by Lari Don
“I was cursed by a being with access to even older magic than mine. She hacked off my hair to destroy all the power I’d absorbed as I trained. She wrapped a curse round me so many times that I couldn’t unpick its layers on my own. Then she threw me into the air, and as I fell back to earth I changed into many different creatures. I was a toad when I hit the ground, so I was trapped as a toad. I was too weak after the attack to break the curse myself. The stone egg, the good deeds held inside it and the naïve words of the farm-witch were all necessary to crack the spell and allow me to force my way out.”
“But the good deed inside the egg was a con,” said Molly. “You and I tricked that flower fairy into letting us help her.”
Theo smiled. “You were all helping each other, and those were genuine good deeds. Then when you asked Mrs Sharpe to lift my curse rather than yours, Molly, that generous act gave the egg even more power. All Mrs Sharpe did was crack the eggshell and say a few encouraging words. You freed me, Molly. So thank you. Thank you all.
“Thank you also, obviously, for trapping me again. And in a circle of salt crystals! It’s refreshing to be held prisoner by such primitive power. Who created it?”
He stared at each of them in turn.
Innes took a deep breath. “I created the circle. And we have more questions. Why do you want to get past Atacama? What do you know about Molly’s curse-caster vanishing?”
“I’m not going to tell you. Not while I’m sitting on a cold floor in an amateurish gritty circle.”
“It’s a perfect circle! And we gave you a cushion and food and water.”
“I’ve finished the water and I’m not tempted by the crisps. We saw enough potatoes in the witch’s muddy fields. The biscuits outside the circle look much tastier. So, I won’t answer any more of your questions until you answer mine. Do you know what the sphinx guards? And what is the answer to his riddle?”
Innes laughed. “That’s what you want? The answer to Atacama’s riddle! You’re not going to learn that from us. And you will tell us everything we want to know. Right now.”
Theo smiled and put his finger on his lips.
Innes walked forward. He stood at the edge of the circle and raised his voice. “You are my prisoner, defeated by my hooves, in my circle, under my power. You will answer my questions.”
“Really? You think you have any power over me?”
The tall thin shaven-headed boy stood up, straightened his cloak and stepped towards Innes. He took one short step from the centre of the circle to the edge. Then he took another step, long and slow and easy, over the salt and out of the circle.
Chapter Five
As Theo stepped forward out of the circle, Molly and Innes stepped back. Beth stood up.
“Sit down.” Theo flicked a finger at them and a wall of air shoved them all onto the couch, then held them there.
Molly, sitting squashed between Beth and Innes, felt Beth breathe in and out deeply as if she was trying to calm herself. She felt Innes’s arm muscles tense as if he was getting ready to fight. Molly resisted a sudden desire to become very small and very fast and run away.
Theo pulled a chair from against the wall and dragged it round to face the couch. He sat down and stared at them.
“Well. What do we do now?” He frowned. “I could hold you hostage again to force your sphinx friend to let me past. But if I do that, you’ll argue with me and fight against me, and even though you won’t win—”
“We did win, earlier today,” muttered Innes.
“You’re not winning now though, are you? If you fight against me, you’ll delay me and perhaps force me to hurt you, which I don’t want to do after the kindness you showed me when I was a toad. Anyway, we made a good team last week, so you could be useful allies again. I’ll try to persuade you, then you can persuade the sphinx.”
“We’ll never ask Atacama to break his vows,” said Innes.
“Won’t you? Let’s see. Now that I’m not sitting on the floor in an insulting little circle, ask your questions again. That’s the best way for you to realise we should help each other.”
Molly said, “My first question is: did that circle have any power over you at all?”
Innes said, “It held him for a while.”
Theo smiled.
“Did it hold you?” asked Molly. “Or could you have stepped out at any time?”
“Not at any time.” Theo grinned. “Only when it was suitably dramatic. Like when an arrogant little kelpie thought he could make demands of an elemental magician.”
“I thought you said the person who attacked you took all your magic,” said Innes.
“She took the power I’d absorbed and stored over many years. But even a weakened magician, only able to draw on the power around him at any one moment, is still much stronger than a kelpie or a dryad or an unfortunate human victim of a witch. So, it’s a pretty circle of crystals, Innes, but it had no power over me.”
He waved his hand and the tiny rocks of salt shifted on the floor, breaking up the circle and creating the outline of an open eye, then a smiley face, then a long snake, which slithered over to the kitchen units, climbed up to the porcelain sink and dissolved in the dishwater.
“Tricks and games!” said Innes. “If you just use your magic to play games, you’re wasting our time.”
Theo nodded. “None of us have time to waste. So ask your questions.”
Beth said, “What do you know that will help us lift Molly’s worsened curse?”
“Why do you keep saying Molly’s curse has got worse?”
Molly shrugged, her shoulders pushing against the warm blanket of air pressing her into the couch. “I don’t shift back when I cross boundaries any more. I only shift when I go between a witch’s gateposts.”
“A curse that has changed its rules?” Theo leant forward. “That’s extremely unusual. Did the caster tell you why or how he did that?”
“We couldn’t ask him. He’s not at home.”
Theo nodded. “A missing curse-caster. That’s something I can help you with, if you help me get past Atacama.”
“We will never help you get past him,” said Innes, “because letting someone through without the answer would go against his nature as a sphinx.”
Molly asked, “Why are you so keen to get through that door?”
Theo answered with another question. “Do you know what’s behind that door? You’re such close friends with the sphinx, I’m sure he’s told you what he’s guarding.”
“He can’t,” said Innes. “Sphinxes don’t know what they guard. They guard it with their lives, but they don’t know what it is.”
“Really? None of them know? He may have been misleading you. Sphinxes guard secrets, but they also keep secrets.”
“You’re being secretive too,” said Beth. “Tell us who cursed you.”
“I’m not sure. I only caught a glimpse of her and she may not have been in her true form. But she was certainly more powerful than me.” He sighed. “I had my full powers when I tried to get past Atacama the first time. He didn’t agree to my polite request and I didn’t want to hurt him in full combat, so I defended myself when he attacked, then used a light curse to try to get past. But that didn’t work, because he’s very stubborn. With the front door so well guarded, I decided to break in the back door. That’s when I was ambushed.”
“Break in?” said Innes. “All your fancy words and tricks, but actually, you’re just a thief. What are you trying to steal?”
“I’m not a thief.”
“Then why were you breaking in?”
“To continue my investigation into why the curse arc is becoming unbalanced and how it’s threatening the integrity of the helix of magic.”
Innes frowned. “The what, and the what of the what?”
“The helix of magic is formed of many arcs – the curse arc, the transformation arc, the temporal arc, I’m sure you know them all – and each one must be balanced or the helix starts to warp. My family m
aintains the stability of the helix. I noticed the curse arc becoming skewed, so I’m investigating the elemental being who regulates curses.”
Molly glanced at Beth and Innes. They looked as confused as she felt.
“But what’s that got to do with Atacama?” asked Beth.
“He guards the front door of the Keeper’s Hall: the domain of the Promise Keeper, who maintains and regulates all curses, vows and enchantments. When you were digging potatoes and building walls to lift your curses, did your friend tell you he guards the one being who can lift any curse with the wiggle of a little finger? Did he tell you that?”
“Em… No, he didn’t,” said Innes.
Theo shrugged. “Sphinxes keep secrets.”
“But what does this have to do with the curse-hatched and Molly and Mrs Sharpe?” asked Beth.
“Mrs Sharpe?” said Theo.
“Mrs Sharpe is missing too.”
Theo sighed. “Then it’s escalating.”
“What’s escalating?”
“You know that the best way to lift a curse, unless it has an inbuilt limit, is to persuade or force the curse-caster to relent. You learnt that much last week, didn’t you?”
They all nodded.
“And who benefits from long-lasting curses?”
“You’re not running another workshop,” said Innes. “Just tell us!”
Theo raised an eyebrow. “Beth, Molly? Who benefits?”
“The curse-hatched,” said Beth. “That’s why they didn’t like Mrs Sharpe’s curse-lifting workshop. They benefit because every time a curse is cast, a baby curse-hatched crow hatches from a stone egg, and that crow lives for as long as the curse lasts. So a curse that lasts forever means a crow who lives forever, and a lifted curse means a dead crow.”
Molly remembered crows falling to the ground as she found ways to break her friends’ curses. And she remembered the baby bird she’d seen with her own curse marked on its wing.
Theo nodded. “Corbie and his crows have started manipulating the curse arc to make curses last longer. They interfered with Mrs Sharpe’s workshop, and I think they’re also removing curse-casters from their magical communities, so the curses become almost unbreakable.”
“They’re kidnapping curse-casters?” asked Innes.
Beth said, “You think Corbie and the curse-hatched have taken Mr Crottel so Molly’s curse can’t be lifted?”
“That’s my best guess.”
“Where have they taken him?” asked Innes.
“I suspect they’re taking curse-casters to the midpoint of the curse arc, to the Promise Keeper’s Hall, where curses are managed. I can’t be sure until I get through that door.”
“This Keeper, the person who controls curses, is he or she in charge of the crows?” asked Molly. “Is the Keeper ordering Corbie to do this?”
“I believe the Keeper is female this time around. And I don’t know what she’s up to. There shouldn’t be any contact between the curse-hatched crows and the Keeper. But whether she’s ordering it, or unaware it’s happening, she isn’t doing her job properly. So she may need to be replaced.”
“How do you replace someone like that?” asked Molly. “A job advert?”
“It’s not easy. Keepers live for thousands of years. This one has only been in place for a few centuries. But if she’s corrupt or incapable, she must be removed.”
“Removed?” asked Beth.
“He means ‘killed’,” said Innes. “He wants to kill a hugely powerful magical being.”
Theo shook his head. “I don’t want to kill anyone. I want to gather information and see if I can fix whatever is twisting the curse arc. If you help me, you’ll probably find your missing witches and your answers about Molly’s curse. It’s your choice. I’ll get past that stubborn sphinx eventually, but with your help I’ll get in faster and we can sort this out sooner.”
He stood up, held his hands out and moved away from them. The pressure lifted from their chests. “I’m not going to throw my power around any longer. You’re free to go if you wish.”
“Free to go?” Innes leapt up. “This isn’t your house, toad-boy. This isn’t your home town. You are free to go, if you want.”
“Innes, don’t start shouting again,” said Beth. “This magician might be a curse-caster, but he understands a level of magic none of us even knew existed. We might have to work together to find Mr Crottel and anyone else who might be behind that door.”
Innes frowned. “You want to ask Atacama to—”
The door swung open. A long dark shape trotted in.
“Ask me to do what?” said the sphinx. “Give you wise advice? Or bat a ball of wool about? I’m on my tea-break, so I don’t have much time. Quick, tell me, what do you want me to do?”
“Tell us the truth,” said Innes.
“Of course. But why is our attacker roaming free? Why haven’t you contained his magic?”
“I’m not that easy to contain.” Theo smiled and held out his hand to the sphinx. “I’m Theo, pleased to meet you.”
Atacama just stared at him. “We’ve met before. When you cursed me, when you threatened my friends, and of course when you were a warty little toad.” He looked at Innes. “Why are you letting him wander about the Drummond cottage like a guest?”
Innes shrugged. “We made a circle, but he escaped. Now he wants us to persuade you to let him through your door.”
“He wants what? Has he cast a spell on you?”
“I don’t do simplistic surface spells.”
“No. You just curse innocent sphinxes doing their job! If you don’t have the answer, I will never let you through that door. And my friends will support me.” The sphinx turned confidently to Molly, Innes and Beth. “Won’t you?”
But not one of them answered him.
Chapter Six
The sphinx stared at his silent friends.
Then Beth asked, “What’s behind the door, Atacama? Who are you guarding?”
“I don’t know. We never know.”
“None of you know?” asked Innes. “How do you get paid?”
“Our senior sphinxes negotiate the contract, so they know. But the sentry sphinxes don’t know. Our loyalty is to the riddle, to the answer, to the door. So, I don’t know.”
“Because he said,” Beth pointed at Theo, “that the one who maintains curses is behind your door. That you’ve been guarding the curse keeper.”
“It’s the ‘Promise Keeper’ actually,” corrected Theo.
Atacama frowned. “Really? I didn’t… That would explain… I haven’t been hiding the truth from you, because I didn’t know. Anyway, even if the way to lift every curse in the world lies behind my door, I still can’t let anyone past. I made a vow.”
Beth said quietly, “But we all made a promise, to lift each other’s curses. And Molly is still cursed.”
“Molly will lift her curse by confronting her curse-caster, not whoever makes curses work. We lifted everyone else’s curses without knowing about this Keeper, why do you need to get in now?”
Theo said, “Because my information indicates that Molly’s curse-caster is also behind that door.”
Atacama shook his dark head. “Your information might be wrong, toad-boy. What proof do you have?”
“The proof of my own eyes. And yours too. I was watching that door on and off for days before our first encounter, Atacama. I saw the curse-hatched escort several guests through the door. I never saw any of the guests come out. And half a dozen of them were taken through the door while you were guarding it.”
Atacama was pacing around, his tail starting to bristle.
Theo said, “I was intrigued, because everyone I saw go in had recently cast a curse. I tried to find out what was going on, but you wouldn’t let me past. When I tried to enter through the crowgate, I was attacked and cursed.”
“Serves you right. I was attacked and cursed too, by you!”
Theo bowed his head slightly. “I’ve apologised, and I’
m delighted you found a way round my small curse. But I still need to get in, to see how many curse-casters are inside, to discover if they’re willing guests or not, and to investigate the Keeper’s involvement. While I’m inside, I can look for the witch who cast and perhaps worsened Molly’s curse.”
Atacama said, “You really believe Mr Crottel is behind my door?”
“It seems likely. I watched a rogue selkie who cursed a colony of puffins, three witches who cursed a family of brownies and a fungus fairy who cursed a baby dryad all go through the door. Who have you seen?”
“I can’t tell you.” The sphinx’s ears were flat to his skull, his fluffed-up tail was swishing. “And I can’t stop the crows taking someone in. Even if the guest doesn’t want to go, even if the guest asks me to help them. If Corbie knows the answer, I have to let the whole party through. It’s my job—”
“Atacama, what are you hiding from us?” asked Innes.
“He doesn’t have to tell us,” said Theo. “If he lets me in, I’ll find out.”
“He doesn’t just have to let you in,” said Beth. “We all have to go. You want information, but we need to help Molly find Mr Crottel. We should go in together.”
Molly glanced over at Atacama, who looked like a cornered animal, miserable and hunted and confused. “I don’t want to ask Atacama to break his vow… But I can’t go back to Edinburgh with this curse, and there might be answers behind that door. So if Atacama can let us in without breaking his vow, I’ll go.”
Beth looked at Innes. “Will you come with us?”
Innes scowled. “I don’t know if I believe a word this cloak-swishing magician says. And I would never force Atacama to break his vow. But we did promise we’d help Molly lift her curse. And I’d like to know where all those curse-casters have gone. We can’t just let fabled beasts and magical beings vanish.”
He crouched beside Atacama. “You could let us in, but leave toad-boy outside. Then we’ll see if he is telling the truth about what’s behind that door. Because there is something going on. You have seen something or someone significant go in, haven’t you?”
