She swallowed hard, and nodded.
“You’d better go to the nurse’s office for a little while anyway. Eileen, would you make sure she gets there?”
Eileen assured Mr. Monroe that she would take care of things. Looking relieved—dealing with sick students was not his specialty—the vice principal nodded briskly and stalked away to resume his endless search for troublemakers.
“Now,” said Eileen, once he was gone, “what is going on here, cousin? Are you okay, or not?”
Bonnie gave her a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m all right. I just haven’t been sleeping too well the last few nights. I guess it caught up with me.”
“Well, we’re going to do what Mr. Monroe said. Come on. I’ll walk you to the nurse’s office. You can lie down until second period.”
As they stood to go Tiffany held up the tarot cards. “Here, Bonnie. Don’t forget these.”
The deck was face up. On top was the High Priestess, smiling serenely up at her.
Chapter Eleven
“Bonnie, you’ve got to get rid of those cards,” said Alan that afternoon. “The whole school is talking about you.”
“Let them talk,” said Bonnie irritably. “I don’t care.”
Alan took her arm. “Well I care. I care about you and about what’s happening to you.” He paused, then said softly. “I’m scared for you, Bonnie.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “I’m scared, too. But there’s nothing I can do about it.”
He rolled his eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Bonnie shook her head. “I don’t know. This whole thing is confusing me, Alan. But I feel like there’s something I have to do. Something important. Can you understand that?”
“Oh, sure. It makes perfect sense. Come on, Bonnie. I can understand a feeling like that if you’re talking about something like world hunger or stopping war. But about these cards?”
She shook her arm free of his grasp. “If you can’t help me, then leave me alone!”
Alan looked shocked.
“I mean it, Alan. Go back to your track practice. You shouldn’t have skipped it anyway. There’s no bogeyman to worry about or anything. Go on!”
Alan’s face tightened. “All right,” he said tersely. “If that’s the way you want it.”
“I do!”
“Okay. See you around. Sometime.”
He turned and stalked back toward the school. Bonnie felt tears welling up in her eyes. She wanted to reach out to him, call him back. But she didn’t because she knew he couldn’t possibly understand.
She turned and ran.
#
Bonnie stood on the road leading to Madame LePanto’s cottage. The sky overhead was turning dark as clouds massed for a storm. Already she could hear thunder in the distance. But there was no wind. The air was still, filled with the sense of waiting that comes before a heavy rain.
She clutched her books closer to her chest and walked slowly down the road, feeling unaccountably nervous. “It’s the storm,” she said, trying to reassure herself. “And everything that happened in school, of course. That’s enough to make anyone edgy.”
It was a good argument, but she didn’t really believe it.
She stopped, suddenly struck with the distinct feeling that she was being watched. She looked over her shoulder, half expecting to find Alan following her.
The road was empty.
She walked a little farther, then stopped again and spun around.
No one there. Yet despite the empty road, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was tracking her every move.
Madame LePanto threw open the front door as Bonnie walked up the porch steps. “You have come back!” she announced.
“Yes. I want to learn more.”
The old woman glanced up at the sky, and a slight look of concern crossed her face. “It is good that you are here. Come in.”
As Bonnie followed Madame LePanto into her parlor the rumble of thunder grew closer. Madame LePanto went to a window and pulled aside a frayed curtain. “The storm will soon be here,” she said, looking out. Then she gathered her shawl about her shoulders and walked back to Bonnie. “So. Have you been practicing what I taught you? Can you remember the cards?”
Bonnie smiled. “Try me.”
Madame LePanto nodded and took her place at the round table in the center of the parlor. Bonnie sat opposite her and watched as she took a deck from the drawer in front of her. Her bracelets jangled with every move. “What is this?” she asked, turning over a card.
Bonnie glanced at the picture. It showed a woman garlanded with flowers, standing beside a lion. She had her hands on its mouth, either opening or closing it. The symbol for infinity floated over the woman’s head, and her white robe was girdled with red roses.
“That’s Strength,” she said.
Madame LePanto nodded. “Tell me about it.”
“The sign of infinity—”
Madame LePanto raised an eyebrow.
Bonnie corrected herself. “The lemniscate,” she said, using the term Madame LePanto had taught her the last time, “indicates spiritual power above her. She has spiritual courage, for she is controlling the lion, which represents the lower instincts of mankind.
Her white robe indicates purity. The garland of roses stands for the union of desires; her energy is not wasted by being scattered in many directions.
“In a reading this card can mean the triumph of love over hate, or spirit over matter. Reversed, it can stand for discord, the abuse of power, or weakness.”
Madame LePanto smiled. “Very impressive, my dear. I see I happened to choose a card you studied carefully. Now try this one.”
She showed Bonnie Temperance. As with Strength, Bonnie gave a perfect description of its symbolic meaning and what it could stand for in a reading.
Madame LePanto looked thoughtful. She turned over another card.
“Enough,” she said, when Bonnie had finished explaining it. “There is something you are not telling me.”
That was all the invitation Bonnie needed. The story of the past two days came pouring out of her, everything from the frightening experience in the library when Alan had turned up all the unlucky cards, through her reading for Maria, her dream of the High Priestess, and finally her trance that morning when she had tried to read the cards for Tiffany.
By the time she was finished, Bonnie had tears streaming down her cheeks. Even so, she felt enormously relieved for having told her story.
Madame LePanto sat without speaking for several minutes. Outside the thunder grew louder. A gentle rain began to patter on the windows, making the trees appear to blur and blend.
Madame LePanto drummed her fingers on the table as she thought. “I want to do a reading for you,” she said at last. “And I want to see those cards. You should have shown them to me the last time we met.”
Bonnie nodded. She removed the cards from her purse and handed them to Madame LePanto. The old woman took them and studied them. “These are most unusual. Someone had them specially painted.” She cupped them between her palms and closed her eyes.
Bonnie watched the old woman intently through the long moment of silence that followed. After a time she could see Madame LePanto’s hands begin to shake. The corner of her upper lip began to twitch, and she started to tremble violently. For a moment the entire table shook with the force of her movements.
The rain was falling harder, and the lightning had come close enough to illuminate the room. Its eerie blue glare flickered over Madame LePanto’s features.
Suddenly her eyes flew open.
“This is remarkable,” she said, gasping. “These cards are charged—full of power, of strength. There is great good here, and great evil, and some conflict that I do not understand. You must be careful child. Very careful.
“We will do a reading together. You lay out the cards. I will stand behind you and help you to interpret them. Choose a significator.”
Witho
ut hesitation Bonnie drew the High Priestess from the pack and laid it on the table in front of her.
Madame LePanto nodded her approval. “Now shuffle the deck.”
Bonnie did so. When she felt the cards were well mixed she cut the deck three times. Then she gathered up the cards.
She laid down the first one.
The Magician.
“This covers you,” said Madame LePanto. “It is the force that surrounds you.”
“The power to tap the infinite,” said Bonnie. “To change desire into reality.” She averted her eyes from the card, fearing a repeat of the morning’s trance. She knew she did not want to get lost in those eyes.
“The next card,” said Madame LePanto.
“This crosses me,” said Bonnie as she laid down the Fool.
“The opposing force,” murmured Madame LePanto. “Strange.”
Bonnie looked at the card fondly and felt a stab of pain because of her argument with Alan. “Why is it strange?” she asked.
“The next card,” said Madame LePanto sharply.
A flash of lightning and a fierce clap of thunder shook the cottage as Bonnie laid down the next card.
“This is beneath me,” she said, “a part of my past.”
“The Hierophant,” said Madame LePanto. “I think the meaning here is of a need to conform to society. Does that make sense to you, Bonnie?”
“No. Yes!” For an instant, swift as the lightning that flickered through the windows, she had a sense of something forgotten, of something given up because it was not approved, because it was dangerous, or at least seemed that way.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. There is something. But I can’t put my finger on it.”
“The next card,” said Madame LePanto.
Bonnie pulled the next card from the deck. She stopped, her hand in the air. “Madame LePanto,” she whispered. “Do you feel it?”
“Yes. There is another presence in the room.” She lay her hand on Bonnie’s shoulder. “It is strong. Very strong. It will make itself known in time. Go on with the reading.”
Bonnie turned over the next card and laid it to the left of the Priestess. It was the Moon.
“You realize,” Madame LePanto murmured, “that every card you have laid down is from the Major Arcana.”
Bonnie nodded her head.
“It indicates great forces at play.”
“I know.”
Madame LePanto’s hand tightened on her shoulder. “Do you?” she asked. “In what way?”
“I just feel it. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like having a hunch.”
“You do have the power, you know.”
Bonnie hesitated. “No,” she said at last. “No, I don’t.”
Madame LePanto frowned. “Do not deny yourself,” she said sharply. “It is folly!”
“I am the Priestess, not the Fool,” replied Bonnie coolly. Then she blinked. Where had those words come from?
“Look at the card!” commanded Madame LePanto. “See the Moon, looking down at the earth? This is the key of sleep and dreams. See the towers beneath the Moon? It is a rugged path that leads past them. But pass them you must. At the bottom of the card you see water. It is the subconscious. A crab is crawling out of the water. That is your emerging power.”
A door slammed in the next room. Bonnie looked up.
“Ignore it,” said Madame LePanto sharply. “There’s more to come. Listen to me, Bonnie. This card is behind you. Its influence is passing away. Your powers have already begun to grow. You must not ignore them.” She hesitated. “The card has other meanings, too, as you well know.”
Bonnie nodded, her eyes fixed on the card. “A hidden enemy,” she said softly. “And bad luck for someone I love. But no one I love has had any bad luck.”
“This is behind you. But things set in motion yesterday may not come to pass until tomorrow.”
Bonnie looked at the card and shivered. A tear glistened in the Moon’s right eye. She touched it.
Flat.
Dry.
No tear. Yet she would have sworn it was there a moment before.
Outside the wind began to howl. Branches scraped at the windows. Another flash of lightning filled the room.
“The next card,” said Madame LePanto, a note of urgency in her voice.
“This crowns me,” said Bonnie as she turned it over. Then she cried out and dropped it as if she had been burned. “Oh, Madame LePanto. What does it mean?
“It’s the Devil.” Madame LePanto picked up the card and placed it in its proper spot in the layout. “Remember, Bonnie, this stands for things that may come to be. The tarot can be a guide and a warning. Do not take it as an unchangeable prophecy. The future is still to come.”
“But what does it mean?”
Madame LePanto examined the card. “What does it mean? You tell me.”
Bonnie looked at the card and shuddered. “It means that it is our own wrong choices that bind us and that we can remove the bonds whenever we truly choose to do so.”
“Just so. It may only mean that you are in danger of making a wrong choice, my child. Take it as a warning.”
“It can also mean black magic and powerful forces against me,” said Bonnie.
“That is correct. Turn over the next card.”
Bonnie put her hand on the deck. But her eyes were locked on the Devil card. Locked with the Devil’s eyes!
“Madame LePanto!” she cried. “Make it go away!”
Madame LePanto laid her hand across the card, covering the eyes. “The next,” she said fiercely. “Deal the next card.”
“He was there!” cried Bonnie. “He was looking back at me, from somewhere on the other side of the card. From someplace else. He’s waiting for me. Waiting for me to make a mistake so he can chain me like the woman on the card.”
“The next card, I say!” Madame LePanto’s fingers hooked into Bonnie’s shoulder like the talons of an eagle. Across the room a book lifted from the shelf and sailed through the air, smashing into the opposite wall. The blue glare of lightning filled the room, and thunder shook the walls.
“The next card!”
Tears streaming down her cheeks, Bonnie turned over the next card. “This is before me,” she murmured.
It was the Tower.
“It’s hot!” she cried, dropping it.
“Change,” whispered Madame LePanto. “Great change.”
The easy chair against the far wall began sliding across the floor. The bookcase fell forward, crashing onto a small wooden stand that held a crystal ball. The stand splintered into pieces. The crystal ball rolled across the floor, stopping at Bonnie’s feet. She didn’t even see it. Her eyes were glued to the card.
The streak of lightning that blazed across the top of the card was actually glowing. The figures on the card, the man and the woman who were falling from the tower, began to writhe in terror.
“Madame LePanto!”
An acrid smell arose from the tower. Outside, a monumental crash of thunder exploded. The top of the Tower, blasted away by the lightning, actually fell down the side of the card, smashing to pieces at the base of the Tower. The flames that had been painted on the card leaped into life. Smoke curled up from the card, and the fire raged across it.
In a second it was gone. The surface of the card was black and charred, the picture totally destroyed.
“Great change,” said Madame LePanto again.
Bonnie began to scream.
The crystal ball was rolling up her leg.
Chapter Twelve
“Make it go away!” cried Bonnie, beating at the crystal ball. “Make it go away!”
Her actions were pointless. The force moving the crystal was far too powerful for her to stop it.
“Madame LePanto, help me!”
“Hush, child. There is no help. There is only waiting. Let it run its course.”
The crystal rolled onto her lap, then up onto the table, as though following some invisibl
e path. It positioned itself directly in front of Bonnie and began to spin. The storm outside seemed to have ceased. The only sound was the slight whir of the crystal against the tabletop.
Suddenly it stopped. Bonnie reached up and put her hand over Madame LePanto’s, which still rested on her shoulder. She took strength and comfort in the old woman’s calm presence. “I’m afraid of crystals,” she said softly.
Madame LePanto said nothing, but gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
The crystal turned smoky. For a moment it was filled with a swirling grayness. Then it began to clear, the wisps of smoke fading like fog before the sun.
Standing inside it was the Magician.
Bonnie had known all along that it would be him.
He looked out at her and smiled, his face filled with grace and beauty. “So there you are at last. It’s good to see you, Bonnie.”
“What do you want, Magician?” Her voice was low and husky filled with fear and longing.
“Your help. And in return—ah, in return, I will give you everything. Free me, Bonnie. Free me from the cards. I’ve been trapped so long!” She heard a terrible note of sorrow in his voice, a sense of ancient loss.
“I am the queen of the cards,” said Bonnie, causing Madame LePanto let out a small gasp.
“And I will be your king,” replied the Magician. He motioned to the table in front of him. “Cups, swords, wands, and pentacles. Love, power, energy, and wealth. These are the gifts of the tarot. They can all be yours. They are what I offer you.”
“And what do you want in return?
The Magician smiled, and it was as if the sun had come out from behind a cloud. “Use the cards. They are the royal path to knowledge—as you well know. Read them. Study them. At the end of the path, you will find me waiting to take you home.”
Mist began to fill the crystal again, creeping in from the sides. It moved fast, swirling about his feet.
“Farewell, Bonnie. We will meet again. Soon.”
“Wait!” cried Bonnie. “Don’t go. Don’t go!”
It was too late. The ball was filled with mist. The Magician disappeared.
A final clap of thunder split the air outside the cottage. The crystal ball split in half as well. The two pieces, perfectly equal, fell from the table, struck the floor, and shattered explosively.