Well, the honeymoon’s over. And a darn good thing, too. Chad and Ariel
Garrett, the dynamic duo of War-N-Wit, Inc. learned first hand in The Witch that honeymoons can (almost)
kill you. They’re really looking forward
to settling in at Chad’s farm, Pine Whisper Plantation. But Oliver Hedgepath, major domo of the
Resurrection Society, wants them on a case.
And he just won’t take “no” for an answer. Chad and Ariel are in for a real blast from
the past – but whose past?
“This Tear of Isis thing. Say it’s real. What
does it do?”
“They. What do they do. There’re three of them.
If they still exist or ever existed. So what’s one of ‘em doing in the
possession of Hedgepath in a restored house on Jones Street in Savannah, Georgia?”
“What’s Magic Man doing in the middle of a
hundred acres outside a crossroad like Quitman, Georgia?”
“Point taken. The Tears of Isis are supposed to
be just that, of course. Crystalized tears of the Goddess Isis. Discovered in
the Temple of Isis during the excavation of Pompeii in 1764.”
“Pompeii? Not Egypt?”
“Nope. Pompeii. Anyway, what they do is, they
allow anyone with any trace memories of a past life to view them. Their past
lives.”
“Seems sorta iffy to me. If the viewer is the
only one viewing them, they could claim they were anything—anybody.”
“Enter the Seers. One Seer for each Tear. And
they don’t see just their own past lives. When they gaze into the Tear while
another person’s holding it, they see the lives of the other person, not their
own.”
“For
real?”
“That’s the story. Whether it’s real, your guess
is as good as mine. I’m too much of a skeptic. I’ve seen too many things having
nothing to do with magic, just with people, to ever blindly believe any legend
of magic without having the proof in front of my eyes. Or of anything else,
either.”
His voice had darkened. It matched the shadows
in the room thrown by the flickering flames from the fireplace. That law
enforcement background. I took it as further confirmation of my suspicion that all
of his experience wasn’t listed on the Bio page of his website. I knew he’d
seen things, done things, the ordinary person couldn’t imagine and wouldn’t
want to. And I’d never ask about any of it unless he wanted to share. He
continued, “So I don’t believe every magic fairy tale I hear unless I
experience it myself, or know somebody I trust did.”
I stretched my hand out and picked up the
picture again. “Interesting, though. Very pretty. The real thing must be
absolutely beautiful, full of changing colors. It even shows some of the colors
in the picture.”
Chad reached over and took it from my hand.
“Does it? I don’t see anything.”
I looked again. “Hints here and there. Must be
the lighting.”
No comments:
Post a Comment