Hadi

Hadi woke up with a biting headache. He’d had the strangest dream, of a beautiful woman dancing…

No light. No food. No water. No air. No wonder he felt like gunk under toenails. But a draft of air had revived him somewhat. He didn’t see anyone around him…

…because it’s dark, you idiot, he reminded himself.

But he couldn’t hear anyone around him either. Rejecting the possibility that he had gone deaf, and the even more unlikely scenario that the other Initiates around him had stopped whining, he crawled toward the fresh air.

He saw the faint outline of moonlight. He scrambled to his feet and raced outside.

Ugh, he was in the center of the creepy megalith circles they called the Stone Hedge.

“Follow the brightest light you see,” instructed a voice.

The Tavaedies, all dressed up in their finery, stood in a circle around him, in line with the stones of the inner circle of megaliths.