bowl, one of them lit a candle—dark but I couldn’t say what color—that burned down abnormally fast. When they were done, the human one buried the water and the metal in the circle and then smudged out the power symbols. What does that sound like?”
“No blood or body parts?” Mara asked.
“No, I’m glad to say.”
“Well, it’s kitchen magic of some kind.”
“Like . . . what you do when you’re cooking?” I asked, uncertain.
“Oh no. It’s a category of spell work that’s done with herbs, candles, household items.... It’s symbolic and sympathetic: An object stands in for the one you want to effect, and the herbs or powders you use in casting the spell, drawing the symbols, anointing the candles, and so on, influence varying elements and actions in the world. It’s the sort of working that led to alchemy and modern pharmacology. So when your caster moved the bit of the car into the bowl of water, he was moving the car into a body of water—or asking for some spirit to do it for him.”
“So the car’s in a body of water?”
“If the spell worked. And judging by your description of the candle’s burning down, it most likely did. The candle represents work or effort turned to your task—though you should also be looking for the source of that much power as well. Was it a very fat candle?”
I thought about it. “Yes, I think it was. And dark colored.”
“So you said. May have been black, which can mean a lot of things, but certainly it would imply that your caster wanted to obscure something. If he’d wanted to reveal a lost thing, he might have used a white candle instead. D’you see?”
“I think I do. So the fatter the candle, the more effort can be put out?”
“Potentially. If the candle burns out before you’ve got what you wanted done, you can’t just light another; it has to be the same candle—or a lot of them—burning continuously from start to finish of your spell work. The spell-caster in this case needed a lot of energy to move something as heavy as a car. So he used a fat candle and got some help, too.”
“Who or what was the helper? It glowed green and I was pretty sure it wasn’t human—or not a live one at any rate.”
“Green? Could be an elemental or some kind of a loa, though I’m not very versed in Voodoo and such. . . .”
“Voodoo?”
“Don’t make that face I know you’re making. It’s a religion, y’know. They call on spirits, called ‘loa,’ for knowledge and guidance, and the loa speak through human conduits during the ceremony. I don’t know much more about it than that except that there are several related religions with slightly different ceremonies and names. But the spell work—it’s called ‘hoodoo’—is from an even older school and a lot of other practices have adapted it.”
I sighed and picked up Chaos, teasing her with the corner of the blanket. “So this unknown person, using a nonspecific magic and pulling a lot of power from an unknown source, hid the car in the lake.”
“That would be very likely.”
“But which lake? There are two.”
“Which lake is closer to where the spell circle is?”
“They’re both nearby, though one was very close.”
“Hm . . . Which one was the caster facing? Which way did he direct the magic?”
“ Um . . . west.”
“Then it’ll be in the lake to the west.”
“Damn.”
“I take it that’s a problem?”
“Yes. The lake to the west is Lake Crescent. It’s twelve miles long and I don’t know how deep, but pretty deep.”
“Well . . . someone truly didn’t want that car found, did they?”
“No. . . . Not at all. Mara, one more thing . . .”
“Yes?”
“Do you know of any monsters associated with this sort of kitchen magic? Not just the loa.”
“Elementals, I suppose. . . .”
“Any of them look like . . . sort of large, white, horned apes or dogs with hands?”
“Not that I’ve ever seen. Elementals vary, though. They tend to resemble that
“No blood or body parts?” Mara asked.
“No, I’m glad to say.”
“Well, it’s kitchen magic of some kind.”
“Like . . . what you do when you’re cooking?” I asked, uncertain.
“Oh no. It’s a category of spell work that’s done with herbs, candles, household items.... It’s symbolic and sympathetic: An object stands in for the one you want to effect, and the herbs or powders you use in casting the spell, drawing the symbols, anointing the candles, and so on, influence varying elements and actions in the world. It’s the sort of working that led to alchemy and modern pharmacology. So when your caster moved the bit of the car into the bowl of water, he was moving the car into a body of water—or asking for some spirit to do it for him.”
“So the car’s in a body of water?”
“If the spell worked. And judging by your description of the candle’s burning down, it most likely did. The candle represents work or effort turned to your task—though you should also be looking for the source of that much power as well. Was it a very fat candle?”
I thought about it. “Yes, I think it was. And dark colored.”
“So you said. May have been black, which can mean a lot of things, but certainly it would imply that your caster wanted to obscure something. If he’d wanted to reveal a lost thing, he might have used a white candle instead. D’you see?”
“I think I do. So the fatter the candle, the more effort can be put out?”
“Potentially. If the candle burns out before you’ve got what you wanted done, you can’t just light another; it has to be the same candle—or a lot of them—burning continuously from start to finish of your spell work. The spell-caster in this case needed a lot of energy to move something as heavy as a car. So he used a fat candle and got some help, too.”
“Who or what was the helper? It glowed green and I was pretty sure it wasn’t human—or not a live one at any rate.”
“Green? Could be an elemental or some kind of a loa, though I’m not very versed in Voodoo and such. . . .”
“Voodoo?”
“Don’t make that face I know you’re making. It’s a religion, y’know. They call on spirits, called ‘loa,’ for knowledge and guidance, and the loa speak through human conduits during the ceremony. I don’t know much more about it than that except that there are several related religions with slightly different ceremonies and names. But the spell work—it’s called ‘hoodoo’—is from an even older school and a lot of other practices have adapted it.”
I sighed and picked up Chaos, teasing her with the corner of the blanket. “So this unknown person, using a nonspecific magic and pulling a lot of power from an unknown source, hid the car in the lake.”
“That would be very likely.”
“But which lake? There are two.”
“Which lake is closer to where the spell circle is?”
“They’re both nearby, though one was very close.”
“Hm . . . Which one was the caster facing? Which way did he direct the magic?”
“ Um . . . west.”
“Then it’ll be in the lake to the west.”
“Damn.”
“I take it that’s a problem?”
“Yes. The lake to the west is Lake Crescent. It’s twelve miles long and I don’t know how deep, but pretty deep.”
“Well . . . someone truly didn’t want that car found, did they?”
“No. . . . Not at all. Mara, one more thing . . .”
“Yes?”
“Do you know of any monsters associated with this sort of kitchen magic? Not just the loa.”
“Elementals, I suppose. . . .”
“Any of them look like . . . sort of large, white, horned apes or dogs with hands?”
“Not that I’ve ever seen. Elementals vary, though. They tend to resemble that
Similar Books
