Magic Banquet Read Online Free Page A

freedom
flattened, and joy turned to terror. She was struck down, pressed
back against the warehouse floor. Aja quaked, trying to speak, to
move, to escape. It had to end. Please, make it stop.
    Other visions flashed by, darker places,
scarier times. They had but one thing in common. Everything
depended on Aja. People needed her help, even the empress.
    Am I so important? She hadn’t been
anything before the Banquet, before she ate the jewel frog. Staying
would let her taste even more treasures.
    The visions parted in a gasp of clarity. The
prophecy left her gagging.
    The djinn lifted Aja back onto the carpet,
beside a girl in a blue veil, the empress. Aja reached but could
not move her arm. The empress’s eyes stared at nothing.
    “If Ryn dies,” the lord said, “I’d have to
answer to the empire.” His hands seemed to have warped, his fingers
sharpened into spikes. His coat sleeves ended in dripping holes
gnashing with black fangs. “If Janny or the sword-head dies, I’d
answer to a certain enchantress. I’d rather face the empire.”
    Old Janny held her turbaned head. The
swordsman slumped beside the empress, trying to stay upright.
    The djinn said, “The frog toxin complemented
the truffle and heightened the visions.”
    Aja said, Help me. No words came out.
Her rolling eyes turned from the lord to the swordsman.
    He swayed and spoke with a croak. “The
Chef—he told us the frogs were safe.”
    “You people always hear what you want.” The
djinn started clearing platters. “The Chef promised only that the
frogs could be made safe. Not that they were.”
    The Chef had tricked them. The betrayal
frothed and fizzed in Aja. She had to vomit. She couldn’t do more
than gag. The hanging lamps spun away from her.
    “Bring your master.” The lord’s sleeves
stretched into chomping maws. “He’ll cure them or gain a new
outlook on digestion.”
    The djinn beckoned a plate to levitate after
her. “The next entrée will cure them. Ash from the Tree of Life is
used as a thickening agent.”



 
    Side Dish:
    AJA’S TALE
    My life got better once I met Hyena.
    He was a street cat. Everyone called him
Hyena because he was the fiercest tabby you’d ever seen. His ear
was notched, and one of his fangs had fallen out from a fight with
a dog. His yowl could scare a camel.
    Hyena caught anything that moved. Lizards,
rats, even songbirds. Sorry to say it, but it’s true. He could
catch as many cockroaches as he wanted. Just sat all quiet, waited
until they scuttled near enough. Then one pounce, and gone! That’s
how I learned to nab them.
    Maybe I shouldn’t talk about roaches in a
place with a silver-stitched rug. They are horrible to eat. All
greasy, and their legs stick in your teeth. But eat enough of them,
and you won’t starve. You won’t feel tired all the time. You can do
things like stay awake in city school. Work carrying bricks for the
builders.
    That’s how I earned the coin for my jewelry.
I didn’t steal them. I never steal.
    I could have lots of times. Hyena taught me
to be quiet and quick. When I caught a pair of tasty crickets, I
shared one with Hyena.
    Then I was never alone. I had Hyena. He
wasn’t all scratch and spit. His tummy was white and fluffy. His
coat wasn’t an ugly brown with black spots but a sleek smoothness.
I could pet him for hours. He always found the best crannies to
sleep during the hottest hours of day. His purr rumbled against my
chest, and I didn’t have to worry about anything.
    He slowed down over the years. Lost more of
his teeth. Got stinkier. When he stopped being able to move too
well, I brought him a cup of camel’s milk every night.
    Hyena was a good cat. I miss him most often
when I wake up, and he’s not there.

Second Course:
    CHIMERA STEW
    SERVED WITH WORLD’S END MEAD
     
    Heat trickled down Aja’s throat. It burned
away her numbness, spreading outward from her chest in a blissful
wave of awakening.
    A bowl was pressed to her lips, and a hand
tilted