Doctor Who_ Cats Cradle_ Witch Mark - Andrew Hunt [0]
Prologue...................................................................................... .......................3
1: Arrivals ..................................................................... ................................12
2: Strange Beasts .................................................................................. .........23
3: Missing Persons .................................................................. ......................38
4: Arawn's Wheel .............................................................................. ............44
5: An Unexpected Party ............................................................. ...................57
6: A Journey in the Dark ................................................................. ..............62
7: Unwelcome Visitors ............................................. ....................................75
8: Three Is Company ................................................................................ .....79
9: Rissole Time .................................................................. ...........................87
10: Many Meetings .............................................................. ...........................91
11: Corn Circles...................................................................... .......................101
12: Fire and Water .................................................... ....................................105
13: The Land of Shadow ...................................................................... .........114
14: There ... ............................................................................ .......................118
15: Dagda's Wheel .......................................................... ..............................124
16: Altered Flesh .................................................................................. .........131
17: ... And Back Again .................................................................................. 139
Prologue
Bathsheba watched motes of dust dancing in the shaft of sunlight and let forth a heavy sigh. It earned her a stern glare from Siân but that didn't make the sentiment behind it any less heartfelt.
After fifteen days of solid rain, pounding the earth around the farm into a fury of mud, the sun had emerged from behind the heavy layers of cloud and Bathsheba had, found herself confined to the hay barn along with all the other children. It confirmed that this always happened, though Bathsheba had a long enough memory to recall being grateful at the sight of the raven-haired teacher strolling towards the farm at harvest time. Then Siân's lessons had brought Bathsheba a longed-for respite from h r fumbling attempts, doomed to failure, at using the scythe.
The scythe had been her father's idea. It needed two arms to wield the instrument properly, two good arms. To the shaft he had attached a leather thong which could be tightened around her right wrist and with her left arm she was just about able to swing it. But her efforts were useless; the blade either swung too low because she couldn't support it or it merely flattened the stalks. The exercise was intended to strengthen her right arm, which had been withered at birth, but gradually it became apparent that it did no such thing and so she was given a break from that work. Father had then given her the job of going round the field, after the grain had been flailed from the stalks and the hay stacked, to pick up all of the stray grains which had fallen. This job too was tiresome and, though it provided Bathsheba with time to free her imagination, before a very great time she began to hate tramping up and down fields.
Her attention turned back towards Siân. What had she been talking about? The last thing she could remember was something about Dinorben, the fortress where the council, the Tuatha De Danaan, held their meetings. Bathsheba had never been there, although at most it must be only two days' ride away.
She had seen pictures of the circle which was guarded