Death of an Adept

A shiver of greater uneasiness rippled through the company, but the library and, indeed, the entire estate had already been rendered as secure against intrusion as was possible. PC Gilston was standing guard outside the front door of the house, to fend off further press inquiries; and with Peregrine and Julia withdrawn to the greater safety of the main house for the duration, McLeod had pulled back Adam's recent security patrols to the immediate vicinity of the house, with strict instructions to safeguard the family's privacy.

"Naturally, the regular police are prepared to do all they can," Philippa continued. "Unfortunately, I doubt they have the resources to find Raeburn - at least in time. Certainly they aren't equipped to deal with him. That means most of the burden falls upon us. I expect that, at best, we have three days to accomplish this."

"Why three days?" Harry asked.

"Adam left a message on my answering machine late last night," McLeod said. "He was none too specific, because all of us try to avoid leaving hard evidence of what we do, but he said he'd been going through lolo McFarlane's dream journal and had come up with some leads - that he was convinced McFarlane is still alive, but he didn't think anything would go critical until after the weekend." He paused a beat.

"Monday is Imbolc Eve, one of the most significant festivals of the old Celtic calendar, a traditional time of blood-sacrifice. Adam was concerned for McFarlane when he rang me; but now that he himself is in Raeburn's hands, I think it's highly likely that Adam will become the sacrifice instead. I kick myself now that I didn't ring him back this morning to clarify," he added, steeling himself to Ximena's appalled intake of breath.

"He also mentioned a special witness that he wanted to talk to - and that he needed my help to do this," McLeod went on, sweeping his gaze across the other members of the Hunting Lodge, who immediately realized he was not speaking of a living witness. "I have no idea who he had in mind, but I think it's important that we try to find out - and start in immediately on trying to locate Adam himself. Philippa, I'd like to defer to your greater experience in directing this operation. You're in the best position to coordinate our efforts from here, while I continue to liaise with more conventional police efforts to find him."

Ximena, whose face had gone progressively paler during McLeod's recitation, glanced at all their faces in something of despair.

"Am I really hearing what I think I hear?" she whispered. "Are you saying that this Raeburn is going to make a human sacrifice of Adam?"

McLeod looked at his hands, unable to meet her gaze, and Peregrine, too, averted his eyes, both of them remembering Randall Stewart. The other members of the Hunting Lodge looked away as well. Julia bit at her lips, fighting back tears, and Harry looked stunned. Only Philippa remained undaunted as she reached across to take her daughter-in-law's hand.

"I'm afraid we are, darling," she said quietly. "But that isn't until three days from now. Meanwhile, there's much we can do. Noel, I'll need you to fetch a few things for me from downstairs."

A quarter-hour later, they were ready to begin, arranging folding chairs around two card tables pushed together in the center of the room. Victoria had covered the tables with a clean white cloth, and upon it in the center was set a large sphere of rock crystal on a silver stand. The electric lights had been extinguished, so the room was lit only by the firelight and a single new beeswax candle in a silver holder, set close beside the crystal.

Signing for everyone to find a chair, Philippa took a place between McLeod and Julian and laid Adam's silver-mounted skean dubh on the table beside the crystal. While upstairs to fetch it, she had changed from her smart designer suit of earlier in the day to a comfortable caftan of sapphire-blue velour whose color echoed that of the gem set in the skean dubh's hilt and the lesser sapphires gracing the hands of each Huntsman.

In addition, Philippa had donned an Egyptian necklace of exquisite workmanship - blue faience and enamelwork depicting a solar disk flanked by two ostrich plumes and gripped by a Horus hawk. While most of those present were aware that the necklace had belonged to Adam himself, in an earlier incarnation, she offered a modified explanation for the benefit of those who had no knowledge of such mysteries.

"This is apt to be a very long night, so I thought I'd change into something more comfortable before settling down to work," she said, adjusting the angle of the skean dubh more to her liking. "This will all seem very strange to a few of you, so I'll try to explain a little before we begin.

"The items we've assembled here are tools - nothing more. It's said that a good magician should be able to work high magic while naked in the middle of a desert - but the proper tools make the work far easier."