Jinx (23 page)

The half of me that’s aboveground, Jinx thought, remembering Dame Glammer’s words.

He thought about all his years with Simon, when he’d thought that Simon was basically being pretty nice to him, in his cranky way. Had Simon just been waiting for Jinx to grow big enough to have a life that was worth taking?

“Do people’s lives get more powerful when they get older?” he asked.

“Of course.”

“So the evil wizard Simon could kill Jinx from afar simply by destroying his captive life?” said Reven.

“Yes,” said the Bonemaster. He let a long pause settle over this. “It would not be to his advantage to do so, however. A captive life is a great power.”

Jinx hated them talking about the life he didn’t have. “Well, I’ll pay for
their
curses to be taken off.” He’d gladly pay anything just to get out of the Bonemaster’s castle. He held out his hand.

“Five silver pennies and—what’s this?” The Bonemaster reached over and plucked the tiny golden bird out of Jinx’s hand. “Gold? Now why would a failed apprentice have gold? Unless you stole it?”

“I didn’t steal it! Simon gave it to me.”

“Gave it to you.” The Bonemaster held it between his thumb and forefinger, and it glimmered in the firelight. “Now isn’t that interesting.”

He brought the bird a few inches from his face and smiled at it. “Hello, Simon.”

J
inx stared.

The Bonemaster beamed at Jinx, then went on talking to the bird talisman. “How silly of me to think you’d sent the boy into the Urwald completely free, Simon. That would be so unlike you. You’re keeping an eye on him, aren’t you? Well, he’s here at Bonesocket. He’s alive at the moment. Perhaps you’ll be wanting to stop in soon for a visit.”

The Bonemaster tucked the bird into a pocket in his robe and smiled at Jinx, Elfwyn, and Reven. “Come. I shall show you to your rooms.”

The room Jinx had been given had purple velvet drapes. Jinx touched them—the cloth was really there but felt rough and nubbly. Not velvet, then. It seemed like a waste of magic. Simon wouldn’t have approved. Simon. The thought of Simon was like a heavy weight in his stomach.

Dame Glammer had been right. The Bonemaster
had
told Jinx a few things about Simon. And Jinx didn’t like any of them.

He tugged at the window. It wouldn’t open. He tried levitating it, but the Urwald’s power was out of reach, and he couldn’t seem to find the power inside himself. Well, no wonder, if Simon had his lifeforce. And Simon had always scolded him for not being able to draw enough power! Simon. Bah.

Jinx searched for something else to draw on and immediately became aware of an enormous force. There was a massive amount of power somewhere in this castle.

Jinx didn’t dare try to use it. It had to be the Bonemaster’s power source, and the Bonemaster might sense him drawing on it.

There was a knock at the door. Jinx opened it. Elfwyn and Reven came in.

“Pretty strange, isn’t it?” Elfwyn said when the door was safely closed.

“You could have told us you had a curse on you that made you have to tell the truth,” said Jinx.

“Well, it’s pretty embarrassing,” said Elfwyn. “You didn’t tell us that evil wizard of yours had killed you.”

“I didn’t know!”

“Did it hurt?”

Jinx didn’t want to talk about it.

“I was trying to open the window, but I can’t,” he said instead. “I haven’t got the power.”

Reven went over to the window and pulled—he couldn’t open it either. “You mean you can’t do magic at all here?”

“Not really,” said Jinx. “I mean, there’s a lot of power here, but I can’t use it without the Bonemaster noticing.”

“He caused that windstorm. I’m sure of it,” said Elfwyn.

“I don’t think wizards can cause storms,” said Jinx. He’d never read anything about wizards being able to control the weather, and Simon had never mentioned—but you couldn’t trust Simon.

“We’d better leave,” said Elfwyn.

“Right,” said Jinx.

“What?” Reven was surprised. “But the wizard—”

“He’s evil,” said Jinx. “And we’re getting out of here.”

“But I had hoped he might—” Reven trailed off, unable to mention his spell.

“He won’t,” said Elfwyn. “Whatever he wants to keep us here for, it’s not to take our curses off us.”

“But Jinx offered to pay him,” said Reven.

“Reven, look at this castle,” said Elfwyn. “Look at the velvet drapes. The Bonemaster doesn’t need Jinx’s money!”

“Actually the drapes are an illusion,” said Jinx. “But yeah.”

“He seemed quite pleased with that golden charm he took from Jinx,” said Reven. “I’m sure that’s worth a bit.”

Elfwyn frowned. “What was it, anyway?”

“It’s called an aviot.” Jinx sighed. “Simon told me never to go out without it.”

“Why?”

“Well, I
thought
it was for safety,” said Jinx. “But I guess it was just a spell for spying on me.”

“Maybe he wanted to spy on you to keep you safe,” said Elfwyn.

“Elfwyn, he
killed
me,” Jinx reminded her.

“But do you think he’ll come here looking for you?” said Reven.

“Why would he?” said Jinx, exasperated.

“Well, because, if the good Bonemaster is telling the truth, then you give the evil wizard Simon great power.” Reven frowned. “Perhaps we should at least stay here until we’ve had time to see whether the Bonemaster—”

“Whether he wants to turn us into more parts for his bridge?” said Jinx. “Reven, he’s called the Bonemaster. He has a bridge made of bones. He’s just the slightest bit creepy, or didn’t you notice that?”

“Yes, all right. I noticed that. But—”

“Oh, and you drank wine out of a cup made from a skull.”

Reven and Elfwyn both looked ill at that. “Are you sure?” said Reven.

“All the cups on the table were made from skulls.”

“But they didn’t look like skulls,” said Elfwyn.

Jinx explained the technique for making a cup out of a skull.

“And I suppose you learned that from Simon the not-evil wizard,” said Elfwyn.

“Of course,” said Jinx. “So are we leaving?”

“Let me get my things,” said Elfwyn.

Reven considered. “Very well. I had hoped he might—”

“Take your spell off you,” Jinx supplied. “It’s more likely he’ll take your bones off you.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” said Reven.

They fetched their backpacks. Reven slipped the ax through the straps of his pack.

“It looks dark down there,” said Elfwyn. “I think he’s gone to bed.”

Jinx crept to the top of the stairs and looked into the great hall. The fire had died down to embers, and a gray curl of smoke rose from it. He nodded to Elfwyn and Reven, and the three of them tiptoed down the stairs.

Dark shadows filled the hall. There was no sound except for the drip of water somewhere far away. They reached the great oaken door.

Reven put his hand on the latch.

“It’s locked,” he whispered.

Jinx tried to levitate the latch, but it wouldn’t budge. “Let’s look for a back door,” he said.

He started back across the hall.

“Jinx!” whispered Elfwyn, just behind him.

He turned around. Reven was still standing by the door with both hands on the latch. Jinx made a come-on gesture. Reven shook his head furiously. Elfwyn went back, and Jinx followed her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jinx whispered. “Come on!”

“I can’t,” said Reven. “My hands are stuck to the door.”

“Just pull them away,” said Elfwyn, taking hold of one of Reven’s wrists. She pulled.

“Ow! Let go!” said Reven. They were all still whispering.

“I can’t let go!” said Elfwyn.

This was ridiculous. Jinx reached out and grabbed Elfwyn’s arm to pull her away from Reven. At least he only grabbed her with one hand—so he still had the other hand free. But the hand he put on Elfwyn’s arm was stuck fast.

“I thought you said wizards couldn’t do spells on people,” said Elfwyn.

“He did the spell on the door, not on us. But I don’t know how—”

Spells were hard to maintain if you weren’t actually looking at the object you were bespelling. It depended on how complicated the spell was, of course, and how powerful the wizard was. An illusion on curtains, for example, was much easier than something like this door. Jinx knew the Bonemaster had an immense power source nearby. Still, it was most likely that—

“He’s here watching us,” said Jinx.

“Ah. Quite so,” said the Bonemaster, stepping out of the shadows.

Evil dastard! He’d known they’d try to escape, and he’d turned it into a trap. Jinx reached with his free hand for the ax strapped to Reven’s back. He had just worked it loose when it flew up out of his hand and struck the ceiling. Jinx swore.

“Tsk. Such language, and in front of a lady,” said the Bonemaster.

“Let us go!” said Jinx.

The Bonemaster summoned a chair with a wave of his hand and sat down on it. “You know, manners are very important. You won’t have learned this from Simon. If you don’t have any manners, well, then who’s going to listen to you?”

“I don’t call it very good manners to stick people to your front door.” Elfwyn’s voice was muffled by Reven’s coat, which was about an inch from her face.

“You stuck yourselves to the door,” said the Bonemaster, leaning back in his chair and looking ready to settle in for a nice long chat. “I can’t think what you mean by it, but perhaps you’ll explain.”

Reven was frantically trying to scratch his nose by rubbing it against the door.

“Oh, it has to be a question, doesn’t it?” said the Bonemaster. “Tell me, Elfwyn, what were the three of you doing?”

“Leaving,” said Elfwyn.

“Now why would you want to do that?”

“Because we’re afraid of you.”

“Yes, yes, how tiresome of you,” said the Bonemaster. “People always are. And yet they come here anyway. Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“Yes,” said Elfwyn.

“But then they often find it quite difficult to leave,” said the Bonemaster.

“The evil wizard Simon knows we’re here!” said Reven.

“That’s what I’m hoping,” said the Bonemaster. “It will certainly be a more amusing party once he arrives.”

He took the gold bird out of his pocket and spoke to it. “When you come to rescue your pet thief, Simon, be sure to bring what you stole from me. Otherwise I may not give him back.”

“I’m not a thief,” said Jinx. And he certainly wasn’t a pet.

“No? No instructions to come here and—no, I find I don’t believe that, Jinx.”

The Bonemaster spoke to the bird again. “Come to think of it, Simon, bring me what you took from the boy.”

He looked back at Jinx. “He does want you back, I take it.”

“Yes,” said Jinx, only because he figured that was the correct answer if he wanted to stay alive. “What do we have to do to get you to unstick us?”

“Ah, that’s more like it.” The Bonemaster smiled at Jinx. “I think—” He steepled his fingers together, leaned farther back in his chair, and looked up at the ceiling, where the ax was half buried in a beam. “I think I would like you to work for me, Jinx. As my servant. Until I find some other use for you.”

“All right,” said Jinx.

“Goodness, how suspiciously quickly you agree, young man. I’m afraid I’m no more trusting than you are. I wonder how I can assure myself of your loyalty? Especially when you’ve just attacked me with an ax.”

“I wasn’t attacking you. I was going to chop the door down,” said Jinx.

“Ah. It’s just as well you didn’t. I pay a ghoul to patrol the island at night.”

Jinx was getting very uncomfortable stuck to Elfwyn’s arm.

“I think you’ll work for me,” said the Bonemaster, “because you want me to take those curses off your friends. Am I right?”

“Yes,” said Jinx.

“And also because you wouldn’t like your friends to be
harmed
in any way. Am I right?”

Jinx clenched his teeth. “Yes.”

“Excellent,” said the Bonemaster. “Tomorrow, then, you can begin working for me. Your first job will be to convince Simon that if he wants to find more left of you than bones, he’d better get here soon.”

He waved a hand, and they were all unstuck. Jinx shook out his arm, which had fallen asleep and was all pins and needles.

Reven scratched his nose, stretched his arms and legs, and then charged at the Bonemaster, ready to do mayhem. He got two steps before he froze like a statue, unbalanced on one foot, and toppled. Jinx caught him and lowered him to the floor, thinking as he did that Reven probably wasn’t in league with the Bonemaster after all.

“He’s frozen your clothes,” said Jinx. “As soon as he looks away from you, you’ll be unfrozen.”