. . .
He started to ask her if she was staying with Reven, then didnât bother. Obviously she was.
âYeah,â said Jinx. âIâm a werechipmunk. And youâre willing to sacrifice anybody and anything to become king of your stupid little country. Youâll even make friends with those Lord-Sir-Whatsits that made Dame Morwen dance in red-hot iron shoes!â
âDame Morwen cursed Reven,â said Elfwyn.
âGood for her,â said Jinx. âListen, Reven or Raymond or whatever. Donât come back to the Urwald.â
And he turned his back on them, left them surrounded by twenty axes and the ash seedling, and walked straight into the Urwald.
The trees murmured and mumbled all around him. But for once that didnât make him feel better.
Â
Jinx wandered through the forest, not caring where he was going, just determined to get deeper in and farther away. The problem was that he was running away from what heâd done, and it wasnât working. Somehow what heâd done seemed to come with him.
The trees couldnât really understand his distress over turning Siegfried into a tree. After all, they were trees.
But heâll never go home to his family, Jinx said. I mean I utterly turned him into a tree, okay? Itâs like heâs dead .
Not dead, no, said the trees. Growing. Sunlight. Worms.
Yeah, yeah, worms, said Jinx. Wonderful. Iâm sure heâs thrilled .
Anyway Jinx was pretty sure it had been the treesâ idea, though it wasnât like he hadnât done his part. Heâd been very angry and he supposed heâd wanted to kill Siegfried.
He remembered the trees had once told him that heâd misuse their power. He reminded them of this.
Humans misuse power, said the trees. Magicians do. Wizards do. It is the way of wizards.
What I think happened, said Jinx, is that you misused me .
After that he didnât talk to the trees for a long time.
Day became night. It grew bitterly cold. Jinx had dropped his blanket when heâd run to stop the treecutters. And he didnât want to light a fire so far from the Path, where the ground was thick with saplings and fallen wood. So he walked to keep from freezing. Once he stopped and shivered inside a concealment spell while a werebear went past.
Toward morning, Jinx reached a path. He followed it, heading north and east and wishing he had something to eat. He was getting dizzy and stumbling a lot.
He leaned against a tree. He tried to remember the hungry times from when he was little, and the stories heâd heard. What had people eaten?
Suddenly he saw a teenage girl with deep brown skin and a bright blue dress. She crouched at the base of an oak tree and picked at the bark.
âUh, hello,â said Jinx.
The girl didnât look up. She put something into her mouth.
âAre you eating bark?â said Jinx.
The girl ignored him. Dizzily, Jinx unleaned from the treeâbut as soon as he moved, she vanished.
Well, that was odd. Even by Urwald standards.
Jinx went over to the oak tree. It seemed bigger than it had been a moment ago. The girl had left no footprints in the frost. A ghost?
He touched the tree. Instantly the girl reappeared. She peeled some lichen off the bark and put it in her mouth. Jinx put out a hand to touch the girl and wasnât particularly surprised that his hand went right through her.
Jinx took his hand off the oak. The tree immediately grew thicker and the girl disappeared.
He looked at the lichen, doubtful. Some lichen was poisonous. He supposed the trees were trying to tell him that this lichen was not, but did the trees know or care whether sheâd been poisoned?
He picked some of the stuff. He put it in his mouth and chewed. It was like eating wood. He didnât drop dead.
It didnât really do much for him.
It did clear his head a little, though. Or at least he thought so, until he looked up the path and saw the girl again.
He started to ask her if she was staying with Reven, then didnât bother. Obviously she was.
âYeah,â said Jinx. âIâm a werechipmunk. And youâre willing to sacrifice anybody and anything to become king of your stupid little country. Youâll even make friends with those Lord-Sir-Whatsits that made Dame Morwen dance in red-hot iron shoes!â
âDame Morwen cursed Reven,â said Elfwyn.
âGood for her,â said Jinx. âListen, Reven or Raymond or whatever. Donât come back to the Urwald.â
And he turned his back on them, left them surrounded by twenty axes and the ash seedling, and walked straight into the Urwald.
The trees murmured and mumbled all around him. But for once that didnât make him feel better.
Â
Jinx wandered through the forest, not caring where he was going, just determined to get deeper in and farther away. The problem was that he was running away from what heâd done, and it wasnât working. Somehow what heâd done seemed to come with him.
The trees couldnât really understand his distress over turning Siegfried into a tree. After all, they were trees.
But heâll never go home to his family, Jinx said. I mean I utterly turned him into a tree, okay? Itâs like heâs dead .
Not dead, no, said the trees. Growing. Sunlight. Worms.
Yeah, yeah, worms, said Jinx. Wonderful. Iâm sure heâs thrilled .
Anyway Jinx was pretty sure it had been the treesâ idea, though it wasnât like he hadnât done his part. Heâd been very angry and he supposed heâd wanted to kill Siegfried.
He remembered the trees had once told him that heâd misuse their power. He reminded them of this.
Humans misuse power, said the trees. Magicians do. Wizards do. It is the way of wizards.
What I think happened, said Jinx, is that you misused me .
After that he didnât talk to the trees for a long time.
Day became night. It grew bitterly cold. Jinx had dropped his blanket when heâd run to stop the treecutters. And he didnât want to light a fire so far from the Path, where the ground was thick with saplings and fallen wood. So he walked to keep from freezing. Once he stopped and shivered inside a concealment spell while a werebear went past.
Toward morning, Jinx reached a path. He followed it, heading north and east and wishing he had something to eat. He was getting dizzy and stumbling a lot.
He leaned against a tree. He tried to remember the hungry times from when he was little, and the stories heâd heard. What had people eaten?
Suddenly he saw a teenage girl with deep brown skin and a bright blue dress. She crouched at the base of an oak tree and picked at the bark.
âUh, hello,â said Jinx.
The girl didnât look up. She put something into her mouth.
âAre you eating bark?â said Jinx.
The girl ignored him. Dizzily, Jinx unleaned from the treeâbut as soon as he moved, she vanished.
Well, that was odd. Even by Urwald standards.
Jinx went over to the oak tree. It seemed bigger than it had been a moment ago. The girl had left no footprints in the frost. A ghost?
He touched the tree. Instantly the girl reappeared. She peeled some lichen off the bark and put it in her mouth. Jinx put out a hand to touch the girl and wasnât particularly surprised that his hand went right through her.
Jinx took his hand off the oak. The tree immediately grew thicker and the girl disappeared.
He looked at the lichen, doubtful. Some lichen was poisonous. He supposed the trees were trying to tell him that this lichen was not, but did the trees know or care whether sheâd been poisoned?
He picked some of the stuff. He put it in his mouth and chewed. It was like eating wood. He didnât drop dead.
It didnât really do much for him.
It did clear his head a little, though. Or at least he thought so, until he looked up the path and saw the girl again.
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