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“Let’s go.” Nelson went to Nox and helped him up. “If he came back down here, there’s no sign of it.”
“No. I don’t think he did,” Nox said as they climbed. “This was a pit of suffering and would have been beneath him. I think that the younger MacCrory, Brian, guarded those girls like a redneck minotaur.”
“Julian couldn’t leave Elsa down there. He tried to keep her separate or he lost his nerve and tried to set her free. That’s why Brian took her down to New Castle.” Nelson held Nox’s hand and pulled him out and into the hall. They were both relieved when Nelson closed the door and slid the bolt, locking the darkness behind it. But Nelson sensed there was something else, that the horrors in the basement weren't what Nox was seeking. “Are you okay?”
“It’s not as bad now. I should take a look out back,” Nox said and nodded at the kitchen door. “He warded the house against me and any traps he set are inside, but he may have left an offering out there for the Badb.” They stepped out and Nox lowered onto the stoop, looking weak and winded. “He might have left something at the four corners of the property,” he said, waving around them as he leaned against the banister.
“I’ll take a look.” Nelson gestured for him to stay and rest and took a moment to find north, then headed for that end of the back lawn.
“Don’t dig or disturb anything. We’re still in a cemetery so old rules apply to anything buried or left as an offering out here,” Nox called after him and Nelson nodded as he searched along the picket fence. He spotted freshly disturbed earth right where the compass on his watch said he couldn’t go any further north.
“Here,” he said, squatting next to it and sniffing. He could smell herbs and burned things in the dirt and Nelson noticed a sigil and a crude crow’s head carved into one of the fence’s pickets. He took a picture and stood so he could walk the perimeter of the small but tidy lawn around the house. There were similar markings on other pickets and the mailbox’s post and something had been buried at each location.
Nelson was heading around the side of the property to the kitchen when he spotted something behind the rose bush directly beneath the guest room window.
“Someone left something back here.” He slid around, between the bush and the house and stretched toward it, hugging the wall so his coat wouldn’t catch on the barren branches and thorns.
“What is it?” Nox asked when he appeared and peeked over Nelson’s shoulder.
He squinted into the shadows and recognized woven twigs and cloth. “It looks like a crude basket made of twigs. There’s something in it but it’s wrapped in cloth.”
“Twigs? What color cloth?”
“Hold on.” Nelson dislodged himself and aimed his phone at it, getting several shots. “See what you can make of that.”
“Good thinking. See if you can use this to look under the cloth. I need to see what’s in there,” Nox said, trading Nelson’s phone for the handle from the broom that had been on the back stoop.
Nelson frowned at the handle and then at Nox. “Why can’t we take it out and look? I’ll put it right back.”
“No.” Nox shook his head quickly. “We’re in a gray area out here because I’m not sure if the caretaker’s property is considered hallowed ground. Inside the house is a different story because it was warded and blessed for the living and then they defiled it and polluted it with all kinds of dark magick and evil. It’s basically a poisoned rubbish pit now.”
“They should burn it down,” Nelson said, angling his shoulders between the wall and the bush and giving the basket a few pokes to make sure nothing slithered out. There was just a soft clanking so Nelson kept poking until he was able to get the end of the handle under the cloth and flipped it back. He couldn’t really see anything except more of the cloth. “It’s a red and black plaid tablecloth or sheet as far as I can tell.”
“Red and black…” Nox’s hum sounded concerned and slightly surprised so Nelson decided to risk it and used the handle to tip the basket towards him, onto its side.
“Oops.” He took a quick inventory for his notes: a jar of clear liquid, black feathers and claws, loose seeds, a knife, and melted red and black candles. “Take a look and tell me what you think. We won’t disturb any of it.” He stepped back and flashed Nox an apologetic wince.
“I’m choosing to believe that was an accident,” Nox said, then leaned behind the bush. “Huh.” He stared for a moment before stepping back and shaking his head. “This is very odd.”
“What?” Nelson headed up the stoop and propped the handle against the wall next to the brush.
“I would guess that that is an offering to the Morrígan.” Nox shook his head again. “But the Morrígan isn’t just the war goddess and the phantom queen. They are also the protector of women and children so leaving this here is in poor taste. Almost mocking them.”
“Is it a she or a they?” Nelson asked as he offered Nox a hand up the back steps. He was still shaking and needed the rail to pull himself up.
“The Morrígan were a trio of sister goddesses who could shapeshift into many things, but mainly crows who foretold chaos and death and fed off the carnage of battle,” he rambled breathlessly. “One of those sisters was the Badb, but in many traditions they are all the same goddess with different names depending on the form she takes.”
“And she/they are the protectors of women and children?” Nelson asked skeptically, earning a weak laugh from Nox.
“Think about it! We go off to fight the enemy, but who do we protect when we go to war?”
Nelson nodded as he opened the door wide for Nox. “The women and children.”
“Exactly,” Nox said with a pained grunt as he stepped over the threshold.
“Why is it so much worse for you? Is it all the dark magick or something the fake Badb did to keep you out?” Nelson asked Nox.
“It’s both. He burned some of my hair here. We just haven’t found it yet.”
