Read Online Jinx's Fire by Sage Blackwood - Free Book Online

because he might ask me. And if he knew that I knew, he would probably . . .”
    She trailed off. There was a kind of sad blue cloud that was most un-Elfwyn-like, and Jinx wished he could think of something to say to make it go away.
    â€œWhat did you—” Jinx stopped himself.
    â€œHe’s been spending time in Samara,” said Elfwyn.
    â€œWhat!” said Jinx. “But he can’t!”
    â€œHe’s away a lot,” said Elfwyn. “And when he comesback he brings books in another language, and I think it’s Samaran. I kind of worked out a little of it.” She turned to Wendell. “Door, onion, aquifer,” she said in Samaran.
    â€œThat’s very good,” said Wendell.
    â€œBut there’s no way to get to Samara except through this house,” said Jinx. “All the ancient portals were closed.”
    â€œThere is the portal you made last year,” said Sophie.
    â€œYeah, but . . .” Jinx thought. The KnIP portal was the biggest spell he had ever done. It had taken much more knowledge than the doorpaths, because it breached a dimension. It went from the prison in Samara to the Urwald.
    He’d put up a ward to protect it. And he’d gone back to check on it frequently. Well, as often as he could, anyway. Maybe not so much lately. He’d been busy.
    â€œThe ward should have stopped him,” said Jinx.
    â€œAs I understand wards,” said Sophie, frowning, “they require very specific instructions.”
    â€œI told it to stop the preceptors,” said Jinx, with a sinking feeling.
    â€œSo the Bonemaster could have gotten through,” said Sophie.
    â€œIf he did, he’d just find himself in the prison,” said Jinx.
    â€œI’d bet the prison guards had orders to summon thepreceptors if anyone just appeared out of nowhere,” said Sophie. “Anyway, couldn’t the preceptors have made a new portal?”
    â€œI think not,” said Jinx. “Because they don’t really know the Urwald. They know how much money it’s worth, but they don’t know that it’s all one”—he put his hands together, intertwining his fingers—“thing. They think it’s just a bunch of trees.”
    â€œEr . . . it isn’t?” said Sophie. “I mean I know it’s the people, too, but—”
    â€œNo, there’s this whole . . . thing,” said Jinx. “Like, there’s this, well, lifeforce, and that’s the Urwald. The trees and the people and the werewolves and stuff are all part of it but you can’t look at them and know the Urwald if you don’t know that it’s all . . .” He hooked his fingers together again. It was too hard to explain.
    â€œHm.” Sophie leaned back on the workbench. “Nonetheless, Elfwyn’s pretty sure he’s gotten through somehow.”
    â€œExcuse me,” said Wendell. “But doesn’t that mean that he’s—well, out of the Urwald, and that’s a good thing?”
    â€œNo,” said everyone at once.
    â€œIf he learns KnIP, that’s going to make him even more dangerous,” said Jinx. “And if he finds a way to bring the preceptors into the Urwald . . .” The only hope there, Jinx thought, was that the Bonemaster wouldn’t necessarily want the preceptors in the Urwald.
    And the only hope of him not learning KnIP was that the preceptors didn’t exactly volunteer the information that KnIP existed.
    Other than that, not much hope.
    Wendell went home to Samara. Jinx and Elfwyn stayed up late talking. Jinx wanted to know about Simon.
    â€œHe’s still the same,” said Elfwyn sadly. “Frozen inside that slab of ice, looking like he’s about to cast a spell.”
    â€œAnd you don’t—” He stopped himself.
    â€œNo,” said Elfwyn. “I don’t know what the Bonemaster did to him. I looked in his new books, because I thought it