he did, creating a black vortex of movement. The thunder rumbled again, much louder this time, and Violet chuckled. There was a flicker of blue light behind the hills as the charged air sought to send its energy to the earth. This time Vetchling cackled with glee too.
‘You speak true, sister – he is summoned and he comes. I feel it! I feel the elements coming together in a cauldron o’ fury. When will we see him?’
Violet shook her head and the wind grabbed her hood clear. Her stringy hair flew out around her face like a halo of rats’ tails.
‘We cannot see what has no form. He’s not of this world, sister, not of the living. He’s of the elements – I told you so. But he’ll be here, his spirit moving amongst us, his soul entering our dreams and our thoughts. He’s ethereal and he’s almost here!’
Again the dark clouds flashed with electricity and thunder rolled in a great peal, only a couple of seconds behind the lightning. Crouched behind one of the standing stones Swift watched the scene. He hugged his cloak close around him, cold in the violent wind that kept trying to tear it from him and more than a little scared. The dark figures, the Bird and the crones were silhouetted against the remaining red lanterns, scarcely visible. Then another brilliant slash of blue illuminated the hill top and their faces became shockingly clear down to every harsh detail.
Violet screamed an incantation and the air seemed to expand and crackle, pouring upwards in a spiral. Suddenly there came a great tongue of blinding blue-white light. It snaked down from the heavens overhead and plunged directly into the Circle, narrowly missing the people. At the same instant, thunder cracked above them so violently that even the crones jumped in terror, their ears ringing. Swift’s heart leapt in his chest and he hid his face inside his cloak at the last moment, not wanting to see what appeared in the Circle.
In the Village, the Barn doors were pulled shut, the musicians had ceased playing and the dancing had stopped. There was a sense that the party was over. Cloaks were pulled on over party clothes just as heavy rain began to fall like iron nails to the ground.
Outside in the wicker dome, Yul felt the earth leap the moment the lightning blasted into the ground up at the Stone Circle. In his deepest core, the Earth Magic turned from green to blue for a few jagged instants. A stab of pain shot through him as the serpent writhed in shock, its back zigzagged with the discharge of elemental force. Yul cried out from the terrible intensity of it, clutching at the ground as he was shot through by the unearthly power. His skin tingled as if crawling with ants but the sensation inside him was worse. It was as if, at the moment the huge bolt of lightning had struck, the very polarity of his body had suddenly flipped from positive to negative. He felt like he’d been spun through a complete somersault and everything was now back to front and upside down inside him. As the rain fell, splashing down through the woven wicker, Yul found he was trembling from head to foot and tears coursed down his cheeks. He felt desperately in need of Sylvie’s comfort.
Leveret heard the wind howling around the hill and felt the fine down on her arms rise in the charged air. The embers in the entrance were fanned to brightness but Clip sat like a stone, oblivious to everything. Leveret’s mind was far from clear; she was still hallucinating freely. In the distance she saw the violent flashes and flickers of blue white light over the Circle and felt the thunder rolling around the hills. She hugged her arms around her, still curled in the dry bracken at the back of the cave, and wondered if she’d be safe in an electrical storm so high up. The wild elements usually touched a nerve of delight in her but tonight she was apprehensive. The chaotic energy crackled all around her and it was too much – too powerful in its fury. She saw the great forked tongue flicker and then stab violently into the earth. As Stonewylde writhed and screamed at the abuse, Leveret felt overwhelmed by the magnitude of the storm’s power.
Sylvie laid her cloak over a chair and sank down onto the window seat in the darkness, looking