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"Writing a spell The strongest ones need special wording It’ll take me a few minutes"

"Then perhaps I have time to check out the other entrance you think Barron used I want to see if he was also co here"

"Sure If I finish first I’ll wait for you"

When Andreas returned, Ari had already finished her spell and was leaning against a rocky forht and pickaxe "I found these dropped inside the other entrance Someone had indeed been inside, and he wasn’t alone Two scents and tracks going both directions One of them returned a second tie "I’ll take these to Ryan e leave If Barron’s crew can identify them, we’ll knoas one set of tracks, and then we can concentrate on figuring out ith him"

"And why they were here I still don’t knohat these intruders want I have seen nothing that could be carried away, no treasure to sell Nor can I comprehend how anyone would know that Spirit Cave exists"

"Spirit Cave Is that what’s down this tunnel?" She gently shook a set rid of our ghost"

She handed her flashlight to Andreas, opened the packet to pour a handful of estured for him to ith her into the tunnel

The apparition appeared i their path Ari bowed her head to the four winds, closed her eyes, and began the words of the spell:

Foruard this path, let ht, leave this place without a fight;

Goddess, hear and grant my plea; so mote it be

When she had repeated the chant three times, she tossed the crystals The barrier sparked and sizzled The apparition dissolved into swirls, circling around and around into a tighter spiral ItAri to duck, then vanished in a silent flash of light

"Nicely done" Andreas’s voice broke into that sense of isolation Ari felt every time she did a complex spell He took her hand in his "Now, letmystery in the caverns"

Chapter Six

Ari crouched to follow Andreas through a s and halted iy barrier, causing her witchin harles up her aric, formed by natural forces She inched forward, dropped a couple of feet into a twenty-by-twenty-foot chaht over the rocky interior Despite the obviousout of the ordinary More open and less humid than the outer chamber behind them, this cave owed its formation more to upheaval than erosion Niches and crevices riddled the fractured surfaces, and rock debris, both large and small, littered the cave floor The center of the rooy

"Turn off your flashlight, Arianna"

The asped Ley lines Not one but two Running about six inches above the surface, the low sticks in the dark "A vortex," she breathed "And a powerful one This is a ley tunnel"

Even if she hadn’t felt the power, the color alone designated a h to form a whirlpool of time and dimensions

"By the Goddess, Andreas Do you knohat you have here?"

Such conjunctions were rare concentrations of power It explained the energy barrier at the cave opening Power creating power The vortex was hiding, protecting itself

Out of respect, she stepped over the glowing lines, careful to avoid even the slightest interference with the telluric connection The earth currents, or ley lines, ran between earth’s vortexes of power, uniting such places as Stonehenge with the pyraypt or the Black Hills with Machu Picchu

"Have you plotted where each of the lines goes?" she whispered Even that small sound seemed inappropriate in such a sacred place

"Only minimal work One of them connects with Mesa Verde in Colorado" Andreas also kept his voice low and his eyes focused on the vortex as if coic "The other may point toward Rome They have not been fully charted"

She leaned forward to peer at his face "Do you realize the significance of having two lines meet like this?" Since few people outside the practice of sorcery understood ley linefor an answer "They forateway to other diood or evil and should be guarded 24/7 It could be a world changer" He frowned, and she said ih from other places, other centuries, or even different dis--like de why I had not heard this before"