Chapter 5
Elizabeth assumed that this was the end of their adventure and started to walk back off the bridge, but Alice reached out a hand and snagged her arm. "Not so fast."
Dirk rummaged around in the knapsack and took out a harness with a cord and carabiners attached. He stepped into the harness, clipped the carabiner to one side of the gate and climbed around the outside, over the river and then over the railing on the far side. He took off the harness and passed it through bars to Alice, who helped Elizabeth put it on.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Elizabeth asked.
Alice ignored her and buckled her up.
Clinging to the gate so tightly that her knuckles gleamed white in the faint light reflecting up from the river, Elizabeth clambered over the handrail and, with her heels hanging thirty feet above the water, crept along around the outside edge of the gate, which extended a few feet beyond both sides of the footbridge to discourage people from doing exactly what they were doing right now. When one foot slipped, she let out a shrill squeak as the harness pulled tight. Dirk grabbed her arm and hauled her over the handrail.
In the darkness, Elizabeth groped for the buckle and released it. She handed the harness to Dirk who passed it back through the gate for her sister. Alice slipped into the straps and with a practiced motion flung a leg over the handrail. Alice worked her way around the gate even more quickly than Dirk had and soon they were all on the wrong side, from Elizabeth's perspective, of the gate. Dirk unclipped the harness and safety line from the gate and stowed them back in the knapsack.
From there they walked easily out to the island. The footbridge was straight and unobstructed. Above them the tires of the traffic on the bridge swooshed on the concrete and clacked as they rolled over the seams in the roadway. The cars and trucks sent vibrations down the metal cables that held the footbridge, which hummed beneath their feet, and the river hissed in its shallow bed below. Nothing brook the stiff breeze that blew down the river. Elizabeth turned up the collar of her coat, a scratchy wool military jacket of indefinite origin she had pulled from the coat tree.
After an eternity of wind, water, and concrete, they reached the ramp that sloped from the bridge to the island. Overhead the Lee Bridge marched southward on across the island and before them lay a flat meadow. Off to the right, woods and a small hill stood in shadow.
"This area was a Confederate prisoner of war camp," Alice whispered as she pointed to the meadow. "The prisoners starved and froze to death, and then they were buried over there." She pointed into the woods.
Dirk was already walking toward the woods and they hurried to catch up, following a trail which glowed slightly brighter than the forest floor. To the north beyond the fringe of trees, the river bubbled along, churning up rapids among the massive stones that marked the falls.
If it hadn't been for her sense of impending doom, Elizabeth would have enjoyed the nighttime walk. The noises of the city faded to a faint buzz that blended with the sounds of the river and the cheerful crunch of gravel beneath their feet. When she tilted back her head, she could see stars twinkling among the branches of the trees. She was enjoying the walk enough that she lost track of time and distance, but they could not have walked more than a quarter mile before a shape rose out of the darkness on their left.
"Have you come to celebrate this Samhain and ease the passage of the year?" the shape said softly with a man's voice.
"Oh God," muttered Elizabeth in an undertone.
Alice hushed her and poked her in the ribs. "That's one attitude you're going to have to leave behind in the old year. And it's 'Goddess'."
Dirk was speaking to their greeter. "Yes, Fox, it is we," he said very grammatically. "Hawk and Jay and her sister, um," he hesitated.
"Goat," said Alice brightly.
"I am not," Elizabeth said in a normal speaking voice before Alice clapped a hand over her mouth and hushed her again.
Fox welcomed them all, even sister Goat, and ushered them back into a small clearing off the trail where the Parks Department had set up an arc of benches nestled in the arms of a hillside. Smooth granite cliffs rose up behind them and the scents of earth, cold stone, and water filled the glade.
A number of people were milling around in the social, everyday sort of manner that Elizabeth associated with picnics. A roving flashlight beam revealed a makeshift altar laid out on one of the benches. Two small candles in votive glasses sat on a clean white cloth. A small knife, a silver chalice, and plates of fruit were arranged around the candles. Dirk went immediately to the altar and delved into his knapsack again.
Elizabeth hung a little behind Alice and allowed herself to be introduced to the other members of the coven. She decided that it was probably not a good idea to offend these people when she was stuck out here on an island in the middle of the river, and in the middle of the night, and with Dirk having possession of the safety harness for getting back around the gate, so she was pleasant and civil and did not make any noises of derision, even at the large fluffy woman who introduced herself as Flamingo.
"Is this your first time at Samhain, dear?" A familiar voice was at her elbow. Miss Price's outsize glasses glinted up at her in the faint moonlight that penetrated the glade. "I'm Crow, by the way." She held out a hand and Elizabeth shook it.
"Yes, ma'am. This is definitely a first for me," said Elizabeth, inwardly gaping at the notion of the proper Miss Price as a new age religious.
"Well, this is a very simple ritual for the pagan New Year, when we open ourselves to the energies of the earth and get in touch with the changing seasons. I'm sure Alice told you about deciding what to leave behind and choosing directions for growth. This is a time of introspection, when the god has descended to the underworld and we await the birth of the new god at yuletide. We celebrate with the goddess and wish her well as she readies to bring a new year into being."
"Um," said Elizabeth.
Two more darkly clad individuals entered the glade and softly greeted the others on their way to the altar.
"We are thirteen now," Miss Price told Elizabeth in a low voice. "It's time to begin. Just stay by your sister and do what she does."
Miss Price walked to the altar and the others sat in a loose semicircle facing her with their backs to the river.
Elizabeth took a place between her sister and Flamingo. She saw that Dirk was off to one side holding hands with Fox. Members of the coven were chatting quietly with each other, but fell silent when Miss Price reached the altar and slowly turned to face them.
Her hands held out palms up, she began, "Thank you, brothers and sisters, for coming here tonight to celebrate Samhain. Tonight the veil between the worlds is thin and we join with the spirits of those who have passed on and those who have yet to be. This is the night of beginnings and endings, a time when we say goodbye to our past selves and prepare ourselves for the lives we intend to build in the coming year. Tonight we will draw down the moon and ask her blessing on this world and on the world beyond the veil."
Elizabeth heard a low hum which she thought was traffic on the bridge to the east, until she realized that it came from the throats of the people around her. The hum buzzed in her ears and she was surprised to find it welling from her own throat.
Miss Price picked up a small pot from beside the altar and began to walk around the glade. Her clockwise steps traced a circle that encompassed both the other witches and the altar and a bluish haze followed here. A slender, silver trickle of dust fell from the mouth of the pot and appeared to float above the ground. After Miss Price passed behind her back, Elizabeth reached out a surreptitious finger and scooped up a pinch of it. It was salt.
The humming swelled and, as the collective lips of the coven parted, became a long drawn-out call that slid from oh to ah in an ever-changing pattern. Miss Price's high, dry voice joined in and slowly took on a richer tone as the wordless chorus swelled around her. The circle traced with everyone inside, Miss Price returned the pot to its place and moved to the center of the circle where she continued to turn slowly in a clockwise direction. Like a conductor, she moved her hands as if she were brushing the sounds into a sculpted form. Elizabeth could almost see the shape she was describing, as if Miss Price's hands left glowing trails suspended in the air behind them. Elizabeth blinked eyes a few times, hard, and that seemed to take care of that problem, but the glade still glowed with more light than should have been able to penetrate the trees, even in their semi-denuded state.
The chant went on for a long time, Elizabeth could not have said how long, but she became aware that her mouth was growing dry and her behind was going numb from the chill of the ground on which she sat. Just when she was afraid that it would never end, Miss Price dropped her hands suddenly to her sides and the group fell silent. She returned to the altar where she picked up a small round object that she broke open. Keeping the smaller piece in her own hands, she handed the larger part to Fox, who broke off a piece for himself and passed the rest to Dirk. Diminishing in size as it traveled from hand to hand, the object was slowly passed around the circle.
Alice handed it to Elizabeth, who fumbled in the darkness to break off her own piece and then passed the rest on. She felt smooth round shapes, one of which squished in her fingers, and a spongy substance. She put her fingers to her mouth and tasted pomegranate.
Once the pomegranate had been divided among the coven, Miss Price faced the altar and again raised her hands to the moon. Speaking in a low voice that rang through the glade like a bell, she said, "Oh, goddess. We."
A huge, bat-like form swung out of the trees and slammed into her. The coven collectively cried out with alarm and they all stood to rush to her aid.