Free A Hidden Magic by Vivian Vande Velde Page A

windowsill and thoughtfully stared out into the clear night.
    Jennifer sat on the circular bench surrounding the fountain. She was very hungry, but Norman's sudden moodiness in the face of their obvious good luck disturbed her. Besides, something kept nagging at the edges of her mind.
    She twirled her apple on the edge of the fountain in time to the melody the flute was still playing. Something someone had said. Norman? Alexander? No, it was the Old
Witch. "Something about apples," Jennifer thought. "Or was it eating in general?"
    She shrugged and picked up the fruit. But it was still wobbling from the last spin she had given it; it slipped through her fingers and into the fountain.
    There was a loud hiss as the water bubbled and steamed. Norman turned to face Jennifer as she jumped to her feet. "Norman!" she gasped. "What happened? What does this mean?"
    "It means," came the cool, level voice of their beautiful hostess from the doorway, where she had reentered, "that Lesson Three is: Don't believe everything you see."
    "Lesson Three?" Jennifer said, looking at her blankly. Then both she and Norman, at the same instant, whispered, "Malveenya!"
    The flute music changed into the shrieking of the wind, which suddenly blew around the palace and through the room. As Norman ran to Jennifer's side, the room darkened. The white marble turned to black stone, and the 1)8 crystal chandeliers became heavy wrought-iron lamps. The mirrored ceiling was lost in flickering shadows caused by the jagged flashes of lightning that struck but did not break the skylight.
    Jennifer twisted her face away from the stinging strands of hair that the wind blew into her eyes, and saw the flowers and fruit trees wither into dark, stunted scrub brush with burrs and poisonous-looking berries.
    Malveenya stood with the wind whipping her golden hair behind her. Beautiful but terrible, she added her harsh laugh to the frantic cawing of the now-black buzzard, screaming in its cramped cage.
    "Greetings, travelers," she repeated. "And welcome to my home."

Malveenya
    M ALVEENYA TOOK a step toward Jennifer and Norman. If anything, she was more beautiful than when they had first seen her. Her eyes blazed, her cheeks were flushed, her brilliant white teeth showed in an evil smile.
    "So," she smirked, "you were able to outsmart a giant and a dragon. That doesn't automatically qualify you for any awards for cleverness, you know." Although lightning still lit the room irregularly, the wind had died down and she was able to speak without raising her voice.
    She stepped closer and examined Jennifer coolly. "All day," she said. "All day to get here! What a slow and dreary child in every respect!"
    She turned her attention to Norman. "And you, you silly old goat, where ever did she pick you up? I'm so disappointed! I have visitors so infrequently and I was truly hoping you'd be interesting. Kreech, stop that noise this instant!"
    This last statement was directed at the dark-eyed buzzard who was furiously banging against his cage to the constant high-pitched screaming of a sound very similar to his name. The bird grabbed one of the bars with his hooked beak and gave the cage one last angry rattle before settling down to smooth his plumage. Then he began a lesser series of grumbling noises.
    In the instant Malveenya turned her attention away, Jennifer's hand found her pocket. "Now, Norman," she thought. "If ever, now." But already it was too late. The older woman
was again watching her, her blue eyes looking like a winter storm that comes howling down the mountain to overtake the unsuspecting climber—cold, brutal, relentless.
    Malveenya was trying to stare her down. If Jennifer had realized this, she would have looked away immediately, but her mind was elsewhere. Things said and things unsaid were beginning to come together. "She doesn't know," Jennifer realized. "She doesn't know that Norman isn't really old and she doesn't know about the jinni in the bottle. She isn't