aithne | Black Angel Crossroads: Where Spirits Have Lease

[Usual disclaimers apply: 1832 Louisiana, difficult cultural history, certain realities of race relations and slavery that can't be avoided. Proceed with caution, if you're sensitive.]

[Yes, I'm finished, yes, there will be one story posted a day until Friday. And yes, I am quite satisfied by the ending. Muahahahaha. Anyway. On with the story!]

Odile missed the sounds of the swamp.

Lying in bed with Gabriel, listening to the sounds of the house, she realized that she was constantly listening for the shrilling of insects and birds, the deep boom of frogs, splashes loud enough to be heard of her house of alligators getting a morning meal in. The house was not silent, anything but. Beyond the mosquito netting was an open window and the sound of voices drifted through it, men and women shouting, children playing and shrieking, the animals on the plantation adding to the cacophony. It sounded this morning like one of the mares was in heat, and a stallion was bugling, trying to make her come closer.

There were sounds inside the house, people moving around. That had to be Benjamin's heavy tread going down the stairs, just then. Breakfast would probably soon. She moved closer to Gabriel, who was more awake than she'd thought, and reached out to pull her close. As she moved, pain awakened in hips and shoulder. "Morning," she murmured.

"Morning. Not going to hop up and run away this morning?" he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

She made a mmph noise and set her forehead against his shoulder. "Breakfast's not for a little bit. And I hurt from yesterday, still."

"Ah," he answered. Odile raised her head to look at Gabriel's left shoulder, and saw that the bullet graze looked like it had been covered with new skin in the night. Her own was still raw and open, and she dropped her head back down. "Stay here, then?"

That sounded like an excellent idea, and for a few minutes they lay together, the sky lightening outside as the sun rose. While she lay still, Odile thought about what had happened yesterday, everything that had happened and everything she'd learned. "You know, Remy mentioned that he knew your mama, and I forgot to ask you about it. Sounds like I should have," she said.

"Sounds like it," he replied. "I do remember my father had a top hat when I very young. But I don't remember at all after I was five or so. So if Remy were there, it was a long time ago."

"So you never remember seeing him before?"

He shook his head. "I remember a tall black man. But when you are five, all men are tall," he said. "Could have been him. But manumission papers have to be logged in courts, and his would have my father's signature on them. I would bet New Orleans would make a character like Remy give them another copy of the papers."

Odile nodded. "There's that rumor that he killed his master and forged the papers, but that seems to be true of someone else, not him." She raised herself up on her elbow, propping her chin in her hand. "It sounds like your father found his own death."

Gabriel was quiet for a moment. "That was always the part that bothered me some about the story," he said, slowly. "He knew the rules and what it would get him for trying it."

"And he went to try it anyway. Seems strange, but I figured when you told me that the apple didn't fall very far from the tree." She smiled at him, trying to be gentle.

"I wish it wasn't so" he said. "But someday, it will happen. For now, if it happens, it would be a private ceremony here at Barataria."

Odile blinked, and realized Gabriel was talking about the two of them and a potential marriage. Panic rose in her briefly, and she blushed. "Well, Elisabeth told me some strange stuff, I clean forgot about it because right after that was when I found out about Noemi. Seems you had some very strange stuff happen to you when you were tiny."

"Like what? And nice sidestep," he added, smiling at her.

She felt the flush still on her cheeks, though the panic was subsiding. "I try," she told him, smiling back. "Like the fact that your mother died giving birth to a very large, very late baby--but she said that you were very small, as if you were a little early."

"Which is true. I was just over five pounds. It was Benjamin that was huge, nearly twelve pounds, and a month late."

"And she also mentioned that your mother was a vodoun practitioner. We were trying to figure out whether or not your mother might have given birth to Benjamin and your mama you, which loa might have decided to swap babies, and why. Didn't get very far, and like I said I clean forgot about it."

Gabriel sat up, putting his back against the pillows, looking thoughtful. He reached down and began to rub his bad knee. "It makes a certain amount of sense. My white mother was a follower of both Christian and vodoun religions. Her patron was Sobo. And my black mother was the practitioner and her patron was Legba. But obviously we would have to be switched in the womb--is that possible, and why would you bother?"

Odile made a gesture at the ceiling. "Lots of things are possible. Why bother, is the question, unless it was somehow important that the child chosen by Sobo be born to your white mother and the child chosen by Legba by your mama. I don't know, Remy might have a better idea. Do you remember your mama having a flute, at all?"

"I do, she would play us to sleep some nights. Was it more important that mama lived to drain me?"

"It might be. If your mother was a follower and not a practitioner, she might not have had the ability to use your power," she said. There was something wrong with that theory, but she couldn't decide what yet.

"So if she was going to die from Childbirth did my white mother sacrifice herself to make sure she lived, and could a mambo transfer a child to another womb?" Gabriel asked.

"That's not really mambo work, that's more like direct intervention from the loa," she told him.

"Legba, Sobo," he said. "Worse--Kalfu?"

"Any of them. The question would be, why?" She shook her head a little. "Your mama taught Remy. He might know more. The loa might give us a better answer than Remy, though."

"Wasn't there something else we needed to contact the loa about?" Gabriel asked.

She nodded, remembering yesterday, the crisis that seemed a little remote right at the moment, lying here in a comfortable bed with Gabriel with sunlight coming in the window. "The dam on that power we were feeling. We need to figure out how to remove it, what we're going to need to do."

"That today, or something else today?"

Odile thought about the aches she was feeling, the wounds in addition to the fact that yesterday felt like it had left bruises on her spirit somehow. Seeing Noemi come back, facing the fact that he might really some day leave her for someone he could legally marry, it all was weighing heavy on her despite Gabriel's assurance that he never would. As well, the things she had seen--Gabriel shooting Noemi, Missus Durand crumbling into dust, the angel sent against them--were heavy on her head and shoulders. "I think doing that's probably most important today. We're not getting into New Orleans today, and we can do ritual quietly, give us both a little chance to heal."

"This afternoon good for that?" he asked. "I have a project I would like you to help me with this morning."

"I think so. What do you need help with?" She thought that maybe he wanted to learn how to adapt some of her protection charms to suit his style, or some such.

She was wrong. "Telling me what you want left in the room across the hall if anything, so you can have a room to yourself, and feel like you belong here. Because you do."

Odile was struck speechless for a moment. "Ah. I didn't...I mean, I wouldn't want to make you feel like you needed to move those things," she stammered. She had always thought it was a little strange that Gabriel had kept Noemi's things so close by, but she hadn't expected him to up and decide that it was time for them to go.

Gabriel reached out a hand and brushed a lock of her hair back, tucking it behind her ear. The curl immediately sprang from where he had put it to fall back into Odile's face, and she almost laughed. "They need to be gone, and you should be here. If for nothing else than helping me understand my abilities. And it's a lot easier walk across the hall to ravish you than to your house."

He was smiling at her, and now she did give him a smile back, feeling unaccountably warmed by the gesture. "It was a little strange sleeping in there surrounded by her things, I admit."

"I know."

"So, yes, I'll take a look and see what I'd like left. I seem to be spending a lot of time here anyway." It was strange how easy it was, to agree. She already had some of her clothing here, she'd barely spent any time at home since she'd started sleeping with Gabriel, and the room full of Noemi's things so close by bothered her more than she cared to admit.

"I am very glad you are," he said, and pulled her up for a kiss. They spent a while exploring where that kiss led them, and then got out of bed and washed and dressed. Breakfast was just Odile and Gabriel, the others having already eaten, and afterwards they headed upstairs to Noemi's room.

Looking around, Odile decided that most everything in here needed to go. Noemi's taste was far more pale and frilly than her own, and so though Odile chose to keep a few basic pieces of furniture--shelves, the frame of the bed, a stool--she requested that most of the rest be removed. "I can have whatever else you need brought," Gabriel told her. "I was hoping you wouldn't want the bed left in here, though." He pulled a comically sad face, and Odile laughed at him.

"Might take it out later," she said. "No promises. I'll think about what I want in here, and let you know."

"All I can ask," he said, and pulled her close to kiss her.

"Something else to think about," she said. "You need a place to work ritual, sacred ground somewhere on Barataria. We can use my place today, but you need a center-pole and ground to work nearby."

"After all this is finished, I will. If you'll help me choose a place and set it up?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

Odile smiled. "I will," she said. "Now, I think we had a ritual to get to. We don't need anything more than one of my chickens, we can stop by on the way to pick one out."

So they did, getting a squawking black chicken from the coop and walking with it tucked under her arm out to her place. The house looked a little sad, she thought as she came through the cypresses that guarded the entrance to her yard. A little neglected, unlived-in. Without someone living inside, it was very quickly taking on an abandoned air. There were so many things she was leaving undone--her roof still needed fixing, there were weeds that wanted pulling around the base of the stilts the house stood on.

Later, she thought, and gave Gabriel the chicken to hold onto while she went into the house to get what she needed. She came back out to discover that though Gabriel was still holding onto the poor bird, both he and it were somewhat the worse for wear. She'd heard the frantic squawking from outside, but hadn't realized it was because Gabriel had somehow lost his grip on it a bit and had ended up trying to hold it by the legs while it beat at him with its wings and pecked at his hands. Gabriel's cane was lying beside him, dropped in the fuss, and had Gabriel moved enough to get a better grip on the chicken, he might have lost his balance and fallen over.

Odile rescued man and chicken from each other, pinning the chicken's wings to its sides and muttering a chant that calmed the hen down a bit. "Let's do this," she said. "I'm going to try to call only Legba first, see if I can talk with him. Still might end up calling both him and Erzulie, though."

"Wouldn't be a bad thing," Gabriel said with a grin. "So, how do we start?"

The ritual took some time, beginning with the proper invocations and the sacrifice of the chicken, then moving indoors to finish opening the sacred ground, The air took on the electric feel of the sky before a storm, as the space between the world of the earth and the world of the crossroads thinned, almost vanishing, and the pressure of the attention of the loa began to be felt.

Gabriel closed his eyes and then opened them, and what was behind them was not him any more, but Legba. Odile could never describe very well how she knew that a loa had mounted someone at a ritual, but it was usually quite obvious to her. In this case, she made Legba welcome, sitting him down with a glass of rum and a pipe in the most comfortable chair she owned.

After Legba was ensconced, the most honored of honored guests, she said, "I was hoping I could talk to you about some things, Papa Legba."

He eyed her. "What about ma cherie?" His voice was rougher than Gabriel's, his accent thicker, and he was speaking Creole like he'd been born to it.

Legba had as much of a focused mind as Gabriel, sometimes. In the back of her head, Odile could feel Erzulie's presence, a pressure like a hand. She smiled at Legba. "She's being patient today, I think. Besides, once the two of you get down to it, neither Gabriel nor I remember very much."

"And it will be the same today. But I know you want to talk to me." He took a draw on the pipe, blew out smoke. "So I am here."

"So what happened, with Benjamin and Gabriel's mothers?" she asked. "Were they really switched in the womb?"

The loa chuckled dryly. "Switched they were. Kalfu himself."

"Why did Kalfu do that?"

"Mess with us." Legba snorted. "Think, girl. Use the head that your Maman gave you. If they were in the right wombs, what would happen?"

Odile pondered, brushing the bundle of feathers she held against her bare foot. She was sitting on the floor, near Legba's feet, like a child at the feet of her father. "Benjamin's mother, the mambo, would die, and Gabriel's mother would live. Gabriel's mother probably wouldn't have wet nursed Benjamin, and Gabriel's father wouldn't have been lynched later. Benjamin and Gabriel would have stayed in Atlanta," she said, following the thread. "And Gabriel would likely never have met and married Noemi."

"And who would be sitting here talking to you?" Legba laughed. "Benjamin's mother could have birthed that boy. She would have lived."

"Gabriel might have eventually been trained, even. And he probably wouldn't have made the angel," she said. Such darkness, caused by such a small thing. Two children born to the wrong women, one woman's death. A heart stopped and a path opened for Gabriel to fall into.

Legba drew on the pipe and looked down at Odile. "Kalfu knew the rage in this one. He was thinking he would get a bokor by switching, but his black mama cheated him by taking the power, and the rage."

"Still gave Kalfu the angel, eventually. But he's less sure of victory, now."

"Tricked because he didn't have you," Legba said. "Taken in grief and seduced by one of Kalfu's to making the statue."

Odile stared up at him. One of Kalfu's? Who had been there, to encourage Gabriel to create the thing that would hold such evil? "But he also bound Noemi and not just the beast to it." she said. "She kept it in check for years."

Legba inclined his head. "Gabriel did that."

"I'm guessing that wasn't in Kalfu's plan either."

He tapped the bowl of the pipe gently on the table next to him, making a dull tapping sound. "He knew something was wrong with what he was doing and called the only good he knew back. Messed with Kalfu again."

She smiled briefly. "I can see why he's your chosen."

The loa made a face. "Still should have been Benjamin. But you can't be choosy. Had to take what I was tricked into. A white man protecting a black houngan makes a powerful combination."

"That rage in him would have been better leashed by Sobo. He's got a good heart, though," she said.

"Kalfu was betting more on the rage. He lost."

Odile nodded, pulling her heels closer in to her body. "And we all take what we can get. If Kalfu hadn't decided to interfere, I'd never have met Benjamin or Gabriel, so I can be almost grateful to him."

There was a silence from the loa, one that stretched so long that Odile looked up, searching his face for signs that Legba had dismounted. But he were there, simply looking into the air as if there were something he could see that she would never be able to. "You would have met," he said, finally. "They were drawn to this place. This is where the battle was to be. Same reason your Grandmere came here. Knew Erzulie's favorite had to be here. Remy. Drawn here. Kalfu's favorite. Here too."

She caught her breath, her throat closing briefly. "Kalfu's favorite. Antoinette? Someone I've met?"

"Antoinette is just a poppet. You've met her, many a time. Remy's daughter."

"The Leveau woman? She's about the right age, I think," she said slowly, thinking.

"Could be but I can't tell. Soon as I interfere, Kalfu strikes. My favorite dies." He knocked the pipe in the table three times in quick succession. "Can't have that."

Odile's eyes widened. "No, that's fine, I'll leave it."

Legba chuckled. "Kalfu still thinks he has a chance to get my favorite and convert him to the beast. He will keep him alive until it is no longer in his favor. Once his favorite is revealed, it's no longer in his favor."

"I see. Well, then." She paused, thinking. "So to get away from that--when Gabriel and I were the angel last, I could feel a dam with a whole lot of power behind it. I couldn't figure out how to get to it. Can you offer any advice?"

"You hold the key," Legba said, his voice fondly rough.

"I do? Where?"

"It's a key called trust."

Odile's fists clenched, and she opened her mouth to deny it. Then she stopped, closing her mouth. It was useless to try to lie to a loa. "I have to trust him. And I don't, not completely."

He gave her a long look, then nodded. "Until you do, all that you can become is stunted."

"I see," she said. She licked her lips, her mouth had suddenly gone as dry as high ground on a hot day.

The loa's voice was gentle, now. "Fear is strong. Kalfu is counting on it."

Odile drew herself upright, glaring at Legba. "Oh, that is not fair, Papa Legba. Not fair at all."

"Fair," he said, seeming to turn the word over in his mouth. "No it's not. But Kalfu is never fair. Tell me, do your love charms work for long?"

"They only work for a little while, and then usually the feelings of the pair take over. Why?"

Legba smiled. "But you can't tell them who to love?"

Odile shook her head. "No, I can't, and you know it."

"You really can't tell who the heart to love, not even a loa for long can change that," he said, then raised his pipe to his mouth again. When he spoke next, he exhaled sweet smoke. "Your heart loves him. I can feel it when Erzulie has you. And he loves you. You are scared because he is a white man. But don't you think it would be easier on him too if he didn't love you?" He fixed her with a direct look that reminded her too much of her mother. "He doesn't want easy, he just wants you."

"I know," she admitted. "I just...I just can't let go of the fear that easy. I've been independent all my life. I don't want to give that up. I know I should, but I don't know how to bend like that yet."

"You will never be his servant. You only have to give up your love, but nothing else." There was gentleness in his eyes, a very rare glimpse of what some considered Legba at his best, the father to all vodoun practitioners, benevolent leader. "You will, and at just the right time."

"I hope so," she said, then breathed out. "While I still have you to talk to--why did you and Erzulie keep dropping us and picking us up again, the other day?"

Now his face shifted, his smile going to a grin and that grin going sharp and hungry. Odile began to be aware of a rising pressure on her, the familiar feel of Erzulie against her. "To show you what's possible. Did it help?"

Odile chuckled. "It did."

"Good. Now you have kept Erzulie waiting, and the more she waits the more restless she becomes. And though that is good news for me, it makes you sore in places you didn't know you had," he said. "So you done with the papa?"

"I am," she said. "Mèsi,, Papa Legba. For everything." She bent at the waist, folding herself over, and freed her hair from her headwrap. She whispered the chant now, feeling Erzulie settle into the saddle, and closed her eyes.

Once again, the loa left Odile with flashes of what they did. This time it was all sex. Odile had, honestly, never considered some of the acts that the loa were doing, and would have considered others more or less impossible if it hadn't been her body doing them. There were just flashes, seconds where she was dropped back into her body to discover that she was somehow upside-down or rather sideways or in one extremely memorable case screaming her fool head off--and out of pleasure, not pain. Gabriel had large hands, and there were places they fit that she'd never thought about putting them before. The air in her little house was hot and wet and close, and the two of their bodies slippery, Odile wet as the swamp she had been born in.

The loa left abruptly, this time as before leaving her and Gabriel still coupled, this time him on top of her and her legs wrapped around his waist. She didn't bother to stop to talk, simply silently insisting with her body that they finish. Gabriel willingly obliged her, and the two of them quickly built to a climax that seemed to almost throw Odile out of her body once more, leaving her afterwards feeling almost too limp to move.

And sore. Her wounds from yesterday were suddenly speaking, as were parts of her body that had been participating in activities quite a bit more vigorous than she was used to. But it didn't matter; all that mattered right now was the warmth that was spread through her and the man who had landed next to her, who she pulled close. Both of them were soaked with sweat, as was the blanket beneath them. "Mmmm. That was worth it, definitely," Odile murmured.

Gabriel lifted his head and then set it down again with thump. He was lying on his back, and Odile had thrown one leg over his. "Very definitely. And I don't even know if you are talking about Legba."

"I'm mostly talking about how sore I'm going to be tomorrow," she said with a smile. "But like I said. Worth it."

He let out a breath that seemed to come from his toes. "Well worth it. I think I will just lay here a bit. I think I will be sore very soon."

She rested a hand on his chest, fingers spread. She could feel his heart beating underneath her fingers, a reassuringly steady rhythm. "Legba had some interesting things to say to me, I can tell you about them while we recover."

"Please."

"Well, to start, you and Benjamin were switched in the womb, by Kalfu. Benjamin's mother could have survived that birth, and your mother dying kicked off a whole chain of events that led to Noemi and the creation of the angel. He thought the rage in you would win, but it hasn't." She did not mention how much of a surprise that was. "Kalfu has a favorite in all this, Remy's daughter, but he couldn't tell me who she is."

"He wanted the angel as his body. I screwed that up somehow?" Gabriel asked, sounding surprised.

Odile nodded. "You called Noemi and bound her as well. She managed to control the beast, and kept it from taking over for years."

He took a deep breath. "And that left it with a conscience. Did he say why he couldn't tell you who Remy's daughter is?"

She curled her fingers on his chest. "You live, as long as Kalfu thinks things are still favorable towards him. Once we find the favorite, well, things are no longer so favorable."

"And she comes after me," he said.

"Maybe more direct than that. But likely, whoever she is will come after you. All I know is that it's not Antoinette."

Gabriel's eyes were open now, and as she glanced up she could see that he was looking at the ceiling thoughtfully. "I think I understand. Well, there goes that theory. So if it's not her, who could it be? Maybe I don't really want to ask that."

Odile dropped her hand to his shoulder, curling her fingers around it, fingers barely touching the scars of the garde on that shoulder. "Leave it for the moment, I think. I have some ideas."

"I am not going to ask. Somehow I don't think it's a good idea for me to know."

He was wise enough, sometimes. "No, I don't think it is. Let's see. Some interesting things about which of you was supposed to be chosen by who that probably aren't important. Legba also gave me something of a lecture when I asked him how to unlock that power we felt before."

"Which is?" he asked.

She turned her face into his shoulder a little. "I have to trust you entire," she admitted.

He was very still against her. "And you don't. I understand. I scare myself sometimes."

How could she say this so that he would understand? "It's not that, not entirely. That's just power. It's mostly, well, you're white, and I'm not. I know it shouldn't make any difference."

"Here and now it does. I know." Gabriel's voice held regret and pain.

Her mouth had gone dry again. "I need time, and I'm not sure I have it, to be honest."

"We have all the time in the world," he said, and worked one arm beneath her, so he could pull her closer. "I know you feel pressured from me and from others. But you can't fake it, either. So don't, and don't push yourself either. It will or won't happen. We will deal with whatever comes."

It was almost a relief, to hear those words. "I hope so. I know I probably shouldn't ask this, but...when we were the angel, I could feel that you were scared. Scared that I was going to die, and some kind of scared about the future. What about the future's your fear?"

She felt him tense again. "I am scared of you dying. I am scared of me dying. But my biggest fear is that I won't have a future with you. Whether that means one of us dies or you decide that you don't love me, or you can't. I am also scared of becoming something I am not if Kalfu wins."

"Oh." She shivered a little. "Well. I can't promise not to die. The other, well, not sure that's going to be a problem. And I'm hoping that together, we can beat Kalfu. Death would be better than him winning."

"I don't want you to have to kill me if that happens. Benjamin already promised. I just ask you to let him." He shifted, reaching to kiss her forehead. "And your other comment makes me very happy and I want to say a few words to you, but I think I scared you last time. Let me know, though, when you want to hear them."

"I'll let you know," she promised. "You're right, you did scare me, but I'm still here and trust me, that says a lot. I haven't lit out into the swamp yet, and I'm probably not going to." It was a truth that she didn't know if he knew the full significance of. She should run, any sane person would. Yet here she was, doing the crazy thing.

"Good," he said. "I have this whole thing about not letting people go. I would hate to have to chase you." Gabriel smiled and kissed her forehead again.

Odile chuckled. "You'd get yourself killed out in the swamp."

"Probably. Sore yet?"

She stretched a little, thinking about it. "Only a little, but I can tell I'm going to be pretty sore sometime soon. You?"

"Not yet" he said with a wolfish grin, and rolled Odile over on top of him. She acquiesced with a laugh. "I want to try that thing Legba did."

"Which one?" she asked, then he moved underneath her and all was abruptly made clear. "Oh, that one." They fell to trying it, and eventually they moved to her bed, neither of them wanting to make the walk back to her house. Odile did drape a blanket over the corpse that held her mother, just for propriety's sake.

Her bed was far narrower than the one she shared with Gabriel, but neither of them complained much. They were both so exhausted and sore that sleep came easily and almost immediately.

The next morning, neither of them were in a mood to hop out of bed right away, despite being both hungry and thirsty. Gabriel talked Odile into sleeping in much longer than she usually would, though neither of them was up for more sex--in Gabriel's case, somewhat literally--that morning.

Eventually, Odile insisted that they did need to get out to the swamp to check on the people from Petit's place. They were both slow to dress and slow to walk back to the plantation house. Odile for once was walking just as slowly as Gabriel. "Want my cane?" Gabriel said as they passed between the two big cypresses, and smirked.

She laughed, rolling her eyes, and told him, "You need it worse than me." In return he just smiled and took her hand, and together the two of them made their slow way back to Barataria.

They were late for breakfast again; Benjamin and the family were already there and eating. Benjamin gave every indication of just having finished his usual huge meal, with no evidence whatsoever of nausea. Odile checked him, and he followed her finger with his eyes well enough, and despite the lump on his head appeared to be fine. "We're going out to the swamp today if you want to come," she told him after setting to her own eggs and grits.

"I will if you want, but I might want to set up the guards here today," Benjamin said.

"Probably a good idea for you to do that. Gabriel and I can go out, then."

Gabriel swallowed his forkful of bacon. "I think we can handle it. You doing what we talked about, Benjamin?" Benjamin nodded, and Odile gave Gabriel a curious look but didn't press. "I will tell you later," he said to her, and she nodded.

Ines had not come down, but Elisabeth said that she was taking food in her room, and actually eating it. Odile nodded, satisfied; the girl was doing better, but she sounded like she was still fragile. She made a note to herself to stop up later and see if there was anything she could do.

For the moment, she and Gabriel finished breakfast and set out for the swamp. There was a raft waiting for them, loaded with supplies that Odile assumed Benjamin had told the workers to load up. Both of them started poling, the swamp opening her arms and wrapping them both in a damp blanket.

"The plan, if you are interested?" Gabriel said once they were a little ways into the swamp.

Odile nodded. "Yes, I was wondering what you were talking about."

He gave her a half-smile and pushed down on his pole. "Well, Benjamin and I, well mostly me, are a little controversial in our beliefs, so we planned and bought a large number of guns and stored them in the barn."

She gave him a surprised look. "You're going to arm all the workers, aren't you?"

"The law states that black men may carry arms to protect the family of the plantation owner or to hunt, so Benjamin is going on a large hunting spree today with about forty of the men. The law also states that unless fired upon by a white person, they can't fire first without being hung. So they will have to take fire to return fire." He jabbed his pole savagely into the swamp water, splashing and making the raft rock. "Unless you are a free person, which only Benjamin is. In a manner of speaking."

"So he's going to go and get Leroy's people to fire at him?"

"If they come back on the plantation, yes. He isn't going there, he is just protecting Barataria's borders." He frowned, and deep lines appeared at the corners of his mouth. "At least he better not be going there."

"I hope not," she said. "Well, I hope for his sake that Leroy's people don't come back."

"Same here." Their poles made a rhythm in the water, first hers, then his. "But we thought we had better take the chance. We didn't have enough time to pass out the guns last time. But this time, they will be ready."

Odile nodded, and saw that they were nearing the channel in the swamp that led to the big white house and the man with the white eyes. The feeling of eyes watching them was abruptly almost overwhelming. "Is that--" Gabriel began.

"Yes," she said. "I don't want to go there, not without Benjamin. And not without some more preparation."

They were passing the open mouth if the channel now. "What can't we face when we are together?" Gabriel asked. "Benjamin is a great asset, but I am not sure what he could do that we can't."

"You and I are some vulnerable when we're linked together. It's good to know Benjamin's there to guard us when we are."

"I suppose more eyes are better too. Keeps us out of trouble." There was a long pause then as they moved all the way past the channel and around the bend in the bayou. Finally, Gabriel asked, "Are you going to tell me about Leroy, sometime?"

Odile's expression went suddenly closed, her grey eyes dark and hooded. Her shoulders, though she still poled, were held stiff and guarded. "What about him?"

"The link gave me pure rage when you saw him," he said. "You nearly didn't stop after we beat back the angel to get to him."

She shrugged and splashed her pole in the water. "I told you, he raped Maman and Grandmere. "The last living one of the group that was there that night."

Gabriel looked down at where his pole entered the water, then back at Odile. "Is there nothing more than that? That is bad enough, but your rage seemed stronger more personal to you somehow."

It took her a while to respond, as the feeling of being watched faded and the insects and animals took up making noise again. "He fathered me, so Grandmere said," she managed, finally. "I always knew my conception was probably not by Maman's choice. Knowing who it was, though, makes me mad."

Gabriel's voice sounded almost defeated, his shoulders slumping. "I am so sorry, Odile. I probably shouldn't have asked."

She looked up at him. "It's all right. I'm just--ashamed, I guess. I know who fathered me wasn't my fault. But somehow it is. Maman should have had someone to love of her own, but having a mulatto babe wasn't really good for that." And there was so much else tangled up in that. That she liked Gabriel, that he was an owner, an owner with good intentions but still a white man and all that brought with it.

This was difficult on both sides. He doesn't want easy. He just wants you, she remembered Legba saying. And if she'd wanted easy, well, she could have had easy. So why choose this man, of all the men she'd known?

The rhythm of their poles in the water offered no answer. "I do find two good points, though," Gabriel said. "One, it will very satisfying to get rid of that part of Kalfu. Two, you were born, and for that I am grateful."

She smiled at him, a little shakily but the sentiment behind it genuine. "Well, those are both true. I want Leroy dead."

"I understand, and I will do anything I can to make him breathe less."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out." She drew a long breath. "But, yes, that was why it was hard for me to stop when we almost had the opportunity to get him. There were be another time, if nothing else, he'll come to us. He can hardly help it. Kalfu wants us dead."

"I wonder about that sometimes," Gabriel said. "He could have killed us before we even knew what was really going on."

If Kalfu's favorite were close by, yes, Gabriel had a point. "You, I think he wanted to use. Benjamin's a favorite of Sobo, so maybe he couldn't really get to him. Me, though. Not sure about me."

"I think you is why were switched," he mused.

She raised an eyebrow, and then straightened as a splash ahead of them announced an alligator. The creature submerged and swam away, and Odile relaxed. "Well, you being switched led to Noemi and the angel. Think that might have been done to make me reluctant to get involved?" Gabriel nodded, and Odile continued her thought. "You were supposed to be Sobo's favorite; might have been that originally you and I were supposed to form the defensive wall, and Benjamin was supposed to be the offense."

"Yes. And he would have be pretty good at it, trained from birth as a houngan."

Odile made a wry face. "Instead, you went mostly untrained until now."

"Which has an advantage maybe. Kalfu has no idea what we are going to do next, because we don't," he said, smiling. "No matter what, though. I still would have thought you the prettiest woman I have ever seen."

She gave him a little smile, thinking about how much she liked this man sometimes, when she wasn't so busy being afraid of what he represented. "And I probably would have ended up in bed with you, no matter what else happened," she told him.

"I wouldn't have wanted it any other way," he said. They fell silent again after Odile realized they were getting close to the island where she had left the people from Petit's place, and started scanning the undergrowth for movement.

She heard voices, frightened murmurs, and saw flashes of frantic movement. Odile caught Gabriel's eye and pointed. "Something's been going on."

"Better find out what," he said. They poled up to the island where Odile directed them and landed. No sooner had they stepped off the raft than one of the woman came running up to them.

"Are you all right? What's been going on?" she asked.

The woman looked around her, frantic. "We need off the island. One of the men died overnight and something bit out pieces of him. It wasn't any gator. It's got human bite marks on the body."

Odile went cold. "We can move you. Can I see the body?"

She nodded. "Over this way, Miss Odile, master."

"It's just Gabriel," he told her.

The woman threw him a confused look. "All right, master."

Odile could see Gabriel grit his teeth. "My name is Gabriel." The woman--Marie, if Odile remembered correctly--led them over to a blanket-covered body. Odile crouched down to lift the blanket.

From the man's open eyes, he had died of yellow fever. But there were bite marks all over his body, as if something had started eating him after he'd died. The bites were too large for any rodent and too small for an alligator, and Odile could see the pattern of human teeth in bites that had evidently been too big for the biter to take off completely.

"Was he lying here when you found him with the bites?" Odile asked Marie.

She nodded. "He was. We found him this morning dead. We figured fever but he was covered in those bites. There is something on this island with us."

Odile nodded. "There is. Maybe lodged in someone's body. I'm going to need to do a couple of things before we go back, then."

"Such as?" Gabriel asked.

She turned to him. "Quick ritual, and painting marks against possession on each of their foreheads. If something's possessing someone here, they'll fight the mark. And if not, with any luck we can leave behind whatever it is, and cover our footsteps."

"Can I help?"

Odile considered, then said, "Yes, you can. I can show you how to paint the marks, they're pretty simple. And if someone here is possessed, you'll need to help me fix it."

"I can do that," he said. A few minutes later, she had everyone she'd brought out here gathered in the one clearing on the island, and was opening a ritual. She'd shown Gabriel what to do, and he was very quick about learning it.

They were both working quickly but carefully, painting a diamond with curls at the points and enclosing a pattern of dots on each person's forehead, from the old men to petit bebes. "Odile, a bit of help here," Gabriel said, from behind her.

Odile turned and saw that he had a boy by the arm, a burly thirteen-year-old who was fighting him. She stepped over and took the boy's other arm. There was something dark inside this boy, something that liked her not at all. She said to Gabriel, "Hold him, I'll touch you if I need help, and I'll let you know what to do then."

Gabriel nodded, and she set to work, chanting loudly to call the loas' attention to her and to this boy, calling whatever was in him out. It fought her, spitting and cursing, calling her a devil whore and a bitch and various other names, none savory. She grew sterner with her, her voice ringing out, and still it fought.

She laid her hand on Gabriel's shoulder, pausing her chant. "Up and out, try to be a little gentle getting it out of him, then a hard boot past the crossroads." He nodded and she reached for his power, feeling once and always that delicious shiver of delight at the first contact, the power leaping up and ready for her attention. Much like another part of him, she mused, and then dismissed the thought to ponder later.

Together, she and Gabriel pulled the thing up and out of the boy's body. It emerged from him, fighting all the way, and coalesced, looking like an extremely gaunt man whose dark skin hung off of him in folds. Whoever he had been, he had probably starved to death, and Odile thought that maybe he might have eaten whatever companions he'd had to stay alive. It happened sometimes, and that sort of thing would easily enough turn a soul into something much worse.

The thing folded into a ball of darkness, and as Odile gave it a hard boot it flitted away south, into the swamp, where it entered a crossroads and then disappeared. Odile reached for her ink and very quickly painted a few more gardes on the boy's forehead, reminding herself to give him a more permanent garde against possession later. "There. Done." She let go of the boy, who had gone limp and confused-looking, and a woman Odile supposed must be his mother rushed up to him, sobbing.

Odile stepped back, out of the sudden fuss, and Gabriel followed. "There is a crossroads south of here?" he asked quietly.

She spread her hands and shrugged. "Looks like. Not one I've ever been to before, and there aren't a lot of roads there."

"Thought that was unusual. Does the block that Remy has extend to all crossroads?"

She opened her mouth and then closed it again. How to explain this one? He had such curious gaps in his knowledge sometimes. "Well, it's complicated. All crossroads are one crossroads, sort of reflections of the single crossroads Ghede watches over. But at the same time, they're independent of each other. Smaller crossroads may have weaker blocks on them."

"Do we need to look at that one or is it safer to just move these people and let the swamp handle it?" he asked.

She thought about it, then nodded, a bit reluctantly. "We should go look, there might be nothing to do, but if someone's set up and bringing things through, we need to know about it. Whatever that was might have come through on its own. We might want to move these folks after, though."

"Let them get packing, and we can take a look," he said. Odile went to get everyone organized, and then the two of them departed south, Odile being very careful indeed with the raft. Down here, the temper of the swamp was dreadfully uncertain, even more so than farther north. The place got darker, more quiet, and they were now deep into the shade of large trees.

They spoke little, and Odile kept feeling ahead of them. They came upon it some time later, a small island anchored by one large cypress tree, the remnants of a pair of roads and a stone marker saying that this had been a crossroads, once. The cypress felt somehow unfriendly, like it had been guarding this place so long it no longer knew friend from foe.

There was another feeling, too, of a thin barrier separating them from a crowd. "It feels like the barrier's weak here. There's a lot of things pressed up against the other side. Can you feel them?" she asked Gabriel.

He nodded, the shadow of the tree making his green eyes dark. "I can. I can hear them. Like a hundred voices talking."

Odile stepped out onto the island and looked around, finding what she expected--ritual things buried on the island. It looked a little like Antoinette's work and a little like Marie Leveau's, but it really wasn't quite right for either. Definitely not Remy, she thought. Remy never bothered with all the little knots in his charms.

She pointed out each thing to Gabriel, describing what each was likely intended for. "Most of this stuff, we can destroy. Some of it will need to be dropped into the swamp. Then we can do a few things to strengthen the crossroads here."

There was a look on Gabriel's face she was finding difficult to read. "Is it possible for a live person to cross the other way?"

"Possible, yes. Good idea, no. Why?"

"I hear something," he said. "I can't quite describe it, but it's calling. I realize it's probably just trying to kill me or us."

"What does it sound like?" Odile asked, alarmed. "Sounds like it's in distress?"

Gabriel shook his head. "It's female and faint. I can't tell for sure. It sounds like Ines, but that's crazy."

Odile caught her breath in her throat. "You know, I could almost believe it. We could find out."

"How? And why would she be in there?"

She thought of a girl who refused to speak, who barely ate. "I don't know, but she had been thrown out of her body. Maybe part of her is still out here. If you can hear her, we can bring her closer, let her hear us, talk to her. You know her, you'd know if it was her, yes?"

"I would. Is it easier to go there?" he asked.

It took her a moment to respond. "Easier, not quite as safe. I can put some good protections on you. The trick is not to bring anything you don't want to bring back when you return."

"Then come with me," he said, the urgency of his voice making her think that he really didn't want to go alone.

Odile thought for a moment about it, and then nodded. "I can. I've gone to the other side a couple of times, I know the practices and defenses. This is not a safe thing to do, just so you know," she added in warning.

"I know, but what is really better?"

"Going there," she said. "Bringing her here will weaken the barriers further."

Gabriel nodded as if all were decided. "Then let's go."

Well, she supposed the decision had been made, in a way. "A few preparations and we can." She sat down and began to put together some preparations, a circle around them and a string woven of grass that linked the two of them together, a marker for them to come back to, protections marked on both of them and charged with a chant.

There came a point when Odile realized she was stalling, that there was nothing left to do. "That's everything I can think of and have material for. Ready?"

"Yes," he said, voice definite. He took her hand, holding it tightly.

Odile closed her eyes and began the chant that opened the ways. Legba opened the door for them, and Odile stepped through elsewhere and then past the crossroads that was the true crossroads, the crossroads that was all crossroads, the absence of Ghede aching like a gone tooth. Then they were through and to the other side, the land of the dead looking much like usual world, only gone colorless and grey.

It was made much less pleasant than usual by the crowd they encountered on the other side, souls and things pushing and jostling, some of which Odile couldn't identify right away. She shoved through the crowd and reluctantly the fanged and clawed throng let her through, unable to attack because of her protections but unwilling to let her through without some resistance. "Can you hear her? Which direction?" Odile asked Gabriel once they were through the worst.

"Distantly," he replied. "This way."

"We can't get too far from where we entered. I'll let you know when we're reaching the limit," she said, feeling the line that led back to the waking world. Without that line, it was all too easy to become lost in here. And lost, they would wander until they starved to death and became dead in truth, especially with no Ghede to rescue them if need be.

Gabriel led her to place where she could see a box, about four feet square, made of dark wood and wrapped in chains. It was just beyond the safe limit, about two feet out of reach, and it was covered in Kalfu's symbols. "Here," he said, and she pulled on his hand.

"No farther, this is the limit," she said. She raised her voice, then. "Well, I know what this looks like. Grandmere? Are you around?"

Odile's grandmother stepped out as if the air were a door. "What are you doing on this side, girl?" she asked, her eyes narrowed. "You should know better." She was a strapping tall woman, heavy-bottomed like Odile was, with very dark skin and beautiful in a hard way. She looked about Odile's age, though she'd died when she was in her fifties.

"I do, but I think it was necessary," Odile said to her grandmother. "I think this box has a living girl in it."

"Been here long?"

"Me, a few minutes. This girl, a few days, if it's her."

Grandmere looked at the box and crossed her arms. "Might not be worth opening the box. She might be there, but her mind might be gone. Do you have another body or is this just the mind?"

"I think this is just the mind," Odile said. "The body's back on Barataria. I got Kalfu out of her, but I think maybe what I thought was a withdrawal from everyone because of her memories might be just an absence."

"He had something else in her?"

Odile nodded. "Something that looked like a dark cloud with the angel's eyes. Noemi dropped one of the angel's feathers, and I used it to scare it out."

Grandmere frowned, a deep line appearing between her eyebrows. "Beast that is in the angel. Feather do anything after that?"

"Turned back to stone," she said.

"Did you keep it?" Grandmere asked.

She thought briefly--what had she done with it? Oh, yes. "Yes, but it's back at home."

"Is the stone angel missing one?"

Good question. Odile thought about that feather, thought about the angel's wings. She would have noticed if it had been missing a feather on the outside of its wings, she thought. "No, actually. Why?"

Grandmere smiled briefly. "Not its. Yours. They turned it to stone to stop you from using it again."

Odile stared at the image of her grandmother, feeling as she often did like she were still five years old and her grandmother the wisest person in the world. "How on earth did Noemi get ahold of one of our feathers? We hadn't combined yet at that point. Well, that's less important than figuring out how to find out if this is Ines in here, and getting her out if it is. That box is just beyond the safe limit. We step over there, we might not be able to get back."

Gabriel had been looking from one to the other of them, and spoke up now. "Not if you hold onto my hand. I can reach it."

She gave him a dubious look. "We'll stretch it to the limit. Might work, though. Looks like if you could get the chains off, the box would open."

"Any idea how to get the chains off?"

She didn't respond for a moment, turning to regard the box. It had a heavy lock on the chains, and she pointed at it. "Well, two choices. Enough power might blast the lock off, but it'll also draw everything around that's hungry. Otherwise, find a crowbar of some sort. I don't think we can unlock that lock. Not without a lot more study and a finer touch on your power than you currently have."

Gabriel had gotten the kind of thoughtful look on his face that Odile was starting to realize meant that he'd just had a reckless idea. "Maybe a finer touch isn't necessary. Take my hand, let me try."

Odile did so, then remembered her manners. "By the way, Grandmere, this is Gabriel. Gabriel, this is my grandmother, Bon Mambo Lille Lives With The Sky. All right, give it a try."

Gabriel had reached out his hand, but pulled it back and turned to Grandmere. "Good to meet you. Strange, but good."

Grandmere had tilted her head, giving Gabriel a good long look. "This going to finally give me a great-grandbaby?"

"Might be," Odile said. "Give me a few months." She gave her grandmother a smile; it was never any use trying to lie to her, and Odile had been thinking about having children by this man long before she'd ever considered anything more.

Her grandmother raised her eyebrows. "Well. I am almost speechless. Not quite, mind you."

Beside Odile, Gabriel shifted, reaching out towards the box. She braced herself and let him lean over until he could almost touch it. "You're never speechless, Grandmere," she said fondly.

"I know. It's a gift. Just like that one," she said, pointing at Gabriel. Gabriel laid his fingertips on the chains, and Odile watched as they disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

Her eyes went wide--that wasn't supposed to be possible. And yet, what about Gabriel was? "Well. Open it?" she suggested.

He was studying the box still. "I don't see an opening." He paused, then shook his head. "Never mind." Gabriel reached out and touched the box, and it too disappeared, and out sprawled a dark-skinned girl, her hair up in a dark red headwrap, dressed in a grass-stained nightgown.

Red headwrap. Not Ines, but Isabelle.

There was only time for one startled glance as a cloud of spirits rushed past Odile and Gabriel, catching Isabelle up in their arms and carrying her away screaming, deeper into the land beyond the crossroads. "No!" Odile screamed, and cast around for a chant to call a spirit.

Only Isabelle had been real, and solid as the two of them. A chant to call a spirit would never bring her back. "Real," she muttered. "Like us. What is living in that house, looking like Isabelle?" She looked at Gabriel. "We can't go after her, not even as the angel, unless we want to chance maybe not being able to get home."

"We have to. She will die out there." He was looking at the place where Isabelle had disappeared, a sick look of fear on his face.

"If we lose our way, not one but three will die." Odile caught her her breath then as the look on Gabriel's face solidified into a wall of stubbornness. This was his niece, his family. She did not want to do this, but there was a living girl out there somewhere who needed to be brought back. "You're right. Grandmere, if I give you a light, can you tend it for me, to help us find our way back?"

"Yes child," Grandmere said.

Gabriel took his cane and slammed it down into the ground beneath them, what looked like gray soil. The ground cracked and splintered outward, and the large ball that served as a handhold on the cane began to glow gently. "Anchor point, correct?"

Impressed, Odile nodded. "Yes. I can tie our line to here, and if we can get back here, we can get back to that crossroads."

"Let's do it."

Odile was already hauling in their line from the crossroads, and tying it to the cane. She held her hand out to Gabriel then in invitation. His fingers curled around hers, and they stepped together, becoming once again the angel. They spread their wings and soared upward, a strange and heady rush of freedom coming over them as they left the ground. They flew in the direction that Isabelle had disappeared in, overtaking the cloud of spirits and the struggling girl in the center easily.

They dove into the cloud like a hawk into a cloud of starlings, shrieks rising from the crowd as it scattered. some of the spirits, winged and scaled and furred things, tried to batter at their body to stop them, but then fell back. Some that touched them were consumed in fire, others were merely scorched, but all recoiled.

They snatched Isabelle up from those that held her and swung up once more. Isabelle was still screaming and struggling, and there was no time to explain to her what was going on. The head of the cane was glowing so brightly that it was casting shadows in this usually shadowless realm.

It was easy to find their way back now, and the denizens of this realm fell back from them and fled as they winged their way back. They swept down and with their free hand grabbed the glowing cane, pulling it free from the ground. Grandmere stood there, watching, a look of open astonishment on her face.

Out they went, passing through the crossroads and elsewhere and back to the waking world. They set Isabelle down, who was no longer screaming but merely crying and shaking. The part of them that was Gabriel noted a mole that confirmed that this was indeed Isabelle, or an exact copy of her. Can we strengthen that crossroad? he asked.

Yes. Remember what we did before, with Remy's blockade? We can do the same thing here.

She could feel Gabriel's power, and the assent that he gave her. I will give you the power, if you can control it and do what's right.

Their wings opened, fanning gently. Yes, I can. Try to watch me, if you can.

I will. He opened the power to her, and it flared upward, that delight ringing through her once again. And something else came with the power, something old that she'd had no idea Gabriel knew.

She could seal this crossroads so tight that it would take years for the bindings to wear through. Or she could destroy it forever..

It seemed so simple, she could hardly believe that she hadn't figured it out before. Take the connections of this crossroads to the place that was all crossroads, sever them permanently. This crossroads would simply become a place where two old roads met.

But she ran the risk of offending Ghede by doing so, and so instead she simply sealed the crossroads tight. Then the two of them stepped out from each other, and Odile felt once more that bone-chilling cold she always did when the two of them let go of each other. It was a hot day, the air thick, and for a moment Odile felt as cold as if she'd spent a winter night out of doors.

She kept the knowledge of how to destroy crossroads. Odile swallowed hard, and shook her head, "I didn't know you knew how to destroy crossroads."

Gabriel's eyes widened. "I don't. I thought you did."

"No, that wasn't me. That was something much older than me," she said.

"I don't think that was me either. But things are a bit strange anyway."

Only a bit? Odile took a long breath. "We can talk about it later." She turned to Isabelle. "Are you all right?"

Isabelle was crying hard, but managed to whimper out on a small voice, "Yes."

"Good. Let's go. We need to get you back to your parents." To Gabriel, she said, "I think the people on the island are safe enough for now, with that crossroads sealed."

He shook his head. "Let's get them back too. They'll never feel safe out here."

It was reasonable enough, and Gabriel helped Isabelle onto the raft. She was calming down a bit, and as they poled back, Odile started asking questions.

"Isabelle, can you tell us what happened to you?"

The girl was huddled in the center of the raft, knees drawn to her chest. The deep shadows here cast dark circles under her eyes. "From when?"

"When you got put into the box. What happened, and what happened just before it?"

Her words came haltingly. "I followed Ines out the window. She was going to meet her boyfriend."

Odile looked down at where her pole was in the water, seeing the telltale ripple of a snake swimming away. "And you followed her because?"

"It wasn't safe. She knew it, and I was going to make sure she didn't do anything stupid." The girl rubbed her eyes, wiping away tears.

"So what happened then?"

Isabelle took a long breath. "I saw some men jump them. I heard the hit on the head. Philippe went down. I think they killed him. I must have made noise, but I thought I was real quiet. They grabbed us both. They took us to Petit's place. and I got thrown in the box, I could hear the chains being wrapped. I heard Ines screaming, and screaming, and screaming." Her voice was trembling, ragged, on the edge of tears again. "Then nothing until later. I could feel getting picked up in the box and then I heard chanting and then it was the whispers."

"Whispers?" Odile asked.

"Spirits, telling me that Ines was dead, that all of my family was dead."

"They lied, by the way," she told Isabelle. "Ines is alive, so are your parents."

Isabelle nodded. "I saw Uncle Gabriel, so I thought they lied."

"They did. Ines is fine in body, but...well, I'm pretty sure you have a good idea what was happening to her. Takes a while to heal in the mind from that," she said, hating to be the bearer of bad news but knowing that Isabelle would need to prepare herself for what she would find when she got home.

The girl looked up at Odile, and though her eyes were still shining with tears, her jaw was set. "I understand. I can help her. It's hard being locked in a box you think you are going to die in."

"I'm sure it is. How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Thirsty, mostly," Isabelle said. "They didn't do what they did to Ines."

Odile relaxed, just slightly. She'd been afraid that Isabelle had left some details out. "Good. We're stopping to pick up some people, and then we'll go back to Barataria. You seem to be doing well. A lot of people would have gone mad, locked up like that."

"One of the spirits talked a lot to me, and sang lullabies," she said, nodding. "It helped, a lot."

"Was it someone you'd heard before?" Odile asked, surprised.

Isabelle had gone back to staring at the wood that made up the raft. "You were talking to her."

So that was why Grandmere had been so quick to show up. "Grandmere. My grandmother. Well, good for her, then."

"She seemed nice," Isabelle said.

Odile straightened, blinked. "I'm not sure that nice is the right word for her. But she knows evil and does good, which is more than a lot of people can say."

"Too many nasty people out there," she muttered, her voice low.

Before Odile could reply, they bumped into the island. Leaving Isabelle on the raft, they went to get everyone to load onto this raft and the other two boats on the island in preparation for going to Barataria.

In the back of Odile's mind, a suspicion was growing that not all was as it seemed, even now. Kalfu's hand was still at work here, in the form of two girls named Isabelle, one of whom was an imposter. Was it this one, or the other?

And how were they going to tell Benjamin that there was something in the house that might not be his daughter?