Gryphon dynasty. Natalie Yacobson

a little while before the rain stops,» the landlady pointed to the chairs and table made from shells. The screen beside them was also covered in shells, like bas-reliefs.

      «You could make it rain, but you couldn’t make it stop?» Fiona guessed, taking a seat on the rickety shell stool.

      «You can’t do everything at once. One magic on top of another is too much,» said Rockwell admonishingly. «If you knew more about magic, you’d understand.»

      «But I’m not a witch! Ornella only called me that to send me to the bonfire.»

      «I’ll look into your past myself if I want to,» Rokuela barked at her and placed an elegant mirror framed in monograms and seashells on the table. «It reveals the past and present very well, but it is not always exact for the future.»

      «So you cannot tell a lie,» Fiona summed up. «You know I’m just a mill girl, not a witch, not a princess to rival Ornella.»

      Rokuela didn’t let her finish her sentence.

      «You must have some talent!» With the intonation of a seer she proclaimed. «I can see that!»

      «Well!» Fiona shrugged hesitantly. «I can do a bit of needlework and cross stitch. I make a good tasty dish from mushrooms I pick in the woods and muffin tarts. Well, and to spin good yarn, besides me, all the peasant women know how to do. So it probably doesn’t count as a talent anymore.»

      «We’re talking about magical talent!» Rokuela interrupted her. «What’s that got to do with embroidery and cooking?»

      «I’m sorry, but I didn’t know about magic.»

      «What if you found a dusty old book in the attic of your mill, written in ancient writings, and realized that you could read them, even if you were illiterate? Such books have a habit of calling you by name or you begin to be drawn to them by some irresistible force. You just want to open them, even if they are chained.»

      «It is exactly! There was one such book! Found it among old junk and sacks of flour. Probably one of the rich customers had forgotten it. I mistook it for a casket because the binding was decorated with jasper, and thin chains and a lock set around it. I never managed to open it. I exchanged it for a new dress at a box man.»

      «You are silly! You’ll trade your own head for something. Do you know what treasure you’ve lost?»

      «But the dress was of real silk, like a noblewoman’s. The butler gave it up for that book.»

      «That book could have been your friend and advisor for all eternity. It was a big risk, though,» Rockwell said with a frown. «You can’t keep that quiet, either. As a rule, only potential students of the School of Witchcraft could get their hands on such witchcraft volumes. It’s a place like a black palace, hidden under a veil of invisibility, where spirits train young wizards. It will cost you your soul, but you’ll gain eternal youth and power. You can eventually become queen yourself by wresting someone else’s throne with the help of charms.»

      «I’m not Ornella… I don’t have her ways.»

      «That’s right! Ornella would not let such a valuable book out of her claws.»

      «Naturally, she would be attracted to jasper. She loves sparkling stones!»

      «I don’t mean the cost of the binding!» Rokuela was indignant. «Wizards are the richest people in the world, not because they hoard treasure, but because they know how to acquire it by means of charms. I’ve known magicians who lost a fortune in a night at the gambling houses, and the next morning they were rich again. It is as if the gold had grown in the palms of their hands.»

      «How is that?»

      «The book you sold in exchange for silk rags would have told you everything.»

      «Told?! Books can’t talk.»

      «Magical books do. Besides great knowledge, they hold great power. If the mistress of such a book were attacked and tried to drag her to the fire, the nearest houses and mountains would collapse, burying all but you.»

      Now, that is really tempting! Unless Rokuela is lying and exaggerating, she could use a magic book. Fiona imagined Ornella telling her guards to drag her out of the mill, and the walls of the building and the windmills collapsing on the heads of the guards.

      «To bury her attackers under the rubble and not be hurt…» said Fiona dreamily.«That is magic!»

      «But it was too late to learn. If you have drunk the magic book, you cannot go to School of Witchcraft – no one will be admitted! A book is sent as a guide and a pass. There is no messenger. It finds you, like a bird or a ghost. But when you give it to her, you give up everything.»

      Rokuela should never have told her about it. It was more delicate to remain silent. In her mind, Fiona scolded herself. She used to live peacefully in the mill. Now there was nowhere to go. A way to the magic school, invisible to Ornella’s guards, would come in handy. It would be the only place to sit out while they looked for you as a witch. And when your graduation date comes, you’ll come out so strong that you’ll demolish the entire state of your enemies in a jiffy.

      «I wish you’d warned me sooner,» Fiona sighed. She doesn’t think Ornella will leave a victim behind. They’ll send guards or gryphons after her for sure. She felt sick at the thought of the latter. The clawed jaws alone were worth a scratch a month’s worth of healing. And what would happen if the birds decided to peck her to death.

      «You have a gift of some sort, and it’s independent of your training,» Rokuela said. «I just can’t figure out what it is.»

      «I can see ghosts,» said Fiona, recalling the Jokers in the ruins.

      «Plenty of people can do that without a magic gift.»

      «But those ghosts were bright, not your typical ghosts.»

      «Were you able to make them serve you? Did they do some kind of thing you asked them to do, or did they do some kind of errand you wanted them to do? Did they drag you into their circle and share your forbidden secrets?»

      Fiona shook her head mournfully. She seemed talentless. And it wouldn’t be a bad idea to set ghost jesters to tear Ornella apart. They would have mocked her for a long time before the massacre. They’re jesters.

      «Let me see your hands!» Rokuela looked at her palms. «They are all scratched! I’m no chiromancer, but this mark here looks like a line of enrichment… Tell me, are you attracted to gold.»

      «Do you mean gold?» Fiona thought about it. She wondered if it was worth mentioning that she was magnetically attracted to it by the sight of golden eagle feathers. It had caused so much trouble, hadn’t it? It was better not to follow the eagle. Then she wouldn’t have met the insensitive Condor, the ravenous princes, and the evil queen.

      «Come on!» insisted Rokuela. «Maybe you hear the coins singing, or maybe they jump into your pocket, popping out of other people’s purses. You ought to go around the marketplace and check it out.»

      «You shouldn’t! Such talent, even if I have it, will not keep me safe from Ornella’s griffins.»

      «But you can make a fortune and hire your own army for protection, and buy your own fortress, which I will shield with magic.»

      «I…» Fiona struggled to explain how she’d discovered the mound beneath the ruins. «I seem to be attracted only to the gold that is buried in the ground. I see a halo of glow where it’s buried. It happened to me once or twice by happy coincidence. Or maybe the ghosts of the ruins told me…»

      «You are a treasure hunter!» Rokuela rejoiced. «It is a good gift, but you cannot do without helpers. The gold is often buried too deep for you to retrieve it by yourself. There is magic that makes the earth part. If you had learned it in magic school, you could have got the treasure even