'Yes,' Nydia said. 'And sometimes other peoples' thoughts as well.'
Sam glanced at her. 'You know something I don't? he projected.
Nydia refused to reply.
'There's something going on down there,' Linda said. 'Look.'
The participants in the calling of the forces had gathered in circles, several rings of them, each growing progressively smaller inward, the Beasts forming the larger outer circle. The circles began moving, the first clockwise, the next counterclockwise, the third circle clockwise, the inner circle counterclockwise. It was a grotesque form of dancing, the women dancing back to back, the men front to front. They hummed lowly, the faint humming only occasionally reaching the ridge, Standing by the dark altar was Falcon, his face whitened with makeup, in stark contrast to his black robe.
Sam stood with Nydia by his side, both of them watching through binoculars. 'Hideous,' was her only comment.
The humming changed into a chanting, the dancing becoming more profane. The chanting changed into a low roar as three young girls were dragged screaming through the dancing, leaping, chanting circles of worshipers. One was stripped naked, her clothing ripped from her. She was secured to the altar, her legs spread wide, bent at the knees. She could not have been more than eleven or twelve.
'I don't want to watch this,' Nydia said. She lowered her binoculars and turned her face from the scene of depravity and sin.
'I want to see it,' Linda said.
'I suspected you might,' Nydia said, just loud enough for Sam to hear.
Sam's face remained impassive. He said nothing. He knew something was going on between the two young women, but did not know what. Linda took the binoculars, lifting them to her eyes. Nydia turned her back to the obscenity below her and sat down on a log, zipping up her jacket to her throat for protection against the strengthening wind.
'Call the hyenas!' a voice screamed, and the chanting grew thunderous.
'Dogges, Dogges,' the circles screamed. 'Hear our cries, 0, Dogges.'
'Call the centaur!' the voice commanded.
A bleating young lamb was dragged into the circle. Its throat was cut and the blood sprinkled around the altar, encircling the naked, weeping girl.
'Centaurs, centaurs, those who prance for the Prince of Darkness. Ixion and Nephele, Kentaurus and Magnesian. Come to us now.'
'Call the satyrs!'
'Diomedes! Dionysus! Flesh eater and Lord of all that is pleasurable. Come join us.'
The flesh of the lamb was ripped from its body and passed about the circles, the dancers gnawing at the bloody strips of meat.
'Call the griffin!'
The chant went up.
'Call the owl and the raven!'
And Sam heard the beating of wings overhead. Something beat close to his head. Instinctively, he ducked, the talons just missing his head.
'Call the Great Rukh!'
The dancers began flapping their arms and shrieking hideously.
'Bring me the basilisk!'
'Where is Sirius?' the circles called.
'Sirius is in place,' Falcon answered, lifting his arms skyward.
'Bring to us the double amphisbaena.'
The circles hissed ominously.
Falcon threw a great caldron of water into the air, calling: 'The hydra—come, hydra, those of you who know the Master.'
'Come, hydra,' the dancers chanted.
Another dark caldron of water was hurled into the cold air, Falcon shouting, 'The Demon Merman.'
The circle of leaping, hunching, chanting dancers began a movement that vaguely resembled a huge fish swimming.
'Bring the bats and the rats!'
The forest surrounding them became eerily silent.
Then a faint scurrying sound was heard, and something furry and evil brushed Sam's boots. He kicked it away just as Nydia muffled a scream. Sam whirled: a bat was entangled in her hair. She finally slapped it free and the furry filth went flapping and screeching off into the night, toward the torches and the stones.
'Black!' Falcon shouted. 'Now!' he pointed to the terrified girl bound naked to the altar. Black jumped upon the altar.
Like Falcon, he was dressed in a dark robe. He lifted his robe, exposing his erect maleness. Lunging at the girl,
