Jumper Cable Read Online Free PDF

catch that word,” Wenda said. “An old what?”
    “Fart,” Maeve said zestfully. “She actually bleeped most of it out. She even bleeped out bleep.
    “As I said, I do not employ gutter terminology.”
    “You are one weird harpy!”
    “Thank you. Now I believe it is your turn, maenad. Why did you exclaim between paragraphs?”
    “Because I agreed with you, harpy. Babies are abominations. A stork is pursuing me, because of an embarrassing incident in a love spring, and if it catches me I’ll be stuck with one of those howling blobs myself. So I’m going to ask the Good Magician to hide me from that nemesis.”
    Haughty nodded. “You would surely make just as bad a mother as I would.”
    “If not worse,” Maeve agreed. It was evident that the two were starting to get along, having a basis for understanding.
    “And yew’re going to see the Good Magician too,” Wenda said.
    “But why are yew perching instead of traveling?”
    “Because the confounded path enchantment is out just ahead,”
    Haughty said. “I am heavy-bodied for my size, and can’t soar at great heights, so must fly from perch to perch near the ground. That’s dangerous, so I follow the path for safety— and now can’t. I am explendiferously p**ved.”
    “Peeved,” Maeve murmured. She seemed to have a knack for censored vocabulary.
    “The path is out?” Jumper asked.
    “You’re not much for attention, are you, spider?” the harpy remarked sagely. “Yes, it seems that a sphinx lost its balance and fell, rolling across a section of the path and squishing the magic flat. So now nothing remains but a fuzzy indentation and a frenzy of hungry monsters lurking for trusting travelers. Until it is repaired, no one can safely repair across it.”
    “But we need to cross it,” Wenda protested.
    “Then you must wait, as I am doing, woodwife.” The harpy eyed her. “By the way, I don’t recall hearing your story.”
    “It’s a hollow one. I am fleeing civilization so as knot to bee made into a Mother Board, dodging village louts along the way. I want to bee a whole woman, knot half reared.”
    “So your problem relates to males too.”
    “Yes. Especially machine and human males. I am hoping the Good Magician will have an Answer for me.”
    The harpy turned to Jumper. “And you are perhaps the strangest of this motley assemblage. What is your story?”
    “I was caught by a narrative hook and dumped into this narrative. I am hoping the Good Magician can return me to my natural realm.”
    “So we are all going to the same place. Perhaps we could travel together.”
    “Why should we let yew join us?” Wenda asked cannily.
    “I know a detour where the monsters aren’t lurking. It’s not really safe, but it’s feasible.”
    “That helps,” Maeve said.
    “Let’s take a look at that break,” Wenda said. “Maybee we can forge across quickly.”
    They went on along the path to the break. It was merely a flattened section, looking innocent enough.
    “I’ll show you,” Haughty said. She folded her wings and hopped onto the edge of the flattened area.
    A monster zoomed across from a hiding place to the side, jaws snapping hungrily. Haughty leaped straight up, spreading her wings and flying clear. But a winged monster swooped down, jetting fire. Haughty barely made it back to the safe zone.
    She had made her point. “We’ll take the detour,” Wenda agreed.
    “That passes the Bra & Girll,” Haughty said. “I hate that place, because it’s where Hottie goes slumming. But it’s well traveled, so the monsters won’t notice a few more people. We can loop past it and take the unenchanted path that intersects the enchanted one farther along. It should be routine.”
    “It can’t bee, or yew woodn’t bee seeking our protection,” Wenda said cannily. “What’s the catch?”
    “Sometimes there are storms. Then folk have to stay at the Bra. It’s really an inn.”
    “That name,” Maeve said. “Shouldn’t that be Bar &