"And you shall, my son... soon enough we'll be together once more. I promise you that. Now... lay still while I whisper secrets in your ear like I did the day you were born... remember?"

He was coming for her.

She should've strangled him in his sleep when she had the chance. She knew all along that he'd be her undoing yet she'd allowed him to live. It was another mistake in a long line of them stretching back into the dim recesses of time.

Billy Ford was hers now. In a matter of days he'd give birth to her most formidable familiar and she'd be safe... until then, she had only to stay inside. Yet if Church appeared she knew he wouldn't be unarmed.

Though she felt like running away Evalena knew her strength lay in the confines of the chabola. Anyone seeking to attack her would first have to deal with the spiders that having run out of their staple of insects and birds and squirrels had grown lean and hungry waiting for their next meal. The vibrations of the webs permeating the surrounding lands would alert her to any visitor far in advance of them making their way to her door.

On the other hand there was something stronger afoot in the world... she sensed it through the pulsations of the lines that only sang for her dark right eye foretelling both potential and probable futures converging upon the moment.

He was the incarnation of an ancient enemy still bent on revenge after thousands of years. She saw it in the omens on the night he was born and rushing north she'd hoped to forestall it for yet another lifetime. Something had stopped her, however... was it love or was it fear?

Deep down she was still the same little monkey who on the one hand had been given the key to all the wealth in the world and with the other hand had given it away just as quickly. She'd let it go willingly. Perhaps in the end that might make a difference but she had her doubts.

She wondered if Church even knew who he was... how could he? Only someone with the vision could see past the gates of yesterday. The boy probably sensed something strange in the muddle that made up his mind yet without help he'd never unravel that secret... and she was the only one with the key to the mystery.

Or was she?

Doing away with Lorraine Ford had been an unnecessary extravagance. She knew it at the time yet she'd done it anyway... a school-girl sort of indulgence that could possibly be the means to her end.

The woman hadn't threatened her in any way other than a slight chance that Billy Ford might go back east to be with his mother. At the time Evalena didn't want to risk losing him and since she accorded Lorraine so little respect she dispatched the woman with alacrity. She enjoyed it more than she should have and now she might well be paying for it.

Once touched by the stone, those who perished by its magic were said to be drawn inside of its realm... a place rumored to be far more immense than the real world... the place of the known in contradistinction to the unknown. Lorraine Ford, if she could gather herself, was still alive in a sense though her days of walking under the sun were gone forever.

Now, Lorraine was a prisoner of the piedra. In a way, Evalena envied the woman. If she wasn't such a coward she too would seek a way to enter the stone, a path that might take her there sans the pain normally associated with such a journey. Still, there were those souls lurking inside the piedra who'd waited an eternity for an opportunity to pay back Evalena for the sorrows she heaped upon them and their families... she shuddered involuntarily thinking what pleasure they might derive from her presence.

No... as much as she might desire to enter the piedra and rejoice in its glory she understood her place was in the world of the real. As long as the stone existed she was safe from the terrors it held at bay. Perhaps that was the main reason she'd entrusted it to her father... to rid herself of the temptation that the piedra represented.

Even though he probably didn’t yet realize it, she suspected Church was an adept. He had the power to see beyond the grave... to communicate with the dead if of course they were willing. Lorraine Ford had every reason to contact Church in order to make an effort at saving her son's life if not to seek redress for her own death. In life the woman was little more than a stupid cud-chewing cow but in death she held the keys to the mystery... as well as to Evalena's undoing.

The air inside the cabin was redolent of Billy's imminent death and of the misery he suffered so silently and for her. It always amazed Evalena how much they adored her and to what lengths that love would take them. As she walked to the door it seemed to her that the world would be a far better place without the existence of love even though she reveled in its existence.

The light was dying. As the day drew to a close the sky portended rain... standing in the open doorway she took a deep breath smelling moisture in the air and looking up she watched the clouds swirling as a sudden gust of wind rattled the dead trees and dried up weeds sending the myriad spiders scurrying to the cover of the ground.

Someone was out there... she sensed the presence rather than saw it. She chided herself as an unaccustomed feeling of fear crept up out of the dry and sandy soil to take hold of her and twist its tendrils around her spine.

One of the spiders must have noticed her standing in the doorway... as it hurried over to greet her Evalena squatted down to caress its fat and silken body with her right index finger when a crack sounded just behind her and a split second later the gunshot echoed off the far wall of the cabin.

Ducking low and backing inside the chabola Evalena slammed the door shut just as another bullet splintered the wood not a foot from her face. Diving to the floor she crawled over to the table where she upended it to offer some protection to whoever was shooting at her.

The walls of the shack may as well have been made of paper... the bullets passed right through them, a steady hail pitter-pattering against the old warped wood sounded like malevolent raindrops. Turning it on its side and using the table as a shield while scooting across the floor on her belly Evalena opened the trap door to the cellar and rolled down into the darkness about the same time she thought of father. Had he been hit? In her hurry to avoid the onslaught she had forgotten all about the man lying upon a pallet on the floor in the back room.

Perhaps being low to the ground would help shield him from the onslaught. Either way there was nothing she could do for him without risking her own life.

Pulling the trap door shut and bolting it from inside she wiggled her way through the dank darkness to a low corner—a furrow in the earth—that might protect her from the attack. If the worst happened and they discovered where she'd gone Evalena was ready to kick her way through the thin wall and flee into the stormy night.

Someone was walking on the floor above her head... they had a light step, doubtlessly a woman's touch. Visions of Yani danced in her head as she held her breath lest the shooter might realize where she was hiding.

When the intruder reached the bedroom where father lay they let out a sharp cry but Evalena couldn't tell if it was a male or a female who made the sound. She racked her brain trying to understand why Yani was attacking her now... the girl had plenty of opportunities in the past to plot and carry out mayhem against her but she'd always been like a sister.

Was it him? Had he somehow discovered the truth and come to address the wrongs she'd once heaped upon him and his family? She could imagine Church aiming a rifle at her but the thought of him actually pulling the trigger didn't seem possible. She couldn’t remember ever doing the boy wrong enough to result in such a deadly payback.

Whoever it was, they were serious. If not for the little spider coming to her she'd be dead now... if she attempted to break out a wall and run the shooter was bound to hear her... it was best simply to keep still, draw her cloak around her, and trust in its magic.

It was possible whoever it was wouldn't come down into the cellar... perhaps they'd think she'd fled out the back... or they might not realize she was unarmed and basically at their mercy.

"I know you're out there, Evalena. Come inside and talk to me... I won't hurt you."

It was Yani. So the girl had finally figured it out... that she was the one who had inoculated her with the sand infected by the drippings from the piedra. All these years Evalena had allowed her to believe it was the work of the man they called father... how did she find out the truth?

The girl was bluffing. She had no way of knowing anyone was hiding outside in the weeds... she was simply hoping Evalena was stupid enough to trust her even after the shootings. The cloak would take on the same background of the dirt walls... she would be safe as long as she didn’t move or make any sound to betray her presence.

A muffled cry sounded above her head. Yani had found the old man and from the sounds of it, she recognized him. With all the bullets flying perhaps he had been killed... but as usual luck was not with her, at least not of the good variety.