Seeing Magic (The Queen of the Night Series Book 1) (19 page)

“Healing stones,” Evan whispered to me before I could voice the question. “They must be for Easnadh.” 

I nodded.

Dariene came through the portal. She wore her tiara of amethyst again. She walked straight to me. I stood facing her defiantly, still pissed from the Litha incident.

“Healer, have you found the source of Easnadh’s affliction?”

“Not yet,” I answered honestly.

“I have put my faith in your gifts, but if you cannot find a cure for our sick sister, I will call forth the hidden talents of the other one.”

I could tell from the tone of her voice she was threatening me, but I had no idea with what. “What other one?”

She answered sharply. “There are always two. Two grand-nephews of the Great Seer are born. Two grand-nieces of the Great Healer are born. If you cannot find a cure, I will track down your sister and unleash her repressed gifts. This time I will be cruel.”

I blinked at her. I didn’t have a sister but I wasn’t going to tell her that, watching mutely as she and her entourage turned and disappeared through the crystal wall. I recalled the story I’d been told by the judge. A male child of Healer and Seer lineage would be overwhelmed with both types of magical gifts. They would make him go insane and he would destroy the world.
Corey
…Oh shit.

Chapter Twenty

Dryads

Evan pulled me away from my task of shelving the books people left strewn about the book shop. He led me into Fiona’s office and closed the door behind him before speaking.

“It’s radiation poisoning.” 

Fiona looked up from her desk and blinked. She voiced the question for me. “What is radiation poisoning?”

“The pollution in Warm Spring Run is radioactive. The stuff you’ve been seeing floating on top of the water,” he looked at me, “is particles of a radioactive chemical compound. That’s why you said it looked alive but not alive at the same time. It has a half-life!  The radiation looked like an aura to you.”

“What chemical compound?”  I asked.

“They don’t know yet. The water tested positive for radiation but they couldn’t find any commonly known radioactive chemicals in the water. Now they’re testing for uncommon radioactive chemicals. They’ll need a few more days.”

“Well, it’s a start,” said Fiona. “We can begin treating people for the ingestion of or the inhaling of radiation.”  She looked at me. I made a mental note to research common treatments for this situation.

“Now the local health department will get involved too,” Evan added.

“We should tell Dariene.” I needed to show the queen fairy we were making progress, desperate to keep her away from Corey. I’d convinced Evan to keep our run-in with Dariene to ourselves. If I could convince Dariene to leave my ‘sister’ alone, no one would ever find out how Corey might become the Destroyer. Right now, I figured if Corey had any gifts, and I wasn’t sure he did, they were repressed. If we kept them repressed, the future of the world would be safe…and so would my brother.

“We still need to find out how this chemical is getting into the stream in the first place,” I mused, mostly to myself. Only a complete explanation would satisfy the Sidhe and save my brother.

“Well I may have another clue to help us solve that mystery too,” Fiona continued. “I’ve made a couple of calls and, as it turns out, Deputy Jimmy Wallace, from the Morgan County Sherriff’s Department, knows the owner of Ray’s Salvage Yard. He’s agreed to drop by during his lunch break and share what he knows with us.”

***

We ordered pizza delivered to the break room and sat down with the deputy.

“Ray was a good man.” Deputy Wallace, an imposing person of forty-something with red hair graying at the temples and freckles, came from a founding Warrior family of the clan and had followed in the footsteps of many Wallace ancestors who’d worked in law enforcement. His freckles made his face look kind, which was good, because the rest of him was intimidating. He continued to tell us about Ray Rogers and we listened to every word. “Ray didn’t just own the junkyard. He drove a tow truck, too. He was always willing to go out in a driving rainstorm or the snow to rescue a stranded neighbor. The sheriff steered a lot of business his way.

Unfortunately, his lazy, good-for-nothing son is not like him. After his father died, we heard stories about Jeremy. We couldn’t prove any crimes had been committed, but it was disturbing none-the-less. Jeremy used to drive his tow truck up and down the Interstate highways looking for broken-down vehicles. He would offer to tow the people to safety, for an outrageous sum of money. His dad always charged fair prices.

Jeremy would tow cars to his junkyard and refuse to unhook them unless he was paid extra. He extorted people for hundreds of dollars. We also heard about scuffles over abandoned vehicles. We have rules about how long you can leave your broken-down car parked on the side of the road. You know, you can leave it for a week before we’ll call a tow truck if it’s not in a designated emergency snow route or the highway.

He’d go looking for abandoned vehicles and tow them to the county lot before people would have a chance to make their own arrangements. After, he’d send a bill to the sheriff’s office for the tow fee. Well, naturally we stopped sending him business and told him to cut out all the other stuff. He got real nasty and I haven’t heard from him in almost a year.”

Fiona took up the conversation to give the deputy time to eat his pizza. “I told Jimmy about the problem with the water in Warm Spring Run and how you’all traced it back to Ray’s Salvage Yard.”

Between bites, the deputy replied, “I gave him a call. After I’d introduced myself he told me he’s out of the towing business and tried to hang up on me. He didn’t give me a hello, a how-are-you or anything, so I asked him how his salvage yard was doing. Do you wanna know what he said?”

We all nodded in assent.

“He said he did private business on his private property and it was no concern of the sheriff’s. He said if I had reason to believe anything illegal was going on, I should take my proof to the judge and get a warrant.” 

Our faces fell as one.

“He’s right, unfortunately. I’d have to have real proof a crime had happened before I could get a warrant to check the place out, but don’t worry. I won’t give up, anyone who blusters that much must be up to no good.”

My thoughts drifted back to the horrible nightmare where a crazy man stood laughing over Zoe’s dead body.
How much did I want to bet the crazy man was Jeremy Rogers?
  My nightmare was coming true, and it scared me. I wondered if these dreams were one of my new Seer gifts. I made a mental note to ask Jenny about them. If they were prophetic dreams, I needed to tell someone.

“Hey Evan, do your visions always come true?” I asked with some trepidation.

“No, of course not,” he replied, frowning at me. “The future can always be changed. Our actions determine future events. It’s why Seer gifts are so important to the coven. We make different choices to avoid possible catastrophes. Why do you ask?”

“I was just curious.”

Luckily for me, two huge bugs flew into the room and interrupted us, silencing any more questions. They levitated near Fiona’s face. On closer inspection, I realized they were Sidhelas, as bugs don’t normally wear goatees and tiny breeches. Their light source was turned off, so they looked like blue-black, flying golf balls. I didn’t want to stare at them again, so I stared at Fiona instead, waiting for an explanation. I noticed Deputy Wallace shared my expression. She turned to us as the fairy lights flew out of the break room and down the hall to the staircase.

She said simply, “We’ve been summoned by Dariene to the Temple of the Crossed Rings.”

I had to know. “Where did those things come from?”

She replied, “Oh, I have a magic, crystal mirror in the treatment room. They must have used it as a portal. I have another in my home which is how they summoned me the night we treated Easnadh.”

“How did they get out of the secret room?  Isn’t it locked?”

“Well, they’re fairies. I’m sure they used magic, but you’ve made a good point. Evan will you check to make sure the panels are locked before we leave?”  She turned to Deputy Wallace. “Thank you for your help. I’m sure we’ll be in touch soon.”

He replied, “I’m not letting you go alone!  My job is to protect and serve. After what the fairy queen did to Maggie on Litha I’m damn well gonna go with you to protect her.”

Fiona considered this offer. “Very well, but we’ll have to go in separate cars. I have errands to run after this meeting. Evan, can you drive Maggie?”

“Of course I can.”

“Then I’ll meet you there.”

***

When we arrived at the clearing, I had expected to see Easnadh, but she was not amongst the crowd. Instead, twelve Sidhe stood around, all dressed in green. In addition, I saw both Dariene and Buach. The dozen other fairies looked awful. Even if they weren’t sick, they still seemed depressed. They huddled together and talked in hushed voices as if attending a funeral. When I looked at their auras, the gold in them was muted and almost as tarnished as Easnadh’s. I wondered what had happened. Fiona, Evan and I approached Dariene together. Deputy Wallace stood behind us, looking menacing. I’d expected the queen to address Fiona, since she was the oldest, wisest and highest ranking member of our group, but instead, Dariene looked straight at Evan.

“Ah, Seer, you’ve come too. I take it you’ve
seen
the cause of this distress.”

Evan looked surprised. “No, I haven’t. What’s wrong with the dryads?” 

Oh
, I thought. The group dressed in green was a collection of wood nymphs. Easnadh had dressed in blue because she was a water nymph. I assumed Dariene dressed in purple because it was the color of royalty, but that didn’t explain why Buach also dressed like a wood nymph. I decided this was a topic for another day.

Dariene was telling us why she’d summoned Fiona. “It’s because of what’s happening on top of Sleepy Mountain. The Romans are destroying the entire old-growth grove. They’re not even using the wood for good purpose. They cut down the trees, chop them up and burn them on the spot. Our brothers and sisters of the trees are suffering.”

“We can’t control what the Romans do on private land, Dariene, you know that,” Evan said.

“Nevertheless, you should be aware of it. This destruction will affect other parts of the region. Everything put here by Mother Earth and Father Sky in the Grand Design is interconnected. Missing trees affect the water, the soil, the plants, animals, birds and people around them. However, we’ve asked the Great Healer here for a more practical purpose. Our homeless dryads now suffer from a breathing affliction, much like our dear sister of the stream.” 

No one had to tell me what to do. I examined the wood nymphs with my magical eyesight. Only Deputy Wallace didn’t fully grasp the situation, but at least he didn’t try to interfere. I examined each of the nymphs in turn and looked at Fiona.

“They have the same problem. They aren’t as sick as Easnadh or Zoe. The radiation is only affecting their lungs. There must be a connection between this grove of trees being torn down and the contamination of Warm Spring Run.”

“This would make sense,” Evan said thoughtfully. “The dryads only breathed in contaminated particles in the air. Zoe played in the stream a lot. She probably got the water up her nose and down her throat. Easnadh lived in the stream so she had the greatest exposure to this chemical, whatever it is.”

“Why isn’t anyone else sick?” asked Fiona.

“A lot of other people are getting sick,” I countered. “I saw them at the Lammas Tide breakfast. They just aren’t as sick as Zoe or Easnadh, but several people have slight cases of radiation sickness. They’ll all need to be treated eventually.”

Evan continued my train of thought. “Maybe Zoe became sicker than the others because she’s so small and had an underdeveloped immune system. Angus said at least one of the cows was sick.”

“I wish we knew how to treat radiation sickness,” I finished.

“Wait…I’ve studied how to treat it.”  Deputy Wallace looked happy to be able to make a contribution. All eyes were on him.

“We’re trained in all types of disaster recovery stuff. Let’s see, you said a few people breathed in the chemical. If they inhaled enough of it, they will develop fluid in the lungs. They’ll need the fluid drained out for them to recover, probably in a hospital.”

“I might be able to remove the fluid with healing hands,” Fiona added.

“Good, if they are really sick, they might need heart medication to protect their circulatory system until their respiratory system gets back on track. They should drink lots of fluids, sleep with a humidifier and get lots of rest until their lungs completely heal.”  He continued, “If they swallowed the chemical, they should be given potassium iodine, which will bond with the radioactive particles and protect the thyroid from damage. They may need to have their stomach pumped or flushed. If the radiation is in their blood stream they’ll probably need dialysis and they might contract a bacterial infection because of the damage to the organs, so antibiotics are a good idea.”

“Wow, your memory’s good,” I said.

“Well, my mother’s from a Poet family, so it comes naturally.”

“That’s good for us.”  Plus, it just saved me a couple of hours using Fiona’s dial-up Internet access.

Deputy Wallace finished, “The most important thing is to find the source of the radiation and to get rid of it.”

“Amen,” I said.

“Blessed Be,” responded Dariene who seemed pleased we were making progress.

I breathed a sigh of relief. One by one, Fiona and I treated the wood nymphs for chest congestion and recommended lots of water from a source nowhere close to Warm Spring Run. We had two clues now. We had Sleepy Mountain and Warm Spring Run.

When the fairies had left the clearing, Evan said, “Does anyone know which mountain is Sleepy Mountain?”

We all shook our heads no.

“I’ve got those topographical maps in my Jeep.”

Once back in the parking lot, we spread the map of the Sleepy Creek Watershed on the hood of Deputy Wallace’s cruiser. Sleepy Mountain was just south of Smith Crossroads. It was the same mountain owned by Jeremy Rogers.

I frowned. “If Ray’s Salvage Yard is at the top of that mountain, the trees were cut down from there decades ago.”

Evan said, “But the plat size is huge, it’s almost a hundred acres.”

“And I’ve been to Ray’s Salvage Yard. It can’t be more than four acres at most,” Deputy Wallace added. “So the question is…what is Jeremy doing with the other side of his mountain?  You know, what’s happening on the ninety-plus acres we can’t see from the access road?”