Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

T he wind rose for a moment, and the leaves made a whispering sound, as if a throng of ghostly voices were urging Malissa to turn back. She ignored them. At the very edge of the darkstone ring, she paused and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. Then she stepped inside. The grass felt cool and damp beneath her bare feet.

She had a satchel slung across her shoulders. She took it off now, and set it upon the altar. She opened the satchel and began to remove its contents, placing them side-by-side atop the circular stone slab…

Five candles, a tinder box, and a book.

Malissa started with the tinder box, which she had pilfered a few hours earlier from the kitchens of the castle. Inside were several small compartments containing all the items one needed to start a fire. There was a flint, a steel rod, several scraps of char cloth, and some wood shavings. She struck the flint against the steel, and after a few failed attempts, she managed to catch a spark with a piece of char cloth, which she then used to light one of the candles. She lit the other candles from the first, until all five of them were glowing brightly. Then she closed the tinder box and placed it back inside the satchel.

Now that she had some light, Malissa could see the standing stones more clearly. There were ten of them in total—five short and five tall, arranged in an alternating pattern. The short ones were only as high as Malissa's hips, but the tall ones were as tall as two grown men standing one on top of the other, and each was engraved with a runic symbol representing one of the four elements—earth, air, water, and fire. All except the final column. That one had been left blank to represent the void.

Malissa took the five candles, and one-by-one she placed them atop the shorter stones positioned between the taller ones. When the fifth and final candle had been placed, she stood back and took a moment to survey her handiwork.

Everything was in order.

There was just one more thing to be done.

Malissa picked up her book and satchel from the altar and carried them out of the ring. She set the satchel down on the grass, and she set the book on top of the satchel, to keep it away from the dew. Then she started to remove her gown.

It was necessary for the ritual to work.

At least that was what it said in the grimoire. According to the book's weathered pages, the priestesses of old were unashamed of their bodies. Malissa didn't exactly share that shamelessness, but she had already come this far; it would be foolish to ruin everything out of modesty.

Besides, there was no one around to see her.

Not yet, anyway.

Malissa let her gown and undergarments fall around her feet. It was the first time she had ever been naked out of doors, and it felt oddly exciting. The night air was warm, but it did nothing to smooth out the goosebumps stippling her bare skin.

Once she had disrobed fully, Malissa picked up the book and turned to face the darkstone ring. She took one last look at the stone altar and the five candles burning around it. Then she opened the book and began to read. She had already gone through the invocation many times in her head, but this was the first time she had actually recited the words out loud. By the time she was finished, she was trembling, and her body was dripping with sweat.

Malissa fell silent and stared at the center of the ring, waiting. Her heart was thundering within her like a drum.

Nothing happened.

She counted a hundred heartbeats. Then two hundred. Then three. She stood silent and naked beneath the night sky, straining her nerves for any sound, any vision, any sign at all that the ritual had worked.

"Hello?" she said at last. "Is… is anyone there?"

Nothing.

Gradually, all the fear Malissa had been feeling melted out of her, and a burning sense of shame took its place. Shame at her foolishness for ever thinking this would work, and disappointment too. The ritual had been her final hope for survival. Tears rimmed her eyes as she turned away from the darkstone ring and bent to pick up her gown where she had placed it on the grass.

Before her fingers could touch the black velvet, a sound came from behind her, from within the ring. A voice soft as a whisper, and profoundly dark.

"Who," it asked, "has awoken me?"