Jinx's Magic by Sage Blackwood Read Free Book Online Page B

you over to him for his soup of the day.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œDon’t do anything without thinking about it three times first, young man. That’s the best advice I can give you. No good waiting till after you’re chained to a gridiron, roasting over a slow fire, and then wondering if you might have been better off making a plan.”
    â€œYes,” said Reven. “I see. Thank you.”
    They stayed the night at Witch Seymour’s house. Jinx didn’t entirely like the witch—especially not when he said such unpleasant things about Simon—but the man was an almost bottomless well of information, about Keyland and everything else. They talked long into the night—Jinx, Reven, Elfwyn, the witch, and the goat. Actually the goat didn’t speak, but Witch Seymour frequently asked its opinion anyway.
    Jinx ended up telling the witch all about how he had come to live at Simon’s house.
    â€œFather, killed by werewolves. Mother, taken by elves,” Witch Seymour summarized. “Ever think of going to Elfland yourself?”
    â€œNo,” said Jinx. “You can’t go to Elfland.”
    â€œOf course you can. There are numerous stories about it, aren’t there, Whitlock? Getting there’s quite simple. The difficulty seems to arise merely in the matter of coming back. Elves aren’t alive, you know, and they’re not exactly dead either, and it makes things complicated, transition-wise. But you get to Elfland through the Glass Mountains, if the trolls let you, and, well, then you take it from there.”
    â€œNo I don’t,” said Jinx. “In all the stories, if people do manage to get out again, they come back and find a hundred years have passed in the Urwald.”
    â€œThere are minor inconveniences, yes.”
    Jinx had no plans to go to Elfland. But he wondered, once again, why there was something he couldn’t quite remember about elves, something snagging the edge of his thoughts.
    Well, never mind. He had enough to worry about, getting Reven out of the Urwald.

6
    The Edgeland
    T hey walked along the path toward Keyland, and the trees talked about the constant hacking and chopping at the edge of the Urwald. Oh, and they wanted Reven out.
    â€œThat wasn’t true, what Witch Seymour said about Simon, was it?” asked Elfwyn.
    â€œUm, which part?” Jinx was distracted by the trees.
    â€œAbout him being the Bonemaster’s apprentice.”
    â€œKind of,” said Jinx.
    â€œAnd you knew that? Why didn’t you tell us?”
    â€œI forgot.”
    â€œAll that time the Bonemaster was holding us prisoner and threatening to kill us, you forgo t ?”
    â€œI didn’t know then,” said Jinx. “Anyway it was kind of an accident, Simon being his apprentice. He didn’t know he was evil.”
    â€œHe couldn’t tell from all those skulls and bones and things all over the place?” said Reven.
    â€œWell they’re not really all over—”
    â€œSimon doesn’t have that kind of thing around his house, anyway,” said Elfwyn. “And he uses ordinary cups to drink out of, not, you know—” she made a skull shape with her hands.
    â€œThere was a skull in his workroom, though,” said Reven.
    â€œOh, that’s just Calvin,” said Elfwyn.
    Jinx was surprised that Elfwyn knew Calvin’s name.
    The closer they got to the edge of the Urwald, the more Jinx felt the pain and terror of the trees. The cutting was going on relentlessly, from first light to sundown.
    â€œThe good Witch Seymour seems to think Simon helped the Bonemaster rise to power,” said Reven.
    â€œWell, duh,” said Jinx. The treecutting was really quite painful. “Because the Bonemaster was using Simon’s life for power, remember? That doesn’t mean it was okay with Simon.”
    â€œYou keep twitching,” said Elfwyn.
    â€œWell they’re chopping