“I believe that,” said Kelly. “Still, we can never have too many owl feathers. I wonder if that’s what they were getting paid in. Maybe special owls themselves.”
My head was spinning a bit from all of this new information.
“Is that what you came all this way to tell me? You wanted to talk about potion ingredients? How is Henry doing?” Kelly asked.
Lowe and I were forced to exchange looks once again, then I cleared my throat. I had never had to tell a friend about a murder before. Before I came to Twinkleford, such a task would never have seemed like the remotest of possibilities. Now it was right at my doorstep.
With our silence, Kelly seem to understand that there was something terribly wrong. “He’s okay, isn’t he?” she whispered.
I sighed and shook my head. “He was. We talked to him and he seemed to be doing well. He was in good spirits. For what it’s worth, I really liked him.”
“What does that mean?” Kelly demanded, starting to look more frantic. Her brown eyes were snapping between us and her breathing was coming harder.
“It means that while we were there, the Vixens came. There were at least three of them. Quinn had gone downstairs. There was nothing that Lowe or I could do,” I whispered.
Kelly covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes filled with tears as she shook her head. “No, it can’t possibly be true. They killed him?”
Lowe and I both nodded. There wasn’t much else for us to do. We knew how hard this was for Kelly, because it was hard for us, too. Lowe had been Henry’s friend, after all. Now she stepped forward and put her arm around Kelly. “He was very brave,” she said. “He wanted to help us. He was sure that Kyle was fine. We’re going to find him. I promise.”
Kelly rested her head against Lowe’s forehead and the two of them stood like that, silently sobbing. I waited awkwardly, unsure what to say. Eventually I sat down on a nearby stump and looked at the goats. They looked back at me as they wandered around slowly, not terribly impressed with my presence.
After a while Kelly and Lowe joined me. They both sat cross-legged in the grass and I got down and joined them, leaning my back against the stump. Kelly sniffled a bit and wiped her nose. “Okay, fine. The Vixens attacked. I don’t see how and I don’t see why. What did Quinn have to say?”
“He came back just as we discovered Henry. He was upset, but he’s a sheriff. He immediately started examining the crime scene. He thought the Vixens were already gone, so he didn’t try to catch them. Instead he looked around and asked us what happened. That’s how we left him. He was about to call his assistant, Joy, to get help. He did want to canvass the area, even though he didn’t expect to find anything,” I explained.
Kelly nodded. Tears were still leaking out of her eyes, but she looked determined. “Okay, so where does that leave us?”
“I think Henry was killed to keep him from talking,” I said. “Whatever he knew about that meeting, the Vixens didn’t want us to find out. Obviously your brother isn’t a danger that way at the moment, because someone must be holding him, maybe the Vixens themselves. I think what we have to do is find out what the trade was. Maybe that way we can track it,” I said.
“Couldn’t we just assume it was owl feathers and go to an owl trader?” Lowe asked.
I stared at her in shock. “There is a legal owl trader around?” Because of course there was. I mean, what?
“There are several,” said Lowe, “but only one is the best. He keeps real owls, and nobody ever goes to visit him because he’s terrifying. We could go there first. Maybe he’d have some suggestions. He’s kind of like your grandmother. I don’t think he’s someone to mess with.”
Kelly was nodding her head slowly. “I’ll do the research from this end. I’m not one for fieldwork, but I can look into this. Maybe I’ll do some crystal ball reading, although Jade might be the best of us in that respect.”
I bowed my head and smiled. So far, crystal ball reading was my favorite of the witch practices I’d been learning.
“You think your grandmother would be of any help?” Kelly asked.
I shook my head. “At this point I have no idea. I don’t even think she knows it happened yet. She wasn’t at home just now when we stopped there after the hospital visit. I’ll be very curious to see what’s going on with the investigation when we get back.”
Kelly bit her lip. “One of my brothers manages the farm, but another is a deputy sheriff. So far he’s been really dismissive of what happened with Kyle, but I think this will change his mind. If he says anything tonight at dinner I’ll relay it to you two. I think this is a good plan.”
I nodded my head to show her I agreed. I also felt really good about doing something real. If I couldn’t get my sister to come home, this might be the next best thing.
“By the way, have you heard from Ethel?” Kelly asked, as if reading my mind.
But of course she would know to ask that. My sister had been on my mind lately. “I haven’t heard from her. That’s what we agreed, though. It’s the best way to keep her safe.”
“I’m sure it drives the Vixens crazy that they can’t get their hands on her. Every other time they’ve gone after someone they’ve managed to kill them,” said Kelly.
I blinked at her. “Have they really?”
“I mean, they’ve only existed for about a year as far as we know. In that time there have been three witches who opposed them vocally, and yes, they all died. Hard to say if it was murder. All three deaths looked like accidents. I suppose you could say that your sister wasn’t even opposing them. Then again, we don’t really know what your sister was doing or why she was targeted,” she said.
“She was targeted for no other reason than that my family is influential, and there are people who want to bring us down,” I said.
“That’s right,” said Lowe. “If Jade didn’t exist, targeting Ethel would have gone a long way toward booting the Rhinestones out of the coven. The Vixens thought that if they got rid of Ethel, they could take over the unicorn trade as well.”
If these ingredients trades were so important, maybe it was time I found out more about important ingredients. There were pearls and there was unicorn dung. Apparently there were also owl feathers. What else was there?
“I think we have a good place to start,” said Kelly, “so let’s get going. We should meet again tomorrow morning, but I don’t think we can keep doing it here. My mother is going to get suspicious. That woman would suspect a book jacket if it suited her.”
I chuckled at that. “I don’t really know where else we can meet. I’m new here.”
“I’ll think about it and come up with something. For now, I’ll come to your house tomorrow morning and get you. I’ll try and figure something out by then,” said Kelly.
She still looked upset, but I could also see determination in the line of her jaw. She wasn’t going to let Henry die for nothing. She was going to find Kyle. In short, we weren’t going down without a fight.
“Let’s get to work!” said Lowe, who then wiped her nose on her sleeve and snuffled again.
After that, Lowe and I left the farm, but not without buying some cheese and scones at the farm store. If my grandmother wondered where we had gotten to, I could show her the food and say we’d just gone over to hang out with Kelly and see how she was doing.
“So when are we going to go see this feather trader?” I asked Lowe as we walked.
Lowe bit her lip and looked concerned. “I mean, we can go, but he doesn’t like to see people. I think that if we want to see him and get anything out of it, we have to take something for him. A gift. We have to show him that we mean well.”
“What if we don’t mean well?” I asked.
My cousin shook her head. “Then we have to lie.”
Chapter Eight
There was still no sign of Grandmother Terror when we got home. This was the first time since I had moved to Twinkleford that she’d been gone all day, and Lowe was as surprised as I was.
“I can’t believe that woman. Thinking that she can go wherever she wants whenever she wants,” she said.
We sat down to eat a quick lunch before we set out again. Tiger came and wrapped his fluffy body around my ankles. Spunk paid his own visit to Lowe, obviously hoping to get some cheese from her sandwich. So far she wasn’t caving, but we both knew that by the end of the meal she’d give in.
“So how are we going to get this feather trader on our side?” I asked.
“Dung magic. At least that’s my plan,” Lowe said.
“Is that going to work?” I asked.
“I have no idea. I’ve never tried it before. Here’s hoping,” she said with a wry smile.
We didn’t linger. While I cleaned up the lunch mess, Lowe went to visit the unicorns. I was still their least favorite Rhinestone. My grandmother insisted that they would come around once they got to know me, but I wasn’t so certain. At least they had stopped charging me when I went into the field. Small blessings.
Lowe came back carrying a tiny container. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to perform the spell here.”
I stared at the little box. “Won’t that be a small spell? I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”
“Then we’re lost. I don’t think we can take this to him without stabilizing it first.” Lowe looked down at the small green box in her hands, a sample of the primary way that unicorn dung got transported.
I went over to the box and put my hand under it. Then I put all five fingers together out straight, twisted my wrist, and opened my hand. All the while I concentrated really hard on making what was inside the box stable. I still couldn’t really abide my family’s main source of income. I mean, just because it was pretty didn’t mean it didn’t stink. The crackle sparked through my motion and into the box.
“I think you’ve done it,” said Lowe gleefully. She was still holding the box, but now it was shining a bit.
I smiled at her. “Does that give us enough time?”
“To get to the Bleak Area? Yeah, I think it does. Either way, let’s get going.”
She made for the door, but when she realized I wasn’t behind her she turned to look at me with a question in her eyes. I was still standing near the sink with my fingers tingling. I dropped my arm down by my side and asked, “You want to go there?” I hadn’t been there since one night early on when I had wandered in by mistake and gotten lost. The things I had seen, skeletons gathering in a graveyard, were not an experience I wanted to repeat any time soon.
Lowe shrugged. “That’s where the trader is. He likes having his space. We’re going to have to walk through the cemetery to get there. But it shouldn’t be a problem in broad daylight. It’s at night when you want to avoid that place.”
“Oh, yes, I’m well aware of that,” I muttered.
I swallowed hard. There was no part of me that wanted to return to the Bleak Area. “I thought becoming a real witch meant that I wouldn’t have to go back there,” I complained.
“I don’t know what gave you that idea. If we’re going to investigate these cases, we have to go where the evidence leads,” said Lowe.
“You might be making a good point, but I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.” I shook my head, knowing there was no point in arguing. Lowe was right. We had to go. It was vitally important that we get the information we needed to fight the vixens.
As we headed back out into the bright sunshine I saw Lisa watering her garden. Her huge sun hat obscured her face, but she gave us a merry wave as we strolled past.
Rarely was the trolley quick in the early afternoon, but this time we waited even longer than usual. When it finally showed up, it was green and white. A couple of fallen angels and a vampire or two were scattered around the car, but it was a quiet ride.
From the trolley stop we took the bus to downtown. I hadn’t been down here since graduation.
“Here we are,” said Lowe as we got off the bus and joined the busy downtown crowd.
Lowe led us through the shopping district until we were a few streets over from the Flying Steps Dance Hall where I’d spent so much of my time since arriving in Twinkleford, the space where I’d started to learn about being a witch in the Twinkleford Coven from Ms. Mallon, Mr. France, and Mr. Burger.
We weren’t stopping there this time, though. As we walked, I remembered the night when I got lost, not long after I arrived in town. I had come out later in the evening than I should have, when it was almost dark outside. A much different crowd hung out downtown at that time of night. Bars, restaurants, and clubs were open. The townsfolk milling around were younger and hipper than during the day. Bailey probably would have judged them for not wearing the proper party attire.
“Here we are,” said Lowe at last, stopping just short of the Bleak Area. Behind us were bright colors, people laughing, life and movement. In front of us was a sort of general sinking, and—not to put too fine a point on it—a bleak prospect of overcast streets stretching into the distance. The houses were shabby and the light was bad. It was as if there was a canopy of dust overhead blocking out the sun.
“Let’s get moving. You know where we’re going?” I asked Lowe.
She pulled a map out of her pocket and tapped it with her hand a couple of times. The whole paper changed. The one she’d started with had been cream colored, but this one was green. “Needed the right map,” she explained.
“Sure,” I muttered.
I followed her down the street, which was just as dirty as when I’d been here before. I felt as if I had to watch where I stepped, otherwise I was likely to turn an ankle or worse. Unlike my first experience in the Bleak Area, though, there were no strange cats named Pastrami following me. Maybe they were only around when Quinn was near.
We hadn’t gone very far when a huge rat raced across our path. I was glad we had eaten lunch already, otherwise I wasn’t sure I’d be up for this adventure. Just because I was a new witch didn’t mean I wanted to come back to the Bleak Area. There were just too many skeletons around.
We reached the outskirts of the cemetery without much trouble. In front of us were gravestones, rows and rows of gravestones, many of them broken and falling over. There were also statues of gargoyles and other creatures. A stone bat with its wings expanded stood atop a small structure. This I took in at a glance. It took a second look to notice the scraggly grass, the dead flowers, the wilting trees. The skeletons did not care to keep this place clean.
“Are you sure we have to walk through here?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. The faster we do it the sooner we’ll be on the other side,” said Lowe. She was either totally oblivious to my squeamishness, or ignoring it. “Nothing can happen to us. You’re part of the coven. Besides, skeletons don’t care that we’re here. At least, I don’t think they do.” Her brow puckered in a small frown.
“Okay, let’s go quickly,” I said. Without waiting for a reply, I strode into the cemetery, moving at a fast clip down the broken cobblestones. I didn’t glance left or right. If the vampires decided to wake up and reach out of their dirt graves, I didn’t want to see it.
We made it to the other side of the cemetery more quickly than I had expected to, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Now we had the wind coming around the bend and the cemetery at our backs.
“This way,” said Lowe.
I followed her down the dirt road. As in the cemetery, grass was growing in on the edges. This path didn’t look like vehicles used it very often.
It didn’t take long to see where we were going. There was a sign stuck in the ground on the side of the road that read “Owl feather salesman. Inquire within.”
“Where are we supposed to inquire?” I asked.
“In the house,” said Lowe, pointing forward.
When I looked more closely, I imagined the house turning suddenly into a splintered monster with gaping jaws, with Lowe telling me to walk right between the teeth. For all I knew, that wasn’t even such a far-fetched idea in Twinkleford, th
e land of talking cats and unicorn dung.
“Oh, good,” I muttered. I didn’t mean it.
Chapter Nine
Looking intently through a stand of trees that blocked the view, I managed to catch sight of the house at last. I wasn’t sure if the wood had been painted black or had simply rotted away in place. Either way, it was the creepiest house I had ever seen, worse than any part of the Bleak Area I had already walked through. To make it stranger, there were shots of neon color: a bright purple mailbox out front, the door a slightly faded green. There was no porch. Leaning against the house were various bits of old furniture, and other scraps of objects that had no discernible purpose.
But the exterior paled in comparison to what sat on top of house: the figures of three owls. At first I thought they were real, but I quickly realized that they were actually carved out of wood. They too were weathered and possibly rotting.
“My life has really changed,” I said.
“What’d you say?” Lowe had been pre-occupied with where we were going.
“Nothing,” I said.
Above the door was a sign that said, “Open.” Underneath that was another sign that read, “Thieves will be used in next available potion.”
I glanced over at Lowe to see what she made of it. “Do you think that ever really happened?”
She shrugged. “No idea. Skeletons are very good in potions, though.”
I rolled my eyes. This town really was crazy.
We made our way to the door. Without waiting to discuss it, Lowe knocked, obviously the better option than just walking in on someone who would apparently be perfectly happy to make us into stew.
A voice from inside called for us to come in. Lowe opened the door and I followed her into another world.
First of all, whatever I had been expecting, this wasn’t it. Second of all, a very pungent smell of potpourri met my nostrils, making me cough. What I took in after that was . . . owls. Countless owls. Owls here, owls there, owls all over the place.
Several big cages held four or five owls each, of different colors and with feathers of a different light. I don’t think most of the types of owls I was looking at existed in the real world. At the moment, they all seemed rather subdued. Their eyes were closed and the room was dimly lit. In the background I could see a figure moving about.
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