License Invoked

"Thanks," she said. After a time, she heard the shuffle of footsteps. The girl was going away. Thank heaven.

Lloyd muttered something, and the hall door snicked shut. He came around Fee's chair and stared down at her.

"What's the matter with you? She just did you a favor!"

"I'm sorry," Fee said, with sincere contrition. "I'm just too worried."

"You could have sounded like you meant it when you said thanks," Lloyd said, his dark brows lowering to his nose.

"The girl's such a nosebleed," Fee said, more snappishly than she meant. "She's talented, but her personality..."

"She's nice enough," Lloyd said.

Fio

Lloyd, just as shrewd, knew better than to walk into that kind of emotional mine field. He shrugged noncommitally. "Who, her? You're worth fifty of her."

Fio

Lloyd was about to administer another scolding, when they heard a gentle rap on the door. Fee looked at the clock on the mantlepiece.

"Oh, that's me appointment, darlin'. Will you let her in?"

The thin woman with a face like old, wrinkled leather in the hallway raised a bone rattle and shook it under Lloyd's face. She waited until he stepped aside to cross the threshold, then shook it all around the perimeter of the door. Fee stood up and watched her with fascination and alarm, as the woman rattled in every corner of the room. She stopped, and suddenly pointed at the containers on the table.

"Did you eat any of that?" she demanded.

"No!" Fee said, alarmed.

"Good," said the shamaness. "Fried food is bad for your aura." She turned to eye Lloyd up and down. "You can eat it. Won't do you no harm, and the donor is favorably disposed to you anyhow."

Fee smiled. The old woman had his number. She was the real thing, just as Fee had been promised. There seemed to be nothing special about the healing priestess's outward appearance. Her yellow dress looked just like those of the other ladies out in the street. Hanging over her left wrist was an ordinary-looking leather handbag with a gold clasp. "What should I be eating?"

"When is your birthday?"

"January. January twenty-seventh."

"Fresh fruit and vegetables. Greens and bacon for security. Okra and black-eyed peas for luck. Alligator."

"Alligator?" Fee asked. "For courage?"

"No'm," said the shamaness, with a sly, dark-eyed look. "Tastes good. A little fatty, but you need some meat on them long bones of yours. Y'ought to try some jambalaya. Not that stuff," she said, with a dismissive wave at the table. "There's better in the Quarter. Ask Willie downstairs. He'll steer you to the good places."

Fee cleared her throat. "I didn't ask you here for restaurant reviews, er, Madam Charmay."

"I know," the old woman said. "This curse. It's still troubling you?" Fee nodded. "Whole cure takes maybe eight, maybe nine days. I've got to find me a black rooster and some other things. Won't cost you too much for the components, but you ought to be generous to the spirits all the same. You're lucky the full moon is coming, day after tomorrow. Otherwise it'd take a month and a week."

"I don't have eight or nine days! I've got to give a concert tomorrow."

"Oh," Madam Charmay said, cocking her head. "Then, you need the quick cure. All right. Stand you there. In the precise center. That's it."

For Fee to stand in the middle of the room, Lloyd had to move the table. Fee stared up at the ceiling as the old woman walked in ever-tightening circles until she could feel the slight heat of the other's body. All the time Madam Charmay was chanting quietly to herself. Occasionally the rattles punctuated a sentence with their exclamation points. Fee concentrated, wishing she could feel something, anything, to prove that she was co

"Oh, for heaven's sake, this is getting to be like a drawing room comedy," Fee said, in exasperation. "Look, are you finished?"

"I am now, lady," Madam Charmay said, putting her rattles into her purse. "I can come again."

"Yes, please," Fee said, grabbing her small purse, little more than a wallet on a string. She riffled through the wad of American notes that she'd been given by Nigel and came up with three twenties, which she held out to Madam Charmay. The old woman regarded the money with distaste.

"No, do not give it to me. Give it to charity. This night. Without fail."

"I will," Fee said in surprise, ashamed of herself for not asking about the protocol of paying healers for their services. "Thank you so much."

"It is all in God's name," Madam Charmay said, with dignity. "I will go now."

Lloyd's face turned beet red when he opened the door and saw Liz and Boo-Boo in the hallway.

"May we see her?" Liz asked politely. She hadn't a hope of making this jealous man an ally, but at least she would keep from enraging him further. She had felt her ward alarms go off twice. There were, or had been, two strangers in the room. One of them was still there, yet Liz sensed no danger from the presence.

As if in answer to her unspoken question, a slender, little woman with a worn face and ineffable majesty was stepping daintily toward them. As she came through the door, she traded speaking looks with Boo-Boo. He raised his eyebrows, and the old woman shook her head very slightly. There was the ghost of magic in the room. Benevolent but very strong-minded. Concerned, Liz bustled toward Fio

"I don't care what the old darlin' said, this tastes wonderful," Fio

"Thank you, ma'am, but we've had our di

"Oh, without a doubt!" Fee said, managing to trill the words without spraying food on anyone. She scooped up one last bite and held it up in the air before eating it. "We're going to do such a show tomorrow, me darlin's!" She licked the spoon tidily and set it into the empty lid. "Come on, then! Lloyd, me love, get us a taxi?" Liz noticed that she was already wearing her purse.

"Who was that woman we saw?" she asked Boo as they followed in Fio

"Friend of mine from the Quarter, a Cajun healer. The real thing. Willie on the door told me Miss Fio

"Did she cure Fio

"Naw. I can tell. There hasn't been time to really get to the roots of what's goin' on. She did the stuff she does for visitors. A little chantin', rattlin' to drive away the bad spirits. Short-term fix, but you can see it's cheered her up a lot. Half of healin's mental, y'know."

Liz sighed. "At least the show will go on."

Boo tilted his head and gave her a little smile. "Don't worry, ma'am. We'll catch whoever's behind this."