Jinx's Fire (17 page)

“I don't think she really expects to find Gertrude. But of course she didn't tell Bergthold she was looking for her.”

“Why of course?”

“Because she didn't want to give him the satisfaction,” said Elfwyn. “That was a question! You're usually so careful.”

“Sorry,” said Jinx.

The troll and the woman had gone back to battling with clubs.

“In a way they're easier to get along with than werewolves,” said Elfwyn. “I mean, your friend Malthus is really nice, but I think he's probably eaten people, don't you?”

“Yes,” said Jinx. “Don't tr—er, I thought trolls ate people.”

“They do, but not very often,” said Elfwyn. “They don't much care for the taste. Tell me about where you've been.”

Jinx thought of where he'd been—miles and worlds away from all the life going on around him now. The Path of Fire might be the source of lifeforce, but only life was life, and Jinx had missed it.

“I'll tell you another time,” said Jinx. “Tell me more about the trolls. And the war.”

He listened to Elfwyn talk. He couldn't detect the faintest shred of a pink fluffy thought anywhere in her happy green glow at seeing him. But he told himself he shouldn't mind. He was lucky to have friends, and lucky to have people, and enormously lucky to still have a full complement of arms.

Even if, according to what Elfwyn was saying, they were still losing the war.

A Problem with Sophie

J
inx decided not to make a doorpath from the trolls' home to the Doorway Oak. Trolls and humans might be allies for now, but there was no telling how long that would last. And KnIP spells couldn't be undone.

“So you're telling me,” Simon said, as they walked down the Troll-way, “that you've made a KnIP path that ends at my house?”

“He's made dozens of them,” said Elfwyn. “You can get practically anywhere in the Urwald from your house.”

“And vice versa, I suppose,” said Simon.

“Only if you
know
the doorpaths are there,” said Wendell.

“And it's not really
to
your house,” said Jinx. “Because I made the ward a whole lot stronger, and I thought the Doorways ought to be outside of it.”

“But unfortunately, there are enemy soldiers surrounding your clearing now,” said Elfwyn. “Or at least there were when I was there a couple weeks ago.”

“I see,” said Simon.

“Oh, er, and there's something else I should tell you,” said Jinx. “About your house.”

Simon glowered in anticipation.

“There's, ah—” Jinx looked at Wendell and Elfwyn, in case either of them wanted to be the one to tell. But they both seemed suddenly very interested in the large chunks of glass heaped beside the road.

“There's, um, a few people staying at your house,” said Jinx.

“Oh?” said Simon.

“Yes,” said Jinx.

“I see,” said Simon. “What sort of people are they?”

“Urwalders,” said Jinx. “Some of them are from Cold Oats Clearing, where you come from—”

“And where I left from,” said Simon. “I certainly didn't invite it to follow me.”

“But it was destroyed by the Bonemaster,” said Jinx. “You know that. They didn't really have anywhere else to go. And then a couple other clearings were destroyed by
the Bonemaster. Gooseberry Clearing was one. And then some clearings were attacked by—”

“How many is ‘a few people'?” said Simon.

Elfwyn and Wendell were still studying the scenery assiduously. “About ninety-four,” said Jinx.

“Ninety-four? Ninety-four people in
my
house?”

“About that, yeah.”

Purple-gray storm clouds had gathered around Simon's head. “And where are these ninety-four people sleeping?”

“Pretty much everywhere,” said Jinx.

“Do you mean to tell me—”

“Not the south wing,” Jinx added.

“And how are you feeding all these people?”

“Well, we kind of had to turn some of your clearing into potato patches and gardens and stuff—”

“Some of it?”

“Well, pretty much all of it.” Jinx looked at Elfwyn and Wendell to see if they wanted to help him out, but it seemed they did not. They had walked on ahead and were examining the glass as if they shared the Elf Princess's fascination with geology.

“Except for a little bit that we left for the goats and chickens to run around in,” said Jinx. “Oh, and Witch Seymour's moved in with them.”

The storm clouds grew an angry purple burst. “Witch Seymour? That idiot?”

“He was really helpful to us when we broke Reven's
siege around Blacksmiths' Clearing,” said Jinx.

“You what?”

“We had to do it because the blacksmiths are the ones who're supplying all our weapons. Witch Seymour helped us with some illusions that made Reven's soldiers fall back. Actually, Dame Glammer did more than he did, but they both helped.”

Simon stared at Jinx. “You really are fighting a war.”

“That's what I told you,” said Jinx. “Oh, and I've spent some of your money to buy food for people—”

“That was generous of you.”

“Sorry, but—”

Simon shrugged. “Doesn't matter. That's what money's for.”

“And we've had to buy weapons, and clothes for people, and stuff. I'm not sure how much we've spent, but Sophie's been keeping track.”

“Sophie?” The storm clouds dissipated, as if a brisk wind had blown through. “Sophie's there?”

“Yeah. She's left Samara. They sentenced her to death, and I had to help her escape from prison, and—”

“Idiot! Why didn't you tell me this before?”

“Don't call me an idiot!” Jinx looked ahead, hoping Wendell and Elfwyn hadn't heard. “Anyway, I was going to get to it eventually. It takes a long time to tell two years' worth of stuff, you know.”

“You start with the important things,” Simon snapped,
walking faster. “Sophie's here! Why didn't you—”

“I just did—”

Simon stopped walking suddenly. “She left Samara because they sentenced her to death.”

“Yeah. That's what I said. I had to help her escape from prison, and we came through into the Urwald by using KnIP, and that's how Wendell got here—”

“What did they sentence her to death for?”

“For being married to you, more or less,” said Jinx. “They didn't know she was in the Mistletoe Alliance. I mean, they accused her of it, but I think that was just . . . reflex, kind of.”

“Who told you about the Mistletoe Alliance?”

“Everybody,” said Jinx.

“And you broke Sophie out of prison? Out of the prison in Samara? With all those guards and ten-foot thick walls?
You
did?”

“Yeah,” said Jinx, annoyed. The trouble with adults was that they never stopped picturing you as six years old and unable to do things yourself.

“How on earth did you do that?”

Jinx told him.

They had come down the Troll-way far enough that the ground around them was no longer glass. The forest welcomed Jinx. He felt the Urwald's lifeforce, strong and
whole again, and he felt that the fire inside him was part of it.

“Here's the Doorway,” said Elfwyn.

They stopped.

“Where?” said Simon.

“Right here,” said Elfwyn, pointing. “And you have to
know
—”

“Don't tell me how KnIP works,” said Simon. “Just tell me what's there.”

“I was trying to,” said Elfwyn. “That big hollow oak near your house.”

“Right. I see it.” He turned to Jinx. “You made this?”

“Well, I used a bunch of other people's knowledge, but yeah.” Jinx watched to see if Simon would at least be impressed by that. Most KnIP users could only use their own knowledge.

“Hm,” said Simon.

Simon put a foot into the Doorway, and Jinx grabbed his arm. “Hang on. I have to go through and strengthen the ward first.”

“You said you did that already.”

“The ward tunnel,” said Jinx. “It was weak because we didn't have much power. Just wait a minute.”

He stepped through, and smelled the rot of the Doorway Oak. He felt the ward tunnel, stretching toward the edge of Simon's clearing. He could feel how weak it was
and he could sense that several holes had been scraped in it now.

He poured power into it, filled the holes, and strengthened it.

“Okay, you can come through now,” he called over his shoulder.

The others joined him, and they walked up the tunnel to the clearing. Reven's soldiers tried to thrust swords and hands through the holes Jinx had just plugged. There weren't nearly as many soldiers as before.

“Where's Reven?” Jinx asked them. “Or King Raymond, if you'd rather?”

“He's got better things to do than hang around watching you,” said one of the soldiers.

Jinx didn't like the sound of that.

He watched Simon as they came into the clearing, which had once been a small green goat pasture and was now all dug up into a patchwork of vegetable gardens. It looked like someone had planted peas and onions already.

There was a pale orange cloud of dismay from Simon, but all he said was “Hmph.”

The kitchen was wet with drying laundry and a-squall with babies. People were talking, yelling, quarreling, wheedling, and laughing, but they all stopped when they saw Simon standing in the doorway. Wizards had that effect.

Cats erupted from hidden places, yowling, and rubbed
their heads against Simon's legs.

“Are you the big wizard?” said small Silas.

Simon unhooked a kitten from his leg and nodded.

“He's the big wizard,” small Silas reported to everyone.

Simon looked all around the room. Jinx did too. It seemed to him there were a lot more people in the kitchen than there had ever been before. And he could hear voices in the north tower, too. He looked up. Heads peered down from all along the edge of the loft.

“Nobody's gone into the south wing, have they?” said Jinx.

“Of course not,” said Cottawilda. “Sophie locked it when she left.”

“What do you mean, when she left?” Simon demanded. “Where is she?”

“We thought she was with you,” said Jotun.

Jinx had a sudden feeling of foreboding. “Why would she be with us?”

“Because she went to meet you, when she looked in that Farseeing Window thing and saw that you were on your way up,” said Cottawilda.

“When?” Elfwyn demanded.

“Must've been about a week ago,” said Cottawilda.

Jinx felt rising panic. “Well, she didn't get there!” He turned to Wendell and Elfwyn. “Did the trolls eat her?”

“Of course not!” said Elfwyn.

“Why would there be trolls at the Bonemaster's house?” asked Cottawilda.

Jinx looked at Simon. The wizard's face had gone pale.

“What are you talking about?” said Jinx.

“Sophie went to Bonesocket,” said small Silas.

“She looked in the window thingy and she saw you standing there in that cave, holding that blob of glup,” said Cottawilda. “We all did, actually. And then you looked at those two paths, and you went up the icy one, and she said you must be going to Bonesocket—”

“What on earth made her think that?” Simon demanded.

“I don't know. She looks in books and things,” said Cottawilda.

“Why would a book tell her what Jinx was going to do?” said Elfwyn.

“That actually
was
what I was going to do.” Jinx felt awful. He should have realized Sophie would try to interfere—er, help him.

“Right,” said Simon. “See you later, then.” He turned back to the door.

“Wait!” Jinx grabbed Simon's arm. “You can't—”

Simon shook Jinx off. “I most certainly can.” Bright-orange angry lightning bolts leapt around his head.

Elfwyn jumped in front of him and held her arms out to stop him. “You can't go off and face the Bonemaster by yourself.”

“I have done so before,” said Simon.

“Yes, and look what happened,” said Jinx. “And you can't face him now, you can't even do mag—” He caught himself. “
Much
of anything till you've had some rest,” he amended.

“You'll go after her, of course,” said Wendell. “Obviously. But you really should have a plan, don't you think?”

“I'll kick his—”

“Not that kind of plan,” said Elfwyn. “A specific plan. Wendell's right.”

The front door opened—nobody bothered to knock anymore. Maud, the nostrilly girl from Blacksmiths' Clearing, came in. Behind her, Jinx was startled to recognize Elfwyn's mother, Berga, from Butterwood Clearing, and her husband, Helgur the Barbarian, behind her. Helgur was carrying a baby, and bouncing it up and down in an attempt to stop it from crying.

“What, more?” said Simon.

“They're traitors,” said Jinx, under his breath. “Not the girl, but the other two.”

Jinx knew what Berga was going to do. She was going to start asking Elfwyn questions, one after another, bang-bang-bang. Elfwyn hated it. He spoke quickly before Berga had a chance. “What are you doing here? Have you got some supplies to sell that the invaders didn't want to buy? And don't start asking Elfwyn questions, or I'll cast a horrible spell on you.”

Elfwyn looked annoyed. “I can cast my own horrible spells, you know.”

“They have information,” said Maud.

“If you want it,” said Helgur, jouncing the baby.

“Why should we trust you?” Jinx shot back.

“What's the information?” said Wendell.

Berga frowned at him. “Where's this one from? He talks funny.”

“King Raymond—Reven, that is—is battling his uncle, King Bluetooth of Keyland, southwest of Blacksmiths' Clearing,” said Helgur.

“King Bluetooth's got two thousand men in the Urwald,” said Berga.

“They're at least eighty miles in,” said Helgur. “They haven't come up to Butterwood, because they don't know it's there. They tried to invade a couple of clearings and found them protected by wards, so they probably think all the clearings are like that.”

The baby let out a howl. Helgur handed it to his wife. “Your friend Reven's expecting to be joined by King Rufus of Bragwood soon,” he went on. “That was the agreement they had—that he'd help Raymond against Bluetooth, and then Raymond would help Rufus conquer his half of the Urwald—”