Omega

And beneath all this, there was the certainty – indefinable but growing – that the Midsummer earth tremors were only a curtain-raiser. No, they were right to prepare for flight and they knew it. They found themselves spending more and more time studying maps.

They were both glad and shocked to sec John. They had not met him since the inquest, and although they had expected to find him badly hit by Joy's death, they found the contrast between the bitterness in his eyes and his unnaturally controlled voice disturbing. In the hall, he received Moira's kiss and Dan's handshake with a flash of the old warmth but it was quickly veiled.

They kissed Karen too, as was Wiccan custom, and Moira led them into the sitting-room while Dan went to fetch Greg, Rosemary and Sally, who were all still up.

'When did they let you out, John?'

'This morning. Mary Andrews and Nigel Pickering were in the same nick and we were all brought in front of the bench together at ten o'clock. We expected to get a chance to protest about being arrested and to plead our case, but all we got was a lecture from the beak – a warning to behave ourselves and give no trouble. Then he dismissed us before we could even open our mouths.'

'Yes,' Moira said, 'it seems to have been the same all over. One or two of the others have phoned. Looks like the drill was cut and dried.'

'What else did you expect?' Karen asked.

'Oh, I don't know – a bit of local variation, I suppose. Magistrates have the reputation of being pretty individual.'

Karen said 'Huh!' and at that point the others came in. Greetings exchanged, they all sat down and looked at John expectantly; he had the air of one about to deliver a statement.

'You all know, I suppose, that Karen has taken over as High Priestess,' he told them almost stiffly. 'Sonia Forde has been appointed Maiden in her place.'

'Good choice,' Moira said, looking at Karen with deliberate friendliness. 'Sonia should be a big help to you.' She had known Joy's uneasiness about Karen and had shared it, but the poor girl's in a difficult situation, she told herself, arid it's up to me to show support – for John's sake if nothing else.

'Yes, she is,' Karen said;

John went on: 'We came to ask what you are planning to do, in the present situation.'

'Keeping our cars packed ready for a camping holiday at a moment's notice,' Dan said.

'So are we, except that we're not waiting for notice. We're getting out the day after tomorrow, during the small hours. Our coven and Anna and Joe Fenton's. Nineteen of us altogether. We've got a place recce'd in Savernake Forest. Will you come with us?'

There was a moment's silence. The others look at John with immediate interest but a warning bell seemed to ring in Moira's mind. |

'What about Jean and Fred Thomas?' she asked. 'They were your oldest members, before you all hived off. Aren't they taking theirs with you?'

'No, I'm afraid not,' John said. 'They think we're being premature.'

Dan, who for all his logicality could still surprise Moira with his sudden shafts of intuition, shook his head. 'There's more to it than that, John – isn't there? More than just being premature?'

John did not seem put out. 'Yes, Dan, there's more to it than that. Jean and Fred don't agree with our plan of campaign and their coven support them – all except one, Harry Earley. He's opted to come with us, so Jean's let him transfer.'

'What plan of campaign?'

'Dan, all of you… We have to face it – this is war. The powers that be are out to destroy the Craft. We can't let them.'

'Of course we can't,' Greg put in. 'Why d'you think we're getting ready to take to the woods, too? Self-bloody-preservation. Not just as people but as witches.'

'But how as witches?' John asked, with sudden vehemence. 'The other side are using every weapon they can lay their hands on. And so should we.'

'What you mean is,' old Sally said, 'that you're going to work black.'

Karen laughed. 'If you like to call it that. Yes.'

'What do you call it?'

'As Greg just said. Self-bloody-preservation. Which of us is pure white, anyway? Aren't we all various shades of grey?'

'Of course we are – we're human. But most of us are grey trying to get whiter; grey trying to get black is something else again.' Sally did not often make speeches but once she got the bit between her teeth she did not pull any punches. 'You know the law of the Craft as well as I do: "An' it harm none, do what you will." Set out to harm people – worst of all, to use psychic power to harm them -and you're on the long slippery slope. You're heading for self-destruction.'

'Even when the people you're fighting are evil?' John asked.

'Good God, John – you're a High Priest, and you're talking as if you were initiated yesterday! You've seen what happens to people who turn black. They get away with it for a while, then sooner or later they crash. And only the Lords of Karma know how many lives it takes 'em to climb out of what they've done to themselves, never mind other people.'

'In ordinary times, Sally, I'd agree with you all the way. But this is war. In war you shoot to kill – you have to. In peacetime it'd be murder. In war it's survival – not just yours, but the people you're protecting.'

Dan came back into the argument. 'We've got other weapons, John. If somebody's doing evil, we can work magically to bind him – and it does work, you know that. Attacking him magically's different.'

'Can you honestly say you never would?' John asked.

'Oh Christ, of course I can't – like Sally says, we're human, and I can get angry like the next bloke. Look, John – say you'd known who it was had killed Joy and you'd used all your powers to hit at him – d'you think I'd have blamed you? I'd probably have helped if you'd asked me and there was no other way of getting at him. Maybe we'd have been wrong but we're not saints yet. I know if anyone harmed Moira, I'd lash out first and ask questions afterwards. But that's personal – and if you get too pernickety about how you defend people you love, could be you're piling up other sorts of Karma instead. But unless I'm mistaking you, what you're proposing is calculated, wholesale, impersonal black magic against opponents of the Craft in general. And that's different.'

John had not yet said as much in words but Moira knew Dan was not mistaking him; still less was he mistaking

Karen. And it was Karen who answered.

'It is not different,' she said, and her dark eyes were burning with intensity. 'They're being calculating, wholesale and impersonal, and in everything but magic they're stronger than we are. We must be the same – with the weapon's we are strong in. Otherwise we go under.'

'I don't believe it.'

Karen laughed. 'I expect there were some who said that in the Burning Time. And they'd be the first to die.'

'I'd rather die clean,' Dan said, too quickly and dramatically. Karen pounced on the opening he'd given her.

'And watch Moira die clean, too? And Diana, and Sally, and Rosemary?'

Dan darkened with anger and Moira stepped in. 'Let's cool the melodrama. John – Karen – I'm sorry, we can't go with you. We'll survive, but that's not our way.'

There was silence again. John looked round them all; they could see the pleading behind the hard bitterness in his eyes but everyone was with Moira. There was no pleading in Karen's eyes, only a hint of triumph. She stood up, with a kind of sensuous arrogance.