Epilogue
With flowers in hand, we stepped from the car out into the bright, watery sun at Misty Cliffs. TJ was headed back to base soon, and we—Eli, Rowan, and the Baker kids, with Peabody—wanted to pay our respects to Ethel’s memory before he did.
Rowan had one warm hand on my back as he opened the white-painted gate of the churchyard. He paused a moment, collecting himself, and followed us.
“Each time I open tha’ gate, I swear I can hear the souls in this yard scream.”
Peabody asked, “Is this true? What do they sound like?”
Anyone else might have left that comment alone, but of course, ever the researcher, Peabody did not.
And of course, ever the gracious host and friend, Rowan could not leave Peabody’s question unanswered.
As Rowan peeled away from me to step beside his old friend, TJ took his place.
He held store-bought flowers wrapped prettily in brown paper and tied with twine.
My bouquet was from the field and forest and held together with my fingers.
“Those are beautiful, Tee.” I bumped his shoulder with mine.
He looked at my bouquet. “She was more into weeds, though, good call.”
At the door to the church, we paused.
“Feels weird to be here without her,” I said.
“Feels weird to feel like I lost someone important when I knew her for such a short time.”
I watched his soft brown eyes lose a bit of their spark as his face processed the last weeks. I added, “I liked the way she knew things and understood the way of the world. She understood the connectedness of things, just in a different, but parallel, way to mine.”
“Yup, hers was the study of magic; yours is science.”
Peabody caught up with us, and Rowan was again at my back, his palm resting softly on my waist.
“Interestingly enough, you both understand the world in the same way; it’s just that science is magic explained. And the unexplained magic is the bit science has yet to discover,” Peabody suggested.
We heard tires crunch behind us and turned to see Eli waving as he exited his car.
He caught up to us, with a smile for each of us. Then, as if touched by a supernatural force, his eyes widened, and he said, “Whoa. Is this place haunted?” He shivered.
TJ gave his shoulder a pat. “Yeah, man. Wicked haunted.”
“The readings of this graveyard alone will fill my book. It’s a goldmine of data,” Peabody enthused. “I’m sorry she is gone; she was a wealth of information and a special human being.”
“Aye,” Rowan added. I knew he was still processing. There was too much MacLaoch in his blood for Ethel to embrace him wholeheartedly. It was as if they both agreed to be kind to each other but also to respect the past. Yet in the end, she gave her life for the MacLaochs.
Eli pointed at the flowers. “That was a good idea. Maybe I should have an offering as well?”
TJ said, “You want a few out of this bunch?”
“No, I think I have something.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and fished something out.
We were curious. Eli held up what looked like the wrapper of a small packet of shortbread cookies.
Tee was the first to ask, “Is that trash?”
Eli grinned broadly at his cousin. “Aye, right? Why keep a bit of trash? Unless an old woman gave you a packet of biscuits and you met your best friend that day. And that old lady when she gave it to ye said, ‘Today, child, you’ll have a brother.’ And I thought it was my mum and da having another bairn.
” Eli grinned at Rowan behind me, who, in my peripheral, I could see had a matching smile; he remembered the day just as clearly.
“Ye shared that packet of shortbread biscuits with me.”
“I did.”
“Impressive,” Peabody said.
I was awestruck. “She’s been trying to break the curse for a very long time…”
Eli, the first of the Minorys to come to Rowan, grasped him up into a hug and gripped tight. Rowan returned the fierceness. And when they came apart, he quickly wiped his damp eyes.
“Brother,” he said to Eli, then to Tee, “Brother. I was twice blessed by this woman. And that’s just counting her bringing you two to me.”
“Yes, you were.” I smiled at him and then reached down to his hand. “Come.”
I opened the door to the church and stepped into the entry of the cavernous space, pulling him in behind me. We made a small procession to the back kitchen. We didn’t know if the church would replace her or who even knew she had passed. I made a note to figure that all out.
We placed our items on the kitchen table, and each of us said a few words.
I was surprised when Rowan pulled a coin from his pocket with the Roman Colosseum on it and set it down with the flowers and cookie wrapper.
“Is that—”
“Aye. It was her grandson’s donation to our clan, and he was beheaded for his troubles.
He might have been an enemy, but I’d like to think,” he said, finding my hand and interweaving his fingers with mine, “that we’re passed all tha’, and moving on, and healing now means giving her back something her grandson touched. ”
Tee wrecked the moment by saying: “What about that dead baby?”
I gave him a sharp look. “It was a long time ago. The Fund has the coffin and bones now and is examining the remains. I’m sure he didn’t put coins on top of…it.”
“Then how’d they wind up there together?”
“Fucking hell, Tee…Let it go.”
“Tiberius,” Peabody interrupted, “what we have to understand about that time is that death wasn’t something that rarely happened; it touched a person’s life nearly daily, and what might be abhorrent today, back then was commonplace, for everyone who lived so close to death.
They processed grief openly and without hesitation for as long as they needed.
Those coins, whether they came with the coffin or were added later by Laoch, is a mystery we might never get answers to.
But maybe in time we will get a better insight into what really happened.
Especially with the Fund examining it now. ”
Tee shook his head. “I’m just saying, I’ve got friends who’d say that thing has some serious juju on it.”
Rowan agreed. “That’s exactly why I gave it.”
The group moved to disperse, and I asked if they’d mind if I lingered a bit. “Take your time,” Rowan assured me with a kiss.
I couldn’t help but make one last cup of tea in that kitchen.
I set the kettle to boil on the stove, opened her cupboards, remembered the moment she’d performed a chemical mix that settled things down when Ormr was gaining strength from his long spiritual sleep.
That had been a while ago, and yet, as I pulled down her special Darjeeling mix, I couldn’t help but think that had she stayed alive, I could learn an infinite amount from her.
I jumped when something hit the tabletop behind me.
I turned to find the book that Ethel and I were digitizing open on the table.
It must have fallen…from a shelf? I didn’t know how that could be, though.
I carried the pot to the table and set two teacups and went to put the book away when I saw what page it was open to.
One filled with runic symbols, which Ethel could read.
“I wish I could read that,” I mumbled, because it felt like a sign from Ethel.
I sat with it a bit longer and recalled that not too long ago, I’d read a page in Clive’s office that also held such symbols, a page that Ethel had taped—much to my horror—back into the book.
Without the Ulfberht and not currently in an emotionally heightened state, I didn’t think I could repeat that.
But I sat anyway, and with Ethel’s voice in my mind’s eye, I quieted myself, and after a few moments of deep breathing, I set my intention to reading it.
Opening my eyes, I saw the runes, and as my eyes took in the angles and shapes, a memory came to me.
It was as close to a translation as I’d get.
Ormr didn’t write it; Ethel wrote it, but not Ethel, a woman who was transferring her power to Ethel.
The symbols at the end were clear: Volva of the Misty Cliffs Church.
I sat with that knowledge for several heartbeats before I scrambled up. “Ohh!” Grabbing the book off the table, I made for the door, but stopped. Even if I could learn how she transferred her power from one generation to the next, there was no one to take or give.
I returned to the table with a sad sigh and poured the tea. I whispered the incantation that Ethel always said over the tea, knowing it was the last time I’d do it there in that kitchen, which was so special to Ethel. That held all her things, her life force in physical form.
I put the pot down and went to the doorway. Tee was coming back in with Eli in tow.
TJ’s gaze went over my shoulder. “Holy damn. What’s going on there?”
“What’s that?” I heard Eli suck in his breath as he saw what TJ did.
Turning, I understood why they were gap-mouthed. Over the table, weaving between the objects left on the table, was a soft sparkle of violet light. It was as if small dots had been stabbed in the fabric of this plane of existence, and UV light was coming through them.
“Oh my…lordy,” I said channeling my inner Southerner in the emotional surprise. “Is that getting all misty with purple?”
“Ye-up…” came from TJ.
“Guys?” I said.
I felt Rowan come up behind me.
The church itself seemed to respond, along with all four men, “Yeah?”
“I’m gonna need the Ulfberht.”