indri

SUMMARY: Giles and Ethan, the electric Kool-Aid funky Satan groove year, in the early seventies. Rated M. Spoilers to Band Candy. Acknowledgements and disclaimers.

43.

He shouldn't have taken the hash. It had dampened his ability to shut down his sense of magic. Even from far outside the circle, the Henge roared like the sea scouring a cliff. Standing at the edge of the circle felt like teetering on a ledge above the smashing waves.

He heard Randall call out his name, very distantly. He clamped down on the noise as much as he could and stepped into the circle.

The sound, the sense, smashed up against him. He was underwater and his mouth and ears were choked with magic. He felt himself stagger as the currents buffeted his body.

He felt Diedre and then Randall seize his arms. He was able to use them to balance himself a little and the noise retreated somewhat. He reached for their wrists, because the skin contact helped.

He could see now that a plastic square had been laid out on the ground. Rupert and Stan were waiting for them there. Ethan sat down and held on to Stan and Randall while Diedre and Rupert set up the spell. Everyone lit a candle and gave a small offering of blood.

"I'll run the spell," said Diedre to him, "if you're not feeling well."

Ethan still didn't feel quite able to speak, so he just nodded. The sound was still there, more of a pressure now, at the back of his head.

They formed a human circle within the stone one. Some people gathered to watch.

"We thank the stones for allowing us to visit here and be among them on this solstice day and solstice night. We thank them for the year past and ask their blessings for the year to come. We ask that our lives be put to their best use."

A song was required then, Latin words in a Gregorian-style chant. Ethan felt himself mouth the words but could not hear his own voice. He heard Diedre's chorister fluting, Randall's uncertain tenor, then a voice he belatedly recognised as Rupert's. He was confused for a moment by other voices singing around him, until he realised that a few members of their ad hoc audience were joining in.

But then the roaring sound began to come back and Ethan tightened his grip until Stan and Randall gave him looks. Ethan hoped the spell would finish soon, because he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on. He wondered what to do. But then he realised that there was no need for him to hold on, he could just let go and be washed away by the metaphorical tide. His physical body was safe, and he could pull back the rest of him once the spell was done.

Fucking trip, though.

He let himself go, and then he didn't know where he was. Eyes open or closed, it didn't matter. Adrift, floating, then slammed this way and that. He sensed the stones, not as stones, but as beings, shallow-rooted in the earth, but deep-rooted in magic. Old but still wanting, but who could understand what a stone would want? For a microsecond, he thought they were aware of him, and just as aware of Randall, Rupert, Diedre and Stan. What did the stones see and think of them? He slammed back into himself. The human circle had broken.

"What the hell was that?" Randall was laughing.

"Did, did everyone feel that?" Rupert asked.

"That was really trippy," said Stan.

Ethan managed to stand up. The sound was still almost overpowering and he had to get away. He staggered out of the stone circle, managed ten or twenty yards more, then sat down heavily in the mud. The sound was only a whisper now. He remembered how to breathe.

He felt hands pulling him up, wiping him down, sitting him back. He started to see and hear things properly again.

"What was that?" Randall asked him.

"That's how it sounds to me always," Ethan said, gesturing back towards Stonehenge.

"Some sort of transference of extrasensory recognisance of the magical field," said Rupert. He looked particularly adorable when making pronouncements of this kind. "I take it that doesn't usually happen with this spell?"

"That was wild!" Randall said.

Ethan grabbed on to Randall's arm to pull himself upright. He didn't feel too wobbly. "I think I need a walk," he said.

Randall said, "I'm going to take Ripper to meet a few musicians, if you want to come."

"No, I'll catch up with you later. I should probably go and see Evelyn."

"If you're sure you'll be OK," said Rupert.

Ethan walked around the camp for about twenty minutes, until the dizziness subsided. Then he set off for Evelyn's tent, which wasn't very far away.

"You got a good spot this year," he said when he arrived.

"I've been here a couple of weeks already," she said, as she ushered him in. "It's a good place for appointments."

She took him through to the back room, where he sat on an inflatable mattress as she poured them both more wine.

"You look a bit peaky," she said.

"It got a bit intense up at the Henge," he said.

"And you could do with a wash." She had a large plastic container full of water and she poured a little into a basin. She fetched a cloth and started to wash the last of the mud from his hands and the knees of his jeans. She leant over to kiss him and he kissed back, feeling himself start to respond.

"I'm not having sex with you today," he said.

"No?"

"No."

"Would you mind telling me why?" She was leaning across him and he could feel her breath on his face. He had to move his leg.

"Because I brought someone and you've got plenty of others."

"True," she said. "We would have had to have been quick. Carrie's coming round in half an hour." She kept fondling his leg though. "So, who'd you bring?" He watched as she went through the possibilities in her head. "Ripper," she said.

"Yes."

"Any good?"

"He is now."

"Are you smitten?"

"A little."

"Is he?"

"No," he said slowly, and he pulled himself away from her to sit up straighter on the bed. "So I'm not really enjoying this as much as I might."

"Oh, poor Ethan," she said. "Don't worry, these things never last very long. You'll get through it and then you'll ask yourself what all the fuss was about."

Ethan was not exactly reassured.

"You were going to show me how your magic was going?"

Ethan set up for his magic card trick and soon had flocks of them flying around the tent. He watched Evelyn's face intently and thought he caught a hint of surprise or even envy. He felt a stab of pride.

"Who taught you that trick?"

"He's good at quite a number of things, actually."

Evelyn gave him a sharp glance. "He's not just a tourist, then, hanging out with us wizards?"

"Not at all. The magic's in his bones and he was brought up in it as well. He'd have found us one way or another. He's one of us, Evelyn."

"If you're sure."

He brought the cards in for a landing and pressed the packs back into her hand. "Your other friend will be visiting soon."

"Ethan," she said, just as he was leaving, "There might be something on tonight. If there is, I'll see if I can get you in."

"Do you want me to meet you somewhere?"

"I'll find you," she said. "After all, I am a witch."