Witch & Wizard 04 - The Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page A

a fuel shortage. A materials shortage. And a water shortage.”
    “A sense-of-humor shortage,” Wisty quips.
    But the rest of the room is silent, and I’m not laughing, either. How did we think it was going to be so easy?
    “Okay,” I say quietly. “Where should we start, then?”
    There’s a flicker of compassion on Bloom’s face, but his authoritative voice doesn’t budge when he replies, “I propose we stick to the agenda.”
    “Agenda?” I look around. Everyone has a crisp, typed sheet of paper in front of them. Everyone but us. I sit back down with my hand-scrawled notes.
    “First item,” Bloom reads. “Housing needs for displaced citizens.”
    “There’s been violence in the Gutter lately,” says the kid from the streets whose parents were martyrs of the Resistance. “Families trying to build up their bombed houses, but others claiming their supplies.”
    I think of little Pearl Neederman and her family’s basement home in the Gutter. They didn’t have much, but they definitely had kinship. “Maybe we could discuss ways to get the communities working together to rebuild neighborhoods, one house at a time,” I suggest.
    Every eye in the room flicks to the man who seems to know about these things, but he shakes his snowy head dismissively. “The Council must decide how many stones each citizen is eligible to remove from rubble for rebuilding.”
    “We’ll need to know how many stones each rubble pile contains, on average,” notes an eager Councilman beside Bloom.
    “And what percentage of stones were lost in the bombing,” a droopy-eyed man across the chamber adds.
    The woman to his right pipes in: “Shouldn’t we first vote on whether stones should be determined by size or weight or concentration of minerals…?”
    Two hours later, my head is throbbing even harder than it was last night. “Is blood leaking out of my ears yet?” I whisper to my sister.
    Wisty looks up at me with glazed eyes, her chin resting on the table. “I didn’t think this was actually possible, but governing just might be worse than going to school.”
    “Before we adjourn, I don’t want to cause anyone to panic, but I fear we must address one last pressing issue….” Bloom announces, and the tone in his voice makes both of us sit up straight.

Chapter 7
    Whit
    BLOOM FIXES US all with a steely look I’m familiar with: like a foolball coach who’s about to ask you to do something ridiculous, like provoke the other team’s Demon, sacrificing life and limb in the hopes that it’s a win for the team.
    I clench my jaw and Wisty nervously chews a strand of her hair.
    “As the Keeper of The Book of Truths ,” Bloom says with self-reverence, “I have interpreted its messages as faithfully as I could.”
    All eyes in the room look up at him, hungry for that knowledge. The attention seems to make Bloom grow taller.
    “Now I fear we are at a grave point in our history, a new-made City left vulnerable to rising crime and outside forces.”
    There’s a murmur of confusion, all of us alarmed at the same two words.
    “What does he mean, ‘outside forces’?” Wisty whispers.
    I shake my head. There is land beyond the City, of course. To the east lies a wide river whose banks I’ve been to a thousand times. But the currents are so deadly, no one has ever crossed it, and it’s said that all that’s beyond is an endless forest. To the north, there’s a desert, and to the west, a range of mountains.
    But the City has been isolated from those people for almost three generations.
    The restless crowd moves closer to Bloom, all of us eager to understand.
    “ The Book warns that there is much to fear from the King of the Mountain People to the west,” the Keeper continues. “We are facing a water shortage because every drop running down from the mountain has stopped, and I believe the Mountain King acts with hostile intention, as is prophesized.”
    The volume grows with this new revelation as real fear starts to