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*

Love Potion #9

by

Claire Delacroix

*

Northern Italy - August 1420

The gypsies slid into the town square as
quietly as the dusk, gold on their earlobes glinting like
starlight, women’s voluminous skirts rustling like the wind. They
clung to the twilight shadows, silent and watchful.

The gypsies came in silk and velvet,
fabulous colors, gold and silver, gems aplenty, their tanned feet
bare. To Lilith’s eyes, her clan was like visiting royalty among
the dour townspeople, a glimmer of something rich and fine that
these peasants would otherwise never know.

She walked proudly in the midst of her
kumpania
, refusing to acknowledge the townspeople’s watchful
silence. There had been a time when the
Rom
’s arrival had
been greeted with cheers in this town. But on this night, suspicion
was in the air, a taint of danger that no one with a nose could
miss.

Cards and palms, even the tang in the wind,
told the
Rom
that something of import would happen here this
night, something with dire consequences for their own fate. It was
as clear as a summoning. A shiver raced over Lilith’s flesh as she
stepped into the square, but she ignored the whisper of her
Gift.

In her secret heart, she admitted that she
was afraid.

Lilith fingered the tarot card hidden
beneath her shawl. It had been the last card Sebastian had drawn,
the card that had seemed so inappropriate at the time.

Lilith could almost feel the warmth from
Sebastian’s fingers still lingering on the card; she ran her thumb
across its painted surface as the crowd parted. She craned her
neck, seeking a glimpse of him in the crowd, seeking an
explanation, seeking reassurance that her uncle had called the
matter wrong.

But Sebastian was not there.

As Lilith’s heart sank and her uncle’s
expression turned grim, the town crier raised his voice. He was a
portly man, obviously filled with self-importance. “As you know, a
woman, a kind and gentle widow has been killed in the sanctity of
her own home.”

The crowd stirred angrily and the gypsies
exchanged glances of concern.

“
We gather this evening to
see justice served, for the guilty culprit is in our own
hands.”

The hangman stepped forward in his dark
hood, something dark tainted the air and the
Rom
instinctively shrank back against the walls. The peasants cheered
in bloodthirsty anticipation as the hangman tied a knot in his
rope.

“
We have the murderer!” the
crier shouted. “We know his name and ‘tis not unfamiliar to you
all.”

And Lilith’s lover was led into the
square.

She caught her breath, her fingers
tightening over the card. Sebastian, so tall and straight, so
handsome, his chestnut hair in disarray, his wondrous eyes flashing
in displeasure. Lilith’s heart thundered, her gaze greedily
devoured the sight of him.

Three whole days she had endured without his
beguiling touch, the echo of his laughter, the warm glint in his
eye.

This was why he had not returned! Relief
made Lilith’s knees weaken. She had not granted her maidenhead in
vain. She cast a triumphant glance to her uncle, but that man did
not even look her way.

Lilith noted that Sebastian’s fine linen
shirt was soiled, as he would never have permitted, had he been
given the choice. His hands were bound behind his back, yet he
managed to give a dignity to his role. There was a confident
swagger to his step.

“
This man” - roared the
crier - “this man is infected with the witchery of the Egyptians!
He killed his own neighbor in a bloodthirsty rage, a rage unlike
anything ever witnessed in him before. The man is enchanted! These
wandering sorcerers have cast demons into his soul, they have made
him other than what he is!”

It was only then that Lilith fully
understood the import of the crier’s words. Her eyes widened in
shock.

“
No!” Lilith called in her
dismay. This must be a cruel jest! She would vouch for her love.
“No, Sebastian is innocent!”

“
Hush!” elderly Dritta
hissed in Lilith’s ears, but Lilith ignored her council.

Sebastian’s head snapped up, his gaze sought
the source of Lilith’s voice, Lilith’s heart leapt when he smiled.
She waved madly, oblivious to the agitated crowd. He
did
love her, after all! He had not come because he could not come.

And surely nothing could come between them
now!

“
Sebastian, Sebastian, I am
here!” The gypsies instinctively stepped back into protective
shadows and closed ranks around Lilith.

“
Lilith!” he roared and
struggled against his bonds for the first time.

“
You see the truth of it,”
the crier declared, his voice filled with disgust. “He is tainted
by vagabonds.”

“
We are not vagabonds!”
Lilith cried angrily, but Dritta drove an elbow into her
ribs.

The councilman spared Sebastian a glance and
raised his voice over the din. “The priest demands you be burned,”
he declared with a cold determination that chilled Lilith’s blood.
“But you are Giorgio’s son.” There was a heavy pause and it seemed
everyone in the square held his or her breath.

Lilith bit her lip and clenched her fingers.
They would release him. Surely they would set Sebastian free.

He was innocent. He had to be!

The crier slanted a heavy look at the
younger man, his low voice carrying over the expectant crowd. “So,
in deference to your father, we choose to hang you.”

“
No!” Lilith fought to be
free of the gypsies encircling her, struggled to go to her
beloved’s side. “This is wrong! It is unfair! Sebastian is
innocent!” Lilith managed to say no more in defense of her lover,
for Dritta clamped an iron hand across her mouth.

“
Fool!” the older woman
muttered. “They will see you dead this very night!” Two cousins
caught Lilith’s arms from the back and held her powerless despite
her struggles.

And as Lilith watched, unable to intervene,
the hangman fitted the noose around Sebastian’s neck.

Lilith’s mouth went dry. They could not do
it. She fought, she bit, but she was sorely outnumbered. Desperate
tears stung her eyes, but there was nothing she could do.

The crier cleared his throat and glared
pointedly to the
Rom
. “The burning,” he declared ominously,
“We will save for the gypsy harlot. We shall burn the
puttana
who bewitched and tainted one of our finest sons.”
The crowd hissed; the gypsies stiffened.

Sebastian had not been bewitched! They were
in love!

“
Lilith!” Sebastian
bellowed as twisted against the heavy rope that bound his hands. “I
promised I would return to you and I will, I
will
! I swear
it to you.”

Lilith bit Dritta’s hand. “Sebastian!” she
managed to cry. “I love you!”

Any answering declaration had no chance to
leave Sebastian’s lips. The hangman tightened the noose and kicked
away the stool beneath the younger man’s feet. Sebastian writhed as
he dangled. Lilith could not bear to watch; she could not bear to
turn away. Every eye was riveted on his struggle, but not a soul
stepped forward to aid him. Lilith changed his name in her mind,
her tears falling on her cheeks.

“
No
!” Lilith
screamed into Dritta’s hand. The
kumpania
beset her again
and she fought against them. They could save him, if they stepped
forward together. She struggled and tried to make herself
understood, but she was overwhelmed.

And suddenly, Sebastian was still.

No
.

The townspeople turned as one, a thirst for
vengeance bright in their eyes. A bevy of burning torches was lit,
one after the other in rapid succession. The square was suddenly
flooded with blinking orange light. The firelight flickered off the
malice in the peasants’ expressions and Lilith’s eyes widened in
sudden understanding of her own peril.

They meant to see that burning done this
very night.

The burning of
her
.

When her family released her, Lilith needed
no urging to run as fast as her feet could carry her. The
Rom
retreated like the wind in the trees, even as the
infuriated crowd lent chase.

Lilith and her
kumpania
fled through
the cobbled streets, racing toward the hills they knew so well,
running for the forest that had sheltered them all these years.

They ran to the growing volume of shouts
behind them. They ran with their hearts pounding like thunder. They
ran aching with betrayal and fear. They ran until they could no
longer breathe. They caught old Dritta beneath the elbows when she
stumbled; they swept children on to their shoulders.

And they ran for their lives.

*

It was only when the town that had once
welcomed them was a small orange glow in the distance, only when
the villagers’ vengeful cries had faded to nothing, that they
halted, panting beneath the protective shadows of the trees. Every
gaze was drawn back to that angry village; every ear strained for
sound of pursuit.

None came.

For now.

Lilith found Dritta by her side once more,
and she braced herself for the older woman’s lecture. But Dritta,
with eerie conviction, plucked the hidden tarot card from beneath
Lilith’s shawl.

“
Fool,” she snorted. Lilith
knew she did not refer to the card itself. Dritta’s lip curled in
disdain, the touch of moonlight on her features making her look
older than she was. “You
knew
better.”

“
It was just a card!”
Lilith protested.

Dritta’s eyes flashed, and her fingers
curled around the edge of the card. “You have the Gift. You can see
beyond others. Your mother’s talent courses through your veins,”
she hissed. “How
dare
you disregard the knowledge entrusted
to you?”

“
I did not know…” Lilith
blinked back her tears, still fighting to understand what had just
happened.

Sebastian was dead.

Lost to her for all time.

The world was devoid of promise. Of hope.
The most magickal summer of her life was over, and there would
never be another.

Sebastian, her lover true, dangled at the
end of a hangman’s noose. Lilith wanted only to hide away and weep
for what she had lost, not answer Dritta’s questions.

But Dritta spat in the grass. “You
knew
; you had to know that the Fool brings change and
choice, transformation and journey. I taught you as much.”

Lilith took a shaking breath, knowing that
no one would respect her showing the weakness of tears. “Sebastian
drew the card,” she said. “And clearly, Sebastian will journey no
longer.”

“
No?” Dritta chuckled to
herself, her response making Lilith look deeply into the older
woman’s eyes. She found an unexpected conviction there, as well as
a twinkle of mischief. “Maybe not in the way that you
will.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Use the Gift you have been
granted, child.” Dritta’s tone was more gentle. “She arched a brow.
“Have you never truly listened to the tales we share? Nor attended
to the cards you read so well? You read for him. You answered his
query about love with your own heart hanging as full as a
pomegranate, ready to be plucked and peeled.”

Lilith blushed.

“
I saw you watch him,
child. I saw your eyes when he came to you for his future. I saw
the look that passed between you two when he entered our camp. I
knew what would happen – and you would have known, too, had you
cared to look.” Dritta shook her head and Lilith knew she had no
secrets from this woman’s perceptive gaze.

Lilith looked away.

Dritta turned the card between them, the
painting upon it catching the moon’s silver light. Her tone turned
thoughtful. “This card, this card of his love, is your card as
well, is it not? Are you this Sebastian’s love?”

Lilith’s tears welled. She bit her lip,
unable to keep from looking back to the distant glow of the
village. Her heart ached with the knowledge that she’d never hear
Sebastian’s laugh again. “You know that I was,” she whispered.

“
And you think love is
something that dies with the flesh?” Dritta snorted, not waiting
for an answer. She gripped Lilith’s shoulder suddenly, her fingers
digging into Lilith’s skin. The younger woman didn’t dare to move.
“You
are
his love, for better or for worse.” He has sworn to
return to you, and a pledge made on the gallows is not readily
evaded.”

Lilith frowned. “But…how?”

Dritta chuckled. “How indeed?” She handed
the card back to Lilith with the courtly air that earned her much
silver from the
gadje
, a mysterious smile on her lips.
Lilith looked down at the card, willing it to give her an
answer.

The Fool spoke of travels, of a journey
beyond your current place, a new beginning, a shucking of an old
skin.

A beginning – like a new life.

Lilith’s eyes widened in sudden
understanding, and she looked to Dritta with astonishment.
“Sebastian will return as a babe!”

Dritta’s smile softened. “As do we all.
Remember?” Lilith nodded, staring down at the card in wonder, and
Dritta tapped her shoulder. “And you, you had best be ready,
child.”