Nine Steps to Sara (36 page)

Luckily, Will took her a little farther away from the house
,
where a ruined fountain presided over broken cobblestones.  Declaring the space suitable, Mirella pulled out a cell phone, muttering about the crap reception as they walked back to the house to wait.   Mrs. Poole appeared before they even approached the rear patio and Sara looked to Will to see if he could run interference for them.

“I’m on it,” he winked, loping ahead to steer the housekeeper away. 

“How about we wait in the study?” Sara suggested, and the gypsy followed her, more involved in reading something on her phone than where they were headed.  “So… when you say it could get messy…”

“Don’t sweat it, sweets.  I don’t mean bleeding walls or ectoplasmic goop or any of that crap from the movies.  But things do get thrown around a bit from time to time.  It’s easier on the furniture if we do it outside.”

That made sense.  “It’s just that I thought you’d have to be in the house to make… it happen,” Sara said vaguely, but Mirella understood well enough.

“That’s the trick of it, to lure them out,” she winked.  “No muss, no fuss.  I thought your man would have explained it to you?  I told him as much.  Also, I’ll need a personal item, something she handled quite a bit.”

Will hadn’t said much about the procedure at all, and she wondered if that was because he hadn’t wanted Gemma to overhear or if there was something unpleasant he didn’t want her to know about ahead of time.  “I’ve got something that should work pretty well.”  It would be a shame to lose the diary, but it was the only thing she knew for sure had been used by Gemma.  “Do you um, do you do this sort of thing very often?”

“I can handle myself,” Mirella’s eyes narrowed as if Sara had accused her of inexperience.

“I’m sure you can,” Sara replied quickly.  “
I just wondered
how often you run into something like this.”

“They’re around us all the time, most people just can’t see or hear them,” she shrugged.  “Every once in a while one of them needs a little nudge, that’s all.”

“And you can nudge them?”

“You’d better believe it,” Mirella grinned.  “You’ll see; the Romani hold many secrets, my family more than most.  I’ll do this thing for you, and then you’ll do something for me.”

“Something like…?”

“Pay the price, of course.  There’s always a price to be paid, make no mistake of that.”

“Of course.”  Whatever she charged it would be worth it, and money wasn’t an object any more.  Sara had to hope there was more to the girl’s words than swagger, for all of their sakes.   

About a half hour before the full moon, Mirella excused herself to prepare
for the ritual
.  Leaving her to it, Will and Sara moved out to the rear patio, wanting to keep an eye on her. 

“Are you sure this is going to work?  She doesn’t look like much of a gypsy,” Sara whispered. 

“She said that rubbish is for tourists.  Trust me, she’s got the
gift
, you’ll see,” Will assured her.  “Oh ballocks…” he muttered as Mrs. Poole stepped out onto the terrace.

“Will Talbot, what on Earth…?” she demanded, her nose obviously still out of joint for being dismissed by him earlier.  “Is that woman out in the gardens at this time of night?”

“It’s nothing you need concern yourself with, Eleanor,” Will said calmly, refusing to be cowed by her formidable gaze.

“Oh, so it’s Eleanor now, is it?  Have you forgotten your place?”

“No, but I’m starting to think you’ve forgotten yours,” he fixed her with a quelling look and Sara laid a hand on Will’s arm, not wanting them to lose their friendship over it. 

“Will, it’s fine.  I said I wanted to keep things open and honest; well… we’re working on something to help with our little problem around the house.” 

It took a few seconds, but comprehension sunk in.  “Oh dear… then you intend to…”

“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” Sara cut her off before she said something to tip Gemma off.  “We’ll take care of all of the details.”

“It’s for the best, I think you can agree,” Will added.

“Yes, I can see how it would be at that,” Mrs. Poole replied after a moment’s thought.  “Very well then, is there anything you need?” she asked Will directly.

“We have it well in hand, thanks.”

“I’ll be off then before I hear more.  You watch yourself, boy,” she wagged a bony finger at Will.  “You’re not so big I can’t turn you over my knee.”

“You know I believe she would?” Will laughed after she’d gone, but the laughter died between them when Mirella approached, eyes wide in anticipation.

“It’s showtime.”

They gathered outside by the old fountain under the light of the full moon.   M
irella wore a si
mple white shift, feet bare,
long hair loose down her back.  No gypsy scarves, beaded necklaces or other trappings, she
’d
told
them
earlier that she wasn’t there to put on a show,
it
was the real deal.  The only adornment she wore was a personal talisman of sorts, which looked like a knucklebone wrapped in silver wire and suspended by a leather thong around her neck. 

In the yard was a circle laid out in white stones with a small altar built in the center from the same white stones.  Atop the altar was a wooden bowl made of oak, a
small bundle of herbs, a wire wrapped bloodstone pendant
, Gemma’s diary
and a gleaming knife, the hilt fashioned out of bone.  On the ground beside the altar was a section of
cobblestone
that had been cleared away, leaving freshly dug earth. 

“We’re almost ready to begin
,
” Mirella announced, pushing her hair back over her shoulders.  “
W
hat’s going to happen is, I’m going to step into the circle, do a little bit of preparation and then I’ll call for the sacrifice, that means you
,
”
sh
e pointed
to Sara
.

“Sacrifice?  What do you mean sacrifice?” Sara’s eyes flew wide.

“Bloody hell, you really didn’t tell her anything, did you?  It has to be you, you’re related by blood.”  A roll of the eyes was given, and Sara turned an accusatory stare to Will.

“It’s not that kind of a sacrifice,” his hands came up in supplication.  “It’s just a little bit of blood.  I didn’t want you to worry too much, that’s all.” 

That didn’t sound so bad…
  “Then what happens?”  Sara prompted
, wanting to get any more surprises out of the way.

“Then you get back outside the circle and let me do what I need to do.”

“How will we know if it worked?”
Will
asked
before Sara had a chance to
.

“You’ll know
,
” Mirella replied
crossly, taking a deep breath, her voice more serene when she spoke again
.  “Now
,
let me prepare.”  S
tepping
into the circle
, she
knelt in front of the altar, eyes closing.

“Is there anything else you’re not telling me?” Sara murmured out of the corner of her mouth, eyes on the spectacle before them.

“I should probably tell you I’m in love with you.  You know, just in case,” he replied glibly, and Sara turned to gape at him, at a complete loss for words.  “It’s starting,” he nodded towards the circle without looking back at her. 

Mirella chanted low and unintelligible in the background
, and Sara suspected the words weren’t in English.  The order to step forward was clear enough though, accompanied by an outstretched hand in Sara’s direction and she forced one foot in front of the other until she stepped inside the ring of stones.  The air felt different inside the circle, charged with an electrical current that made the hairs on the back of her arms stand up on end.  Approaching the altar, Sara stopped when Mirella’s hand pointed to the ground beside it. 

Did she want her to kneel?
  Hoping she was interpreting it correctly, Sara knelt beside the makeshift altar.  Mirella rewarded her with an almost imperceptible nod and grasped the knife, holding it up to the sky with a torrent of foreign words with an almost musical lilt to them.  Lulled by the hypnotic lilt of the ritual, Sara didn’t bat an eyelash when Mirella seized her hand, but she sure snapped out of it at the stab of pain when she neatly sliced across her palm.  Stifling the urge to cry out, she bit her lips together against the pain as Mirella held the wooden bowl under her hand, catching the blood that instantly welled from the cut.  Bright red blood ran in rivulets through her fingers to catch in the bowl until she decided they had enough, and she
laid the bowl on the makeshift altar
, chanting again, she stepped
back as the contents spontaneously burst into flame. 

Holding the little bundle of herbs, she passed them through the flame three times, blowing onto the ends when she was done, the coals glowing bright in the darkness.  Mirella pressed the glowing tip of the herbs to the wound on her palm, but before Sara could react to the pain it was gone, the skin smooth and unblemished when she took them away. 

“Go now, leave the circle,” Mirella hissed, when Sara stared at her hand in amazement.  Staggering to her feet, Sara backed off, almost tripping over the ring of stones on her way out of the circle. 

Will caught her, “Are you badly hurt?” he demanded, peering at her hand. 

“No, I’m fine.  Shh, watch…” she replied, eyes glued to the rest of the ritual. 

Mirella
dropped the diary into the wooden bowl that strangely didn’t seem affected by the fire at all.  Holding
the bloodstone pendant over the flames
,
as
they
watched
she dropped it into the
bowl
as well
.  There was a bri
lliant
flash
of light
and
Sara
was hurled off of
her feet as though she’d
been tackled by a linebacker.   For a second
she
couldn’t see or hear as
her
body absorbed the blow, and then everything came back in a rush
with a wave of dizziness
.
 

“Did it work?” Sara murmured, pushing herself up on her elbows as Will
rushed to
her side
. 

“It’s done,” Mirella nodded weakly, sitting back on her haunches to catch her breath.

“She’s really gone?”  Sara wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it seemed too good to be true.  There was no sign that Gemma had ever shown, let alone been exorcised.  Wasn’t there supposed to be howling wind or something more dramatic than the flash of light that could have been easily orchestrated by the gypsy?

“What happened to her?” Will asked, gently pulling Sara into his lap as they all sat on the ground. 

“She’s trapped, bound to the pendant.  We’ll bury her here where no one will disturb her and you can get on with your lives,” Mirella gestured to the cleared ground where the stones had been overturned.