Fire (19 page)

But she has believed him before and it didn’t help at all.

‘No, Linnéa, you don’t owe me anything. But you do owe yourself to dare believe that people
can
change. I will never need alcohol again. I
know
that this is the case, for the first time in my life. To help others gives a more satisfying high than any drugs in the world.’

She doesn’t speak, only hands the sheet of paper back.

Several drops hit her now. Around them, the dusty tarmac is covered in spots.

‘When you’re ready, you know where to find me,’ he says, nodding again towards the centre.

‘Bye,’ she says and starts walking.

When she passes the home of Positive Engelsfors, she has to push past a group of women. As Linnéa passes them, they are laughing and holding up the palms of their hands.

‘Imagine us being this pleased that it’s raining!’ one of them says, beaming with delight.

They all burst out laughing again, as if this is the funniest thing ever. Linnéa keeps walking, but a panicky anguish comes alive inside her, roars inside her head.

Anna-Karin registers the sounds first. The murmuring among the fir trees, the whispering high above her head in the canopy of the pines, the faint rustling noises of leaves touching. Then she feels it.

The wind.

When the first rumble of thunder comes, long and powerful, the storm is still far away. It is dark now, as if at dusk. A few drops of rain hit her forehead.

Anna-Karin feels that nature itself is watching the sky, as she is.

Another thunderclap. Closer now. The sound rolls across the sky, makes the ground tremble, invades Anna-Karin’s body and becomes part of the terror that has been hammering inside her since the morning meeting in the fairground.

She should have stopped misusing her powers as soon as the principal told her to. The others had been warning her as well. But she carried on, lying to herself.

And so, all last year, she made up tales to tell herself. The Council never came, after all. She allowed herself to believe that they would overlook her breaches of the rules. Turn a blind eye, because they understood how Anna-Karin had already suffered for her mistakes.

But why should they?

Anna-Karin recalls the people she manipulated and
exploited. Julia, Felicia and all the others who became her ‘friends’. How she had made Jari think that he was in love with her. Her mother, who had suddenly put her hands into boiling water. And her grandpa, who had never recovered his old self since he rescued her from the burning barn.

Now she wishes that they had never dug up that grave. If they hadn’t, Nicolaus would have stayed. She needs him more than ever.

The sky roars again.

Sounds like a right big discharge, as Grandpa used to say.

He would also have urged her to hurry up and leave the forest before the storm breaks. But she is no longer sure about the way back home.

Warm rain is falling in heavy drops. The fir trees are rocking in the wind and the tall pines are swaying slowly.

Suddenly, it feels as if somebody is showing her the right way to go. Anna-Karin starts running.

Sometimes, she is close to stumbling over large stones which do not show under the moss. It grows all over the ground here and is so dry it crackles under the soles of her shoes.

A flash of lightning turns the whole world white and Anna-Karin counts.

Thousand-and-one, thousand—

That’s as far as she gets. The thunder roars.

The air smells of electricity.

She has no idea where she is, but knows she must go on. Something is calling her and she has to obey the call.

Anna-Karin runs up a slope. A new flash – she can see it rippling across the sky – creates a glowing slash. The thunderclaps come in waves that rise, then withdraw, only to crash again just when Anna-Karin believes it is all over.

She is pushing her body to the limit but is carried forward
by the magnetic quality of the call and doesn’t feel tired. And, now she realises where she has come.

The ghostlike tree is silhouetted against the black sky. Another moment and it explodes in a shower of sparks. She falls, lands on her knees and elbows. Her jaws snap shut so hard she thinks her teeth will crack.

She sees the tree catch fire. Despite the rain, the flames quickly take hold in the dry branches.

Anna-Karin is in the eye of the storm now, completely unprotected at the top of a hill. She is deafened by the thunder. Flashes of lightning criss-cross the air.

She tries to get up, rests on her knees and pushes her rain-soaked hair out of her face. And picks up a movement in the corner of her eye. An undulation close to the ground.

A plaintive bark, barely audible over all the noise.

Anna-Karin wipes the rain from her eyelashes and screws up her eyes to see.

The fox. She recognises it at once. And it is coming straight at her, stepping delicately on its black paws.

It stops in front of her, puts its head to the side and observes her with its amber eyes. The fox’s fur is wet. Thousands of droplets gleam in the light of the fire.

Then, suddenly, it leaps and digs its teeth into the fleshy part of Anna-Karin’s hand, just at the base of the thumb, the place that always reminds her of a chicken drumstick. The pain and surprise make her scream out loud. She tries to pull her hand back but the fox has it in an iron grip. It draws its lips back to show rows of small, sharp teeth and Anna-Karin senses her skin being punctured.

All the time, the fox looks her straight in the eye.

Minoo is seated at her desk with her old notebook open in front of her.

None of Anna-Karin’s actions before they were called in to see the principal can be regarded as a crime. Alexander himself said so. But they must not reveal anything of what happened afterwards. A great deal, in other words. How much is Alexander actually aware of? What kind of evidence does he have?

She goes through her notes, tries to decide what they can admit in the interrogations and what they must stay silent about.

She wants to have an overview ready when they meet tomorrow night to draw up a plan. They must create their own agreed version of the truth. And then they have to keep repeating it, over and over until they stay on message even if woken up in the middle of the night. They must spin a finely meshed safety net of lies to protect Anna-Karin.

Minoo wishes she could prepare herself even better.

How do you manage the defence when the prosecutor uses magic? The bottom line is, if there is a prosecutor, Anna-Karin ought surely to have someone pleading in her defence? But who knows how the Council’s trials operate?

Nicolaus had told them that the Council’s methods had become more refined since his days. But the principal’s scorched skin tells another story. Besides, as far as Minoo knows, Adriana’s only crime was trying to leave the Council.

And disloyalty is the one thing they will not tolerate
…

Was the Council in fact the ‘danger’ that Matilda warned them about? Did Nicolaus know that the Council was coming? Was that why he left Engelsfors? Or is there something even worse waiting for them?

Minoo would like to cry, it would be liberating. She feels the tears welling up, the first hint of a sob from the depth of her being. She tries to let it out and the tears immediately dry up.

The room is lit by the flash of lightning. The thunder booms.

Her mobile rings.

Number not disclosed.

‘Hello?’ she says.

Scratchy noises on the line. Someone’s breathing.

‘Hello?’ Minoo says again.

‘Can you speak safely?’ Adriana asks.

‘Yes,’ Minoo replies and moves away from the desk.

‘This is my only chance to get to talk to you,’ Adriana continues in a low voice. ‘I wanted to warn you earlier but couldn’t. I’ve risked too much already. Now that Alexander is in town, I can’t carry on. You understand that, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

At least, she thinks she understands. The principal is on their side but they must all pretend not to know. It is the first time this is mentioned openly.

‘If the Council sends Alexander, it means that it takes the trial seriously,’ Adriana explains. ‘He is a high-ranking official and absolutely loyal to the Council. He is willing to sacrifice even his family, his friends. The people he claims to love.’

‘You seem to know him well,’ Minoo says.

The line stays silent for so long Minoo has time to think that the contact might be broken.

‘He is my brother,’ Adriana says finally.

Minoo becomes mute. She imagines Adriana and Alexander in front of her. So very alike. How come she didn’t see it at once?

‘You must be extremely cautious. Obey his orders in every detail. Minoo, make the others realise the importance of this. Do not oppose Alexander. And, whatever else, do not tell lies under interrogation! Tell the truth!’

Minoo feels a huge weight descend on her.

Adriana keeps talking.

‘I cannot risk contacting you again and you must under no circumstances try to get in touch with me, regardless of what happens. Please, Minoo, promise me … Promise that you won’t lie when you’re interrogated.’

The desperation in her voice is unlike anything Minoo has heard from her before. It frightens her more than anything Adriana has said.

‘I promise,’ Minoo says.

‘Thank you. I’ll try to …’

The line goes dead. The entire sky is lit up by lightning and the thunderclap makes the windowpanes rattle.

In the next moment, the light goes out.

Minoo sits in the dark, very still, holding her phone.

She knows that she will never keep her promise to Adriana.

Minoo makes a fist and flails about in the general direction of the big white ball that is coming at her.

She registers Viktor’s grin on the other side of the net and feels certain that he aimed it at her on purpose.

The ball hits her knuckles and shoots off in the wrong direction. Bounces along for quite a way outside the court. She runs to fetch it and her teammates groan loudly.

She can feel their eyes on her back. She hates them. Hates the gym hall and everything else to do with it; it’s just one big, sweat-stinking torture chamber. The ball has rolled in under a row of seats. She reaches for it but only manages to push it even further in. No ball sense even when the ball is lying still.

‘Cool knickers!’ Kevin shouts and she tugs at her tracksuit bottoms that have slipped a bit.

Minoo squeezes in under the seats and manages in the end to get hold of the bloody stinking ball. As she wriggles back out, she notes a pitying glance from Anna-Karin in the other court.

The apocalypse is a trifle compared to this. Volleyball is so totally the worst thing anyone can be subjected to. In all other ball games, it’s possible to get away with half-heartedly running up and down at the edge of the field, doing just enough to give Lollo, their gym teacher, the impression that
Minoo is ‘really trying, at least’. But in volleyball, the teams are too small for her to hide in the crowd. And soon it is her turn to serve.

The ball flies back and forth across the net and Minoo wills it not to come near her again.

This time, fate is good to her. Her saviour is Lollo, who blows her whistle.

‘That’s it for today! Thank you, everyone!’ she shouts.

Minoo hurries off to the seats to pick up her bag and tries to avoid meeting other people’s eyes.

But when she turns to go, she almost walks into Viktor, who is watching her with an amused smile on his face. Naturally, he hasn’t got a drop of sweat anywhere.

He blocks her way.

‘No one can be brilliant at everything,’ he says.

Minoo doesn’t reply. Since the meeting in the fairground nearly three weeks ago, she hasn’t answered his remarks once. It has been rather hard going, given that they sit next to each other in all Ylva’s lessons.

‘I happen to have ball sense but, you can take my word for it, I hate sports as much as you do,’ he adds.

She can’t bear to look at him. Her eyes wander upwards to the row of narrow windows near the ceiling. Outside, the sky is grey above the tarmac of the yard. A pair of jeans-clad legs hurries past.

‘It’s simply
pointless
, don’t you think?’ Viktor goes on. ‘It’s not like it
signifies
anything. I realise somebody like Kevin needs to feel he can win something now and then but …’

She pushes past him and walks towards the changing rooms.

‘See you later,’ he calls out after her.

Vanessa frames her face with her hands and presses it close to the display window of the Crystal Cave. In the dim shop interior she spots dream catchers, Egyptian-style busts, dolphins.

‘
CLOSED FOR STOCKTAKING
’ is printed with letters in every shade of the rainbow on a note taped to the inside of the window. There is not the slightest sign of any activity inside. But a smell of incense is wafting out into the mall.

Vanessa has come here every day for the last few weeks. She has varied the times as much as she can, but the shop has been closed, regardless. And it is impossible to get hold of Mona Moonbeam. In fact, there seems to be no proof that she exists. Minoo even phoned the tax office and searched some kind of database at her father’s job. Not a trace.

Vanessa sighs and leaves the window. Sod it, what options do they have if Mona has vanished? The
Book of Patterns
of course refuses to reply to any of their questions about how to communicate with the dead. The great book behaves like a grumpy old hag, Vanessa thinks with a sense of déjà vu.

The already rather feeble light in the City Mall flickers and there is a sizzling sound. Ever since the big thunderstorm, electricity in Engelsfors has been wobbly. It’s not just irritating; at times Vanessa feels it’s rather too much like the horror movies.

She walks quickly out of the mall. Outside the supermarket, flags with its logo flutter disconsolately in the wind. It is the middle of September but still very hot.

Vanessa turns a corner at Storvall Square when she sees the first other person out walking. He is coming towards her.