My Travels with Clytemnestra Ch. 05

It's sunset by the time Clytemnestra and I reach the stones. I think we both feel the same mix of awe and trepidation. I feel almost as though entering the ring would be... Trespassing? For all that the stone looks new-worked this is so obviously a place of great antiquity. I can feel a whole age of the world looking over my shoulder. I can feel something else, too.

"Clytemnestra," I whisper, reverentially – I feel like a normal speaking voice is somehow inappropriate, "There's... There's magic here."

For the first time since I've known her Clytemnestra looks afraid. The look doesn't suit her. I take a few steps forward and lay my hand on the nearest sarsen. My eyes close and I feel. I Feel.

I've always been able to sense magic. That first time I encountered it my skin tingled when Lecto used her spells on me. The same thing happened when we paid that Pyre Silver sell-spell to protect me from bullets. I even feel the same thing when I use my own little tricks.

It's that sense I'm using now . Using it deliberately, deliberately feeling for magic, rather than passively sensing it.

"Is it safe?" Clytemnestra's voice seems a little too far away as I concentrate on my magical sense to the exclusion of all others.

"It's... There's much magic here. Almost everything here is magic, but it's not doing anything."

I wish, oh how I do wish I were a better sorceress.

"I think it's safe. There's magic everywhere here, but it's still. Magic is change, and this magic is not changing anything," I wish I were better at explaining it to Clytemnestra, too.

"Are you sure?"

I step back from the stones and turn to her.

"No, I'm not sure, but I'm as sure as I can be. The magic here is waiting for something, and not us. There's a trigger condition. A... A keyhole, and it's not shaped like you or me."

"Good enough for me," The look of fear is gone from Clytemnestra's eyes.

Good, she looked strange, I didn't like it. She strides confidently between the standing stones and I have to hurry to follow. The structure still fills me with awe, but I no longer feel so intimidated by it. I no longer feel as though I must whisper and creep around. The brief glimpse I had of the magic in this place was tantalizing, I'd like very much to see more.

Once within the innermost circle the ground is a mosaic of flawlessly tessellating marble stars. They are arranged so neatly that one could not slip a cigarette paper between them, and not a single blade of grass grows through a single crack. Right at the axis of the circle is a stone table, or perhaps a great stone curule seat.

The sun is fully set now and stars are coming out across the purple-black dome of sky described by the stone circle. Clytemnestra's hooves clop hauntingly on the marble floor and I hold my breath, feeling... I don't know what. The world is waiting for something.

From without the circle there comes the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.