Free Seven Sorcerers by Caro King Page A

still lying on the ground.
    ‘Then again, maybe it didn’t work,’ went on Jonas cheerfully.
    The mudman sat up. It looked at Nin with its redflame eyes.
    Jonas sighed. ‘Look, you give them a clearly defined job, see. When the job is over, or you tell them to stop, they are fulfilled and go back to the earth. So how’s that one going to end?’ He glared at it. ‘Well, I suppose, if it’s a problem we can just throw a bucket of water over it.’
    The mudman turned its glowing eyes on him. Jonas looked uncomfortable.
    ‘He’s OK,’ said Nin, hoping she was right. ‘He’s not going to hurt anyone. Are you?’ She looked sternly at the mudman.
    It opened its mouth and said, ‘Jik?’
    Jonas sighed and shook his head. ‘Let’s hope it just goes back to earth once it realises you haven’t done it right. And whatever you do DON’T go messing with Land Magic again, OK? Not till you know what you’re doing.’
    ‘All right! You made your point.’
    The mudman was on its feet by now. It stood where it was and studied the view. Then it turned, this time staring down the hill. ‘Jik?’
    ‘It thinks that’s its name.’ Jonas began to serve up the roast rabbit. ‘Eat, Nin. It’s the last food you’ll get until tomorrow morning. I’ve got a couple of hunks of bread I’ve been saving too.’
    Nin sat, accepting the bread. It was stale, but did very well as a base for the meat, which Jonas cut into chunks with his knife. The mudman watched them patiently while they ate.
    ‘Jik?’
    ‘Um – hello,’ she said through a mouthful of rabbit. She studied the mudman thoughtfully. Jik sat – or rather, fell on to his behind – next to her.
    ‘Jik? Jik!’
    ‘You’re gonna have to learn a few more words if you want a conversation,’ she told him. ‘Try my name, that’s easy. Nin.’ She pointed to herself with a greasy finger, feeling like she was in some corny Tarzan movie. ‘Me Nin.’
    ‘Jik?’
    ‘Nin. N – I – N.’
    ‘Jik?
    ‘I think you’re on a loser there,’ laughed Jonas.
    He was already on his feet, stamping out the fires. Nin hurried down the last of her food.
    ‘Right. The worst part of the journey will be the Savage Forest. It’s pretty deadly if you don’t play it right. And Quick can’t survive the Heart either, so normally we’d have to walk all the way round it. Only I know this Quickmare just before you reach the Heart; it’s pretty nasty, but it brings you out into the Widdern south of London. With the money your Grandad so kindly gave you, we could get a train from London to Bury St Edmunds. Then, when we get to Bury, we find another gateway back into the Drift, see? Cut out the walk around the Heart, the longest part of the journey, straight away.’
    ‘Good old Grandad, I must remember to thank him when I get back.’ Nin rolled her pyjama bottoms up in her top along with Monkey, tying the arms in a knot to make a bundle. She felt like Dick Whittington only without the stick. Jik trailed along at her heels, like Whittington’s cat.
    ‘If ! Just because I’m taking you there doesn’t mean I think you’ll succeed. Is that thing following you?’ Jonas grinned. ‘Well, he might come in handy, I s’pose.’
    ‘Jik?’
    ‘Yeah, I’m talking about you.’
    ‘Yik!’
    ‘So,’ she asked as they headed across open heathtowards a cluster of trees in the middle of a field of daisies. ‘What can you tell me about the Terrible House of Strood. Like, why’s it called that?’
    ‘Because it’s terrible. Oh yeah, and it belongs to Mr Strood.’
    ‘All right, Mr Smarty Pants. I want detail.’
    Jonas sighed. ‘Look, Nin, the thing about the House is that people who go in there don’t tend to come back out again, so that kind of puts a damper on the exchange of information. See what I mean? Apart from the BMs, of course. They come and go, but then they don’t spend a lot of time gossiping to the Quick.’
    ‘What about Mr Strood? Don’t you know anything about him