Free Ravensborough by Christine Murray Page A

If he hadn’t wanted me and Aradia to be alone together, I could only guess what his thoughts on me participating in a Pagan ritual would be.
    I went back to the centre of the circle to get another element, but Aradia grabbed me by the sleeve. She pointed away into the distance. You could see where the mountain ranged fell down to meet the sea. The ocean was a beautiful dark blue and stretched out to the horizon. It felt like we were a million miles away from the city.
    ‘Do you see the light house on that rocky island out at sea?’ she asked
    I nodded.
    ‘Well do you see the tower near that, on that bit of land?’
    I squinted into the distance, trying to find it. Eventually I spotted it. I nodded again.
    ‘That’s the Western Watchtower. It marks the most westerly point of Avalonia. It provides the energy needed for magical rituals and is a sort of gateway for the spirits of air to enter this world. And to leave it.’
    Okay, I thought. It’s started. The crazy talk. But I just nodded as if I agreed with her and that what she was saying made total sense. I hoped that this wasn’t going to take long. I’d feel a lot more secure once we got back to civilisation. I was beginning to feel very exposed and vulnerable.
    ‘The reason that I’m casting a circle is so that you can see what happens to the watchtower during a ritual,’ Aradia continued. ‘Then maybe you’ll see our side of the equation. Why you just can’t ignore what’s in front of you, no matter how much you might want to.’
    ‘You better be convinced after this,’ Gethan shouted as he placed the final element down. ‘Otherwise I’ll have given up my Saturday morning lie-in for nothing.’
    He strode back into the centre of the circle and picked up the rucksack from the grass. Reaching inside it he pulled out a long knife. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. Suddenly the harmlessness had seemed to wear off proceedings. Cat and Rupert’s anti-Pagan stance might be a more sensible idea than I’d originally thought.
    Gethan handed the knife to Aradia. He must have seen the wariness in my eyes because he placed a hand on my shoulder. ‘It’s not for anything sinister, Scarlett. It’s just to cut through to the astral plane. It’s a ceremonial tool. The edges of it are actually quite dull.’
    ‘Oh. Ok.’ I tried to inject some enthusiasm into my voice but the words came out flat.
    ‘If this makes you nervous we can stop now,’ Gethan said squeezing my arm gently. ‘But really, it’s harmless. Aradia isn’t even going to cast a spell. She’s literally going to cast the circle, and then dispel the circle. No more, no less.’
    I nearly laughed out loud. He thought that I was actually scared of their mumbo jumbo. In reality, the only thing that had me worried was that knife. I saw from looking at it, though, that Gethan was right, it might cut through butter and the astral plane but it would cut through very little else. The thought that I’d be frightened by their hippy religion was ridiculous. I bit my lip though, to keep a laugh from escaping. I didn’t want to offend them.
    Aradia took her place in the centre of the circle. ‘I’m going to cast the circle myself’, she shouted over to me. ‘Usually more than one person casts it because it takes so much energy. Gethan and I thought it would be better to have you with one of us so you wouldn't be alone if you got freaked. I decided to do it because you know me better, so you might trust me more.’
    ‘Mmm hmmm’, said Gethan smirking. ‘That’s the reason. It’s got nothing to do with the fact that she needs the practice.’
    Aradia made a face at Gethan. ‘You can be really irritating, you know that? Ok Scarlett, when I invoke the guardians of the watchtower of the west, I need you to look towards it. Ok? And please do it exactly when I say it because I really doubt that I’ll have the energy to do it again.’
    Gethan