The Rod of Circe

By Kate Macleod

In the cellar of a bookstore in the hidden, magical neighborhoods that thread all throughout Minneapolis, a support group for the Victims of That Bastard Magician Samson meets.

Ghostly Kitty, who once jostled Samson, no longer possesses a physical form.

Loquacious Lara, who missed his lack of interest in her words, no longer articulates anything.

Eternal wanderer Mo, who couldn’t take Samson where he wanted to go, has lost the ability to get anywhere deliberately ever again.

Wil, who failed to hold a door for Samson, now opens doors for everyone everywhere all the time.

The newcomer Myke Fuller suffers from the worst curse of all of them.

But he just might also hold the key to all their salvations.

If they can trust him. And themselves.

“The Rod of Circe,” a fantasy novelette of magic, curses and improbable heists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ratatoskr Press
• Release date: Jan 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9781958606889

Kate Macleod

Dr. Kate MacLeod is an innovative inclusive educator, researcher, and author. She began her career as a high school special education teacher in New York City and now works as faculty in the college of education at the University of Maine Farmington and as an education consultant with Inclusive Schooling. She has spent 15 years studying inclusive practices and supporting school leaders and educators to feel prepared and inspired to include all learners.

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The Rod of Circe

THE ROD OF CIRCE

KATE MACLEOD

Ratatoskr Press

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The Rod of Circe

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THE ROD OF CIRCE

Everything seemed in order, ready to go for the weekly support group meeting of the Victims of That Bastard Magician Samson. The chairs were arranged in a circle that Kitty Chilton hoped conveyed coziness despite the cold dampness of the cellar, particularly during a spring as rainy as the one they were having this year.

She would prefer to meet upstairs in her bookshop, in the open area among the shelves that she set aside for readings and discussion groups. The smell was better up there, the dry musty smell of antique books infinitely preferable to the wet musty smell down here that seemed to warn of malicious mold spreading in the cracks in the stone walls or just out of sight in the shadows of the slanted boards that held up the low ceiling. The places the dim bulbs never reached.

But Kitty had been outvoted. Her bookshop, which barely did enough business to keep her alive, was still too public a place.

That Bastard Magician Samson might find them. Or so just over half of the members thought. And so, the cellar it was.

But whether or not the circle of chairs conveyed coziness, Kitty fretted that there just weren't enough of them. Every week brought more people seeking support for the sudden unwelcome changes to their lives. Even after four other groups had started meeting in other parts of the Hidden City that lurked in the magic-laden corners of Minneapolis, unseen to the mundane world, there were still new people finding their way to her cellar nearly every meeting.

Well, if they needed more chairs, she had them. She couldn't move them herself, being noncorporeal, little more than a living ghost, thanks to That Bastard Magician Samson. But she could direct the others to where they were tucked in the storage space under the rickety old staircase. Another shadowy place the light never reached, but there all the same.

But she was really more worried that she hadn't ordered enough snacks. Again.

Kitty hovered over the refreshment table, not quite literally. Despite the curse that Bastard Magician Samson had cast on her three years before, the one that kept her from touching people and things, she still maintained a working relationship with floors.

Then she heard other feet on those stairs, and knew from the quick, skipping gait that it was Lara Tilley even before she turned to see the young woman ducking under