Tapestry of Whispers Session 22
The Street Lawyer
And if it will make no peace with thee,
but will make war against thee,
then thou shalt besiege it:
-Deuteronomy 20: 12
Daniel was now left to care for Beth and the cats as best he could, despite his own injuries. Fortunately, he discovered that Buddy's healing powers could work for others besides him. He gave the bear to Beth to cuddle, and it improved her physical health drastically. However, he noted that as long as she was in contact with Buddy, she seemed to be mentally exhausted.
While Beth cuddled the bear, Daniel, exhausted from his encounter with the zombies, worked his magic to create more Dracarys Bullets and recharge his amulets and the Pig Sticker. He was as exhausted as Beth, but at least he felt he would be ready if the zombies or their ghostly friends showed up again.
Daniel and Beth had basically lived in hiding for almost thirty years. But the threat of the ghost soldiers and their masters had become so great that he could no longer ignore it. Daniel might not be great at fixing his personal life, but he was still a wizard, and dealing with hostile ghosts had long been within his wheelhouse. He knew that he had to end this threat once and for all. It would not be easy, but he was determined to show them that he was not easy prey.
Chance Galicinao called Daniel while he was formulating his plans. Chance was not doing well, lacking the benefit of a magical teddy bear with healing powers. He was desperate to find Evelyn, who had not been seen by her friends or family and was not among the victims of the train crash.
Daniel was pretty sure he knew where to find Evelyn, but he was exhausted and couldn't tell if the shallowing around the old plantation had grown any worse. Even before the shallowing had started, the area had been crawling with ghost soldiers. He would need some allies if he was to breach those old walls and confront the souls residing there
Daniel's first thought was to tell the Delta King that the inhabitants of Whispering Oaks were unleashing the Shadow Eaten on Monroe. Unfortunately, he didn't know where the King hung his crown, and Elliott Riley didn't seem to have returned to his shop. Going about looking for ghosts struck him as a foolish idea, as it might rile even more of them against him.
Daniel's list of allies was running thin. Chance and Victor Thorne were still badly injured, and the weird scientist he had met was dead. That left only Reginald Darius and his band of zombie hunters at large. Daniel decided that finding Reginald and his hunters might be his best course of action.
Daniel stood at the edge of Riverview Cemetery on a windy day under a darkening sky. The atmosphere of southern Monroe had become downright creepy. The wind carried phantom whispers, the old buildings looked even more battered, strange luminescent moss grew in patches, and the foundations of buildings long torn down jutted from the ground. Fog that did not come from the Ouachita hung in the air.
By contrast, the lights of the residential houses were welcoming, and for reasons Daniel did not understand, the people all recognized him and Beth, and welcomed them back to the neighborhood. That didn’t mean that Reginald and his partners were easy to locate, although most people did seem to share Daniel’s belief that Reginald was innocent of the charges that had been brought against him. Most seemed reluctant to tell any outsider where he might be, even as they gave a friendly reception.
Not knowing what else to do, Daniel went from door to door asking for information. Finally, someone whispered the name "Leblanc and Morgan" when no one else was around. Daniel looked it up and found that it was a small law office tucked into a shabby corner alley near the Parish courthouse. He and Beth went there, unsure of what they might find. The building looked like a typical Monroe Riverfront building. It had a brick façade, round windows, and a few small offices.
When they walked inside, they were greeted by a pretty young receptionist, who said simply “They are expecting you,” and waved them toward an office with a plaque on the door reading “Clara Leblanc”. Walking into the small, cramped office, they were greeted by a middle aged woman who Daniel thought must be Clara Leblanc, and Reginald himself. Daniel thought it was pretty courageous of Reginald to be so near the Sherriff’s Office, but he didn’t tell him that out loud.
Reginald pulled Daniel from a handshake to a hug. He wasn’t sure exactly what to make of this, but Reginald simply said “You believe in me. And simply put, man, we need you. You’re the only one I’ve met who knows anything about this stuff. Have you seen how weird it’s getting around here?”
“Yeah, I got a little visit from nobody’s favorite soldiers the other day.” Daniel said. “And I assume I can look forward to another one.”
“The days are getting darker,” said Reginald. “And the nights…”
“At this point,” said Daniel, “I’m tired of running. I think I know who did this to you. I know where it comes from, but I can’t go in there all on my onesie.”
“Hell, yeah,” said Reginald. “I’m tired of skulking around my home town like some kind of crook. My guys are with us, and Mr. Thorne is with us too. He just thinks you’ll probably mess everything up.”
“Then let’s show him different,” said Daniel. “I think we need to go to Whispering Oaks plantation. I don’t know if we can get in there, but I’m sure ready to try. This isn’t as bad as the Rising yet. Maybe we can see that it doesn’t get that way.”
“I don’t want to go on the highway,” said Reginald. “The cops are still scoping for me.”
“I know a back way,” said Daniel. “It didn’t work out so well last time, but this time it still looks like our best bet.”
“I have a stop to make too,” said Reginald. “My granny’s an obeah woman. She’s the only person I know that might know more about this stuff than you.”
“In that case, I’d love to meet her,” said Daniel. “Anything she can tell us would be welcome.”
A few hours later, after picking up Archibald Thorne, Daniel, Beth, and the zombie hunters parked in front of a small shotgun house near an old copse of twisted live oaks. Daniel sniffed the air; it smelled of cinnamon, gardenia, and a gentle magic far removed from his own. An ancient song in a forgotten tongue seemed to drift on the air, and crickets sang in the trees and bushes.
A tiny old African American woman who reminded Daniel quite a lot of his mother Margaret came out and invited everyone inside except Daniel. With sad eyes, she told him that he was marked by Les Invisibles and stained by the great storm. She said the spirits would not let him pass because he troubled them. She could teach him nothing. Daniel closed his eyes and bowed his head as the tiny woman patted his hand and said, "Your grief is not yet finished, but you are more than you think."
Reginald came out of the house carrying an old-fashioned kerosene lantern. It looked like the kind of lantern they had used when the plantation was active. He didn't tell Daniel what it was for, but Daniel could sense the old woman's gentle resonance surrounding it. It sang to him softly in a language that sounded like Gullah. “Time to get rolling,” Reginald told him.
The community of Bosco lay uneasily beneath the dark of the moon. Cars were still moving about on the road, but there were few. People watched the night fearfully, peeking out from behind their curtains and praying behind drawn blinds. The whispers of Les Invisibles rode the night winds, and the air was thick with the stench of decay. Shadows seemed longer, and the few people moving around outdoors looked over their shoulders furtively.
Daniel did not blame them. Not far out of the street light, he could see the shadowy forms of Confederate zombies lurking about the area, watching the road to Whispering Oaks.
“How do we get past them?” asked Beth.
Daniel told Beth that they weren't going to get past the zombies; they were going to trap them. He pulled out a black candle, a Greek prayer book, some flowers and some rock samples from his mineral kit. He instructed Reginald to drive past the zombies' encampment, then stared into the candle flame and intoned a Greek prayer for the dead. As they passed the zombies, a fog began to rise, and the zombies looked around confusedly.
Reginald stopped his truck and they all got out. "Here we are now," said Daniel. "Entertain us." The zombie hunters fell upon their prey before the baffled ghost soldiers knew what to do, dispatching their corpses and sending them all for a Harrowing in the Tempest. These zombies, at least, would not be raising the alarm.
"I do want to warn you guys," Daniel said, as they piled back into the truck, "You're going to see some things that may cause you some distress. There are a lot of residual hauntings of slaves who met their deaths in there." The zombie hunters were less than sanguine about going through with this, and Daniel couldn’t blame them. He was unnerved by the Drones himself and they were not the spirits of his ancestors.
“The spirits of your ancestors may be trapped in there,” Daniel told them. “They have had the indignities of their deaths visited on them for over a hundred years. This may be the only way to free them so they can go on.”
Reginald wasn't thrilled about facing the ghosts of his ancestors, but he was determined to free them from their eternal enslavement. After a quick "all for one" affirmation, they started the truck and headed down the dark road toward Whispering Oaks. The darkness of the old country road seemed to swallow them.
