Circus of The Darned (4 page)

"It's just a simple itching spell," I said over my shoulder as I started toward the clearing beyond the Faire area where the circle was going to be held."Nothing harmful, only really irritating until she stops it. You want to come to the circle?"

He shook his head. "Most witches don't care to have one born of the dark powers diluting their purity."

I debated telling him that Mom didn't think of him as evil just because he was a vampire, but

seventeen different spots on me itched like mad, which meant my mother was upping the wattage

in her spell. "Come on, no one will mind." I grabbed Ben's hand and hauled him after me as I jogged toward the flat area behind the main tent where my mother was holding her circle.

"Fran—" Ben dug in his heels and stopped.

"What? Oh, the sun! Sorry. Is it light enough to bother you?"

"Not so long as I remain covered," he answered, tugging his hat so it shaded his face.

"Good." I pulled on his hand. "Come on. Please? I missed you. I want to hear about what you've been doing, and tell you about all the interesting things I've been up to since we leftHungary ."

He gave in, giving my hand a little squeeze before letting it go to wrap his arm around my waist.

I went a little squidgy at that, but didn't have time to analyze just what that feeling meant—and what I should do about it—before we burst out into the circle.

"There you are," Mom started to say, stopping when she saw Ben with me. She held a sword in her hand, the sword she used to draw circles. The other ladies in the circle—there were five of them, including two members of GothFaire—gasped as a group, like they were shocked that Ben

was there.

"I will leave," he said quietly.

I tightened my hold on his hand. "If you're not welcome, then I'm not staying."

"Fran…" Mom frowned for a moment, looking where I held Ben's hand hidden against my skirt so he wouldn't get sunburned, then to his face, thrown into shadow by the brim of his hat.

I don't want to make trouble, Fran. It's better if I leave
.

You just got here! If you leave, I leave.

Mom sighed. "Very well, you may stay, Benedikt But please do not interfere with the

proceedings."

"We won't say a word," I promised, moving aside to stand with the others. Mom had evidently just completed drawing the first circle, the one cast in the sight of the gods. She did that by drawing a circle on the ground with the sword.

Have you ever been to a Wiccan circle
? I asked Ben as he scooted over behind me. I turned so I'd block him from the weak sunlight peeking over the horizon.

No. Dark Ones are generally considered tainted. What is your mother doing?

Mom held a sword at waist level and walked the boundaries of the first circle she'd drawn.

A circle is drawn in three passes
—
the first is in honor of the gods. She did that before we got
here. This one is to honor nature. The third signifies the spiritual level of the circle
.

Ah
. Mom walked the third circle with the sword held over her head.
Interesting.I had imagined
there would be some sort of invocation or words spoken
.

Oh, there will be, don't worry. She'll do the invocation to the god and goddess after she

welcomes everyone into the circle. See? She's getting the anointing oil now. Sometimes she uses
flowers to welcome people to the circle, or honey, or even incense, but it looks like tonight is
going to be oily-forehead night.

Oily forehead?

Desdemona, GothFaire's time-travel counselor, stepped forward into the circle.Mom annoined

her on the forehead with a drop of oil. Desdemona bowed her head as if she was honoring my

mother, but I saw her sneaking a peek at Ben. I moved a smidgen closer to him, doing my best to convince myself that I wasn't jealous.

I
like it best when she uses wine to welcome everyone to the circle
, I said, smiling into Ben's mind. He smiled back as I followed Mikaela into the circle. A rich, pungent, spicy scent curled up as my mother touched my forehead and murmured a few words of what I knew was a

blessing. I sniffed happily. She was using frankincense and myrrh oil, my favorite annointing oil.

I took that as a sign that good things were going to happen, a thought that soured somewhat

when I noticed Desdemona was still watching Ben.

Navy, a nice woman who was really, really preggers (she was the wife of Armand the

demonologist), entered the circle next. She went to sit next to Mikeala and one of the local

Wiccans. Mom hesitated a moment when Ben, the last person remaining, stepped into the circle.

Everyone else held their breath for a moment, but once my mother decides to do something, she

does it. She touched Ben on the forehead with the oil, saying the standard blessing.

Something within the circle changed at that moment, though, something I'd never felt before in a circle. It was like something had awakened from a long sleep. The pendant I wore beneath my

shirt hummed to life, glowing with a warm heat.

Fran?What's wrong
? Ben asked. I could feel his concern wrap around me like a soft velvet blanket.

Nothing
, I said, trying to pinpoint what it was that felt different.

Something is bothering you. What is it?

I went to sit at the spot my mother indicated. Ben paused a minute when she pointed out to him

a spot across the circle from me, but he went when I gave him a mental push.
Nothing.It's just this
midnight sun thing, I think. It always throws me off. It's just weird being able to see everything in
the middle of the night
.

You will tell me if you are unhappy about something
, he said in his bossy voice.

I rolled my eyes at him. I
might have said I want to do the girlfriend thing with you, but that does
not give you the right to push me around
.

Of course it does. You're my Beloved. It is my job to protect you from all evils.

OK, I admit—I went a bit girly at that. Not at his bossiness—that annoyed the crap out of me,

and was something we had argued about a lot before we he disappeared and we came to

Sweden—but at the fact that Ben really did want to keep me safe from things. I would have

argued that fact now, but my mother pulled out handful of dried lavender branches, and started

sweeping the circle.

This is a cleansing ritual
, I told Ben as she moved along the circle, pausing to touch each person's feet with the lavender.
It's supposed to dean the circle of bad influences
.

Why is she touching our feet?

That's to clean you, too. It's all symbolic. Mom says a lot of witches use brooms for this, but she
thinks that's way too stereotyped. She likes lavender instead.

"We will now begin the invocation to the god and goddess," my mother announced, having completed the cleansing. "Normally I would now call the quarters, but because our Asatru

brothers and sisters are holding a
blot a
short distance away, we do not wish to disturb their forces by drawing their attention away. Thus, we will content ourselves with inviting the goddess and the god to join our circle."

Here comes the invocation part
, I told Ben.
Inviting the goddess into the circle is called

"drawing down the moon." Doing the same for the male god is called "drawing down the sun
."

Hmm.
Two gods only?

Yup.Male and female halves, basically.

My mother stood in the center of the circle, her eyes closed, her arms spread out as she spoke

the invocation to the goddess.

"Air, Water, Earth, Fire,

Elements of the stars conspire.

Goddess, mother of all, come to us!

Into the circle, right next to the bus."

I blinked in surprised. That wasn't the normal invocation. Evidently Mom realized something

was wrong too because she opened her eyes and squinted at a nearby school bus that had been

converted into a trailer for Desdemona. She shook her head, closed her eyes again, and centered herself.

"Keep us safe from curse or threat,

Just like a deodorant that guards from sweat."

Someone snickered. Mom had her eyes open again, frowning at nothing.

Er… that seems a rather incongruous invocation
, Ben noted.

It's not right. Those aren't the correct words. For some reason, she's not saying it right
, I answered.
Crapbeans.I wonder what's going
on?

I couldn't tell you.

"My apologies, sisters.Er, and brother," Mom said, shooting Ben a quick look. "I seem to be a bit… off tonight. I beg your indulgence."

"Of course, you have it," Desdemona said. She sat near me, which was good in one respect (I didn't like the way she kept shooting little glances at Ben), but for some reason, tonight her

nearness made me feel edgy. I scooted a bit away from her, hoping no one would notice.

Wiccans were very big on maintaining contact in a circle. To back away from someone was an

insult.

Mom took a deep breath and gave it another shot.

"From sea and mountain, desert and trees,

By staff and sword and a mangy dog's fleas.

Heed our plea!"

Silence fell on the circle.

"Oh, dear," Navy said, leaning over to talk to one of the local Wiccans. "That's not right, is it?"

"Earth, Fire, Water, Air," Mom said grimly, her hands fisted as she started the invocation to the god.

"Elements of the stars conspire,

God, father of all, come to us!

Don't worry about being male, we'll make no fuss.

Guard us within from all threats beyond

I wonder if there are leeches in yonderpond?

By wand and cup and ball and bat

I just know these pants make my butt look fat.

Heed our plea!"

Desdemona burst out into laughter at the invocation. I wanted to giggle as well, but one look at the horror on my mother's face killed all thoughts of that. Clearly something was up to throw my mother so far off the track. I couldn't ask her what was wrong, though, because right at that

moment, things got
really
weird.

"Goddess above—is that what I think it is?" Mikaela asked, pointing at me.

"Huh?" I asked, looking down at myself to see if I'd spilled something on me. Ben stood up, staring past me. I turned around to look and saw a thin, pretty woman with lots of long blond hair in the shadow of the tent behind me.

"It's a
huldra
," one of the local Wiccans said, her voice all hushed with awe.Or something.

"Is that a
tail
?" I asked as the stranger bent down to pick up something from the ground. I could have sworn there was a cow's tail popping out from under her long skirt.

"Yes, huldra have tails," Mikaela said, also getting to her feet. "They are spirits of the wood.A type of nymph, actually. They are supposedly harbingers of disaster, appearing briefly to warn of impending danger,then disappearing just as quickly—"

"Hey!" I yelled, jumping up as the woman snatched up the purse I'd set down in order to join the

circle. "That's mine!"

"Franny, no!Do not break the circle—"

I knew it was bad to leave a circle before it had been formally unmade, but I couldn't just let the woman—spirit, nymph, whatever she was!—run off with my purse. It had all my money in it, for

one thing, and for another, I just don't like people stealing from me. So I bolted after her as she raced past the main tent, heading straight for a small clump of scraggy trees that marked the

boundary of the archaeological dig.

You should never run after a being you do not know
, Ben chastised, his dark shape leaping past me after the blond huldra.

You're
so
cute
, I thought at him, puffing just a little as I jumped over a fallen tree trunk. Ben was faster than me (he had longer legs plus that whole immortal thing going for him), but I wasn't

going to just stand around and let him be Mr. Manly and get my purse back. Anyone who had to

the nerve to steal from me had to deal with
me
, not my boyfriend.

The archaeological dig was at the far edge of the island.

It didn't look like much—a bunch of deep trenches and areas where square blocks of stone had

been dug out and revealed, but evidently it was hot stuff archeologically speaking. Right in the center of the dig, in a ragged rectangular spot framed with bits of stone that Imogen had told me was the long house (the main living place of the Vikings who built this area), Tibolt and his gang were having their
blot
, also in a circle. Because the trees surrounding the area made it dark, they'd lit a few torches and stuck them in the ground, the light cast by them making odd little flickering shadows on everyone as they did whatever it is they did during a
blot
.

I stopped for a minute to survey the situation. Imogen was there, as I knew she would be,

looking like a goddess in a shimmering gold-and-white dress as she stood next to Tibolt. He was dressed in some sort of long black robe, I guess his mage wear. I didn't pay too much attention to what was going on in the
blot
circle because beyond them, the huldra dashed out from behind a tree, and went racing across the dig site toward an unpassable rocky area.

Fran,let me catch her
, Ben said as his shadow flickered in and out amongst the trees. He was following the path the huldra made, but I could tell he wasn't going to catch her before she got to the rock cliff. I sprinted to my right, along the outer edge of the
blot
, hoping to intercept her.

"Fran!"Tibolt yelled, startling me for a second. "No, you must not be here!"

"Don't worry, I know better than to intrude on a circle," I answered him, flinging myself forward to scramble onto a loose pile of earth that had been excavated from one of the nearby pits. The huldra was heading straight for me, too busy watching Ben over her shoulder to notice me about