The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,82
of you,’ the principal says. She lets her gaze linger on Anna-Karin, before she moves on to Ida, Minoo and Linnéa. ‘Even those of you who have not yet developed any powers.’
Perhaps Minoo should feel frightened, but that ‘yet’ has made her happy. Perhaps she has a power after all. The principal seems to think so.
‘There has always been a certain amount of magic in the world. And the barriers separating our world from others has varied in strength over time.’
‘What “other worlds”?’ Vanessa interrupts.
‘Our world isn’t the only one. There are countless others. Don’t interrupt me again,’ the principal says sternly. ‘During the last few centuries we’ve lived through a magical drought with occasional local flare-ups. One such flare-up took place here about three hundred years ago. Your dreams might be channelling what happened then.’
‘How do you know what we’ve been dreaming?’ Vanessa asks.
‘My raven saw and heard everything that was said on the night of your awakening. It’s the opinion of the Council and myself that the one who spoke through Ida that night was the Chosen One from the 1600s.’
‘Who was she?’ Minoo asks. ‘And what happened to her?’
‘We don’t know. The church and vicarage burned down in 1675, and a great many important documents were lost.’ The principal regards them gravely. ‘If I compared the last two thousand years to a magical drought, then what’s coming is more like a flood. Individuals with powers like yours have been incredibly rare, but now they’re appearing in a number of places across the world. The battle that is coming may affect our entire reality.’
‘That’s why Nicolaus spoke of our destiny,’ Anna-Karin says.
Adriana purses her lips. ‘I’d prefer to call it your task,’ she says.
‘So you mean that the fate of the world will be decided in Engelsfors?’ Vanessa asks.
‘I know it’s hard to imagine,’ the principal says, with a hint of a smile, ‘but that may well be so. This place has a high level of magical activity, which will continue to grow.’
‘No.’ The principal looks at Minoo approvingly, as if she thought it was a good question. ‘We believe that the energy will eventually spread over ever larger areas, but just now we’re looking at local phenomena.’
Vanessa says thoughtfully. ‘Does that mean our powers won’t work everywhere? For instance, if I went to Ibiza on holiday, could I become invisible there?’
‘Ibiza, as it happens, has a very high level of magical activity,’ the principal answers, ‘but you’ve understood correctly. The power doesn’t just come from within you. You have to be hooked up, as it were, to a power source. And that’s here. You need Engelsfors, just as you need each other, and Engelsfors needs you. We still don’t know why there were … seven of you. But together you form a circle. Witches have worked in circles throughout the ages. You won’t get anything important done if you don’t learn to work together.’
She’s wrong to reduce it to a ‘task’, Minoo thinks. ‘Destiny’ is a much better word.
Rebecka had understood that. This is much bigger than they are and they are destined to carry it out. But in any case they are tied to Engelsfors. And to each other.
‘Any more questions?’ the principal asks.
Everyone remains quiet.
She smiles, satisfied. ‘Right,’ she says. ‘Let’s talk about magic. Theory and practice.’
31
‘FORGET EVERYTHING YOU think you know about magic and the supernatural,’ says Miss Lopez. ‘I guarantee it’s wrong. We make sure of that.’
‘How?’ Linnéa asks.
‘Among other things, the Council has a special department that goes through whatever information is on the Net. There may be kernels of truth in what you find there. Some magical facts are hidden in folklore and traditions, but they’re so inextricably intertwined with nonsense that it’s virtually impossible to distinguish one from the other. We remove anything that gets too close to the truth, and leave all the misleading junk. The lunatics and amateurs actually do us a big favour.’
‘So you’re engaged in censorship as well?’ Linnéa says contemptuously.
‘We’re entering a new magical age so we have to be in control of whatever knowledge there is. You can’t imagine what damage it could cause if it were to fall into the wrong hands.’
But Linnéa won’t back down. ‘And who decides whether it’s in the wrong hands? You and the Council? Who keeps an eye on you?’
The principal smiles mirthlessly. ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? “Who protects us from our protectors?” The ancient philosophers asked that question, and I’m