Free Solstice at Stonewylde by Kit Berry Page B

Raise your hand!’ cried his moongazy saviour.
    There was a cry from someone in the crowd at the entrance.
    ‘He moved! I saw him move!’
    ‘YUL!’ screamed Maizie. ‘Are you alive, my boy?’
    ‘Here, my sweet grandson, take my hands and let me help you.’
    He gazed into her silvery moonstone eyes and felt such love and kindness flowing from her. His cold hands still lay crossed on his breast, and she took them in hers and tugged with all her strength. He felt the green energy snaking across the circle, seeking him out, finding its path to him and flowing beneath the labyrinth. With a sudden explosion of power, the Earth Magic poured from the ground up into his body. Yul sat up in one fluid motion, bolt upright on the sled, like someone rising from the dead.
    The crowd of Villagers roared in delight, everyone cheering and laughing.
    ‘He chooses life, Magus!’ screamed Maizie, beside herself with joy. ‘He’s moved and now he can live. You’re not burning our son! I’m coming to fetch him!’
    Nobody knew the protocol when a Death Dancer chose life as it had never happened before in memory. Only the very sick or very old took part, and the cold night had always done its work by this point. But Maizie began to trot along the path of the labyrinth, hurrying around the twists and turns until she entered the centre. Magus glowered at her in silent fury, his face white. Jackdaw cracked his knuckles ominously and Martin, Violet and Vetchling muttered under their breath. They all stepped back from Maizie as she threw herself down beside Yul. She kissed his cold face, taking his icy hands in hers and rubbing them. She carefully laid him back down on the sled, for although he’d somehow sat up he couldn’t move at all now. She pulled her warm shawl off her shoulders and tenderly covered her son with it, stroking his cheek as her tears fell on his chilled skin. His deep grey eyes gazed up at her, blazing out his love.
    She glared up at Magus.
    ‘You knew he were alive!’ she choked. ‘Yet you were prepared to burn him, your own son. I won’t forget this, Magus. Nobody will forget this. The folk have seen what you tried to do here tonight and now they all know of your wickedness.’
    ‘Maizie, you must—’
    But she stood abruptly, ignoring him. She picked up the sled’s rope and began to pull, dragging it slowly away from the centre and around the curved path. Several men in the crowd came forward to help and soon they were out of the Stone Labyrinth. The path back to life and rebirth had been trodden, and Yul emerged from his near death a different person – and one who now knew his true blood.
    Tom had brought the cart and Yul was lifted up and laid carefully in the back, his head cradled in his mother’s lap, covered warmly with people’s shawls and cloaks. The crowd surroundedthe cart as it moved away, the procession lit triumphantly by their blazing torches. The few grieving relatives who remained watched in silence as Magus and his assistants continued with the Samhain rite of burning the bodies.
    Magus’ face was as dark as the crows and rooks that perched on the stones. The pyre whooshed into crackling life and the birds rose as one. As the ashes floated high above the Stone Circle, the air was filled with the beating wings of hundreds of birds, speeding the four souls to the Realm of the Otherworld.

4
    M agus stood looking out over the grey gardens. Dew and cobwebs laced the shrubs around the French windows in a delicate white shroud and the trees reached up to the overcast skies with bony black fingers. There was a desolate feel to the early morning that belied the excitement of the previous day’s festival. Sylvie paused silently in the doorway of his office, loath to disturb the reverie of the man before her. He seemed dejected. There was something bleak in the set of his shoulders and his absolute stillness. He wore a dark business suit which gave him an Outside World air.
    Sylvie had been