Jinx On The Divide by Elizabeth Kay Read Free Book Online

rejected a life of maiming, torturing, and killing for a more meditative existence. Initially, this had involved writing a cookbook called Dining Out on Mythical Beasts. The book had been very successful, and Grimspite was spending the proceeds on tackling another little project, provisionally entitled The History of the
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    Sinistrom. He hoped to show that not every sinistrom was the irredeemable brute of popular belief.
    He stared at the page in front of him, trying to make sense of the text. The Big Bang was the spell that had misfired all those centuries ago, creating 169 sinistroms. He had been delighted to find the thing at all -- and then he had realized that it was a numerical spell, and way beyond his comprehension.
    One thing was clear, however. The sinistrom stink was hidden in those numbers somewhere, and if Ironclaw could extract them and get rid of the smell, Grimspite might be able to have a regular social life and attend some conferences. He sighed with pleasure. Life as an academic was so much more rewarding than a life of unbridled violence.
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    Felix turned the ornate brass handle of the other door that led out of the magic lamp's main chamber, wondering what a magical greenhouse would be like. The brandee's study had been harmless enough -- although they hadn't found Rhino, nor any evidence that he'd been there. Things were not always what they seemed in Betony's world, however, and dangers lay in the most unexpected places.
    After a second or two, the most beautiful perfume wafted through the opening, and a shaft of sunlight skittered across the floor. Felix and Betony smiled at each other, relieved, and stepped into a tangle of flowering plants and little ornamental fruit trees, with trellises and rock gardens and winding paths. There was a small stream with a tiny waterfall, which appeared to go from nowhere to nowhere.
    "Water," said Betony, and she took off her cap and scooped some up. She sniffed it. "Smells all right," she said, and she took a sip. "Tastes all right," she said, and drank deeply.
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    "Well, that solves one problem," she announced, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and passing the cap to Felix, who did likewise. She looked at the fruit trees. "And that'll solve the other, when we get hungry."
    They explored the greenhouse from one end to the other -- it seemed to be about the size of Felix's backyard at home -- but they didn't find Rhino. There were little statues here and there that smiled at them. Insects with bright metallic bodies were busily pollinating the flowers, and joking with one another as they worked. The jokes were really bad ones about things like blooming idiots and budding geniuses.
    "It's awfully late," said Betony, stifling a yawn. "I'm tired. We could go back to the main room and spend the night on the cushions. The greenhouse might be different tomorrow."
    "Not a bad idea," said Felix.
    "What's that?" said Betony, pointing behind him.
    He turned to look. "It's a marble pedestal. Probably had a flowerpot or something on it at one time."
    "No, it isn't. It's a silk-covered box."
    Felix stared at it. "You're right," he said. "It's not at all as big as I thought it was -- must be a trick of the perspective. And how could I have thought it was made of stone?" He got up and went over to look at it. The pattern seemed to shift as he changed his position, swirls of golden yellow one moment and a vivid lime-green the next.
    "That's the most delicate pink I've ever seen," said Betony. "Like the inside of a shell."
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    [Image: The box.]
    "It's not pink, it's green," said Felix. "You're color-blind," said Betony. "It's purple now."
    "Turquoise."
    "We can't be seeing the same thing." Felix reached out his hand to check that the padded surface felt as soft as it looked.
    "No!" shouted Betony suddenly. "Don't touch it! It's a jinx box."
    Felix pulled back his hand. "What's a jinx box?"
    "All I know about them is that they were originally a mistake," said