The Circle (Hammer)

59



THE FULL MOON is like a white shadow in the light morning sky. Minoo is following the little stream. Her feet and bare legs are damp from wading through the tall, rain-drenched grass.

Two black feathers float past in the water. Then she catches a whiff of smoke.

Minoo.

She looks up. Rebecka is standing on the other side of the stream. She looks so much like the real Rebecka that it hurts.

Her face has colour again. Her eyes are alive.

‘I know you’re not Rebecka. Why can’t you appear as yourself?’ Minoo asks.

Do you know who I am?

‘You’re the one who speaks through Ida. The one I’ve dreamed about. The witch from the past.’

Rebecka doesn’t answer. Suddenly Minoo is unsure whether she’s dreaming or awake. ‘What do you want?’ she asks.

I’m worried about you, Minoo. You can’t bear this alone.

‘What do you mean?’

You know what I mean.

Minoo looks at Rebecka, who is shimmering against the dark background of the forest.

You must tell them.

‘Is that all you have to say?’

Yes.

‘Are you sure? Nothing more than that? Like which element I am? And why my power is to take people’s souls? Am I like Max? Is that why the demons have a plan for me? And why haven’t they done anything now they know we’re the Chosen Ones?’

You need the others’ help.

‘Go to hell,’ Minoo says, and wakes up.



Minoo had forgotten to close the curtains last night, and now sunlight is streaming into the room. Out in the garden the birds are twittering deafeningly. There’s something almost desperate about their warbling song: ‘Here I am! Here I am!’

It’s the first time for at least three months that she can remember a dream. She doesn’t usually remember even the nightmares, but she wakes up feeling stiff and sore as if she’d fought a battle in her sleep.

She opens the wardrobe and catches sight of the sky-blue cotton dress she wore when she moved up from year nine. She glares at it contemptuously. Now it seems pathetic that she drove all the way into Borlänge with her mother to buy a dress she wore only for a few hours. And she had thought those hours were so important.

She pulls the dress over her head and combs her hair with her fingers.

Her mother and father have gone to work. A bouquet of lily-of-the-valley stands in a vase on the kitchen table, with an envelope leaning against it. Minoo opens it and pulls out a card with a picture of a summer meadow. Have a great summer! Big hugs and kisses, from Mum and Dad is written on the back. The envelope also contains a gift voucher for an online bookshop.

Minoo holds the card, tracing her mother’s elegant handwriting with her index finger.

She’s happy that her parents aren’t here. It’s so hard to pretend everything’s normal. She doesn’t know how she’s going to handle a long summer break.

It’s as if a thick pane of glass separates her from the rest of the world. Nothing taking place on the other side affects her. She’s mute inside. Sometimes it scares her, the numb feeling, but it’s still better than what she was feeling before: desperation, fear, sorrow.

She leaves the envelope on the kitchen table, looks at her watch and realises she should have left fifteen minutes ago. She picks up her bag and a worn pair of summer shoes. She has no intention of hurrying.



‘Where is she?’ Adriana Lopez asks.

Vanessa, Linnéa, Ida and Anna-Karin are sitting on the stage of the dance pavilion in their end-of-term outfits. In Anna-Karin’s case it’s not so much an end-of-term outfit as an outfit she’s wearing for the end-of-term – jeans and her old tracksuit jacket.

Ida, on the other hand, is wearing a white dress and is sitting on her hands so she won’t get it dirty.

Linnéa is sitting cross-legged next to Vanessa, biting her nails. Today they’re pink. She’s wearing a dress she finished making yesterday, it’s black and white checks with lots of black bows and a tulle skirt. She has fastened a huge bow to Vanessa’s pink dress, just below the neckline. Yesterday it had seemed a fun idea. Now Vanessa wonders if she looks gift-wrapped.

The principal paces back and forth across the stage. A few of the buttons on her blouse are undone. Vanessa tries to stop herself staring at the burned skin beneath.

‘She’s coming,’ Ida says. ‘I can feel her now.’

A few minutes later Minoo appears. She’s wearing a light blue dress that Vanessa recognises from the last day of year nine. Her hair is standing out like a black cloud around her head. ‘Sorry I’m late,’ she says, in the toneless voice she always uses these days.

The principal nods. ‘Sit down,’ she says impatiently.

Minoo climbs on to the stage and sits next to Vanessa.

‘I realise you’re all eager to get off to the end-of-term celebration, but I have to speak to you first. I’ve got some good news,’ the principal says. ‘The Council has decided to let you begin training in defensive magic this autumn. We’ll start in August.’

If it weren’t so pathetic, Vanessa would have burst out laughing. Only now, a year after Elias’s death, does the Council think they should learn how to protect themselves.

Since April the principal had ‘put the training sessions temporarily on ice’. Even she must have started to lose interest when they never managed to find anything in the Book of Patterns. Towards the end, they didn’t even have to lie to her any more. Ever since they had defeated Max, the book has been a big wall of silence. No more rituals, exercises or incomprehensible pieces of advice have appeared to them. The grumpy old hag is grumpier than ever.

The Chosen Ones have met up regularly at Nicolaus’s place to continue their old magic practice. Minoo has taken part only passively, and the others haven’t objected.

They know nothing of her power. Nicolaus’s theory is that when she defeated Max she somehow reflected Max’s magic back at him. No one knows what’s inside Minoo, what she can actually do. And although no one says so, they’re afraid of her.

‘So, the Council thinks we’re ready to learn a little self-defence?’ Linnéa says.

‘The situation demands it,’ the principal answers. ‘Things may have been calm since Christmas but whoever attacked Minoo may still be lurking close by, biding his time.’

The only thing the principal knows about Max is what everyone else knows: nothing. They were careful in choosing which clues to leave for the police.

It was Nicke who had found Max lying unconscious in the cafeteria. There was also an unregistered gun with his fingerprints on it. The newspapers speculated whether the incident might have had anything to do with the suicide pact, but their interest soon faded. The story wasn’t as exciting when it featured a maths teacher in a coma instead of a bloody corpse.

‘It may seem that everything’s over,’ the principal continues, ‘but it’s only just begun. What you’ve experienced so far is nothing compared to what’s coming.’ She pauses. ‘I know you have great powers. You’ve matured over the course of this year and have achieved a great deal.’

If she only knew, Vanessa thinks to herself.

‘I look forward to continuing to work with you in the autumn. Now you’d better go if you’re going to get there in time for the fun,’ the principal says. Then she smiles warmly, surprising Vanessa. ‘Have a great summer, girls. You really deserve a break.’