The Witch's Market Read online

  ALSO BY MINGMEI YIP

  Secret of a Thousand Beauties

  The Nine Fold Heaven

  Skeleton Women

  Song of the Silk Road

  Petals from the Sky

  Peach Blossom Pavilion

  The WITCH’S MARKET

  Mingmei Yip

  KENSINGTON BOOKS

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  ALSO BY MINGMEI YIP

  Title Page

  Dedication

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  PART ONE

  Prologue

  1 - A Birthday Gift for a Witch

  2 - Signs from Heaven

  3 - The Lineage of the Shamaness

  PART TWO

  4 - Journey to the West

  5 - Maiden Fortress and Heartbreak Castle

  6 - Sculptor in the Ruins

  PART THREE

  7 - The Witches’ Market

  8 - Underground Witches

  9 - The Ball

  10 - Sabrina Sanchez

  11 - Signs from the Cracked Earth

  12 - Laolao and the Meaning of Dreams

  13 - A Meeting in the Graveyard

  14 - Isabelle’s Diary

  15 - The Village Carpenter

  16 - Past Life Lake

  17 - Grandpa’s Sculpture Lessons

  18 - God Is Gracious

  19 - The Dancing Widow

  20 - Revisiting the Witches’ Market

  21 - Wielding the Wand

  22 - Dinner with the Housekeeper

  23 - Secrets on a Tape

  24 - There Is Always One Near You

  25 - An Unexpected Proposal

  26 - A Letter of Heartbreak

  27 - Another Proposal

  28 - Cecily’s Ritual

  PART FOUR

  29 - The Long-Lost Son

  30 - Farewell, My Beloved Village

  31 - The Proposal, Again

  32 - Digging Up Mud and Dirt

  33 - Hidden Treasures

  34 - A Rich Old Maid

  35 - My Young Sailor Lover

  Epilogue

  A READING GROUP GUIDE

  Discussion Questions

  Copyright Page

  To Geoffrey

  Even the Book of Changes could not have predicted

  a better life together than the one we have

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Writing a book a year taxes mind and body. However, I have only gratitude that I have been given the privilege of doing this over and over.

  Without the support, encouragement, and generosity of many people, none of my novels would have been written. First, I must thank my husband, Geoffrey Redmond, himself an excellent writer who has published seven books, including the newest Teaching the I Ching (Book of Changes) (Oxford University Press).

  Geoffrey is my most enthusiastic reader, honest critic, and most important, he supports me as a writer even though this means his wife, instead of serving him home-cooked meals, depends mostly on take-out, especially when meeting deadlines. Fortunately, living in New York City, most food is only a phone call away.

  I have to thank all the wonderful staff at Kensington. My editor, Martin Biro, who gives useful suggestions, and is ever thoughtful and supportive. Others include publicists Karen Auerbach and Vida Engstrand, designer Kristine Mills-Noble, who graces my books with beautiful covers, and Jacqueline Dinas, who has succeeded in having my books published in ten countries so far. And, of course, Kensington President Steven Zacharius and his son, Adam Zacharius, who have made me able to fulfill my dreams year after year.

  Many readers have friended me on Facebook, bought my books, and cheered me along the way. I owe them my sincerest gratitude.

  Dear Reader,

  About two years ago I read an article by my favorite Chinese author, Echo, about her trip to the Witches’ Market in Bolivia. Though it is a very short article, somehow the title captured my imagination and inspired me to write this novel.

  However, instead of setting my novel in Bolivia, I decided to make it happen on the Canary Islands. These seven islands are guarded by goddesses who are also safe keepers for the hidden golden apples of Aphrodite. Sailors seeking the legendary golden apples were lured to their doom by beautiful goddesses.

  This novel, besides Echo’s article, was also inspired by an incident I experienced years ago. Once at a concert I was so annoyed by the performer’s pretentious style that I stared at her instrument’s strings and willed them to break. Surprisingly, a few seconds later one of the strings broke, forcing her to stop in the middle of her performance. Rather than being happy, I was frightened that I might possess some strange power. I never tried it again; the possibility that it might work was too scary, maybe even unethical. Instead, I put this experience into The Witch’s Market.

  I follow Confucius’ famous advice to respect the spirits but keep them at a distance.

  I beat you little man, so your breath has no place to vent!

  I beat your little hands, so they can’t draw money from the bank!

  I beat your little feet, so wearing shoes will make them bleed!

  I beat your little head, so fortune will leave you sad!

  I’ll beat your little tongue, so you can’t chew meat

  and might as well be a monk!

  I’ll beat your little heart, so your life is like the bitterest tart!

  —Beating the Little Man

  Ancient Chinese folk custom for getting

  rid of petty troublemakers

  Nothing stains me with the world’s dust

  Wherever I go, cares do not follow me.

  When it rains, I just wait for the rainbow. . . .

  —Qiusi (Autumn Thoughts)

  Lu You (1125–1209)

  I dream, forgetting I am just a trespasser on life.

  Now, after an evening’s stolen pleasure,

  Alone, resting against the fence

  The rivers and mountains going all the way to infinity,

  It’s easy to part, harder to meet again.

  Spring is gone, like flowing water and fallen petals....

  —Lang Taosha (Waves Washing Away Sands)

  Li Yu (937–978)

  PART ONE

  Prologue

  When I turned thirty-three, I decided it was time for a big change in my life. It was time to become a witch.

  I have to admit that I was not sure if this would be a good idea.

  My name is Ai Lian, “love lotus” in Chinese, or Eileen Chen in English. Although I was Western-educated and lived in the modern era, I believed somewhere inside me there lived a witch, at least in spirit. I grew up in a family who believed in anything metaphysical, however implausible.

  Both my mother and grandmother were “witches,” or what the Chinese call wu, “shamaness.” Sometimes wu are also referred to as fangshi, people who have mastered the way and thus have the power to manipulate reality.

  Both my mother and my grandmother could predict the future, visit the past, see auras, and talk to invisible beings. Unfortunately, Mother had died young in her forties, to the great grief of myself and her own mother, my grandmother, Laolao. Because she had lost her daughter, Laolao wanted me to be a shamaness to carry on the family lineage. Besides healing, casting spells, going into trances, and taking on animal powers, she organized underworld tours. Laolao would also cast the daxiaoren—“beating the petty people” spells. These spells would ensure that the trivial, touchy, gossipy, jealous little men and women who cause us endless troubles got what they deserved.

  From my mother and grandmother, I’d learned the basics of witchcraft—empowering amulets, concocting healing
herbs, casting spells, communicating with the dead. And the great Chinese tradition of feng shui—finding out if a residence, whether yin for the dead or yang for the living, had good placement and energy flow. Though I was forced to study these skills, I’d never really practiced them. I prided myself on being a modern woman, not an old-fashioned or superstitious one. So, instead of becoming a shamaness like Mother and Laolao, I’d become a scholar of shamanism.

  After I’d gotten my Ph.D. in shamanism, I’d started working as an assistant professor at San Francisco State University. Four years had passed and I desperately needed to get a book published in order to get tenure and a promotion to associate professor. The head of the anthropology department, Timothy Lee, had advised me to add a section on Western witchcraft to my dissertation, then publish it as a book. It was an excellent suggestion. However, while I deemed myself pretty knowledgeable about Chinese shamanism, my understanding of its Western counterpart was mainly secondhand from books.

  What is a witch anyway? Do they really exist? Are they just ignorant, crazy people who try to scare you to get your money?

  I decided that the only way to really know about witches would be to become one myself.

  Was I scared? Of course. But I had to write my book, or otherwise I might lose my job. Timothy had hinted that he’d highly recommend me for the promotion—but only if I got my book published. He always deemed me the best candidate because of my cultural background, which was filled with tales of fortune-telling, witchcraft, shamans, vengeful gods, voodoo, juju, and whatnot, actively practiced for 3,000 years from the Stone Age into the electronic era.

  Did I really believe in witchcraft? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I was of two minds. Part of me believed I was a witch born into a long family lineage. Another part, my academic self, kept insisting that I was not a witch, but a normal woman studying witchcraft scientifically.

  Either way, I needed to write this book. And to write it I needed to do fieldwork. So I decided to take a year off to look for witches, gather materials in order to write about them, and then, once I had tenure, relax and enjoy life.

  At least this was my plan.

  1

  A Birthday Gift for a Witch

  It was my thirty-third birthday. In Chinese culture, three is an extremely lucky number, because it is synonymous with the word alive, or “prosperous.” Needless to say, thirty-three is double good luck. So I wanted a special celebration for my once-in-a-lifetime thirty-third birthday.

  My birthday fell during midterm exam week, leaving me stuck grading papers. So I was very grateful when my younger sister, Bao Lian—“precious lotus” in Chinese and Brenda in English—offered to organize the party for me. At twenty-nine, Brenda was already a real-estate lawyer aggressively climbing the relentless legal ladder toward partnership. My little sister’s success was in part due to her knowing how to use her charm—especially with men. I suspected Brenda had volunteered to host the party so that she could flirt with my guests—perhaps even my on-and-off boyfriend, Ivan Collins. Her flirting was indiscriminate—anyone male, from her boss and senior colleagues to waiters, doormen, bartenders, taxi drivers, delivery guys.

  Whenever I criticized her for this, she’d wink, and say, “Relax, Eileen. Life should be a big party with us all enjoying ourselves!”

  As an assistant professor, of course I didn’t have a large apartment to invite friends over to. Luckily, Ivan said we could use his big luxury condo in Pacific Heights as long as we cleaned up afterward. Brenda and I had no problem with that, as we’d both cleaned houses and apartments to work our way through college.

  Of course Ivan had only said this as a joke. An investment banker, he could well afford a cleaning lady. Divorced for several years, Ivan had been looking for the right woman and seemed to think that I was the one. I appreciated him for his hard work and generosity but wasn’t comfortable with his take-no-prisoners, overly ambitious approach to life. Nor did I want his hyperactive, jet-setting, breakfast-in-London and dinner-in-Paris lifestyle.

  Of course, like most women, I didn’t mind having a rich boyfriend. For some reason I just couldn’t love Ivan back completely and that bothered me. While I felt attracted to his intelligence and success, I found his constant boasting about how much money he had made that week tedious. And so we drifted apart. Since he never complained about our on-and-off relationship, I guessed he must have other women on the side. Or maybe he just hoped that one day I’d come around.

  Right now we were in a separation phase, as he put it, to give each other more space and time to reflect on our future. Or maybe it just gave him more space and time for other women. I believed Ivan truly loved me, but I knew he was also aware that if things didn’t work out between us, he could have almost any woman he wanted.

  When I talked to Brenda about my intermittent romance, she said, “Eileen, why don’t you just marry Ivan and enjoy a luxurious life? After a few years, if you want, you can get a divorce and live off a big alimony check and child support. So you really have nothing to lose. Listen, big sister, only a crazy woman would let go of such a once-in-a-life-time catch!”

  I gave her a dirty look. “Brenda, when did our parents teach us to be so practical and materialistic?”

  But she ignored my question. “Trust me, Eileen, you’ve everything to gain and nothing to lose by marrying Ivan. Period.”

  I wished I could pass Ivan on to Brenda, but there was no chance of that. At least if he was with Brenda the money would still stay with us—as Brenda wished—and not be wasted on some unknown women. But unfortunately my little sister was too much like the other women Ivan knew—climbing the corporate ladder, chasing after designer clothes, luxury cars, trendy restaurants, and exotic vacation spots—to interest him.

  I think Ivan liked me because I was not money and status crazy. He knew I cared more about the other world than this one. With me, he could glimpse a life utterly different from his own. But I worried that Ivan would get tired of me when the initial excitement of having a witchy, professor girlfriend wore off. Anyway, I was not yet ready to take the plunge. Since I was a child, I’d been waiting for something unusual, or big, to happen in my life. Life with Ivan was not it.

  For my birthday party, Brenda and I had sent out over thirty invitations to friends and colleagues. But no students were included, because in case the professors got drunk, I didn’t want gossip flying back to the university administration. There was always the risk that when faculty and students got drunk together, remarks would slip out that would later be regretted.

  Brenda suggested that the theme should be witchcraft and offered to do the decorations.

  I told her, “Fine, but everything should be innocuous, absolutely no creepy stuff like fake corpses or severed hands and arms.”

  “At your order, ma’am,” she said. “After all, Halloween is months away.”

  Since I had a late-afternoon class to teach on my birthday, I didn’t arrive at Ivan’s apartment until six. Entering his living room, the first thing I noticed was red candles lining the walls, giving the place a cozy, but also eerie, feeling.

  Brenda dashed toward me, screaming, “Eileen, happy birthday!”

  I eyed my little sister’s long-sleeved red dress. The plunging neckline revealed quite a lot of her bosom. The whole effect was multiplied by her bright red necklace, earrings, and bloody-looking lips. She would get plenty of male attention tonight.

  “Thanks, Brenda. Everything’s ready?”

  “Of course. You can always count on me, big sister.”

  “Good.” I exchanged nods with a few early arrived guests, then turned to Brenda. “Now I need to change.”

  Inside Ivan’s marble bathroom, with its gold-rimmed mirror, I took off my pantsuit, refreshed my makeup, and put on my shamaness’s gown. I had decided not to dress in a Western witch’s outfit because I didn’t want to wear black on my birthday. So instead I wore a pink Chinese dress, accessorized by a chunky silver necklace with Daoist motifs: ba
ts for good luck, pears for immortality, and goddesses for beauty and compassion. After piling my hair into a bun and decorating it with a silk pink lotus, I looked at the mirror and was happy with what I saw. A mysterious, exotic shamaness—ready to play tricks or cast spells.

  Was it a real witch staring back at me from the mirror? The answer was yet to be found out.

  When I went back out to the living room, most of the guests had arrived. They came up to greet me with the obligatory Chinese sayings Brenda had probably just taught them:

  “Happy birthday, Eileen! May your good fortune

  be as deep as the Eastern Sea and your longevity

  as high as the Southern Mountain!”

  “May every year be as wonderful as this one,

  And every birthday like this birthday!”

  “More wealth, more years, more fame,

  More light, more pleasure, more luck!”

  After greeting me, people gathered in small groups to talk or, with a glass of wine in hand, walked around to appreciate Ivan’s luxury apartment and his collection of modern paintings, hand-crafted ceramics, Indian statutes, and exotic Mexican masks.

  Soon Brenda materialized by my side, took my hand, and led me to a table set up as an altar. “It took me a few hours to set this up. I hope you like it!”

  I was relieved that my little sister had kept her promise and hadn’t displayed anything creepy. There were candles, crystal balls, a deck of tarot cards, jars of colorful “medicine,” small plates of exotic herbs, a witch doll with a comical face, a witch bracelet with miniature charms, and a Ouija board for conjuring. The table-turned-altar was bedecked with a floral shawl with long black tassels. To complete the scene, Ivan’s black cat, dressed up by Brenda in a witch’s cape and hat, posed regally on the altar as if she were the real boss of this party.