something-'
She made to rise, but Nina stopped her with a hand on her thigh. 'I might be able to help you.'
'How?'
She thought for a moment, then said, 'We can fly up, see what has happened to your friends, get the lie of the land. Then, once you have the knowledge, you'll be able to decide on your course of action.'
'Fly?' Ruth said incredulously. 'What? On broomsticks?'
'No, no!' Nina said sharply. 'Stop falling for the old propaganda, please! I'm showing you how it really is.' She paused, and added with a smile, 'But actually yes, on broomsticks, only not the way you think!'
Ruth sat back down. She covered her eyes for a moment, suddenly aware she might break down in tears if she allowed herself to think about her situation too closely. 'So you're probably the only person in the area who can help me and I ended up here by chance. I don't like coincidences.'
'There are no coincidences. Once you understand there's an invisible world, you can see that.' Nina took her hand and pulled her to her feet again. 'If you really want this, you will have to do exactly what I say.'
'I'll do anything to save my friends.'
Nina nodded understandingly. 'Come, then. Take off your clothes.'
When Ruth hesitated, Nina made hurrying gestures, then turned to the table and went along the rows of jars until she found the one she wanted. Ruth undressed a little unsurely, but Nina just pulled her dress over her head. She was naked beneath it. Her breasts had long lost their firmness and she had shaved off her pubic hair, but she walked around completely unselfconsciously. She opened a cupboard in one corner and pulled out a broom like the one Ruth had seen outside the front door.
As Ruth stepped out of her knickers, she was shocked to see what appeared to be a tiny little man slowly lowering himself upside down from the chimney to peer at her curiously. Ruth pointed and yelled out, 'What's that?' at which point a look of dismay crossed its face and it disappeared from where it had come.
Nina seemed as unconcerned as if it were the cat who had entered. 'One of the brownies,' she said distractedly. 'They seem to have settled in here. They help me out quite a lot with the cleaning at night.'
While Ruth stared at the chimney unsurely, Nina gently pushed her back into the chair, then sat down before her on the rush mat, the broom and jar beside her.
'As with all these things, you must place your trust in me and always do as I say,' Nina stressed.
Ruth nodded.
Nina opened the jar and dipped in two fingers. When she removed them they were covered in a greenish cream, which she proceeded to smear over the end of the broom handle. 'A little hemlock, some monkshood-sacred to Hecate-a little thornapple and a touch of belladonna.' Then she lay back, opened her legs wide and placed the handle against her vagina. 'It would be easier if you could help me,' she said, 'if you can overcome your embarrassment.'
'I'm not putting that inside me!' Ruth said in horror.
Nina sighed and sat up. 'The salve has an antiseptic quality, if that's what you're worried about.'
'That's not all I'm worried about! It's disgusting!'
'Let's not be prudish,' Nina cautioned like a school ma'am. 'This is the way it's been done traditionally. When those who weren't practising heard about us riding our brooms, they got the wrong end of the stick, as it were. The vaginal walls absorb the active drug much more effectively. I could insert it in your anus if that suits you better,' she added acidly.
'I don't need a drug trip! I need help!'
'That's what I'm doing!' Nina said with irritation. 'It's not just a drug trip. The mind and body are separate entities. The drug in the salve enables our brain to free our spirit-selves so we can fly over the countryside, see things, hear things, gain knowledge, then return with it to our bodies. All the shamans and the mag- icmen and women in the old cultures use it.' She laughed dismissively. 'The scientists said their experiences were just hallucinations because there was no way they could really happen. I wish I could take a few of them along with me!'
Ruth shook her head, still horrified. I can't do it, she thought.
Nina seemed to read her mind. 'Do you want to save your friends or not?' she snapped.
Ruth stared at the broom handle with distaste for a long moment. Then she asked, 'Are you sure this will do any good?'
'A few months back I would have said no. Now … of course!'
Ruth grimaced. 'Okay. I suppose. What do I have to do?'
'Hold the handle.' She opened herself up. 'Now insert it gently.' Ruth steeled herself, but Nina didn't seem concerned. She relaxed onto it, then closed her eyes. After a moment she motioned to Ruth to remove it. 'Now it's your turn.'
Nina reapplied the salve to the handle, then positioned herself between Ruth's legs. Ruth's muscles were so tense she couldn't get the stick to penetrate, but whatever powerful drug was on it seemed to begin to affect her from even a cursory application. She gradually relaxed, allowing Nina to insert the handle. At first she felt a not- unpleasant burning sensation, but then it changed, so that she felt like warm syrup was slowly rising up her body from her groin. There was a definite sexual element to it; her clitoris engorged and she had a sudden, nearly overwhelming desire to bring herself to orgasm. But when Nina removed the handle, the edge was taken off her desire and she was able to look up and around. The quality of light in the room had changed; it was more diffuse and golden, as if it were being refracted through crystal. The edges of the furniture sparkled and shimmered and the crackling of the fire shushed and boomed like the sound of the sea.
Then there was the odd sensation of her retreating into her body, as if she were looking out at the world from the end of a long tunnel.
'Hold on,' she heard Nina say distantly. 'It's beginning.'
And then she was rushing out of herself, as if she had been fired from a cannon. She rocketed up to the ceiling, where she briefly looked down at her naked body staring with glassy eyes up at her; Nina was slumped next to her, one hand draped across her thigh. And then she felt as if someone had yanked a rope attached to her neck and she was dragged wildly into the fire, which fizzed coldly around her, and then up into the yawning black hole of the chimney.
A second later she burst out into the night sky, swooping and swirling as if she were smoke caught in the wind. It took her a second to get her bearings and then she discovered that, with the right mental effort, she could begin to control her movements. Ruth twisted in practice and caught sight of Nina floating over the thatch waiting for her. She looked beautiful, years younger, with a firm, full body. She smiled and beckoned.
'Where are we going?' Ruth said, but no sound came out of her mouth. Nina seemed to understand nonetheless. She pointed along the valley, away from where the Baobhan Sith had attacked. Ruth looked at her curiously, but she acted as if she wanted to show her something important.
And then she was away, rushing on the night winds. Ruth launched herself behind her, lost in the wild, exciting sensation of flying. She could feel the breeze on her skin, feel her hair flow behind her, but although she was still naked, she didn't feel the cold. It was a wonderfully exhilarating feeling as she swooped and soared, remembering a score of similar dreams, wishing she could never come down; it was so powerful it almost made her want to cry.
The trees passed beneath her in a black carpet, the sweet scent of the pine floating up to fill her nostrils. With care, she could dive down and skim their gossamer-frail uppermost branches, leaving them waving in her passage. From her vantage point, she could see the landscape in its true form: alive; the sweep and swirl of the hillsides, the subtle gradation of colours in the grasses, the snake-twist of rivers, the mirror-glimmer of lakes, all linked into one awesome organism, each part affecting its neighbour. From there, it all made sense.
A long, low hoot made Ruth look round to see her owl-companion flying in circles nearby. She waved to him, but he continued spiralling on the thermals without any sign that he had any connection with her.
Nina's mad aerial dash slowed near Loadpot Hill. Ruth could read caution in her body language as she took advantage of the occasional treetop for cover. Eventually she came to a halt and pointed to something ahead, her face drained of the good nature Ruth had seen before; now she was fearful.
Ruth followed her guide and could instantly see why. Rising up out of the isolated green hillside was something that reminded Ruth of pictures of enormous African termites' nests. It was the first part of a tower that was still under construction, covering an area the size of ten football pitches. Although it was fundamentally black,
