The Ghosting of Gods (14 page)

30
trust no one

“Where is the seer?” Elspeth asks when she sees me. She holds her lantern to my face and eyes me carefully. “Were you with her, alone, in the dark?” Her eyes fall on the bag. “What is that?”

“Do you mean Chastity? Yes. Well, no. I mean, I was in her pit, then she ran off and I tried to chase her, but it was too dark for me to keep up with her.”

Elspeth snatches the bag from me. Looking inside, she flinches. The bag is shoved back, hard, in my chest. Her smile is forced.

I feign confused innocence, as if I have no reason to doubt her, to think badly of her. “Leesel is so sleepy,” I point out. “I think I’m going to have to carry her back. It’s a relief you found us.”

Wind rushes in the trees.

“Leesel,” I prompt.

“You’re happy to see me, Jesse?” Elspeth asks, sounding desperate.

“Yeah. Sure.”

Leesel wakes, stretches, yawns. Seeing Elspeth, she holds out her arms.

We leave Chastity’s fire. Her pit. Elspeth leads the way, and when Leesel gets tired, she lets me carry her. I carry her so tight. I have to protect her. But how? Who can I trust?

I feel drawn to Elspeth. But I think I trust Chastity.

Elspeth halts when we come upon an obvious path. I set Leesel down, and Elspeth kisses her on the forehead. “You know your way back from here, my pretty. I will see you in the morning.” She gives Leesel the lantern, who yawns, turns her back, and starts walking without comment.

“You’re not coming?” I ask Elspeth.

“The seer kept you two days and now hides from me. I will know why. Go. Now.”

Leesel and I arrive back at the coven village as morning breaks. Lanterns swing, fires flame and smoke, numbers are quietly chanted. Once we’re noticed, there’s a scattering, and Ruth comes. Eyeing Leesel, she flicks her hand, and Hannah appears. “Take Leesel,” Ruth orders.

I let Leesel go.

Covenists draw near until Ruth reassures them. The retreat is silent. Grown women coax the younger girls back inside huts, though a few small scientists observe from perches on low tree branches, curious and spying. Gradually, soprano voices resume their chanting. The melody of numbers is haunting and somehow regal, a surreal contrast to the primitive huts of mud and straw.

“You conversed with the seer?”

Ruth’s left eyebrow tics. She holds her breath, waiting for my answer. But I’m not sure if I should tell her the truth.

“I must know, Jesse. I must protect my coven. Do you know what it is to be responsible for the safety of those you love?” She takes my hands in hers. Pulls them to her heart.

God help me. Who do I trust?

“Elspeth wants me to find her ghost. The one that was lost, or stolen. While she was buried.”

She swallows. The tic worsens. “But…why?”

“I don’t know.”

We stand in the cold, both of us shivering, though I know she’s warm in her witch skin. “Will you do this thing?” she asks me.

“Get her ghost? How can I? I know nothing about this. And I don’t want to. I just want to go home. With Leesel. And my friends.”

Wind creaks tree branches. I keep my face impassive as I wait for her to speak next. I’m not offering up anything extra. Her face
hardens. She seems to know.

“Return to your hut,” she orders. “I will consider your request.”

Her clipped dismissal worries me. I don’t want to make an enemy. But I go.

Poe wakes when Ava cries my name. She wasn’t sleeping. I quickly explain that Leesel is safe and with Hannah.

Ava cries. “They’ve kept us in this hut, they wouldn’t let us go, I was so afraid I’d lost you both,” she tells me in a rush, kissing my face.

After reassuring them that Leesel and I are unharmed, I tell them about finding the seer in the forest. That I have the offering for the Holy Ghost. I hold out the bag.

Poe eagerly looks inside. “Oh, gross,” he says.

I explain what it is.

“Of course,” Ava says, shuddering. She’s turned gray. “I wouldn’t expect anything less bizarre from this world. Or horrific.”

I don’t know how to tell her this world holds answers to my prayers. She wouldn’t undertstand. Ava doesn’t believe in anything greater than herself. But I do.

I believe my religion holds more than I know. More than even my priests know. There’s got to be more; I’ve felt it all my life, in graveyards. Something about death…and not just an afterlife in heaven or hell. There’s more to know.

Oh, God. There’s more for my friends to know.

Taking a deep breath, I tell them what’s happening back on our world. I explain about the missionaries and their intentions to haunt and evangelize our world.

“Priests are in on it,” I say at the end, avoiding Poe’s eyes. “That’s why the decree to stay out of cemeteries. Crystals are being buried over graves. So that…so that skeletons will resurrect and be able to tag themselves with the ghosts that get trapped in the crystals.”

“Mother Mary,” Poe whispers. “The chains ghosts wear—that’s where the chain comes from. Jesse? Are you okay?”

Ava’s quick. She puts it together. Me in graveyards. The crystals. “It’s a lie, Jesse. It’s impossible. Don’t believe it.”

Poe says nothing. He hugs me.

Ava persists. “Jesse. Are you listening to me? Don’t believe it. It just can’t be. Skeletons running about, dragging chains with crystal balls?”

“We’ve seen it here, haven’t we?”

This silences her.

“God won’t allow it,” Poe insists.

He doesn’t know I’ve already found Emmy in a crystal. I push him off.

Ava takes him aside. They whisper together. Then silence.

I dry my face and take Ava’s hand. “I’ve got to tell you. I know what’s wrong with Leesel.” I relay Chastity’s theory about Leesel being sleep deprived—and brainwashed—so that she could work for the coven. “She’s getting a drug in her tea to keep her awake.”

Ava’s eyes widen. “Those—”

“Quiet,” Poe warns. “Somebody’s coming.”

Ruth arrives at our hut with Leesel in tow. “I thought you would want to visit with her,” the covenist says, giving Leesel a little push. “Elspeth is out of the village, so I…I’m giving you this chance with her.”

Leesel grabs a handful of Ruth’s red spiraled hair and yanks hard.

The witch cries out. Wiping tears from her eyes, she says, “That’s the third time she’s gotten me.”

Leesel, holding several hairs in her fist, ignores us. She’s brought books, and she spreads them on our table. Opening every one of them, her eyes go from one to the next, as if she’s reading all the books at once.

“Excuse me,” Ava says. “How long are we to be prisoners
here?”

Ruth appears amused. “Prisoners? My dear, we are offering
asylum
, not a
cage
. We have no sacristies here. Rather than an accusation of malevolence on our part, I expected to receive your gratitude that we are saving your daughter. Our village is the safest place for Leesel.”

“She’s ours,” I respond, my voice tight. “Let us go.”

She shakes her head at me. “Not until it is safe for the coven.”

Baffled, I hold out my hands, begging her. “Why would we need to stay? What do you know that you’re not telling us?”

“It’s what I don’t know.”

“They’re using Leesel,” Ava accuses.

A commotion outside the hut takes Ruth’s attention. Covenists shout numbers. A man’s voice carries over it all.

“Elspeth!”

Looking out the hut, I witness a crowd of witches in sackcloth dresses shouting equations at a man who’s climbed partway up a tree. He’s jabbing a shepherd’s staff at them. I recognize him.

It’s the man who gave us the chain letter that was signed by Saint Thomas. The one we saw in George’s town.

“What have you done with Elspeth?” he demands to know in his elderly voice.

31
only her ghost screams

“Come down from that tree, you fool,” Ruth commands. “What are you afraid of?”

“Only of bearing witness to the heresy of the unfaithful. I doubt your sanity.”

Ruth signals for the coven to calm. She draws closer to the tree and holds up a hand as if to help the man down. He hugs the tree more tightly and grumbles something I can’t hear.

“Saint Thomas, I apologize if my sisters have offended you. But surely you do not wish to keep yourself lodged in this tree?”

“Let him climb higher,” one of the covenists yells. The crowd titters.

“I received a cordial invitation from Elspeth,” Saint Thomas announces in a loud, if warbly, voice. His lustrous black hair covers his eyes, and his head bobs around as if he’s lost in the dark, unable to see. He pats the limbs around him so that he can find handholds to move further up in the tree. “She demonstrates a proper respect for me. Many times we have shared a cup of tea. Thirteen times. I doubt her sanity. She invited me.”

“Yes. We are aware of her unnatural relationship with you.”

He slips, nearly falling from the branch on which he’s balanced. Several leaves shake loose as he fumbles around, his muscular legs kicking inside his robe. “Elspeth! She invited me. Elspeth!”

“Here.”

My jaw drops.

It’s not Elspeth. It’s Chastity. But her face…it’s bruised. Blood dots her lips, and a wide scrape covers her forehead. Her once straight and silky hair in streaks of blond and brown is tangled and black with dirt. As she walks forward, I see that she limps.

The covenists watch Chastity’s approach with apprehension on their faces. Saint Thomas lifts hair off his eyes and gawks. “I doubt her sanity,” he says, and climbs higher in the tree. But it’s another reaction to the presence of Chastity that worries me.

Ruth’s arm is raised, and she extends a long finger. “Why do you bring us the body of the seer?”

Confused faces fill the crowd, but gradually, expressions of understanding dawn in the eyes of the covenists.
Oh
, some say, and others,
Oh, no
. Collectively they withdraw to leave Ruth facing Chastity.

“Why do you bring this battered body here?” Ruth demands.

“For healing.”

“And what transpired that she requires healing?”

“I accidentally harmed her in my anger. She deceived me. I didn’t mean to do it.” She turns, looks directly at me. “Please, don’t think bad things about me.”

Chastity holds her body straight and still. She doesn’t sway in the way she did when I was with her. And then I understand. It’s not Chastity.

It’s Elspeth
possessing
Chastity.

“No,” I whisper, closing my eyes, not wanting this to be.

I can’t trust my feelings. I felt drawn to Elspeth, but she’s capable of horrible things. She’s hurt Chastity.

Calling two women to her side, Ruth bades the rest return to their work. Reluctantly, they go. She nods curtly. “Very well, Elspeth. You may heal her. Until you return, we shall keep her in your lab.”

“Thank you.”

Ruth’s hand is shaking. She notices, and swipes it in an angry gesture. “Enough. Come out of her.”

Chastity’s spine twists. Her back arches, her hands fling over her head. She freezes in this position. I stare in horror at her contorted figure until her body crumples to the ground. An arm folds unnaturally beneath her. Tremors begin in her feet and
move up her legs; her entire body begins to seize.

She screams.

I rush to her, fall to my knees, try to restrain her. She’s thrashing on the ground, shrieking as if fire douses her body.

Poe arrives to help. “What’s wrong with her? She must be possessed. Jesse, help her. You can help her!” He looks at he crowd around him. “Jesse can help her!” He holds out his bottle of holy water to me.

Holy water is useless, but I’ve never admitted this to the priests or Poe. There’s only one person I ever dared say this to, and she’s standing behind Poe, frozen in disbelief. Unlike Poe, Ava realizes the danger of asking me to perform an exorcism in Memento Mori. “No, Jesse,” she mouths, panic developing on her face.

Chastity screams till her breath gives out. Curling into a fetus position, she whimpers.

I make The Sign of the Cross, I whisper a quick prayer. I’m afraid to cast Elspeth from Chastity’s body. Afraid…I will hurt one of them. Do I destroy ghosts forever? I don’t want to do that. Most are only lost, confused…

Chastity’s chest rises and falls with quick breaths. Tears spill from her huge eyes.
My skin confines me
, I hear faintly.

When I hear voices in my head, I know that an exorcism is about to happen. Poe slaps the bottle of holy water in my hand.

“What are you doing?” Ruth demands.

Release me
, Chastity says, her voice stronger now inside my mind.
Skin me
.

Ruth gets in my face. “Stop this,” she hisses at me. “Elspeth is already gone, you religious fool.” She pushes me away and kneels at Chastity’s side on the ground. “Hush now, Seer. Get up. These sisters will help you.”

Chastity stops her whimpering. Two covenists help her to stand. Her eyes lock onto mine for a moment, and she moves as if to come to me, but she’s taken away. Though she leans heavily
on the women, I recognize the slight sway of Chastity’s body.

“I thought Elspeth was possessing her,” I find myself saying to Ruth.

“She was gone the moment Saint Chastity fell to the ground.”

Saint
Chastity?

Ruth grabs me by the arm and drags me in the direction of our hut. Poe and Ava are already ahead of us, escorted by other covenists. “Saint Thomas will want you caged,” Ruth says. “You have revealed your identity as an exorcist. I must convince him you are merely insane, which shouldn’t be difficult. Stay in your hut and do not come out. Do you understand?”

“Yes. But…if Elspeth was gone once Chastity fell to the ground, why was she screaming? What did Elspeth do to her?”

“We’re familiar with the screaming phenomenon. On the few occasions we have been truly free of our ghosts, we have heard them screaming in despair. Once Elspeth was gone, Saint Chastity’s ghost came back. Screeching.” Her chin trembles. “It is the way of ghosts. If we could rid ourselves of them without dying, we would.”

I’m flashed back to the chapel, with Poe peacefully smiling beside me though I hear him screaming.

What happens to our ghosts that they scream upon release from our bodies?

Chastity cries out from across the village. I push against Ruth, to go to Chastity, but a group of witches appears from nowhere. They clutch needles in their hands.

I’m afraid of needles.

“Stay,” Ruth commands. “No matter what you hear. Elspeth is a talented healer, and we shall assist her when she returns to the camp in her own body.” Her stern expression turns anxious. She rushes off, leaving me confused.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Ava says. I flinch, but she’s not looking at me. She’s glaring at Poe.

He shrinks. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked Jesse to risk
himself with the exorcism.” He turns to me. “I’m sorry, Jesse. I just…was frightened for that girl. And I knew you could help her.”

Ava throws a bowl at him. “Jesse’s an
apprentice
exorcist. You know he only works on dwellings,
never
people. And exorcism is treason in this world. How can you be so stupid? I’ll never forgive you, Poe.”

He sputters, falls silent, then rushes to the doorway. I block him. “Wait, Poe. She didn’t mean it. Ava’s scared, we’re all scared. You’re not to blame. I was going to do it anyway. Okay? Are you listening to me?”

“Let me go. Please.” His face is blotched red, and his eyes swell with tears. “I don’t want to cry in front of her,” he whispers fervently.

I let him go.

No covenists intervene. They merely watch him run off.

Gripping the doorway, I wait for the worst of my anger to pass. But it’s not going anywhere.

I turn to Ava.