Chapter 2

“Griselda was right,” said Gabby. “The alignment of the moon and the planets should make the barrier unusually weak this year. If we all work together, we should be able to break through and enter the mundane world.”

“I wish Griselda were still with us: she was so knowledgeable about everything,” said Georgia. “I wish you hadn’t banished her.”

“I had no choice,” said Gabby. “You heard her ideas. She wanted us to hide our powers and live discreetly among the mundanes rather than taking our rightful place as their superiors.”

“We could have compromised,” objected Giovanna. “We didn’t need to be greedy. We could have let Griselda do her own thing with her own mundanes while we ruled everywhere else. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of mundanes.”

“That would never have worked in the long run. The other mundanes would have demanded to be treated like Griselda’s mundanes, and that would have led to perpetual unrest and disorder.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Georgia. “We’ll miss Griselda’s power though. Are you sure we can manage to break the barrier without her?”

Gabby was definitely unsure, but she had a trick up her sleeve, one that wouldn’t end well for poor naive Gloria, who had been inducted into the coven to replace Griselda to keep their number at thirteen.

“Let’s practise again,” said Gabby. “The more we practise combining our power, the better and stronger we’ll become.”

The rest of the coven somewhat reluctantly agreed. They were well aware of the prize that awaited if they succeeded, but the process was so exhausting. Fortunately Griselda had written down the long and convoluted invocation and hadn’t taken the precaution of protecting it. Gabby handed each coven member a copy of the invocation and they moved into their ritual circular formation.

Gabby started by offering the standard prayer to the Lords of the Overworld and Underworld, asking them to look favourably on their undertaking (it being accepted the mundane world didn’t have a Lord), then the others joined in when she led into the invocation. As they chanted away, they felt a surge as their powers united as one. The combined power grew greater and greater as the invocation continued until, as the invocation ended, Gabby channelled it at the barrier. There was a loud rumble and some smoke as the blast hit the barrier but, when the smoke subsided, the barrier wasn’t even scratched.

“This is never going to work,” moaned Giovanna as she sank to the ground, weak at having expended so much energy. Most of the others followed likewise.

“We’ll take a couple of days to recover then we’ll practise try again,” said Gabby as she went round the circle, collecting all the copies of the invocation. “When the time comes, we’ll be much stronger and the barrier will be much weaker.”

The coven practised every couple of days, which was as often as they could manage given the time needed for recovery. They could feel their collective power grow each time but each time they challenged the barrier it remained undamaged.