Woman King Read online

  “That is Nadia?”

  Elsa nodded. “You were expecting a pointy hat and a magic wand?”

  “When you said old magic, I guess I got an image in my head of someone more scary looking,” I said, cringing at how stupid I sounded.

  “I said o-l-d magic, not black magic,” Elsa said with a laugh. “But don’t be fooled. Nadia can be very scary when she needs to be.”

  Nadia looked up and acknowledged us as we approached. She and Elsa began conversing in a language that sounded vaguely like Russian. The two chatted for a few minutes, each one periodically looking over at me. Finally, Nadia turned to face me completely. “This is going to hurt,” she said, sizing me up. “But it will be over quickly.”

  I glanced around the lake, taking in our surroundings. There were a few other walkers strolling nearby, but for the most part it was empty. I wasn’t sure how this old magic was supposed to work, but I was pretty sure we didn’t want any witnesses. Nadia picked up on my thoughts and shook her head.

  “I will come to you, to your home, in a few days,” she said. “In the meantime, I need something of yours, a hair or a fingernail.”

  I looked over at Elsa at a loss, never having been a party to this kind of request before. In response, she yanked a hair off my head and handed it to Nadia. The elderly witch immediately reached into the pocket of her cardigan and took out a white handkerchief. Carefully, she put the hair inside the cloth and folded it closed. Then she returned the material to her pocket.

  “How will I know when to expect you?” I asked, once again exposing my ignorance. But the old woman smiled and patted my arm.

  “Don’t worry, I will find you.”

  I wasn’t worried. I had read Nadia’s intentions while we were standing together and I was certain she meant me no harm. It was hard to tell her age, but she was well over 200 years old, judging by the color of her aura. I was getting good at reading tones and hues, and hers were not the stuff of the modern world. After a few more moments of pleasantries, we said goodbye and parted.

  A few days later, I was working on my laptop at home when there was a knock on the door. Lily was over, sitting on the couch reading a book. Elsa was in the living room doing yoga. “It’s Nadia,” Elsa said from the other room, rising from her mat to open the door.

  It seemed rude to stay seated, so Lily and I both got up and walked to the door to greet her. In the dusk light, Nadia looked much younger. She arrived with another colorful headscarf covering her hair, but up close her skin was moist and pale, almost flawless. She caught me scrutinizing her. “Thanks to the old ways, I age more slowly than one might think,” she said, looking at me directly.

  Before I could ask what her secret was, she urged us to move in to the kitchen. The four of us walked in, and I took a seat at the peninsula. Nadia stood at the counter, unpacking a small bundle she had removed from her sweater pocket. Slowly, she unrolled the cloth to reveal a small brown glass jar filled with a clear liquid, and a paintbrush. The brush was made of a dark wood and was ornately decorated with symbols I could not decipher. The hairs of the brush were stark white and shaped into a point.

  “Are you left-handed or right-handed, “ Nadia asked, grabbing my attention away from her supplies.

  “Right,” I said as she placed the jar and brush on the counter.

  “OK then. We’ll do your left hand because it will be sore for a day or two.”

  This conversation made me a little uneasy. I had a vision of my left arm blackened and hanging limply from my side. Lily came up behind me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t be scared,” she said quietly. “I’ve seen this kind of old magic before many times. It will feel a little like getting a tattoo. A short sting, and then the next day your skin will feel as if it has been burned.”

  I washed my left forearm in the sink and dried it. Then, following her directions, I laid my arm on the counter. Nadia removed her heavy cardigan, saying she was warm, and instructed Elsa to bring her a candle and some salt. Elsa brought both items to her and took a step back.

  “Dim the lights,” Nadia said to no one in particular. Lily got up and turned off most of the lights in the kitchen, leaving a single bulb above the stove for illumination. Then Nadia lit a small white candle and picked up the glass bottle. She ran the flame under the bottle several times and then tilted the candle until it began to drip wax onto the counter.

  “North. South,” she chanted in her Russian-tinged English. “East. West. These are the directions in which we travel.” She continued to drip wax until the face of a compass appeared. When she was done, she asked Lily to slowly sprinkle salt along the wax pattern as she spoke. Nadia ran the flame of the candle under the bottle one more time and then began to murmur the words of a spell under her breath. Slowly she unscrewed the cap on the bottle and handed the candle to Elsa. Then she picked up the paintbrush. Symbols began to glow when she clasped the handle. Nadia dipped the brush into the jar and continued to speak.

  “Subnoto. Signum. Terminus.”

  As soon as the brush touched my arm it began to sting. I had expected her to draw the images on my arm, adding each site I had seen on the map. Instead she was running the brush up and down the length of my arm, much the same way a painter would try to cover a wall. As my arm was coated with the liquid, exact copies of the line drawings I had seen on the map began to appear. I’m not sure how long it took her to complete the process. I was transfixed, watching the map take shape on my arm. The pain was no less and no more than what Nadia and Lily had promised. It stung and my arm burned, but I was almost too distracted by the magic to be uncomfortable.

  When Nadia was finished, she asked Lily to put the last of the salt on the wax compass on the counter. Then the old witch placed the brush in the flame of the candle and said “Termino.” The hairs of the brush glowed, but did not catch fire.

  I looked down at my arm. There were a half dozen line drawings sitting at the surface of my skin, all angry red and swollen at the edges.

  “Can I touch?” I asked, hoping I could put a cold cloth or some ice on my arm. Nadia nodded and took a small clay jar out of the other pocket of her sweater, which I was beginning to suspect was bewitched to hold anything she needed. She opened the pot and moved it under my nose several times so I could pick up the fragrance. “Calendula flowers,” she said, as I smiled at the scent. “It will help your skin heal.” Nadia rubbed the salve on my arm and asked Elsa to bandage it for the night. “In the morning, you can remove the bandage,” she added, as she began to pack up her belongings.

  “What will it look like tomorrow?” I asked, worried there would be some big, ugly mess on my arm.

  “The map will be visible for the next few days, but only to you,” she continued. “It will disappear and only return when you request it.”

  “Request,” I repeated, but Nadia shook her head.

  “Not out loud. All you need to do is think about the map to see it. The map is bound to you now.” I stared at my arm, marveling at how, for the second time in recent weeks, I’d managed to stamp myself with permanent ink.

  “There is one more thing,” Nadia said, interrupting my thoughts. “The map will change.”

  This caught everyone’s attention.

  “How do you mean?” Lily asked.

  Nadia fixed a stare on the three of us, much like a schoolteacher dealing with an inept student. “The magic that binds the map is a part of the same spell that creates the portals. If the locations change, or a route is blocked, you will see it.”

  “And if I leave San Francisco?” I asked, thinking this handy information.

  Again, Nadia fixed me with eyes that spoke volumes about my inexperience. “The map will display the portals located in the place where you are. If your arm is blank, it means there is no exit.”

  That sounded ominous.

  “I think it’s time for tea,” Lily interjected, thankfully.

  We made Nadia a cup of tea and the four of us sat in amicable silen
ce for a few minutes. Finally the old woman stood up abruptly and declared that she was tired and wanted to leave.

  “I will walk you,” Elsa offered, but Nadia declined, saying a walk in the crisp night air would do her some good.

  When we reached the door, Nadia asked for my hand and began to examine my palm. She stood quietly for a few moments and then spoke. “You are destined for great things, Olivia. You have a long life line and…” Nadia had stopped speaking.

  “And what?” I prodded.

  “You have a great adventure ahead,” she said, almost squinting at my palm. “I see two great loves will enter your life.”

  I replied with my own question. “Did I make the right decision joining the Council?”

  Nadia squeezed my hand and stepped closer to me to ensure only I could hear her whispered words. “That was not your choice, miloska,” she said. “Women kings are born and must accept their fate.”

  “There is no such thing,” I said back.

  Nadia began to leave. “Oh, but there is,” she said nodding. “There is.” And then she quickly walked down the stairway, on to the sidewalk and into the night.

  I remained in the doorway, unsure of what to think. I decided it was better not to mention too much to Lily or Elsa, who’d stayed in the kitchen. I knew Nadia wasn’t crazy, but she was old and maybe a little bit nostalgic for a different time. I walked back into the kitchen to find Elsa tearing a linen dish rage into strips for my arm.

  Lily broke the silence. “OK, tell us: Did she read your palm?”

  I nodded. “Yes. She said I would live a long life and have two great loves. I assume she meant the two of you,” I said, trying to make a joke out of it. But neither Lily nor Elsa was laughing.

  “Nadia is a great seer,” Lily said. “If she said love, she means it.”

  I found the entire conversation a little overwhelming after my cartography session. “How will I ever find one love, let alone two, when I’ve got a campaign to run and you two as my chaperons every evening?”

  “Whatever Nadia told you is going to come true, Olivia. So you’d better be prepared,” Lily said, undeterred.

  ****

  CHAPTER 19

  Fortunately, I didn’t have time to dwell on fortune cookie predictions, or the mysterious old woman who doled them out. My arm, while tender, was healing nicely and, as Nadia had said, the images were invisible to everyone but me. That made my next job easier, as I was off to find the head of the Democratic Party and convince him to not run a candidate against Levi.

  The expression “three is a crowd” holds true for both romance and politics. A three-way race is a disaster because it splits the ballots, making it almost impossible to gain a majority of the votes. A three-way race usually results in a run-off.

  I was determined to help Levi avoid that fate. I drove over to Lake Merced and found my target. As I expected, Paul Levant was ensconced on a bench, watching a regatta. No one was seated next to him, probably not a coincidence. Throwing caution to the wind, I slid alongside him on the bench. Levant, a small bag of popcorn in his hands, turned to look at me, shook his head and chuckled.

  “I figured you would come to see me, sooner or later,” he said, popping a kernel into his mouth.

  “You must have ESP,” I said, watching the women of the University of San Francisco glide across the water.

  “Maybe,” he said, “Or maybe I read somewhere that you’re running Levi Barnes’ campaign for District Fifteen. I do try to stay current on my political news.”

  “I liked it better when I thought you had magical powers,” I said, enjoying myself.

  Levant handed me the bag of popcorn and smiled. “On second thought, I do have ESP, because I know exactly what you are going to ask me.”

  “You do?” I asked, feigning ignorance for the sake of our conversation.

  “You want to know if the party is going to support someone else for that seat,” he said. “The answer is no; no one wants it.” Levant was agitated. I wasn’t the cause, but there was an undercurrent of worry running through him; it felt old, like it had been with him for a while. “The Republicans are looking for a candidate, Olivia. They want a Tea Party rep for that seat, someone who can appeal to the conservative money in Silicon Valley and the farm belt.”

  “You think a guy who writes code for Facebook games is going to vote for someone who thinks the world is flat?” I asked tartly.

  Levant shook his head. “Don’t be so flip. They won’t be as obvious as that,” he said. “It will be about taxes and regulation. It will be about immigration and education, maybe a tad bit about water rights in the Central Valley. Stuff your guy is not as good at.”

  “What do you mean, no one wants it?” I asked, not wanting to discuss Levi yet.

  “Just what I said,” Levant replied, taking back his popcorn bag. “No one wants to take on the Tea Party, or the Republican Party. It’s impossible to raise a million dollars in this economy. At this rate, the Democrats will be lucky to keep the seats we currently have in Congress.”

  Here was my opening. “Fortunately for you, money is no object for Levi Barnes. He’s prepared to spend to win. And he’s a Democrat.”

  Levant shook his head. “At this point, I am glad someone is willing to run for the seat. I’m getting too fucking old for this shit. As far as I’m concerned, a Bible’s main use is to swear in a candidate, and that’s about it. In my day, we didn’t let these fights become so personal. Your guy is walking into a shit storm of hard feelings in Washington.”

  “Paul, don’t worry,” I said, feeling the need to reassure him. “Levi is a former member of Congress and a successful businessman. He can stay above the fray and he’ll be a bright star for the party…you wait and see.”

  “If he can win, kid. If he can win,” Levant said, turning his gaze to the wooden boats on the water.

  “Maybe if you use some of the ESP you’ve got to help us, it will be a sure thing,” I said, gathering up my belongings.

  “I think I’d rather send you a check,” Levant said. “Be in touch with me about your campaign plan; the Party will support you.”

  I walked to my car, but waited until I was on the road back to my house before I made the call to Levi.

  “Levant is backing us,” I said, feeling jubilant. “The party will bankroll our efforts.”

  “I don’t need their money Olivia,” Levi said. “I’ll tell Paul to use it for another race, for someone who needs the help.”

  “We will take a little help from the party,” I said. “For one thing, it will look better if they’re seen spending some resources on us. We don’t want anyone to think our campaign is operating out there alone.”

  After I hung up with Levi, I called Gabriel. He didn’t pick up, so I left him a message letting him know that I’d secured Levant’s backing. I also told him about Levant’s funny comment about the Bible, knowing he’d get a kick out of the image.

  With Paul Levant’s promise in my back pocket, I was free to continue with a research project I’d started a few weeks back. It took patience, but finally one Sunday, as I was reading the entertainment section of the paper, I was rewarded. There, in a small box, was a listing for Three Blind Mice. They were playing later in the week at the Treasure Chest, a nightclub on Divisadero Street. This was my chance to see William again. Now that the campaign was on the right path, I didn’t see why anyone would object to me taking a night off. Nadia’s pronouncements aside, the truth was that I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I wasn’t sure what bothered me more, being caught in the horrible cliché of pining for a vampire musician, or my actual yearning for him. Regardless, I was determined to see him again.

  When the night of the show arrived, I was pleased Elsa had forced me into such a rigorous exercise regime. I pulled a pair of very slim black jeans out of my closet, along with a beat up pair of brown cowboy boots, and then searched in my drawer for the sexiest bra I could find. I knew I was playing with fire—not to mention b
eing pretty presumptuous, but if there was a make-out session in my future, I wanted to be wearing the most provocative underwear possible. I rummaged around for the black T-shirt I was looking for and grabbed a khaki safari jacket off a hanger. I looked in the mirror and liked what I saw. I was stylish without trying too hard. At the very least, if I missed William, I would no doubt meet someone interesting, and the truth was that I was in the mood for a little night magic.

  I called a cab and within ten minutes one arrived at my doorstep. It was approaching 9:30 when the car neared the club. I began to feel nervous. What if I walked in and he was there with another woman? What if he didn’t want to speak with me? I was rethinking the whole idea when the car pulled up to the curb, but by that time it was too late. There outside, leaning against the wall in a pair of faded Levi’s and his signature cowboy hat, was William. It seemed likely he had picked up on my thoughts and knew I was coming when I got within a few blocks of the club. I sighed, realizing there would be no sneaking up on him.

  As I paid the driver and stepped onto the curb, my nervousness returned. I’d never really chased a man before, and now I felt my whole life depended on what I would find when I looked into William’s eyes. I glanced up slowly, and was relieved to see he had a wide grin on his face. “Well, now,” he said emphasizing his accent. “What do we have here? Have you gone AWOL from your barracks?”

  “No, sir,” I said. “I gave myself a pass for the evening.”

  “Allow me to escort you in,” he said.

  William took my hand in his and gave it a slight squeeze. He was wearing a plaid flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The red of the shirt accentuated his tattoos and made his hair seem to shimmer in the club’s subdued lighting. I thought that after we got inside the club he would let go of my hand, but he didn’t. He continued to hold it as he led me through the nightclub and beyond a door marked with a sign that said, “STAFF AND BAND MEMBERS ONLY.”