That night was, blessedly, free of dreams—or if I dreamt, I could not remember—and the following night I left Anneke with Brom, Nancy, and Nox, and headed to Charlotte’s. I marked well the look of warning in Nancy’s eyes as I left.
“Come in,” Charlotte said, quickly ushering me in once I arrived. “My mother has more than one patient to check in on tonight, so we shall be alone for a few hours, at least. Let us make the most of it.”
Charlotte had already prepared the table and lit numerous candles about the room. Before her chair sat the worn deck of tarot cards.
I could not suppress a shudder as I sat down across from her. Last time the cards had foretold nothing but ill fortune. Was it possible that today they would give me some measure of hope?
“I confess, I am a bit curious what you are hoping the cards will show you,” Charlotte said, sitting down. “They are used to divine the future, or to give us insight into present events. I have not known them to reveal secrets from the past, which is what you are searching for.”
“Indeed,” I said, “but perhaps some insight into present events is just what I need. Am I on the right path? Do I have the tools I need to discover the truth? And will I ever find the truth I seek?”
Charlotte shuffled the cards. “You’ll want to settle on just one of those questions for now,” she told me. She set the cards in front of me. “Cut the deck with your left hand, and concentrate on the question you wish to have answered.”
I narrowed all my questions down to just one, repeating it over and over: Will I ever know the truth about what happened to Ichabod? Will I ever know the truth about what happened to Ichabod?
Will I ever know the truth?
I finished cutting the cards and pushed them back to Charlotte. Concentrating, she closed her eyes and turned over the first card in the deck.
I gasped sharply upon seeing the face of the card, and Charlotte, when she opened her eyes, did the same.
“The Devil,” Charlotte said. “Again.” She glanced up at me, relieved, unlike the first time this card had revealed itself to us. “Remember, this first card signifies your past. So this means the evil is behind you.”
I let out my breath. Much as I had hoped never to see that card again, if I must see it, I was glad it represented the past.
She turned over the next card, one I had not seen before: a woman seated between two pillars, dressed in flowing blue and white robes, and wearing a tall headdress.
“The High Priestess,” Charlotte said. She blew out her breath in a long, slow whistle. “Interesting. Very interesting.”
“What does it mean?” I demanded.
“As you know, the second card represents your present. And so to see The High Priestess…” She shook her head. “Very fitting indeed. But yes, the meaning. She represents hidden knowledge, and psychic abilities of some kind.” Charlotte looked at me significantly. “Such things are the key to answering your question.”
I sat back in my chair, surprised. But perhaps I should not have been. After all, was that not what Charlotte had been telling me all along?
“The High Priestess can also signify someone—usually a woman—who is guiding you in some way,” Charlotte added.
My lips curled into a half smile. “Most fitting. For is that not what you are doing, have been doing all along?”
“I suppose I must flatter myself that, yes, I have been,” she said, smiling as well. “Onward?”
When I nodded, she flipped over the next card, and I gasped again.
Facing me, right-end up, was a rider on a white horse, carrying a black banner. Below the image the word identifying the card was painted in stark black capital letters: DEATH.
“It does not mean literal death,” Charlotte said quickly. “It almost never does. But … it is reversed.” She tapped a finger against her lips. “Interesting,” she said again.
“Please, Charlotte, just tell me what it means.”
“It is not necessarily an ill omen. The Death card often means an ending of some kind, and sometimes that is a good thing. Yet because it is reversed…” Charlotte looked up at me and took a deep breath before continuing. “I do not mean to distress you, Katrina. Truly I don’t. But I would interpret this to mean that, yes, you will reach the end of your quest, but it may not bring you any peace.”
I rose quickly, jostling the table. “And can you truly tell me I will not find death at the end of my quest?” I asked, my eyes still fixed on the card.
“The cards are not absolute, Katrina. You know this. And the Death card does not foretell death. Just endings,” she said firmly.
Still I had not looked away from the card. “It is a horseman,” I pointed out.
Startled, Charlotte glanced down at it.
“A figure on horseback,” I added. “A mounted rider.”
“So it is,” she said, her voice tight.
“And can you also tell me I will not find the Headless Horseman at the end of this road?” I asked.
Charlotte swept the three cards back into the deck and out of sight. She did not answer me.