The Circle of Owls (The Grimalkin Book 3)

by Dani Swanson

  Fig grew to the size of a lion blocking the new sparks coming out of the wand of Baba Yaga. He blew a stream of fire from his ample jaw. The flames stunned Baba Yaga but did not harm her skin. The sparks from her wand turned into four streams as it begun to twist and turn around Fig’s legs – dragging him to her cauldron. Thea started to pick up rocks from the ground, throwing them at Baba Yaga.

  Jaeger, with immense speed, came down upon Baba Yaga, scratching at her eyes with his talons; her scream echoed back off the mountains to her hut- blood streamed down her face from dark holes where her eyes used to be. Baba Yaga’s wand went mad with sparks flying into the sky, freeing Fig from her spell. Percy dropped to his knee, pulling a dagger from his boot that he threw, hitting her in the chest. Her scream came from the back of her throat and lasted for what seemed an eternity, before it turned into a cackle that stopped Thea’s breath. Baba Yaga suddenly stopped her laughter to turn her head to where Thea stood. The giant witch tilted her head to the side and smirked at Thea, as if she could still see her. Percy had not stopped throwing rocks, trying to distract Baba Yaga from the rest of the group. Fig had tried to place himself in front of his human, but when Baba Yaga started to grow in size, he ran for the tree line.

  “We should follow him….” Thea’s voice was calm, trailing off as she stared into the black, gaping holes on the face of the growing Baba Yaga.

  Baba Yaga started to chant again in the Elvish-fairy tongue – her voice booming through the tree tops.

  Percy dropped what was left of his rocks to grab Thea’s hand; with her eyes locked on Baba Yaga she was frozen in her place – hypnotized by the words coming from her mouth. “Let’s go Thea! She’s too powerful!” Percy picked the witch up and placed her over his shoulder before following after Fig to the trees.

  The four took shelter in an opening in a cave at the foot of the mountain they had been heading toward. Percy set Thea down on the floor of the cavern and shook her shoulders hard. “Thea, snap out of it! You need to wake up!” Fig was butting his head against her fallen hand as Thea stared out the opening of the cave – fixated on the spiral of smoke coming from Baba Yaga’s hut.

  Thea could still hear the words coming through the trees. She felt the nudging from her cat but could not move. There was a taste on the back of her teeth – metallic and rust – the bitterness of blood.

  Percy was screaming as he shook her shoulders; his words were meeting deaf ears. Thea’s breathing slowed. She could feel her soul leaving her body through the top of her head, she could see her body below her, slumped against the wall of the cave with her little cat nudging her hand and her mighty raven squawking, trying to wake her with Percy’s slaps across her face.

  Fig stopped nudging, and looked up at Thea’s soul, fixated on her aura rising above her body. He let out a throaty meow before his fur turned to fire, he then started to nudge Thea’s arm – the smell of her skin burning filled the cave.

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! FIG! STOP!” Percy was trying to grab the cat but couldn’t handle the heat from the fire.

  Thea looked down at her body, and at the cat. She was peacefully floating through the air before she was violently jerked back into her body. She opened her mouth and gasped for air, before screaming and pulling her arm away from Fig. The life came back to Thea’s eyes, her skin covered with oozing blisters, and Fig’s fiery fur calmed to its normal silky texture.

  “What was that?! Are you, all right?!” Percy wrapped Thea in his arms and sat there in an embrace for a few moments, while examining the blistering skin of his friend.

  “I think I just died!” Thea’s voice was hoarse from the screaming as she too was examining her arm. “I think Fig just saved me!” She pushed away from Percy and scooped up the cat; holding him tightly against her chest- Fig started to purr – but only for a moment before wanting to be put down. He curled up on her lap and laid his head down. Jaeger swooped by for a moment, dropping a piece of paper by Thea that she didn’t notice, before flying out the cave’s entrance and out of sight.

  “Died? How?” Percy sat down next to her; he winced from the scrapes on his back as he sat down.

  “I’m not sure, but I was floating up there, watching you.” Thea started to rub her cheek where Percy had been slapping her – a bruise was already starting to form.

  “Sorry about that.” He said through an awkward grin. “You wouldn’t wake up.”

  “Apparently, I needed something a little more painful.” She had her arm up next to her head, watching the blisters grow up her arm. “Let me see your back.” She had her hand on his shoulder, pushing him forward away from the wall.

  “I’m alright. It’s just some scratches.” His cheeks flushed to a darker shade of blue.

  “I can’t fix myself, but I can fix other people. Lean forward, we both can’t be out of commission.”

  He leaned forward, exposing his bloodied back between the shreds of fabric left from his shirt. His normally blue skin was covered in red. Thea placed her hands on his back, feeling the surge of power run through her, increasing the amount of blisters on her arm, and was able to heal him quickly. She spit up the black bile she had grown accustomed to.

  After she rested for a few moments and wrapped her own wound with some honey, she tossed a shirt to him out of her bag. “That’s a woman’s shirt, I’ll be fine without it. I have my jacket on.”

  “I know you have icy blood and all, but it is still a wintery scene out there and you need to cover your skin. Please put that on.” She held her head for a moment, trying to fight the urge to pass out. “Don’t be alarmed if you can’t wake me, it’s normal, I promise.” She staggered to her bag and covered herself with the patchwork blanket, and immediately went to sleep. Fig sat on her hip, standing guard.

  Late in the morning, Percy was struggling to light a fire next to the shivering, sleeping Thea. Without saying a word, she tossed a fireball from her spot. “That would have been nice to have earlier.”

  Thea shot him a disgusted look. “It wouldn’t have mattered, Fig’s fire just bounced off her. I was going to conjure a lightning bolt, but I couldn’t even think on how to do it. I’m not sure what happened.” She rubbed her temples, trying to calm the pounding headache that was forming.

  “I was joking.”

  She now had her book of creatures out and was thumbing through the pages, trying to find information on what the Baba Yaga really was. There was a short paragraph in the back of the book that told of a crossbred creature that came from the Elves and the Fairies, known as the Baba Yaga. She is the keeper of nature and has powers that are stronger than any known force in any of the kingdoms. There wasn’t much more information that could be told from the page. Thea was sure it was because those who encountered Baba Yaga turned into part of the pedestal for her hut.

  “That’s an interesting book you have there.” Percy said as he was eating bits of an apple he had sliced up. “Where did you get it?”

  “I found it in my cabin when I first woke up. I’m not sure where I got it from, but I’m glad that I have it. It’s been nice to have when I run into things that I don’t have knowledge of.” She was turning the book over in her hands looking at the worn cover when she noticed the piece of paper that Jaeger had dropped. She recognized the same tattered paper that at one point was from the back of her book.

  “Looks like Jaeger left me a gift.” She held up the paper so that Percy could see.

  “What does it say?” Percy came over and sat next to Thea, looking over her shoulder to see the note.

  I’m still being held hostage. Send help!

  “It’s from Penelope.” Thea said with a sigh as she looked out at the darkness.

  “How do you know? She didn’t sign it.”

  Thea opened her book to the back pages and showed Percy the missing pages. The tattered piece of paper adhered itself to the previous notes, fitting perfectly against the ripped paper from the spine. “I don’t know how she does it, but she’s been sending m
e notes ever since I woke up.”

  “It would help if she told us where she was…..How do you send help if you don’t know where to send it?”

  Thea sat and looked at Percy’s face for a moment before a grin spread across her lips. She then pursed her lips and started to whistle the same happy tune as before. Through the sky her song carried on the wind. They waited and waited, but the Raven didn’t come.

  “He’ll be here. He’ll come back.”

  They watched out the cave’s opening as Thea stated to write on a bit of paper.

  “I have an idea, he’ll be here.”

  They hunkered down as the fire started to turn to embers – watching the entrance for the raven to return.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  It wasn’t until the next morning that they saw the raven back in the cave. Jaeger was nestled in the warm fur of Fig – who was purring and licking the feathers of the raven. “Well, you two are finally going to be friends now?” Thea’s words cracked with her sleepiness still in her voice. Fig, realizing that his affections could be seen, pushed away from the bird, and trotted over to his human, meowing at her – rubbing his head against her hand. “You’re too late, I already saw you, silly cat.” She scratched his ears as she smiled at the raven. “Jaeger, I need you to show me where you get my notes from. Can you do that?” The bird watched her mouth as she spoke, with his head tilted to the side, intently listening to what Thea said.

  “Does he understand what you say to him?” The bird squawked at his question.

  “Ravens are the most intelligent birds.” Thea held out her hand, and Jaeger hopped onto her forearm. She started to stroke the feathers under his chin. “Some of them can mimic human voices – and like Jaeger, many can collect objects and deliver correspondence for their humans…..My animals are very intelligent, aren’t you boys?” She snuggled with her animals a few moments more before getting things situated to leave the cave.

  “Where are we going to go?” Percy was leaning against the wall at the cave entrance.

  Thea finished writing her note and handed it to Jaeger. The raven gently took the paper from Thea, before flying through the cave opening. “We’re going to finish climbing the mountain to find Robin….If we don’t find her there, we will go and get Penelope. I just sent a note to Penelope to let her know that we would be on our way.”

  “Who do you think has her?” Percy questioned as he assisted Thea with her coat.

  Without hesitation Thea answered the question: “The Circle of Owls.”

  “What if someone else gets the note?”

  “It won’t matter – We just have to keep tracking where Jaeger goes, and we’ll find where the Circle is keeping her.”

  The trio walked out to the snowy mountainside. Thea fixated on the curly smoke coming from the Baba Yaga’s hut, until Percy started to shake her shoulder. “Don’t do that again!” He led her up the side of the mountain.

  The snow was getting deeper the higher they climbed. The pine trees started to thin as they could see the top of the peak. There was a small opening that was filled with rocks at the very top – footprints could be seen leaving the entrance – partially covered by the blowing snow. “Someone has been up here.” Percy said as he pointed to the tracks leading down the other side of the mountain. “Those tracks are heading back to Izotza.” He said with a smile as he shielded his eyes from the sun, looking off in the distance.

  “Do you think it could be Robin?!” Thea’s green eyes lit up with excitement as she too surveyed the mountainside.

  Percy dropped to a knee to examine the tracks. “It’s hard to say who, or how many people walked through here. The snow has drifted over the tracks.”

  “Well let’s go after them!” Thea scooped up Fig and placed him on her shoulders as she started to tromp through the snow faster than her normal pace.

  They started down the path and could feel light rumbles coming from below the mountain. “That must be why the cave was shut off with the rocks. We better get out of here before there is an avalanche.” He pointed back to the cave.

  A dark shadow flew over the icy snow. They all looked up to see the shimmery belly of a dragon gliding through the sky, disappearing over the peak.

  “That was beautiful!” Thea was awestruck as she continued down the path, looking over her shoulder to where the dragon had flown. “What kind of dragon was that?”

  “That is one of those Blue-Scaled dragons that your friend went out to search for. I seriously thought that they were all extinct! It’s good to see one flying around these parts.”

  The low rumble of the mountain started again, growing stronger the longer it shook. The snow started to slide down the path, faster than Thea and Percy could move their legs.

  “We need to get off this mountain!” Thea started launching fireballs in front of her, melting the snow on the path so that they could place their feet on hard ground. Fig had jumped off Thea’s shoulder and started to run in front of them. This continued down the rumbling mountain as the avalanche came rolling down behind them. The snow was knocking them down as they ran. Percy fell hard and wasn’t quick enough to his feet. He was quickly covered in the snow; Thea could no longer see him. She too lost her footing as the snow tripped her. She fell hard and flipped over to her back. The wall of snow was crashing down around her – She put her hands out in front of her, screaming as she shielded herself. Fig, in all his fiery glory, stood over the top of Thea, melting the snow before it could hit her. She screamed again, and the power of the Ether pushed all the snow back up the mountain and into the sky, where it was taken by the wind to the other side of the mountain. Percy’s body was there on the path, he held his chest as he gasped for air. “How….did you….do that?!” His breaths were labored as he pulled himself to his feet.

  “I don’t know.” Thea’s voice was barely above a whisper as it felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her.

  Fig was still amped from the snow, he was pacing in his large form, melting everything that was frozen on the path. “It’s okay Fig, calm down boy.” She reached out her hand to welcome the cat over to her side. He reluctantly went over to her as he shrunk back to his normal form.

  The entire mountainside was free from any snow. The dead grass was exposed, and the yetis climbed higher into the trees; their white fur had nothing to hide them. “Seriously, how did you do that? I should be dead!” Percy sat down in the muddy path next to Thea – her arms were shaking as she rested from the spell.

  “I have no idea how that happens. When I get really scared or angry, it just comes shooting out of me. It feels like all my innards are trying to escape my body through my fingertips! Everything just goes black for a moment….and then everything is alright when I wake back up.” She stroked her cat’s fur as she blankly stared up the mountain. “Sorry, it takes a few minutes until I get all the feeling back into my body after that happens. It takes a lot out of me.”

  “You take as long as you need. That was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed! I don’t know why everyone is always so afraid of witches! Simply amazing!”

  Thea gave him a weak smile. “Well, just like all people or creatures – the bad ones are the ones that get talked about the most. The rest of us get a bad rap to go along with it.” She held her arm out as he gingerly helped her to her feet. Their clothes were now wet and muddy, with their hair disheveled. Percy had a few scrapes and bruises from his fall that Thea quickly healed for him. She unstrapped her walking stick from her bag and used it to support herself down the path.

  “We can rest if you’d like. We don’t have to keep going right now.” Percy tried to offer Thea a hand as they continued down the path.

  “I’ll be okay in a few minutes. I want to get off this mountain.”

  It was silent as they continued down the path. Thea smirked at the yetis and bazzles trying to hide in the trees. “I’d love to see them throw snowballs at me now.” She stuck her tongue out at one the yetis who then tried to hide h
is beady red eyes.

  Percy sheepishly smiled at Thea. “Thank you.”

  Thea returned a furrowed brow to him.

  “You have saved me a couple of times on this trip. Thank you.”

  Thea smiled at him. “We’re in this together….you saved me too.”

  The awkward silence continued for over an hour until they reached the base of the mountain. The achy pain slowly started to leave Thea’s body and she was able to walk normally again. The snow was back and Fig had climbed his way back onto Thea’s shoulders. “You should have left your boots on.” She said as she tapped the cat on the nose. He wrapped his body tighter around her neck, before shutting his eyes and going back to sleep.