it was different, but it was different, with an entirely different

purpose in mind.”

“They gave up their own life energies to empower the spell, ” said

Kira. “They didn’t free their astral spirits so much as combine them

and use them to power an enchantment. A living spell, embodied by

the runestones.

“Three stones, three keys to lock the spell, Three jewels to guard

the Gates of Hell. Three to bind them three in one, Three to hide

them from the sun. Three to hold them, three to keep, Three to

watch the sleepless sleep.”

“It is, of course, a translation from their ancient language, ”

Merlin said, “an incantation containing the most powerful symbols

of thaumaturgy. The number three, six lines to the incantation, the

number three occurring nine times in the spell, multiples of three…

the Living Triangle. There are five small triangles in a pentagram,

containing fifteen points, five multiplied by three, and the five

larger triangles that make up a pentagram, each adding three more

points, for a total of fifteen… again five multiplied by three, for a

total of ten triangles in a pentagram, thirty points, ten multiplied

by three… the ten triangles of the pentagram multiplied by the six

lines of the incantation and the nine recurrences of the number

three, equal three hundred and sixty, the degrees of the Eternal

Circle. The Living Triangle, the Warding Pentagram, and the

Eternal Circle, as indicated by the strongest of the ancient chains of

numerology. A binding spell of incalculable power. The runestones

are the keys—the three in one, the Living Triangle. The Warding

Pentagram, which surrounded the pit from which the Dark Ones

have escaped, was the lock. And the Eternal Circle was the pit

itself, the prison. For the binding spell to be secure, the keys must

be inside the lock. Only once the keys had been removed, the

Eternal Circle could be broken.”

“And that was how the Dark Ones escaped?” asked Fugisawa.

“Someone removed the keys?”

“One of my best pupils, ” Merlin said. “And one of my worst

failures. Rashid Al’Hassan. He was too ambitious, too greedy, too

hungry for power. He was searching for the ancient thaumaturgic

secrets of his pharaonic ancestors and he stumbled upon the place