Excerpt of The Journey.
The full moon still hung in the sky, but the stars were now extinguished as dawn approached. There would be a sabbat this month after all, and there was little time to spare.
She raked burrows in the sand with her bare hands, collected the carved totems and buried them face down. She found a basket of sulfur and flint powder in Mamou’s hut and sprinkled some on the structures. There could be no sign of any settlement.
Milena placed candles at five points to cast a circle and lit them by rubbing together flint stones dipped in the powder. She meditated into the light, prayed and drew power from the goddesses.
She touched the candles to dried vegetation at the base of the huts. Flames exploded high into the sky, fueled by the accelerant. Milena stripped off her dress and stood naked in the center of her circle, clutching her pentacle in one hand and the basket of Mamou’s powder in the other.
Soot fell from the sky like rain. Snakes and lizards writhed through the brush, fleeing the heat. The strength and fury of the goddess Yemaya burned within her. By the time the white men arrived the huts would be blackened heaps. Milena was ready for them.
All traces of the village had been erased. A circle of embers glowed like the latent fury of the goddess. Milena stood in the center, allowing their presence to fill and energize her, to prepare her to avenge all those burned, hanged, flogged to death. Vengeance would not bring them back, nor repair the lives destroyed, the families sundered, the children orphaned. But eliminating the souls filled with hate, scorn and prejudice would restore some balance in the forces of good and evil. Some blood must always be spilled in sacrifice. Milena cared not if it was her own, or that of Thomas and his comrades. They were mere vessels, conduits, channels for Yemaya to work her magick.
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