Larkspur (17 page)

Jacob and Seth nodded.

“
These early inhabitants
were killed off, probably all at once, by an invading force,” Seth
said. “There’s evidence of a great battle near the south end of the
island around the time of the Celtic invasion.”

“
Like the kingdom of
Marle,” Jacob said.

“
Yes,” Seth said. “The
Celts took to the island around 3000 BC.”

“
But . . .”
Jacob started.

“
The Celts were supposed
to have killed everyone in the kingdom of Marle,” Seth said. “The
Isle of Man was the last country to join the Celtic
kingdoms.”

“
Okay,” Jacob said. “What
makes you think it’s the kingdom of Marle?”

“
The manner in which the
queen of Marle was able to keep the island hidden,” Seth said. “You
know, in the story . . . uh . . . the
king and queen used their
skills
to keep the kingdom free of intruding
eyes.”

“
And we think that means?”
Jacob asked.

“
There’s a sea god, a
Manannán mac Lir,” Seth said. “He’s a Celtic god, but old, probably
at least as old as the island. He’s the
Man
in Isle of Man.”

“
You think he’s my
ancestor?” Jacob asked.

“
The king of Marle,” Seth
said. “Yes, I think he might be. His specialty is to hide the
island in the sea mist. Prior to the Celts, the island was never
invaded, not even by the Romans. Most people just left the island
and her inhabitants alone. The Vikings eventually took over the
island in the eighth century.”

“
If we don’t know who
exactly created the curse, do we have a chance at breaking it?”
Jacob asked.

“
Sure,” Seth said. “It
only
sort of
matters who created the curse.”

“
Why only sort of?” Jacob
asked.

“
The only reason we need
to figure out who created the curse is to figure out why they did
it,” Seth said. “Once we figure out why this individual put the
curse on your family, we can determine how to make amends — set
things right, if you will — in order to appease the curse. Only
then do we stand a chance of breaking the curse.”

“
Good to know,” Jacob
said. “And you know this because . . .?”

“
Mitch,” Seth said. “He
loved ancient curses, old gods, fairies, mysterious places, stuff
like that. He adored Delphie.”

Jacob smiled.

“
So we have Manannán as
the king of Marle from your story,” Seth said. “One thing you
should know about the Isle of Man is that it’s considered to be the
‘fairy island.’”

“
Fairy island?” Sam
asked.

“
Manannán was married to
an extremely powerful fairy queen named Fand,” Seth asked. “The
result is that the Isle of Man has fairies. There’s even Fairy
Bridge, where it’s a matter of course to say ‘good morning’ and
‘good afternoon,’ or engender bad luck.”

“
Wikipedia?” Jacob
asked.

“
No,” Seth said. “I’ve
been there.”

“
Why are the fairies
important?” Sam asked.

“
Gargoyles seem to me to
be a type of fairy,” Seth said.

“
The gargoyles
are . . . what?” Jacob asked.

“
Don’t they seem like
fairies?” Seth asked. “They certainly are small. They have wings
and can manifest magic that affects the world.”

“
But . . .?” Jacob started.

“
They don’t seem like
fairies to you,” Sam said, “because they don’t have long legs,
little skirts, and large breasts, like Disney fairies.”

“
Sure,” Jacob
said.

“
Fairies are traditionally
fairly frightening creatures,” Seth said. “The Irish are terrified
of them. You won’t find an Irish person visiting a Fairy Bridge.
Maybe an Irish-American, but not someone from the island. Ask John
Drayson or his brothers. They don’t trust fairies at all. And you
know what?”

“
What?” Jacob
asked.

“
The Irish consider
ancient burial grounds, like the burial grounds of the people we’re
talking about, to be dangerous. They call all ancient ruins, even
those buried in mounds, ‘fairy forts.’ To this day, there’s a
belief that if you disturb a fairy fort, you’ll experience
fairy
revenge
. In
fact, it’s believed the downfall of Seán Quinn was due to fairy
revenge.”

“
Seán Quinn?” Jacob
asked.

“
He went from being the
richest person in Ireland in 2008 to declaring bankruptcy in 2011.
Lost over 4.7 billion pounds,” Seth said. “You know what he did
between 2008 and 2011?”

“
Should I?” Jacob
asked.

“
He moved a fairy fort on
his property,” Seth said. “That’s widely believed to be the cause
of his bad luck.”

“
And this fits with the
story . . . how?” Sam asked.

“
If Manannán is the king
of Marle in your story,” Seth said. “Then the queen of Marle
is . . .”

“
Fand, the fairy queen,”
Jacob said. “That means the gargoyles are her subjects, which is
why she was so close with them.”

“
Exactly,” Seth said. “It
also means, at the very least, that the Isle of Man was inhabited
by fairy people. The island’s motto is in Latin —
Quocunque Jeceris Stabit —
Whithersoever way you throw it, it will stand. That’s a
reference to the triskelion Manannán turned into to repel an
invader.”

“
And that
means . . .?” Sam asked.

“
No idea,” Seth laughed.
“But it might explain why the gargoyles speak Latin.”

“
What about the curse!”
Jacob felt a wave of hopeless impotency. “How is any of this
helping to break the curse?”

“
We’re getting there,” Sam
said. He put his hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “We have to understand
the landscape of the story first.”

Jacob hugged his father. They held each
other for a moment before Sam said, “You can go ahead, Seth.”

“
Everything okay?” Seth
asked.

“
It’s hard to be stuck
here,” Sam said. “We’re active people. It feels like there’s
nothing we can do — for ourselves and those who are dying above
us.”

“
I know how you feel,”
Seth said.

“
Yes, I knew you would,”
Sam said. “Go ahead.”

“
Now, I’ll have to check,
but I think Manannán was supposed to be the first ruler of the Isle
of Man,” Seth said.

“
And that means?” Jacob
didn’t try to keep his frustration from his voice.

“
His queen may still be on
the island,” Seth said.

“
What?” Jacob and Sam
asked at the same time.

Just then, the earth around them began to
shake.

“
Hang on,” Sam yelled to
Jacob.

Jacob dropped to a crouch. The earth shook
so violently that the ancient speaker phone fell off the wall.

“
What’s happening?” Seth’s
voice came from the speaker.

“
Earthquake,” Sam
yelled.

After a few minutes, the rumble began to die
down.

“
We’re okay,” Jacob
said.

“
Jake, look,” Sam
said.

Daylight peeked through one of the sewer
lines.

“
What was that?” Jacob
asked.

Probably the Isle of Man,” Seth said. “See
anyone familiar?”

Jacob was about to say no when he saw the
outline of a woman in the daylight coming from the sewer. He
squinted.

“
Valerie?” Jacob peered
forward. “How . . .?”

“
No time, Jake,” Valerie
said. “We’ve got a curse to fix.”

She held out her arms and hugged Sam.

“
What’s next?” Jacob
asked.

“
Time for you to go to the
castle,” Seth said.

“
But . . .”
Jacob started.

“
Not your castle,” Seth
laughed. “In Denver, young King Marlowe lives in a Castle with his
Queen Jillian.”

Jacob scowled while Seth laughed for a
while.

“
We
should . . .”

“
You should check the
castles first,” Seth said. “There are six on the island, but I bet
you’ll find what you’re looking for in Castle Rushen.”

“
Castle what?” Sam
asked.

“
Castle Rushen,” Seth
said.

“
Why there?” Jacob
asked.

“
There’s a female ghost
said to be Fand,” Seth said. “Like the queen of Marle, she had four
boys. The ghost is supposed to be as old as the island. She
inhabits Castle Rushen because it was built on the spot where her
beloved was killed.”

“
This Manannán,” Jacob
said.

“
The king of Marle,” Seth
said.

“
Are you ready?” Valerie
asked.

“
Almost,” Jacob
said.

“
The ghost is a mess,”
Seth said. “Completely unpredictable.”

“
How . . .?” Jacob asked.

“
Mitch,” Seth said. “Long
before it was popular, we went around debunking ghost
stories.”

“
And this one?” Jacob
asked.

“
There’s a female ghost in
that hall,” Seth said. “I’m going to call a friend who lives on the
island. If he’s on the island, and has time, I’ll ask him to meet
you at Castle Rushen. He works for the government, so he’ll be able
to get you in anywhere you want to go.”

“
How will I know him?”
Jacob asked.

“
He looks like James
Bond,” Seth laughed.

“
Come on, Jake, let’s go!”
Valerie said.

“
Hold on,” Jacob said.
“Why are you so impatient?”

“
I want to be done with
this,” Valerie said. “I’m pissed that my life is affected by some
ancestor’s unresolved business.”

Jacob held out his arms, and she let him hug
her.

“
Let’s go,” Valerie
said.

“
We need to know what
we’re getting into,” Sam said.

Valerie gave a grudging nod.

“
Call me and tell me what
she says,” Seth said. “Or what you find.”

“
I will,” Jacob
said.

“
Good luck,” Seth
said.

Jacob looked at the phone. Unable to think
of what to say, he just hung up.

“
Ready, son?” Sam
asked.

“
One more thing,” Jacob
said.

Sam and Valerie turned to look at him.

“
MOM!” Jacob yelled. “Mom,
I need you!”

Celia’s ghost appeared. Able only to feel
her presence, Sam smiled his hello.

“
Mom!” Valerie squealed
with delight. “I can see you! Mom!”

Valerie held out her hands; Celia touched
the palms of her hands, but her eyes were on Sam. He stood there
smiling and looking around the room.

“
Delphie’s teaching a
class in psychic immersion. She needs my help,” Celia said. “What’s
going on?”

“
I need to break the curse
on the Marlowe males,” Jacob said.

“
Right now?” Celia asked.
“Does this have to do with my grandsons’ birth?”

“
Yes,” Jacob
said.

“
By all means, let’s get
going,” Celia said.

~~~~~~~~

Friday night — 8:25 p.m. MST

Jill waited until she knew Katy was sound
asleep before she pulled the door nearly closed. Katy had made Jill
promise to wake Katy when she went into labor. Jill put a hand on
her belly. It didn’t seem like the boys were coming anytime
soon.

Jill looked up across the loft. The
girlfriends were standing in the kitchen talking with Yvonne. The
kids were playing video games in a corner of the loft. Her mother,
grandfather, and Bruno were talking on the couch near the gas
fireplace. She glanced over at the girlfriends. Sandy made her “get
going” gesture. Heather and Tanesha nodded. Jill gathered her
resolve and went to the bookcase that held her old books. She took
out a photo album and went to where her mother was sitting.

“
Jillian,” Anjelika looked
up at her. “How are you feeling?”

“
Good,” Jill nodded.
“While we have a moment . . .”

“
Sit down.” Anjelika stood
up and gestured for Jill to sit down in the chair across from
them.

“
I’d rather stand,
thanks,” Jill said. Her throat pinched with nervousness and her
mouth was suddenly parched. “Um . . .”

“
You look nervous,” Bruno
said. “Something you need?”

Jill shook her head. Scooter jumped onto the
armchair behind her.

“
I know you’re wondering
why I asked you here,” Jill said so quickly that her mother and
grandfather looked confused.

“
Jillian, darling, what
are you saying?” Otis asked.

“
You
said . . . and then I didn’t know. I mean, how could
I know? And really, someone should have told me,
but . . .” Jill swallowed hard. She raised her index
finger as if to point. “No one ever asked me.”

She glanced at her mother and Otis. They had
no idea what she was saying.