When it was falling sunset on Hoy, Steve fetched the folding table from the Landrover. "Where d'you want it?" he asked Alicia.
"Find somewhere level in the middle of the hollow," she answered.
Steve found an almost flat area of rock protruding, only an inch or two through the coarse grass, and put the table there. Alicia put a white cloth over it and Gill put the makeshift incense burner and the jars on it, along with some matches, the dagger they had bought in Spain, the Tarot cards and the ball of wool. Next to the table she placed the professor's briefcase containing the six rings and the six wyvern's foot sacrificial knives.
The beginning of the ritual was not unlike the one Gill carried out in the ruins of Bella Claudia, other than that there were more of them. Gill lit the charcoal and Alicia sprinkled onto the glowing coals a little of the incense from the first jar as they all stood round the table. Next Manjy and Gill unwound wool from the ball to make a huge circle, large enough for them all to lie down in, and tied the ends. Then Gill performed the banishing ritual. It was not yet anything like full dark as she drew the pentagrams in the air and traced the outline of the circle over the wool, but the air still seemed to glow a little.
Alicia, Gill and Manjy raised their arms and they sensed rather than saw the presence of the entities guarding the circle at the cardinal points. A windswept figure in purple robes standing in the east; another in red robes, holding a fiery sword at the south and standing before a sun-drenched desert; a third in blue standing on a wave-washed rock in the west, they almost 'felt' the spray; the last in russet standing in the north before a field of corn. Elemental guardians as well as cardinal.
"It is time to tread the paths of the Tree," whispered Gill and once again the woman beckoned them through the laurel wreath gate. Even Frank was drawn through the mighty wreath and felt the air turn violet. They saw the elephant, heard it trumpet. Alicia sprinkled incense from the second jar and the same sharp but not unpleasant scent filled the air around them.
'The kind of smell that takes you by the scruff of the soul and shakes you gently into a different kind of wakefulness,' thought Frank.
Now it was Alicia who led them along a path through gently rolling countryside, past the figure with the pitcher of water and the goblet. They all stopped as Alicia took the proffered goblet, drank and passed it onto Gill. She drank and passed it on to Manjy and so on down the line. The personification of the Tarot trump 'Temperance' took back the goblet and inclined her head solemnly as they passed on, into the golden glow ahead.
Alicia sprinkled incense on the coals and smoke wreathed up. At the same time a mist wreathed around the area of their minds lit by the yellow glow. A room with many doors solidified out of the mist and a king sat on a throne. He pointed to the door straight ahead and this time spoke.
"You need the way of Kether, the creator of all things manifest. Go by the path of the high priestess and reach the source of all that is. Thus you can send what you carry, before all manifestation to be unmanifest," he said.
"He's talking in riddles," thought Frank, but he heard the words and saw the golden king. He did not think that there was nothing there.
"What he means," thought Gill, exchanging meanings and images with Frank, "is send the rings back before creation. Back to the beginning of time"