Heretics book 3 - The Apocryphile Press

THE KINGDOM :: 347
Once again they lined up and rushed at the door. Once
again they threw their shoulders against it in unison. This
time, the cracking was even more audible, and the doors
swayed inward before they caught and held.
“Again!” Dylan shouted.
Once again they regrouped, and once again they battered
the door. This time their shoulders met the wood, and with
a great, reverberating snap, the threshold opened before
them.
They weren’t expecting to meet such little resistance, and
almost lost their balance inside the door. Within a few seconds,
however, they found their feet and took in the scene.
Lit by pewter candle stands as tall as a man’s shoulder, the
hall was festooned with a score of flickering flames. Red
LEDs betrayed the presence of at least three video cameras,
set at the periphery of the room on tripods. Richard noted
that a giant circle had been inscribed on the hardwood floor
in chalk—a circle of summoning, ornamented by Latin
phrases and sigils of arcane origin.
Within the ring, a circle of safety had been inscribed, but
a larger one than usual, for this one protected not just the
magician—Larch stared at them in dumb horror as they
entered—but their patron as well. Dane’s eyes were shining
with what must have been tears of joy before his ritual had
been so rudely interrupted. Now his watery eyes were fierce
as he stared at the friars, and a blood vessel protruded from
his forehead so pronounced that Richard could plainly see it
even across the room.
But that was not all, he noted. Outside the circle of safety
was the circle in which the demon was circumscribed. As
Richard expected, a credence table had been set, with the
small paper triangle containing the sigil of the demon to be
called—in this case, it was plain to see, Articiphus. This circle,
too, was larger than that of a normal operation, for con-