“I shouldn’t even let you come with me.” I gave Pandora my sternest look. Given what she’d done to the old recipe book and the mess I’d found when I’d returned from my picnic with Striker, the cat was not in my good graces. But I didn’t have the heart to forbid her from heading through the path in the woods to Elspeth’s as was our usual routine. I knew how much she loved hanging around with the gaggle of cats Elspeth had in her barn.
I kind of liked the company. The woods could be a little scary at night, and I felt safer with Pandora by my side.
We started off down the path. It was still daylight, and squirrels rustled in the dry leaves on the forest floor. The low sun slanted through the woods, giving that golden glow that only happens just before sunset.
Elspeth was going out of town, and I wanted to drop off the basket of strawberry scones and special tea that Pepper had made for her before she left. I also wanted to check on her as I often did, since the elderly woman had been like a second grandmother to me. Elspeth and my own grandmother had been best friends their whole lives, thus the shortcut path through the woods between their houses. I’d traveled this path many times with my grandmother and Pandora, but now it was just the two of us. I glanced down at the cat, wondering if she missed my grandmother as much as I did. Probably. But I bet Pandora never trashed the bookstore when my grandmother had been in charge.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you need to stop wrecking the bookstore,” I said.
“Meow!” Pandora didn’t sound the least bit apologetic.
“No excuses either.” I glanced down to see her attention was on a bird that had flown from a branch to the ground. “Maybe you need more exercise.”
“Mew.” She looked up at me, and I couldn’t be sure, but I thought her reply might have been a bit sarcastic.
“Maybe I should stop giving you treats.”
Hiss!
She didn’t like that idea. “You’ve always been a good cat, so I’m going to overlook your behavior this time.”
We came to the end of the path. Elspeth’s mint-green Victorian with its pink gingerbread trim and roses twining along the porch railings came into view. Pandora gave me a short meow and trotted off toward the barn, leaving me to walk up to the porch and knock on Elspeth’s door on my own.
* * *
In Elspeth’s barn, the sun slanted in through the windows, leaving squares of golden light on the rough wood.
The barn was almost two hundred years old and still smelled of horses and hay. The floorboards creaked when humans stepped on them, but these days the barn was mostly inhabited by cats.
At first glance, one might think the ragtag gang of cats that Elspeth kept in her barn were strays, but they weren’t. They were a magical breed of cat, tasked with keeping the balance of good and evil in Mystic Notch. Pandora was proud to be among their ranks.
As she entered, several cats stopped washing themselves and meowed a greeting.
Sasha, the Siamese, trotted over from where she’d been seated in front of the stainless steel food bowls, her sky-blue eyes brimming with curiosity.
Tigger, the striped cat who usually kept sentry on Elspeth’s porch, stretched and trotted to join them.
Otis, the calico, looked down upon them from his perch in the loft. Being a male calico was rare, and Otis knew it, which was why he always acted so superior. But Pandora knew that deep down inside, he was really an old softie.
Inkspot, their leader, uncurled from his position in the corner and stretched, his jet-black fur sleek in the shadows. His wise green eyes assessed her.
“I sense there is a disturbance. Has another relic been found?” Inkspot’s deep baritone filled the barn.
“A key was found hidden in an old recipe book in the bookstore,” Pandora said.
“And where is it now?”
“Well… that’s where there is a bit of a problem.”
Several other cats had joined their circle. Snowball, with her long white fur; Hope, with her half-orange, half-black face; Kelley, the Maine Coon.
“Problem?” Sasha asked.
Pandora swallowed hard. Everyone was looking at her. “My human has hidden it out of reach.”
“Hidden? Why?” Inkspot’s eyes practically glowed. “Does she know that it’s magical?”
“No.” Pandora told them how it had fallen out of the recipe book and how she’d been caught trying to hide it under her tail. “Willa thought one of the customers might have dropped it, and she wanted to hold it for safekeeping.”
“We need to get that key.” Inkspot’s tone was kind but firm.
Pandora looked down. “I know. I have a plan.” Well, sort of a plan. Hopefully no one would ask for details.
Otis leapt down from the loft and trotted into the circle. “If you could only communicate with your human, you could simply ask her for it.”
Pandora’s fur bristled, and she resisted the urge to hiss at him. Leave it to Otis to act so condescending. She bit back a sarcastic reply, remembering that there was a time when Otis had risked his own life to save hers. She knew his bark was worse than his bite.
“I know, but she seems unwilling to receive my telepathic messages.”
“Are you sure the problem is on her end?” Hope tilted her head. She was a chimera and looked like someone had taken two cats and mashed them together. Half of her face was black with a blue eye and the other half orange with a green eye. It looked unusual at any time, but even more so with her head tilted.
Pandora stared at her. She’d never considered that the communication problem wasn’t on Willa’s end. Willa was smart enough with regular things, but she was a little slow on the uptake with the magical properties of Mystic Notch. And since Pandora had been able to communicate with Willa’s grandmother Anna perfectly, she’d just assumed the problem was with Willa. But what if it wasn’t?
“What do you mean?” Pandora asked.
“Well, I know that you had good communication with her predecessor,” Hope said.
“I did indeed.” Pandora’s heart squeezed at the thought of Anna. She’d loved her very much. Of course, she loved Willa, too, but Anna had been “the one.”
“And you are still attached to your prior human?”
“Yes. Well, Anna is gone, but I will never forget her.”
“Then have you considered that maybe your love for Anna is what’s holding you back? Maybe you are afraid that communicating with Willa won’t be as satisfying or that in some way it diminishes what you had with Anna.”
“I hadn’t really thought about that.” Could that be true?
Hope shrugged. “Might be something to consider.”
Otis swished his tail. “This psychoanalysis is all very touchy-feely, but you need to get the key however you can.”
“I tried the usual methods of knocking the box off the shelf,” Pandora said. “Didn’t work. It’s too high on the shelf. But I’m going to keep my eye on it, of course. If Willa tries to give it to anyone, I’ll get it somehow.”
“This does not bode well. Keys usually open something.” Hope looked concerned.
“You mean it could be a device to unlock a portal?” Sasha asked.
“I hope not, but we must keep it in mind.”
Otis shook his head. “No one in their right mind would open a portal. It’s dangerous.”
“Unless you have the instructions,” Hope pointed out.
All the cats nodded. There had been instructions, but the cats had protected them by burying them in a place where they were safe from humans. At least, they thought they would be safe.
“We’d better make sure the instructions are still where we buried them in Gladys Primble’s yard,” Inkspot said. “Otis, are you still in communication with Euphoria?”
Euphoria was Gladys Primble’s cat, a gorgeous Selkirk Rex with unusual curly hair. Pandora thought that Otis might have had something going on with her at one time, but she hadn’t seen her around lately. Perhaps it was only a passing infatuation.
Otis nodded. “I am. She hasn’t mentioned a breach.”
“Good. Then you will be in charge of making sure the instructions remain intact.” Inkspot scanned the group. “The rest of us must remain vigilant.”
“You said the key was in the book?” Sasha asked. “Then maybe we need to be wary of the person who comes for the book. They might not know it no longer holds the key.”
Inkspot washed behind his ear. “That may be a lucky break. Perhaps we can resolve this problem by dealing with the one who seeks the book.”
Otis nodded. “Head it off at the pass, so to speak?”
“Yes.” Inkspot turned to Pandora. “It’s of the utmost importance that you watch for this person. And please try to retrieve the key. If there was ever a time to step up your efforts to communicate with Willa, it would be now.”