Solstice at Stonewylde Read Free Page B

mother could behave like this.
    ‘All you ever think about is Magus! He always comes first, before anyone or anything. How could you have let him hit me, Mum?
You’ve
never hit me and you’ve always said it was wrong. Do you really love him so much that I don’t matter now? Don’t you care about me any more?’
    Miranda looked away uncomfortably.
    ‘Of course I do. But Magus is right – you can’t just take to your bed for half the month. If you insist on dancing on that cliff, you’ll have to put up with feeling tired afterwards and get on with it. And anyway, Sylvie, Magus didn’t hit you. It was just a little slap.’
    ‘That’s not true! He did hit me, he was rough with me and it really hurt, especially when I feel so ill. Why do you
always
take his side?’
    ‘Because he knows best. He says I’ve been too soft with you all these years and that’s why you’re so weak and quick to take to your bed. He says you’ve got no backbone and you enjoy being an invalid and I think maybe he’s right. We have to obey him, you know that. Please don’t be difficult, darling – it makes life so unpleasant and I don’t want him to get angry. I must think of the baby, after all.’
    Sylvie turned her back on her mother, seething with outrage. When they reached the Village, Tom helped them out of the cart and Sylvie managed to whisper to him again.
    ‘If you get the chance, tell Yul I love him. Please, Tom?’
    ‘Aye, miss, I’ll do that.’
    Sylvie stood shivering at the entrance to the Green Labyrinth marked out on the Village Green, waiting her turn to go in. Her face was so white and thin that she hardly needed a skull mask and she pulled the thick black cloak tightly around her, trying to keep warm. The atmosphere on the Green today frightened her, all the more because of her dreadful weakness. Everything in the Village today spoke of death and darkness, and this emphasis on mortality and morbidity terrified her. It was so different from the joyous maypole dancing at Beltane or the holiday fun of the Summer Solstice.
    Everyone wore a hooded black robe or cloak and many wore skull masks. A thin line of smoke trickled from the wicker dome in the centre of the labyrinth, but the cottages seemed strangely lifeless without their habitual plumes of smoke. It was quiet too, despite the many people thronging around the cobbles. Sylvie wanted very much to cling to Miranda, who stood nearby, but that was out of the question given Miranda’s earlier remarks. Her mother had made it very clear where her priorities now lay. Sylvie felt abandoned – and very vulnerable.
    A man in a crow mask stood at the arch of elder branches,identical to the one up at the Stone Circle. He allowed young people to enter the sacred space nine at a time, one by one. As Sylvie’s group waited he reminded them of the labyrinth’s significance. This was a pilgrimage and a moment of deep meditation. The walk through the labyrinth was symbolic, representing the journey towards death. When they entered the dome in the centre they entered the Otherworld, the Realm of the Dead, where they shed their past life and lay reflecting on all they’d left behind. Then, reborn from the dark womb, they began a new life, a new journey starting afresh as they retraced their steps and followed the path back out of the maze. This, said the crow man solemnly, was also symbolic of the death of this year and the birth of the new one. A time of endings and beginnings.
    Sylvie watched the youngsters already in there. They walked very slowly, guided by the white pebbles as they followed the symmetrical, tortuously curved path. They walked with heads bowed, making sure they kept distance between each other until they reached the entrance to the dome. Sylvie really didn’t want to enter the labyrinth; the whole thing was macabre and absolutely terrified her. She swayed on her feet at the entrance thinking she might at any moment faint. She’d barely eaten all week and