Willow Read Online Free PDF Page A

it, Dada?” Ranon said.
    “What?”
    “Trust your feelings.”
    “Well,” Willow said, gathering the child into his arms, “perhaps we should get her dry. Perhaps we ought to feed her.”
    The child gurgled and grasped his finger.
    Willow smiled.
    At that moment a shout came from the fields above the bank. “Ufgood! Where are you, man! Get up here!” It was a coarse voice, as if Bets the sow were calling him in her grunty way.
    Willow’s eyes widened. “Burglekutt!” he whispered. “Oh no!” He passed the child to Ranon. “Keep her quiet, for goodness sake! If Burglekutt finds out we’ve got a Daikini here we’ll really be in trouble! Do something. Play with her!”
    He scrambled up the bank and through the screen of trees to the field. Kiaya was bustling down from the house with her skirts hiked up and her long hair flowing. “My husband hasn’t stolen anything !” she was shouting. “Get away from those seeds!”
    Bending over beside Bets, with his fat hand plunged into Willow’s seed-sling, was Burglekutt. Burglekutt the Prefect. Burglekutt the Beadle and Bailiff. Burglekutt the stingiest, meanest moneylender in all of Nelwyn Valley. He was short, even for a Nelwyn, but he was enormously broad. When he wore any of his robes of office with pointed hats, he looked like a small pyramid. High-living had turned his thick jowls warty, and years of greedy cunning had beaded his eyes so that, beside Bets the sow, he looked like a pig himself, a pig rearing up on his hind legs and grunting, “Ufgood, where’d you get these seeds?”
    The likeness was so striking that Willow laughed.
    “Funny, is it?”
    “No, Mr. Burglekutt, the question isn’t funny. It’s just that . . .”
    “Maybe you’ll be amused when you miss another mortgage payment and I own this land!”
    “No, sir. Oh no.”
    “Well then, answer civilly, Ufgood. Where did you get seeds to sow this year?”
    Kiaya stood with her fists on her hips, feet planted firmly apart, breathing heavily.
    “Speak up! Where’d you get ’em?”
    Willow hesitated. The truth was that, knowing his need, his neighbors had given him seed from their own granaries. But lest Burglekutt might take revenge on them, Willow did not dare to tell the truth. Instead, he lifted his chin defiantly. “Maybe I used my magic.”
    “Magic! Ha!”
    Willow winced.
    “You’re no sorcerer, Ufgood! Everyone knows that! You’re an imposter, a charlatan, a clown! Now tell the truth! I sell the seeds around here and I didn’t sell any to you. You stole them from my granary!”
    “He did not !” Kiaya stamped her foot. “We may be poor but we’re honest, and it’s none of your business where we got them! Maybe Willow did conjure them. Maybe he has more magic than you know. Or maybe we gathered them from the roadsides. Or maybe they just drifted down the river—a gift! Aha! We’ll never tell, will we Willow?”
    Willow shook his head.
    “But I’ll tell you this !” Kiaya took a fist off her hip and pointed at Burglekutt’s pudgy nose. “These are not your seeds, and this is not your land.”
    “It will be.” Burglekutt flung his arm over Ufgood Reach. “One more bad year and it’s mine. There’ll be a great barn! An inn! A countinghouse!”
    “Well not yet! It’s still ours, and we’ll thank you to get off it, won’t we, Willow?”
    Willow nodded.
    Burglekutt gulped in outrage. He held his breath so long he began to turn purple. His eyes bulged. “Magic, eh? So that’s what he has! Well, it’ll take more than magic to keep this land if you miss another payment. One more! I’ll have you off in no time! Off! Off!” Flinging his arm out again, Burglekutt whirled around with his nose in the air, tripped over Bets, and fell flat on his face in hog dung.
    Squealing wickedly, Bets lunged to her feet and rooted him in the rear end as he struggled to get up.
    Kiaya laughed. “Serves you right! You want our land so much, go ahead! Eat it up!”
    Spluttering and