Jinx On The Divide Read Online Free PDF Page A

hooves, and the horns on their noses. The driver was almost completely submerged beneath layers of fur, although his ginger hair was just visible beneath his hat, and his green eyes were on the squinty side. A japegrin, then. Oh, dear.
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    The brandee turned on Felix, his face contorted with fury. "We are back in my world!" he screamed. "That driver is a japegrin! You have tricked me!" He dropped Nimby, drew his dagger, and lunged at Felix.
    Then a lot of things seemed to happen at once. The japegrin reined in his cuddyaks, and Nimby unrolled himself with the speed of a whiplash. Betony launched herself at the brandee, her bravery as automatic and selfless as ever, her blond hair streaming out behind her as her hood fell back. The japegrin leaped out of his sleigh and landed with a soft thump in the snow. The brandee was a creature of the desert, however, and he wasn't used to ice. His feet slipped out from under him and he crashed to the ground, losing his grip on both the dagger and the lamp. The lamp skidded across the steeply sloping road, rolled downhill, and tumbled into a ditch.
    The japegrin retrieved the dagger with a deft swoop of his hand, but the brandee was up and away before there was time to use it. Felix took a deep, shuddering breath. He'd forgotten what life in Betony's world was like. His own world was dull and boring and uneventful by comparison -- he was out of practice as far as adventures were concerned.
    The japegrin fingered the dagger thoughtfully, and then he looked at Felix. "Blue eyes. What are you doing in Vattan, freak, with a brandee of all things?"
    "Sightseeing," interposed Betony quickly.
    The japegrin laughed. "I don't think so. People only come
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    here for the fish. But if you're looking for somewhere to spend the night, there's only one inn. The Pink Harpoon. It's pretty empty at this time of year. They might rent you a room."
    "Why might}"
    "This is japegrin country, this is. If you were a ragamucky or a diggeluck, you wouldn't have a hope. Tangle-folk are just barely acceptable."
    "OK," said Betony, but both the tone of her voice and her stance made it clear that the conversation had gone as far as she wanted. She held out her hand for the brandee's dagger. The japegrin hesitated, but he gave it back to her. After that, he climbed back onto his sleigh and drove off.
    Felix walked across the road and started to look for the lamp. He spent a few nerve-racking minutes before he eventually retrieved it from its snowy bed in the ditch, a good fifty yards from where he'd thought it should have been. He was lucky to have found it at all; a tree had shed a branchful of snow over it, so it was half buried. There were some little footprints nearby.
    "What made those?" asked Felix.
    "Nut-nibbler," said Betony. "Rub the lamp and get it over with. If it brings the brandee back to us, we're no worse off than we were before."
    "Hang on," said Felix. "He tried to kill me!"
    "You know what he's like," said Betony. "So emotional. He won't try it again, not if he remembers that you might be able to get him what he wants. And if rubbing the lamp
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    summons Rhino, so much the better. We can simply leave the lamp here and head back to the Divide on Nimby."
    Felix ran his fingers lightly over the icy metal, undecided. To his dismay -- and before he'd even started to rub it for real -- the brandee reappeared beside him from among the pine trees. He didn't speak. He just glared balefully at Felix, relieved Betony of his knife, sheathed it, turned to gas, and streamed back into the lamp.
    "That's a nuisance," said Betony.
    "Just a nuisance?" snapped Felix. "How about a complete and utter disaster?"
    "Oh, don't be so melodramatic."
    Felix turned the spout toward him and listened. The brandee was shouting, his voice thin and distant and tinny. Felix put the spout right up against his ear.
    "Call yourself a hostage?" The brandee was yelling. "You're not allowed to just vanish, it's against the rules! Where are