“Can you read those, too?” It wouldn’t have surprised me.
She laughed, and the sparrow chirped. “No, we’re just playin’ gin.” Sulla slapped down her cards. “Speakin’ a that
—gin.”
Delilah pouted. “You always win.”
“Well, I’ve won again,” Sulla said. “So why don’t you sit down here, Ethan, and tell us what brings you ’round our way.”
“I’m not sure how much you know.”
She lifted her eyebrows.
“Okay, so you probably already know that I went to see Obidias Trueblood, this old—”
“Mmm hmm.” She nodded.
“And if he’s telling the truth, there’s a way I can get back home.” I was stumbling over my words. “I mean, to the home where I was alive.”
“Mmm hmm.”
“I have to get my page from—”
“The Caster Chronicles ,” she finished for me. “I know all that. So why don’t you go on and say what you need from us.”
I was sure she knew, but she wanted me to ask anyway. It was only proper.
“I need a stone.” I thought about the best way to describe it. “This will probably sound strange, but I saw you wearing it once, in kind of a dream. It’s shiny and black….”
“This one?” Sulla held out her palm. There it was. The black stone I saw in my vision.
I nodded, relieved.
“Darn right you do.” She pressed the rock into my hand, closing my fingers around it. It pulsed with a kind of strange warmth that seemed to come from inside.
Delilah looked at me. “You know what that is?”
I nodded. “Obidias said it’s called a river’s eye, and I need two of them to get across the river.”
“Then I reckon you’re one short,” Uncle Abner said. He hadn’t moved from the railing. He was busy packing his pipe with dry leaf tobacco.
“Oh, there’s another one.” Sulla smiled knowingly. “Don’t you know?”
I shook my head.
Twyla reached over and took my hand. A smile spread across her face, her long braids slipping over her shoulder as she nodded. “Un cadeau. A gift. I remember when I gave it to Lena,” she said in her heavy French Creole accent.
“River’s eye is a powerful stone. Brings luck and a safe journey.” As she spoke, I saw the charm from Lena’s necklace.
The smooth black rock she always wore hanging from the chain.
Of course.
Lena had the second stone I needed.
“You know how to get to the river and get on your way?” Twyla asked, dropping my hand.
I pulled Aunt Prue’s map out of my back pocket. “I have a map. My aunt gave it to me.”
“Maps are good,” Sulla said, looking it over. “But birds are better.” She made a clicking noise with her tongue, and the sparrow fluttered onto her shoulder. “A map can lead you astray if you don’t read it right. A bird always knows the way.”
“I wouldn’t want to take your bird.” She had already given me the stone. It felt like I was taking too much. Plus, birds made me nervous. They were like old ladies but with sharper beaks.
Uncle Abner took a long puff of his pipe and walked toward us. Even though he wasn’t looming over me from the sky, he was still taller than me. He had a slight limp, and I couldn’t help but wonder what caused it.
He hooked his finger around one of the suspenders attached to his loose brown pants. “Then take mine.”
“Excuse me, sir?”
“My bird.” He cocked his shoulder, and the huge crow’s feathers ruffled. “If you don’t wanna take Sulla’s bird—which I understand, since it’s not much bigger than a field mouse—then take mine.” I was scared to stand next to that vulture-sized crow. I definitely didn’t want to take it anywhere with me. But I had to be careful, because he was offering me something he valued, and I didn’t want to insult him.
I really didn’t want to insult him.
“I appreciate it, sir. But I don’t want to take your bird either. It seems…” The crow squawked loudly. “Really attached to you.”
The old man waved off my concern. “Nonsense. Exu is smart, named for the god of the crossroads. He watches the doors between worlds and knows the way. Don’t you, boy?”
The bird sat proudly on the man’s shoulder as if he knew Uncle Abner was singing his praises.
Delilah walked over and held out her arm. Exu flapped his wings once, dropping down to land on her. “The crow is also the only bird that can cross between the worlds—the veils between life and death, and places far worse. That old heap a feathers is a powerful ally, and a better teacher, Ethan.”
“Are you saying he can cross over to the Mortal realm?” Was that really possible?
Uncle Abner blew the thick pipe smoke in my face as he spoke. “ ’Course he can. There and back, there and back again. Only place that bird can’t go is underwater. And that’s only ’cause I never taught him to swim.”
“So he can show me the way to the river?”
“He can show you a lot more than that if you pay attention.” Uncle Abner nodded at the bird, and it took off into the sky, circling above our heads. “He behaves best if you give a gift every now and again, just like the god I named him after.”
I had no idea what kinds of gifts to offer a crow, a voodoo god, or a crow named after one. I got the feeling regular birdseed wasn’t going to cut it.
But I didn’t have to worry, because Uncle Abner made sure I knew. “Take some a this.” He poured whiskey into a dented flask and handed me a small tin. It was the same one he had opened to fill his pipe.
“Your bird drinks whiskey and eats tobacco?”
The old man frowned. “Just be glad he doesn’t like eatin’ scrawny boys that don’t know their way ’round the Otherworld.”
“Yes, sir.” I nodded.
“Now you get outta here and take my bird and that stone.” Uncle Abner shooed me away. “I won’t get any a Amarie’s pie with you hangin’ ’round here.”
“Yes, sir.” I put the tobacco tin and the flask in my pocket with the map. “And thank you.” I started down the stairs and stepped off the porch. I turned back to take one last look at the Greats, gathered around a card table, sewing and fussing, scowling and drinking whiskey, depending on which one of them you were talking about. I wanted to remember them this way, like regular people who were great for reasons that had nothing to do with seeing the future or scaring the hell out of Dark Casters.
They reminded me of Amma and everything I loved about her. The way she always had the answers and sent me off with something strange in my pocket. The way she scowled at me when she was worried, and reminded me of all the things I still didn’t know.
Sulla stood up and leaned over the porch rail. “When you see the River Master, you be sure to say I sent ya, you hear?”
She said it like I should know what she was talking about. “River Master? Who is that, ma’am?”
“You’ll know him when you see him,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am.” I started to turn away.
“Ethan,” Uncle Abner called, “when you get home, tell Amarie I’m expectin’ a lemon meringue and a basket a fried chicken. Two big, fat drumsticks…. Make that four.”
I smiled. “I will.”
“And don’t forget to send my bird back. He gets ornery after a while.” The crow circled above me as I made my way down the stairs. I had no idea where I was going, not even with a map and a tobacco-eating bird that could cross over between worlds.
It didn’t matter if I had my mom, Aunt Prue, a Dark Caster who had escaped from the very place I was trying to break into, and all the Greats, with Twyla thrown in for good measure.
I had one stone now, and the more I thought about Lena, the more I realized I’d always known where to find the other one. She never took it off her charm necklace. Maybe that’s why Twyla had given it to her when she was a little girl—for some kind of protection. Or for me.