The Star-Fire Prophecy Read Online Free

“Now you are joking.” But her voice was uncertain.
    They crossed to the door. Danica waited while Evan paid the cashier. She was conscious of stares from the nearby tables and looked down at her clothes to make sure there was nothing wrong.
    “He’s one of them,” she heard a woman say to her companion. “I never saw her before, but he’s one of them from that place up there where they have the bonfires.”
    The man with the woman cleared his throat and Danica glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He spoke in a voice obviously pitched for Evan and her to hear.
    “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live…”

Chapter Three
    Once outside the restaurant, Danica put her hand on Evan’s arm. “Did you hear what that man said?” she asked.
    “Exodus 22:18.”
    “Oh, I know it’s a Biblical quote,” she said, her voice impatient. “But why did he say it?”
    “Some of the locals—a clannish group, by the way—find us menacing.” Evan laughed harshly. “Anything they don’t understand is a threat.”
    “Well, I know many people are uneasy about the mentally disabled,” Danica said.
    “Oh, no, not the children, the children don’t bother them at all. Didn’t you know Porterville has a state hospital for the disabled?”
    She shook her head.
    “No, we’re the ones they distrust—the staff. Maybe you’ll have second thoughts after this.”
    She tried to see his expression in the gathering darkness. Did he want her at Star-Fire or not? She was no longer sure.
    She followed the taillights of Evan’s blue Porsche up blacktopped roads that wound around hills, all the time ascending. Lights grew fewer and the final stretch of road was unpaved. As she trailed him through an open gate, she saw the flicker of fire ahead. “Bonfires,” the woman had said. Danica smiled, thinking of her mental picture of the site.
    “Campfires,” she murmured. Why were people so afraid of the unknown?
    She pulled her car alongside Evan’s and got out. Would they invite her to spend the night? There’d been motels in Porterville, but she wasn’t sure she could negotiate the different turns and twists to get back to town.
    “Hand me your suitcases,” Evan said. “We have guest accommodations.”
    She got out her luggage and locked the car. The fire was hidden from them by the back of a large A-frame structure. Probably the recreation hall, she thought.
    “This is the Chanting Room,” Evan said. “Tonight is a ritual-fire night. We have them at least once a month, usually oftener in the winter.” He led her around the building and she saw the fire.
    Flames rose tall and yellow from a semicircular area in front of the A-frame. Dark figures clustered around the fire, forming a complete circle. Faces glowed orange in the light and Danica saw the children were here, too. The ritual fire was for everyone.
    “We can’t join them,” Evan whispered. “You haven’t been shown the rites.” He moved past them and she followed, head turned to watch the fire.
    A rhythm came into her step, she found her body swaying and realized the entire group about the flames was chanting, voices pitched low. The sound went through her, settled into her bones, and flooded her head with images of flickering lights and groping shadows. She shivered and hurried to catch up with Evan. This was more than a friendly campfire.
    “When the weather’s bad we go inside to chant at the source,” he told her. “It’s a group consciousness thing—one of Galt’s best ideas.”
    “He’s the director?”
    “Yes. Galt Anders. I’m taking you to his house now, he’ll be up after the fire is put away.”
    “Put away?”
    “It’s all a part of what you’ll be learning if you stay. The eternal fire is kept in the Chanting Room, the fire source, so to speak. All the outdoor fires are lit from it, and after the outside ritual a small part of that fire is brought back to the source.”
    Danica shrugged mentally. She’d wait and see the rest