Fort Tryon Park. Sunday, September 24, 2006
El stood up along with practically everyone else in the stands. "Did we win?"
"Of course, we did!" Sara shouted her reply but it was hard to hear her voice over the cheers of the crowd. "Let history record that under sunlit skies on the morning of September 24, 2006, the French finally exacted revenge for the Battle of the Spurs. I'm glad no one demanded historical accuracy. It's much more fun this way."
The battle heralded the start of the Renaissance Festival in Fort Tryon Park. This was the second year for Columbia University to co-sponsor the event. The reenactment was loosely based on the Battle of the Spurs which took place in the sixteenth century in northwestern France. In the original version, the French were overwhelmed by English and Habsburg forces. Many members of the French nobility were carried off as prisoners of war.
In the present reenactment, the English didn't stand a chance—not with the White Collar team, friends, and family members all on the French side. Henry and Eric fought alongside them. Even Mozzie had taken part, claiming the role of the king's royal counselor.
In a very real sense, the festival had assumed the characteristics of a reunion. Travis no longer worked at White Collar and his partner Richard didn't occupy the studio next to Neal's at Columbia, but they continued to maintain close ties to the university—Travis through SETI and Richard through a class on special effects makeup he taught to visual arts students. Both men participated in the reenactment as well as Jones and Diana from White Collar.
In the stands with El and Sara were Mozzie's girlfriend Janet and Diana's partner Christie. This was the first year for Angela's husband Michael to take part in the battle, and Angela was fighting alongside him.
That the French were victorious was appropriate. Their revenge mirrored Neal's personal triumph over Astrena. Last year he was declining rapidly because of her curse. He was too weak to participate in the LARP. Peter had promised him that next year they'd fight together on the battlefield. Today was the fulfillment of that promise.
"You're thinking about last year, aren't you?" Sara murmured as she continued to scan the crowded battlefield.
El nodded. "We were all concerned about Neal. When I saw how worried you were, I realized you cared much more for him than you'd admitted."
"If we weren't keeping our relationship secret, I would have loved to tell you."
El smiled at her. "I know. Hiding how you felt when Neal was so ill must have been very painful."
Sara shrugged in acknowledgment. "I like to think there are unexpected blessings in every misfortune. That period in our lives strengthened our commitment to each other. Last year Neal couldn't participate in the Renaissance dance demonstration with me. This year he'll be there, tights and all!"
"And Peter and I will be there to watch. Maybe next year I can coax my tights-challenged husband into dancing too."
"That reminds me of the scene in Diana's story where Peter dances at the court of Elizabeth I. Were you the one who injected it?"
"Guilty as charged. Peter figured it out right away. I didn't give him any pressure for this year's event, but I have high hopes for 2007."
"I'd like to make this an annual event too," Sara said. "Where else do we have a chance to wear our Renaissance gowns? Next year, the folks from the Mystery Mansion may join us. Maia told me Dean and Sam were disappointed at the lack of battle reenactments in the New Haven Mabon Festival."
"Mystery Mansion? That's what you're calling Maia's house?"
Sara nodded. "That's Dean's term for it and now we've all adopted the expression. The mansion has a fortune in art and antiques but no one knows how many are enchanted. What dark secrets lie inside?" she added in a theatrical whisper.
El chuckled. "I'm glad Peter didn't hear you. He'd probably imagine the worst. The thought doesn't bother you?"
"Honestly, no. After everything we've gone through, we believe we can tackle whatever comes our way."
El wished she could bottle up some of that confidence for herself.
"Sterling-Bosch is one of the main insurers in New Haven," Sara continued. "I wouldn't be surprised if we make frequent visits. June laughs that her Jaguar will soon be able to travel the route on auto-pilot. She's been very generous with the car, claiming that she doesn't like to drive and had been thinking of selling it till Neal arrived. Now it's ours to use as much as we want."
El smiled at her enthusiasm. "Your lives are full of exciting new prospects. Starting next Monday, you and Neal will officially begin your new careers at Win-Win."
"And Peter will start his new job. October 2 will be a big day for all of us."
"Does Neal know what his schedule will be?"
"He expects to be at the office three days a week. That will give him ample time for his university responsibilities. Much of the work he could do remotely, but Neal would miss the camaraderie, not to mention the pool table." Sara turned to look at El. "Is Peter eager to start his new assignment?"
"Yes, but he'll miss his White Collar team." El suspected it would hit him harder than he realized.
"Neal feels the same way," Sara quickly said. "Luckily many of our cases will dovetail with White Collar."
But not Organized Crime.
"Excuse us," a woman said. "I have a little warrior who's eager to greet her father."
El and Sara stood up so there'd be enough room for the mom and her child to leave the bleacher row. Both were dressed in Renaissance costumes. The little girl was waving a foam sword. El smiled at her. Would they bring their baby here next year? Baby Burke, where are you?
"Neal hopes that he and Peter can continue meeting for lunch." Sara frowned as she scanned the throng. "Why haven't our guys shown up yet? Did they start the party without us?" She slanted a glance in El's direction. "Is anything wrong?"
"No." El watched the child skip onto the battlefield. She was probably only four years old. "Maybe just a little frustration."
"No luck yet?" Sara asked, her expression turning sympathetic.
"I'm afraid not." Neal and Sara were the only ones who knew about their efforts to conceive a child. She'd hoped they'd be able to announce something by now. "I thought I was prepared. We'd tried to have a child not long after we were married, and when it didn't work out, we thought it was for the best. Now I'm starting to believe we'll need to go another route."
"Neal and I have discussed children," Sara confided. "We both want them, but picking the right moment's not easy. If nothing else, the house renovation is forcing us to think about it. How many extra bedrooms should we include?"
"What did you decide?" El asked, grateful for Sara deflecting onto a less stressful subject. This was a good reminder to be patient. They'd agreed to postpone any reassessment till the first of the year and she'd stick by the bargain.
Sara grinned. "We agreed to punt! We'll have a guest bedroom and an extra room to store Neal's art with the option it could later be subdivided. Just getting a cat seems like enough of a major step, and we may not go ahead with that. Should we get one or two? Will we be home enough to adopt a pet? The wedding is probably enough of a hurdle for now."
El stood up to wave. "Our conquering heroes have arrived!"
Mabon Festival, New Haven. Sunday afternoon.
Dean frowned as he surveyed the line of booths. "Man, this is the pits. I swear, if one more woman tries to sell me an herbal charm, I'll puke."
"It's not that bad," Sam said, keeping his sigh to a minimum. "You loved Wisteria's blackberry harvest pie."
Dean shrugged grudgingly. "The afternoon wasn't a total waste. But no LARP? No mock battles? Bobby had the right idea."
He'd gone down to New York to attend the Renaissance Festival in Fort Tryon Park. Bobby claimed it was on the way back from a job, but Sam knew better. Wisteria's sister Peony was undoubtedly a much stronger attraction than the battle reenactment. Bobby had already experienced more than his fair share of warfare.
"I thought the lecture on Wicca that Gemma Blackthorne gave was fascinating," Sam said even though he knew Dean would roll his eyes. "Being familiar with Wicca beliefs could be useful. This is one area where Dad's journal doesn't provide much guidance."
Dean continued to frown. He reminded Sam of a cranky kid who'd been dragged to a family reunion. "Dad never considered them a threat, and I don't either. I should have stayed at home. That file I was reading about the Bridgewater Triangle was much more interesting than this."
The documents they'd discovered in a crypt formerly used by the New Haven chapter of the Men of Letters had turned out to be a valuable resource on supernatural phenomena in the New England area. Many of the creatures appeared unique to the region.
"Chloe will be upset if you didn't stay for the bonfire," Sam pointed out. "Maia's going to play with an early music group from Yale. We'll still get home in plenty of time to watch Trilogy of Terror."
"What an awesome movie!" A smile broke out on Dean's face. "Chloe's never seen it. She's in for a treat."
Dean's voice receded into the background as Sam stared at the scene in front of him. Three women dressed in medieval robes, chanted something in Greek. He only recognized a few of the words. They were on the edge of a lake surrounded by woods. The stars were reflected on the water's surface. A bright star shone over the trees. A crystal basin on a wood stump. One of the women was strumming an ancient lyre ... The pungent smell of herbs ... He listened mesmerized to the chant.
"Hey, Sammy? Snap out of it, man!" Dean's growl was like being doused by a bucket of cold water.
Sam glanced around at the booths. What the hell?
"Talk to me, dude. What's going on?"
Sam looked at Dean's anxious face. No way was he going to tell him he had a vision. He didn't think he got premonitions anymore. He'd had a bunch of them the first year he'd resumed hunting after Stanford, but then they'd stopped. Astrena was gone. She couldn't be the cause.
"I'm fine," Sam assured Dean. "I think all those herbs are starting to get to me." A plausible excuse, right?
"You'll get no quarrel from me on that." Dean waved off a woman wearing a witch's hat who was approaching with a basket of herb sachets.
"Let's go find Maia and Chloe," Sam said. "The bonfire should be starting soon."
"All right, but we'll scram afterward."
* * * * *
Maia strummed her harp as she watched the crowd dancing around the bonfire. Somehow Chloe had managed to coax Dean to join in. The three of them made quite a trio. Sam was on Chloe's right, Dean on her left. The music was an Irish jig, but Dean appeared to think it was the Texas Two-Step.
Maia crinkled her nose as she caught a strong whiff of willow and coltsfoot. Without warning, she was transported into another world. She was standing with two other women in a circle around a crystal basin. They chanted in Greek near a lake bordered by a forest ...
A nudge to her shoulder caused her to blink. Maia scanned her surroundings, her thoughts muzzy. She was back by the bonfire. Her fellow harpist was eyeing her worriedly. Maia realized with a start she'd stopped playing and quickly resumed. What a weird sensation. She wished she could remember the exact words. Something about Vega and a star-filled sky.
She tried to put it out of her head. This was the last piece of the evening. She'd been playing for an hour. Her thoughts had probably drifted away. Perhaps this was her subconscious reminding her she needed to finish that paper on Greek mythology. She'd decided to focus on the primordial Greek deities. After all, she had personal knowledge of Astrena. Her research for the paper might come in useful if Astrena ever managed to return to Earth.
As Maia put her harp away, Gemma Blackthorne approached. "I enjoyed your music very much," she said.
"Thank you. I heard about the symposium you're giving at Yale. I'm looking forward to the lectures."
"I'll enjoy seeing a familiar face there."
"It won't be just me," Maia said. "Many of the festival-goers are associated with Yale. Botany students are particularly attracted to Wicca."
"That's good to hear. I hoped I wouldn't be lecturing in front of an empty auditorium." Gemma hesitated for a moment. "I wanted to say how sorry I was to hear of your sister's passing. I enjoyed the time we spent together at the Litha Festival. Such a tragedy. A car wreck in Romania, I believe?"
Maia nodded. "Electra was touring the historic castles in the region. She lost control of the car on a rain-slick road in the mountains." Mozzie had handled the paperwork with Neal preparing the forgeries. They'd declined her offer of payment, claiming that her role in removing Astrena's curse left them in her and Chloe's debt.
Maia hoped she'd be able to persuade them to take some items from the house as payment once they were sure there was no enchantment attached. Mozzie had already been eyeing the library with its many autographed books.
"I have a favor to ask," Gemma said. "Electra had mentioned her collection of Pre-Raphaelite stained glass angels to me. Could I see them?"
"Of course, I'd be delighted to show them to you. When would you like to stop by?"
* * * * *
"Tomorrow morning?" Dean repeated with a groan. "We'd earmarked that day to work on the basement." He'd spotted Maia talking with the Brit, but he didn't think she'd ask the woman over for tea.
"You don't have to come upstairs," Chloe said, handing him the bowl of popcorn. Sam and Maia had gone to the kitchen to make nachos. Chloe plopped beside him on the sectional. The media room had been one of the first rooms they'd redone in the mansion. A giant TV took up most of one wall, and space had been carved out in the back for a pool table. They'd replaced Astrena's antiques with comfortable sectionals that they could lounge or sleep on as the mood dictated. Chloe was as much a movie fan as Dean. Sometimes they spent the entire night here.
The current project was the basement. That was slated to become a hunters' workshop. Up to now, they'd been using the garage, but that didn't provide the needed security, and when Chloe's Mustang, the Impala, and Bobby's pickup were parked inside, there wasn't any room left to work.
Bobby's curse boxes alone needed a cabinet to themselves. Then there was the armory. Finally they'd have enough space for all their guns, blades, and miscellaneous weapons. They'd have a lab and a library for Sam and Bobby's collection of reference books.
Dean was already calling the workshop a cave. Sam teased him about turning the space into a Bat Cave, but that only made him think how awesome it would be if he could somehow wrangle a Batcycle.
The documents they'd salvaged from the crypt in a New Haven cemetery were from the New Haven chapter house of the Men of Letters. Dean liked the thought that he and Sam were resurrecting the American branch. Let Bobby growl. Sure, there were Men of Letters in England but no one knew of any in the States. No one would object to them appropriating the name.
Besides, in a weird way they did have a connection. Mozzie had found the key to the crypt in Win-Win's archives in Baltimore. It had been sent anonymously to Henry's great-grandfather for safekeeping. The Winslows and Winchesters were apparently related by a dude named Seth who'd changed his name from Winslow to Winchester. Was he now smiling in hunter heaven that Dean and Sam were setting up a chapter cave?
"Does Henry ever talk to you about the Men of Letters?" Chloe asked.
"No, why do you ask?"
He and Chloe had met Henry's grandfather Graham and his wife Julia when they traveled to Baltimore to rescue Henry from the demon Abaddon. Julia, who was some sort of genius with data analysis at Win-Win, had enjoyed talking with Chloe. She offered to be a resource for the series of Dork Guides Chloe was writing. Dean knew Chloe had already called her several times.
"The last thing we need is amateurs trying to involve themselves in our work, but Julia doesn't need to be concerned," Dean said. "Henry doesn't want to stir up a potential hornets' nest."
Henry had the right attitude. The family connection was interesting but it didn't have any relevance to his work. "Henry had a taste of our life when Abaddon abducted him," Dean added. "That time he helped destroy the vengeful spirit menacing Neal served as reinforcement."
"But Neal's helped us with some of our jobs," Chloe pointed out.
Dean chuckled. "Yeah, while driving Peter up the wall. But Neal doesn't try to interfere in our work." Dean pegged Neal in a special category. Astrena was a foe they'd all had to confront, and now Crowley was messing with their lives. Henry was smart to keep his distance.
* * * * *
Gemma resisted the temptation to remove the netsuke from her pocket till she was once more in her suite. She'd waited this long. What were a few minutes more? Although the taxi ride was excruciatingly slow, she was glad she'd shown the discipline to use it. No teleporting within the city limits was a promise she intended to keep.
The wisdom of her restraint was evident in the delightful morning she'd spent with Maia in Astrena's mansion. Maia didn't seem to recall the many occasions she'd already been there. Gemma had been curious to see just how strong the wall that Astrena erected in Maia's mind was, and it was more solid than she'd expected.
Neither Maia nor Sam appeared suspicious of the little trick Gemma had played on them. She was quite proud of that coltsfoot and willow charm. Even Astrena admired her ability with herbs.
She'd carefully observed Sam and Maia's reactions at the festival. Clearly they'd received the visions she sent them, but they appeared to attach little significance to them. Little Maia didn't remember that Litha night in New Jersey when she chanted along with Astrena and Gemma to bring a new generation of pure-blood vampires to Earth. Sam appeared equally unaware. It had been a calculated risk to plant the same vision in their minds, but it was the best way to test that the link between Maia and Sam was truly broken.
For the moment, Maia was a clean slate. In due time, Gemma would reenter her life in her true guise, but first things first. Gemma reached into her pocket and retrieved the small ivory netsuke of a tanuki. Stealing it had been trivial. It was as if Maia gave her a gift. When she left the living room to fetch the tea, Gemma had the netsuke cabinet opened in an instant. She'd thought about stealing the fox too, but Maia might have noticed two items missing. Gemma had been careful to rearrange the display so the theft wouldn't be readily noticed.
Gemma smiled at the tanuki, thinking back on the moment it had been enchanted. She and Astrena were in Tokyo attending an auction of antiquities. When they returned to their hotel room, they discovered a cat burglar in their suite. The woman was in her early twenties, and Astrena had taken a liking to her. Rather than kill her, she bound the thief to one of the netsukes. Gemma hadn't been familiar with what a tanuki was before the auction. She preferred their nickname of raccoon dogs. What more fitting vessel for a thief than a masked creature?
The young thief's name was Itsumi. Like Maia, she currently didn't remember her prior life. Astrena made sure that her only desire was to serve whoever owned her netsuke.
Luckily for Gemma, she'd been present at the time of enchantment. Astrena was a master at cloaking enchantments so that they were undetectable to any other witch who didn't know the correct summoning spell. Now Itsumi was Gemma's to command.
She placed a ceramic saucer next to the tanuki. She'd prepared several packets of flowers before leaving England. They were harmless to anyone who didn't know the correct spell. To look at them, you would simply think they were potpourri. Gemma poured the contents from one packet onto the saucer and with a flick of her wrist set it on fire. She then murmured the ancient Greek chant.
In the blink of an eye, the tanuki transformed into Itsumi. Her long black hair hung below her shoulders in a silk curtain. Astrena had clad her in a tight jumpsuit of black silk for her new life.
"You're not Astrena," Itsumi said, her eyes wide with bewilderment. "Why did you summon me?"
The child had no concept of time. She could have been within the tanuki for a day or a century. Gemma liked to think of her as Astrena's version of a jinn in a bottle.
"I have unhappy news for you, child," Gemma said, adopting Astrena's speech mannerisms. "Our goddess has left for the stars. In her absence, Astrena issues her commands through me, the eldest of her sisters." A slight exaggeration, but close enough.
Itsumi bowed her head in submission. "I live to serve. What is your command?"
"Astrena's home has been occupied by others who aren't aware of who she is. It's up to us to restore Astrena to her rightful place on Earth. You are to sneak back into the house and retrieve two items for me—her crystal ball and her grimoire. Bring them to me as soon as you've found them."
Gemma's lectures would be held throughout the week. Surely by Friday, Itsumi would have located them. Once Gemma could communicate with Astrena, they'd figure out how to bring her back to Earth. As for Itsumi, no witch should be without a skilled thief. This was one netsuke who'd be coming home with Gemma.
* * * * * * * * * *
Notes: Gemma is very confident of her plan, but Itsumi soon makes a hash of it. In the next chapter, we also drop in on Neal and Peter as they prepare to leave White Collar.