Jennet ran into the pale circle of light at the crossroads. The silence of the night was marred by her great, gasping breaths.
Nobody here yet. She had made it in time. She wrapped both hands around her staff and tried to get her breathing back under control.
She could make out a circle of standing stones in the darkness across the road. The trembling rush of her blood steadied as she looked at the stones, faintly illuminated by the lantern. Wait. She blinked and looked again. The stones themselves were softly lit, as though they were glowing with centuries of absorbed starlight.
A noise pulled her attention back to the road. Something was coming, something still distant - barely felt in the vibration of hooves, the faint drift of chiming bells.
Her heartbeat slammed through her chest
