“Samantha?” A voice called.
“It’s my brother, John.”
Reece nodded and sipped his coffee.
There was no sign that he was concerned and she got up to answer the door. “Hang on a minute,” she called, lifting the bar.
As soon as the door opened he stepped in and clutched her shoulders. “Are you all right?”
His intensity startled her and she too a step back. “Yes. What’s wrong?”
“There was another break-in in town last night.”
He saw Reece then and stopped mid-step. He looked at Sam and then at Reece and then back again. She watched several emotions flit across his face but it was the darkening of his eye that warned her. He frowned and his mouth tightened.
Reece stood and pushed his chair under the table, then held his hand out to her. “I best be going, Miss Channing. I thank you for the fine breakfast and for the work. It was a considerable help to me. If I travel this way again, may I stop to say hello?”
Samantha blushed but extended her hand. “Certainly, Mr. Lawrence. I fear that your work assisted me far more than it did you. You are welcome to stop by any time. I warn you that I may have more chores waiting.”
He bowed over her hand and place a light kiss on the back. “Then farewell, Miss Channing.” Then, he stood and turned to John and gave a short bow. “Please to meet you, sir, and I bid you a good day.”
He stepped around John, ruffled Sergeant’s ears and then left, closing the door softly behind him.
Samantha stared at the closed door with a confusing sense of loss.
“You mind telling me who that was?”
“Just a traveler who was needing some work. I had work that needed doing so we struck a bargain. I got the whole pasture fence repaired.”
“He didn’t do that in the last few days, Sam.”
She moved to the kitchen and poured the hot water into the sink, over the dishes. She set about washing them, staring not and again out the window. There was no sign of him and she realized she had not got an answer to her question. And probably never would now. Unless he got caught.
“No, he didn’t. It was around the time Mrs. Parker died.”
Stunned silence flowed from John. She could feel it. It was thick and suffocating as a fog. The room darkened and the air grew stale. Samantha clutched the sink and gasped. This wasn’t John she was feeling. It was something else, something dark. The light at the window dimmed and disappeared into a collapsing circle of darkness. As it winked out she remembered the circle of stones and she realized that whatever had happened there was happening again. This time it was without any help from the circle, the stones, or her aunt. The last thing she felt was John catching her as she fell.
She lay in warm, soft darkness. She’d been here before, she realized and immediately sat up and opened her eyes. Nothing but darkness and that same rushing sound, like water in a rapidly moving stream. This time she wasn’t as disorientated and she reached out with her arms to see if she could find the walls but felt nothing except that same warm darkness. A sound of rustling came from somewhere behind her and she turned sharply, her eyes trying to pierce the darkness.
“Hello!” she called.
No answer. She realized there was also no echo. So, maybe not a cave?
She crossed her legs and sat Indian style. This time it was different. She knew where she was and that she wasn’t actually awake but was caught up in an active vision. Carefully, she got to her feet, putting her hands up over her head in case there was a low ceiling. There was nothing but a sensation of warm space. If it were a cave she wouldn’t have expected it to be so warm. There was almost a sensation of being encased in a womb but the feeling of openness was confusing. If she could only find a wall she’d feel a bit more secure. The conflicting sensations were frightening.
“Is there anyone here?” she called out.
Still no response. So why did she sense that someone was very close by? Remembering the deep chasm in the caves, she slid her foot cautiously along the floor. No sense falling into a bottomless pit, even if it was a vision.
From somewhere ahead she heard a voice whisper. “It wouldn’t matter. The fall would kill you anyway. The shock to your psyche would destroy you.” There was a short pause, then the voice continued. “You know where you are, don’t you?”
She knew that voice.
“The circle of seeing.”
“Very good, cousin! I’m impressed.”
“Alaina.”
A small laugh answered. Of course it was her. Sam was both stunned and amazed.
“You’re growing, cousin.”
Sam strained to see but the place was saturated with darkness. She felt she was in the circle but she couldn’t be sure. Of course, she was equally certain she was not physically in the circle. That sound of rushing water was coming from somewhere behind her so she turned in that direction, moving carefully, her hands extended in front of her so she didn’t trip and land face first on something. She couldn’t be in the circle. There were no walls or ceiling there. This felt more like a cave and the fact that water was nearby reinforced that feeling. Still, the warmth and familiarity of that previous vision was with her now. Wherever she was now, she had been before.
“Samantha, don’t try and leave the circle. You’ll get lost and won’t be able to get back.”
Samantha stopped and considered this bit of news. Stretching her senses, she waited for some kind of confirmation of this. Why she expected confirmation she didn’t know but something told her she should know, that she would know.
Moving forward, well, forward to her, she started walking again. The sound of the water had grown stronger. She remembered before that a buzzing sound had also been present just before she woke up but it was absent at the moment. Did that mean she wasn’t going to wake up yet? Too many questions racing through her mind all at once and she shook her head to still them.
“SAMANTHA! Do not leave. I summoned you here and you can’t leave until I send you back. If you leave the circle you could be trapped!”
“What do you want?” Sam turned and yelled at her.
“I want to know what you are looking for.” There was a thoughtful pause and she added, “And I want to know the extent of your abilities.”
“Why?”
“Because we can use them.”
That halted her in her tracks. “Use them? You mean, use me?”
“You’d have to agree, of course, but I think once you see the potential in what we are doing, you will agree.”
Sam turned toward the sound of her voice. “You’re stealing from your own people! Why do you think I’d help you?”
“We’re helping others.”
“So, you’re Robin Hood?” She waited several minutes, pondering the concept of Alaina helping anyone. It was beyond her abilities. Finally, she snorted and said, “You’re thieves!”
“We are making use of our gifts to help others.”
“No, your stealing from your friends and neighbors.”
“The outland has not neighbors. We are exiled and given nothing to survive on. We are expected to scratch and claw the ground and make do with the castoffs.”
“You are exiles for a reason! For crimes such at the ones you now commit!”
“I was born in the outland! No one gave me a chance to be anything else.”
“Your mother chose to leave the village. She wasn’t forced out. She packed up and left. She wasn’t a criminal. She could have come back whenever she wanted. As her daughter, you would have been accepted.”
“Right. If that were the case, why have you spent your life hiding your gift?”
There was no answer to that, at least, no one Sam could accept. To give Alaina her due, she was correct in that one area. Turning, Sam continued to move toward the sound of the water. For some reason she was certain that she was supposed to go in that direction.
“Samantha! You can’t leave the circle.” The voice had hardened now but with each step Sam felt that something else was guiding her. Alaina may have summoned her but Sam was willing to bet that she really had no control over anyone else’s actions, at least, not here. She remembered the episode in the garden when she felt she was being smothered.
Ahead she saw a small light but the closer she got, the larger it became until finally she stood before an arched doorway and looked out toward the sea. Whatever this place was, it stood in the same place as the circle. She recognized the view.
Sam looked around her and saw there were, in fact walls and a ceiling, high above, supported with huge stone pillars. She looked back, into the darker interior but could not make out any details as to the style or size of the supports and they disappeared into the darkness, forming the beginning of a circle. Realization dawned and she turned back toward the door.
“Samantha! Don’t step outside. I can’t send you back once you leave the circle.”
“Alaina, why do I get the feeling you’re not telling me something?”
From somewhere in the depths a great roar of sound rushed toward her, shaking the ground and surrounding her with icy air. It filled the cavernous room and vibrated in her chest like bass drums. As quickly as it came, total silence followed and the warmth surrounded her again. Sam could only hear the rushing of the surf beyond the cliffs.
“Alaina?”
When there was no answer, Sam rolled her eyes. So, she said silently, you summoned me and now you’ve run off. So, how do I get back? She corrected herself. No, how do I wake up?
“Samantha.”
Now what, she wondered. This voice was different, softer and directionless. She didn’t recognize it.
“Who are you?”
A whisper that she could barely make out came in through the doorway. “Go and see.”
“I’m getting pretty tired of you people ordering me around.” But she did. She walked forward and stepped into the warm sun of the day. A breeze blew in from the water and carried a smell of rain. In the distance, the mist. . . Sam stared in shock. There was no mist. Not one trace of it remained. The horizon was a dark blue line against the lighter blue of the sky. It was beautiful. . . and frightening. She walked to the edge of the cliff and searched the distance.
“How is that possible?” she said.
But whatever the voice had been inside it was gone because no answer came. Alaina had been right about one thing, outside the circle she was on her own. The sense of warmth inside the circle was not evident here.
Sam turned and looked back the way she had come and went still in shock. In the clearing was a large circular building. Tall pillars rose up around the walls, probably to a height of about 20 feet and supported a domed roof painted in colors so vibrant that it was almost blinding.
So, what is this place? She walked forward and began to circumnavigate the exterior of the building. There were windows between every other set of pillars and they were Moorish shaped and with colored leaded panes. She suspected that inside they might be shuttered since the building had been so dark. It was easily large enough to contain the entire three circles of stone she had seen when her aunt had brought her here.
The walls were a smooth carved stone and there were carved bas relief on the walls between the pillars with no windows. They contained sculpted flowers, vines and figures in long flowing robes or just faces peaking through the carved foliage. She’d never seen anything like it except in some of the books she’d read at the library that showed similar paintings were on other temples and tombs but she felt that this was neither a temple nor a tomb. The circle had a specific purpose that was not connected to either worship or ritual. And for some reason, she was linked directly into that purpose.
When she reached the back of the building, she recognized the wooded area and the gate that let into it. Now that she saw it she realized that actually, there gate was set in a high fence. The circle sat in a small canyon like area in the mountains. A high mountain on either side, the ocean cliffs at another and an iron fence on this side with only a tall gate to give access. She glanced back to the place where they had come through on horseback only to find nothing but a thick forest of trees and brambles and bushes. There was no trail along the cliffs visible.
Confusion suddenly pushed her curiosity back and she realized she had no idea what she was supposed to do next. One minute she’d been certain and now, she was lost. Where was this place and how had she come here? She’d ridden on horseback with John and Aunt Isabel. But there was no trail, there was an iron barred fence and locked gate and a building that was so dark she could see nothing.
She cupped her hands around her mouth and called, “HELLO! Is there anyone here?”
Her voice echoed off the walls of the canyon. Her throat closed in panic and she found she couldn’t breath. Her heart began to pound and a cold sweat broke out on her brow. She clutched at one of the pillars along the side of the building and leaned against it. Her mind seemed to go blank as she tried to think what to do next. She knew she should know! But it was gone.
“John! Help me!”
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