A long shuddering sigh came from the crowd.

"Kill the wizards," the young man echoed, and his smile grew broader…

"Please," Juniper cried into the storm of power, in a shout that was half a sob. "Please, show us our trial, here in these lands and this time."

And Signe's gaze narrowed like her totem-beast on the prowl for prey or snarling at a rival as she saw A young man stood looking down on a burning city from a high window. His head was shaven, and there was blood on his naked body, on belly and loins and hands; and there was something beyond humanity in his eyes. He raised his clotted hands to the crowd below, warriors in spiked steel helmets and armor of overlapping lacquered-leather plates.

"The Church is United and Triumphant indeed!" he shouted. "And I am its Prophet!"

They flourished swords and lances whose points bore gruesome trophies and chanted:

"Sethaz! Sethaz! Prophet! Prophet!"

The man's voice rose to a tearing shriek:

"I am the Scourge of God!"

"Enough," Juniper Mackenzie whispered. "Enough…"

She staggered. A friend's arm supported her; she blinked her way back to awareness, and saw it was Judy Barstow. Her man Chuck was by her side, concern behind the elk-mask of a High Priest. BD was on one knee, leaning on her staff and wheezing in shock, and Melissa's face had gone milk-white under its ruddy tan. Other Initiates rushed to help them; only Signe stood alone, bristling and baring her teeth, hand closing on a sword hilt that wasn't there.

"Ground and center, ground and center," Judy said softly. "I'll take it from here."

Juniper struggled back towards calm, forcing each breath in and out, feeling the drumbeat pounding of her heart slow. The other woman's voice came to her in snatches:

"… go if you must, stay if you will… take our grateful thanks."

The rite made its way to its end, with the Circle opened. The Initiates filed out, and silence fell in the sacred wood. Juniper tucked the sacrificial sickle through her belt as they left the nemed .