She put her hand on my forearm, and I suppressed the urge to slap it away.
“We’re late, come on.”
And then she got out, leaving me with all my questions and anger.
Close your eyes and get through it, Bay. You’re going to show them now that all of this is a mistake, and you don’t belong to the Garden Wizards, or whatever they call themselves.
I got out and briskly followed my mother across the cobbled courtyard, up the stairs, where she rang a bell as raven cries tore through the gloomy full moon night.
My heart slipped again as the door opened on its own with no one there.
Mum entered just like that.
“Diana, good to see you again.”
A short, petite woman with a dark ponytail, maybe ten years younger than Mum, smiled kindly at her before turning to me.
“You must be Bayla. Welcome to Moenia.”
Where the hell?
I eyed her suspiciously. Only now did I notice her floor-length black robe.
Great. Here one ran around like Gandalf.... What came next? Unicorns? Flying broomsticks? Witches’ hats?
“I’m Margot.” The young woman held out her hand to me, and I shook it out of reflex. Then she held out robes to me and Mum as well, her a black one, which Mum slipped on without hesitation, and me a white one.
I hesitantly accepted the thing before I did the same as both of her and Mum and I followed this Margot through the extensive hallway of the building toward a wide staircase that led down to another floor.
Somehow, the house seemed much larger from the inside, especially considering that the basement alone seemed to make up two levels.
This basement was mostly a hallway with old antiques and paintings from other centuries on the dark red wallpaper.
We passed dozens of bookshelves, and I was tempted to decipher the titles, but either they were faded or we walked past them too quickly without even a chance to run my finger, tingling with curiosity, over the book spines.
Yellowish lamps alternated with candlesticks mounted in wall brackets to light our way.
We came to the end of one of the countless corridors, where a meter-high golden globe waited for us.
There was no further to go.
Well, at least that’s what I thought until Margot put her hands on the globe and whispered, “Revelare”. The cities on the globe began to glow golden like little stars in the sky, and the globe slowly rotated until – how could it be otherwise? – a spiral staircase that wound around the globe to the next floor came into view.
In what extended version of Harry Potter had I landed here?
“Follow me, we’re the last ones. The others are waiting for you.”
The others?
Great. There was probably a whole armada of Gandalfs. And the fact that they were all waiting for me didn’t make anything better.
Margot went down without another word and the candlesticks on the brick walls went on by themselves.
I didn’t question it anymore, because I had realized by now that I was in a magical house where everything seemed to have a life of its own, even if a large part of me didn’t want to believe it.
Instead, I just hoped I could climb those stairs a second time, namely upwards.
“Put your hoods on.”
I obeyed Margot and pulled on my white hood, which fell deep into my vision.
Downstairs was a masonry of stone with two double doors of dark oak, framed by stone women. The statues wore noble robes, as at the fountain outside, this time, however, without water, but with real plants that they carried on their hands like something sacred. And their legs seemed to be normal.
Margot approached the door in front of us and made a quick gesture with her hand. The gate opened and Margot led us into a large, pillared underground hall, lit by torches alone.
My jaw dropped.
How could such a gigantic hall fit under this house? It reminded me of the interior of a massive temple, with its columns decorated by ornaments and frescoes, the upper side windows with glass art, and an altar in the center on which various tinctures, stone bowls, and other strange things were placed.
When I caught sight of at least twenty people in black hoods, nervousness spread through me again.
It actually seemed to me like a cult that was holding its ritual tonight to summon demons. All that was missing was the sacrifice.
My heart began to race.
What if...
“Step closer,” a woman’s voice commanded, hidden under one of the black hoods. She stepped up to the altar, and my mother closed her gap in the circle.
