Chapter 4 #2
Gretel gave a curt nod. She reached towards the nearest sugar case, but Pan Novak was already shaking his head at her, that intolerable smile hovering about his mouth.
‘I shall select them myself.’ Without asking, he replaced Gretel behind the counter, taking a large selection of their day’s offerings and packing them into the biggest box he could find.
Gretel stood beside Thea, the pair watching in a mire of helplessness and frustration as they’d been set aside, silenced.
He walked away with the box without deigning to say another word.
‘He didn’t compensate us for the loss.’ Gretel stared at the emptied cases. ‘There’s no time left to restock, we’ll just have to close early today.’ She offered Thea a weak smile, a ghost of her earlier happiness. ‘At least it will be lovely to have a longer evening off.’
‘Gretel—’ Thea began.
‘Hold that thought.’ Rose materialised, giving the scarce offerings a despondent sniff before turning her attention to Thea and Gretel.
‘That man’ – she gave another desultory sniff – ‘managed to breach our wards with no whisper of a reason why or how he might have managed it. I’m calling an urgent Magic Quarter meeting at once.
’ Bringing her fingers to her mouth, she let out an ear-shattering shriek of a whistle.
The last of the non-magical customers took that as their cue to leave. Zofka ran through from the back just as a volley of messenger ravens flew inside and settled on the empty counter.
‘What in the goddess is going on here?’ Zofka was pink and flushed from baking, her hair glittering with escaped sugar.
Gretel filled her in as Rose addressed the unkindness of ravens.
‘Fetch every resident of the Magic Quarter and bring them to an urgent meeting in the Rose Basket at once.’ She thought for a moment before adding, ‘Wojslav will need more encouragement than the others, don’t be afraid to give him a good peck.
’ With that, Rose clapped her hands, and the ravens departed like a bad omen.
Rose led the way to her flower shop, tailed by Zofka and Gretel, who were deep in conversation, and Thea, whose thoughts kept straying back to Pan Novak and the sardonic twist of his mouth as he’d exerted the full power of his position over her and Gretel.
The Rose Basket looked less like a florist and more like a living jungle had sneaked inside.
Everywhere you looked, there were plants, lush and green and vivacious, perfuming the air with a verdant freshness.
Rose’s ceiling had been magically extended, allowing her trees to grow as tall as they fancied, and though it was rumoured to have once been propped up with wooden beams, these were now impossible to see under vines that hung like rope swings and ivy embroidering the walls.
The floor was a thick carpet of moss and lichen and now and then a fern scurried past on its roots, trailing soil.
And then there were the flowers. Protective roses that hissed and bared their thorns, sunflowers that crooned at you, and lilies that blushed and tickled your earlobes.
As Talibah joined the growing huddle, her raven-note still clutched between her fingertips, Thea filled her in on Pan Novak’s incursion.
More and more magical folk appeared, crowding the door, as Rose coaxed an outcropping of toadstools to grow big enough to seat them all.
The shop groaned as it shifted in its foundations, stretching to fit everyone inside.
Zdenka, the fortune teller who, being human, never foretold anything of note, wore vibrant robes in seven different shades of blues and purples and pinks.
Zofka and Gretel settled beside Thea and Talibah.
A few minutes later, after another crop of toadstools grew into seating, Paní Dagmar perched nearby.
‘How exciting,’ she whispered, louder than if she’d spoken, ‘I haven’t seen such dramatic goings-on in the Quarter since my secret lover met my first. They duelled over me,’ she told Thea, with no little pride.
‘That was why the wards were first conjured, you know.’
Zofka buried her laugh in a cough.
‘When was this?’ Thea asked politely.
Paní Dagmar tapped her creased cheek, thinking. ‘Some five hundred years ago now.’
Zofka coughed harder, ceasing only when Talibah nudged her.
Fleur, their resident modiste, sat beside Zdenka. They were joined by a skulk of men who shape-shifted into foxes at will, and a cackle of weather-witches. A group of pixies darted inside, making themselves comfortable on a bed of pillowy snowdrops.
‘Are we all here?’ Rose stood on a toadstool, surveying them all.
The bluebells arcing over her door tinkled.
Wojslav, the vampire, slunk inside. Casting an appalled look at everyone sitting in one big clump on Rose’s toadstools, he opted for lurking next to the door.
Thea had no doubt that the next time she glanced his way, he’d have vanished.
For someone who required human blood to exist, he hated spending time with people.
Thea often wondered how he managed to carve out a living, though maybe he’d lived enough years that he required very little income these days; the Crypt was closed more often than it was open, and when someone did manage to wander inside, they were met with a disappointed sigh when Wojslav realised he had company.
She was impressed he was here at all, until she noticed the beak-shaped chunk missing from his hand.
It seemed the ravens had taken Rose’s instructions to heart.
‘Now that our latecomer has arrived,’ Rose aimed a disapproving look in Wojslav’s direction, ‘Gretel, dear, would you mind coming up here and sharing what happened today?’
Gretel floated to the centre of the shop. In her ethereal voice, she described the events that she and Thea had just witnessed, the veiled threats that had spilled from Pan Novak’s mouth. They were met with a fragile silence.
It shattered almost at once.
‘How can a Hunter have entered?’ Zdenka cried out, fussing with their robes. ‘We are supposed to be protected in this Quarter.’
‘Obviously,’ Wojslav cut in, each word deep and measured, ‘there is a problem with the wards. I myself have observed that my antiques shop is missing a windowpane. I am disturbed from my slumber all hours of the day by those frightful ravens.’ He cast a dour look at his wounded hand.
‘The apothecary ceiling has cracked, too,’ Thea pointed out. ‘Could this all be connected?’ She had a sudden, terrible thought: what if her refusal to take a price had triggered all this? ‘When did you notice your missing windowpane?’
Wojslav gave a tortured sigh. ‘Last week.’
Thea slumped back in relief. It hadn’t been her, then. Perhaps her missing price would reveal itself another way soon.
‘You know, now that you mention it, I have seen that the wards hold a misted area,’ Zdenka suddenly declared, interrupting whatever Rose had been on the verge of saying. ‘A spot that is obscured from view. Perhaps that could be the point of weakness?’
‘Maybe your crystal ball needs a clean,’ Rose muttered under her breath.
Before the pair could leap into another of their arguments – last time that had happened, they’d set fire to one of the tables in the café – Talibah interrupted.
‘Then we are all in agreement. Something worrying is happening with the wards, which may not be the cause of our recent troubles, but if fixed, would definitely prevent us from being bothered again?’
She was answered by a slow, rattling snore: Paní Dagmar had fallen asleep.
‘I believe so,’ Thea said instead.
There were murmurs of agreement, spiked with a few whispers of discontent.
Rose, still standing on her toadstool, clapped her hands, summoning their attention. ‘Then I propose that all witches join me in investigating the wards and everyone else can can—’ She looked to Talibah.
‘Research,’ Talibah finished, adjusting her headscarf as she stood.
‘There are countless texts at the Lantern, not to mention each witch here has their own grimoire; Wojslav—’ she stopped.
Wojslav had vanished. ‘Well, Wojslav has a collection of old reference books at the Crypt, and Thea, you have your Compendium of Magic. I suggest we all consult our own resources and combine our knowledge. We might not be able to control the Hunters’ suspicions but we can prevent them from entering our Quarter again. ’
Rose nodded. ‘Excellent. Well folk, you have your marching orders,’ she called out as people began to drift out the door. ‘We’ll meet again soon!’ she hollered, ensuring that half the Magic Quarter could hear her.
Paní Dagmar woke with a snort.
Zofka didn’t bother hiding her chuckle this time and Gretel swiftly ushered her away. Talibah left on their heels, but Thea hung back; she needed to speak with the elderly witch. She had a burning question for Paní Dagmar.