Lena shut the Book. “I can’t read any more of this.”
“No kidding. No wonder your uncle is so worried all the time.”
“It’s not enough that I could turn into some kind of evil demon. I could also suffer eternal death. Add that to the list under impending doom.”
“Got it. Demon. Death. Doom.”
We were in the garden at Greenbrier again. Lena handed me the Book and flopped on her back, staring up at the sky. I hoped she was playing with the clouds instead of thinking about how little we had figured out during these afternoons with the Book. But I didn’t ask her to help me as I paged through it, wearing Amma’s old garden gloves that were way too small.
There were thousands of pages in The Book of Moons, and some pages contained more than one Cast. There was no rhyme or reason to the way it was organized, at least none that I could see. The Table of Contents had turned out to be some kind of hoax that only loosely corresponded to some of what could actually be found inside. I turned the pages, hoping I would stumble across something. But most of the pages just looked like gibberish. I stared at the words I couldn’t understand.
I DDARGANFOD YR HYN SYDD AR GOLL
DATODWCH Y CWLWM, TROELLWCH A THROWCH EF
BWRIWCH Y RHWYMYN HWN
FEL Y CAF GANFOD
YR HYN RWY’N DYHEU AMDANO
YR HYN RWY’N EI GEISIO.
Something jumped out at me, a word I recognized from a quote tacked on the wall of my parents’ study: “Pete et invenies.” Seek and you shall find. “Invenies.” Find.
UT INVENIAS QUOD ABEST
EXPEDI NODUM, TORQUE ET CONVOLVE
ELICE HOC VINCULUM
UT INVENIAM
QUOD DESIDERO
QUOD PETO.
I tore through the pages of my mom’s Latin dictionary, scrawling the words in the back as I translated them. The words of the Cast stared back at me.
To Find What is Missing
Unravel the tie, twist and wind
Cast this Bind
So I may find
That which I yearn for
That which I seek.
“I found something!”
Lena sat up, peering over my shoulder. “What are you talking about?” She sounded less than convinced.
I held my chicken scratch handwriting up for her to read. “I translated this. It seems like you use it to find something.”
Lena leaned closer, checking my translation. Her eyes widened. “It’s a Locator Cast.”