Look Behind You (The Order of the Silver Star) by Elisabeth Wolfe Read Free Book Online Page A

called because they could turn themselves into dogs or coyotes, though Chris never had figured out how the magic was supposed to work. But the other main thing he remembered from that conversation was that some of the deadliest curses skinwalkers used were cast using ant’į , a powder made from ground-up dead bodies—in fact, some people called that form of witchcraft the Corpse-powder Way for just that reason. His friend had even sworn he’d seen a family who’d offended a skinwalker wither and die of ghost sickness, hounded to death by a demon summoned and bound to the purpose by a curse cast with ant’į . The Navajo medicine men hadn’t been able to do anything for them, nor could the doctors at the nearest Bureau of Indian Affairs clinic even figure out what was making them sick. And they’d refused any other help from outsiders, even though the missionaries had been sure God would have delivered those people if they had asked for His help. “I think they doomed themselves,” his friend had concluded.
    Chris had never wanted to believe that such evil could exist in the world. Now, after that brush with the microfi lmed grimoire, he knew it might. This jar of Leichenpulver looked pretty much like what he’d pictured ant’į looking like, too, and the names meant the same thing. If the rumors of death camps were true, the warlocks probably had ample supplies of dead bodies to grind up for this kind of thing. For one wild moment, he wondered whether any of the dogs the SS loved so much were actually skinwalkers… until he realized that it didn’t matter for his immediate situation. Regardless of whether the spell ingredients in front of him could actually do real damage in the proper combination, the SS clearly thought they would, and they didn’t necessarily need magical means to detect sabotage—or to punish it. He’d be lucky to get off with a firing squad if the Luftwaffe didn’t get the results the warlocks wanted from this raid. And he had no desire to end up as ant’į himself.
    Even so, Chris knew in his heart of hearts that he had to sabotage this spell, whatever the consequences might be. He was there for a reason. Nimrod w as in either Berlin or Berchtesgaden and would have no way to get there in time. Neither could Cuchulain get there quickly from Dunkirk without arousing suspicion. No one else knew enough to put the pieces together the way Chris had; no one else could intervene. And he didn’t dare risk lives in London on the assumption that it was all a bunch of hokum.
    Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul , he heard his college friend recite, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell .
    Swallowing hard, he looked around and still didn’t see any SS men near the silo. Then he glanced at the other jars and found one that contained a clear, yellowish liquid. He didn’t read the label because he really didn’t want to know what it was. Rather, sending a quick silent prayer to Christ and St. Michael, he pulled the vial of holy water out of his pocket and uncapped it, then used his handkerchief to prevent fingerprints as he unscrewed the lid on the jar. Then he dumped in the whole amount of holy water and closed the jar again. It didn’t explode or even heat up, but as he pulled the handkerchief away, he could already see diffusion currents as the water spread through the other liquid like dye in a water glass, though the color didn’t change. That was good, Chris assumed; it meant he wouldn’t have to shake the jar to make sure there wasn’t a layer of water at the top when the SS opened it. He hoped the liquid would settle by the time they got around to using the stuff so no one would notice the contamination. Finally, he tucked vial and handkerchief back into his pockets and walked off among the bomb racks before anyone human could spot him at the lab table.
    He halfway wondered whether normal water would have been