The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,83

not going to discuss it right now.’

Minoo looks pleadingly at Linnéa and gets a grimace in return. She longs for order, not more chaos.

The principal opens her bag. She hands out five identical black books and silver loupes. Minoo weighs her book in her hand. It’s incredibly heavy for something so small. She examines the loupe. It’s segmented into eight parts of which six are very thin, ribbed and adjustable.

‘This is the Book of Patterns,’ the principal says. ‘And this’ – she holds up a loupe – ‘is one of two tools at your disposal for interpreting it. This is the other,’ she says, and taps her temple.

Vanessa groans.

‘Open your books,’ the principal says.

Minoo opens hers. Six symbols are lined up on the first page.

She turns it. Then another and yet another.

‘I don’t see any patterns,’ Ida says. It’s the first thing she’s said all morning.

Minoo doesn’t say so, but she agrees with Ida. The pages are covered with incomprehensible symbols of various sizes. Some may look as if they’re in some kind of order, but others are scattered everywhere. Some pages are blank. It looks like the most difficult IQ test ever, and Minoo is stumped.

‘Six symbols,’ the principal says, ‘arranged in magical constellations. You can only learn what they mean through deep and sustained reflection and with the help of this.’

She holds up the loupe again. ‘The Pattern Finder.’

‘What’s in this book anyway?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘That depends on who’s looking,’ the principal responds. ‘No two witches see the same thing. The Book of Patterns acts as transmitter and receiver. The witch reading it has to know what she’s looking for. Then the book will show her what she needs. It’s like tuning into the right frequency on an old-fashioned radio.’

‘And the thing you use to tune in with is … that?’ Ida asks.

‘Yes. But it’s useless if your senses aren’t focused on the search.’ The principal’s eyes are dreamy. ‘The book often knows what we need better than we do. It’s as if it can see right into our souls.’

‘Cheesy,’ Vanessa says in a sing-song voice.

The principal glares at Vanessa. ‘On the contrary,’ she says. ‘This book contains all the knowledge that a witch will ever need. What you see depends in part on how well developed your powers are, and in part on what symbol you belong to. It contains magic formulae and rites, prophecies and tales from the past.’

‘Does that mean our prophecy looks like this?’ Linnéa says, and points at a page on which the symbols look as if a tornado has passed through the book.

Adriana Lopez nods. ‘That’s why it’s not easy just to read out the prophecy to you. When the time is right, you’ll be able to see it, but you won’t all see it in the same way.’

‘Then how do you know what’s in it?’ Minoo asks. ‘If everyone sees different things, I mean.’

‘Generations of witches have read the prophecy and written down exactly what they’ve seen. The texts overlap at a number of points. It’s a question of pure statistics.’

‘So the majority is always right?’ Linnéa asks.

‘I see you’re the philosopher here,’ the principal answers mordantly.

Minoo sees Linnéa’s eyes darken and realises she must intervene. ‘What was it you said about the symbols before?’

Adriana holds up the books.

‘There are six different symbols in this book, arranged in different constellations. They resemble Asian pictograms in that they can mean many different things, and each symbol stands for an entire concept. But, for the sake of simplicity, you could say that they represent the six elements.’

‘Four,’ Ida cuts in, as she spins her necklace. ‘There are four elements.’

The principal sighs irritably, and Minoo is relieved she hadn’t beaten Ida to it.

‘As I said just a moment ago, you must forget everything you thought you knew. The concept of the four elements was put forward by the pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles. In China and Japan they talk about five elements. But the true number is six. And every witch is closer to one element than the others.’

Six elements but seven Chosen Ones. What does that mean? That two of them have the same element? Or could one of them be left with none? Minoo feels the nagging fear that it might be her.

‘Do you know which ones we are?’ she asks.

The principal gives her a look that’s difficult to interpret. ‘Yes. The results of the analysis arrived today. That’s why I was late. I’d like to start by saying that the powers you have are