In the center of the circle was Robin, his head crowned by holly, his body gleaming as if it had been waxed. He was, as were they all, quite naked. When he smiled at her, she was glad.
A familiar black tail hung down from a rafter, flicking occasionally.
There was a skirl of bagpipes and a rattle of bones. Six couples came into the circle around Robin. A young woman of perhaps eighteen dashed round and round it with an enormous broadsword, pointing it at the ground. The bagpipes wailed wildly. Mandy thought of all the movies she had ever seen of Scotsmen in war, and knew the sense of this magnificent noise. In hands such as held them now, the pipes were an instrument of courage.
Brother Pierce’s face, sharp with hate, seemed to swim before her.
The group in the circle began to dance round their Holly King, clapping and chanting:
“Fire of life,
Pass, pass, pass!
Fire and flame, in Goddess’ name,
Pass, pass, pass!
Heart and hand of Holly King,
Pass, pass, pass!”
She understood it all now. They were going to make her ride a horse through a hostile town in the nude, chasing a guy with weeds in his hair.
She was thinking to get out of here when strong hands suddenly grabbed her and whirled her away among swirling chains of people. They snatched at her cloak until it was swept off, then at her jacket, at her blouse, at her jeans. Soon she was naked above the waist. There was so much laughter that the violence of the undressing was almost dispelled. They lifted her at last over their heads, and in passing her from hand to hand finally got the jeans away from her.
She was shrieking from all those unexpected touches when she found herself delivered to the center of the inmost circle and laid at the feet of the Holly King.
Robin’s eyes were big with desire. She could see, between his crossed legs, his standing flesh.
Close to him there was a strange smell, like mildew and rancid lard and menthol cough drops. A moment later she knew why. He dipped his fingers in a bowl of thick salve and dropped a huge glob of it on her belly.
“Hey!”
They held her arms above her head, put their hands around her ankles. In their faces was such love, though, she made no attempt to escape them.
When Robin began spreading the salve up and down her stomach, she discovered that the touch of his hands could be pleasant. He spread the slick stink over her whole body, leaving only her private parts untouched. She tingled, grew warm. The sensation was not unlike that of Ben Gay, but deeper and not in the least relaxing. On the contrary, she wanted to run and jump and yell; she fairly could have flown.
The young woman who had wielded the sword came and knelt beside Mandy. “There’s a little sting,” she whispered. “Don’t mind, it soon ends.” She took some of the salve and nibbed it smartly into Mandy’s privates.
A little sting! It was all she could do not to shriek with the agony of it. As if anticipating her problem the bagpipes wailed again and the bones were joined by drums.
No wonder there were legends of witches flying. This salve made her feel as if she were floating. More than floating. If she closed her eyes, she just might sweep up into the rafters with Tom.
They got her to her feet and danced her about, clapping, turning, twisting to a new music. The pipes were gone now, replaced by flute and drum and bone, the old instruments of such dances, softer perhaps without the roaring pipes but in their way just as exciting.
“Corn rigs, an’ barley rigs,
An’ corn rigs are bonnie;
I’ll ne’er forget that happy night,
Amang the rigs wi’ Mandy!”
Happiness filled Mandy Walker. The hell with her concerns, this was fun. She really danced for the first time in her life, naked and free amid the smells of animals and the sweat of people—and her own phenomenal stench—round and round and round till the rafters garlanded with holly spun and the Holly King on his throne of floor spun, with his smiling lips and dark wonderful eyes, the gleam there so intense it made her burst with laughter.
There was the feeling that she had danced this dance before.
Just then the dance stopped. Annoyance flashed through Mandy. Then she heard what had frozen the others. From far away the long sound of a horn. A hunter’s hom.
Constance. She was out there somewhere, calling them to the hunt.
The stillness was only momentary. There followed a great roar of excitement. Mandy found herself astride a huge black horse, a snorting, excited, stamping giant of a stallion.
She was naked. She had only the mane for reins. Then they had drawn her through the doors, so quickly that she almost hit her head.
“I’ve got to have my cloak!”
Somebody gave the horse a swat and like blazes they were off through the middle of the village, the hoofs of her mount shattering candles as he galloped. In another instant they were out in the night, pounding along, her fingers frantic in his mane, her body slipping and sliding around because of the salve, the horsehair skinning her legs. And, she felt sure, they were heading toward the bog.
“Whoa! Hey, horse, come on! Oh, stop!” She tugged at the mane. The animal gave a snort and thundered on.
All she could do was clutch and hope. Maybe she would only be knocked out when she fell. Not killed.
Please not killed at such a prime moment.
The salve was having a more and more powerful effect on her. For example, she wasn’t in the least cold.
And she could hardly feel the pain of the horsehair against her thighs. Even while she clutched and cried, the swiftness of the animal’s flight began to seem less a terror.
It became exhilarating, scary in the same sense that a roller coaster is scary She put one hand along the beast’s pumping neck. It was a lovely creature, this horse.
It snorted.
“Take it easy, horse.”
She felt beneath her its muscles surging, its blood singing in its veins, its sweat mingling with her slickness as they pounded down the night.
She found that she could sit up for a few seconds and, while she did, actually enjoy the wind rushing past her face.
Then she could sit up longer. She could press her knees against the horse’s flanks and sit straight.
It was more than good, this ride. She tossed her head and dug in her knees and shrieked out all the joy and wildness and power that had sprung up in her soul. And her mount neighed reply. She heard the maleness in his voice and knew he had responded to something in her own that she had never before known was there. She was a woman upon this creature, no passive cipher but a woman full of strength and pride and beauty.
She felt an intimacy with the animal flesh beneath her so raw that it startled her. He neighed again, a rich, delighted sound, and literally burst forward. They pounded, pounded, pounded, his foam flying back in her face, his smell filling her nostrils when the charged air didn’t, pounded and pounded but were not spent, never that, never tired, only growing stronger and stronger together as they hunted down the night itself.
Hunted, yes! She was here to hunt Robin. She tossed her head and screamed again, screamed from the bottom of her belly to the top of her head, a high, slicing sword of a cry.
Far off she heard the huntsman’s horn reply. Far, far off to the north.
She had not even to say whoa this time, nor to touch the mane of her horse. Only transfer the pressure from the knees to the ankles and he dropped back to a trot. Lighter pressure made him walk. Raising her legs altogether made him stop.
The horn pealed out once more. Behind her, wasn’t it? Her horse turned his head back, met her eyes in the moonlight with one of his own. He was blowing hard, slick with froth, trembling with eagerness.
This was no ordinary horse. He knew where to go, she felt it. He knew how to find the Holly King. All she had to do was surrender to his simpler, clearer mind and his instincts.
For all she knew no horse was ordinary. Maybe there was no su
ch thing as an ordinary horse or an ordinary ferret or an ordinary duck, for that matter, no more than there were ordinary fairies or ordinary people or ordinary cats.
She gave him knee and they were off again, rushing around the edge of the bog, up through the hummocks with the house gleaming in the distance, farther north in the valley than she had ever been, through acres and acres of fields, some smelling cut and rich with the blood of the land, others still ripening, corn and gram and pumpkins and squash, earth weighted with fruit. She wondered if the snow had destroyed much of the crop.
They trotted down a path between sentinel rows of corn, which clattered with their passing. Now the land began to rise and they went through an orchard, the horse’s hoofs crunching the culls and adding cider to the thick, delicious chaos of scents.
“Holly,” she whispered, “King of Holly…”
No, still farther north. Low in the sky she saw Polaris, hanging above the dark mystery of the land. That way lay the Holly King.
But how far? They were passing houses now, with electric lights and dogs reduced to hoarse yapping by the bizarre sight and even more fantastic odor of the intruders.
They approached a house lit by candles, which were quickly snuffed out. People came bursting out of the door, running after her, cloaked against the cold, racing up and touching her legs with a slap, then dropping back into the dark.
Her mount’s hoofs clattered on the brick streets, echoing in the stillness. She was acutely aware of her nakedness.
Then a car gunned its motor and shot forward. She was impaled by the lights; she heard a powerful engine crying out the rage of the driver as the lights bore down. She dug her knees into her horse’s thighs and pulled his mane sharply right. He burst into a gallop, climbing a steep lawn. The car followed, engine growling and tires screaming, then whining as it came to a stop at the curb.
She shrieked as her horse leaped back fences, stormed through porches, and jumped empty swimming pools. Then they were in an alley, then through it to the next street. Perhaps there had been a cordon arranged for them, but they were out of it now. She was glad, she felt the wildness again, the freedom, the sheer mad, sweating, gasping thunder of the ride.
And she knew she was closer to the Holly King. By long habit she wanted men, and waited for them.
Never before had she allowed herself the feeling of just taking what she wanted.
They went past Church Row and across the town common beyond. “Find him,” she whispered to her mount. “Find him for me!”
Behind them other cars were muttering and growling, their lights prowling the streets that surrounded the common.
Then she saw the blazing sign of Brother Pierce’s Tabernacle. People were running in and out, cars were coming and going—the place was like a wasp nest disturbed by a stick. She knew, at the same moment, that he was close by.
Her horse stopped. “Come on.” She pressed with her knees. He turned his head and looked at her. “So this is the place,” she murmured.
She dismounted, stood a moment on shaky legs, getting used to the ground again. Snow crunched beneath her feet. The salve was not so strong now; she felt how icy cold this night really was. Half a block from the Tabernacle there was another candlelit house. More witches. But he was not in that house. No, he was outside. They were to meet in the night.
He was a clever boy, to go so close to Brother Pierce’s Tabernacle. Clever boy. But she wasn’t afraid of anything anymore, not even this.
She would have ridden right down the aisle of the Tabernacle if necessary. Maybe it was the ride or the salve or being naked in the streets, but she was very excited. She had never wanted anyone like she wanted the Holly King.
Her horse turned its head, pricked its ears toward a sound behind them.
And did not even have a chance to scream when the blast of a shotgun shattered its brains. The great body shuddered and collapsed. “Okay, whore, put your hands up!”
She started to run.
“Stop!”
The hell with that. She had darkness on her side at least. She ran. A shot thundered behind her and something hissed past her right shoulder. Buckshot. Keep going.
“I got the damn horse!”
My horse, my horse, my beautiful magic friend of a horse!
“She’s headin’ toward North Street!”
“Get her, man!”
She flew, forcing herself not to shriek the cry that came to her throat. There would be time for rage later.
My horse!
In their thirty minutes together she and that stallion had become friends in passion, fellow celebrants of gender.
A flash of white ahead of her, a stifled cry, and she realized she had flushed the Holly King! Her beautiful horse had been taking her right to his hiding place.
When he sprinted across North Street, she saw him clear in the streetlight, his skin pale, his long legs pumping, his holly on his head.
Others saw him, too. Car lights flared and engines roared from both ends of the street. By the time Mandy was crossing there were only seconds to spare. Then brakes squealed and furious voices were all shouting together, “It’s the witch, it’s the witch!”
Behind her she heard clumsy crashing in the shrubs. She knew she was back on estate land, beyond the far limit of Maywell. North Street, where the estate’s wall ended, was also the border of the town. Here were the ruins of Willowbrook, an unfinished housing development that had been started and died after Mandy had left Maywell.
She stopped on an overgrown street to listen for the Holly King. The crashing behind her got closer only slowly, accompanied by a steady smoke of curses. Then, just as she was certain she had lost him, a shrub moved almost at her feet.
Instantly she pounced—and connected with his hot skin and pricking crown. She ripped it from his head and tossed it high in the air. He gasped, started to run again, but she grabbed his wrist and screamed out her triumph with all her victorious soul, uncaring of the people behind her, even of the flashlight beams that were probing for her position.
He pushed at her, he tried to break her grip. Her blood was so high that she raised her fist and slammed it across his face. He made a long, rattling groan and sank down.
“Oh, God, I killed him!”
But no, he was crawling. It was another trick! She leaped at him, grabbed him around the waist, straddled him, sat on him, pinned him to the ground.
And felt, to her infinite delight, his bursting rigid essence jamming up between her legs.
A flashlight beam skimmed her head and there was a brutal shout of triumph.
She could not move for the spear of pleasure he had thrust into her. “We’ve got to run,” she whispered, but she simply sat there, staring down at his blood-running face, feeling him in her, and knowing joy so extreme that it almost made her lose her senses.
Then she heard ravens. And yells, frantic yells. The flashlight beams began to flail about in the sky to a great roar of the most fierce cawing Mandy had ever heard. The cacophony retreated rapidly toward the Tabernacle.
When the Holly King was spent beneath her, she got up, put his crown on her own head, and found herself surrounded by other witches, all gasping from their long run. They were wearing ordinary clothing, caps, jackets, hiking boots. Apparently only the principals in the rituals were expected to go naked in the town.
Without a word they clustered about her, tied her cloak around her, and gave her a sweet, delicious dnnk of hot wine and honey.
She walked with them all the way around the western edge of the town and beneath the cliffs of Stone Mountain, back to the estate. Gentle hands carried her lover.
She sat in the center of the circle. They laid him, quite asleep, before her.
Her people then indulged in the revels of the night. There was so little she understood of their rituals, except that the bodies flashing about her in the circle meant ecstasy.
There were twelve of them, six men and six women, dancing about the inner circle
of which she and the Holly King were the center. They moved to the right, dancing and clapping, chanting a single word: Moom, Moom, Moom, Moom.
They shouted, they whispered, they danced until the chant merged and changed and grew into another word, which she at first could not quite understand:
Moomamaamannamuaman adamoom amandoom.
Then she heard it—her own name. Amanda. She listened to it weaving about in the chant, and watched the sweat-slick nakedness of the people dancing in her honor, and wondered. Whom do they take me for? Who am I?
Chapter 15
For George, Bonnie’s death was a great, black boulder, crushing him as a foot might crush an ant.
Clark had called him mad and disowned the project, then had gone back to the Covenstead to tell Constance all that had happened.
They had been together in the faculty commons when they got the news.
“There’s been a student killed out on MSR,” Pearl Davenport had shouted, her head popping in the door.
Clark went a dull shade of gray.
The long call of the sirens swept up and down the room.
“George, where the hell did Bonnie go?”
“Oh, Christ, oh, Christ.”
“Pearl, who—”
“Clark, it was a girl. She got hit. I was coming across the damn road, there was an awful crunch, and this—oh, Jesus—this little rag goes flying halfway to heaven.”
“It was a girl! Who, Pearl, honey?”
“Blond. Petite. I didn’t see her clearly. I think she had on a college sweatshirt, Spacy-looking, that’s all.
Then she’s in the road and oh, I don’t want to think about it.”