THE SECRET CIRCLE 1 - The Initiation

by L. J. Smith

  "Stop."

  Cassie obeyed automatically. She tried to swallow and found the inside of her mouth was like glue.

  "Faye—" she managed to get out.

  "Be quiet!" The voice was sharp, no laziness now. Like a cat with its claws unsheathed. A sudden pressure at her neck made Cassie stiffen—someone had grabbed the bottom of the hood and was tightening it warningly. "Don't talk unless you're asked a question. Don't move unless you're told. Do you understand?"

  Numbly, Cassie nodded.

  "Now take one step forward. Turn to your left. Stop. Stay right there. Don't make a sound."

  Hands moved at the back of Cassie's neck. Then there was a glorious rush of cool air as the hood was lifted away. Light burst in on her, and Cassie stared in astonishment at the fantastic scene before her eyes.

  Black and white, that was her first thought. Everything was stark black and white, like a scene from the surface of the moon.

  But there was the moon in front of her. Pure white, just risen, it formed a perfect crescent over the ocean. The ocean was as black as the sky, except for the ghostly white foam on the waves. And in front of it stood a figure that seemed to shine with a pale light.

  Diana?

  She was wearing a thin white shift that left her arms bare. Clasped around one upper arm was a wide cuff of silver with strange engraving on it. On her forehead was a sort of diadem with a crescent moon, the horns pointing upward. Her long hair, hanging loose beneath it, seemed to be woven of moonlight.

  In her hand was a dagger.

  With terrifying sharpness Cassie now remembered the dream she'd had of her mother and grandmother in her room. Sacrifice, one of them had said. Was that what she was here for now? Sacrifice?

  Mesmerized, she stared at the blade of the dagger, at the moonlight shimmering on it. Then she looked at Diana's face.

  I would never have believed it—no, I wouldn't have believed that you would help Faye do this. But you're here, with a knife. I'm seeing it. How can I not believe my own eyes?

  "Turn around," a voice said.

  Cassie felt her body turn.

  A circle was drawn in the sand, a big one. Inside and outside were candles, stuck right into the beach. Wax was melting on the sand. The candles were all sizes, all colors. Some looked as if they had been burning a long time, from the amount of wax pooled beneath them and the way they had slumped. Every flame was dancing in the slight breeze.

  Inside the circle were the members of the Club. Cassie's frightened mind registered glimpses of faces and no more, like flashes seen in lightning. The same faces she had seen gathered around the table in the back room that afternoon. Proud. Beautiful. Alien.

  Faye was one of them. She was dressed all in black. And if Diana's hair seemed to be woven of moonlight, hers was woven of gloom,

  Diana walked past Cassie and stepped into the circle. Suddenly Cassie realized that the ring drawn in the sand was not complete. There was a gap in its northeast corner, directly in front of her feet.

  She was standing just outside the threshold.

  Startled, her eyes came up to seek Diana's. Diana's expression revealed nothing; her face was pale and distant. Cassie's heart, which had been thudding dully, now picked up speed.

  Diana spoke, her voice clear and musical, but she was not speaking to Cassie.

  "Who challenges her?"

  Faye's throaty voice rose in answer. "I do."

  Cassie didn't see the dagger until Faye held it at her throat. It pricked, pressing slightly into the hollow, and she felt her eyes widen. She tried to hold completely still. Faye's hooded, enigmatic eyes were gazing straight into hers. There was a sort of fierce pleasure in their depths, and the same heat Cassie had seen in the science building when Faye had threatened her with fire.

  Faye smiled her slow, scary smile, and the pressure of the blade against Cassie's throat increased. "I challenge you," Faye said directly to Cassie. "If there is any fear in your heart, it would be better for you to throw yourself forward on this dagger than to continue. So what is it, Cassie?" she added, her voice dropping to a lazy, intimate murmur that could scarcely have been heard by the others. "Is there fear in your heart? Careful how you answer."

  Dumbfounded, Cassie only stared. Fear in her heart? How could there not be fear in her heart? They had done everything they could to terrify her—of course there was fear in her heart.

  Then, moving only her eyes, she looked at Diana.

  Cassie remembered Laurel in the back room today, after Faye had implied Diana might have had something to do with Kori's death. Laurel had looked confused for a moment, then her face had cleared and she'd said, "I don't care what you say; you're never going to make me believe Diana would hurt Kori."

  That was faith, Cassie thought. Believing no matter what. Did she have that kind of faith in Diana?

  Yes, she thought, still looking into Diana's steady green eyes. I do.

  Then can I trust her no matter what? Enough not to be afraid anymore?

  The answer had to come from inside. Cassie searched through her mind, trying to find the truth. Everything that had happened tonight—them dragging her out of bed, carrying her down here without any explanation, the knife, the strangeness of this whole ceremony—it all looked bad. And someone had killed Kori…

  I trust you, Diana.

  That was the answer she found at the bottom of her mind. I trust you. Despite all this, no matter how it looks, I trust you.

  She looked back at Faye, who was still wearing a little catlike smile. Gazing straight into those honey-colored eyes, Cassie said clearly, "Go on. There's no fear in my heart."

  Even as she said it, she felt the symptoms of terror drop away from her. The weakness, the giddiness, the thudding of her heart. She stood straight even though her hands were still tied behind her back and the dagger point was still at her throat.

  Something flared in Faye's eyes. Something like grim respect. Her smile changed, and she nodded almost imperceptibly. The next instant her black eyebrows were raised ironically as she spoke.

  "Then step inside," she invited.

  Straight forward? Into the dagger blade? Cassie refused to let her eyes drop from the golden ones in front of her. She hesitated an instant, then stepped straight forward.

  The blade yielded before her. Cassie could feel a tiny trickle of wetness on her throat as it withdrew and Faye stepped back.

  Then she looked down. She was inside the circle.

  Diana took the dagger from Faye and went to the break in the circle behind Cassie. Drawing the knife through the sand, she bridged the gap, making the circle complete. Cassie had an odd sensation of closure, of something sealing. As if a door had been locked behind her. And as if what was inside the circle was different from anything outside.

  "Come to the center," Diana said.

  Cassie tried to walk tall as she did. Diana's shift, she could see now, was slit all the way up to the hip on one side. There was something on Diana's long, well-made upper leg. A garter? That was what it looked like. Like the ornamental bands of lace and ribbon that a bride wears to throw at a wedding. Except that this was made of something like green suede and lined with blue silk. It had a silver buckle.

  "Turn around," Diana ordered.

  Cassie hoped the cord binding her wrists was going to be cut. But instead she felt hands on her shoulders, spinning her faster and faster. She was being whirled around and pushed from side to side, from person to person. For an instant panic surged through her again. She was dizzy, disoriented. With her hands tied she couldn't catch herself if she fell. And that knife was somewhere…

  Just go with it. Relax, she told herself. And magically, her fear dissolved. She let herself be bounced from one person to another. If she fell, she fell.

  Hands steadied her, stood her facing Diana again. She was slightly breathless and the world was reeling, but she tried to draw herself up straight.

  "You've been challenged and you've passed the tests," Diana infor
med her, and now there was a little smile in Diana's green eyes, although her lips were grave. "Now are you willing to swear?"

  Swear what? But Cassie nodded.

  "Will you swear to be loyal to the Circle? Never to harm anyone who stands inside it? Will you protect and defend those who do, even if it costs you your life?"

  Cassie swallowed. Then, trying to keep her voice level, she said, "Yes."

  "Will you swear never to reveal the secrets you will learn, except to a proper person, within a properly prepared Circle like the one we stand in now? Will you swear to keep these secrets from all outsiders, friends and enemies, even if it costs you your life?"

  "Yes," Cassie whispered.

  "By the ocean, by the moon, by your own blood, will you so swear?"

  "Yes."

  "Say, 'I will so swear.' "

  "I will so swear."

  "She has been challenged and tested, and she has been sworn," Diana said, stepping back and speaking to the others. "And now, since all of us in the Circle agree, I call on the Powers to look at her."

  Diana raised the dagger above her head, pointing the blade at the sky. Then she pointed it to the east, toward the ocean, then to the south, then toward the western cliff, then toward the north. Finally, she pointed it at Cassie. The words she spoke as she did sent shock waves running down Cassie's spine:

  Earth and water, fire and air,

  See your daughter standing there.

  By dark of moon and light of sun,

  As I will, let it be done.

  By challenge, trial, and sacred vow,

  Let her join the Circle now.

  Flesh and sinew, blood and bone,

  Cassie now becomes—

  "But we don't all agree," an angry voice broke in. "I still don't think she's one of us. I don't think she ever can be."

  Twelve

  Diana turned sharply to face Deborah. "You can't interrupt the ritual!"

  "There shouldn't be a ritual," Deborah blazed back, her face dark and intense.

  "You agreed in the meeting—"

  "I agreed we had to do whatever it took to make us strong. But—" Deborah stopped and scowled.

  "But some of us may not have believed she'd pass the tests," Faye interpreted, smiling.

  Diana's face was pale and angry. The diadem she wore seemed to give her added stature, so that she looked taller even than Faye. Moonlight shimmered in her hair as it had off the blade of the knife.

  "But she did pass the tests," she said coldly.

  "And now you've interrupted a ritual—broken it—while I was calling down the Powers. I hope you have a better reason than that."

  "I'll give you a reason," Deborah said. "She's not really one of us. Her mother married an outsider."

  "Then what do you want?" Diana said. "Do you want us never to have a real Circle? You know we need twelve to get anything done. What are we supposed to do, wait until your parents—or the Hendersons—have another baby? None of the rest of us even has both parents alive. No." Diana turned to face the others in the group, who were standing around the inside perimeter of the circle. "We're the last," she told them. "The last generation in the New World. And if we can't complete our Circle, then it all ends here. With us."

  Melanie spoke up. She was wearing ordinary clothes under a pale green fringed shawl that looked both tattered and fragile, as if it were very old. "Our parents and grandparents would like that," she said. "They want us to leave it all in the past, the way they did and their parents did. They don't want us digging up the old traditions and waking the Old Powers."

  "They're scared," Deborah said scornfully.

  "They'll be happy if we can't complete the Circle," Melanie said. "But is that what we want?" She looked at Faye.

  Faye murmured coolly, "Individuals can do quite a lot on their own."

  "Oh, come on," Laurel put in. "Not like a real Circle. Not unless," she added, "somebody was planning to get hold of the Master Tools and use them all by herself."

  Faye gave her a slow, dazzling smile. "I'm not the one searching for the lost tools," she said.

  "This is all off the point," said Diana sharply. "The question is, do we want a complete Circle or don't we?"

  "We do," one of the Henderson brothers said. No, Chris, Cassie corrected herself. Suddenly she could tell them apart. Both the brothers looked white and strained in the moonlight, but Chris's eyes were less savage. "We're going to do whatever it takes to find out who killed Kori," Chris finished.

  "And then take care of them," Doug put in. He made a gesture of stabbing.

  "Then we need a full Circle," said Melanie. "A twelfth person and a seventh girl. Cassie is both."

  "And she's passed the tests," Diana repeated. "Her mother was one of us. She went away, yes, but now she's come back. And she brought her daughter to us just when we need her. Just exactly when we need her."

  Stubbornness still lingered in Deborah's eyes. "Who says she can even use the Powers?" she demanded.

  "I do," Diana replied steadily. "I can sense it in her."

  "And so do I," Faye said unexpectedly. Deborah turned to stare at her, and she smiled ingenuously.

  "I'd say she can call on Earth and Fire, at least," Faye continued, maddeningly bland. "She might even prove to have quite a talent."

  And why, Cassie wondered dazedly, did that make hairs on the back of her neck stand up?

  Diana's brows were drawn together as she gave Faye a long, searching look. But then she turned to Deborah.

  "Does that satisfy your objection?"

  There was a beat. Then Deborah nodded, sullenly, and stepped back.

  "Then," said Diana, with a quiet politeness that seemed to overlay an icy anger, "can we please get on with it?"

  Everyone stood away as she returned to her position. Once again she lifted the dagger to the sky, then to the cardinal points of the compass, then to Cassie. Once again she spoke the words that had sent chills down Cassie's spine, but this time she finished them uninterrupted.

  Earth and water, fire and air,

  See your daughter standing there.

  By dark of moon and light of sun,

  As I will, let it be done.

  By challenge, trial, and sacred vow,

  Let her join the Circle now.

  Flesh and sinew, blood and bone,

  Cassie now becomes our own.

  "That's it," Laurel said softly from behind Cassie. "You're in."

  In. I'm in. Cassie knew, with a feeling of wild exhilaration, that nothing would ever be the same again.

  "Cassie."

  Diana was unclasping the silver necklace she was wearing. Cassie's eyes were drawn to the crescent moon pendant that hung from it. It was like the one on the diadem, Cassie realized—and like Deborah's tattoo.

  "This is a token," Diana said, fastening the chain around Cassie's neck, "of your membership in the Circle."

  Then she hugged Cassie. It wasn't a spontaneous gesture; it had more the feeling of a ritual.

  Next she turned Cassie around to face the others and said, "The Powers have accepted her. I've accepted her. Now each of you has to."

  Laurel was the first to step up. Her face was serious, but there was a genuine warmth and friendliness in the depths of her brown eyes. She hugged Cassie, then kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I'm glad you're one of us," she whispered, and stepped back, her long, light-brown hair fluttering slightly in the breeze. "Thanks," Cassie whispered.

  Melanie was next. Her embrace was more formal, and her cool, intellectual gray eyes still intimidated Cassie. But when she said, "Welcome to the Club," she sounded as if she meant it.

  Deborah, by contrast, was scowling as she stepped forward, and she hugged Cassie as if she were trying to crack a rib or two. She didn't say anything.

  Sean hurried up, looking eager. His hug was a little too long and too close for Cassie's taste, and she ended up having to extricate herself. He said, "Glad you're in," with his eyes fixed on her nightgown in a way
that made Cassie wish it were flannel instead of light cotton.

  "I can tell," she said under her breath as he stepped back, and Diana, standing beside her, had to bite her lip.

  Under normal circumstances the Henderson brothers might have been even worse. But tonight they didn't seem to care if it was a girl or a block of wood they were embracing. They hugged her mechanically and stepped back to watch again with their angry, faraway eyes.

  And then it was Nick's turn.

  Cassie felt something inside her tighten. It wasn't that she was attracted to him, exactly, but… she couldn't help feeling a slight inner tremor when she looked up at him. He was so handsome, and the coldness that surrounded him like a thin layer of dark ice seemed only to enhance his looks. He'd stood back and observed the entire ceremony tonight with such detachment, as if none of it affected him one way or another.

  Even his embrace was noncommittal. Sexless. As if he were merely going through the motions while thinking of something else. His arms were strong, though—well, of course, thought Cassie. Any guy who had an—arrangement—with Faye would have to be strong.

  Suzan smelled of perfume, and when she kissed Cassie's cheek, Cassie felt sure she left a smudge of cherry-colored lipstick. Hugging her was like hugging a scented pillow.

  Finally, Faye came. Her heavy-lidded eyes were gleaming enigmatically, as if she were aware of Cassie's discomfiture and enjoying it.

  All Cassie was aware of was Faye's height and how much she herself wanted to run. She had a panicked conviction that Faye was going to do something awful…

  But Faye simply murmured, as she stepped back, "So the little white mouse is tougher than she looks. I was betting you wouldn't even last through the ceremony."

  "I'm not sure I did," Cassie muttered. She desperately wanted to sit down and gather her thoughts. So much had happened so fast… but she was in. Even Faye had accepted her. That fact could not be changed.