Dimensions - Lynne North (uplifting book club books txt) 📗

Prologue

Blazing torches held aloft by ancient iron brackets cast flickering, dancing shadows around the huge stone walls. Another day was reaching its end, and the hall had become silent and still as the encroaching night. The room was free of adornments, except for a banner of blue and silver on the far wall, depicting a five-pointed star. The robed figures sitting at each side of the heavy, five-sided, oak table had no need of anything else. Each of them occupied a high backed oaken chair, casting larger than life silhouettes on the ancient walls, deep in their own thoughts.
It was Algard who finally broke the silence. The discussions were over, and as he was the eldest, the final weighty decision lay with him. While running slender fingers through his long grey hair, he spoke. “You are right, Lendor, we have no choice. All other paths have come to an end, and our alternatives have failed. The time has come again to summon an Outlander.” His blue eyes stared at each of his companions in turn, judging the impact of his words.
“But, Algard,” questioned Jeron, twisting the silver band he wore on the middle finger of his right hand. “How can we be sure an Outlander will not be used to work against us? You know as well as I do how near that came to happening last time. We must remember the Lords of Darkness are even stronger now. Can we take the risk?” Despite being the youngest, Jeron was also the most cautious. His dark eyes showed concern.
“Can we afford not to, my friend?” asked Algard. “There is no other way. I’m afraid we have reached the point where we have nothing to lose. The third section of the Pentacle has been taken. We cannot allow any more to be lost. We must make the Calling.”

CHAPTER ONE

Leah had never been particularly interested in antique shops so how she came to be staring into the window of one with such intensity, she couldn’t remember. One minute she had been wandering around town, the next she was in front of the shop, gazing through the rain streaked glass. By the time she focused her eyes, she was staring at a dull five-pointed star on a thick silver chain. With a feeling of being almost mesmerised, a few minutes passed before Leah could tear her eyes away and look back down the road. She didn’t remember walking the short distance from work and crossing the road. Dangerous. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. She must get a grip. Leah didn’t know what had kept her mind so occupied. She asked herself, can I really be that tired by Monday lunchtime? She didn’t like her chances for the rest of the week. She took another look at the necklace, then headed back to the office.
By Wednesday when the same thing happened for the third time, Leah felt unnerved. She had already noticed the elderly guy in the shop watching her through the window. He must be wondering what was wrong with her by now. By Friday, she was wondering too.
“Okay,” she said through the window, “I’ll buy you. Maybe then I can stroll around in my lunch break without fear of walking under a bus.”
As Leah entered the shop, the antiques dealer smiled at her, showing uneven yellow teeth. He rubbed his hands and asked, “Can I help you, Miss?”
He gave Leah the impression of a spider waiting to pounce.
“I’m just wondering how much the necklace in the window is?” Leah asked. She had decided to buy it anyway, but didn’t want to look too eager.
“Ah yes, the old necklace. Quite a find,” he replied. “It came to me last week in a box of very good quality jewellery. I didn’t even notice it when I first catalogued the goods. That’s not like me at all, I’m very thorough you know.”
And talkative, thought Leah.
“Now let me see,” he continued, staring at his hands. “I couldn’t let it go for under £25,” he said, glancing up with an ingratiating smile.
“Oh,” said Leah, keeping her face non-committal. “That’s a little more than I thought. Is it real silver?”
“Yes, dear,” the elderly man said. “It isn’t marked, but I’m sure it’s silver. They haven’t always used markings, and it is very old.”
His eyes refused to meet Leah’s even once while he spoke, which she took as a sure sign he was lying. She turned to look at the door when an elderly lady entered and headed to an old vase
The dealer added, “Well, I’m cutting my throat you know, but I’ll let it go for £20.” His words almost tumbled over themselves.
Leah decided he must have wondered if she was about to leave.
Outside the shop and glad to be away from the creepy man, Leah stood looking at the battered old box in her hand. Had she really just handed over £20 for this junk? She wondered about returning to ask for her money back, but then changed her mind. What was the point? The old robber wouldn’t give her the money anyway. She’d only get angry and would start a lousy headache. It wasn’t worth it. She’d have to put it down to experience. Anyway, maybe it was silver. Yes, right
Back home in her small, one-bed roomed flat that night she took out the necklace and examined it. It blinked back at her, dull and uninteresting, swinging on its chain. “Well, I’ve paid enough for you,” she said as if the necklace was to blame. “I’ll at least get some wear out of you.”
After putting on the necklace and looking at the star in the mirror, she made a mental note to buy some silver dip in the morning. “Probably melt the damn thing,” she muttered to herself.
The evening passed in the way most did for Leah. There was nothing much on TV, and no one had left a message on her answer phone. She settled to a little freelance writing. It was at last beginning to pay with the promise of a twelve-month series on Palmistry in ‘Destined’ monthly magazine. She then read for a while before she felt ready for bed.
Leah soon lay down her book, her mind was wandering so much she’d read the same sentence three times. Why hadn’t she agreed to meet Nickie and Debs at Gillies bar in town? The girls at work must think she was so miserable. Leah hardly ever went out with them. Few of the other secretaries shared her interests though. A lot of them were married or with partners, with lives of their own. Human nature being what it is, the less Leah mixed with others, the less she wanted to. At twenty-six, she was a bit of a loner, but life had made her that way. Things may have been different, had her early life not been so difficult.
Leah’s parents had been killed in a tragic accident when she was only four years old. They had taken her on an exciting skiing holiday, where she had her very first lessons in an organised kiddies ski club, the Snow Puppies. She was never destined to have any more, because her parents didn’t return from one of the more advanced slopes. The small avalanche had been a chance in a million. Layers of a snowpack had failed and slid down the slope, engulfing them both in seconds.
Leah’s widowed gran had taken her in, and given her all the love she so needed. Gran tried to explain to Leah that God had his reasons, and she would see her mum and dad again someday. Leah couldn’t understand why God, if he was so good, had taken her parents away. She did like to hang on to the idea of them living a different existence, and waiting for her. When Leah’s gran then left her a few short years later at the cruel hands of cancer, any faith in a kind God was shattered forever.
The remainder of Leah’s early life had been spent in a series of orphanages and foster homes. She often thought about her parents, but the memories became harder to recall. A lot of what she remembered had been told to her by gran. Her mum and dad had been an adventurous couple, living life to the full. Leah sometimes wondered if that was one of the reasons she herself was so cautious. Adventures had a nasty habit of killing you.
Deep in thought, Leah stared at the wall, her eyes unfocused. She remembered how her mum had always smelled so nice, and the way she held her close. She was finding it more difficult though to remember her voice clearly, and this saddened her. She had so little, she didn’t want to lose any of it. Since those early days, Leah had struggled to feel any security, or sense of belonging. People she loved, died. It was that simple. In retrospect, Leah’s inability to show love to foster parents who tried to help her, didn’t endear them to try to keep her for long.
Leah wasn’t unhappy with the life she now led. She enjoyed being a free agent, coming and going as she pleased and having no one to answer to. Still, she sometimes felt there should be more to life, usually in the dead of night when worries and fears take on momentous proportion.
With an effort, she forced the painful memories away. Leah picked up her book again and finished the chapter. She was tired then, so got ready for bed. She was soon asleep with the happy thought that the accursed alarm clock wouldn’t be jangling her awake in the morning. The necklace, which she would have taken off had she remembered, pressed hard against her chest.

***

Leah was out in the open, the wind moving her brown, shoulder length hair. She tried to focus. Where was she? Fighting the blur until her head hurt, a huge stone circle came into view. It looked rugged, ancient and powerful. Light headedness hit her, and as she began to sway, forced her to put out a hand to steady herself. As she touched the nearest stone, strange warmth reached her palm, and a tingling sensation akin to electricity travelled up her arm. Leah turned to lean on the hard monolith. She closed her eyes until the dizziness faded.
When she next opened them, the view was clearer. She was leaning on just one of a circle of enormous upright stones, others lying across them far above her. She stepped aside quickly in the knowledge the stones over her could fall. Surely they couldn’t be held there so firmly? She was being foolish. Stonehenge had stood like this for thousands of years, why would it topple now? Though she had never been to Stonehenge, Leah somehow knew that’s where she was. She couldn’t, however, remember how she had got there. An unreasoning weight dragged at her neck and a pain grew in her chest. As she reached up, her hand touched the star, warm and tingling like the stones. Fear gripped her.
Vague memories of the shop and the necklace she’d bought there drifted through her fogged mind. How? Why? The nausea hit her in a rush of swirling stones, with her at the hub of the huge ancient wheel. She fell to her knees, but never touched the ground. She fell, and fell, into enveloping blackness.

***

Leah awoke with an involuntary cry of fear. She could still feel the pain in her chest. Sweating