Over the Broomstick

by Mara Webb

  The council meeting was scheduled for 3pm. I got stuck behind an overturned delivery wagon for so long on the way back that I barely had time to speak to Quin before I needed to leave again, he had enough time to tell me the address and that I needed to wear a uniform.

  8

  I arrived at an isolated building a few miles outside of Sucré. It was the middle of the afternoon, so it seemed less intimidating to be here, although I wasn’t sure what to expect inside. It was a brick cube with a wooden roof and a dusty gravel parking lot to one side, a long straight road ran past the front and grass surrounded it with Sucré visible in the distance. Whatever would happen here obviously needed to be private.

  What do I say? How do I introduce myself? Does it matter that I have been a witch for less than 48 hours?

  I suspected mine was the last car to pull up outside, there were five other cars parked and their occupants had already vacated the vehicle. Oh no am I late? I checked my watch, I still had five minutes.

  The entrance from the parking lot was the only way in, two tall towering wooden doors with heavy metal hinges and handles. It was as if I was pushing my way into a cathedral. I tentatively stepped in. “Hello?” I called out into a corridor; my voice bounced off the walls in an echo. This place felt huge inside. I took another step inward and the door slammed behind me, plunging me into darkness. “Hello?” I said again, a tremor in my voice this time. This time there was a response.

  A booming voice seemingly projecting from all directions spoke to me.

  “Ms. Nora Wildes you have inherited a most prestigious seat on the high council. It is with great honor that you will dress in our robes and sit at our table. Come forth and take the oath.” The voice stopped and I was once again in silence. Flames shot onto candles that hovered six feet above the ground, lining the corridor and guiding me into the main chamber. A large room lay before me that was lit by a roaring fire in the center, on top of which stood a tripod carrying a small cauldron. The fire illuminated four hooded figures in a circle formation, their heads low to keep their faces hidden.

  “Step forth child and we shall begin.” One of the figures straightened up and a flicker of light danced across their jaw. “Oh, sorry, could you just go back to the corridor and grab your robes? We can wait. This is a respectable ceremony, you know, rite of passage stuff. Best to dress appropriately don’t you think...yeah that’s it, the hooks are on the right. The hook under ‘Edith’, that’s right.”

  This ceremony seemed disorganized which reduced my anxiety level. A little brass plaque above the one hook still carrying a cloak was engraved with the name ‘Edith’ and as I picked up the cloak the plaque suddenly became blank and then a scratching sound as each letter of my name, ‘Nora’, was etched into the metal. I wrapped the cloak around my shoulders, fastened the clasp in front of my throat and pulled the hood over my head. I felt the fabric adjust at once, shrinking a little to fit my frame more comfortably.

  “Nora, please step forth, again. Do you solemnly swear to protect the secrets of our kind?”

  I swore it.

  “Do you solemnly swear to protect your brothers and sisters from our enemies?”

  I did.

  “Will you be truthful, faithful and diligent in all your council duties?”

  “Yes,” I complied for the third time.

  The figure that was speaking presented a knife. It was a short blade, maybe five inches, with images carved into the handle. Images of fires and nooses. The figure drew back the sleeves on both arms and with one hand on the handle of the knife, made a small slice into the palm of the other. Blood formed a small pool on the skin, the hand clenched into a fist and rotated enough to allow the blood to drip into the cauldron.

  The fire flared brighter as each droplet fell. The figure passed the knife to each other member in turn as they all repeated the process. Finally, the blade was handed to me. Did I have to do the same? Cut my own skin like they had? I was almost too afraid not to.

  I pulled back the sleeves of my robe revealing my hands up to the wrist. My right hand grasped the handle of the knife tightly, but I was shaking, this was terrifying. How much would this hurt?

  I took a deep, sobering breath and pressed the top of the metal into my palm. The sharpness of the knife made it easier than I had expected, it barely caused any pain at all. As the blood pooled in my hand, I mimicked the movement of the first figure, squeezed my fist and held it out over the cauldron.

  Upon receiving my blood droplets, the cauldron began to violently bubble. What else was in there? The flames beneath it turned a bright blue, then purple, then green. I stepped back, expecting the whole thing to explode, firing shattered pieces of cauldron at all of us.

  The room was suddenly flooded with light. It’s exploded, it must have. I am seeing the light after death. I dropped into a ball on the floor with my eyes closed, sheltering my head with my arms. When I realized that I wasn’t dead I opened my eyes, the view was quite unusual.

  “Jeremy! How many times? We were so close to the end, this is ridiculous!”

  The figures all pulled their hoods back to reveal their faces. An elderly man in the corner of the room was holding a vacuum cleaner, one hand still on the light switch.

  “Look, we said we would use the hall every other week. I know that is confusing, but we have been doing this for two months now and with one exception you have interrupted every time!”

  A woman with ocean blue eyes and hair whiter that clouds in spring was marching over to what appeared to be the hall janitor. The three figures that remained around the cauldron all turned to me and began to introduce themselves.

  “Fantastic to meet you, Nora. I’m Jennifer.” She reached out to shake my hand. Her flame red hair was cut just above her shoulders and soft bangs framed her face. Shiny gold earrings hung from each ear, holding a light green gem that matched her eyes.

  “So sorry to hear about Edith, a poisoning I heard, or was it a bear trap? Bad business either way. We have no suspects at the minute but obviously the whole thing is suspicious. How are you finding everything so far? Overwhelming I bet. I can give you a flyer for a few little social events we arrange for newbies to the community. It can help.” She smiled broadly and then began to remove her cloak.

  She released the clasp at her neck and then swung it off her back, carrying it out into the corridor to hang on the hook beneath her name. “Heavy things these, I hate to wear them even a moment longer than I need to, they’re great in the winter though. Coffee?”

  I nodded, requested it black, no sugar, and she walked away to a small room off to the back, presumably a kitchenette.

  “I’m Ryan. Nice to see a fresh face, horrible circumstances of course but it’s usually the way I’m afraid. I imagine you have already heard more than your fair share from Equinox, quite a chatty cat, isn’t he? I will go and see if Amber needs any help explaining our meeting schedule to Jeremy.” Ryan shook my hand too and then turned to assist Amber who was pulling out calendars and meeting room request forms. His hair was dark grey with speckles of white, short and orderly. It made him look distinguished but meant I couldn’t guess his age. He was now using his broad smile to diplomatically neutralize the scheduling disagreement.

  I turned my head to the left and looked up into the most arresting green eyes I had ever seen. The color reminded me of a fern bud before it unfurls, a pale green that seems faded even though it is brand new. Tiny flecks of black peppered the iris and a deep smoky ring around the perimeter kept all the color contained in a perfect circle. I was carried out to sea. His voice brought me back to the shore.

  “Benjamin Rooper. Charmed to meet you Ms. Wildes. I offer my most heartfelt condolences for your loss.” The velvet of his words pushed me back out to the water. He reached out a hand to shake mine. His forehead was framed with mahogany hair, gentle shots of auburn and a darker brown danced through the strands that plummeted into curls on top of him. Had I spoken?

  “Thank you,
it's a very sad time, overwhelming really. I have so much going on, so much to do and learn that I feel at risk of being crushed by the weight of it all.” Why did I say that? I was being so upfront about struggling. A beautiful man had introduced himself to me, and I was pouring out my personal problems like a lunatic.

  Was I really so out of touch with flirting? I had been with Greg for a long time. My only boyfriend in fact. I was clearly lacking experience. I forced myself to investigate how my words had been received but his countenance gave little away. A smirk danced across the lower half of his face. The sound of footsteps evaded my attention until Amber was standing right next to me.

  “Sorry about that, we try to recreate some of the theatre that the founding council members had in these meetings, but we live in modern times and Jeremy is a little forgetful. I can’t tell you how many times I reminded him that we would be in here today. Anyway, my name is Amber. I am the stand-in lead chair for the meetings in Edith’s absence, which obviously now is a permanent absence. We can hold another election when you are ready. I thought this job would be more exciting that it is.” She trailed off.

  “I will give you some documents to read and sign, minutes from our old meetings, you will soon catch up. Should we get started?”

  She too unclasped her robe but instead of returning it to the corridor she swung it over the back of her chair and sat down. I pulled out a chair from under the oak conference table to join her.

  9

  As Amber outlined the agenda for the council meeting, I discreetly tried to identify the source of a clicking noise. It was a rapid, hard sound. It is what I imagined a millipede in tiny stilettos would sound like walking across a wooden floor. I obviously was not as discreet as I thought, Benjamin leaned towards me and lifted his robed arm to point into the corner.

  On a small table was a bulky looking typewriter with a seemingly never-ending piece of paper streaming out of the top. As I watched the paper pouring out of the top it became clear that this was some sort of magic typewriter that recorded the minutes of the meetings in an accurate transcript for later reading or reference, like a court stenographer.

  The agenda taken care of, we started to work our way through the discussions of each point. I contributed very little. I listened as the four of them discussed the consequences of cheaper Burdock Root at the farmers market, a review of recent O.W.L. graduate applications seeking internships, missing mail that may have been stolen and plans for the grand Halloween ball, which acted as a magic family reunion it would seem.

  Under ‘other business’ at the end of the meeting Amber suggested that we talk about the vote.

  “Now, now, Benjamin let’s not get hot headed about all this again. We have a fifth member of the council, as before. You know that Nora has the deciding vote. We should le—”

  Benjamin stood up out of his seat. Slight expressions on his face betrayed that he was fighting to hold back an outburst of anger. “Not at her first meeting Amber, let her settle in a little first. All in good time!” He smiled in my direction and sat back down. “If there is nothing else, should we call it a day?”

  Finally. I checked my watch and it was now after 5pm, my stomach was gurgling at a volume that hopefully only I could hear. The typewriter stopped clicking as Amber put away her notepad, it sounded like it gave an exhausted sigh, then disappeared.

  “Have you not had any time to eat since you got to town Nora? Your stomach sounds like it’s been starved.” Benjamin had heard the protests from my abdomen and a warm blush of embarrassment glazed both cheeks. “It seems only right that I remedy that ill. Are you free tonight for dinner?”

  I nodded with my jaw slack; it wasn’t my most attractive look.

  “Excellent! I will collect you at eight, I have a restaurant in mind that I think you will love.”

  I stood in awe of it all and when I snapped out of our fantasy wedding happening in a daydream, I realized he was gone. I wanted to ask what I should wear; I wasn’t looking forward to the next few hours of anxiety over which dress to put on.

  Amber handed me a giant stack of files. “Get through them as quickly as possible so I can get them back to the official records hall. The bookcases start to scream if they are empty for too long!”

  No pressure. I just had to read through every word spoken at the council meetings over the last year and a half, research every magical member of my family, figure out what exactly happened to Edith and then also turn myself into a bombshell within the next two hours. I replaced my cloak on the hooks, made several journeys to the trunk of my car to load up all of the files, made a note in my phone of the next meeting date and time, waved goodbye and drove away.

  My preferred format for inhaling information is generally audio. Big long boring concept to read about? Maybe there is a video online of someone explaining it, bright colors and graphics, movement and a smart human voice talking me through it. In my adult life most of the books I have made time for have been audiobooks. I find it so much easier to take it in.

  One of the suggestions for revising we would be given before exam season at school each year would be to identify your learning style and take advantage of the resources that work best for you. As I opened the trunk on the driveway back at Edith’s house I wished that they had just recorded the meetings with a Dictaphone or an app that would store it all to some cloud place, maybe even have a voice-to-text option that meant you could read or listen. How on earth was I going to get through all of this?

  Amber said that once each document was read, and the back cover of the file closed, the book would return to the shelf it belonged to. This would appease the angry bookcase for a short time, but the screaming would soon start again until everything was replaced.

  She pointed out that although this was a great system for making sure that everything was always in the correct location, if you wanted to read through any of the documents a second time you would have to go back to the records hall as the papers would return there immediately. Sometimes the shelves would just recall things out of boredom before you had even finished with it. I decided to get started right away, one or two of these things shouldn’t take long to read.

  I emptied the trunk of my car with only three trips back and forth. Quin was not helpful. I very quickly gave him an overview of the meeting and told him I would be going out for dinner tonight. He looked heartbroken but I found he was easier to pacify once I had put a frying pan on the stove top and pulled a fish out of the fridge.

  “Obviously if I am eating a fancy dinner then so are you!” I dolloped butter into the pan and waited for it so melt and then sizzle, delicately placing the fish down into the liquid and poking at it gently with a spatula to make sure it didn’t stick.

  My stomach roared in protest of waiting until the restaurant. I turned the fish over to begin cooking the other side, quickly ran to the pantry cupboards, opened a bag of peanuts and started to push handfuls of them into my mouth, barely giving myself time to chew before another handful went in.

  Quin was sitting dangerously close to the pan, salivating and making that strange chattery sound cats make when they see a bird through a window. I told him that it would taste so good if he let me cook it properly, but he wanted it now and couldn’t possibly wait another minute. I transferred the buttery fish into his dish and moved the dish to the ground as he bounded towards it. With Quin happily eating his way through a fish the same length as his body I was free to work my way through the newly acquired reading task.

  I curled up on an armchair with two folders in my arms, from here I could see Quin and, most importantly, the wall clock in the kitchen. I really wanted to shower quickly, blow dry my hair, curl it in a ‘just rolled out of a lingerie commercial’ effortless way, watch a make-up tutorial, give myself a low-key smoky eye and then find a dress that had the right balance of intentional class and ‘oh this old thing?’ about it. Plenty of time, right?

  I opened up folder one, it was dated one year and three month
s ago. The attendees were the same as today only Edith was there, she organized the agenda and kept everyone on topic. They had discussed a theory that Edith had been mulling over. A number of witch deaths over the previous few weeks were forming a pattern in her mind and she wanted to discuss ways to protect local witches and wizards as well as useful contributions to the efforts to bring it to a halt.

  “Too many lives Amber, this IS our business. A loss of any magical being has an impact on all of us. Ryan, your second cousin twice removed’s brother-in-law knew her, didn’t they?” Edith had said. I read through the fear in the words from each of them and could feel that this meeting had been heavier than the one I had experienced today.

  Edith had read out extracts from regular human newspapers describing the discovery of each of the bodies, there certainly seemed to be a link between them. Had there been a witch hunter prowling? Were they still an active threat? I read on.

  Letters had been sent to the council asking for guidance on how to defend themselves, what was the protocol for dealing with witch hunters now? Hundreds of years ago if you were accused of witchcraft your days were numbered. Then it had been a case of maintaining secrecy. But now?

  Benjamin claimed to know a wizard that specialized in defensive magic, he had stepped out of the meeting to make phone calls. They hoped to prepare resources that could be distributed throughout the community, how witches and wizards could defend themselves without exposing their magic if they were attacked in plain sight.