The Circle (Hammer)

27



‘PLEASE COME IN,’ the principal says.

Adriana Lopez is wearing a dark green, knee-length sixties-style dress with black pumps in some kind of reptile skin.

She sits down in the armchair next to the little coffee-table. Two folding chairs have been brought out. Minoo sits on the sofa, between Vanessa and Anna-Karin. Ida and Linnéa take the chairs. Once they’re seated, silence settles over them.

There is a clock hanging above the door to the assistant principal’s office. It ticks the seconds loudly, one by one. It reminds Minoo of a time bomb. At any moment the world may explode.

‘I know you were in my house,’ the principal says.

Minoo feels the blood drain from her face.

‘Did you find what you were looking for?’ she continues.

Ida gets up so suddenly that she knocks her chair over backwards. ‘I’ve got nothing to do with this,’ she says.

The room is deathly quiet. Nothing but tick, tock, tick, tock.

‘I’ve got nothing to do with them,’ Ida continues, her voice cracking with desperation.

‘Sit down,’ the principal says.

Her voice is the exact opposite of Ida’s: controlled, confident, impossible to disobey. Ida picks up the plastic chair and sits down obediently.

Lopez crosses one leg over the other and clasps her hands over her upper knee. ‘I know who you are,’ she says.

‘And we know who you are,’ Linnéa retorts.

Minoo holds her breath.

The principal’s eyes bore into Linnéa. A little smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. ‘Excuse me?’

‘I said that we know. Who. You. Are,’ Linnéa says, meeting her gaze without blinking.

The principal laughs. Not a real laugh, but the indulgent kind that grown-ups produce when they don’t take you seriously.

‘Do you now? This should be interesting. Tell me, Linnéa. Who am I?’

Minoo wants to stop everything. Strike the set and start again. It’s a bad mistake to attack Lopez.

‘You’re the one who killed Elias and Rebecka,’ says Linnéa.

And now there’s no going back. It’s too late to retract anything. Exactly three seconds pass. Tick, tock, tick.

‘That’s not true.’

‘You’re lying,’ Linnéa says coldly.

‘I just want to make it clear that I’ve got nothing to do with them,’ Ida says.

The principal ignores her.

‘But you’re right about Elias and Rebecka not having committed suicide,’ she says.

It takes a while for her words to sink in.

‘If we were to believe you didn’t kill them, do you know who did?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘Excuse me,’ Linnéa interrupts, ‘but I think you’re accepting this a little too easily. Have you forgotten that we found torture instruments at her house?’

‘I collect medieval artefacts,’ the principal says calmly. ‘Tragically, instruments of torture fall into that category. It may be a rather macabre hobby, but it doesn’t make me a murderer.’

‘You were the last person Elias and Rebecka saw before they died,’ Linnéa says.

‘And I’m about to tell you why I saw them,’ the principal says, and turns to Anna-Karin. ‘But to answer your question, Anna-Karin, no, I don’t know who killed them. My primary directive was to find you.’

‘What do you mean “directive”?’ Vanessa asks.

The principal smoothes an invisible crease in her dress. Her face is expressionless. Minoo gets the feeling it’s a mask she could remove at any moment.

‘I work for the Council. My task was to come here and investigate the level of truth in the prophecy regarding this place.’

‘A prophecy? About Engelsfors?’ Minoo asks.

‘Engelsfors is a very special place,’ the principal says. ‘It’s close to other … I suppose you might call them dimensions. We don’t know why, but the boundary separating the different realities is thinner here. The prophecy speaks of a Chosen One, who will be woken to protect the world when an unearthly evil tries to break through that boundary into our reality. I was sent here to find the Chosen One. My search was made more difficult because there are so many of you. I was looking for one person. I had just picked up Elias’s trail when he passed away.’

‘Elias didn’t “pass away”. He was murdered,’ Linnéa says.

‘Yes,’ the principal agrees.

‘Why didn’t you protect him if you knew it was him?’ Linnéa asks.

‘Firstly, the Council investigates on average 764.2 prophecies each year, all over the world. Only about 1.7 per cent of them come true. I wasn’t sure if this particular prophecy had any basis in reality. In fact, the statistics spoke against it. And I didn’t have time to confirm whether or not Elias was in fact the witch I was looking for.’

Vanessa turns her head so fast her ponytail whisks across Minoo’s face, leaving behind it a faint scent of coconut.

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ Vanessa says. ‘Did you say witch?’

The principal nods impatiently.

‘Is that … what we are?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘I’m afraid it’s a term that carries with it some unfortunate baggage. It has come to be falsely associated with all sorts of crazy nonsense. But, yes, you are witches. As am I. Some are born with special powers, which usually become apparent during puberty, but most people can learn at least some simple magic through diligent study.’

Magic. Minoo gets goose bumps up her arms when she hears the word. Of course there’s a word for everything that has happened. It’s a word she’s read a thousand times in fairytales and fantasy stories, yet it sounds new and unfamiliar when the principal utters it. Frightening, yet enticing. The fantastical is possible.

‘As Linnéa quite correctly pointed out, I had a meeting with Elias just before he was murdered,’ the principal continues. ‘The purpose of that meeting was to find out whether he was the Chosen One. I could have waited for the blood moon to appear, but I already had certain indications. Anyway, I took a strand of his hair and sent it to our laboratories. The following morning I received the test results, which confirmed my suspicions, but by then it was already too late. I thought it was all over. As I said, I was sure I was just looking for one person. But during Elias’s memorial service, I noticed magical activity in the auditorium. That was when I realised there could be more of you.’

‘But how did you know it was us?’ Minoo asks.

There is a second part to Minoo’s question that she doesn’t dare voice. If the principal could find them, does that mean the evil that is after them can, too?

‘Some of you have been less discreet than others,’ says Lopez, looking at Anna-Karin, who squirms uncomfortably on the sofa next to Minoo. ‘Let me take this opportunity to inform you that there are laws that must be obeyed even where magic is concerned.’

‘Laws?’ Anna-Karin asks weakly.

‘Three simple directives. You may not practise magic without the Council’s express permission. You may not use magic to break non-magical laws. And you may not reveal yourselves as witches to the non-magic public.’ She turns to Anna-Karin again. ‘The Council might turn a blind eye to any transgressions you may have committed up until now because you didn’t know the rules. But I advise you to refrain immediately from practising any magic at school.’

‘What is the Council, and why should we submit to it?’ Linnéa asks.

‘For the same reason that you submitted to society’s laws before your powers were awoken,’ the principal says. ‘You are part of the magical society, and in that society the Council enacts the laws and governs. We should all be thankful for that.’

Linnéa snorts.

The principal ignores her and continues: ‘But getting back to how I discovered you. Part of the prophecy refers to purely calendrical events, among other things that the Chosen One would be woken on a night with a blood moon. Most people can’t see the blood moon –I myself can’t see it with the naked eye – but it follows a particular cycle and there were signs I could interpret. I sent out my familiar—’

‘Your what?’ Vanessa interrupts.

‘Through a complex process, a witch can create a connection with an animal. Most often it’s a cat, a dog, a frog or a bird. I chose a raven. Or, rather, it chose me. Simply put, we share a part of each other’s consciousness. My familiar can act as my eyes or ears when my own aren’t up to the task. I sent him out and he saw you gather by Kärrgruvan. I reported it to the Council, which ordered me to arrange meetings with you, one at a time. I started with Rebecka. I sent a strand of her hair for analysis to be a hundred per cent sure she really was Chosen. Unfortunately she passed away, too, before I received the answer.’

‘She was murdered!’ Linnéa shouts. She has stood up. She’s so worked up that she’s shaking. ‘They were murdered! They were murdered and you couldn’t stop it! You could at least have warned them!’

‘After Rebecka’s death, I got in touch with the Council for permission to take action, not just to observe. My request set off an intense debate –’

‘We could have died, too!’ Linnéa cuts in.

‘– but after your break-in, the process was speeded up. Now we can draw up a mutual action plan,’ says the principal.

‘A mutual action plan? That’s what the idiots at Social Services always call it,’ says Linnéa. ‘Only their idea of “mutual” is that they make the decisions and we do as they say. Isn’t that what you had in mind, too?’

‘That attitude will get us nowhere,’ the principal answers.

‘Go to hell!’ Linnéa shouts. Everyone except the principal jumps. ‘We don’t need you! We never asked for your help!’

The principal looks at Linnéa coldly. Then she stands up, walks to the door, heels clicking, and pulls it wide open. Nicolaus almost falls into the room. ‘You may as well come in,’ she says frostily.

‘I …’ Nicolaus seeks out Minoo’s gaze.

‘She’s not the murderer,’ Minoo says quietly. ‘At least, it doesn’t look like it.’

Nicolaus takes a few steps into the room. The principal shuts the door behind him and returns to her seat. Nicolaus looks a bit lost standing there. His eyes wander to Anna-Karin. ‘Is it true?’ he asks. ‘Is she …’

‘She’s a witch,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘We all are.’

‘Witches,’ Nicolaus mumbles. ‘Of course. Witches.’

‘So, you claim to be the girls’ guide?’ the principal says, crossing her legs again.

‘That is my sacred duty, yes.’

‘That’s strange,’ the principal muses. ‘The prophecy says nothing about a guide. You’re an interesting phenomenon that we must examine more closely. But for now I have to ask you to keep away from the girls. From now on I am their guide and teacher.’

‘No,’ Nicolaus protests feebly. ‘No, I can’t allow that …’

‘By order of the Council I release you from your duty. You are welcome to offer any suggestions or information but, from now on, everything must go through me.’

Minoo can see that Nicolaus is struggling to understand. ‘But this isn’t an assignment,’ he manages. ‘It’s my calling.’

‘You care about the girls, don’t you?’ the principal says, with forced composure. ‘You want what’s best for them?’

‘Of course.’

‘We have knowledge and resources, Nicolaus. What can you offer?’

Nicolaus lowers his gaze. ‘Nothing,’ he mumbles. ‘Except my life.’

Minoo’s heart almost breaks.

‘I apologise.’ He gives a shallow bow and disappears into the corridor with his head lowered.

‘Nicolaus!’ Anna-Karin shouts. ‘Wait!’

The door slams shut. Minoo looks at the principal, who is completely placid. It seems to be all in a day’s work for her.

‘You must begin your training at once. We’ll determine exactly what powers you possess and how we can best make use of them.’

‘Make use of them?’ Linnéa says.

‘In the coming battle,’ the principal responds. ‘Alongside your training, the Council will intensify its research into the prophecy and do everything it can to find whoever is guilty of murdering Rebecka and Elias.’ She peers intently at them, one by one. ‘And you mustn’t, under any circumstances, experiment with your powers on your own.’

Ida stands up again. This time the chair remains upright. ‘I can’t take this any more! You can’t force me to take part. I won’t!’

The principal looks at her without batting an eyelid. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes!’

‘Then you’ll get an F in every subject.’

‘You can’t do that!’ Ida bursts out.

‘I’m the principal of this school. And I’m a witch. What do you think?’ Adriana Lopez peers unflinchingly at Ida, who sits back down. Then she turns back to the group. ‘That’s enough for today. I realise it’s a lot for you to take in. Before you leave I must ask you each to leave behind a strand of your hair in the pre-printed envelopes, and fill in this form about which magical powers you have developed. We’ll meet at nine o’clock on Saturday morning in the fairground.’