As he started across the bridge from the island to the mainland, I was struck with a new worry. How could I have forgotten about my agoraphobia, which was the curse’s way of preventing me from traveling too far from Manteo and the gate to Popogusso at the edge of the Elizabethan Botanical Gardens? Of course, the curse had allowed me to leave the island before when fate required it.
David must have sensed my trepidation because as soon as we crossed the first bridge, he reached over and covered my hand. “How are you doing?”
“Okay so far.” I usually felt an immediate pressure on my chest when I left the island. Since I felt fine, it appeared that this trip was sanctioned, but the question was by whom? Ahone?
My anger surged out of nowhere, but I pushed it back down. It wouldn’t do me any good right now. I’d save it for when I needed it.
“What happened?” David asked.
It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about. “With Tom?”
“Of course, with Tom.”
I knew I was going to have to tell him about seeing Collin, but I wanted to tell him about our newest adversary first. “Tom called and asked me to come in so he could tell me about some recent cases.” Since Tom had told David he’d called me in as a consultant, I decided to keep the harsh tone of his phone call to myself. After I shared the information Tom had given me, I asked, “Do you have any idea what’s doing this?”
“Maybe, but what I’m considering is Cherokee.” He paused, his forehead wrinkling in concentration. “If it’s what I’m thinking, it would mean that it’s not acting completely in character.”
“Yeah, well none of us seem to be acting in character lately, so we’ll take that into account. And besides, you said Big Nasty is Cherokee, so why wouldn’t this thing be?”
“Mishiginebig—or the great horned serpent—crosses multiple tribal belief systems. The Raven Mockers seem to be purely Cherokee, although it’s possible that they were Croatan too and the information has just been lost to history along with just about everything else.” His mouth twisted to the side as he considered it.
“Raven Mockers?”
“They haunt the deathbed of a victim and hasten his or her death. They add the years they shave off the victim’s life to their own, which means they can grow to be very, very old. The victim never even knows the Raven Mocker is there, since no one can see them.”
“They’re invisible?”
“To everyone except for those with powerful magic. The legends say that the victims’ families often report hearing the screaming of a large bird. Did Tom mention anything like that?”
“No.”
David was silent for a moment. “You said the deaths came out of nowhere, and if the victims were in as much agony as legend has it, the families were probably too upset and preoccupied to notice.”
“You said that if Raven Mockers were responsible, they were acting out of character. If it’s them, what are they doing that’s different?”
“The legend says that Raven Mockers go after the hearts of the elderly, but you said one of the victims was a middle-aged woman and the other was a kid. That’s unusual.”
I pursed my lips in silence. This was bad . . . and probably about to get much worse.
“Ellie, the old woman you met in the road the other day . . .” He cast a wary glance at me.
I shifted in my seat. “Do you think I saw a ghost of one of the victims?” I couldn’t help but think about Claire and her newfound “gift.” “The thought had occurred to me.”
“No.” He paused, looking serious. “It might have been a Raven Mocker. Legend has it that they sometimes tell a person their future . . . and that the predictions they make are set in stone.”
“So if I’m to believe the message she gave me, I’m a vessel and will either be the salvation of the world or its destroyer?”
“A vessel can mean many things.”
“Yeah.” Maybe so, but my mind kept racing right to Okeus.
“One more thing about the Raven Mocker and its vision. I told you that they can only be seen by someone with powerful magic, but there’s more to it. If they are seen, it’s a death sentence for them. Once a Raven Mocker has been seen by someone with magic, they only have seven days to live.”
“What?” That got my attention. “So if it was a Raven Mocker, it basically committed suicide to give me some lame prediction.”
“There must be more to the message if it was willing to die to give it to you.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. If Raven Mockers tortured their victims, that made them evil. So why did I feel badly that this one had given its life for me? “So all I have to do is see all the Raven Mockers and they’ll all die? How many of them are there?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. Some legends say there are countless. Some say the Raven Mockers are the children of Kalona.”
“Who is Kalona?”
“Kalona is the equivalent of the angel of death.”
I sighed. “Of course he is.”
“He may be called an angel, but he’s really a demon. If we can figure out a way for you to defeat a demon without Collin’s help, you can defeat Kalona. And without their leader, the Raven Mockers will be lost. They’ll crawl back into their holes until someone else takes control.”
“That’s a big if, David.”