Bloodstone (14 page)

Chance said, “They certainly didn’t cover that in my history class.”

“You didn’t attend Birdie’s after-school specials,” I said.

I keyed in my password.

“So how do you read it?” Chance asked.

I explained that on the page, Ogham is read from bottom to top and the twenty-five letters represent sacred trees and plants (hence the word Ivy popping out at me).

“It’s also a sign language.” I pulled up Google and tapped the keys.

Ivy read over my shoulder. “The Book of Ballymote. Is that like the Blessed Book of the Geraghtys?”

“Sort of.” I told her the story.

The Book of Ballymote was written in 1390 inside the Ballymote Castle in County Sligo, Ireland. Commissioned for Tonnaltagh McDonagh for his own clan, the book was compiled by Manus O’Duignan, Solomon O’Droma, and Robert McSheedy—prolific scribes of the time.

The book was a compilation of historical events—such as the life of Saint Patrick, the history of the Jewish people, Christian kings, and the fall of Troy. It was also imbedded with valuable documents like the Book of Invasions and the Book of Rights, the triads, genealogies of important Irish clans and kings, maps of the land, a history of Celtic women, poetry and prose (including a copy of Aeneid) and of course, the Ogham alphabet and language.

The book itself has had quite a history. For over a hundred years, it remained in the possession of the McDonaghs of Corran. It was then stolen by a member of the O’Donnell clan where it stayed until the Flight of Earls in 1603. The manuscript was then lost until 1620 when it was donated to Trinity College in Dublin. It sat in the library there until thieves stole it once again in 1767. Eighteen years later, it resurfaced in Burgundy, France and made its way back to Ireland where it was preserved by the Royal Irish Academy.

“Makes you wonder what was in there that was valuable enough to steal,” Chance said.

I had never thought about it before. That book sure made its way around the continent.

“They finally made copies of it in the late 1800s, but I think the original is still in the hands of the Royal Irish Academy.”

Ivy read over my shoulder again. “It says here that the work opens with a drawing of Noah’s Ark, but the first written page has been lost.”

“Huh,” Chance said, “that’s interesting.”

“Very interesting,” Ivy agreed.

“Let’s focus on the task at hand, kids.” I climbed onto the bed and situated the computer in front of me. I asked Chance to grab a notebook and a pen and told Ivy to turn out the light. They both then sat across from me on the bed. Ivy’s notebook in her lap.

We had three hours before my lunch meeting to decipher the note and I didn’t want to waste it wondering about a missing page of an ancient text from another clan. However, one fleeting thought occurred to me before we began.

Where was
our
book?

FORTY-TWO

My phone vibrated as we were finishing up. The clock on the computer read 12:02.

I rose from the bed and stretched. Chance must have noticed me wince because he asked if I wanted some aspirin. I did.

Ivy went to get us some water and I checked my phone. A text from Birdie.

I am waiting, Anastasia.

Leave it to my grandmother to make an appointment and not inform me. She never asked me to meet her back at the house or anywhere for that matter. What was she waiting for?

Chance dropped two aspirin in my hand and asked when my stitches were coming out.

“Oh crap,” I said. “Birdie was supposed to remove them today after breakfast.” Oops. Guess that was what she meant.

Ivy handed me a bottled water and I downed the aspirin.

“Why don’t we move to the kitchen table?” I suggested.

The process of interpreting the note was tedious on the brain and a strain on the eyes. Each symbol in the Ogham alphabet stands for a letter that also represents a tree or plant. For the ivy vine, it’s one vertical slash with two horizontal lines across it. Like a plus sign with an extra slash. So to interpret, we needed to figure out the letters that made up the words, find the words that were circled in the English text, put them all together from bottom to top, then reorganize the structure so that it made some sort of sense.

If we screwed it up, we’d have to start all over again.

Ivy and Chance had both taken notes as I read the letters off. Now we just had to combine the two together.

Except I had about three appointments to attend today and the first one began five minutes ago.

“Chance do you have a job today?” I asked.

He shook his head and I pulled him aside.

“Would you mind keeping an eye on Ivy? I have to go into the office for a little bit and then get my stitches out, but I shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.” I hoped.

I still needed to find out where Fiona had stashed my things and especially get the Blessed Book. There had to be some clue in it about all this. At the very least, maybe I could cast a spell to call on Maegan in a scrying session. Surely she would have some answers.

“Sure, I guess, but what about this?” He pointed to the pages of notes and the article spread across the counter.

“The hard part is over. Ivy can put it together, I’m sure.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Maybe you can help?”

“Puzzles are more my little brother’s thing than mine,” he said. “But I’ll give it a shot.”

I didn’t want to push my luck but I had a lot of running around to do today. “Can I borrow your truck?” I smiled wide and said, “Please. I’ll take good care of it.”

Chance eyed me suspiciously. “Your Jeep ended up in the bottom of a lake not too long ago, Angel Eyes.”

“That wasn’t my fault. I almost never drive my car across thin ice.”

He sighed, scratched his head and reached around my waist for the key ring on the counter. He dangled the keys in front of my face briefly, leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “Try to make it home in one piece.”

“I’ll take good care of your baby. Bring it home without a scratch, I promise.”

Chance held my eyes. “I wasn’t talking about the truck.”

He brushed his lips against mine, briefly, then backed up.

I caught Ivy watching us. “I have to go out for a little while. Think you can complete the decoding, Ivy?”

She saluted me. “Piece of cake, sista.” Then she snapped her fingers and said, “Hey can I tell him about—” her eyes slid to Chance “—you know.”

I assumed she was referring to the unfortunate demise of Birdie’s guest this morning. “Knock yourself out.” I called for Thor and we headed for the door.

Just before I closed it, I heard Chance say, “Who brought the cat?”

Chance has a monster of a truck, so I felt pretty safe once I got inside. But something was off, something felt...naked. A quick glance around made me realize I had none of my talismans with me.

Since the fire, I made sure I had a little protection stashed in every corner of my life. At the cottage, there are two sardonyx stones guarding the entrances to prevent crime. A clear quartz dangles from my rear-view mirror for safe travels and my office drawer has a sachet of angelica seeds, mugwort and horehound. There’s even a vial of rose geranium oil in my gym bag, not to mention jewelry in every gemstone you can imagine in my jewelry box.

Right now, though, I didn’t even have my amethyst necklace. I did have Thor however, who was wondering why we weren’t moving yet and told me so by bellowing long and loud. The dog lived for car rides.

That’s when I noticed he was still wearing the tiger’s eye locket with the pennies inside.

Tiger’s eye has been worn for protection for centuries. It’s known to ward off curses and fight any form of dark magic. It also protects our four-legged loved ones.

I unclipped the gemstone from Thor’s collar and said, “I’m just going to borrow this for a while, buddy. Soon as I can get to my own things, you’ll have it back.” Thor agreed to the arrangement by nibbling my ponytail and I started the truck.

Two cars I recognized as Parker’s and Derek’s were in the lot when I pulled up to the news office. The key to the building was on my key ring, wherever that was, so I had to buzz the front entrance for them to let me in. I waited for the buzz back sound while Thor assaulted a shrub.

No buzzing sound came.

I pressed the button again. And again.

“What the hell?” I muttered.

The back door was a steel number, but I tried it anyway and got nowhere. I noticed a light from inside the second floor conference room on my way back around to the front door. Was it on a minute ago? I couldn’t be sure. Maybe the intercom was broken?

I sent Parker and Derek each a text.

U there?

I waited.

No response. Perfect.

I circled the building one last time, Thor trailing behind.

That’s when I saw it.

A spider’s web over the back door. It was a big sucker too. My stomach was sloshing like a roller coaster and fear gripped me.

Uninvited guest.

Thor barked. He was standing in front of the stone wall that wrapped the building. It was just high enough that I might be able to peek in the window.

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe they were talking to a citizen about a lead. Maybe someone saw them pull up and they invited him in for chili.

Anything was possible.

The boots had some good traction and it was only one floor up so I thought,
how hard could it be?

Anyone who has ever had a sadistic gym teacher who brought out that stupid rope to climb knows—it’s pretty freaking hard.

After I slid down the wall for the third time, breaking every single fingernail in the process, I finally figured out that Thor was hollering at me. I turned to see him standing in the bed of the truck. Which, of course, made much more sense than pretending to be Spiderman.

It’s a humbling moment when you realize your dog is smarter than you.

I hopped in Chance’s truck, drove it around, climbed in back with Thor and we both jumped from the cab to the wall.

When I looked in the window, I screamed.

Thor acted.

IVY GERAGHTY’S PERSONAL BOOK OF SHADOWS

by Ivy Geraghty

Entry #13

Message received! I, Ivy Geraghty Warrior Goddess (that’s what mom always called me anyway. I know about six forms of martial arts that end in ‘do’. That’s right—I can kick ass in any language) have decoded the secret message left by my mother. This is too important to wait. We must move fast for the Enemy is closer than we think. I rush to my sister at once!

-Ivy Geraghty,
Junior Apprentice
Warrior Goddess (in training)

FORTY-FOUR

Great Danes are sensitive dogs, highly attuned to human emotions. If you scold them, they’ll hide under the bed for about a week. Granted, you can still see them because the bed will be two feet off the ground, but you get the picture. Because they are such soft souls they want nothing more than to please their owners, but Thor is an alpha male with a capital A.

So when I shouted “NO” it didn’t much matter because he had already crashed through the window.

I climbed in after him as carefully as I could but I still managed to slice my arm on a jagged glass shard.

Derek and Parker were both lying on the carpet, motionless.

My young photographer was closest so Thor ran to him first, licking his eyes, ears and nose and flipping up Derek’s hand with his giant muzzle.

Parker was lying face down on the ground and I ran to him as I reached for my phone.

It wasn’t there.

“Shit, I just had it!”

Derek moaned and Thor and I switched places. He started slobbering all over my boss.

“Derek! Can you hear me? Are you hurt?” I noticed a golf ball sized lump on the top of his head.

He groaned, then coughed as Thor nudged Parker.

“Derek, what happened? Come on, talk to me kid.” I patted his arm gently. He twitched.

Behind me, I heard Parker say, “Why am I wet?”

I called Thor back and hustled toward my boss. There was a crockpot on the counter next to the coffee station. Napkins, bowls, spoons and a towel next to it. I grabbed the towel and handed it to Parker as he sat up.

“Why am I on the floor?”

Good question. “What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked.

Derek was sitting up too. I went to the sink and wet two paper towels, handed one to each of them.