A Question of Magic Read Online Free PDF Page A

helped us!”
    â€œWhat sort of questions?” Yure asked.
    â€œHow can I get out of here?” said Serafina. “Why am I here? Where’s my great-aunt Sylanna?”
    â€œOh! Oh!” squealed Krany. “Let me answer one! The answer to your first question is, you can’t get out of the cottage until the chicken gets to where it’s going. Do I win? Do I get a prize now?”
    â€œI want one, too!” said Yure.
    â€œWhat chicken?” asked Serafina, looking around the room.
    â€œAsk me a
good
question,” Yure cried. “Make it a hard one. I can handle it.”
    â€œFine. How are you able to talk? Is this cottage really moving? If it is, how is that possible? Why are you in this trunk? How did those words appear in that book? Did the cat really show me the book on purpose? Why am I talking to a bunch of skulls? Am I going crazy?”
    â€œUh,” Yure began. “The answer is … no! You’re not going crazy! There! I did it! Now you owe me a prize, too.”
    Serafina sighed. “Just tell me where I can find my great-aunt Sylanna. She can explain it all.”
    â€œSi-who-a?” asked Yure. “I’ve never heard of her.” The skull shifted in the trunk until he was facing down.“Anyone down there named Si something or other?” he called.
    â€œAnyone down there an aunt?” shouted Krany. “Because
that
would be a real surprise.”
    Muted voices rumbled in the trunk, then one of the skulls toward the bottom of the pile called back, “No aunts down here.”
    â€œNo one named Sigh, either,” shouted another skull.
    Serafina rocked back on her heels. “Never mind. If you don’t want to help me, you could just say so.”
    â€œWhat’s my prize?” Krany asked.
    â€œYour prize is … you can go back to sleep,” Serafina said, shutting the lid of the trunk.
    â€œWell, that’s a lousy prize,” grumbled the muffled voice of a skull.
    â€œIt’s better than nothing,” another skull replied.
    Serafina stepped away from the trunk. She was afraid, she was worried, but most of all, she was confused. A chicken she couldn’t see, a moving cottage, a book that wrote its own words, and a trunk full of talking skulls couldn’t be real, could they? Unless … Was it possible that this was magic? Growing up, Serafina had heard rumors that magic existed, but most of the people she knew scoffed at anyone who claimed that it was real. She had heard of Baba Yaga, of course, but her parentshad told her that the witch was just part of a fairy tale and that only the weak-minded or deluded believed in her. Even the superstitious Nesha Zloto claimed that Baba Yaga couldn’t possibly exist.
    Moving closer to the window, Serafina glanced out and her hand flew to her mouth. She was in the forest now, and the tops of the trees seemed to be streaming past. But the way the floor was shifting beneath her feet, it had to be the cottage that was moving, not the forest, and she had to be up high. Serafina hated heights. Even if the door was open, she wouldn’t go near it now.
    When an owl swooped in front of the window, Serafina retreated to the middle of the room. There wasn’t a thing she could do in the dark inside a moving building. Who knew where she was or how high above the ground she might be?
    Suddenly it was all so overwhelming that Serafina couldn’t handle any more. Only this morning she had left her family to spend the day driving with Viktor. Who knew what she’d find when the cottage finally stopped moving?
    Taking the shawl she’d found in the trunk, she shuffled to the bed. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes while she draped the shawl around herself and lay down. She pulled a golden chain from inside her bodiceand wrapped her fingers around the heart Alek had given her, and pressed it to her lips. If only Alek were here with her, he would know what