Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

women had instinctively chosen to use for their rituals was a place of power where the physical world merged with the spiritual realm. She felt the energy flowing into her, heard the rhythmic sound of a drum and the distant feminine voices chanting. The melodic notes carried her deeper into another sphere.
    Smoke filled her vision. Clouds of mist and fog drifted in the smoke. She inhaled sharply, drawing the smoke and air into her lungs, as she set her soul free to travel. She found herself at the border of the two worlds, the chamber where she sat composed and tranquil, at the first stage of travel.
    As her vision cleared, she could see a large tree with a labyrinth of roots and a jungle of wide-reaching branches standing before her. Mist of varying colors swirled through and around the branches. Leaves rustled as if alive, silvery green in color, fluttering in the soft breeze. The wind was just strong enough to stir the mist, not dislodge it, so that the she caught glimpses of the thick twisting trunk, leading upward toward the sky and down beneath the soil.
    Lara concentrated on the tree. The trunk appeared quite old, grayish in color. There were a few dark knots in the trunk and branches and one or two places where it may have lost a limb over time, but the tree appeared healthy. She continued moving over the ever-expanding meadow toward the tree, her bare feet skimming the fresh grass. As she moved across the field, flowers sprang up under the soles of her feet as if she scattered seeds along the fertile ground. The closer she got to the tree, the more missing branches she spotted, and beneath the tree, held within the cage of roots, old dead limbs lay like broken bodies in a mass grave.
    As she approached the tree of life, she heard voices crying out, the sound of weeping, and she felt wet drops on her upturned face. Tears rained down on her, the tears of ancient women who had gone before, losing child after child to the unknown killer. The tears splashed on the ground to form a stream, each tear merging with another until the stream became a river.
    Lara waded through the rising water to get to the wide, thick trunk so she could examine it up close. Faint, shallow marks were burned into the trunk leading up toward the branches where new life waited. Raven\'s son.
    Savannah\'s two daughters. Their souls clung to the gently rocking limbs far above her. She could see the two branches were blackened and hollow, twisted from some disease. Above them were several other brand-new souls as well, clinging to relatively healthy branches, but she could already see signs of the unknown disease eating at the limbs. These then, were the most recent Carpathian pregnancies. The killer had targeted Raven\'s child first and then Savannah\'s, but these children were in jeopardy as well.
    There was a taint to evil. Xavier had used the dark arts against the Carpathians, corrupting his gift, twisting it for his own purpose and now she could see not only the faint track marks, but smell the odor of the malevolence along the trail of dark alchemy. The path led up toward the high branches, but also followed the trunk down to the maze of roots below the earth. She went down the trunk and followed the root system, seeking the source.
    Lara drifted down the long trunk, pursuing the tracks, using scent and sight. Once on the tangle of roots, the trail was much more difficult as the tracks appeared everywhere. Shadows leapt out at her, great greedy claws, extended toward her. Moans and wails rose around her. The river of tears continued to rise.
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    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    She pressed the pads of her fingers deep into the smooth surface of her crystal and waited patiently. The croak of a frog drew her attention. The small creature floated to her on a lily pad. It leapt from the streaming water to the trunk of a tree, looking at her with large, earnest eyes.
    She smiled and greeted the creature formally and with respect, her spirit guide in the underworld realm. Frogs were amazing, magical creatures, potent in both land and water energy. To Lara, the frog symbolized everything the Carpathian women sought. Transformation, rebirth, the bond of mother and child and Mother Earth to her daughters. Unblocking the energy and creating a path for a smoother flowing so healing could prevail, ridding the earth and water of all toxins was exactly what Lara wanted to do. And the symbolism continued further; when frog populations were