The Wise Women

Chapter 17

Nesta's eyes were swollen from yesterday's crying as she sat in the Stone Circle early next morning. Yet dawn had brought new hope and the corners of her mouth turned upwards as she felt the rising sun warm her skin.

When the Burned One sounded the final note to end the meditation, Nesta saw several eager faces turn in her direction.

'Can we?' asked Margery, eyes shining.
'Yes,' the Burned One smiled and nodded. 'Today is the day we let the sunlight in.' She opened her arms wide.

The Wise Women scrambled to their feet with excited exclamations and hurried off back toward the Village. Nesta was confused. She reached out to Theresa with her mind.

'Knock, knock.'
'Come in.'
'What's happening, Tess?'
Theresa chuckled. 'You'll see,' she said out loud. 'Come on! Let's get after them!'

They jogged behind the others, anticipation sparking in the air. When they came out of the forest into the Village, Nesta saw that a ladder leant against each of the six walls of the Temple up to its steepled roof. Several women held the base of each ladder while another scurried up it, armed with a long piece of rope. When they reached the top, they tied one end of their rope to a metal ring in the middle of the long triangular panel which made up their portion of the six-sided roof. From the metal rings, the ropes hung down the sides of the Temple to the ground where the other ends lay in coils.

Once the knots were securely tied, the six Wise Women scampered down. The gangs on the ground removed the ladders and grabbed hold of their ropes, enthusiastically shouting to the others to join them until each rope had several women holding onto it, one behind the other, as if they were about to play tug of war.

'Are you ready?' Margery shouted.
'Yeeees!' they chorused in reply.
'Three, two, one, heave!'

All six groups of women simultaneously took the strain and heaved with all their might, each group pulling on one of the six ropes radiating out from the Temple's pointed roof. With grunts and grimaces they pulled, muscles taut, leaning so far back they were almost lying down, feet pawing the ground as they pushed against it. Mildred and Theresa shouted encouragement from the sides,

'Come on! You can do it!'
'Pull! Pull! Pull!'

Suddenly, all at once, with a deafening creak, the roof panels opened up like the petals of a lily, exposing their painted white undersides to the heavens. The rope-pullers fell down in a heap, laughing and shouting, 'Hooray!'

'Hooray!' Mildred joined the shout, running forward to help them up.
'The roof panels are on hinges,' Theresa explained. 'We can open them up and let the sunlight in. Sunlight energises the crystal and purifies it. We've been conjuring Sapphira and the dark energy that surrounds her in it every night, so it needs cleansing. Let's go in and see.' The toppled Wise Women were getting up, brushing themselves off and moving towards the Temple doors. Nesta and Theresa joined them.

Inside, they all stopped and gazed upward as a ray of morning sunlight slanted in through the open roof and caught the top third of the crystal pillar, illuminating it and reflecting dancing patterns of light onto the Temple's walls and floor. The markings inside the crystal shone golden and fluttered like the flakes in the snow globe Mrs Crosby kept on the post office mantelpiece. Nesta gazed, awed by the beauty. For a moment, she thought she could see something like black smoke coming out of the crystal and curling up into the air where it disappeared, dispersed by the breeze. She blinked and shook her head.

'Knock, knock,' she heard Theresa in her head.
'Come in.'
Theresa sent her an image of a table laden with bowls of cooked apple and blackberry, creamy porridge, freshly baked bread, butter and honey. Nesta's stomach rumbled in response. They smiled at each other and made their way to the dining hall.