Free Portent, A Ravensborough Novella (The Ravensborough Saga) by Christine Murray

PORTENT
    A Ravensborough Novella
     
     
    CHRISTINE MURRAY
     
    MERMAIDEN MEDIA
     
     
    Cover designed by Wicked Cover Designs
     
     
    This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
     
    Kindle Edition| Copyright Christine Murray 2012
    Christine Murray asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
     
     
    CHAPTER ONE
     
    The air was ice cold, but it didn’t matter. I had no choice but to stay where I was.
    The stone steps of the temple were cool to the touch, and I could feel the frigid temperature through my jeans. A harvest moon hung high in the sky, fighting the lights of the city below. A clock tower rang out the hour across the square. Midnight – the witching hour.
    There was hardly anyone around. Darkfield had once been the most popular district in Ravensborough, at least for Pagans. It was situated on a fault line – a notorious area for magical power.
    Just as I was starting to fear that I might turn into an ice sculpture, Morgan walked over and sat beside me on the steps. I was glad to see him, and not just because he was holding two cups of coffee.
    I wrapped my hands around the cup, trying to extract some warmth from it. That was probably the best use for it, considering it came from a fairly ropey establishment a couple of blocks away. It was one of the few places that had managed to hold on in the area. While their coffee wasn’t great, it was cheap and better than the stuff I could make inside the temple. Proper coffee machines weren’t high on the list of things to buy for the Daughters of Morrigan.
    ‘What’s up?’ asked Morgan as he sat down beside me.
    ‘Nothing much,’ I answered. ‘It’s been pretty quiet tonight.’
    It was never particularly loud here anymore. What people remained kept a low profile, and most of the traffic noises came from further down the road in other less patrolled districts. Though when Morgan said that things had been quiet, he was talking more about our military friends.
    Soldiers were a fact of life in Ravensborough, a troubled city on the island of Avalonia. During the 1500s, Europe had seen a plague of witch trials which saw many innocent people burned at the stake. Many of those had never practised any sort of magic in their lives. But there were those who had. Fearing persecution, these practicing Pagans fled and managed to reach Avalonia, an island in the far Atlantic, on the same latitude as the Faroe Islands.
    The fledgling community started as a haven for those who were different. But over time things turned sour. European countries, fearful of Avalonia’s occultist connections refused to trade with inhabitants of the ‘Devil’s Island’. People desperate to make money turned away from Paganism, calling themselves 'Rationalists', and used outside help to dominate the Pagans.
    We’d been enemies ever since.
    Over the years Pagans seeking justice had sometimes turned to violence and even murder. Rationalist extremists did the same thing. We were caught in a cycle of hurt and killing that seemed to roll on without end.
    Darkfield was mostly peaceful. Pagan groups congregated here because of its latent magic, not to cause trouble for Rationalists. But a number of violent outbreaks recently in Avalonia’s capital city – Northport – meant that the army were cracking down on areas like this.
    The area used to be a hive of activity, and some of Avalonia’s best loved artists, writers and composers had lived here over the centuries. One of the oldest parts of Ravensborough, Darkfield had windy streets that dated from the late