Free The Bane Chronicles 1: What Really Happened in Peru by Sarah Rees Brennan Cassandra Clare Page B

she would be able to lead them to ayahuasca , a plant with remarkable magical properties.
    Later Magnus had cause to regret choosing this particular lure as he pulled himself through the green swathes of the Manu rain forest. It was all green, green, green, everywhere he looked. Even when he looked at his traveling companion.
    “I don’t like the rain forest,” Ragnor said sadly.
    “That’s because you are not open to new experiences in the same way I am!”
    “No, it is because it is wetter than a boar’s armpit and twice as smelly here.”
    Magnus pushed a dripping frond out of his eyes. “I admit you make an excellent point and also paint a vivid picture with your words.”
    It was not comfortable in the rain forest, that much was true, but it was wonderful there all the same. The thick green of the undergrowth was different from the delicate leaves on trees higher up, the bright feathery shapes of some plants gently waving at the ropelike strands of others. The green all around was broken up by sudden bright interruptions: the vivid splash of flowers and the rush of movement that meant animals instead of leaves.
    Magnus was especially charmed by the sight of the spider monkeys above, dainty and glossy with long arms and legs spread out in the trees like stars, and the shy swift spring of squirrel monkeys.
    “Picture this,” said Magnus. “Me with a little monkey friend. I could teach him tricks. I could dress him in a cunning jacket. He could look just like me! But more monkey-shaped.”
    “Your friend has gone mad and giddy with the altitude sickness,” Giuliana announced. “We are many feet above sea level here.”
    Magnus was not entirely sure why he had brought a guide, except that it seemed to calm Ragnor down. Other people probably dutifully followed their guides in unfamiliar and potentially dangerous places, but Magnus was a warlock and fully prepared to have a magical battle with a jaguar demon if that was required. It would be an excellent story, which might impress some of the ladies who were not inexplicably allured by Ragnor. Or some of the gentlemen.
    Lost in picking fruit and in the contemplation of jaguar demons, Magnus looked around at one point and found himself separated from his companions—lost in the green wilderness.
    He paused and admired the bromeliads, huge iridescent flowers like bowls made out of petals, shimmering with color and water. There were frogs inside the jewel-bright recesses of the flowers.
    Then he looked up into the round brown eyes of a monkey.
    “Hello, companion,” said Magnus.
    The monkey made a terrible sound, half snarl and half hiss.
    “I begin to rather doubt the beauty of our friendship,” said Magnus.
    Giuliana had told them not to back down when approached by monkeys, but to stay still and preserve an air of calm authority. This monkey was much larger than the other monkeys Magnus had seen, with broader bunched shoulders and thick, almost black fur—a howler monkey, Magnus remembered they were called.
    Magnus threw the monkey a fig. The monkey took the fig.
    “There,” said Magnus. “Let us consider the matter settled.”
    The monkey advanced, chewing in a menacing fashion.
    “I rather wonder what I am doing here. I enjoy city life, you know,” Magnus observed. “The glittering lights, the constant companionship, the liquid entertainment. The lack of sudden monkeys.”
    He ignored Giuliana’s advice and took a smart step back, and also threw another piece of fruit. The monkey did not take the bait this time. He coiled and rattled out a growl, and Magnus took several more steps back and into a tree.
    Magnus flailed on impact, was briefly grateful that nobody was watching him and expecting him to be a sophisticated warlock, and had a monkey assault launched directly to his face.
    He shouted, spun, and sprinted through the rain forest. He did not even think to drop the fruit. It fell one by one in a bright cascade as he ran for his life from the