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Moving forward again, she spoke in a tremulous whisper: 'Doctor! Are you there?' Her heart leapt as a hand was clamped over her mouth and she was pulled back into the darkness of one of the alcoves cut into the cave wall.

'Ssh!' a voice breathed. 'They're in and out all the time.' It was Mike Yates.

'Why didn't you stay in bed?' he went on, taking his hand away.

'I had to find out what's going on. The Doctor needs me,' she whispered.

'The Doctor's not here. He's still with the Brig.'

Jo's mind was becoming clearer every second. 'I'm an idiot,' she said.

'You can say that again,' said Mike. 'As idiots go, you'd win a prize coming here. The whole place is alive with booby-traps.'

'Booby-traps? You mean, bombs?'

'I mean spells; elementals; the Doctor's psionic force fields...'

Jo shivered. She said, 'Where... where are they?'

'All over,' answered Yates. 'Here, I'll show you. Pass me one of those books.'

Jo looked around her. On a table nearby, a small pile of cheap paperbacked guides awaited the coins of the summer visitors. She picked one up and passed it to Mike.

'Thanks. Now watch this.'

Gauging the distance carefully, he tossed the book onto the marked flagstone. Instantly there came the sound of a fierce rushing wind and the book was viciously torn into a hundred fluttering pieces. As abruptly as it came, the wind died.

Jo watched, round-eyed. 'It's a trick! It's a horrible conjuring trick,' she breathed at last.

'Do you think so?' said Mike grimly. 'Remember Benton and what happened to him?'

Jo was silent.

'Come on,' continued Mike. 'Let's get out of here before they... ssh!' Pulling her back into the sheltering darkness of the alcove once more, Mike laid a finger on Jo's lips.

Into the Cavern came a procession of robed and hooded figures. Forming a circle around the Stone of Sacrifice, they began a low chanting, repeating 'Io Evohe! Io Evohe!' over and over until, echoing and re-echoing over around the reverberant cavern, it became an unbroken background of hypnotic noise.

The door flew open. The noise ceased on the instant. In the more than silent stillness, the Master, once more enrobed in scarlet, descended the steps, bearing before him a large and wicked knife with a handle of carved black ebony and a razor-sharp blade of the finest steel. This he placed on the Stone of Sacrifice by the ritual vessels. Moving the chalice to one side, he tossed a pinch of incense onto the still glowing charcoal in the thurible. A flash of red flame sent a puff of smoke sailing up into the shadows of the high roof. As if this was the signal, the chanting began once again : 'Io Evohe! Io Evohe...'

'Mike, I'm scared,' said Jo, her voice little more than an exhalation.

'Don't worry,' replied Mike in the same tone. 'The Doc'll soon be back—and Benton knows where we are.'

'As my will, so mote it be,' intoned the Master.

'Nema,' responded the coven.

' Hearken to my voice, oh dark one;

Ancient and awful; Supreme in artifice;

Bearer of power... '

As the sonorous voice rolled round the Cavern, Jo's hand tremblingly looked for Mike's and gripped it hard. It responded with a reassuring squeeze.

Now the Master picked up the ritual knife from the Stone of Sacrifice and held it high in the air.

'Behold this blade, Athame; the knife of power, the blade of power; the knife of blood. Know it as my will; as sharp, as cruel and as ruthless. Know the blade of blood, the blade of sacrifice...'

Jo clutched Mike's hand even harder. 'What does he mean?' she whispered. 'Sacrifice? Mike! What does he mean?'

The panic in her voice would have made it sound throughout the Cavern, but that the coven had started to chant once more, 'Io Evohe...' as the Master intoned the secret words of the Great Conjuration.

'What's he saying? What language is that?'

'Ssh!' replied Mike, 'I don't recognise it any more than you do.'

'It's evil. It sounds all wrong; all upside down...'

The Master was nearing the end of his incantation '...DNAW ONSSA ETIHW 0SAWECE ELFSTIB!