Free Seven Sorcerers by Caro King

very alone and lost in this beautiful and deadly land. Even though she knew that Toby might be out there, as lost as she was and in need of her help, Jonas was the only wall between her and a world full of danger and leaving him to go on alone would be unbearably hard. Just thinking about it gave her butterflies in her stomach the size of vultures and about as friendly. But however impossible finding Toby seemed, Nin knew that she couldn’t give up. Not if she was going to live with herself ever again. There was being afraid and there was being a coward and they were different.
    She swallowed hard, fixing her eyes on the glowing shape of her mudman, deep in the flames.
    ‘So, like, when we get to Hilfian and I leave you, willyou do me a map or something about how to get to the House?’
    Jonas looked up from stabbing a portion of rabbit with his knife to see if it was done. He grinned. ‘Still thinking about that then, are you?’
    ‘You said that kids who get taken there are never heard of again, but that’s not the same as being dead, is it?’
    ‘It might be. The Terrible House isn’t a picnic, you know. It’s vast and rambling and full of bad things, the sort of place you get into and then never get out of again.’
    Nin frowned. ‘And when I’ve found Toby and rescued him, then I need to find Skerridge so’s I can make him give me our lives back. And you said Skerridge would be at the House too, right?’
    ‘He’ll be in and out. But we are talking bogeymen here. Remember them? Scary Fabulous with red eyes and teeth, not to mention the firebreath. Oh and superspeed, don’t forget that. And then there’s Dandy Boneman, or should we call him Ava Vispilio. He’s out there somewhere, remember, and according to stories, Vispilio never lets an insult go unavenged …’
    ‘OK, I get it!’ Nin shrugged her shoulders. ‘I’m still going.’
    ‘I know you have to try,’ he said. ‘And for the record, just to take that scared rabbit look off your face, I was always going to take you there. I just wanted to know that you were really set on it, see. Because one thingyou’re going to need is determination.’
    Nin stared, then beamed as his words sank in. ‘You’ll come to the House with me?’
    ‘Think I’d let a kid your size run around the Drift on her own! Besides, nerve like that has got to have a reward.’
    Nin leaned over and gave him a clumsy hug, then settled back again. He took no notice apart from a shake of the head and a grin as he prodded the near-done rabbit. She found herself wondering about his past life, about who he had been once, before he was just Jonas.
    ‘Did you go looking for your life back?’
    ‘Nope. I just got on with living in the Drift, but then I’m a different person and I didn’t have anyone to look for, like you’ve got Toby. I think your mudman’s cooked!’
    Nin looked back at her fire. The flames were dying and the embers were beginning to fall apart, revealing the mudman in their fiery heart. Stirred by the thought of making magic, she jumped up and hurried over, kicking the ashes aside.
    ‘Now what? Words to Wake, right? Tap it on the head and name it …’
    ‘Wait, Nin!’
    She was already leaning over, tapping it in the middle of its lumpy head with one finger. The mud was not as hot as it might have been, as if all the fire had gone inside.
    ‘Jack,’ she said, using her father’s name. She was sokeyed up with hope and relief and fear that her voice came out as a squeak.
    ‘You’ve got to give it a task!’ said Jonas sharply. He dropped the plate he was holding and got hurriedly to his feet.
    ‘Um – I dunno – just – um – be alive.’
    There was a moment of silence and then a deep, distant rumble. For a second Nin could have sworn that the Land trembled.
    ‘You said what!’ Jonas shook his head. ‘You’re supposed to give them a proper task to do! Not just … that! Galig knows what you’ve made now!’
    Nin stared at her mudman. It was