He landed heavily, feeling dazed. Crawling slowly back to the viewing point, he was shocked to see a figure standing beside the altar. The figure’s neck was arched back, his head bald, the skin pale, almost yellow. Chains were wrapped around his body.
He looked skeletal, his skin hanging off his frame as he began to laugh, no humor evident in the noise. The men watching him continued to chant. The keys in their hands moved of their own accord. As each key reached the figure in the middle, it slid into a lock. One by one the chains fell away.
"What's happening?" Rose whispered in his ear. "I saw a light up ahead. What is that?"
He wasn’t sure what to say. "The stone circle is occupied," he said as a voice echoed outward toward them.
"I am back," the voice said, the sound too loud in the quiet of the Wildwood. "The chains are fallen." He looked down. There was a single solid chain around his left ankle. "The final key," he said. "Where is it?"
The men looked at each other as the figure roared with anger and ran at them. They sprinted away, vanishing into the wood, the figure chasing close on their heels.
The clearing was left empty.
"Here," he said, passing Rose the staff. "Go stand by the altar."
"But who was that man?"
"I dinnae ken."
"What if it’s the barefoot man?"
"He is a myth."
"My mom told me about the way he could break free. She said if his followers ever got hold of the six silver keys, his chains could be unlocked. He could return."
"How did she ken such things?"
"I don’t know but the longer I spend here, the more I think she might have been telling the truth. What if it’s him?"
"Then you’ll be safer far from here. What matters is getting you home and then stopping the rat. Hold this." He pointed at the staff. "Now stand in the center of the stone circle and tap the altar."
"And then I go home?"
"Yes."
She turned to face him as it started to rain. Blinking the water away, she nodded.
"Goodbye then," she said, looking utterly miserable.
"Farewell."
He watched her closely. This was it. She was going. He would never see her again. "Wait-" he began, but it was too late.
She pressed the staff to the altar and vanished as if she'd never been there. He had time to finish his sentence, "Dinnae go," just as something slammed into him from above.
He lost his balance, falling to the ground with a thud. He moved his hand to his sword as a figure fell on top of him. He realized at once it was Rose. "You're still here," he said as they untangled themselves from each other. "Why are you still here?"
"I saw something," she said. "In the darkness. There was a man there. He spoke to me."
"What? You’ve only been gone a second."
She shook her head. "This Oswin, what did he look like?"
"The chronicles say he was tall, red headed, a thick beard that he did not trim."
"It was him," she replied, leaning back against the altar. "I saw him."
"You saw Oswin? Where?"
