"'Now, come,' she said 'and you shall see.' Out into the field we went, feeling for the stones before us, and finding the very middle of the circle and standing stock-still in it to feel the wind.
"Nary a sound in the night I tell you. Nary a glimmer of light. Not even the stars to show the towers of the castle, or the far-away bit of water that one could see from there of Loch Donnelaith.
"I heard her humming as she held my hand; then in a circle we danced together, making small circles round and round as we did. Louder she hummed and then in Latin words she spoke to call the demon, and then flinging out her arms she cried to him to come.
The night was empty. Nothing answered. I drew close to her skirts and held her cold hand. Then over the grasslands I felt it coming, a breeze it seemed, and then a wind as it gathered itself about us. I felt it touching my hair and the back of my neck, I felt it wrapping us round as it were with air. I heard it speak then, only not in words, yet I heard it and it said: 'I am here Suzanne!'
Oh, how she laughed with delight; how she danced. Like a child, she wrung her hands, and laughed again and threw back her hair, 'Do you see him, my baby?' she said to me. And I answered that I could feel him and hear him very near.
"And once again, he spoke, 'Call me by my name, Suzanne.'
"'Lasher,' she said, 'for the wind which you send that lashes the grasslands, for the wind that lashes the leaves from the trees. Come now, my Lasher, make a storm over Donnelaith! And I shall know that I am a powerful witch and that you do this for my love!'
"By the time we reached the hut, the wind was howling over the fields, and in the chimney as she shut our door. By the fire, we sat laughing like two children together, 'You see, you see, I did it,' she whispered. And looking into her eyes. I saw what I had always seen and always would even to her last hour of agony and pain: the eyes of a simpleton, a dim-witted girl laughing behind her fingers with the stolen sweet in the other hand. It was a game to her, Petyr. It was a game!"
*extracted from "The Witching Hour" (page 372)