Sylvia began humming again as she finished fashioning the smudge stick. It was only when she'd completed the weaving of grass and lavender that she realized the song she hummed had changed from lullaby to a much different tune: "Song for a Woman Who Was Brave in War." Even though she still sat, Sylvia's feet had begun to move, beating out the strong rhythm to accompany the rise and fall of her voice.

When she realized what she was doing, Sylvia went utterly still. She looked down at her hands. Woven within the sweet grass and lavender was a blue thread that was strung and knotted with raw turquoise. With a jolt of clarity, Sylvia understood.

"A Goddess Bundle." Sylvia spoke the words reverently. "Thank you, Earth Mother, for this warning. My spirit heard you, and my body obeys." Slowly, solemnly, the old woman stood. She walked to her bedroom and took off her sleep shirt. Opening the armoire that rested against the raw pine walls, Sylvia took out her most sacred regalia-the cape and the wrap skirt she had made when she first learned she was pregnant with Linda. The deerskin was old and a little loose on her slight body, but still smooth and soft. The green that Sylvia had spent so much time mixing and then dyeing had remained the color of moss, even after three decades. Not one of the shells or beads was loose.

As Sylvia began to braid her silver hair in one long, thick rope, she began to sing the "Song for a Woman Who Was Brave in War" aloud.

She looped silver and turquoise earings through each earlobe.

Her voice lifted and fell in time with the beating of her bare feet as she strung necklaces of turquoise around her neck, adding one on another, so that their weight felt familiar and warm.

Sylvia circled her thin wrists with cuffs of turquoise and smaller, thinner ribbons of silver and turquoise-always turquoise-until both forearms were almost entirely filled, wrist to elbow.

Only then did Sylvia Redbird pick up her smudge stick and a long box of wooden matches, and walk from her bedroom.

She let her spirit guide her bare feet. Her spirit did not take her to the bubbling stream that ran behind her house where she usually greeted the dawn. Instead Sylvia found herself in the middle of her wide front porch. Continuing to follow her instincts, she lit the smudge stick. With graceful, practiced movements, Sylvia began circling herself with the scents of sweet grass and lavender. It was when she was engulfed in smoke, foot to head, and singing a Wise Woman's war song, that Neferet stepped from a pool of Darkness, materializing before her.

Neferet

Sylvia Redbird's voice sounded like chalk screeching on a blackboard. "By your own belief system it is impolite not to welcome a guest." Neferet raised her voice so she could be heard over the old woman's horrible song.

"Guests are invited. You have no invitation to my home. That makes you an intruder. According to my beliefs I am greeting you appropriately."

Neferet curled her lip. The old woman's singing had ended, but her bare feet still beat out a repeating rhythm. "That song is almost as annoying as that smoke. Do you really think the stink of it will protect you?"

"I think many things, Tsi Sgili," Sylvia said, still wafting the thick wand of herbs around her as she danced in place. "At this moment I am thinking that you broke an oath you made to me when my u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya first joined your world. I call you to task for that."

Neferet was almost amused by the old woman's insolence. "I made no oath to you."

"You did. You promised to mentor and protect Zoey. Then you broke that oath. You owe me the price of that broken oath."

"Old woman, I am an immortal. I am not bound by the same rules as you are," Neferet scoffed.

"Immortal you may have become. That does not change the Earth Mother's laws."

"Perhaps not, but it does change how they are enforced," Neferet said.

"An oath-breaking is only one of the debts you owe me, witch," Sylvia said.

"I am a goddess, not a witch!" Neferet felt her anger rise and she began moving slowly closer to the porch. The tendrils of Darkness slithered with her, though Neferet sensed their hesitation as wisps of white smoke drifted down, seeming to melt around them.

Sylvia continued dancing and waving the wand around her. "The second debt you owe me is greater than an oath-breaking. You owe me a life debt. You killed my daughter."

"I sacrificed your daughter for a greater good. I owe you nothing!"

The old woman paid no attention to her. Instead she paused in her dance long enough to bend and place the smoking herbs at her feet. Then she lifted her face and opened her arms, as if embracing the sky. "Great Earth Mother, hear me. I am Sylvia Redbird, Wise Woman of the Cherokee, and Ghigua of my tribe, that of the House of Night. I beg mercy from you. The Tsi Sgili, Neferet, who was once a High Priestess of Nyx, is forsworn. She owes me an oath-breaking debt. She is also the murderess of my daughter. She owes me a life debt. I invoke your aid, Earth Mother, and call both debts due. The payment I demand is protection."