by Elle Adams
“In the dorm,” I said. “I guess anyone could have got hold of it, then. Were you watching?”
“No,” he said. “I went to hunt in the forest.”
If he was telling the truth, then it wouldn’t have been impossible for the person responsible to have slipped the pen into his pocket when he’d taken off his coat. In fact, even a nonguest might have been able to sneak in. The question was, why had they killed him? He and Anne seemingly had little in common given that she’d been new to the contests while he’d been entering for years.
“You two weren’t close, were you?” asked Tansy. “It sounds to me like he went behind your back a lot.”
The cat made a low keening noise. “No. He didn’t. I’d have done anything to help him.”
“Including cheat,” I said. “You scared all the other familiars in that first round and then attacked Rowan’s familiar in the last one, didn’t you?”
“Was it Malcolm who told you to do that?” asked Tansy.
The cat inclined his head.
“Did he want his own team to lose?” In fact, had he been helping the other team instead? I wouldn’t have thought Roxy would need it, but Vanessa would definitely take any help offered, and I didn’t entirely trust Persephone Henbane either. As for Patrick, I didn’t know him well enough to know if he was inclined to cheat or not.
When the cat didn’t respond, I straightened upright to speak to my brother. “Did he tell you anything else?”
“No,” he said. “Except that his name is Jarvis, and that he’s been working hand in hand with Malcolm for years. He wouldn’t admit to cheating every time, but it sounds like a hobby of theirs.”
“Except that despite their mutual trust, Malcolm ran to my office after the trial without telling his familiar what he was up to.” If I believed Jarvis’s word, that was.
“That’s not right,” said Ramsey. “I know Malcolm couldn’t talk directly to his familiar like you and I can, but they seemed to trust one another.”
“I wondered if they might have been cheating on behalf of someone else,” I said. “That’s the only explanation I can think of for him attacking his own teammate.”
“Why’d he come to see you, though?” he asked. “To confess?”
“He must have known I wasn’t in the office at the time,” I said. “If he wanted to speak to me, he could have just asked me right there and then instead of running off.”
“Maybe he knew who the killer was,” said Ramsey. “He might have wanted to talk to you somewhere the others wouldn’t overhear.”
“He has a point,” Tansy said. “Maybe he figured out who killed Anne.”
“When would he have done that?” It was a reasonable way to explain why someone had sneakily taken him out of the picture, except he’d also planned to break into my office. That wasn’t the act of someone who feared for his life and wanted to confide the identity of a murderer to me.
“I wouldn’t know,” said Tansy. “But the killer might have figured it out and slipped the pen into his pocket.”
That widened the pool of suspects to anyone who’d been at the inn at the time, though Malcolm himself hadn’t gone back to the inn until after his brief wanderings around the forest, and he’d wasted no time in telling the other contestants what the next trial would involve. Why would one of them kill him?
“That still doesn’t explain how they smuggled it into the inn,” I said. “All their bags were searched, right?”
“That’s right,” said Ramsey. “And my team has been searching both inns thoroughly in case any more of them are hidden in a corner somewhere.”
“Must have cost a fortune,” I said. “Not many people can afford that many commissioned curses.”
Unless the person responsible had cursed the pens themselves, but that required a rare level of skill and expertise that few managed to master.
“Exactly,” he said. “Did you read the files I gave you?”
“I did,” I said. “Even if Malcolm had a history of cheating, I still don’t understand who might have wanted Anne dead. She’d never even entered a contest before.”
And if I’d been the intended target, then why would the killer give the pen to her instead of me? Or had Anne brought the pen herself and accidentally touched it before she’d been able to use it on me? That had been one of my initial theories, but I’d seen nothing to connect Anne and Malcolm nor any proof that they’d both dabbled in illegal curses and wanted me dead.
“My team is going to contact all the listed curse experts in the surrounding towns and see if anyone knows about those cursed pens,” said Ramsey. “Theoretically, it shouldn’t take too long to speak to them all, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll know anything. Ideally, we need this case wrapped up before everyone leaves town.”
In other words, by the end of the day. Or tomorrow at the latest. No pressure.
10
The last thing I wanted to do was go back to judge the semifinal of the contest with the clock ticking on the time we had to find the killer, but at least most of the suspects would be gathered in the same place while Ramsey’s team did a thorough search of the inns. I was more inclined to think they’d found a cleverer place to hide those cursed pens, like in the middle of the Wildwood, but my job was to help judge the contest, not catch a killer. According to Mum, anyway.
“The semifinalists are waiting inside there.” Chloe followed me into the town hall’s entryway and pointed at one of the waiting rooms. “Your mother is preparing for the semifinal round.”
“Where will that round be taking place?” Nobody had given me any instructions, and the contest had frankly been the last thing on my mind after Malcolm’s death and his familiar’s appearance at the police station.
The oak doors at the back swung open as Mum walked in. “The next round of the contest will take place in the largest local sports field. Go and fetch the contenders, won’t you, Robin?”
Chloe and I fetched the four semifinalists from the waiting room and led them out of the town hall via the back exit. Outside, we could already hear the cheering of a crowd from a nearby field which was typically used for competitive sports between academy teams. The non-broomstick-related sports, anyway, because those typically required a bigger space.
“What is that?” asked Patrick, indicating a towerlike construction sticking up from the centre of the field.
“No idea.” Mum had been busy, evidently.
The rest of the contenders assembled in the stands around the arena along with the other spectators. I didn’t see Rowan among them, but Piper waved at me from near Nolan in the front row, who stood with his rat at his feet and surveyed the tower with an expression that suggested he was quite glad he hadn’t got through to the semifinals after all. Patrick and Persephone both looked warily at the odd-shaped tower as Mum indicated for them to take up a position on a raised platform nearby, while Roxy wore her usual expression of calm confidence, and Vanessa just looked smug.
Mum beckoned Chloe and me towards another platform which stood between the audience and the field. Tansy scampered ahead to sit at my feet while Mum picked up a microphone and called the chattering crowd to silence. “Welcome to the semifinal round of the Familiar Contest. Congratulations to our finalists: Patrick Wellman, Vanessa Wildwood, Roxy Denton, and Persephone Henbane.”
Cheering ensued from the crowd before petering out into silence.
“This round will decide the finalists,” Mum said. “The goal is simply to climb that tower—both humans and familiars. The two who reach the top first will advance to the final. The other two will be pitted against one another for third and fourth place.”
Tension zipped through the arena as the meaning sank in. This was it. This round would decide the layout of the rest of the contest, in which one of the four contenders wouldn’t get a prize at all, while the others would all win trophies.
Mum waved her wand, and lights sprang up around the tower so that we could all see it more clear
ly. Up close, the contraption resembled an adult fun house, with ladders and climbing walls and nets. The familiars would have an easier time navigating their way through, especially the ones who could fly, but their owners had to reach the top as well.
“I wish I could join in,” Tansy said. “That looks like so much fun.”
“Maybe you can ask Mum if you can have a go when this contest round is over.”
The four contenders and their familiars gathered at the starting line around the base of the tower.
“Everyone ready?” Mum gave me a nod, indicating to me to start the round.
I raised the sceptre. “Begin.”
The bird familiars took flight first, but their companions weren’t so lucky. As soon as the contenders began to climb the tower, a series of bizarre special effects disrupted them, from sudden showers of rain to blinding sunlight and patches of darkness which prevented them from seeing where they were going.
Tansy and I both burst out laughing when the rain caused Vanessa to slide backwards down a slope and land on her rear at the bottom. Her familiar flew above her head, but the little bird wasn’t strong enough to help her climb.
“Look at her face,” Tansy snickered.
“Is Aunt Shannon here?” I didn’t see her in the crowd, so I trod closer to Mum and whispered the same question to her. She shook her head without elaborating, and I wished I’d opted out of watching the contest’s final rounds. The last time I’d seen Aunt Shannon was when she and Mum had been arguing back at the witches’ headquarters, and she’d never given a satisfactory explanation as to what she’d been doing in the building at the time—or why she hadn’t noticed Malcolm’s death.
I forced my attention back to the contest with difficulty, but impatience prickled beneath my skin. If Aunt Shannon was up to her usual mischief elsewhere in town, then someone ought to be keeping an eye on her. Hoping Ramsey had had the same thought, I watched Roxy’s raven and Persephone’s familiar struggle to help their owners climb the slope, while Patrick’s cat had to dig his claws in to keep from sliding downhill.
Roxy reached the top first, but Vanessa moved into second place while Patrick and Persephone slid down a slope which had turned slick with rainwater. When Patrick struggled to the top, desperation flitted across Persephone’s face as she slid back down the slope again.
If I hadn’t been watching her, I might not have heard her panicked voice as she called to her familiar. “Help me find a shortcut!”
The little bird flew around her head and squeaked. “Turn left!”
When I squinted through the sheen of rain, I saw the route to the left did indeed lead to a shortcut up to the next level of the path. Persephone turned that way, relief etched on her features, while suspicion trickled down my spine. Her familiar had told her where to go, but he hadn’t given any nonverbal cues. She shouldn’t have been able to understand his speech.
Persephone’s shortcut enabled her to overtake both Patrick and Vanessa, causing her to close in behind Roxy on her way to the top. Roxy maintained a clear lead, and a cheer rose up from the crowd when she and her raven reached the tower’s peak.
My heart sank when Persephone joined her within minutes. She’d won her way to the final… but had she cheated in the process? I edged closer to Mum. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Persephone understood her familiar when he spoke,” I said. “He told her where to take a shortcut to the top, but he didn’t give any nonverbal cues.”
She tilted her head in my direction. “Are you sure?”
“Almost certain.” I’d definitely heard him speak, but I wouldn’t have guessed she’d understood if she hadn’t followed his instructions directly. Her familiar hadn’t used gestures to tell her where to go.
“She definitely cheated.” Tansy climbed up my shoulder. “I heard it too.”
“She doesn’t have our family’s gift, though,” I said. “She’s a Henbane witch.”
“The round is over,” Mum said in a low voice. “If I’m to make an accusation, I need proof.”
“Can’t you hold off on the announcement for the next round?” I asked. “If she cheated, then she might not be the only person who did. Is there another interlude before the final rounds?”
“Yes, there is,” she said. “With that being said, it’s not possible for me to delay.”
What was that supposed to mean? She wanted to save face, I knew, but I should have expected trickery from a Henbane witch. “I get it, but—”
Mum’s voice rang out across the arena. “Everyone is to leave while I get the arena ready for the final round. All contenders have half an hour to prepare. Use it wisely.”
As she waved her wand, the tower reverted to the pile of stacked boxes it had originally consisted of, and the contenders were able to climb back to steady ground. The audience began to disperse, and Piper moved over to our platform.
“Hey, Robin,” she said. “Is it just me, or was that Persephone talking to her familiar?”
“Yes,” I said in an undertone. “I think she was cheating, but I’m not sure how she made her familiar able to understand her.”
“A spell or a potion, I’d guess,” she said. “Nobody has their wands, even the disqualified contenders. Right?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” I said. “It’s possible another Henbane Coven member gave her a potion or used a spell secretly.”
Ramsey was searching the rooms at the inn, but Persephone was local, and so was the rest of her coven.
“What do you want me to do?” Piper asked. “If she’s cheating, she ought to be disqualified.”
“Is Tiffany Henbane somewhere in the audience?” I asked. “Because she’s known for bending the rules on behalf of her coven.”
“Yes, she is,” said Piper. “Want me to hex her?”
“No, I just want to talk to her.” The crowd continued to disperse through the doors to the town hall. It’d be easier to talk to Persephone herself, preferably before the next round started, but she seemed in no hurry to get down from the remains of the tower.
Vanessa hopped to the ground and gave me a derisive look as if daring me to mock her for losing out on the top prize. Patrick followed soon after, picking up his cat familiar to carry him out of the arena. The two would face one another in the next round, but if Persephone was a cheat, then he and Vanessa ought to be in the top three by default.
Assuming he hadn’t cheated too.
Chloe cleared her throat from beside me. “I couldn’t help overhearing what you said. Are you sure you want to make an accusation against the Henbanes?”
“Not without proof, but they’re known for underhanded tactics.” They also had good reason to want me out of my position as Head Witch. “Don’t say anything to them just yet. I’m going to speak to the others.”
As Patrick left the arena, I stepped off the platform and caught up with him as he made his way to the exit. “Hey. Can I have a word?”
“Sure.” He halted by the exit, his cat in his arms, wearing a questioning look on his face.
“I have reason to believe Persephone was bending the rules.” I kept my voice low. “Did you hear her speak to her familiar?”
“No.” He stiffened. “She cheated? Really?”
“I’m sure she did,” I said, “but I’ve yet to figure out how she made herself capable of understanding her familiar. If you know anything, it would be helpful if you let me know.”
He shook his head. “It’s none of my business.”
“You won’t get into trouble.” I dropped my voice. “We’re looking for a murderer, too, so the cheating takes a back seat. That said, if we find proof she cheated, you’ll automatically be in the top three contenders. So will Vanessa.”
His lips pressed together, and I could see the thoughts ticking over in his mind. “You won’t tell anyone I told you?”
“I won’t,” I said. “I just want to know the truth.”
He took a deep breath. �
�I saw Persephone drinking from a potion bottle outside the town hall before this round started. She thought she was alone, I think.”
“Do you know where she got it?”
“No.” A slight pause followed. “But I saw her talking to Malcolm this morning outside the inn. They looked like they didn’t want to be overheard.”
Malcolm. Maybe there was a link between his death and the contest after all. “Thanks. That really helps.”
I let him leave the arena while I waited for Persephone to climb down the tower.
“I should have known she was cheating,” Tansy said. “That Malcolm too. I bet he took that potion himself.”
“So he and his familiar could understand one another.” Why, then, had he not confided in his familiar when he’d come to my office? I definitely needed to talk to Jarvis the cat again, but that would have to wait until after I confronted Persephone. Now that I thought about it, it was just like the Henbanes to hire someone to ensure their victory. Was she the one who’d convinced Malcolm to disrupt the last round in order to guarantee her team got through to the semifinals?
I waited for Roxy and her raven to leave before going to meet Persephone at the foot of the tower. “I know what you did.”
I meant to take her off guard. It worked, because she gave a violent start. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“If I search the bins outside the town hall, will I find an empty bottle of a potion which enabled you to talk to your familiar?”
She went pink. “What?”
“Come on, we’ll both look.” I made to leave, and her expression crumpled.
“Please don’t kick me out of the contest,” she whispered.
“If you didn’t want to get kicked out, you shouldn’t have cheated,” I said. “Who gave you the potion? You bought it from somewhere.”
She shook her head. “I brought it myself.”
She was a terrible liar, really. I studied her face, the way she bit her lip and avoided my eyes. “Did you give any to the other contenders?”
Another headshake. “No.”
“It was Malcolm who gave it to you, wasn’t it?”