Page 78 of Old Secrets

“They could use it, and Desmond has a reputation of being what people need. I don’t know if he can undo thousands of years of damage, but he’ll try.”

That I believed without hesitation. “I did not expect to be camping outside, in China, during a monsoon, Jake.”

“I had expected dingy Chinese streets and political intrigue,” he replied. “There’s been some intrigue, but mostly, it’s been tragedy after tragedy with everyone pointing at the place the worst of the tragedies occurred.”

“I’m worried about Rosalie,” I confessed.

The woman had gone to extremes trying to be useful and struggling to please everybody. I’d caught our therapist casting her concerned looks. I recognized bits of myself in her, desperate to find acceptance despite the situation, a hopeless one devoid of any light.

“We can try to take her back to the United States with us. I’m not sure we can, but we’re going to need a babysitter, and I don’t need any magic to know that woman loves kids.”

“And she was forced to help murder them.”

“Yeah. I don’t feel much in the way of sympathy for the others, but that woman? She’s been punished enough. And I’m not convinced her aura is colored as it is because of your parents’ magic. It seems off. I think she’s been broken.”

“They’re all broken, Jake.”

“Yeah, I guess they are.”

“The other women seem harder.”

“They’re older, and they’ve been in the cult longer. And I suspect she was deeply hurt witnessing your siblings being murdered. I don’t think you’re a goddess of retribution to her at all, but I absolutely do believe you’re the moon in her sky. You might set her free from the death and the tragedy. I suspect the others adapted to what they were forced into doing. But we won’t know that for certain until later.”

No, we wouldn’t—and I feared the answers we would find once the dust settled, and we left Greenwich behind us. “Do you think we can save her?”

“I think you already have. But can we try to give her a future, one without death and tragedy? That I can’t promise. It depends on how many murders she’s committed and if she can make a bargain. I don’t know if our word will have any sway. The best we can do is try. And that is something I can promise you. We’ll try.”

The weather remained foul for an entire week, and even with an earth witch keeping the roads usable, as soon as we left the paved roads in the Xigazê area, our progress slowed. In good news for us, the leaders of Greenwich would make the journey by horse, and they would be even slower.

The Chinese Inquisition promised to save the animals if they could, as the journey would likely kill them from a mixture of weather and poor care. The turncoats had warned us we’d find graveyards of exposed horse skeletons, all of the animals unfit to be taken back to Xigazê.

To make sure Greenwich lagged, the earth witch made a point of turning the roads behind us into a bog, guaranteeing their horse trailers couldn’t make it close to the mountains. I hoped the local wildlife could survive, but the witch bogged down every trail for ten miles to keep them from progressing and giving us a chance to reach Mount Everest long before they could.

The closer we got to the mountains, the harsher the landscape became, with little to no life on the wind-scoured rocks. The rain created flooding hazards, but my father handled that with a wave of his hand.

My mother took a few days, but she grew bold enough to help the earth witch, and between the two of them, we enjoyed an easy enough hike despite being soaked to the skin.

My father, at least, was able to dry out our gear, making our evenings pleasant enough, especially when he created earthen structures for us to cook and eat beneath before returning the soil to where he’d gotten it.

On the ninth day, we reached the first of the horse graveyards, and the bones had been scattered due to the recent rainfalls. An odd rock caught my attention, a darker color than the rest. I pointed at it and asked, “What’s that?”

“A trail marker,” my father replied, gesturing for me to follow him. He guided me to the rock, and he pointed to where two stone materials clashed. “A long time ago, I coaxed this up from the deep places of the Earth to mark the way to Refuge. If you wait for sunrise and walk with the sun to your back, in two hours, you’ll find the next marker. For that one, you put the sun to your right side and continue your journey to find the next marker. Then you will continue to the west, following the trail markers and the curves of the mountains to find the entry to the caverns. We will arrive there by sunset. We will camp within the first cavern, and we will erase evidence of our passage so our prey follows in our wake unawares we are a group rather than returning alone in defeat. They will expect the passage of two, and that is what the evidence of their eyes will tell them, that only two returned through the caverns.”

Rather than ask how Greenwich had gained access to their refuge, I nodded, touching the marker to get a feel for the stone. It was hard, smooth, and polished beneath my fingertips. “Do you use the sun to find the next marker?”

“No. I know where they’re at. We won’t get lost, even if the clouds return and we can’t spot the sun. Save your worries for how we’ll best remove these sinners from the Earth.”

Upon hearing the turncoats refer to the leaders of Greenwich as sinners, my parents had taken the term and made it their own. Something had eased in them, as though they finally believed what the souls of the Murphys had conveyed regarding their innocence, such as it was.

The statues continued to follow us, and they stood silent guard. I found them unnerving at best, and I hoped that my parents would release their souls sooner than later. Then again, when I considered what I had witnessed in my father’s sands, an eternity of servitude would never be punishment enough.

Jake eyed the bones of the horses, and he growled.

Right. Jake liked horses. “We can ask the Chinese if we can adopt some of the abused horses, assuming any survive. I’m sure we can find a place to keep them. If nobody else wants the poor things, we’ll get them cared for and shipped to the United States.”

Maurice chuckled. “I will make certain they understand the horses need to be sent to good homes, and if none can be found, that you will take them to America.”

I smiled at the translator. “Thank you.”