A terrible sadness crossed her face. "No. All of the others are blinded by Kalona."

"Why aren't you?"

She took her time answering me. "I am not sure why he didn't blind me, as he has most of the others. Dragon and Anastasia and I have spoken of it, if only briefly. We do feel his allure, but a part of us was able to stay untouched by him enough that we were able to see him--really see him--and recognize him as the destructive creature he is. There is no doubt in our minds that you must find a way to defeat him, Zoey."

I felt terrible and helpless and breathless and too darn young. I wanted to flail my arms around and scream, I'm seventeen! I can't save the world--I can't even parallel park!

And then a sweet, meadow-filled breeze caressed my face. It was warmed by the summer sun and moist as dew at dawn, and my spirit lifted in respE?~ onse.

"You aren't simply a fledgling. Listen within, child, and know that where that still, small voice leads you, we will follow," Lenobia said in a voice that reminded me of my Goddess.

Her words mixed with the elements soothed me, and suddenly my eyes widened. How could I have forgotten?

"The poem!" I blurted, hurrying over to where I'd hung my purse by the door of Persephone's stall. "One of the red fledglings has been writing prophetic poetry. She gave me one that had to do with Kalona right before I came here."

Lenobia watched me curiously as I searched through my purse.

"Here it is!" It was wadded up with the poem that must have been about Stark. I grabbed the other poem and focused on it.

"Okay...okay...This is it. This tells me how to make Kalona flee. It's just...just written in poetic code or something."

"Let me read it, too. Perhaps I can help shed light on it." I held the poem out so she could see it, and she read it aloud as I followed the words.

What once bound him

Will make him flee

Place of power--joining of five

Night

Spirit

Blood

Humanity

Earth

Joined not to conquer

Instead to overcome

Night leads to Spirit

Blood binds Humanity

And Earth completes.

"When Kalona rose from the earth, he wasn't being reborn, as Neferet tried to get us to believe, was he?" Lenobia said, still studying the poem.

"No. He'd been trapped there for more than a thousand years," I said.

"By whom?"

"My grandmother's Cherokee ancestors."

"This seems to imply that what ever it was that your grandmother's people did to bind him won't work the same way again. This time it'll make him run away. And that's good enough for me. We must rid ourselves of him before he completely e Eckquote> Zrodes the ties that bind us to Nyx." She looked from the poem to me. "How did the Cherokee people bind him in the earth?"

I blew out a long gust of air, wishing with all my heart that Grandma was here and could lead me through this. "I just--I don't know as much as I should about it!" I cried.

"Ssh," Lenobia soothed, touching my arm as she would a nervous filly. "Wait, I have an idea."

She hurried from the stall and returned shortly with a thick, soft, curry brush, which she handed to me. Then she left the stall again and came back carrying a bale of straw. Putting it in against the inside wall, she sat on it. Leaning comfortably back, she pulled out a long piece of golden straw and stuck it in her mouth.

"Now, brush your mare and think aloud. We will find the answer between the three of us."

"Well," I began as I stroked the brush down Persephone's sorrel neck. "Grandma told me that Ghigua women, uh, those are Wise Women, from several tribes got together and created a maiden out of the earth, made especially to lure Kalona into a cave where they trapped him."

"Wait, you said women came together to create a maiden?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds kinda crazy, but I promise that's what happened." "No, I do not doubt the truth of what your grandmother reported. I'm only wondering how many women came together."

"I don't know. All Grandma told me was that A-ya was basically their tool, and each of them gave her a special gift."

"A-ya? That was the maiden's name?"

I nodded and then looked over the mare's shoulder at her. "Kalona calls me A-ya."

Lenobia sucked in a shocked breath. "Then you are the instrument through which he will be defeated again."

"Yes, but not defeated, just chased away," I said automatically, and then my instinct caught up with my mouth and I knew what I'd said was true. "It is me. This time he can't be trapped because he's expecting that. But I can make him run away." I spoke more to Persephone than to Lenobia or even to myself.