"Now is the time to tell you more," Megrin said. "So you know what you might be up against."
The morning was bright and clear as Jack, Kerry and Corriwen listened intently. The four travellers had shared the bread and meat and drank clear water from an ice-cold rivulet, sitting around the hearth stones.
"My brother Bodron was once a good man," Megrin said. "And as adept a spellbinder as I ever knew. He was a leader among the council of enchanters, the Geasan-eril. But if he had a flaw, it was that he wanted more."
"He was always seeking new ways, always wanting to be perfect, to be the best. As if being a Geasan is a contest, like wresting and racing. Nobody knows on whom the Sky Queen will bestow her gifts, nor why. The Geasan are what we are, and we do what we do.
"Ambition can become a thin place for the dark to break through, and I am afraid my brother Bodron's ambition developed a crack that grew ever wider under the force of dark tides. Through that fissure a shadow power slipped through to Uaine.
"As I told you, the Copperplates, the one and twenty spells, were hidden after the great binding spell was complete. Together, made Uaine the summerland of peace and tranquillity. But for every good, there is an evil.
"Bodron kept secret his quest for the Copperplates, but he them out all across Uaine.
"I don't get it," Kerry interrupted. "If these spells made everything good, why would they have to be hidden. Wouldn't they make things better now?"
"So you might think," Megrin agreed. "But if I were to make a mixture of henbane and milkwort and a few other things, then it might help a woman who wants a child. Yet if I mix the ingredients in a different way, then I could make a poison that would kill a man dead. It is all in the weave. That's the way with great enchantments. Each has to fit with the other in the right way. Bring them together in other ways, and bad things can happen. And we of the Geasan fear the worst."
"What would be the worst?" Corriwen asked.
"The worst would be if the Copperplate spells were woven in such a way that they would undo all the good they have done and open a way for dark forces to break through and cast an evil shadow over Uaine."
"I saw shadows last night," Jack said. "They were alive."
"They are just manifestations of the dark forces," Megrin said. "What we fear is that what created them might break through. Something very old and very evil."
Her face was suddenly filled with concern and sadness.
"I fear my brother has opened the Dark Way."
"The Dark Way to where?"
"To the lands of the lost. The underworld. The realm of the damned."
***
From the slope of the final hill, the great circle below them was impressive, even at a distance. Despite the sunshine, far in the west, the purple smudge on the horizon still swelled and contracted like a vast heart.
It was the circle, however, that grabbed their attention. It sat on a flat, green plain, like an arena that dominated the landscape. Jack shaded his eyes and studied it. Small figures moved close to great pillars, which gave him an idea of its size.
It had not been there when they breasted the rise. Jack knew that for certain. The plain had stretched away unbroken towards a far ridge. At first, the dark tide in the distance had held his attention, but as they began to descend something shimmered in Jack's peripheral vision.
When he looked directly at it, he saw nothing at all. He half turned and again, the shimmering was there, in peripheral vision, like a sliver of glass catching the light.
Corriwen noticed it too. She kept turning her head, pausing, then looking back.
"Something's there," she whispered. "But it eludes me."
But further they descended, the more solid the image became, condensing, it seemed from the very air until finally they were close enough for a shape to materialise, like a mirage, in the middle of the plain where no shape had been before.
Tall brown pillars were set in a wide circle, roofed in what looked, from their vantage point, like thick turf. By the time they were half-way down the hill, the apparition seemed solid, rooted in the earth, as if it had stood there a long time.
As they descended, the more solid the image became, as if condensing out of the air.
"What is that?" Kerry asked.
"Our destination…for today," Megrin said. She had declined to elaborate any further on what she had said in the morning about her brother and the Dark Way. They had covered a lot of ground, not stopping to rest at the other Bor-dion shelters they had passed on their travels, and as they moved ever westwards, the heartstone's beat gathered strength. That told Jack they were getting closer to danger, but he didn't need the heartstone to tell him that. They all knew it.
They just didn't know exactly what the danger would be.
"I thought it might be," Kerry said. "But what is it?"
"It's where the Geasan-Eril sits."
Corriwen nodded. "The Council of Enchanters."
"So that's what the Book meant," Jack said. "The Road now leads to ring of power."
"You mean that place is full of wizards and warlocks and the like?" Kerry seemed to like that idea.
Megrin laughed. "Wait and find out, Kerry Malone. This is the first time the Geasan-Eril have met for a long time. What they - and we - decide will determine the future of Uaine. And yours."
"I could have guessed that," Jack said under his breath. Corriwen took his hand and held it tight as they walked towards the circle, not knowing what to expect or what they were supposed to do.
***
Jack could feel pure power radiate from the place. The heartstone now shivered against him-. The hilt of the great sword tingled in his grip. The hairs on his arms stood on end and goose-bumps tickled up and down his spine.
"Do you feel it?" Corriwen asked.
"It's like electric pylons," Kerry said. Corriwen looked at him for an explanation, but she had come to except there were things in their world she could never understand. "When you walk under them on a wet day you can hear them sizzle. It's making my skin crawl. And one of my fillings is giving me toothache."
"It is magic," she said. "Real magic."
"Hey Jack, remember that big Vandergraf generator in school? The one that made your hair stand up….?"
Jack wasn't listening. His eyes followed Megrin. She seemed to glide over the grass of the plain and her ragged shawl and coat were changing again, lightening in the sunshine. A half-smile played on her lips and her attention was focussed so completely on what was ahead of them that she seemed unaware of anything else.
"The power." Corriwen pointed to the vast pillared circle. "It's coming from there. And from Megrin too."
It was only when they were within a few hundred yards that they saw this was no edifice, enchanted or otherwise, standing on the plain. It was indeed a ring, a ring of ancient trees, straight and tall, with bark as red as Scots pine and muscular roots dug deep into the earth. Branches high overhead tangled and twisted together so thickly that they formed an almost solid roof, save for a few places where shafts of sunlight speared through.
Between the great trunks, at first glance, it looked as if the roof were suspended on a scaffold of pure light.
They stopped to marvel.
"It's like Stonehenge," Jack said. "Except it's been planted."
They paused in front of two giant trees. Their bark was gnarled with thick burrs which formed strange shapes like carvings, and protrusions that in some places looked like faces eroded by years.
"It's like the ring in Cromwath Blackwood," Kerry said, impressed. "But bigger. Much bigger."
Corriwen reached to lay a hand on a buttressed root. Jack saw the bark flex and ripple and Corrie jerked her hand back as if she'd been burned.
She turned wide eyes on them. "It's alive," she said. "Like Sappeling Wood."
For a second, Jack expected to see one of the face-shapes turn towards him and for great brown eyes to creak open and regard him, the way the Leprechauns had in the deep forest of Temair. The trunk swelled almost imperceptibly, then subsided, as if the tree had taken a long, slow breath.
The heartstone sang a pure, high note and he stopped dead, unable to take another step.
It was as if he'd walked into a soft, yet impenetrable barrier. Electricity seemed to crackle all around him.
A voice whispered in his mind.
"Who enters, traveller?" It sounded as if it sang, as soft as a breeze. "And what do you seek?"
He felt as if he was gently pushed backwards. Kerry was still walking forward and crashed into him. He reeled back, holding his nose. Corriwen caught him before he fell.
Jack's hand was on the heartstone. It was warm now, almost hot to the touch, as if the power in the air was somehow charging it up.
"Jack…" he said without speaking, unable to prevent himself. "Jack Flint."
The warm voice embraced him again. "You are known here….. Journeyman."
The great tree nearest him shuddered, and a stream of scented pine needles showered down in a green blizzard. Megrin turned, now dressed in her white cloak, her staff straight once more and intricately carved. She smiled at him, then beckoned him forward.
There was a gentle sound, like wet fabric tearing, and a strange rubbery sensation as whatever invisible barrier had held him now gave way.
He walked in to the vast living arena with Corriwen and Kerry close behind.
Megrin was ahead of them, now walking slowly, beyond the opening space. Jack took two strides to follow her. She held her hand out to Jack and clasped his fingers.
"You feel the power," she said. "It called to me. This is home to me and mine. It welcomes you with kindness."
"It's like Cromwath Blackwood," Jack whispered. "Much bigger when you're inside."
Yet despite the tingling on his skin, Jack felt none of the kind of threat they had sensed inside the walled forest back home, when they had first run from the creeping dark and found themselves inside the ring of stones.
The heartstone was singing its soft note, but it seemed to resonate in harmony with this place, as if it too, had found a home.
"I heard it," Jack said. "It spoke inside my head."
"I never heard anything," Kerry said, both hands clapped his face. "I nearly busted my nose on the back of your head. I'm still seeing stars!"
Megrin winked at him, touched his nose with one finger. Kerry jerked back as if he'd been stung, then a big smile spread across his face.
"All better now?"
Kerry dabbed gingerly, then rubbed at where his nose had taken a knock`. "Much better."
There was not a breath of wind inside this magical amphitheatre, yet the heady fragrance of summer blossom hung in the air. And it was like a vast pillared hall. From outside, it was just a ring of trees. Inside, the forest seemed to stretch forever.
They followed Megrin past gleaming pillars of light that sparkled with pollen, and straight trunks that reached for a canopy that was now hidden from view. A clear crystal stream burbled past as they crossed a fairy bridge until at last they came to a second ring of trees and Megrin stopped.
Beyond her, Jack saw the circle of shivering aspens, silver leaves dancing in unison.
And inside the circle, gauzy shapes drifted like phantoms, as if they floated in mist.
"I must leave you here now," Megrin said. "I can't take you further unless the Eril decides."
She pointed to the stream and to the red and purple berries that swelled on a low shrub overhanging the water.
"Eat and drink," she said. "Get your strength back. You might need it."
With that she turned and walked towards the aspen circle, passed between two silver trunks and faded from sight.
Kerry knelt down beside the little brook, lowered his head to drink.
The Jack and Corriwen watched in amazement as a little pillar of water rose up from the surface like a fountain. Kerry paused, then bent to drink from it and when he was done, the fountain subsided as if it had never been.
"Oh, man," he said. "You have to taste this stuff," He grinned delightedly as he wiped his lips.
Corrie plucked a juicy berry from the bush. Jack heard it pop softly between her teeth and she closed her eyes and sighed with pure delight.