Jinx's Fire
Page 26
“They wouldn’t want me to be Presider,” said Jinx.
“Of course not,” said Elfwyn. “You’re the most powerful magician in the Urwald. That’s kind of scary. Not to me,” she added hastily. “But to people.”
They watched the people walking along the path.
“I hate my curse,” said Elfwyn. “Even if I have learned to use it.” She sighed. “If this was a story that was coming to an end, then my curse would be magically fixed because everything would have to come out exactly right for everybody. But real life isn’t like that, and sometimes you just live with things.”
Jinx looked at her fingers intertwined with his. No, this wasn’t a story, and it wasn’t coming to an end. If it were a story, he supposed, then the evil King Raymond would have been vanquished along with the other evil kings. Instead, the probably-okay King Raymond owed his throne to the Urwald. And the peace with Keyland might last for years, as long as Reven remembered what the Urwald could do to him.
King Rufus of Bragwood was a bit more of a problem, of course. But at least he was out of the Urwald for now.
And Wendell was still trying to get Satya to quit the Mistletoe Alliance, and Satya was clenching her teeth and refusing. Jinx couldn’t guess how that story would end.
“And what about Simon’s magic?” Jinx forgot himself and made it a question.
“I don’t know. He still might get it under control. And if not, he can just keep busy with his cooking, and bossing people around. And he can look after his baby, once it’s born. It’s not just Sophie’s job, you know.”
“I never said it was,” said Jinx, amused. “But any kid Simon looks after will have to be awfully good at looking after itself.”
“Don’t leave the path!”
A tiny child about two years old came careening down the path. Behind it, its mother was yelling.
But the child did leave the path. It veered off into the woods, where it tripped over a tree root and went sprawling. It stared around, stunned, but didn’t cry. Urwish children seldom cried.
Jinx jumped down, and went over and picked the child up. Its mother, who had stayed on the path, looked absolutely horrified to see her baby in the arms of a powerful magician.
“Don’t leave the path!” she cried again.
Jinx took the child back to its mother. But first, he told it a secret.
“You’ll never get anywhere unless you do.”
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the people without whose patience, wisdom, and kindness Jinx and the Urwald would not have seen the light of day.
For reading various drafts and stray bits and making suggestions, my eternal thanks to Deborah Schwabach, Aaron Schwabach, Jon Schwabach, Caitlin Blasdell, Joel Naftali, Lee Nichols, Nancy Horgan, and my late sister, Jennifer Schwabach.
I am grateful to everyone at HarperCollins and Katherine Tegen Books for brilliant editing, and for being so understanding and patient. Many thanks to Anne Hoppe (who helped me understand the monsters and, even more importantly, the paths), Sarah Shumway, Katherine Tegen, Laurel Symonds, Katie Bignell, and everyone else there.
Many thanks to those whose help gave me time to finish the middle book, Jinx’s Magic . . . James and Cynthia Vail, Gabrielle Vail, Lindsay Vail, Ty Giltinan, Qienyuan Zhou, Martha Scott, and Yingfei Zhou.
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About the Author
SAGE BLACKWOOD lives at the edge of a large forest, with thousands of books and a very old dog, and enjoys carpentry, cooking, and walking in the woods of New York State. Visit Sage online at www.sageblackwood.com.
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Praise For JINX
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
School Library Journal Best Book
Amazon Best Book of the Year
ALA Booklist Top Ten First Novels for Youth
ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice: Books for Youth
The Horn Book Recommended Fantasy Books
“Jinx is filled with real magic, not just the magic young Jinx learns, but the magic of a great book.”
—JOHN STEPHENS, New York Times bestselling author of The Emerald Atlas
“Complex characters, compelling fun, a marvelously dastardly villain, all steeped in a tasty stew of mystery and magic. What more could a reader ask for?”
—BRUCE COVILLE
“A truly wonderful book.”
—SARAH PRINEAS, author of The Magic Thief
“Blackwood fills her tale with drama and delightfully funny dialogue.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Blackwood puts her central three characters through a string of suspenseful, scary situations before delivering a properly balanced closing set of resolutions, revelations and road signs to future episodes.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Books by Sage Blackwood
Jinx
Jinx’s Magic
Jinx’s Fire
Credits
Cover art © 2015 by Iacopo Bruno
Cover design by Amy Ryan
Copyright
JINX’S FIRE. Copyright © 2015 by Karen Schwabach. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blackwood, Sage.
Jinx’s fire / Sage Blackwood. —First Edition.
pages cm
Sequel to: Jinx’s magic.
Summary: “Jinx travels throughout the Urwald to unite its people and creatures against encroaching threats”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-212996-3 (hardback)
EPub Edition © February 2015 ISBN 9780062129987
[1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Wizards—Fiction. 3. Orphans—Fiction. 4. Forests and forestry—Fiction. 5. Fantasy.] I. Title.
PZ7.B5345Jj 2015 2014022688
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
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15 16 17 18 19 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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