Joan Holub - Hecate the Witch

Goddess Girls

Hecate the Witch

Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

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J.H. and S.W.

M ELINOE PLOPPED HERSELF TO SIT in a chair across a small table from Cassandra the fortune-teller. Cassandra stared at her in surprise, as many people did when they first met her. Because not only was Melinoes skin pale and whiteit glowed! And her long hair was black on one side of her head and white on the other.

Names Melinoe. And Ive come with a question. Its rumored that Zeus will one day name someone as the official goddessgirl of ghosts. I know I deserve the title. But will that King of the Gods ever make it happen? What can you tell me? She set her hand, palm upward, onto the table.

I will tell you what I see, Cassandra replied. Then she asked, Um, youre a daemon, correct?

Melinoe raised her chin and nodded haughtily. Daemons were immortal and had magic powers, though none as strong as those of a goddess. Still, she figured the powers she did have made her superior to this mortal girl, whose only talents were prophecy and cookie-baking.

Okay, then. Cassandra bent forward to study Melinoes palm. As Melinoe anxiously awaited her prophecy, she studied the fortune-tellers fire-gold hair and brown almond-shaped eyes. She guessed they were both about the same agetwelve.

To kill time, Melinoe gazed around the shop they were in. It was called Oracle-O Bakery and Scrollbooks and sold delicious treats as well as scrollbooks. Maybe shed buy something on her way out to celebrate the good news Cassandra was about to tell her. Maybe.

Desperate to know if she would ever become a goddess, Melinoe had sought this girl out here, in her familys shop. It was located in the Immortal Marketplace, which stood halfway between Mount Olympus and Earth. The IM was enormous, with a high-ceilinged crystal roof. Rows and rows of columns separated the various shops, which sold everything from the newest Greek fashions to tridents.

She narrowed her eyes at Cassandra. Did telling a fortune really take this long? It had been all of one minute already!

Ah, Cassandra said at last. She flicked Melinoe a look. Not a hopeful one. Melinoe stiffened. She could tell from the girls sympathetic expression that it was going to be bad news.

Cassandra hesitantly revealed her fortune. You will get your wish. You will become goddessgirl of ghosts.

Huh? But that was good news. For several seconds joy filled Melinoe. But then uncertainty flooded over her, like a bucket of cold water. Because it was rumored that Cassandra was cursed in a way that made her foretell the opposite of what was true. So if she said you were going to turn into a pickle, that meant you would not turn into a pickle. For that reason, the fortunes Cassandra told were always placed inside special fortune cookies called Opposite Oracle-Os.

Wait, said Melinoe. Are you telling me the opposite of what will happen? Or what you think really will happen?

Cassandra sighed. The opposite. Im sorry.

Furious, Melinoe yanked her hand from Cassandras. She slammed her fist on the tabletop, making a plate of cookies in the middle jump. If not me, then who will be chosen goddessgirl of ghosts? Tell me her name!

The goddessgirl of ghosts will not have stronger powers than you. And she will not be named Hecate, Cassandra told her.

In other words she will have stronger powers than me, and will be named Hecate, fumed Melinoe. She leaped out of her chair. So I will always be second best, is what youre saying. Reading the truth in Cassandras eyes, a dark swirl of jealousy filled Melinoe.

Here, have some free cookies. Theyll make you feel better. Cassandra rose from her chair, grabbed a bag, and quickly filled it with the cookies from the plate.

Wow, thanks! Melinoe grabbed the bag, threw it to the floor, and crushed it under the heel of her sandal. Oops! Sorry. Then she sent Cassandra a sarcastic grin. Not!

Whipping around in a whirl of black-and-white hair, Melinoe called out, Come!

Unseen by anyone but her, a troop of pale white ghosts obeyed. All were animals. Gliding out through the shops walls, they followed her into the Marketplace.

There, she muttered a vow. Better watch out, Hecate. I will find you! And when I do You. Are. Toast!

A S HER TEACHER AND FELLOW witch-girl classmates watched, Hecate cautiously approached a magic broomstick. It hovered horizontally several feet above the ground, about five yards away, waiting for her. She was one of a very few in her grade who couldnt yet fly. Which was embarrassing! Especially since tomorrow was her birthday and shed be turning twelve. By that age most girls had been flying for a year or two! But maybe today was the day shed finally win her own broom.

Like the other witches here at Hexwitch School, the dark-eyed Hecate wore the standard uniform: a black chitonwhich was basically a simple, flowy dressplus red-and-white striped leggings and ankle boots. And, of course, a pointy black hat. Beneath it, her hair was long, black, and a little messy. She rarely combed it. Witches werent supposed to have tidy hair!

Eyeing the broom, Hecate lifted a hand to fiddle with the necklace she woreone shed made herself. She possessed many such necklaces, each strung with small, square pieces of papyrus. Upon each piece shed written one interesting fact shed collected about a particular subject.

The facts on this necklace were all about brooms. She muttered one of them now to calm herself. Witch brooms are made from grass, straw, hay, corn husks, or thin sticks that are tied onto a tree branch as a handle.

For some reason, learning and speaking random information made her feel more in control, and calmed her fears about the possibility of any bad stuff happening. Hexwitch School was located on Earth. And that could be a scary place. The day shed turned six years old, for example, shed been chased up a tree by a dog!

And that was only the beginning of her troubles with animals. Over the years shed been scratched by a cat, nibbled by a rabbit, and pounced on by a squirrel. And a raccoon had once stolen her lunch right off the bench where shed sat eating it! It was like she was like an animal-trouble magnet or something. If she could win her own broom today, shed be able to make quick getaways from annoying animals and maybe other kinds of trouble too.

At last, Hecate stood next to the waiting broom.

Hecate, meet Twitchy, her teacher Ms. Zoomly told her, gesturing toward the broom. It had a long black handle with dry brown corn husks tied at one end as the sweeping part.