Free Tangled Magick by Jennifer Carson Page A

Mae’s ears stood on end.
    Poppy gripped Mae’s arm, her nose twitching nervously. “Do you think it leads to the beast Folkvarus told us about? Maybe we should wait.”
    â€œLet’s just go to the bottom of the stairs. If we don’t like what we see, then we’ll turn around,” Mae said.
    Poppy chewed her lip. Her ears swiveled forward, alert. “Okay.”
    Mae pulled out her wand. “Shine brightly.” The end of her wand illuminated the dim stairway. Poppy twined her arm around Mae’s, and the girls made their way slowly down the curving staircase.
    â€œWhy are some spells so fancy and others so plain?” Poppy whispered.
    â€œSome spells are really old, so they use really old, fancy words—those kinds of spells work great for Callum and Aletta, but my magick seems to work best when I just speak my intention.”
    The walls were wet and covered with moss and ivy. Tiny streams of water cascaded over the steps, dribbling and dripping toward the bottom. Every ten steps, a new rectangular window shed a little light into the passage. Poppy’s grip on Mae’s arm intensified as they reached the landing. “Is that because you’re a hapenny and not a wizard?”
    Mae shrugged. “I’ve never really thought about why it works the way it does.” Her ears swiveled forward as she tried to listen past the sound of dripping water. She heard voices and shoved her wand into her pocket, snuffing out the light.
    The girls clung to each other as they peered around the wall.
    A large rivulet of water streamed down to their left, and a massive, high-ceilinged chamber opened up before them with cages lining the walls. Their ponies were kept in wooden stalls along the far wall, all nervously rolling their eyes and stamping their feet. It seemed the poor beasts hadn’t gotten used to the trolls yet. In the middle of the room was a huge pile of straw. A copper-colored head bobbed at the bottom of the pile.
    â€œTory!” Poppy gasped.
    Mae barely kept Poppy from bolting across the chamber. She tightened her grip on Poppy’s arm and held her finger to her lips as she gestured to the far side of the room.
    A large troll stood watch over the hapennies, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. More trolls sauntered around the dungeon, poking sticks into the cages and yelling rude remarks. Some sat at rickety tables playing dice, and still others snoozed against the dungeon walls.
    Tory, Bailey Bluehill, Horace Brightpath, and Dale Fullmeadow shoveled straw into wheelbarrows. Then Thorain Grumblebrook rolled a full wheelbarrow toward one of the cages. Squinting in the low light, Mae could see a large, furry animal. The head of the animal looked like that of a large bird with piercing gold eyes. The body was thick and heavily pawed. Large wings grew from his back, and his tail swished wildly as he let out a roar that shook the very foundation of the castle.
    Mae shivered at the sound.
    â€œThat’s the sound we heard in the passageway when we arrived. What kind of animal is it?” Poppy whispered, her voice shaking.
    â€œIt’s a gryphon. I saw a drawing of one in a book,” answered Mae. “They normally live at the snowy tops of mountains.”
    Thorain held up his hand and talked softly to the beast. The swishing of his tail ceased and the flashing eyes softened. Thorain placed a shaking hand through the bars and on its beak and continued to talk in soothing tones. Mae cringed as a massive paw took a swipe at Thorain, and the beast master snatched his hand away and scrambled out of reach. Poppy sucked in a breath as Tory carried a bucket of water toward the cage and Bailey Bluehill dumped some slop in between the bars. The boys walked backward away from the animal. Mae was sure she wouldn’t want to turn her back on the gryphon, either. Thorain wiped his forehead with his sleeve and nodded to Tory and Bailey. “I guess he