Larkspur (26 page)

Gilfand tipped his head back and forth while
he thought. He returned to his gargoyle form.

“
Oracle,” Gilfand said.
“Are you clairvoyant?”

“
Sure,” Delphie
said.

“
And you?” Gilfand asked
Jacob.

“
I get them confused,”
Jacob said. “What’s clairvoyant?”

Delphie shook her head at him.

“
Clear sight,” Gilfand
said.

“
Okay, sure,” Jacob said.
“Why?”

“
Can you see the queen’s
energy?” Gilfand asked.

“
Sure,” Jacob said at the
same time Delphie said “Of course.”

“
Valerie’s better at it,”
Jacob said. “Delphie and I get flooded by . . .
sights, sounds . . . knowing. She sees
energy.”

“
Did you see the queen’s
energy?” Gilfand asked Valerie.

“
Pale, pinkish white.”
Valerie nodded. “But I couldn’t see it under the dirt.”

Gilfand scowled.

“
Why?” Delphie
asked.

“
I thought I could carry
you up and you could look for my queen’s energy,” Gilfand said.
“Ms. Valerie couldn’t see the queen through the dirt because she is
also blocked by the elder leaves.”

“
Makes you wonder how they
knew so much about fairies,” Sam said.

“
Indeed,” Gilfand
said.

“
What if Jake and I do it
together?” Valerie said. “We used to do it as kids. He can raise me
up. When he does, it gives my gift a boost,
and . . .”

“
It’s worth a try,” James
said.

“
Wait,” Jacob said. “Who
wouldn’t be affected by the elder tree? Who among us isn’t
fairy-kind?”

Gilfand gestured to where Sam was stomping
down the sod. Feeling their eyes, he looked up.

“
What?” Sam
asked.

“
You’re the only one who
isn’t fairy-kind,” Jacob said.

“
So?” Sam asked. “Is that
a surprise? I don’t have any fancy powers either.”

Jacob looked at Delphie, and she nodded.

“
What?” Sam squinted at
them. “I know that look. You want me to do something
spooky.”

“
We . . .”
Jacob said.

“
I hate that stuff,” Sam
said. “It makes me throw up, and . . .”

“
You’d be able to see
Celia,” Delphie said.

Sam stopped his protest. He glanced at Jacob
and then at Valerie.

“
It’s for your
grandchildren,” Valerie said.

“
Don’t do that.” Sam
pointed at her. “I hate it when you take away my free will with
your words.”

“
Sorry, Dad.” Valerie
hugged him.

“
I’m not saying I will do
it, but how would it work if I did?” Sam asked.

“
Val and I will channel
our skills into you like . . .” Jacob
said.

Sam raised a hand and Jacob stopped talking.
Just the thought of the last time they’d done that made Sam
nauseous.

“
How are you going to feel
if I see and talk to Celia?” Sam asked Delphie.

“
Fine.” Delphie shrugged.
“Good. Happy.”

Sam shook his head in disbelief, and she
smiled.

“
Right now, it’s really
our best chance to save Jill,” Valerie said.

Sam gave her a long look before looking at
Jacob.

“
I’m not going up with
that thing.” Sam pointed to Gilfand. “No offense.”

“
None taken,” Gilfand
said.

“
Will you take me up,
son?” Sam asked.

“
I will take you up,
protect you, and bring you back,” Jacob said.

“
If I
die . . .” Sam nodded to Jacob, who
smiled.

“
You won’t,” Jacob said.
“Mom will be there. Gilfand will be there. All you have to do is go
up to a height where you can see the entire island and notice where
the light is.”

“
And the light
is . . .?”

“
Pinkish white,” Valerie
said. “Sparkly.”

“
Like that tutu you wore
all the time when you were a kid?” Sam asked.

“
Like the tutu.” Jacob
nodded.

“
Got it,” Sam
said.

He put his arms around Delphie and held her
close. Whatever he said was lost in the sound of the wind and
nearby sea.

“
We’d better get moving,”
James said. “It’s going to be light in a couple hours.”

Sam was about to turn to Valerie, when he
realized he was rising into the air. Below him, Valerie, Jacob and
Delphie took each other’s hands. Gilfand was flying near him.

He heard a woman’s voice say, “Take my
hands.” Looking up, he saw his beloved Celia.

“
Celia,” he exhaled.
“I . . .”

He noticed he was still rising and looked
down. Jacob and Valerie looked tiny on the grassy shore. He felt
nauseous.

“
Look at me, Sam Lipson,”
Celia said.

He looked back at Celia.

“
I’ve missed you,” Celia
said.

“
I miss you every single
day. Like a hole in my . . .” Sam put his hand over
his heart. “ . . .my whole life.”

She shifted closer to hold him in a hug.

“
Why are you doing this?”
Celia said in a low, intimate voice.

“
This stupid curse took
you from me, from Delphie,” Sam said. “It’ll take Valerie one day.
Hell, it could take Jill tonight. I . . . have
to
do
something.”

As if his words needed a kind of certainty,
he nodded. She smiled.

“
My Sam,” Celia said. “You
are a beautiful man. I’ve only grown to love you so much more since
I’ve transitioned.”

“
Are you and Delphie going
to fight when we die?” Sam’s eyebrow pinched with worry.

“
No,” Celia laughed.
“We’ll share you like we do now.”

He nodded, but his brow reflected his worry.
She laughed.

“
I think we’re high
enough,” Gilfand said. “Any higher and he’ll have trouble
breathing. Are you ready?”

“
It’s a long way down,
Sam,” Celia said.

“
I can do it,” Sam
said.

Celia moved away from him, and Sam saw the
dark night in front of him. He looked down. His stomach heaved.

“
We should go down,” Celia
said. “It’s too much . . .”

“
No,” Sam said. “I would
rather do this a thousand times than have to lose anyone else to
this stupid curse.”

“
But . . .”
Celia started to argue. She saw only determination on Sam’s
face.

“
Would you hold my hand?”
Sam asked.

Celia’s eyes welled. She held out both of
her hands. He took her hands, and for a moment, they saw only each
other.

“
We’ll look together,”
Celia said. “One, two . . .”

“
Three,” Sam said with
Celia.

Sam leaned forward to look. He swallowed
back his nausea.

“
There’s a lot of street
lights in the cities,” Sam said. “I don’t think I’m doing it right.
I can’t . . .”

Sam fell silent.

“
Oh,” he said after a
moment.

“
You see something?”
Gilfand asked.

“
I see sparkling lights,”
Sam said. “But . . . how are we going to figure out
where . . .?”

“
Where are they?” Gilfand
asked. “Can you describe them?”

“
Sure,” Sam said. “If the
island is shaped like a football — an American football, that is —
we’re at the bottom tip.”

Sam pointed to an area on the west coast
midway to the tip of the island, and to one opposite, on the midway
point of the east coast.

“
If you connect the lines
between the dots, including the Viking ship, you’d get one of those
square crosses,” Sam said. “Like they had down there at that
castle.”

“
A Celtic cross,” Celia
said. “Sam, that’s brilliant.”

“
Of course, they’d use her
bones to give their cross power,” Gilfand said.

“
I see him,” Sam said. “He
sees me too.”

“
Who?” Celia
said.

“
Manannán, I’m sure of
it,” Sam said. “He’s walking on the bottom of the ocean, just
beyond the surf. He’s circling the island.”

“
Finishing the cross,”
Celia nodded.

“
That’s only three, Sam,”
Gilfand said. “Your son said the queen was buried at four more
locations.”

Sam closed his eyes to gain some focus and
looked again.

“
I only
see . . .” Sam said. “ . . . the
three.”

“
Let’s be certain,”
Gilfand said. “I’m going to touch your arm. You follow the light to
the spot on the ground.”

Gilfand touched Sam’s arm and he followed
the light to the ground. He looked around. When he knew where he
was, he nodded and flew to the next site. He went to all three
sites.

“
Good,” Gilfand
said.

“
We’ll gather those,”
Celia said. “The three will give us
some
wisdom.”

“
It will make the fourth
easier to find,” Gilfand said.

Sam opened his mouth to say something to
Celia, only to find he was standing on the ground next to Valerie.
For the briefest second, he felt the crushing pain of losing Celia
again. But in his heart, he knew Celia had set him down, at great
cost to herself, because it was what he needed. He smiled and
tapped Valerie on the shoulder. She jumped.

“
Dad!” Valerie hugged
him.

Valerie released him, and Sam gave Delphie a
long hug. He nodded.

“
Why do you look so
intense?” Sam asked. “I saw the dots.”

“
We were able to see them
as well,” Jacob said.

Sam looked over at him. He and James were
leaning over a map of the Isle of Man. He leaned over the map for a
moment before jogging to the shoulder-high grass. Sam retched until
he felt like he couldn’t stand. Valerie came to his side. He stayed
hunched over until he could catch his breath.

“
Not one word,” Sam said.
“Just get on with it.”

Jacob gave his father a clean handkerchief,
and he nodded his thanks.

“
We think they’re here,
here, and here.” James pointed. “This one is easy.”

James pointed to the spot near the north of
the island.

“
That spot is called
‘Cronk Surmark’,” James said. “It’s a Celtic fort, not dissimilar
to this one. It’s never been excavated. Too hard because one side
is a steep mountain slope.”

“
That’s fabulous,” Sam
grinned.

“
This one is also easy,”
James said. “There’s a white quartz stone in the middle of a
suburban street. They call it the ‘White Lady.’”

“
My queen,” Gilfand
said.

“
That’s exactly right,”
James said. “Queen Fand is called the White Lady.”

“
Sounds pretty straight
forward,” Sam said.

“
Yes, a no-brainer,” James
said.

“
We don’t know what this
one is,” Jacob pointed to the fourth point on the Celtic cross, on
the west coast of the Isle of Man near Peel.

Sam looked at James, who shrugged.

“
Nothing?” Sam
asked.

“
Like I said,” James said,
“there’s archeological crap everywhere on this island. It’s one of
the reasons I love living here so very much. Just outside my
doorstep is a glorious trip into history.”

“
So there could be
something here,” Sam said.

“
We just don’t know what,”
Jacob said.

“
I could find it,” Sam
said. “Gilfand took me there. You didn’t get that?”

Jacob and Delphie shook their heads.

“
Why don’t I take that
side?” Sam asked. “You can come with me, James, since you haven’t
been there. By the time you’ve retrieved the other parts of the
queen’s human form, we’ll have figured out where to go.”

“
Good thinking,” Gilfand
said.

“
Everyone ready?” Sam
asked. But only James stood near him. Everyone else had
disappeared. Brigid appeared next to them.

“
Are you ready, Sam?”
Brigid asked Sam.

“
Yes, ma’am,” Sam
said.

They arrived in the early morning on a dark
hillside overlooking the west coast of the island just as it
started to rain.

~~~~~~~~

Friday night — 9:55 p.m. MST

Construction site near the airport

Rodney pinched his nose to keep from
screaming or crying. He fought back the desire to pick up the gas
company executive and toss him into the hole. DeShawn and Jason’s
fists were clenched and their shoulders rolled forward. They were
just untamed enough to throw everything away and simply murder this
man in cold blood.

Of course, the gas company executive was
oblivious to anything but his own wonderfulness.

“
There’s just no way,” the
gas company executive repeated. He touched his chest in a learned
gesture to imply compassion. “I care as much as you do about the
men and women caught down there, but if we extinguish the fire with
dirt we’ll risk contaminating our entire operation. I’m confident
you don’t want to be responsible for that.”