by Rue
Hazel reached over and thrust her hand down the front of Po’s shirt.
He jumped back and swatted at her.
“Nothing,” she announced to Flynn.
“There’s at least two chest hairs. I wouldn’t call that nothing,” Po argued.
Flynn looked at Hazel and tilted her head in question. “I think we have to tell him about Lania.”
“Agreed,” Hazel said.
The girls brought him up to speed on the hex bag, the eyes and ears problem, and their plan to trick Magdelana into thinking Flynn had super powerful magick.
“But she does,” Po said. “She’s the first initiate to control the element of Spirit in over fifty years.”
Hazel exhaled and put her hand on Po’s shoulder. “We can’t tell you any more right now, but things aren’t always what they seem.”
“I understand,” he whispered.
Flynn recognized the disappointed look on Po’s face. She had seen the same expression on the High Priestess’ visage more times than she could count. She hated being a magickal failure. Maybe she could find a cure in The Book of Light.
“We’ll meet in the moa stable after moonrise. All right?” Po asked.
“What about Lania?” Flynn asked.
“I’ll cast the temporary fog spell and we’ll run to the House. I think I can unlock the panel and spin the tumblers before it fades,” he replied.
“What about me?” Hazel inquired.
“I think you should hide by the Herb Hut. It’s near the House and you’ll be able to see if Lania approaches,” Flynn offered.
“Sounds perfect,” Hazel mumbled.
“We better leave separately, eh?” said Po.
“Do you mean now, or after we get the magickal item?” asked Flynn.
“I mean leave separately now, and we’re returning a magickal item,” Po clarified.
“Right, that’s what I meant.” Flynn could feel her heart beating faster. One thought consumed her—the glowing orb, the ancient words, and perhaps a cure for her average curse.
Hazel asked her mother if she could sleep at Flynn’s so they could continue to prepare for their Level Ones tomorrow. Vida unquestionably trusted too much, and the girls scampered off to Flynn’s where they were sure to be spared any interfering supervision.
They made it all the way to Flynn’s without any sign of Lania. “She must’ve taken the bait and headed to the Ruins of Manaina,” Hazel said wistfully.
Flynn grabbed Hazel’s cloak and pulled her into the shadows. “Shhh, listen.”
They could hear raised voices coming from the cottage.
The girls crept closer and hid below the windowsill.
“And what exactly would you have me tell her, Cabot?” Impatience laced Kahu’s voice.
The conversation lagged and the girls heard footsteps inside the cabin. When Cabot replied his voice sounded quite near. “I don’t know exactly, my love, but you can’t keep lying to her.”
Hazel grabbed Flynn’s face in both her hands and looked directly at her while she mouthed, “My love?”
Flynn shrugged and pulled her face out of her friend’s sweaty palms. She and her mother only argued about unfinished chores. She didn’t know anything about Kahu’s love life—and she didn’t want to. She chose to ignore the potent smell of incense wafting from the open window.
“If I tell her the truth it will destroy her,” Kahu’s voice grew soft. “I can’t hurt her like that, I can’t.”
Her mother’s voice carried an unfamiliar tenderness. Flynn wondered why her mother had lied to someone when she clearly cared deeply for this person. Curious.
Footsteps walked away from the window. The sound of cloth rubbing against cloth gave way to a strange sucking sound.
Hazel looked at Flynn and mouthed, “They’re kissing.” She made horrible kissy faces that annoyed Flynn.
“She has to know who her father is before the testing. You can’t let her continue to believe she’s cursed.”
Flynn looked at Hazel and pointed to herself questioningly.
Hazel nodded.
Cabot and Kahu clearly spoke of Flynn.
Hazel pointed toward the stable and Flynn nodded.
They kept low to the dew-dampened earth and crept away from the cottage. Once they were out of sight Flynn ran full-speed to the stable.
“My mom has been lying to me for thirteen years!” Flynn paced back and forth, kicking at the stones and bits of straw on the ground.
“Do you think it’s Cabot?” Hazel asked.
“What about Cabot?”
“Do you think he’s your father? I mean why else would he care if you know?” Hazel tapped her fingertips together to an unseen beat.
“What difference does it make? If Cabot’s my father that wouldn’t be good, right?” Confusion fogged Flynn’s brain. She had hoped to find a cure for the curse that made her average, non-magickal, and completely unable to save her people. Now she wondered if the real problem had been her all along. If both of her parents were powerful witches and they knew she wasn’t cursed—then she actually was a Watcher.
“Your mother will be looking for you tonight,” Hazel spoke her thoughts out loud. She stared up at the roof thatch and tapped madly. She picked up some straw and wove the stalks together as her mind raced.
“She’ll never look for me in the House of Magickal Items. Clearly a Watcher like me would have no use for a place like that,” Flynn sputtered.
“It’s not safe to go in there, Flynn. She’ll be roaming the village, she’ll go to see my mother and they’ll both know we were lying about practicing.” Hazel stopped weaving and stared at Flynn.
“Apparently we aren’t the only ones who’ve been lying.” Her lips curled into a snarl, “Gift from the Goddess!” Flynn threw her hands up in the air and shouted, “Good one, Mother.”
Po rushed into the barn, the hood of his cloak pulled low over his face, and grabbed Flynn’s shoulders, “Shhhh,” he whispered. “The High Priestess is looking for you. She came to our cottage a few minutes ago. As soon as she left I slipped out a window and ran all the way here.”
Hazel pressed in close and spoke softly, “We can’t possibly go into the House now. The High Priestess will have half the village looking for us.”
“I wish it was that easy,” Po muttered, “but the item I borrowed is used in the promotion ceremony tomorrow. I have to put it back tonight.”
“What did you borrow, and why?” Flynn mumbled between her clenched teeth.
“The Chalice of Tuatara. I accidently knocked it off the pillar when I worked on a carving in the House and one of the paua shells got chipped. I only wanted to fix it, honest.”
Flynn believed there would be a spell to help her in The Book of Light. She had to get into the House tonight, too. “All right, let’s all go back to our cottages before my mom summons the coven and we’ll meet when the moon reaches its highest point.”
“Thanks, Flynn.” Po patted her shoulder, tugged at his cowl, and slipped out of the stable.
“Hazel, I need you to stick with me. If you’re around she won’t be able to tell me about my father and I definitely want to put that off until after the testing. Is that all right with you?”
“I guess, but we better go and see my mother on the way back, so she doesn’t worry about me,” she replied.
Hazel and Flynn took the long way back so they would have time to formulate an excuse before Kahu confronted them.
They stopped off at Hazel’s cottage and her mother said she never worried because Hazel was such a good girl. Hazel didn’t look Vida in the face when she promised to go straight to bed as soon as they got back to Flynn’s.
A hundred yards from Flynn’s front door, they felt a presence behind them.
“Lania, we know it’s you. Why do you insist on following us?” Flynn spun around to face the girl.
“I’m pleased to hear that you have enough sense to know when you are being followed, but clearly I am n
ot this Lania you mentioned.” Kahu drew her thick black cloak against the damp night air and strode past the gaping mouths of the girls, and into her home.
Years of experience prevented Flynn from spouting out a flurry of excuses. She had learned to wait until Kahu leveled actual accusations before going on the defensive.
“Where have you girls been? It’s quite late.” Kahu kept a casual tone.
Flynn hesitated a moment too long.
“We were practicing for the Level Ones tomorrow, Priestess,” Hazel replied.
“In the dark?” Kahu inquired.
“We were an hour’s walk from the village and we lost track of time,” Flynn lied.
Kahu looked at her daughter and smiled.
Hazel saw the smile and her shoulders relaxed.
Flynn saw the smile and knew her mother did not believe her, but did not care to discover the truth. She could see a strange softness seeping into the corners of her mother’s eyes, and she did not want to have this conversation. Something had to be done. She stretched her arms high into the air and yawned loudly. “I’m so tired. Hazel is a tough tutor.” Placing her arm around her friend’s shoulders, she continued, “We better get to bed. I want to be well-rested for the testing tomorrow.”
Hazel finally caught on and rubbed her eyes sleepily. “Yeah, morning will be here before you know it.”
They hurried down the short hallway to Flynn’s room and closed the door behind.
“Did she believe us? Hazel asked.
“Doesn’t matter. The important thing is I avoided the conversation.”
Bleak grey moonlight filtered through Flynn’s window, casting suspicion on everything it touched. The girls curled up on Flynn’s bed and listened to Kahu walking through the cottage. They heard a kettle scrape onto metal, followed by a rusty creak.
“She’s making tea,” Flynn whispered.
“Hopefully it’s a sleeping brew. I think I would faint if she caught us sneaking out,” Hazel mumbled, sleepily.
The moon had climbed to its zenith when Flynn felt cold hands on her shoulder. She wanted to scream, but one of those icy hands clamped over her mouth. She twisted in fear.
“Flynn, it’s me. Please don’t scream or something,” Po hissed in her ear. “You weren’t at the stable, so I figured you fell asleep, eh?”
She let her breathing steady and she nodded her head until Po released her mouth.
“Hazel is impossible to wake up, we’ll have to leave her.” Flynn slowly sat up. “Hey, how did you get in here?” she whispered.
“Through the window, of course.” Po grabbed Flynn’s cloak from the chair and draped it over her shoulders. “You’ll need this, the wind is whipping in from the sea, and it’s freezing out.”
Flynn secured her cloak and followed Po out of the window. She landed with a soft thud and padded after him without a word. It looked like they had shaken Lania. Nothing stirred in the village.
When they reached the edge of the Herb Hut’s shadow Po turned and without warning spoke the word, “Pokekohu.”
A thick fog rolled around them.
He pulled Flynn across the mist-filled expanse to the door of the House of Magickal Items. He unlocked the panel and spun the tumblers into place.
They stepped inside.
While Po closed the door and unwrapped the Chalice of Tuatara, Flynn took advantage of his distraction and raced back to the enchanted wall.
The wand in her cloak wiggled and vibrated.
She pushed through without hesitation and walked directly to the glowing orb surrounding the book. She reached in and opened The Book of Light.
Her mind raced and she flipped through pages without reading a single word. She kept thinking about what type of spell could help her wield magick.
Abruptly the pages ceased.
Her hand brushed the cold stone of the pillar that supported the book.
She had reached the end, or rather the middle. The second half—The Book of Shadow—had been ripped from the binding.
She ran her fingers along the frayed edges of the severed spine and flipped the last page back open. She gasped.
The page contained the shadow symbol—a five-pointed star made of wands encircled by a ring of flame—and the edges of the paper were inscribed with other sigils she did not recognize.
The Book had been hastily rent in two and some pages from the shadow half remained connected to The Book of Light.
Flynn felt Temarama’s wand flutter at her chest, and all at once she knew why Magdelana sought the book—not to destroy it, but to recover these precious pages.
The wand hummed.
Flynn turned back the aged sheets of parchment until she came to the first page of shadow magick.
She read the spell for a cleansing fire to remove thick underbrush and dead wood from a forest. She could see how that would be beneficial to a village on the edge of a large wooded area. It could also be twisted to cause far more destruction than necessary.
The next leaf contained a complicated ritual and karakia to clear rock from a mountain pass. Again she saw two sides, the benefit of faster travel routes for villagers, or a landslide that could crush all in its path.
She thumbed through the scant remaining pages and on the last sheet she read a spell to connect the magick of several witches to raise enough power to create an unstoppable curse. The second half of the spell was missing. It would be the first page in The Book of Shadow hidden somewhere deep within Southeil.
The wand grew frighteningly still.
If Magdelana could retrieve this page, she could complete the karakia and obliterate the inhabitants of Aotearoa.
A panicked hiss drifted through the wall.
Flynn realized how much time must have passed. Po would be frantic.
She had not found a spell to help herself, but she had found a way to help her people. Maybe she didn’t need magick to be the savior. If she could keep this page safe, she could keep everyone safe.
She placed The Book back in its original position and ran to the wall.
Po’s voice had grown faint.
She poked her head out of the wall and couldn’t see him. She popped through, felt a sharp tingling drift over her skin, and hurried to the front door.
He walked in circles, rubbing the scar on his cheek, and mumbling to himself. He jumped when she rushed around the corner. “Where were you? I thought about leaving you in here. Didn’t you hear me calling your name?” Po shook his head.
“I’m really sorry, I lose track of time in here,” Flynn replied.
“And you lose the ability to hear, eh?” he added.
“Yeah, that, too.” Flynn walked toward the door, eager to get back to her cottage.
Po grabbed her arm. “I looked everywhere and didn’t see any sign of you until you came around that corner.”
“That’s strange,” Flynn pulled her arm from his grasp. “Let’s get out of here before someone notices I’m not in my bed.”
He quickly unlocked the door, cast the temporary fog spell, and crept out. He sealed the door behind them and they raced across the open space to the shadows beside the Herb Hut—
Where they collided with someone hidden in the darkness.
“I knew I’d find you two here.”
“Oh, Goddess protect me.” Flynn’s heart thudded as she whispered, “Hazel, you scared me to death. I thought you were Lania.”
“Did you leave me behind on purpose?” Hazel’s soft voice held an edge of hurt.
“No, no, of course not. You fell asleep, and you know how hard it is to wake you up.” Flynn grabbed Hazel’s hand to pull herself up from the ground. She turned to thank Po, but found him long gone.
“I didn’t see anyone out here. I wanted to make sure you were safe.” Hazel adjusted her cloak and fiddled with the fringe.
“Thanks for watching out for us. We better get back before my mom does a bed check.” Flynn brushed off her cloak and flicked the grass from her hair.
/> “Oh, she already did a bed check.”
The smugness in Hazel’s voice concerned Flynn. “You mean she already knows I snuck out?”
“Not exactly, by some magick I woke up when your bedroom door creaked open. I pulled a blanket over my head and mumbled some stuff when she spoke. She hurried away and luckily didn’t have time for a kiss goodbye.” Hazel opened the front door to Flynn’s cottage and held it for her friend.
“She never does,” Flynn mumbled. “Why was she in a hurry?” By the faint illumination of the silvery moonlight, she carefully walked back to her room, dropped her cloak over a chair, and tugged off her boots.
“She said she had to see Pounamu before the promotions tomorrow, but that she’d be back by breakfast.” Hazel flopped down onto Flynn’s bed—boots and all.
“Do you think Pounamu will tell her about Lania and the hex bag?” No response came to Flynn’s question, save the deep steady breathing of a fast asleep Hazel.
The smell of biscuits, eggs, and sausages pulled Flynn from dreamland. She pinched herself and then pinched Hazel—to be double sure.
“Ouch!” Hazel swatted at Flynn but her sleepy aim missed the mark.
“I had to be sure it isn’t a dream. Do you smell that?” Flynn asked.
“It’s breakfast. So?” Hazel rubbed her eyes and yawned.
“No one makes breakfast at my house, except me.” Flynn ran her fingers through her hair and asked, “Do you think it’s safe to go out there?”
Grumpy Hazel’s hair looked like a hay bale gone rogue. “I’m starving. You can stay in here and panic if you want, but I’m going to eat.” She opened the bedroom door and marched into the kitchen.
Flynn hung back a few paces, still unsure.
“Nana!” Hazel shouted, warmly.
What is Hazel’s nana doing in my house, Flynn wondered as she rounded the corner.
“Flynn, your grandmother’s here,” Hazel said. She took a plate from Nana Kapowai with one hand and reached for a biscuit with the other.
“Why are you here, Nana?” Flynn asked suspiciously.
If it were possible to look regal while frying eggs, this woman made it a reality. As a former High Priestess, Nana Kapowai loved, but she did not coddle. “Your mother’s visit to the witch of the wood has taken longer than expected. I simply wanted to make sure you had a good meal before the promotions.”
