The Circle (43 page)

‘How do we know he created it?’ Anna-Karin asks. ‘I mean, maybe it came into existence on its own.’

‘The only one of us who can find out any more about how this works is Ida,’ Minoo says, and hears resentment in her voice.

‘All right, I’ll give it another try,’ Ida says. ‘But what do you think the principal would say about Vanessa stalking G all day?’

‘You can ask her,’ a familiar voice responds.

In a perfectly synchronised movement, everyone turns to see her walking towards the dance pavilion, her long black coat sweeping across the snow.

Cat hisses viciously at her raven, which caws as it glides through the air and alights on the railing of the dance floor.

‘I tried to tell them!’ Ida shouts. ‘You heard that, didn’t you?’

‘I’m disappointed in you,’ the principal says, ignoring Ida. She glares accusingly at Minoo. ‘Especially you. Didn’t I expressly tell you not to do anything on your own?’

Minoo is at a loss for words.

‘And Vanessa,’ the principal adds, ‘do you realise how much danger you’re putting yourself into by following Gustaf? The Council regards him as a particularly potent threat and has appointed …’

She is interrupted by a low laugh. Minoo has never heard it before, and it takes her a moment to realise it’s coming from Linnéa. She’s laughing so much she can hardly breathe.

Everyone stares at her.

‘Sorry …’ Linnéa whimpers. ‘But … it’s just so … fucking … tragic.’

Adriana crosses her arms. ‘Perhaps you’d care to share your little joke with the rest of us.’

Linnéa’s laughter peters out and her face hardens. ‘How long do you intend to carry on this charade?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Adriana says. ‘Now, you must tell me everything you’ve found out about Gustaf—’

‘No,’ Linnéa says, without releasing the principal from her gaze. ‘It’s time for you to tell us what you and the Council are actually doing. You pretend to be as powerful as gods, but all you can do is light little fires. The only way you can control us is by tricking us into believing we need you. But when it comes down to it, you don’t actually know anything. You
can’t
protect us, even if you want to.’

‘That’s not true,’ the principal says.

‘Have you forgotten about the circles we saw at her house?’ Minoo says impatiently to Linnéa. ‘They could teleport her from Stockholm to here – powerful magic.’

But Linnéa ignores her. She’s focused on Adriana, like a laser beam. ‘You already have two lives on your conscience, but maybe you want us all to die. Perhaps that’s your purpose.’

‘No!’

Her voice reminds Minoo of a bird’s shriek. The principal presses her lips together. Minoo can see that she’s trying to keep composed. But it’s too late. Her mask has cracked. She can no longer hide her fear.

She takes a deep breath and lets out the world’s longest sigh. ‘I don’t even know where to begin.’

‘Start with the circles in your house,’ Linnéa suggests. ‘Explain to Minoo why they weren’t so impressive, after all.’

Linnéa is looking triumphantly at the principal, but Minoo is terrified: she doesn’t want to hear what’s about to be said. If the principal and the Council aren’t as all-knowing and powerful as they’ve claimed, she’d prefer to live with the lie. The principal has been the only authority they’ve had – the only one with any answers. The notion that they might be completely alone, without any guidance, is simply too horrifying.

‘The circles …’ the principal starts, then pauses. ‘It took six months and five witches to perform the incantation. It was the equivalent of the world’s most expensive alarm system, the only difference being that when the circles have been used once the whole procedure has to be performed again. Linnéa is right. The fire magic you’ve seen me do is the only thing I can manage without difficulty. Anything else requires days, often weeks, of preparation and almost always the help of other witches.’

She pauses again, as if to catch her breath. It looks as if every word she utters is painful, but out they come – one after the other.

‘Unlike you, I wasn’t born with powers. I grew up in a family of trained witches, raised in the belief that the Council always does the right thing.’ She pauses a third time. ‘I feel enormous guilt for what happened to Elias and Rebecka. We should have done more to prevent … We
should
have been more open with you from the start.’

She falls silent and looks at the ground. The raven flaps through the air and lands on her shoulder. It tucks its head under one wing.

‘And the all-powerful Council?’ Linnéa asks, with a smile that borders on smug. She’s behaving like a sadistic interrogator, Minoo thinks.

‘They’re afraid of you,’ the principal says. ‘If they knew I was being so open with you now, I’d be punished. They want me to control you, get you to find the answers in the
Book of Patterns
that they can’t see, and use that knowledge to strengthen the Council.’

‘So the Council is as useless as you are?’ Linnéa asks.

‘You don’t have to kick her when she’s down,’ Minoo says. ‘You exposed her. That’s enough.’

‘I understand you’re disappointed, Minoo. No teacher to suck up to any more,’ Linnéa says.

‘It’s not true that the Council is powerless,’ the principal interrupts shrilly. ‘You mustn’t dismiss it. The Council is well organised and many across the world submit to its authority. Together they can perform powerful magic. They could take drastic action to bring you to heel.’ She glances at Anna-Karin.

‘Drastic action?’ Linnéa says scornfully. ‘I don’t think they’ve shown any stomach for that.’

The principal hesitates. Then she unbuttons her long winter coat, revealing one of her typically well-tailored suits with a white blouse. She undoes the three top buttons.

Minoo has to look away.

The fire symbol is branded just below the principal’s left collarbone in a web-like patch of scorched skin.

‘I planned to leave the Council once,’ the principal says, with a mirthless smile. ‘There was a man. You may think this looks bad …’ She meets Linnéa’s gaze and holds it. ‘… but it’s nothing compared to what they did to him.’

Linnéa’s face is tense and her mouth half open. She takes a few staggering steps backwards.

The principal buttons her blouse and refastens her coat. ‘I suggest you all go home. School starts tomorrow. Ida can search in the book,’ she says. ‘But that’s all you should do.’

She turns and looks at Minoo. For just half a second too long. There’s something knowing in her eyes. Something enigmatic that Minoo can’t interpret.

‘Absolutely nothing else,’ the principal says.

‘Ida!’ Minoo shouts. ‘Wait!’

Ida stops but doesn’t turn.

‘I’ve got to talk to you,’ Minoo says, when she comes up.

Ida looks at her reluctantly. Her eyes seem almost unnaturally blue against her white jacket and the snow. She’s as cute as a doll – an evil doll, but still …

No, she mustn’t think like that. It’s time to turn the page.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Ida says. ‘You’ve been meeting in secret. At Nicolaus’s house. We’re safe at his place, because he’s got a magic silver cross on his wall. It said so in a letter in a safety deposit box that Cat showed you. Cat is Nicolaus’s familiar. Nicolaus is also a witch. His element is wood, but you didn’t know that.’

Minoo stares at Ida as she tries frantically to think of an explanation. Who told her?

‘The book showed me,’ Ida says triumphantly. ‘It said you’ve been practising your magic without me.’ She wipes the tip of her nose. ‘You’re bullying me.’

‘No …’

‘Really?’ Ida says. ‘So you didn’t say you thought the world would be a better place if I were dead?’

‘I’m sorry,’ Minoo says. ‘Very sorry. And it was wrong of us to keep our meetings secret from you. But I was going to tell you about it now.’

‘Because I’m the only one who can read the book. You need me.’

‘Yes. We need you.’ Her words catch in Minoo’s throat as she speaks them. ‘Are you going to help us? Without telling Adriana?’

Ida snorts. Then she looks away. ‘The book says I have to help you. Otherwise it won’t show me any more.’

The situation with the snitching book becomes more and more bizarre.

‘Can you look for something to help us find out the truth?’ Minoo asks.

‘I suppose so. But I’m doing it for G, not you.’

44

VANESSA WAKES UP
because she’s cold. She’s wedged in the gap between the bed and the wall. Her head is full of nightmare images. The principal’s burn. Gustaf at Rebecka’s grave, digging up Rebecka’s coffin. Cat’s staring green eye.

Vanessa turns over to look at her slumbering boyfriend. Wille has taken all the bedclothes again and wrapped himself up in them like a Wille tortilla. Only his hair is sticking out. Vanessa kicks him angrily, but he just snuffles and turns over.

She glances at the Batman alarm clock, a relic from Wille’s childhood. She has to get up in five minutes anyway. She clambers over him and almost loses her balance as she slides out of bed.

Wille’s room has always looked like an archaeological dig with layers of artefacts from different eras. Since Vanessa moved in it’s twice as bad. Neither of them can keep the place tidy and, for better or worse, Sirpa ignores everything that goes on, declaring it ‘their space’.

Vanessa feels something soft and sticky under her foot. She’s stepped on a liver-sausage sandwich.

Her anger explodes like a geyser. She picks up one of
Wille
’s slippers and throws it at the bed. It bounces off the headboard and lands on his face. The tortilla wakes up.

‘What the fuck is your problem?’ he says groggily.

‘What the fuck is your problem?’ Vanessa mimics. ‘I’ll tell you what the fuck my problem is. I’ve just trodden on the disgusting old sandwich you chucked on to your disgusting fucking floor!’

Wille sits up, still wrapped in the blanket. ‘It’s not my bloody sandwich,’ he says.

‘I. Don’t. Eat. Liver sausage,’ Vanessa enunciates, as if Wille were old and deaf. ‘Just look at this place!’

‘You live here too.’

‘I’m at school all day! You don’t do anything! Can’t you at least clean it up?’

‘You’ve just had, like, the longest sodding Christmas break ever. You clean up your shit and I’ll clean up mine,’ he says, and pulls one of her bras from under his pillow. He flings it at her, and it lands at her feet.

Vanessa wants to scream at him, but the thought of Sirpa in the next room stops her. Instead she grabs the bra and throws it back at Wille. It lands on his head with one cup hanging over his face.

‘Give me a fucking
break
,’ Wille whines, but he’s smiling.

Vanessa picks up a car magazine from the floor and hurls it at him.

‘Stop it,’ Wille says, and is hit by a disgusting-looking sock. ‘That does it!’ he says. He jumps out of bed, grabs Vanessa and carries her back to the bed.

‘Let go! I’ve got liver sausage on my foot!’

‘I don’t give a shit.’

‘I’ve got to go to school!’

‘No, you haven’t.’

‘I have! The holidays are over!’

‘The first day of the spring term is always sports day,’ says Wille, and lays her on the mattress.

Vanessa smiles. She’d forgotten that. She grabs the bedclothes and wraps them around her. Sports day is a free day. Everyone knows that.

‘Then I’m going back to sleep,’ she says. ‘And you’re going to throw away that revolting sandwich. And wipe my heel,’ she adds, waving her foot.

Wille leaves the room and Vanessa shuts her eyes. She falls asleep surprisingly quickly, waking up briefly as Wille wields a tissue on her foot, bowing ironically when he’s done.

The pain is so sharp and so sudden that for a few seconds Minoo forgets how to breathe. She’s sure she’s broken her tail bone and the ice underneath her.

She hears catcalls and mittened applause and tries to laugh –
No problem, I’m fine. Doesn’t hurt a bit
– even though the tears are stinging the corners of her eyes.

She had chosen to spend the day on skates because Max is supervising the activities at Engelsfors sports field. Of course he’s barely looking in her direction.

Minoo tries to stand up. The skates slip from under her so her legs splay in impossible directions. She puts her hands against the smoothly polished ice and tries again. This
time
she lands hard on her knees. Fresh pain shoots up her thighs.

She hears someone come towards her across the ice. She looks up just as Max brakes perfectly, showering her with a thin mist of ice crystals. He holds out his hand and helps her up, but she almost falls over again and is in danger of pulling him down with her. Max wobbles. They support each other for a moment in what looks almost like an embrace. She gets the giddy feeling that he’s about to kiss her again.

‘Are you all right?’ he asks, and gently lets go of her.