Ley lines 5/11

Fortunately the weather was fine on the following night. During the day, Jennifer Jane had asked Abigail if she could use her ceremonial robes in her own world.

Abigail had agreed, since she was only going to wear them at night-time. So once she’d got home, she polished her Grand Order of Wizardry badge (bronze class) and all the buttons on her cloak.

Then she brushed her apprentice stripes and navigation star, before pinning the very large and rather showy ‘magic’ badge on the opposite side of her cloak to her G.O.W. insignia. She put on her pointed hat and did a ‘twirl’ in front of her parents.

“Very nice dear,” said her mother, while her dad thought she’d done a good job with the polishing.

“Here you’d better take this torch with you. I know it’s supposed to be moonlight tonight, but it’s better to be prepared in case the weather does change. You wouldn’t want to be wandering round in the pitch dark in that area, goodness only knows what you might fall into if you’re not careful.”

Eve came round to collect her once it was dark and drove her round to the back of the woods where the bypass had once been attempted. Jennifer Jane thought that she could have got there much quicker by walking through the woods, but then of course she wasn’t really supposed to know the way.

Eve parked her car and they both walked the last hundred yards across to the ‘circle’. Several people were there already and Jennifer Jane was introduced as an honorary member of M.A.G.I.C.

One or two people of the people she was introduced to, noticed her G.O.W. badges and asked questions, but she replied as Abigail had suggested and told them she was also a member of another witch group that admitted children.

She hadn’t been in this area since the time she’d helped the witches stop the proposed bypass, so she looked round with some interest to see if there was anything new. The place where the ‘stone circle’ was supposed to have been, had been cleared back to the chalk by a group of local archaeologists. Just to one side three huge stones were lying flat on the ground amidst a lot of poles and large coils of rope.

“I thought none of the stones had been found?” she asked.

“Oh these aren’t the originals,” said one of the witches waiting to begin the ceremony, “the people working on the dig, are going to try and erect two uprights and a lintel using the same methods they think the ring makers employed. It should be very interesting to watch. You’ll be able to read all about it in the local paper soon.”

“I’m afraid you’ll just have to watch the ceremony dear,” said Eve, “we can only admit full members to the ritual itself. If you watch carefully you should find it quite interesting and you should learn a lot about our little group.”