Page 23 of Shadow Running
Penn glanced at me, and stifled a yawn.I grinned at her, looking back at my text messages.
Orik had sent me a message.
kyann, i’m thinking of coming back to work early.i’ll spend a couple days at home, but i’m getting under ana’s feet and she’s getting on my nerves.she can help hilda better than i can.i’ll be back to work soon.
I snorted, then showed Penn the text.She let out a little laugh.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said.“His mother-in-law is a handful.She could give Frigga a run for her money.Andnobodymesses with the head of the Norse pantheon.People may think Odin’s in charge, but you have to know that Frigga is the one driving the battle.”
Philip let out a soft laugh.“Norse women are nothing to be messed with, if that’s what you’re talking about.”
“One of our investigators just had his third set of twin daughters.He’s a Viking priest.His mother-in-law is there to help out with the babies until his wife can get back on her feet.I find it telling that Orik would rather come into work then stay home around Ana.”I shrugged, then quickly text Orik back that we would see him soon.
“All right, it looks like there’s no one left to give permission for me to open the files.Her mother committed suicide two months after the murder, and her father vanished into thin air, it seems.He’s never been heard from again.So I think I’m safe in giving you answers.Do you want me to go over it with you?”
I nodded.“Can you summarize it?Even though Penn will understand you better than I will, it might be easier if you give us a paraphrased version and then we can look at the other information once we get back to the office.”
“Okay.It seems that Riana was far more gifted than any student we’ve ever had.It’s a pity.She would have grown up to be such a talented witch.She was casting spells two and three times above her level.She was also extremely temperamental, but they chalked it up to her being high strung.When I look through her file, though, I’d say she likely had some form of a borderline personality disorder.She wasn’t mean to other students, but she seemed to have anger management issues when things didn’t go her way.”
“Did she ever hurt anybody?”Penn asked.
“Not deliberately.But she didn’t have the control her magic would have demanded for her capability.The school administration had enrolled her in an accelerated program, aimed at helping her learn to temper herself and control magical fallout… Collateral damage, I guess you could call it.”The principal was printing out papers as he spoke.“She snuck into the library’s rare book room, and stole a book of ancient curses.The admin managed to retrieve the book, but not before she had time to learn several of them.”
“That sounds dangerous,” I said.
“It is.Now, we have those books under lock and key.But back then, they were on display.The curses come from an ancient family of witches who were extraordinarily powerful and vengeful.They were ruthless.No one knows if anyone from that bloodline is still alive today.”
Penn gasped.“The Romalies?”
Philip nodded.“I take it you’ve heard of them?”He stopped himself.“Of course you would have heard of them.We teach classes on them.”He glanced at me.“We teach new generations about the Romalies, just like we teach about Vlad the Impaler, about the Khan dynasties, the Yagasaras from the Black Forest, and other family empires.”
“Never heard of them,” I said.“Well, the Romalies.I’ve heard of the Yagasaras, Vlad, and Genghis Khan.”
The Yagasaras were an ancient bloodline of wolf shifters who had ruled within the Black Forest during the 1800s.They had rampaged through the countryside, killing their enemies and looting villages.Eventually, they incurred the wrath of the vampires, who were rising in power, and the ensuing skirmishes wiped most of the Yagasaras out of existence.There were ragtag remnants of the bloodline still alive, but they had never recovered from the wolf shifter-vampire wars.
“The Romalies kept detailed grimoires, and a few survive to this day.We have two of them here at Windchime Magical Academy.Riana stole one, and she had enough time to learn several of the curses, and given the Romalies specialized in death and torture curses, she probably used one of them.”Philip sighed.“I don’t blame her.They included a summation of what happened to her in her file.”
“Is there anyway you can tell us what curse it was that she cast?That can affect how spirits haunt an area, and it can change how we approach exorcising the spirits.”Longworld got off easy, I thought.
“Not unless I know more about what happened.While we seldom allow people to research those curses—for obvious reasons—I’m going to allow you to borrow her files, and I’ll print out some of the curses that she might have used.”Philip glanced at Penn.“Will you promise me that you won’t learn how to cast them?”
She held his gaze for a moment before answering.“I can’t make an oath, but I’ll do my best to forget them after we’re done.I have an extremely good memory and I can’t guarantee I won’t accidentally memorize them.”
Philip stared at her for a moment.Finally, he must have decided that we meant what we said, because he went on to print out several pages.“There are three curses I think she might have cast.Once you decide how to counter it, please destroy this paper so no one else gets hold of it.And if you would give me the counter-curse, if you are able to find one, I’d appreciate it.”
“We promise,” I said.
He handed me the paper.“Sometimes I wish we could destroy those books.But those grimoires are our history.We don’t have the right to destroy them.For instance, what if somebody discovered the same curse and used it in battle?We’d need to know what we were fighting.Anyway, if you tell anybody that I gave these to you, I’ll deny it.Do you understand?”He stood, holding the file folder in his hand.
I gave him a nod.“I understand, and I promise you, we won’t tell anybody who isn’t on a need-to-know basis about this.Thank you.There were thirteen women killed in that house, and they deserve a chance to rest.I’m thinking the curse probably keeps them going, given Riana cast it when she was being murdered.”
I accepted the file folder, and we said goodbye.As we headed back to her car, watching the bustle of students around us, I turned Penn.“What do you think?Do you think that the Academy has the right to keep those books?Do you think they should be destroyed?”
Penn frowned, wiping her hair from her face.“I don’t think there’s a right answer to that.Destroying history never sets well with me, because if you forget the past you tend to repeat it.And yet, when the past contains what’s basically a landmine waiting to explode, what do you do?”
“I don’t know, but it’s an interesting question of ethics.Come on, let’s get back to the office.We’ve got a lot of research to do.”As we drove south on I-5, my thoughts were caught up in curses and powerful families.What was it like, belonging to a dynasty?In some ways, it made me glad for my own lack of connection.Because regardless of who you were, everyone of these families expected you to take your place within it, to perpetuate the lineage down through time.And if you weren’t as strong as your ancestors, what happened to you then?
CHAPTERNINE
