Jinx Read Online Free PDF Page A

likely, doesn’t it? I think it’s time you swept out the loft.”
    Sweeping out the loft meant Simon was tired of Jinx’s questions.
    Jinx was sure that magic went on in the south wing, and he knew that the rooms contained the secret of where Sophie came from. As Jinx grew less afraid of witches and wizards, he grew more and more curious. But Simon never left the forbidden door unlocked. Jinx had tried to peer through the magic cat flap, but it knew he wasn’t a cat and it wouldn’t open for him.
    One day when Jinx was eight years old, the three of them were walking in the Urwald together. They did this a lot. The feeling Jinx had had before, that the Urwald was reaching out to grab him, to pull him in and swallow him, had changed. He felt now that the forest enveloped him, as if he and it were part of a single, enormous living thing. He wasn’t afraid to stray from the path anymore—at least as long as he was with Simon and Sophie. The Truce of the Path protected you from monsters and other humans when you were on the path. But if you spent all your time being protected, you never got to find out anything new.
    So the three of them left the path on their walks all the time and ventured deep into the Urwald.
    “The Urwald isn’t just trees. People are part of it too,” Simon said.
    “People used to be able to talk to the trees,” said Sophie. “I’ve read that. They used to know the trees’ language.”
    “Oh, we still know a little,” said Simon. “Trees speak in the way their leaves rustle.”
    Sophie smiled at Simon, but Jinx could see that she didn’t believe him. Jinx didn’t either. Trees couldn’t rustle their leaves, except in the wind.
    “It’s more like they sort of are,” said Jinx.
    “Are what?” said Sophie.
    “ Are . And then I think we have to figure out how to listen.”
    “Listen to the leaves?” said Sophie.
    “I think you’d kind of have to listen to their roots,” said Jinx. “If you wanted to hear trees talk.”
    “Nonsense. You can’t listen to roots,” said Simon.
    Sophie smiled, but Jinx could tell from the shape of their thoughts that they were both laughing at him.
    “Anyway, there hasn’t been a Listener in a hundred years,” said Simon. “If there ever was such a thing.”
    “You mean those people who talked to trees?” said Sophie.
    “A myth,” said Simon.
    Jinx hung back. He wanted to see if he was right about how trees spoke. Simon and Sophie walked on, speaking to each other in that other language, which always seemed to feel as strange to Simon’s mouth as Urwish felt to Sophie’s. Jinx let them go. He was more interested in the forest.
    The leaves did move in the wind, but trees wouldn’t be able to see that, would they? They didn’t have eyes.
    Two tree branches rubbed together, sounding nearly like a human voice. Jinx could almost understand something, but it felt more like it was coming up through his bare feet. Jinx dug his toes into the crumbling leaves that were rotting into soil, as if he were a tree taking root.
    Now he could hear the trees quite clearly. They mumbled about grubs that ate their roots. They thought about rain and summer. Dirt interested them. And sunlight, which was very hard to get in the Urwald, unless you were old and tall. And … pain.
    The pain came from the edge of the Urwald. Jinx hadn’t known there was an edge of the Urwald. He wondered what that was like—what lay beyond it? He buried his toes deeper into the soil. The pain was very far away. It—
    There was a smell of dirty dogs. Jinx looked up. Werewolves. Three of them.
    They were almost man-sized, standing on two legs. They grinned at Jinx, baring knife-sharp yellow fangs. Their claws were as sharp as their teeth. They moved toward Jinx.
    He opened his mouth and said “Help.” It came out very quietly.
    The werewolves barked bright red flares of greed and amusement.
    Jinx took a step backward. The werewolves took a step forward.
    Jinx took several more