Besides, I’d come here on a specific mission, and it had nothing to do with getting in the sack. I had a friend to save, and just under two days to do it in.
I shook my head to clear it. “No, Sheila, it has nothing to do with all that.” I shifted in the chair a little, suddenly feeling hot. “It’s my friend. Mei Wong. She’s been kidnapped, and we’re trying to find her. We think it might have something to do with a sect of ancient Celtic warriors.”
Sheila’s eyes narrowed and she side-eyed me. “That’s awfully specific, eh? Mind telling me why you think that?”
“Well…” I pulled on the collar of my t-shirt a little. The place was feeling really stuffy all of a sudden.
I took a deep breath and related the whole sordid tale to her, starting with Mei’s kidnapping, then finding Rick, and finally the harrowing journey up here, leaving no detail out. Sheila’s eyes widened a few times during the story, but she said nothing.
“Just show him the cloth I found, Rick,” I finished, nudging him on the shoulder.
“What? Oh, yeah.” He rummaged around in his pockets for a second and pulled out a piece of purplish cloth. “It’s this here. It’s a piece of cloth that Damian ‘found’ on one of the kidnappers, supposedly. It says ‘to all who honor our queen, great rewards await you in this life eternal’ on the front. There’s more on the back. Something about binding souls together, but I haven’t been able to finish deciphering it yet.”
Sheila took the cloth from Rick’s outstretched hand. “Hmm,” she said, rubbing her chin with her free hand while she studied it. “A curious find, indeed.” She fingered the fabric a few times. “What’s this dark spot down here, eh? Blood?”
“Yeah. It’s from one of Mei’s kidnappers,” I said. Rick shot me a glare.
“Ah, that’ll help quite a bit,” Sheila said. She held the cloth over the cauldron and started to lower it into the liquid.
“Wait!” Rick cried, bolting from his chair. “You’ll ruin it!”
I was shocked. I’d never seen Rick care about anything as much as he cared about that tiny bit of cloth he’d practically begged me to take back last night. What was up with him?
“Tsk tsk,” Sheila said, wagging a finger in the air. “It’s only water and blood, deary. It won’t hurt the cloth nothing.”
“Okay. If you’re sure,” Rick said slowly. He sat back down but didn’t take his eyes off her.
“I know my job, dears. Now let me do my work, eh?”
Sheila placed the bit of cloth into the cauldron and swirled it around a bit. A moment later, she took it back out and placed it on the table next to it. Even from a slight distance, I could see that the bloodstain in the corner was now gone.
The cauldron started to hiss and bubble as Sheila’s fingers twirled above the smoky water. I stole a glance over at Rick, who was watching the whole thing, mesmerized.
Sheila muttered a few more words and the liquid swirled and shifted, the colors changing and the water going still a moment later as it formed the face of Mei on top of the waters. It was like staring down at a portrait, the image was so clear.
And she was in pain. Or at least, it looked like she was. Certainly, wherever she was, she wasn’t happy to be there. Her eyes were practically glued shut and her jaw was clenched. Beads of sweat swamped her forehead.
My heart went out to her sitting there, in torment. I needed to find her, and fast.
The image swirled again then, changing to the face of another woman. This one younger, with dark hair and harsh features. She didn’t look a day over twenty, though I had no idea who she was or why she was important.
Once again, the water swirled, and the image changed. This time it was my face. Well, mine next to Rick’s. And the girl from before was still there, but she looked different. Shadowy, in a way, like she was there but at the same time she wasn’t. It was hard to explain.
I continued to stare at the image for what felt like an hour before it disappeared and the waters calmed down and returned to looking like nothing but slightly reddish liquid. Even the smoke from before was gone now.
“Hmm…” Sheila said, rousing me from my stupor. “This is all very interesting. And terrifying. It would appear all our futures are linked together.”
“Wait, what do you mean? That I need to stick with this dweeb a while longer?” Rick quipped.
“Hey!” I shot back, inching away from him. I don’t know why, but that one kind of stung.
“Sorry,” Rick said with a huff.
“In a word, yes,” Sheila said, interrupting both of us. “Your futures are linked with Mei’s, and the other woman we’ve seen in the waters.” She lazily stirred the cauldron with the tip of a finger. “A Queen Boudicca. Mean anything to you?”
My blood went cold at the sound of that name. I didn’t need several degrees in anthropology to know who that was. No, I’d heard that name before, several weeks ago. That was the queen whose tomb I’d raided.
Which meant all of this was my fault. I was the one who’d left the door to her crypt open, let her spirit wander the earth again.
Honestly, I should have known. Somehow or another, it’s always my fault.
“Queen Boudicca?” Rick repeated, wrinkling his nose. “The warrior queen of early Britain? What does a two-thousand-year-old queen have to do with any of this?”
At least he knew who she was.
“Her tale was a sad one,” Sheila recounted. “She died young, trying to stave off the Roman invasion after their soldiers ravaged her sisters right
