Clove & Moose 21: The Cult Conspiracy

Clove and Moose is a serial fiction story. If you want to get caught up on what came before, click one of the buttons below.

Previously, on Clove & Moose: After the mysterious Cataclysm dried up the earth and its magic, Clove and her cat Moose travelled to find and repair pools of corrupted magic left behind. Along the way, she's picked up three travelling companions: Marissa, Jasper, and his trusty horse Miss Delilah. They've recently arrived at Bone Gorge, where skeletons of ancient giants were discovered after the Cataclysm, and Jasper's old friend Nickel has started a cult.

Clove was interrupted from a drowsy day at her guard job by the clatter of a wagon coming down the path toward her. Moose shot up faster than she did, trotting toward the wagon a moment before she heard Jasper’s voice yelling, “Clove! Clove!”

She scooped Moose into her arms and ran. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“Whatever Nickel’s doing. It’s happening tonight. I just found out.”

“Shit.” Clove couldn’t believe the cultists’ big plan was coming to fruition and she still didn’t know what they were up to. “Any idea what it is?”

“No, but I found this.” He rummaged behind his seat for a moment and then handed Clove her book. She’d given up hope that she’d ever recover the mysterious magical book she’d found in the library all those months ago, that had been stolen from her at this very spot, but here it was.

She lifted Moose up to set him inside the wagon, keeping a firm grip on the other end of his rope, and accepted the book from Jasper. “Thanks. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it’ll open to something useful.”

“I don’t think you’ll need luck. Take a look.”

Clove flipped the book open. A page had been ripped from the middle of the book. She ran a finger along the rough edge of the torn paper left behind in the seam. “Damn. Who does that to a book?”

She looked at the pages before and after it. They were both about magic. They were both about corrupt magic. “Huh. This looks like the version of the book I was reading the day they took it from me. It’s almost like ripping the page out broke the spell so that it can only show this version.” That was probably helpful to her in the short term, but she was a little sad to lose all the potential books that might have turned up when she opened the pages.

“Do you think that’s why they took it?”

“Probably not the only reason.” Clove glanced at the sky. She had a good hour left before her employers got back to camp. “I can’t leave yet. Unless you think we really need to?” 

Surely Jen and Jon would understand if there were a true fate-of-the-world-(-or-at-least-the-local-area-) kind of emergency.

“They definitely said tonight. After dark. We should have time.”

“Okay. I’m going to stay here and study the book, then. I’ll meet you in an hour?”

“Or I can stay,” Jasper offered. “Not much else I can do right now.”

He pulled the wagon into the camp and made Miss Delilah comfortable, while Clove went back to her guard post and spread the book out in front of her. Moose immediately tried to get between her and the book, but after removing him and getting him settled beside her, she dug into reading.

She started with the pages closest to the one that had been ripped out, but there wasn’t enough context there to tell her what she was looking for. With a sigh, she flipped back and started from the beginning.

Clove had read part of this version of the book before, just before it had been stolen from her. The first third or so was pretty basic magical theory, so she skimmed through it, trying to get to the important stuff. She soon got drawn in and was reading intently.

“Oh!” she exclaimed when she got to a section on magical artifacts. “Ohhhh. I think I got it.”

Jasper jogged over from where he’d been grooming Miss Delilah. “What is it?”

“I read this section before, see, that explains how corrupt magic can be created by using a badly-intentioned spell in an area of concentrated magic. But then,” she flipped to a section later in the book, “I just read this page, that talks about magical artifacts. They hold high concentrations of magic, which can be released with the right spellwork. The most powerful artifacts of all are those that came from a living being.”

“Like giant bones?”

“Like giant bones. Like a whole row of giant skeletons.”

“So they’re going to bring back magic?”

“I think they’re going to try. But it’s going to be corrupt magic.”

“Like our little orange circles, but lots of them.”

Clove grimaced. “Worse than that. I think it’s going to be a second Cataclysm.”

Jasper let out a low whistle. “That’s bad. How do we stop it?”

“I don’t know. If there’s a way to turn the corrupt magic into regular magic, there’s nothing about it in this book.”

“Then what do we do?”

“I have no idea, but we’ve got to try something.”

Just then there was a clatter of hooves and a cart came down the path toward them, Jen and Jon sitting on the front seat.

“Right on time,” Clove said. “We can get out of here.”

“Not a moment too soon.” Jasper hurried back to the wagon to get Miss Delilah harnessed, while Clove gathered Moose and the book to follow him.

“Clove?” Jen called. “What’s going on?”

“Bad news,” Clove said, and explained what she’d found.

The two siblings exchanged a look. “We’ll come with you. If there’s anything we can do to help, we’re there.”

Jasper drove as fast as he could down the narrow roads that lined the bottom of the gorge. When they reached the busier part of the camp, they slowed to a crawl. Clove fidgeted nervously. “Come on, come on.”

“It’ll be okay,” Jasper said.

“Will it? We don’t know how to stop this from happening.”

“You’ll figure it out. You always do.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then it’ll be what it’ll be.” He turned to look at her. “You’re not responsible for the fate of the world. It’s not your fault if bad people do something bad.”

Clove caught a glimpse of the cliff with the giant bones over the tops of the tents. “We’re almost there. Doesn’t look like they’ve started yet.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Jasper said, nodding toward the road that was about to cross their path. “Here comes Nickel now.”

A wagon was coming towards them, loaded up with people. Clove recognized a few of them from around the camp, people that she’d seen near the giant bones or around Nickel’s camp the couple of times she’d gone there with Jasper.

“Jasper!” A man sitting next to the driver called out. “Where did you run off to?”

“Had to pick up my friend,” Jasper said evenly. “Just coming back to join you, Nickel.”

The man shook his head. He was younger than Clove had expected, younger than her. He wore a long brown coat and had blond hair that hung to his chin. “I know you took the book.”

“It was my book to begin with!” Clove yelled back, pointing at one of the other men who stood on the wagon. “He stole it from me.”

“It’s not like you were using it properly,” the thief shot back, “you didn’t even know what you had.”

That made Clove mad, because he was right, and she hated it when assholes were right. She hadn’t known what the book was or how to use it, but that didn’t mean he could just take it from her.

“I know what you’re doing,” she said instead, “and I’m going to stop you.”

Nickel laughed. “You’re welcome to try, little witch. You’ve chosen your side then, Jasper?”

“Didn’t know there were sides to choose,” he said evenly. “But I’m sticking with Clove. I trust her to do what’s right.”

“Good luck to you then,” Nickel called. Their driver urged the horses forward, and they trotted off toward the wall of the gorge where the giant skeletons were. 

“We’ve got to follow them!” Clove said. 

“Where else do you think I’m going?” Jasper asked as he sent Delilah forward. “We’re right behind them. It’ll be okay.”

She twisted in her seat to confirm that Jen and Jon were still behind them. That eased her mind a little bit. At least they would have some backup. She wished Marissa were here, though. She could use some of her spunk right about now.

Moose headbutted her in the chin and she tilted her head to kiss his tiny head. “It’ll be okay, boy. But you’ve got to stay in the wagon where it’s safe.” 

She tied his rope tightly to the wagon so that he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere. He meowed pitifully, but it was for his own good. Clove soothed him as they reached the cliff, all the while wondering how she was going to stop a second Cataclysm from happening.

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Katie Conrad is a speculative fiction writer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can find her on bluesky and instagram.