The Circle of Owls (The Grimalkin Book 3)

by Dani Swanson

  “You weren’t trying to be kind and spare her, you were trying to get her powers and you didn’t know how to do it. Can’t get your powers from a dead witch. At least you’ve learned that much.” Penelope smirked.

  “I’m going to find the book that has whatever spell you used to take Celeste’s powers, and then I’ll be able to do the same to Thea. You made her a Supreme without even knowing it. Can you imagine if I had her powers with my knowledge? I would be the most powerful witch that was ever known! And do you know what we could do with that?”

  “Get overthrown by the next idiot who is power hungry and has no respect for the natural order of things?” Penelope’s words came out faster than she could think of what she was saying.

  “Fine, mother, you don’t want to help your own daughter succeed? You can stay in your room with your knitting as I finish rebuilding the Circle of Owls.”

  “You’re not owls anymore….I think you have one owl mask left up there. You’re just a flock of birds – not smart enough to be owls!” Cricket turned on her heels, slamming the door behind her as she left; leaving the same way she did every time that she came to see her mother to ask for help.

  “Thea is going to make a much better leader when she gets down here. You two are such disappointments.” Penelope muttered to herself as she searched for a stitch she just dropped.

  Penelope worked on her project for awhile longer until she heard the familiar scratching coming from behind her vanity. She slowly stood up from her chair and peered through the little window on her door. When she was sure that no one was watching her, she carefully slid the table away from the wall. There she found a small grey mouse with a scrap of paper in its mouth. She ruffled her brow as she looked down at her little friend. She placed her hand down to the ground and he climbed into her palm.

  “Well this is a new twist, you’re bringing me letters now…” She unrolled the paper that Thea had sent, a smile spreading across her lips. “There we go! She’s catching on!” She pulled a scrap of paper and pencil out of her hair, scribbling a note while looking over her shoulder. “You give this to the raven and tell him to fly slowly back to me, so Thea can find where we are.” She softly ran her finger over the head of the mouse before handing him the new paper. He left through the small hole behind her vanity and off into the darkness he went. She pushed the vanity back into place, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She giggled to herself as she saw the black collar around her neck. “My daughters are idiots.” She sang as she sat back into her chair to work on her project. “When this thing gets off of me, I’m taking my Circle back.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Cricket had been spending a lot of time alone, locked in the hatchery of their new little home. She enjoyed the company of the many owls that she had as pets. She sat in a chair of emerald green with small silver decorative bolts holding the fabric in place. The room had high ceilings with built-in nesting boxes for the owls. They would roost on the edges of their boxes and gently call out to one and other.

  Cricket sat with her many piles of books around her that she had taken from her mother as she continued to read the dark arts – trying to cast a spell that would not only take someone’s soul to continue to give her immortality, but also how to rip the magic from another witch, to make her the strongest witch in the history of Erresuma. She sat, thumbing through the tattered pages of an old book, trying to look as if she was deep in concentration as she would glance up to the door. “Could she move any slower?” Cricket said under her breath as she finally saw the silhouette of Sorgin coming towards the room.

  “Oh! Hello Sorgin! I forgot you were coming to visit with me today.” Cricket’s attempt to sound surprised seemed to work with Sorgin.

  “Would you like me to come back at a different time?” Sorgin said as she looked uneasily around the room. She never did like being in the room with all the owls. It was unnerving to her that they spun their necks around in order to watch her walk into the room.

  “Don’t be silly. I have some research I wanted to show you.”

  Cricket offered a seat that she had cleared of books next to a small table that had a table cloth over the items on the table. She brought a book close to Sorgin to read as she dragged her chair next to Sorgin’s.

  “Do you see this part here? It says that I can use the same magic that is used for the collars, but it will collect their magic into a spirit crystal that can be grounded down into a powder and inhaled to use their magic as my own.”

  “Where are you ever going to find a new spirit crystal? I thought that Thea girl broke it the last time you met. The mermaids will never give you another one, at least not to the size that you had before.” Sorgin looked up from the book over the rim of her glasses to look at Cricket’s face. Cricket had a smug smile as she reached over and removed the cloth from the table. There was a small chunk of what was remaining from her previous stone.

  “I’m not sure I will need my whole stone, I managed to save this bit that she didn’t destroy.”

  Before Sorgin could even open her mouth to ask anymore questions, Cricket had blown a blue powder into her face, and spoke the ancient fairy language that Sorgin had just read in the book. Sorgin’s face burned, and her vision was blurred as she tried to grab her walking stick to defend herself with.

  Cricket saw her reaching for the walking stick and kicked it up in the air with her foot and catching it with her free hand. As Cricket finished the incantation, she watched as the lavender colored essence left Sorgin’s body – being completely absorbed by the small bit of spirit crystal she had left. Cricket snatched the crystal from the table and held it up to her eye as she watched the clouded mass inside float in the nothingness. The owls were all calling and flying around the room, but all Cricket could hear is the deafening hum that was playing in her ears.

  “What have you done?!” Sorgin shrieked from her chair. Her hand trembled as she unsuccessfully tried to conjure anything that would attack Cricket.

  “How many times have you failed me? How you helped Thea against the Grimalkin and the coven when she would have died? I should have put a collar around your neck and left you down in the dungeon many times over. And the last straw was when I asked you if you had that book, the very one you are holding, and you told me no. You know where I found it? In a false wall, in your house when we were there. You were hiding the magic from me Sorgin, so now I’m going to hide your magic from you.”

  Sorgin’s eyes were full of terror as she stared back into Cricket’s eyes. “Cricket, I didn’t even know that was there! And you told me I could collect Thea, I was just protecting what was mine….” She was trying to save herself, but her brain wasn’t coming up with a lie fast enough for her lips.

  “We don’t need to do that justification game old friend. Because you have been with the Circle for so long, I decided to not kill you or lock you away. I want to see if you can redeem yourself and be useful as we move forward with my plan…..would you care to stay and watch how I’m going to use your magic? Or should you go and figure out how you’re going to make yourself useful?”

  Cricket held out Sorgin’s walking stick. The skull inside of the handle looked dull now that it wasn’t pulling magic from the imp-witch. “Show me what you have learned.” Sorgin solemnly said as she pulled herself up to her feet. “Maybe there is something useful I can do with this in the future for you.”

  Cricket turned her back on Sorgin, and for a split second Sorgin thought about hitting Cricket over the head with her walking stick, but she could feel the aches and pains in her back and realized that without her magic, she’s just an old woman and didn’t want to chance that her immortality was gone too. She patiently watched as cricket chipped off the clouded part of the spirit crystal with a chisel and a hammer. She then took the clouded pieces and cautiously ground them into a fine powder with her mortar and pestle she had sitting on the table. She put the mixture into a bag and sniffed the contents. She could feel the rush
of Sorgin’s powers coursing through her veins from just the little bit she inhaled.

  Cricket was delighted that the spell worked and stopped in her tracks as she could hear what the owls were saying.

  I told you she was going to trick that old witch.

  I want to go fly around the trees! When do we get let out again?

  I don’t like how she looks at us. I don’t trust her.

  “You never told me that you could talk to the animals and hear what they’re saying. I wonder what other interesting powers I have in this bag.” Cricket said as she gently placed the pouch into the pocket of her pants.

  “What are you going to do with the rest of it?” Sorgin nervously asked as she was fixated on Cricket’s pocket.

  “For now, I’ll hold onto it. See if you can earn it back by being useful to me. And no more tricks Sorgin. I know the imp part of your brain can’t help it, but I’m going to need you to try to be loyal.” She raised her eyebrows and gave Sorgin a very disappointed look as she showed Sorgin out of the room. “Make sure you shut the door behind you.”

  Sorgin opened her mouth to speak but Cricket raised her finger to her crimson lips to tell Sorgin not to talk.

  Sorgin defeatedly walked out of the room and looked over her shoulder back into the room before pulling the door shut behind her.

  Cricket giggled to herself as she hugged the tattered book next to her chest. “So, you guys can understand what I am saying, huh?” She said up to the rafters to the owls overhead. She waited for a moment and listened to their responses before she walked over to the large window leading out to the trees. “Go find me all the spirit crystals throughout the lands. The more you bring me, the better I will make your home here!” She flung open the latch and the hundreds of owls of all types and sizes flew out into the wilderness to do their mistress’ bidding.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Though Charles had been hellbent on finding Lilly Quinn, or the Grimalkin, or whatever that was that had him stupefied, none of the leads had panned out for his search party. He felt defeated, and his group started to run out of supplies and had opted to return to Izotza. There he found Dean and Thea covertly packing for a new adventure, trying to secretly sneak out of the castle without Irving or Robin finding out that they were leaving. As his search party was walking in the door, his elbow was grabbed by his brother and he was escorted back out the door to where the penguins played in the snow.

  “Well, hey guys, nice to see….”

  “Shhhhhhh!” Thea’s hand was over his mouth. “Shut up and come on!” she whispered at him with a playful wink.

  The three of them briskly walked to the main gate, with Fig racing behind them, avoiding the windows of the castle where Irving or Robin may see them. Through the front gate, Thea flipped the enchanted mirror onto its face, so no one could see them leaving, other than the guard. “We’ll be back in a little while, just going for a walk.” She smiled awkwardly at him as she continued down the path, elbows linked with both the brothers as she went. The guard gave a smile back, with his eyebrows raised in confusion – it was then obvious to Thea that he didn’t care that they were leaving.

  Once they were into the trees, Thea let go of Charles’ arm. “Now am I allowed to talk?”

  “Sorry about that, but we didn’t want any attention drawn to ourselves.” Dean wrapped his arm around the shoulder of his brother, giving him a side hug squeeze. “How was your mission?”

  “Oh, it was great! Killed the Grimalkin and saved everyone!”

  “Really?!” Thea gasped as she spun Charles on his heels to look him in the eye.

  Charles raised his eyebrows and gestured to his empty hand he was holding out like he was showing off a new trophy. “Yeah, got her head right here! Didn’t spend weeks being led in circles by fairies and elves at all.” Thea could hear the sarcasm in his voice this time when he spoke.

  “Jerk.” She said with a shove to his shoulder as she started to walk down the side of the mountain.

  “Do you mind telling me what’s going on? Since I was dragged out of the kingdom and told to shut up? Curious as to what you two are getting me into now.” He picked Fig up who was whining about being in the snow again and put him up on his shoulder, carrying him like a sack of potatoes.

  “We are going to visit the spot where we think the Circle of Owls may be holding Penelope and see if we can get her out.”

  “Okay, that sounds like we’re going to have a fine adventure, but why were we sneaking out of there.”

  Dean chimed into the conversation: “Thea didn’t want Irving to try to come again as that would just be another person we have to watch, and he was getting himself hurt more than helping when he left the castle before…..and Robin is acting extremely weird. She said she can talk to the Baba Yaga and that she knows the entire history of Thea’ s family. She wrote it all down in one of her books…..and she’s talking to herself, and using different voices when she answers herself. We felt that it may be better if she rests for a while.”

  He looked from his brother to Thea who was giving him a strained smile and nodding at what Dean had told him. “Whoa.” Is all he could say as he followed behind them. “Okay, so where are we going?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “Then what are we doing? Are we just going to randomly wander the kingdoms until we find the Circle of Owls?”

  “We’re going to follow that guy.” Dean said as he pointed up to where Jaeger was jumping from the branches of one tree to the next, watching the humans below. “He’s been bringing encrypted notes to Thea from Penelope this entire time.

  “Took me long enough to figure out to follow the bird, right? I can’t believe it took me this long to figure it out.” She shook her head in her own self disbelief as she tossed a fireball at a yeti who had thrown a snowball at them. “I see you!”

  “To be fair, its not like she was being very direct with you about who they were from, or what they always meant.” Dean shrugged at her.

  “They still don’t. The last one says “looks can be deceiving. Monkey See Monkey Do.” What does that mean?”

  “I would think that she’s talking in riddles so that if they get intercepted, they won’t know who they are for, or where they are going. That’s what I would do.” Charles said as he examined the scrap of paper that Thea had. She then pulled out her book and opened it to the back page…. the scrap of paper flew out of his hand and found its place in the back of the book among the tattered pages, smoothing out the ripped fibers of the paper.

  “I found that out when I pulled the book out with all my notes from my bag. See? She must have cast some sort of magic onto my book.” She proudly shut the small book and placed it back into her bag as they continued down the path.

  She walked with her arm linked through Dean’s, which she could see made Charles slightly uncomfortable, but she didn’t care – it just felt right to her. Fig seemed to enjoy his ride down the path with Charles holding him; he fit better on his shoulders than on Thea. Half way down the mountain they stopped in their tracks as the mountain began to shake. Slight tremors knocked yetis and bazzles down from the trees. It happened a few times, and then stopped.

  “What was that?!” Thea was looking around to see if there was an avalanche happening. The mountain had settled, and everything was still.

  “I’m not sure what that was….an earthquake?” Dean collected his bag that he had dropped and scooped up Fig who’s hair was standing on end – he handed the cat over to Thea who started to cradle him like a baby and cooing at her cat. “You spoil him.”

  “He’s my baby.” She smiled as she set the cat down.

  “Your bird is squawking at you.” Charles said as he pointed at Jaeger who was circling above their heads.

  “I don’t think he wants to be on this mountain anymore.” She shielded her eyes as she watched him.

  “I don’t think I disagree with him, lets get going before it starts to shake again.” Charles said as he
started down the path again.

  “I hope everyone at the castle is okay.” Thea looked back to where they had just come from.

  “I’m sure they are okay – those walls are solid. Come on, we need to focus on where we are going.” Dean wrapped his arm over her shoulder with his brother rolling his eyes as Charles was trying to walk in front of them.

  They continued down the mountain until the air started to get warmer – they were able to shed their coats and enjoy the sunshine on their faces. Fig opted to finally walk on his own and rolled in the grass. They stopped for a moment amongst the trees and had a bit to eat- but it was only for a moment because Jaeger was getting louder the slower they moved – he even swooped down and picked up the ends of Thea’s hair and lightly tugged on it to urge her to move. “Okay Jaeger! We’re moving! You could have shown us where she was a long time ago, you silly bird!” She tossed a chunk of meat to him before continuing down the path.

  “He’s bringing us to Monkey Tree Village. I stopped here and there wasn’t any sign of anything out of the normal dumpiness that happens here every day.” Charles’ annoyance was prominent in his tone.

  “To be fair, you were looking for Lilly, and I’m sure you wouldn’t know what any of the members of The Circle of Owls looks like.” She said with a shrug as she started to walk into the center of town. “I really wish I had worn a cloak.” Thea felt like she was extremely exposed with her face and hair showing – she wasn’t sure who would be there, and who from her past she didn’t remember, would recognize her.

  “The Ice King said that you look just like Penelope and I didn’t see anyone who looks like you when I was here.” Charles was annoyed that he was back in the village that he had just left.

  “She’s being held somewhere, dummy! They wouldn’t let her out in the middle of town.” Dean playfully hit his brother upside the back of his head.