A Hidden Magic Read Online Free PDF

course I'm not! What an imagination you have, little girl."
    That was the wrong thing to call her. "I'm not a little girl. And I know what I saw."
    "Nonsense," the sorcerer replied, walking toward his house. "How nice of you to drop by. You must come again some day soon." He slammed the door behind him.
    Jennifer knocked on the door. "Sir?" she called. "Sir, could I talk with you?"
    There was no answer from inside the cottage. Jennifer wondered what she had said to cause this to happen.
    She put her face close to the glass part of the door and tried to peek around the edge of the curtain.
    She found a fierce gray eye peeking back at her.
    Both girl and sorcerer jumped back in surprise. Then he gave the curtain an angry tug and Jennifer could hear him stamp away from the door.
    She knocked again. "Yoo-hoo," she cried.
    No answer.
    She put her ear to the door, but all she could hear was her own breathing.
    Suddenly the door flew open and Jennifer half fell into the room.
    "Would you please go away?" the old man hissed.
    "Not until you help me." Jennifer forced herself to stand straight and look him directly in the eyes, but she was trembling inside and
trying to remember what had made her think he was nervous.
    "I said, 'Go away!'" the sorcerer bellowed, suddenly transformed into a seven-foot-tall Viking warrior, which left Jennifer at eye level with a bear-tooth necklace low on his chest.
    She looked up—again into his eyes. She was beginning to become angry. "You have terrible manners," she said softly.
    The sorcerer scowled but slowly shrank back to normal size. By the time they were face-to-face, he was a young man again.
    "So what?" He didn't sound angry, but, then again, he didn't sound friendly either.
    Jennifer was too angry to worry about how he felt. "I've come to you for help, and you're playing games and being unfriendly and rude and trying to scare me away, and I think that's terrible!"
    The sorcerer looked at her coldly. Now that he was standing still, Jennifer noticed for the first time that he was slightly shorter than she was; but the power she sensed in him made her tremble. She became angry with
herself when she saw he noticed her shaking.
    It was the sorcerer who gave in and lowered his eyes first.
    "My apologies," he murmured, holding a flower that hadn't been there a second before.
    Instinctively, Jennifer reached out; but the flower was gone before her fingers could grasp it.
    The sorcerer was showing her to the door. "But I
am
busy, and you
have
invaded my privacy."
    "But who can help me?" Jennifer pleaded.
    "City hall?" the sorcerer suggested. "A doctor? The cavalry? The high lama of Tibet?"
    "No, no, no, no," Jennifer said. "I need you."
    "Then you're out of luck," the sorcerer answered, closing the door quietly behind her.
    Jennifer sat silently on the step.
    After a minute or so, the door opened again.
    "Just how long do you plan on sitting there?" the sorcerer asked.
    Jennifer didn't answer, and he slammed
the door shut again. A few seconds later he opened it. "What makes you think I could help you even if I wanted to?" he shouted.
    Still Jennifer didn't answer.
    The sorcerer stooped down beside her. "Go home," he whispered.
    "I can't," Jennifer said.
    He considered this for a moment. "Lost?"
    Jennifer nodded. "That's part of it."
    The sorcerer sighed and ran his fingers through his frizzy red hair. "Okay," he said gently, "you can come in and have some tea, and then I'll show you the wax out of the forest."
    Jennifer started to interrupt, but the sorcerer talked over her objections. "I don't want to hear the rest of it. That's all I'm going to do. I'm not interested in who you are or why you're here. I don't care what your problems are. Tea and the road out. Is that clear?"
    "Don't you even want to know my name?"
    "Oh, no you don't!" the sorcerer warned. "I especially don't want to hear that. I'm not interested. Don't tell me."
    "But why?" Jennifer asked.
    "Because if I know your name, you'll