Chapter 13

 

Erzulie owed her status as headmistress to the queen. My participation in the Trials was at the queen’s behest. If Erzulie had her way, she’d have me booted from the Trials straightaway. She tried to, in fact, during the first round. I wasn’t sure if it was Agwe’s insistence, the fact that Marie Laveau had nominated me, or the jeers of the crowd that dissuaded her from fulfilling her threat to suspend me from the Academy and, therefore, the Trials.

Strangers I’d never met were coming up to me as we left the hall where the trial had been held. I don’t know if any of them expected I’d win in the end—but I’d pulled one out of my ass (thanks to Laveau’s Death Rites) and now only had to survive a second trial before reaching the finals, where Oggie believed I’d have an advantage.

A hand gripped my elbow. I glanced at Brayden, who’d apparently found me in the crowd, and he nodded toward an open door down an alley between two nondescript buildings.

I followed him.

“Nice work in there,” Brayden said.

I shrugged. “You let me win.”

“I let you tie for the win.” Brayden grinned.

“So you’re really not trying to beat me?”

Brayden shrugged. “The one thing I know for sure is that we can’t let the next High Mambo be from Samedi or Erzulie. But no, I don’t really want to become High Hougan.”

“Why not?”

“I was pushed into this Academy at a young age. People say I’m gifted. Everyone called it an opportunity. It was a curse. I never had a chance to really be a kid, you know? The last thing I want—”

“Is to be thrust into another life of still more responsibility?”

Brayden nodded. “See, you get it! But don’t get me wrong. I will win if it comes down to it. If I have to in order to prevent one of them from winning. A High Hougan or Mambo from Samedi or Erzulie would be horrific. Can you imagine?”

“We’d either end up with a never-ending Halloween or—”

“It would be Valentine’s Day every day of the year.” Brayden chuckled. “And I don’t have anything against Sogbo, but what do you know of that Sauron?”

I shrugged. “Not sure. She was always cold to me until just recently. It’s like she just started trying to warm up to me after Nico died.”

“Find that suspicious?” Brayden asked.

I sighed. “I hadn’t thought about it, but now that you mention it. All I know is that she’s more in this for Nico than she is for Vilokan. She was in love with him, even though he never reciprocated her feelings.”

“An unrequited love can be a dangerous thing,” Brayden said.

I chuckled. “You have a pretty large vocabulary for a kid.”

Brayden nodded. “Spelling bee champion of the Gulf region, two years in a row.”

“No shit!” I said. “How’d you pull that off?”

“I got bored down here. Thought I’d try competing in something that normal kids do.”

I laughed. “Spelling bees aren’t exactly won by normal kids either. But I see your point.”

Brayden nodded. “I trust Pauli, who insists that you are the best one aside from me to win this thing. So I’m going to do what I can to see that you do.”

“In truth, I’m not really sure how much I want to win either. If the winner gets Dumballah’s blessing, I might have some use for that. But High Mambo? Not really my style.”

Brayden shrugged. “Not sure it is anyone’s style. But the queen chose you. If anything, learn from her—she has her own style. When she won, her role didn’t define her. She defined the role.”

I grinned. “Any chance you know a way to find her?”

Brayden shook his head. “If anyone knew, I probably would. You know, on account of my aspect.”

“Pauli said you can pretty much teleport anywhere in the world in an instant. Is that true?”

“If I can visualize it, yes. But I don’t know where Marie Laveau lives. No one does. Since I can’t see it, can’t visualize it, I really don’t know any more than anyone else does about where the Voodoo queen resides.”

“So strange,” I said. “You’d think she’d have a castle or some shit. Some place where people could go to petition her.”

“She has that,” Brayden said. “Her tomb. People all around the world visit her there, make petitions, and draw three x’s there. They come back and circle their x’s when she grants their request.”

“I’ve seen it,” I admitted. “But I just assumed all that was superstition.”

Brayden smiled widely. “There’s a fine line between superstition and truth in the world of Voodoo.”

I nodded. “Any idea what’s in store for the second trial?”

Brayden nodded. “I believe it will involve dollcraft. I can’t say much more than that. But we’ll want to focus on Dudley.”

“Since College Samedi can manipulate the souls of the dead through Voodoo dolls?”

Brayden nodded. “It gives him a unique advantage. We’ll be limited to constructing dolls of the living, more or less. But he’ll be able to call forth the spirit of anyone who has died to his aid.”

“Won’t that be utilizing his aspect and disqualify him?”

Brayden shook his head. “I’m not sure if that counts. Samedi’s aspect isn’t like ours. It isn’t a power you access. It’s more innate, more intuitive.”

I nodded. I actually knew that. I had been vested with the green Baron Samedi’s aspect for a few months now. It was what allowed me to come back to life, more or less, when I’d been separated from my body in the land of the dead. But I did have the ability to see ghosts. I didn’t see them often. In truth, there aren’t that many lingering around. Most move on. It’s one ability that supposedly comes with the Baron’s aspect—I hadn’t put two and two together, though, until the Baron himself gave me the chance to resurrect myself.

I took a deep breath. How much could I really trust Brayden, anyway? I trusted Pauli, so that was enough. “I actually have Samedi’s aspect. Don’t know what to do with it. But it’s there, somewhere.”

Brayden raised an eyebrow. “How in the name of Bondye did you get his aspect too?”

“Long story. But I’m sure you know some of what happened before. You know, with Mercy and Ramon. With Nico.”

Brayden nodded.

“I’d come back from the land of the dead in order to help Nico fulfill his bargain with Baron Samedi. Nico got his soul back in exchange for allowing the green Baron to utilize his body as a new host.”

“A new host? Baron Samedi has used the same host for a millennia or more. Rumor has it that his usual host had been a Babylonian.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Didn’t know that. Impressive.”

Brayden nodded. “So he was giving Nico his soul back… just to mount him.”

“He was going to allow Nico to be at rest, give him his soul back so he could die as a human, so he could rest in peace.”

“And then Kalfu happened.”

I nodded. “Exactly.”

“And you got the Baron’s aspect how?”

“The first time I brought the Baron back, the first time we fought Kalfu and imprisoned him inside of Pauli. He’d given it to me then, but I didn’t know it. Then when we went to the land of the dead, Isabelle took over… and my soul was lost.”

“Until the Baron brought you back, through the aspect he’d given you.”

I nodded.

“Well that’s something. But without a Ghede Loa to train you in it, I’m not sure what we can do. It’s like having a nuclear silo on your property without the launch codes.”

“An apropos metaphor, I suppose,” I said. “And I’m not exactly in the mood to go nuclear, either. Everyone already knows about Isabelle, which means…”

“It means you can’t trust anyone.”

I nodded. “Not the Loa anyway. They are all wanting to use the power she has for whatever their own agendas are.”

“And you aren’t worried that Oggie is manipulating you, too?”

“It has crossed my mind. But he’s saved me more than once. Until he gives me a reason not to trust him, I think he’s earned the benefit of the doubt.”

“If you say so.”

I put my hands on my hips. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Only that the Loa do not do what they do out of charity. If he is helping you, or has helped you in the past, he’s getting something out of it.”

“I don’t doubt he is. But people are like that, too. Not many of us help others out of the goodness of our hearts. Even when we do nice things, it’s usually selfish. We do it because it makes us feel better. It allows us to go on imagining that we’re actually good people when we know we’re just as shitty as anyone else deep down.”

“That’s a pretty pessimistic way to look at the world,” Brayden said. “You don’t think there’s more to it than that?”

I shook my head. “When you’ve been through the shit I’ve been through, you don’t tend to look at the world through rose-colored glasses.”

“Doesn’t mean you have to look at it through poop-colored glasses.”

I laughed out loud. “Poop-colored?”

“Shut up. It’s the first thing that came to mind. I’m still a kid, you know. I still think poop is funny.”

“Farts, too?”

“Hilarious!”

“Of course,” I chuckled. “Well I appreciate the alliance. I wish I knew a way to use the Baron’s aspect to even the score.”

Brayden shook his head. “He’s been training in his aspect for a while now. If you’re face-to-face with a samurai, are you going to try to take him down with your sword?”

I smiled. “Probably not. I’d need to go at him with something else. Draw a gun maybe. Like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom.”

“Indiana who?”

“Never mind.” I grinned. “You probably wouldn’t like it. It has Voodoo in it, but it’s all stereotypical shit. But there’s a scene where some type of sword-wielding master is coming after Indiana and he faces off with him, draws his gun, and drops him in an instant.”

“Then I guess yes. Like Indiana Jones. That’s how we have to go after Dudley.”

“But if the rules don’t allow us to use our aspects…”

“We don’t need to,” Brayden said. “When it comes do dollcraft, it’s no secret that College Samedi excels beyond the rest. But that’s because they rely on their unique ability to construct dolls from the dead.”

“So you’re suggesting another approach?”

“I’m suggesting we focus on the craft itself. We need to learn as much about dollcraft as possible and use the pure art in the most potent way possible. If only we could convince Mambo Hannigan to see us, maybe she could train us.”

“Or we could do some reading. I think I might have something that would help.”

“A book… on dollcraft?” Brayden looked at me incredulously.

“Not exactly. But it’s a pretty powerful book no less. But if we’re going to research it, we need someplace private to meet. Somewhere no one will find us.”

“How about your place?”

“The plantation?” I asked.

Brayden nodded.

“All right. You know how to get there?”

“Aida-Wedo, remember. Pauli knows my number. Text me a picture when you get there. Doesn’t matter what. Just a picture with enough space in it that I can get there. I’ll be waiting on the surface so I can get a signal.”

“Okay. Second trial is in three days. Meet tomorrow?”

“Sounds good,” Brayden said. “Six o’clock work for you?”

“Dude, you serious? I need some time to drive over there.”

“Not with Pauli, you don’t.”