The Initiation Page 0,64

She didn't look at Cassie as she said it, but several of the others did, as if to imply that maybe she did have to say it.

Diana touched the candle flame to the candle Melanie held out to her. The flame doubled. Then Melanie leaned over to light Deborah's candle, and there were three flames.

The fire went around the circle until Laurel gave it to Adam. Cassie's hand was trembling as she held up her candle to receive the flame from him. She hoped everyone would assume it was just general nervousness.

At last all twelve candles were lit and stuck in their own wax to the concrete floor. Each shed a pool of radiance and cast huge dark shadows of the seated figures on the walls.

Diana reached into the ring of candles and pulled off the black cloth.

Cassie gasped.

The skull was facing her directly, its empty eye sockets staring at her. But that wasn't the most alarming thing. The skull was glowing. The candle flames around it played on it, and the crystal in turn reflected and refracted the light. It almost looked - alive.

Around the circle the others had straightened, tensed.

"Now," said Diana. "Find someplace inside the skull that interests you. Concentrate on it, look at the details. Then look for more details. Keep looking until you find yourself drawn into the crystal."

Someplace that interests you? Cassie thought blankly. But when she looked carefully at the glowing skull, she saw that the crystal wasn't completely clear. There were gossamer webs and what looked like wisps of smoke inside it. There were internal fractures that seemed to be acting as prisms to form miniature landscapes. The closer Cassie looked, the more detail she saw.

That looks like a spiral or tornado, she thought. And that - that looks almost like a door. And a face...

She jerked her eyes away, stomach lurching. Don't be silly; it's just imperfections in the crystal, she told herself.

She was almost afraid to look again. But no one else seemed disturbed. Their shadows loomed and flickered on the walls, but all eyes were turned toward the skull.

Look at it! Now, she commanded.

When she looked back at the skull, she couldn't find the misty face again. There, that proves it was just a trick of the light, she thought. But the skull had developed another disturbing quality. Things seemed to be moving inside it. It was almost as if the skull were made of water, contained inside a thin skin, and things were drifting slowly around.

Oh, stop it and pick one detail to focus on, she ordered herself. The doorway, look at that. It isn't moving.

She stared at the little prismatic fracture in the left eye socket, just where the pupil of a real eye would be. It looked like a half-open door with light spilling out.

Look at it. Notice the detail.

Dizziness from Faye's perfume swept over her. She was looking - just looking. She could see the door. The more carefully she looked, the larger it seemed. Or perhaps she was coming closer.

Yes, closer... closer. She was losing her sense of space. The skull was so large now; it seemed to have no boundaries, no shape. It was all around her. It had become the world. The door was right in front of her.

She was inside the skull.

Chapter Fifteen

The door was no longer tiny but life-size, large enough to go in. It was ajar, and colored light streamed from the other side.

Inside the skull, Cassie gazed at the door, her scalp tingling. If it opened, could I go inside? she wondered. But how could it open?

Maybe if she just imagined it opening... but that didn't seem to do any good. What had Melanie said? Crystals help us call on the Powers. What Powers would be connected with clear quartz? Earth and water? For sand and sea?

That sounded almost like the beginning of a poem.

Earth and water, sand and sea

As I will, so let it be...

She concentrated on the door, willing it to open. And as she stared, it did seem that there was more rainbow light spilling out. More... and more. Keep it opening. Let it draw you closer. She was floating in front of the door now. It was huge, like the door to a cathedral. Opening... opening... She was drowning in rainbow light.

Now! Go in!

But at that instant a scream tore through the room.

It was a scream of terror, high and wild, and it lanced through the utter silence. The door stopped opening, and