Jinx's Fire by Sage Blackwood Read Free Book Online

Urwalders couldn’t defend themselves.
    â€œAll right,” said Sophie. “Perhaps I’ll be able toconvince her to come and stay with us.”
    Jinx hoped not.
    He’d made a doorpath to the witch’s cottage months ago. Dame Glammer had quickly understood how doorpaths worked, and had hopped in and out of the Doorway easily in her butter churn—but she didn’t like having it so close to her cottage, and she’d asked Jinx to take it away again.
    â€œI can’t,” Jinx admitted. “KnIP spells can’t be undone.”
    â€œMagic that can’t be undone is better left undone,” the witch had said. “Otherwise we’re soon in over our heads, aren’t we, dearie?”
    Jinx shrugged. He’d been in over his head for ages.
    Now he watched Sophie vanish inside the Doorway Oak as she went off to visit Dame Glammer. He worried . . . Sophie sometimes seemed to trust the witch too much. Jinx knew for a fact that Dame Glammer talked to the Bonemaster.
    Wendell, Hilda, and Nick were coming with Jinx. Wendell didn’t have any guiding jobs scheduled at the moment.
    Satya had to go back to the Temple of Knowledge—she could never be away for long, for fear the preceptors might notice. If they guessed where she’d gone, she was toast. If they guessed that she was involved in the Mistletoe Alliance, she was toast. There were a lot of ways for Satya topotentially become toast, which was probably why, Jinx reflected, she spent a lot of time in a state of barely controlled terror.
    But you had to admire the fact that she never let being terrified stop her.
    She came as far as the Doorway Oak to say good-bye to them. Most particularly to Wendell. Jinx turned away while they did this.
    The thing Jinx wondered about—well, sticking your face at someone—was, wasn’t it awfully awkward? He’d given the matter quite a bit of thought, and as far as he could see there was no safe way to go about it. What if the person you were sticking your face at screamed? Or bit you?
    He supposed he could ask Wendell how it was done, but that would mean admitting he didn’t already know.
    After a rather squirmingly long time, Satya left. Jinx, Wendell, Nick, and Hilda stepped into the Doorway Oak and out onto the edge of Bone Canyon. It was not the place where Jinx sometimes went to look at Bonesocket, but a place further west, where he, Reven, and Elfwyn had entered the canyon two years ago on their way to see the Bonemaster.
    Climbing down to the canyon floor, Jinx felt the loss of the trees’ comforting murmur. He looked upriver toward Bonesocket, which was out of sight around several bends. Elfwyn was up there. He hoped she was all right. Andthe Bonemaster was up there. Jinx wondered what the evil wizard was planning. When and how would he come after Jinx?
    And what had he done to Simon?
    They headed off in the opposite direction. The canyon was flattest next to the creek, which rushed along in the deep channel it had cut through a rock slab, so they walked there.
    Jinx’s magic wasn’t nearly as strong this far from the trees.
    It took them a week to reach the western end, where the canyon walls gradually became lower, and the river burbled away into the forest. The Bloomeries were a cluster of squat stone ovens. Jinx touched one. It was cold.
    â€œWhere are the people?” said Wendell.
    â€œI guess they’re in Deadfall Clearing,” said Jinx.
    There was a path into the forest. Jinx was relieved to feel the trees’ lifeforce around him once again. It didn’t feel quite as strong as usual, and that struck him as odd. Anyway the murmur of the trees’ voices welcomed him.
    It was only a mile to Deadfall Clearing.
    It was one of the poorer ones—it reminded Jinx of Gooseberry Clearing: huts that were almost all roof, and leaky roof at that. At the far side of the clearing, people were digging and hoeing.
    Hilda and Nick