A covered jar sat inside the hidden space. The label read Brimstone.
“I’ll assume by the look on your face that you found it,” he said.
Climbing down, I tried to hold the jar as far away from me as I could. As soon as I got to the bottom, I set it on the counter.
“Wanna take the whole thing?” I asked, nudging it toward him.
“Two ounces is all I need at the moment,” he said.
I searched the drawers for something to scoop the chunks of yellow sulfur from the jar. I’d never get the smell off my hand if I touched it. Shifting some papers around under the counter, I found a leather-bound book. I lugged it out and opened it on the counter.
Inside were stubs from countless receipts. A pound of mug-wort, a quarter pound of powdered acacia root, twenty-six sticks of palo santo, all accounted for with names and dates—Louise Farris, October 20, 1995; Hudson Laramie, June 12, 1990; Angela Carroll, August 14, 1993.
Near the back of the ledger was a log of names and dollar amounts, and I remembered that I was supposed to credit Lucille for the herbs she was going to pick up later. I searched until I found “Lucille Paris” and penned in a hundred dollars with the date. I set the book aside, found a pair of wooden tongs, and fished out a few pieces of brimstone, sitting them on the scale.
“I don’t know of many uses for sulfur,” I said. “Wanna tell me about it?”
Isaac came over to the counter, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “You can make a soap out of it. It kills mites on people and pets.” His voice was even, his words rehearsed.
“You have mites?” I asked. “Or your pet has mites?”
“My pet,” he said.
“A dog? A cat?” I didn’t think he was telling the truth.
He didn’t answer, but he chuckled. He studied me carefully, and then his gaze wandered to the shelves.
“You’ve come into possession of this place,” the man said. “What do you think it’s for?”
Here we go with the damn riddles. I sighed. “It’s an apothecary. Natural remedies.”
Isaac chuckled. “That’s part of it, yes. That’s the face that’s presented to the local community who has no idea what’s happening right under their noses.”
He sounded like he might actually give me some information that wasn’t a question wrapped in a riddle.
“You have many, many ingredients here,” he continued. “On their own, they’re useful for natural remedies, teas, soaks, and so on. But combined, they can be much more powerful.”
“Combined?” I asked, confused. “For what?”
“Any number of things. Combining what you’ve collected here, in the right way, can bring about changes in the real world.”
“Sounds like magic,” I said jokingly.
He didn’t laugh. “Yes, magic.”
“You’re serious?” It wasn’t that I didn’t believe him. How could I dismiss what he was saying when I knew what I could do?
“Humor me,” he said, scanning the shelves again. He gestured toward the cabinet with the poison herbs. “Wolfsbane root. And if you would be so kind as to provide me a copper dish?”
I hesitated for a moment, but my curiosity took over. I brought down the wolfsbane and fished around in the lower cabinets until I found a stack of shallow copper plates.
“Please place one root in the dish,” he said.
“You want me to do it?” I asked.
“Can you?” he asked, a ring of worry in his voice. “Circe could do it bare-handed. She’d built up an immunity over the years running the shop, but I noticed you didn’t touch the oleander. I thought . . .”
He said something else, but I didn’t hear him. Circe could do it, too. She could handle the poison plants with her bare hands. What I could do wasn’t unique, and Circe knew it. Isaac seemed to think it was a power she’d developed, a side effect of handling the toxic plants, but I knew better. She’d probably been born with it but that realization only left me more questions.
“Are you all right?” Isaac asked, snapping me out of my own head.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine.”
I opened the jar of wolfsbane. He covered his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his sweater. It didn’t smell, but even a little dust in his windpipe could kill him. I reached in and took out a single root. Cold gripped my fingertips and made them ache for a moment before returning to normal. I set the root on the copper plate.