Chapter 7

Maddy looked at the whiteboard they’d been scribbling and constantly erasing for the last hour. She shook her head. “I get the feeling we’ve got that part wrong.”

Colin leaned back against the desk. “You think?” He blew out a breath and then raised one eyebrow at her. “We haven’t gotten past the first line.” He walked over and studied the scroll tacked to the wall. “I think we should read on and note the parts we do get, or think we do, and then maybe we can use that as a key to help decipher the rest.”

Maddy erased the marker board again and turned to him. “I’ll write, I think we’ve already established your writing is not anything resembling real letters.”

He stood with his hands in his pockets and looked at it again. “The person that wrote this had—to some degree, an education or at the very least was from a reasonably higher social status.”

Maddy picked up the marker. “Why do you say that?”

“Believe it or not, a good part of this is proper English for that period.” He rubbed his eyes. “Unfortunately, mixing it with the not-so-proper English is why we’re having such a hard time.” He took a deep breath. “Ready?”

“Fire away.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Just pause if you’re going to start some analytical rambling so I can put it in a different color.”

He nodded, already lost in thought as he looked at it. “With thorn and needle—” he said clearly and then turned to watch her write it. “I still agree we’re not on the right track with this part. Rose thorns may be a possibility, but a sewing needle? I really don’t think sewing was on this person’s mind.”

Maddy put a red question mark beside the line and nodded. “Next.”

“I call out Dorchaidhe and Alpin.” He rubbed his jaw. “Both Dorchaidhe and Alpin are capitalized, so possibly...” He turned quickly and went over to the scrolls. “I think I saw one of those in the family histories, so they’re names, specific people.” Opening one, he frowned and then picked up another one.

“Colin, let’s get the rest written down, then we’ll start the searching again.” She wrote names beside the second line.

Colin watched her for a few seconds and then went back to read the next line. “A truce be made in this time and place.”

Maddy nodded as she wrote. “I think that line is actually clear enough that we don’t need to decipher any part of it.” She looked over to see him nodding again. “Next.”

“Awaiting the moment whence...” He shrugged. “That has to mean until a certain time.”

Maddy capped the red marker and switched back to the black marker. “Yeah, too bad the rest wasn’t that simple.”

“From the two lines...”He paused long enough for her to finish. “I’m thinking two families.”

Maddy blew out a breath. “We’re actually getting further doing it this way.” She picked up the black again.

“Where blood has spilled...” He glanced at the next line. “I’m fairly certain this, and the next line means the two families were feuding, which explains the truce part. The next line is, making enemies of friends once been.”

Maddy frowned at the board. “From here on, I really don’t get most of it.”

Colin ran a hand through his hair. “I know, but that’s the part we need to figure out.”

He turned to see her facing the board, waiting. “A twine be tied.” He frowned at the board. “Maybe wrapped up, forced—” He shook his head. “Next line—that cannot be broadened.”

Maddy wrote carefully. “It can’t get wider?”

“I’m not sure.” He studied the next line. “Whilst the bloodlines sights meet again—”

Maddy stopped writing and turned. “The twine, the connection, it’s us. When we looked at each other, a binding connection was made.” She bit her lip, “if I’m right, we can’t be broadened would mean we can’t be apart.”

“You’re right, the binding connection. It remains to be seen if we can find a way to be apart.” Colin watched her write and then studied the next two lines. “The binding is complete. The battle be mended—” He read them again silently. “Could mean whatever wrong was done has been avenged or settled, I’m not sure which.”

Maddy wanted to growl. “Yeah—with us being dragged into something we had nothing to do with.”

Colin sighed. “You’re right. Ready for the next line?”

“Yeah.” She held the marker towards the board and waited.

“Cagey ye be.”

“What?”

“Just what I said. Cagey ye be.” He watched to see if she had the spelling correct before turning back to the verse.

“Cagey?” Maddy turned. “I don’t know that word, except in that saying he was cagey with shifty eyes—”

“I’m leaning towards it being old English.” He walked over to his laptop, typed it into a search engine, and waited until the results came up. “Wary. Which would make that line a warning—”

“Great,” Maddy said quietly as she wrote it down.

Colin went back over and sighed. It got worse. “The hearts must covet to each—” He stood there, not even sure how to say what he thought that meant.

“Oh, good! Now we’ve moved from a warning to matchmaking,” she spat out.

He smirked without turning to look at her. “For if the blood not unite again—” He heard her groan and turned.

“So, what, now we’re slitting our wrists?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

She huffed out a breath and turned back towards the board. “Can’t wait for the next one,” Maddy mumbled.

He looked back and read. “Then no peace be born of two—”

“What!” She came over and looked at it, not that she thought he couldn’t read; she just needed to see it for herself. “Born of two? Blood not unite?” She glared at him. “Is this saying we have to have a child together to break the curse and be able to separate?” She scowled at the scroll, “Because those are pretty much the opposite—”

Colin placed a hand gently on her shoulder. “We don’t know what it’s saying, which is why we need to continue.” He said it quietly, hoping she would think he was calm. He was far from it. His voice might be gentle, but his heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was hitting his ribs.

Maddy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Fine.” She went back over to the whiteboard. “What does it say next?”

He winced when he read the line. “A withering shall fall to both.” Again, he offered no translation.

Maddy grit her teeth, “I don’t suppose there’s another meaning for withering I don’t know.” She glanced over to see him shake his head. “Great!” She wrote shrivel and die beside it in red.

Colin didn’t want to read the next line out loud, but he did quietly. “No cure be prepared.”

“Argh! I hate whoever wrote this damn thing!”

He didn’t comment, just read the last two lines quickly. “To ease this now. For the dark and Grigair.” He frowned. “Basically, there is no counter spell or remedy. The dark may refer to the night, but I’m going to see if Grigair is an old English word, I don’t know it—”

“Argh!”

Maddy stomped by him and out of the room. He looked from her to the whiteboard to see she’d written screwed at the very bottom in large red letters.

“Well, she didn’t handle the end very gracefully.”

Colin jumped and turned toward the woman’s voice. It came from the mirror where her mother was watching. He glanced to the other cabinet to see her father was there. “We, uh, how long have you been there—here?”

Katherine smiled. “Since close to the beginning. The part that said from the two lines—we didn’t want to interrupt, you both seemed to be on a roll.”

Colin looked at the door Maddy had stormed out and shrugged. “At least until the end.”

Her father leaned forward. “You handle Maddy’s temper well.”

Colin studied the man that was studying him. “I’m actually not as calm on the inside as I appear to be.”

Gerald nodded. “With good reason. I can’t say I’d be calm at all, certainly not able to handle it as well as you are, Mr. Gregor.”

Colin straightened. His name sounded so different with an Irish lilt— “That’s it!” He spun around and went to his laptop case. He pulled out his family crest. “Gregor was changed when my ancestors came over from Scotland. It was MacGregor, which had been changed from MacGrigair—” He looked at the scrolls. “I wonder if Macgrigair was an extension of Dorchaidhe or Alpin at one time.”

“Dorchaidhe is Irish, and it’s now pronounced Darcy.”

Colin stopped and looked at Maddy’s mother. “So—Alpin is most likely an earlier version of MacGregor—which means—”

“Our bloodlines are the reason it’s us.” Maddy walked back into the room and smirked at her parents. “I thought he was talking to himself again.”

Colin shrugged. “for once, I wasn’t.”

Maddy picked up the marker and underlined Alpin and Grigair. “So these two references are you and—” she underlined Dorchaidhe, then paused to look at her father. “Da, I don’t suppose Darcy originally meant dark or the dark way back when?”

Gerald frowned. “Dorchaidhe, yes, it could translate to say the dark.”

Maddy underlined the dark and turned to Colin. “Those two are me.” She bit her lip and studied him for a moment. Turning to her mother, she crossed her arms. “Do you think it’s because of our ancestors then?” She gave Colin a quick glance. “Could there be some element of reincarnation involved, or just the same bloodline?”

Katherine tilted her head to the side and glanced at her husband. “What makes you ask?”

Maddy perched on the edge of the desk. “Earlier, Colin and I went for a walk to clear our heads—anyway, I slipped, and he caught me from falling head first off a log.”

Colin stuffed his hands in his pockets.

Maddy shook her head. “I thought no, I know for one moment we weren’t us. We were suddenly standing in a different forest area, and Colin resembled Colin, but it wasn’t him.”

“Has this happened before today, Maddy?” her father asked, not too calmly.

Colin shrugged. “Yesterday when Professor Wist was—” He looked at Maddy, not sure what she’d been doing.

Maddy smirked. “When Ginger was looking to see if magic had been used on us. We stood facing each other, and at one point, I could swear I suddenly had an Irish tongue when I spoke.”

“Any other instances?” Katherine asked quickly.

Maddy shook her head and turned to see Colin shaking his as well.

“Oh my.” Katherine looked down for a moment and then at her husband. “I don’t think reincarnation is a key here. It could literally take thousands of years for both souls to find their way into their original bloodlines.” Gerald nodded at her. “I don’t think it’s the curse either, but more spirit that’s causing that part—”

“Wait.” Colin raised his head. “What do you mean spirit? A ghost spirit?” He glanced at Maddy, who had dropped her face into her hands. Looking back towards the mirrors, he took a few steps closer. “So, the Quaich is haunted and not cursed?”

Maddy hissed out a breath. “I think she means both.”

Colin turned to stare at Maddy. “So we’ve been cursed by one very distant ancestor while two ancestral ghosts are trying to get even?”

Gerald cleared his throat. “I don’t think it’s quite like that.”

“But you don’t know?” Colin spun to look at him. He let out a slow breath. “Look, I’ve been really easy-going about the last day’s events—I haven’t even had time to decide if any of this is...”

Maddy went over quickly and stepped right in front of him. She placed a hand lightly on his chest. “I’m with you on freaking out right now, but the only thing stopping me is that you’re staying calm. I need you to stay calm so we can fix this.” She smiled. “Spirits are easy to deal with it’s the curse we have to figure out.” She rested her forehead on his shoulder, not caring if her parents were watching or not. “I don’t want to wither up like a dead flower.”

Colin let out a deep breath. She was right. He wrapped one arm around her and hugged her to him. Not too tightly, though, with her parents watching carefully. He glanced over to see her mother smiling at him. “How do we deal with the spirits?”

Maddy looked back up at him. Unless he let her go, she had no plans to step away. She just needed to be held right now. “We find out what they want and give it to them.”

Colin cocked an eyebrow at her. He knew exactly what they were doing when it happened. He smirked when her cheeks flushed, and the look in her eyes told him she had come to the same conclusion.

Maddy turned her face to angle it away from her parents, so they wouldn’t see her blushing. “Or as close as we can.”

He grinned. “Okay.”

“When it happens again, dear, try to let it play out as long as possible. Many answers may be found that way.”

Her mother’s interrupting was more than welcomed by Maddy.

Gerald cleared his throat loudly and looked at Colin, still holding his daughter.

Colin dropped his arm and walked over to the case holding the Quaich. “Can we take this out of the case? He shrugged. “What more could happen?”

Maddy groaned. “Don’t even think thoughts like that, Colin” She bent down and looked through the glass. “There are fine etchings on it.” She looked up at her parents. “Do you think they’d be helpful?”

Both parents looked at the case and then back at her. “You could try it. Just be open to any sort of sensation, Maddy.” Her mother said hesitantly.

Maddy nodded and looked at Colin. “You open it, and I’ll reach in.”

He gave her a skeptical look, but moved over to remove the clasps on the top of the case. When he slid the top off, he glanced at her again. “I’ll do it if—”

She shook her head. “I’ll feel magic before you would, but catch me if this gets nasty okay?” She was only half joking.

Colin set the top down and waited.

Maddy looked into the case at the object that had changed her world. “Here we go,” she whispered. Reaching in slowly, she placed her hand under it to settle in her palm. “It’s warm but not threatening.” She said loud for her parents to hear. Lifting it out, she clasped it between both palms and turned it over to look at the bottom. Two roughly carved symbols were there. “There is plant, I think, etchings on the bottom.”

Colin looked over her shoulder, still not sure if he wanted to get closer to it. “Those were added quite sometime after it was made. They don’t match the depth and aging as the design on the side.”

Maddy turned it and looked at the rope pattern around the upper edge. She turned it over and looked that the bottom again. Glancing over to the marker board, she nodded. “He’s right.” She walked over to the board.“With thorn and needle...” She looked at the etchings again. “One of these could be a needle from a plant, a pine of sorts. The other doesn’t resemble a thorn plant though, it’s fluffy.”

Colin stood studying the board. “Could the two plants lead to some sort of reversal?”

Maddy grimaced. “Maybe, but there are volumes and volumes of plants with magical properties we’d have to dig.” She looked at her parents. “We need help.”

Katherine sighed. “I wish your father, and I were allowed to take vacations or something and free up some of our time. We have so many things we have to do, or serious consequences could happen.”

“I know, Ma, but we need to trace both family trees all the way back, and now the plant research—”

“Not to mention finding out what these spirits want,” Colin added in.

Maddy carefully put the cursed cup on her desk. “Exactly.”

Katherine sighed. “I can see if Alice and Veronica can help. They could begin the family research.” She frowned. “I don’t want anyone else near that.” She pointed to the Quaich. “So, both of you will have to do the plant research.

Gerald nodded. “Make sure it’s in the case and covered if anyone else comes around—just to be safe.”