SEVEN

"Well, I'm not finding anything that looks even remotely like what Jessica described," said Piper as she went through a dresser in the attic for the third time. "We've found two athames but they aren't anything special. Just regular athames that Grams probably used in her rituals and incantations."

"Maybe it's not here," said Phoebe. "Just because that warlock was looking up here doesn't mean it's here. Maybe Grams hid it somewhere else."

"Maybe," said Prue. "I've been wondering why the warlock waited so long to come looking for it. Grams died twenty months ago. Now I can understand the first six months. No one could get into the attic until Phoebe came home. But why did he wait the other fourteen months before he came searching for it?"

"He said something about making a deal with her," said Piper. "Frankly, I can't imagine Grams making a deal with a warlock for anything."

"Well, mom did," said Phoebe. "Remember that warlock that tried to kill us for our powers? When we cast that time travel spell and went back in time? Mom made a deal with him."

"Yeah, but that was to protect us," said Prue. "The same reason Grams bound our powers."

"Maybe Penny made a similar deal for the same reasons," said Leo. "She was a powerful witch but she wasn't invulnerable. And with you girls having no powers, you would have been unable to defend yourselves against a warlock. Especially since you didn't even know they existed."

"He did seem to know our powers had been bound," said Phoebe. "He said Grams had told him that. But he seemed surprised that we had our powers back. And he asked where Grams was. As if he didn't know she had died."

"But that brings us back to our original question?" said Prue. "Why wait so many months before coming after that athame? Assuming that's what he was after."

"Jessica seemed to think it was," said Piper. "What she said makes sense. But why go through the hassle of trying to find it? Why not just enchant another one?"

"That might not be possible," said Leo. "It would depend on the enchantment. It might be easier to get the old one back instead of trying to enchant a new one. Plus, it might be a special athame. From what we know it seems he went to a lot of trouble for these murders. It makes sense he'd use an athame that had some significant meaning. Which means he'd have to get it back instead of using another one."

"Leo," said Phoebe, "do you have any idea where Grams might have hidden something? We've been through everything in the attic at least twice. I've even searched the chest where she kept the Book of Shadows three times, going to far as to empty it completely just to make sure I didn't overlook anything. Did Grams have any kind of special hiding place or something?"

"I don't know," said Leo. "Like I said, I wasn't her Whitelighter. I did come by from time to time but I rarely stayed long. And she never really confided in me."

"Well," said Phoebe, "there has to be someplace where she would..."

Her statement went unfinished as she stumbled suddenly. Leo was able to catch her from falling to the floor. Phoebe looked back at where she had stumbled. One of the floorboards was loose. Cautiously, she walked back over and bent down.

"Look what we have here," she said. "A hiding place. It looks like the floorboard was pried up and then replaced."

She pulled the floorboard up and reached in the hole. When she brought her hand out, she was holding a small metal box.

"That could be what we're looking for," said Prue. "Phoebe, bring the box over to the table. Let's see what's inside it."

Phoebe put the box on the table and stood looking at it for a moment. It looked like the type of metal boxes sold at many stores. The type people kept valuable in. When Phoebe tried to open it, they discovered it was locked.

"Okay," said Piper, "what now? I don't remember seeing a key anywhere that might fit that box."

"Easy," said Prue.

She tapped into her telekinetic power and the hasp on the box suddenly sprang open, breaking the lock.

"That was almost too easy," she said. "Now, let's see what we have inside."

Prue opened the lid and everyone looked inside. There was a small notebook, a pile of papers, a small pendant, and an athame. The handle of the athame looked like two snakes intertwined and the handle guard curved back toward the handle. There was a dark substance dried on the blade of the athame that looked suspiciously like blood."

"Bingo," said Phoebe, taking the notebook out and flipping through it. "There are a bunch of notes in here in reference to the Salem witch hunts. And several pages of names. It looks like she had them categorized. Victims, accusers, participants, bystanders, all sorts of lists. The entire notebook is practically full."

"Okay," said Piper picking up the athame. "This looks like what Jessica described. It's very ornate and probably has some significance to the witch trials. I'd say it's a pretty good bet we found what the warlock was after."

"I think you're right," said Prue, looking over the papers in the box. "These papers are mostly news clippings. Obituaries, reports of car accidents, deaths by natural causes, missing people, all sorts of new clippings. I'd say we found what we were looking for. Let's get this stuff downstairs so we can go through it. Maybe now we'll start to get some answers."

Prue picked up the box as the four headed downstairs.

"Well," said Prue after they had gone through the box thoroughly, "this is definitely the list of names that Grams asked to Jessica check out. According to what Phoebe found in that notebook, Grams was trying to track down the descendents of those involved with the prosecution of the accused witches in Salem. And the news clippings correspond with the names on the list. Everyone one of them is about the death of someone descended from one of the prosecutors or accusers."

"This athame is certainly unusual," said Piper. "It has some weird markings on the blade."

"Let me see it," said Leo, taking the dagger and looking at it. "This is a rare one. It's a sacrificial athame."

"Sacrificial?" questioned Phoebe.

"Yes," said Leo. "It's used only by the most powerful warlocks. It's used when they go against a particularly powerful witch. These types of athames usually have a special enchantment on them to make them even more affective against a witch than normal. Penny must have taken it from the warlock."

"So why didn't she just vanquish the warlock?" Piper asked. "Why take the athame from him and hide it?"

"Guys," said Prue, pulling a news clipping out of the box, "you'd better have a look at this. I thought the photograph on this one was odd but I couldn't figure out why until just now. Look at it."

"Okay," said Piper as she, Phoebe, and Leo looked at the photo. "What's so odd about it?"

"Look at that person in the background," said Prue. "Right behind what looks like a paramedic."

Piper, Phoebe, and Leo looked closer at the photo. Piper even pulled out a magnifying glass to get a closer look at it. What they saw startled them. Standing in the background of the photo was a woman. A woman that looked remarkably like Grams.

"Is that Grams in the photo?" Phoebe asked. "Where was the photo taken?"

"According to the article," said Piper, "it was taken in Seattle, Washington at the scene of a double murder. A murder on September 19, 1995. Mark Preston and his wife were stabbed to death during a suspected robbery attempt. The robber was never caught. And no murder weapon was ever found."

"Preston?" questioned Phoebe, looking through a stack of papers. "That's one of the names on the list. Mark Preston was a descendent of Thomas Preston. Thomas Preston was one of the men who swore out a complaint of witchcraft against Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. He was the fifth victim of the warlock."

"That's not all," said Prue. "Look at what Grams has in her hand."

They all looked closer at the figure of Grams in the background. In one hand, partially obscured by another figure standing next to her, was what appeared to be a large knife. A knife that looked suspiciously like the athame that Leo was holding.