"So its tenants have alternated between devotion to good and devotion to evil?"
"Aye. Yet for some centuries, 'twas a place of great learning. Wizards came from the Isle of Doctors and Saints, so they say, when Hardishane's Empire was new. These good and wise men dwelt amidst the stones, teaching all who wished to come to them, and delving into all things, to discover more knowledge."
"Pure scholars." Matt nodded. "Teaching and pure research, knowledge for the fun of digging it out and learning something new."
"Aye. But their spirits do not rule there. 'Tis said the place is neither good nor evil of itself; it is what you make of it."
Alisande had dropped back beside them, listening gravely. "By all accounts, Lord Wizard, the place is quite treacherous; for there has been great fervor poured out by hundreds of thousands of people, as centuries rolled; and great and fell spells have been cast there."
"But great and good ones, too," Sir Guy reminded her.
"So this Ring is one great storehouse of power; but the kind of force a man's hit with depends on his own inclination?"
Sir Guy nodded. "The evil become more evil; the good become saintly."
Matt wondered what his own inclination really was and suddenly felt very wary of the Stone Ring. "Still, it sounds like our best bet."
"It is," Alisande said, with that full, unshakable certainty that meant she was discussing a public issue at the moment. "But how come you to know so much of this place, Sir Guy?"
The Black Knight only smiled. "I am not totally unlettered, your Highness. If we go there, we must bear a bit more toward the north." He clucked to his horse and moved ahead to take the lead.
Far behind them, the dim clamor united into one huge, hungry baying.
Alisande shuddered. "To the Stone Ring, Lord Matthew. It cannot be worse."
"I would not be sure of that."
Matt looked back over his shoulder toward the voice. Sayeesa rode behind him, hands clasped tight on the reins, eyes huge and haunted.
Broken teeth jutted up from the moor far ahead, seeming to glow in the moonlight.
"There it lies!" Alisande cried. "Ride for your souls!"
The clamor was louder behind them now, much louder; it had separated into growling and howling, baying and barking. Matt kicked his horse into a gallop.
The stone slabs loomed up before them, rising from silvered mist. Matt became aware of a tingling all about him; it was almost as if he could feel it on his skin. It seemed to sink inside him, stirring in his brain somewhere; something in the ancient stone pile resonated with the pitch and beat of his thoughts. He frowned, tasting the strange sensation, deciding he liked it as the feeling grew stronger with each stride of his horse.
He dropped back to Sayeesa. She was trembling. "Do not take me here, Wizard, I implore you! There was evil here once, and' its aura still lingers. I know not what I may do here!"
"You are mistaken," Alisande said gently. She had dropped back, too, and her face was open and sympathetic. "There is good here, Sayeesa, great good! I feel it singing through my veins, like strong wine!"
"It fits." Matt eyed Sir Guy, who rode ahead, unperturbed. "We're picking up whatever we're inclined to."
"Please, pull away!" Sayeesa moaned, and there were tears in her eyes. "Stay away from this place! For here I might turn toward Evil!"
"But how could that be?" Alisande dropped the reins, spreading her arms. "I feel so great a good there that my heart longs toward it, as a dove toward its nest!"
"Ladies, please!" Matt slewed his horse into a turn and swung back to catch the bridle of Sayeesa's horse. "Whatever you do, don't stand here yammering! I hate to remind you, but there's a horde of monsters behind us!"
The hounds broke over the horizon, and their clamor rose to a frenzy. The pursuers doubled their pace, running flat out over the moorland-huge as small horses, long-legged and gaunt, with fox fire curling about their bodies and burning eyes. Steel teeth glinted in the moonlight.
"Ride!" Matt shouted. He yanked on the bridle, then slapped the rump of Sayeesa's horse as it sped past him. The pony leaped into a gallop and charged ahead into the Stone Ring with Sayeesa wailing in terror.
Alisande spurred her horse and charged in, her eyes glowing.
Sir Guy sat his horse by a sarcen, bowing the princess in. He looked up at Matt and beckoned.
Matt looked back at the tide of hellhounds, a hundred at least, closing the distance between themselves and the Stone Ring in a rush. He shuddered and turned away, kicking his horse into a gallop, and rode into the Stone Ring with Sir Guy right behind him.
Sayeesa clung to her horse, burying her face in its mane and weeping. But Alisande swung off her mount and spread her arms, twirling about. "Lord Wizard, this is a true holy place!"
"Uh, I know what you mean - I think." Matt jumped to the ground and stood tall, feeling the power of the Ring thrumming through him, so strongly that it made him light-headed and giddy.
"Lord Wizard." Sir Guy nodded toward the moor outside the Ring. "Our foes approach."
They did indeed; their clamor rang through the stones, driven by craving.
Dogs! What do you counter them with?
Cats, of course. Big ones.
Matt spread his hands, then stilled, eyes widening in surprise. He could feel power coursing through him, up from the ground through his body and into his fingertips. Euphoria swept him; what wonders couldn't he work here? He clapped his hands, then spread them again.
"Be not so long with your spells." Sir Guy studied the outer darkness, worried.
Matt nodded upward. Sir Guy lifted his eyes to the top of the nearest sarcen. A mountain lion crouched on each stone slab, neck craned downward, watching the dogs approach. Pumas-well, Matt hadn't specified what type of lions; these would do well enough.
Sir Guy looked back at him with respect. "Well done, Lord Wizard! One beast for each monolith."
"Yeah, but there are only thirty or so sarcens." Matt frowned. He could have wished for a bigger Stonehenge. "These pumas will slow the hellhounds, but they won't stop the beasts."
The hounds were a hundred feet away, leaping toward the Ring. They broke into snarling howls of malicious triumph as they passed the fifty-foot distance. Then they screamed in shock as two mountain lions landed in front of them, claws and teeth slashing.
A ripping snarl seemed to fill the sky, leaping from stone to stone. Looking up, Matt saw the great cats leaping over the stones to the eastern blocks, then dropping, seeming to flow off the top of the Stone Ring in a tawny stream. They landed in the midst of a howling melee. Cats slashed throats and bit backs, breaking spines and tossing the hounds over their shoulders; but the hellhounds rallied, ganging up, three to each lion. Steel teeth flashed, tearing out throats and ripping stomachs.
"'Tis even as you said," Sir Guy admitted grimly. "'Twill slow but not stop them. And methinks the hounds mend as quickly as they are wounded. Small help, your lions, if you cannot heal them as quickly."
"Yeah," Matt said thoughtfully, "but I'd rather think up some way to keep the dogs from reaching us. This Stone Ring is basically a good design for a fortress."
"Aye, if some way could be found to close the gaps between the stones. But those are great, Lord Wizard."
Matt nodded. What he needed was something like a forcefield -- whatever that might be -- to prevent ingress but permit egress. That was impossible, of course ...
Wait a minute. Maxwell had proposed a hypothetical demon that could open a submicroscopic door to admit only fast-moving molecules of air. That, of course, was magic, not science. But here, magic worked.