Trixter

Trixter Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Trixter Read Online Free PDF
Author: Alethea Kontis
Tags: Fiction, Coming of Age, Fantasy, Young Adult, Fairy Tales
dearie,” said the middle head.
    “Do you have a knife?” asked the first head.
    Trix wasn't sure how to answer. He'd had quite a few things when he'd left the towerhouse the previous evening, but he hadn't been conscious for long enough yet to make an inventory of what was left on his person. He did that now. His sea star friend had returned home, it seemed, as had that pesky vision of his birthmother. He was also missing one shoe, the sack he'd prepared with extra bread and clothes, and his lucky four-leafed clover. But he still had his wits, the scar on his finger where he’d pricked himself on Sunday’s spinning wheel, and the small dagger in his belt.
    “I do have a knife,” Trix answered with confidence.
    “Good,” said the first head. “We need you to chop off our dead Wisdom.”
    Trix was fairly sure his ears were still stopped up with magic ocean water, because he couldn't have heard that right. “I’m sorry, you want me to do what?”
    “You’re terrible,” the middle head said to the first. “We’ve only just met, and it's a ghoulish thing you’ve asked him to do.”
    The first head sighed in exasperation. “We caught him in the Deep when he slipped off that leatherback in the current, and we carried him in our crest all night, until we reached this shore.”
    “Thank you," said Trix, grateful that the fallen sea star’s gift had lasted well beyond his conscious state.
    “You’re welcome, dearie,” said the middle head.
    “He is a boy who can do things that need to be done," said the first head, as if it had never been interrupted. “This is something that needs to be done."
    “I will help you if I can." Trix slid the dagger out of his belt; the small blade had been well protected by the sheath Saturday had fashioned for it. Trix made to polish it on his trousers, but hesitated when he realized his clothes were completely covered in layers of muck and slime.
    “See?” said the first head. “He’s rethinking it already.”
    “It’s a lot to ask," said the middle head.
    “I’m not sure I understand," said Trix. The mud drying on his face made his cheeks stiff as he spoke. "What exactly is it that you're asking?"
    “What do you know about lingworms?" asked the first head.
    Trix shrugged. "I thought you were a dragon."
    “And you scared me half to death!" said the middle head. "Dragons haven't been around for ages."
    “Neither have lingworms," said Trix. "At least, not around here. But there's usually not an ocean around here either." He swung his arm to indicate the unharvested hayfield.
    “Pitiable, uneducated youngling,” said the first head.
    “You have our sympathies," said the middle head.
    The first head straightened his neck tall, as if it were sitting upright and not attached to a long, segmented body that sprawled and curled around itself for a hundred feet. It spoke as if reading from a book. "The legendary lingworm dwells deep beneath the Seven Seas. There are few descriptions of this serpent, because spotting it is so rare."
    “’Tis luck to look on a lingworm," said the middle head. "That's what the sailors always say."
    “The lingworm has three heads," the first head continued. "A Head of Truth, a Head of Compassion, and a Head of Wisdom."
    The middle head tutted over the third, lifeless face with its spikes limply splayed on the ground. "Poor Wisdom."
    “Should any one of the lingworm's heads be removed, it will grow back," said Truth. "Only by removing all three heads can the lingworm be killed."
    “What a horrible thing to imagine,” said Compassion. A shudder echoed down the segmented length of the sea serpent.
    Trix heard this all as very good news. “Then you have nothing to worry about! Your Wisdom will grow back, maybe even better than before."
    “Only it has to be removed first," Truth repeated.
    “He’s right, actually," said Compassion. “He usually is.”
    “Oh,” said Trix. He looked at the very large head and very large neck of the very
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