Bloodstone (A Stacy Justice Mystery) Page 10

  “It looks like what I’ve seen on rune stones,” Ivy said.

  I nodded and turned on my laptop. “The structure of the letters is similar, yes, but runes are typically Germanic. The Celts never used rune stones for divination.” I looked up at her. “But they did use this.”

  Chance said, “You mean this is a magic language?”

  The laptop was still booting up next to the note on the bed. I looked at Chance, pointedly. I had never been all that comfortable with the word magic, or at least, the present day connotation of the word. As Birdie had taught me, magic is simply the culmination of energy and will.

  “It was a secret, ritualistic language used in the 5th and 6th centuries across Celtic lands. Sometimes for spellcasting, sometimes in divination or to call the gods, but also to pass messages. It was so secret, in fact, that the alphabet was guarded by priests and scholars alike. When they needed a written record of something, they used Greek letters. Confused the hell out of Julius Caesar who assumed the Gauls felt the written word was taboo. He wrote about it in his Commentaries on the Gallic War. Of course, the real reason was to protect Ireland from the Romans, which Caesar never did invade.”

  Chance said, “They certainly didn’t cover that in my history class.”

  “You didn’t attend Birdie’s after-school specials,” I said.

  I keyed in my password.

  “So how do you read it?” Chance asked.

  I explained that on the page, Ogham is read from bottom to top and the twenty-five letters represent sacred trees and plants (hence the word Ivy popping out at me).

  “It’s also a sign language.” I pulled up Google and tapped the keys.

  Ivy read over my shoulder. “The Book of Ballymote. Is that like the Blessed Book of the Geraghtys?”

  “Sort of.” I told her the story.

  The Book of Ballymote was written in 1390 inside the Ballymote Castle in County Sligo, Ireland. Commissioned for Tonnaltagh McDonagh for his own clan, the book was compiled by Manus O’Duignan, Solomon O’Droma, and Robert McSheedy—prolific scribes of the time.

  The book was a compilation of historical events—such as the life of Saint Patrick, the history of the Jewish people, Christian kings, and the fall of Troy. It was also imbedded with valuable documents like the Book of Invasions and the Book of Rights, the triads, genealogies of important Irish clans and kings, maps of the land, a history of Celtic women, poetry and prose (including a copy of Aeneid) and of course, the Ogham alphabet and language.

  The book itself has had quite a history. For over a hundred years, it remained in the possession of the McDonaghs of Corran. It was then stolen by a member of the O’Donnell clan where it stayed until the Flight of Earls in 1603. The manuscript was then lost until 1620 when it was donated to Trinity College in Dublin. It sat in the library there until thieves stole it once again in 1767. Eighteen years later, it resurfaced in Burgundy, France and made its way back to Ireland where it was preserved by the Royal Irish Academy.

  “Makes you wonder what was in there that was valuable enough to steal,” Chance said.

  I had never thought about it before. That book sure made its way around the continent.

  “They finally made copies of it in the late 1800s, but I think the original is still in the hands of the Royal Irish Academy.”

  Ivy read over my shoulder again. “It says here that the work opens with a drawing of Noah’s Ark, but the first written page has been lost.”

  “Huh,” Chance said, “that’s interesting.”

  “Very interesting,” Ivy agreed.

  “Let’s focus on the task at hand, kids.” I climbed onto the bed and situated the computer in front of me. I asked Chance to grab a notebook and a pen and told Ivy to turn out the light. They both then sat across from me on the bed. Ivy’s notebook in her lap.

  We had three hours before my lunch meeting to decipher the note and I didn’t want to waste it wondering about a missing page of an ancient text from another clan. However, one fleeting thought occurred to me before we began.

  Where was our book?

  FORTY-TWO

  My phone vibrated as we were finishing up. The clock on the computer read 12:02.

  I rose from the bed and stretched. Chance must have noticed me wince because he asked if I wanted some aspirin. I did.

  Ivy went to get us some water and I checked my phone. A text from Birdie.

  I am waiting, Anastasia.

  Leave it to my grandmother to make an appointment and not inform me. She never asked me to meet her back at the house or anywhere for that matter. What was she waiting for?

  Chance dropped two aspirin in my hand and asked when my stitches were coming out.

  “Oh crap,” I said. “Birdie was supposed to remove them today after breakfast.” Oops. Guess that was what she meant.

  Ivy handed me a bottled water and I downed the aspirin.

  “Why don’t we move to the kitchen table?” I suggested.

  The process of interpreting the note was tedious on the brain and a strain on the eyes. Each symbol in the Ogham alphabet stands for a letter that also represents a tree or plant. For the ivy vine, it’s one vertical slash with two horizontal lines across it. Like a plus sign with an extra slash. So to interpret, we needed to figure out the letters that made up the words, find the words that were circled in the English text, put them all together from bottom to top, then reorganize the structure so that it made some sort of sense.

  If we screwed it up, we’d have to start all over again.

  Ivy and Chance had both taken notes as I read the letters off. Now we just had to combine the two together.

  Except I had about three appointments to attend today and the first one began five minutes ago.

  “Chance do you have a job today?” I asked.

  He shook his head and I pulled him aside.

  “Would you mind keeping an eye on Ivy? I have to go into the office for a little bit and then get my stitches out, but I shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.” I hoped.

  I still needed to find out where Fiona had stashed my things and especially get the Blessed Book. There had to be some clue in it about all this. At the very least, maybe I could cast a spell to call on Maegan in a scrying session. Surely she would have some answers.

  “Sure, I guess, but what about this?” He pointed to the pages of notes and the article spread across the counter.

  “The hard part is over. Ivy can put it together, I’m sure.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Maybe you can help?”

  “Puzzles are more my little brother’s thing than mine,” he said. “But I’ll give it a shot.”

  I didn’t want to push my luck but I had a lot of running around to do today. “Can I borrow your truck?” I smiled wide and said, “Please. I’ll take good care of it.”

  Chance eyed me suspiciously. “Your Jeep ended up in the bottom of a lake not too long ago, Angel Eyes.”

  “That wasn’t my fault. I almost never drive my car across thin ice.”

  He sighed, scratched his head and reached around my waist for the key ring on the counter. He dangled the keys in front of my face briefly, leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “Try to make it home in one piece.”

  “I’ll take good care of your baby. Bring it home without a scratch, I promise.”

  Chance held my eyes. “I wasn’t talking about the truck.”

  He brushed his lips against mine, briefly, then backed up.

  I caught Ivy watching us. “I have to go out for a little while. Think you can complete the decoding, Ivy?”

  She saluted me. “Piece of cake, sista.” Then she snapped her fingers and said, “Hey can I tell him about—” her eyes slid to Chance “—you know.”

  I assumed she was referring to the unfortunate demise of Birdie’s guest this morning. “Knock yourself out.” I called for Thor and we headed for the door.

  Just before I closed it, I heard Chance say, “Who brought the cat?”

  Ch
ance has a monster of a truck, so I felt pretty safe once I got inside. But something was off, something felt...naked. A quick glance around made me realize I had none of my talismans with me.

  Since the fire, I made sure I had a little protection stashed in every corner of my life. At the cottage, there are two sardonyx stones guarding the entrances to prevent crime. A clear quartz dangles from my rear-view mirror for safe travels and my office drawer has a sachet of angelica seeds, mugwort and horehound. There’s even a vial of rose geranium oil in my gym bag, not to mention jewelry in every gemstone you can imagine in my jewelry box.

  Right now, though, I didn’t even have my amethyst necklace. I did have Thor however, who was wondering why we weren’t moving yet and told me so by bellowing long and loud. The dog lived for car rides.

  That’s when I noticed he was still wearing the tiger’s eye locket with the pennies inside.

  Tiger’s eye has been worn for protection for centuries. It’s known to ward off curses and fight any form of dark magic. It also protects our four-legged loved ones.

  I unclipped the gemstone from Thor’s collar and said, “I’m just going to borrow this for a while, buddy. Soon as I can get to my own things, you’ll have it back.” Thor agreed to the arrangement by nibbling my ponytail and I started the truck.

  Two cars I recognized as Parker’s and Derek’s were in the lot when I pulled up to the news office. The key to the building was on my key ring, wherever that was, so I had to buzz the front entrance for them to let me in. I waited for the buzz back sound while Thor assaulted a shrub.

  No buzzing sound came.

  I pressed the button again. And again.

  “What the hell?” I muttered.

  The back door was a steel number, but I tried it anyway and got nowhere. I noticed a light from inside the second floor conference room on my way back around to the front door. Was it on a minute ago? I couldn’t be sure. Maybe the intercom was broken?

  I sent Parker and Derek each a text.

  U there?

  I waited.

  No response. Perfect.

  I circled the building one last time, Thor trailing behind.

  That’s when I saw it.

  A spider’s web over the back door. It was a big sucker too. My stomach was sloshing like a roller coaster and fear gripped me.

  Uninvited guest.

  Thor barked. He was standing in front of the stone wall that wrapped the building. It was just high enough that I might be able to peek in the window.

  Maybe it was nothing. Maybe they were talking to a citizen about a lead. Maybe someone saw them pull up and they invited him in for chili.

  Anything was possible.

  The boots had some good traction and it was only one floor up so I thought, how hard could it be?

  Anyone who has ever had a sadistic gym teacher who brought out that stupid rope to climb knows—it’s pretty freaking hard.

  After I slid down the wall for the third time, breaking every single fingernail in the process, I finally figured out that Thor was hollering at me. I turned to see him standing in the bed of the truck. Which, of course, made much more sense than pretending to be Spiderman.

  It’s a humbling moment when you realize your dog is smarter than you.

  I hopped in Chance’s truck, drove it around, climbed in back with Thor and we both jumped from the cab to the wall.

  When I looked in the window, I screamed.

  Thor acted.

  IVY GERAGHTY’S PERSONAL BOOK OF SHADOWS

  by Ivy Geraghty

  Entry #13

  Message received! I, Ivy Geraghty Warrior Goddess (that’s what mom always called me anyway. I know about six forms of martial arts that end in ‘do’. That’s right—I can kick ass in any language) have decoded the secret message left by my mother. This is too important to wait. We must move fast for the Enemy is closer than we think. I rush to my sister at once!

  -Ivy Geraghty, Junior Apprentice Warrior Goddess (in training)

  FORTY-FOUR

  Great Danes are sensitive dogs, highly attuned to human emotions. If you scold them, they’ll hide under the bed for about a week. Granted, you can still see them because the bed will be two feet off the ground, but you get the picture. Because they are such soft souls they want nothing more than to please their owners, but Thor is an alpha male with a capital A.

  So when I shouted “NO” it didn’t much matter because he had already crashed through the window.

  I climbed in after him as carefully as I could but I still managed to slice my arm on a jagged glass shard.

  Derek and Parker were both lying on the carpet, motionless.

  My young photographer was closest so Thor ran to him first, licking his eyes, ears and nose and flipping up Derek’s hand with his giant muzzle.

  Parker was lying face down on the ground and I ran to him as I reached for my phone.

  It wasn’t there.

  “Shit, I just had it!”

  Derek moaned and Thor and I switched places. He started slobbering all over my boss.

  “Derek! Can you hear me? Are you hurt?” I noticed a golf ball sized lump on the top of his head.

  He groaned, then coughed as Thor nudged Parker.

  “Derek, what happened? Come on, talk to me kid.” I patted his arm gently. He twitched.

  Behind me, I heard Parker say, “Why am I wet?”

  I called Thor back and hustled toward my boss. There was a crockpot on the counter next to the coffee station. Napkins, bowls, spoons and a towel next to it. I grabbed the towel and handed it to Parker as he sat up.

  “Why am I on the floor?”

  Good question. “What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked.

  Derek was sitting up too. I went to the sink and wet two paper towels, handed one to each of them.

  “I plugged in the slow cooker to heat the chili,” Parker said, counting on his fingers. “Derek set the bowls down. We waited a bit, but you were late so then I was going to head to your office to grab your contact list. I wanted to call your grandmother, let her know Derek would be stopping by.”

  I asked, “Did you see anything?”

  Derek stood up and rubbed his neck. “Nothing. Didn’t see anyone, didn’t hear anything.”

  “Someone had to have delivered that lump to your head. Which entrance did you come in?” I asked.

  They had both come through the back door.

  “Should make sure it’s still locked,” I said. Someone could have run out after we came through the window.

  Parker stood. “No, don’t do that. What if someone is still here?”

  Another good point. “Right.” I felt moistness on my arm. The cut wasn’t too deep, but I was bleeding. I reached for a paper towel to mop it up and went to examine Thor.

  “Either of you have a phone? I dropped mine coming through the window.”

  Derek looked at the gaping hole. “Holy shit. You did that? Who do you think you are, Bat Girl?”

  “Actually Thor did that.” The dog had only minor cuts on the top of his head, thankfully. I hugged him and kissed his nose. He puffed his chest out and sat. “He thinks he’s The Incredible Hulk because Lolly dyed him green last St. Patrick’s Day.”

  Parker said, “That’s gonna cost me a fortune.” He pulled out a chair, sat and laid his head on the table.

  “Shea, are you okay?”

  “Peachy.” He did not lift his head. I noticed he didn’t have a lump.

  Derek reached into his pocket and said, “I got my cell phone.”

  “Just call Leo, Derek. Don’t tie up the 911 system,” Parker said.

  “Are you serious?” I asked.

  “What? It’s not life or death,” he said.

  “But what if there is someone still here?” I asked.

  Parker looked at the window. Or rather, the lack thereof. “Pretty sure the Dynamic Duo scared off whoever it was.”

  He got up and went to assess the damage. I followed.

&n
bsp; “Do you need to go the hospital, Parker?” I asked.

  “Nah.”

  “You sure?”

  He leaned over, whispered in my ear, “I fainted.”

  I wrinkled my brow, “What?”

  “I saw Derek drop and I fainted.”

  I whispered back, “Did you see who did it? What he was hit with?”

  Behind me, Derek said. “I can’t get Leo.” He walked over as Parker shook his head at me. “I’ll call the station. Try to reach Gus. What are you two looking at?” Derek asked as he dialed.

  I looked out the window and just as I was about to say ‘nothing’, I saw it.

  A white deer.

  Ghost of the forest.

  She paused, looked right at me and I felt a bolt of electricity run through my veins. The sun beamed right in my eyes for an instant. Then she was gone.

  “Did you see that?” I asked.

  “See what?” Parker and Derek both said.

  I turned to face them. “That deer. She just ran across the open field.”

  They didn’t.

  When I turned for another glimpse, Ivy was in the truck bed. “Psst!”

  I nearly wet myself she startled me so bad. I held up a finger, signaling her to be quiet for a second.

  Derek was saying, “Not sure if anything is missing. We haven’t checked it out yet, thought we’d call you guys first. My camera and my wallet are still with me, though.”

  Parker excused himself to use the bathroom and I turned back to the window. “What are you—” I jumped because she was now on the wall and we were nose to nose. “Stop that! What are you doing here?” I hissed.

  “I deciphered the code, thought you wanted to know right away. It wasn’t easy I tell you, I think I should get extra credit or like a merit badge or something...” Ivy was still chattering away when I heard Derek ask Gus, “So what’s the story on the stiff they picked up over at the Geraghty House?”

  “Shh,” I said to Ivy, “I need to hear this.”

  Derek laughed, “Come on, man. You can’t be serious.” He paused. I felt Ivy tense. “He didn’t just get up and walk away.” Derek laughed again and then immediately closed his mouth.