The Circle (Hammer)

41



IT’S COLD IN the principal’s car. Minoo had texted her as soon as she’d got back into her room and they’d agreed to meet here, on a dirt track in the forest a few kilometres from Minoo’s home.

‘Take it from the beginning,’ Adriana Lopez says.

A milky-white layer of condensation forms on the inside of the windows as Minoo recounts what happened in as much detail as she can. But, for some reason she can’t explain, she leaves out the black smoke. Somehow she can’t make herself mention it, almost as if there’s something forbidden or shameful about it.

When she’s finished, the principal takes out a blue Thermos and two plastic mugs from the glove compartment. She pours hot liquid into the mugs. ‘Drink some of this,’ she says, and hands one to Minoo.

‘Is it … magical?’

Adriana smiles. ‘It’s Earl Grey.’

She sips cautiously and Minoo follows suit. The honey-sweetened tea burns the tip of her tongue.

‘I really don’t like these forests,’ the principal says thoughtfully. She leans over the steering wheel and peers out of the windscreen. ‘Tell me again what the voice said just before it let you go. Try to remember exactly.’

Minoo does her best, but the night’s events are already melting together into a single mass. It’s hard to pin down facts when the thing she remembers most vividly is panic.

‘It said, “No”, all of a sudden. Then it said, “I can’t do it, I won’t do it. I won’t listen to you.”’

Adriana nods. It’s snowing. Big fluffy flakes land gently on the windscreen, sticking together. ‘Do you think the voice was saying that to you or to someone else?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘’I won’t listen to you.’ Doesn’t it seem strange that the voice would be saying that to you?’

Minoo tries to collect her thoughts. ‘You mean that maybe there were two of them? That they were talking to each other?’

‘Two or more,’ Adriana says grimly.

Minoo’s stomach roils. Could several wills have fought over her tonight? What if the other wins next time?

‘Are you sure you’ve told me everything now? Every detail may be important.’

Minoo concentrates on the snowflakes. ‘Yes,’ she says.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘I don’t know. All I can think about is Rebecka. And Elias. Now I know how scared they must have been and how they must have struggled. And the voice that felt it had the right to decide whether we lived or not, that said everything was meaningless … It makes me so angry now.’

The principal nods gravely. ‘If something had happened to you tonight, I would never have been able to forgive myself. I know you’re all disappointed in me, but I’m just following the Council’s orders.’

Minoo realises that was almost an apology. ‘You mean the Council’s wrong?’

‘No,’ the principal responds emphatically. ‘Absolutely not. I just wish I could do more for you. I know you think I’m some kind of ice queen …’ she pauses ‘… but I care about all of you. I care about you, Minoo. The last thing I want is for anything to happen to you. What happened to Elias and Rebecka torments me more than I can say.’

So there is a human being beneath the principal’s cool exterior.

‘You have to promise me to be careful and not take any action on your own,’ she continues. ‘I know it’s difficult, but we have to trust the Council’s judgement. And study the Book of Patterns.’

It’s the first time the principal has said ‘we’ without meaning herself and the Council.

‘I promise,’ Minoo says, and empties her mug before setting it in one of the cup-holders between the seats. ‘I should go home now.’

‘Shall I drive you?’

Minoo shakes her head. ‘It’s okay,’ she says, and climbs out of the car.

‘Remember what I said,’ Adriana urges, before Minoo shuts the door.

Minoo nods obediently to her through the side window and waves.

Once the principal’s car has disappeared around the corner, Minoo takes out her mobile and calls Nicolaus. After a few minutes they decide what has to be done. Everything that the principal said has confirmed what they already suspected. They can’t wait for her and the Council any more. They have to take charge of their own lives. While they still have them.