‘Snakes are an ancient symbol of evil.’
I hang my head in my hands. ‘Oh, God.’
‘I looked it up. Here, I’ll show you.’ She scrambles to her knees and carefully lifts a thick ancient-looking book off the dresser, holding it like she’s afraid her fingerprints will make the soft leather cover disintegrate. She sits back on the floor cross-legged, the book in her lap. It has to be a thousand years old, with a thousand years old yellowed and tattered pages. The soft black cover is bare except for a twisting pattern of gold vines like a border. ‘This is the oldest book Jillian has. It’s unique, you know. Handwritten and filled with Old Magic.’
‘Oh, right,’ I mutter, not knowing what she expects.
Her head lowers as she finds the page she’s marked and starts reading. ‘“Snakes are an ancient symbol of evil. Many snakes, especially around the head, indicate that evil surrounds the figure and all those to which the bearer has alliance”.’
I yank out my glasses from my jeans’ pocket and scan the script. It’s handwritten all right, articulately in black ink, but the letters are completely indecipherable. I wonder what language it is. ‘How can you read that?’
She spins her head around and looks up. ‘It’s an early form of English, dating back almost a thousand years. Jillian taught me how to speak and read the ancient tongue.’
I’m going to be sorry I ask, but I just have to. ‘Why? It seems like a lot of work for something you’re never going to use. I mean, if you learned French, or Japanese, sure, you could travel there one day.’
Kate’s eyes widen as if she can’t believe anyone can be so stupid. ‘So I can read the ancient scripts of course. I’m fascinated with this era, Jarrod. Magic was alive then. There were some really powerful sorcerers around.’
I decide to go along with her. Even though I don’t believe in this stuff, I can see it means a lot to her. She must spend half her life on the subject. It’s all she thinks about. I guess she doesn’t get to talk about supernatural stuff with friends very often, except perhaps for Hannah. Most people already believe Jillian is a witch. How would they treat Kate if they knew just how deep she is into this stuff herself?
‘And you think,’ I begin, leaning forward with what I hope is a mild amount of interest in my voice, ‘this snake stuff relates to a curse or something.’
Her smile transforms her face into a picture of relief and excitement. It very nearly blows me away. I experience a moment of instant regret; and hope my humouring hasn’t accidentally misled her. Her eyes sparkle. ‘Look here,’ she says, holding the heavy book up high for me. Why? I wonder. I can’t read this ancient script anyway. So I focus on the diagram, sketchy but still clear, a bit like a 3D drawing. I peer closer and see that it has incredible detail – a half-man, half-bird creature. I think it’s a crow. The half that is human grips a smoothly polished wooden staff with a serpent’s head. His – its – eyes are eerie, crow-shaped and tilting sharply upwards at the outer ends, yet oddly human. I swear the creature is looking straight at me.
‘A shapeshifter,’ Kate explains with a shiver. ‘Only the most powerful sorcerers can do this. They’re rare, and even reading about them gives me the creeps.’
It’s an admission I’m relieved to hear. At least something gives her the creeps. Just looking at the figure on paper is enough for me. I take the book she’s got practically in my face, and find my hands shaking. This doesn’t surprise me as I hate the unknown, things beyond my control or understanding, especially the paranormal. I like the simple things that follow the rules, like the sun rising every morning from the east, and that annoying family of kookaburras that insist on cracking their jokes outside my window every dawn, or the way I can look in the mirror and know my own reflection will be looking back, whether I like it or not.
My life is complicated enough; this book I simply don’t need. It even has a smell about it, musty, old, remarkably authentic. I want to hurl it back to her and get the hell out of her bedroom. That sudden urge to run returns, hitting me hard in the stomach, making my adrenalin surge. But Kate is smiling excitedly, pointing to the undecipherable words, quoting bits here and there.
‘“Once a curse is placed it can take several forms. The most powerful can linger through generations to eternity …”’
Her finger trails the words across the page. My head tilts to the same slight angle the book is held and I can’t stop my eyes from following. They’re foreign words. I try to relax, try to make my mind wander, but nothing’s working.