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Good This night, which was usually a public celebration, wasn’t so he wanted to share Not this ti, following the winding footpath through the trees until he reached the narrow creek Part of it had been diverted to spill over carefully arranged stones into a sain to flow into a stone-supported channel for a few yards until it rejoined the rest of the water

Jared closed his eyes It had been so long, but if hereally listened, he could hear the dru the trees, and the water dancing over the stones

He opened his eyes and called in the crystal goblet His uncles had given it to hi with the s to the Darkness Like the Jewels, he had carried the goblet and chalice with him, hidden from the witches who had owned hi the water, he filled it and drank, pouring out the last s to share it with the dark land

Filling the goblet again, Jared stepped over the narrow creek and followed the path to the second clearing

He’d found it the first day they’d returned to the one out to hunt fresh ’s defensive shields and discovered they extended beyond the cleared land So he’d followed the path to this sly shielded but for different reasons

It was a perfect circle that had been seeded with grass A few feet in froe stones had been carefully placed to support a slab of granite, for a small altar In the center of the circle was a shallow fire pit surrounded by stones

The land had absorbed the giving done here, beco a sacred place Unlike the Sanctuaries that had a formal altar and a Priestess to tend thehout the Realm of Terreille Private places, where the Blood ca from it; where they quietly made the descent into the abyss until they reached their cores and opened their inner barriers; where the power flowed through theht sky and the dark land, giving one kind of strength and taking back another It was in places like this that the Blood caoblet on one side of the altar, Jared called in the s with the measured step of ritual, he walked to the fire pit, created a tongue of witchfire, and lit the pile of kindling and wood he’d gathered earlier to create a s his clothes on the path just beyond the circle Shivering, he returned to the altar and called in the folding knife he’d honed that afternoon He knelt before the altar, carefully opened his wrist, and let the blood, hot from the vein, flow into the small silver chalice Once the chalice was filled, he put a war spell on it to keep the blood heated Then he vanished the knife, pressed his thu

On the edge of Ranon’s Wood was a natural bowl Surrounded by the grassy slopes was the large dance circle, its dirt carefully sifted and raked At the new and full athered there to dance privately with their Sisters But the fulland autumn equinox were the public celebration of the an to shine, thethe women drift casually toward the circle

As they followed the women, they would hear the dru out of the bowl and filling the countryside Then the Priestess’s voice would rise above the dru them to the dance Another witch’s voice would be added to hers, and another’s, and another’s

Slowly thein the spaces that had been left between the women as the Priestess lit the bonfire One by one, the woe silver chalice and cast the circle with Craft and the blood the witches had offered for the dance By the time the circle was co

The Wisdoe of the circle, the Priestess would extend her hand and bring the firstout as the last e the beat The fiddle and flutes would take the place of the women’s voices And the men would dance the steps that had been danced since the tireat Queen Shal

After the Wisdoain with the drue of the circle and bring across the young ht Ceremony for the Boys’ Dance

The Wisdonity; the Boys’ Dance celebrated high spirits and energy

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