Shadow Wrack Read Online Free Page A

to them, a very official-looking piece of paper appeared stapled to the front fence. Willa read it over with great relief.
    â€œDwarf magic!” chortled Tengu as he took a look.
    â€œMagic? What do you mean?”
    Tengu sniffed the paper. “Gullibility paper. And the lettering too! This is a magic font. It invokes in the viewer the belief that the document is real and official.”
    â€œA font can’t do that!” exclaimed Willa.
    â€œDon’t believe me? Read the words carefully — it’s all gibberish!” he giggled.
    Willa reread it, more slowly this time, the words flickering and changing in front of her very eyes. Tengu was right. The notice made no sense at all.
    â€œNice,” she admitted. “That should shut the Hackers up, for a while at least.”
    It did. The fence helped too. None of the neighbours were able to get a good look at the dwarves, but they could hear sawing, hammering, and all the noises one associates with a house going up, so they stopped paying attention. The dwarves worked on, keeping to themselves. Willa tried several times to chat with them, to no avail. They responded to her questions with shrugs or mimed gestures, never saying a word.
    Oh well, thought Willa. They’re not exactly friendly, but as long as the house goes up, I don’t care.
    For the first week things progressed pretty well. The dwarves constructed proper supports for the stable and then cleared out the house rubble and redug the basement in record time. Soon a layer of beams and boards covered the hole, and presto — the dwarves vacated the stable and went to live in the new underground space. Not a moment too soon, as the fairies moaned continuously about their appalling odour and general lack of hygiene. They were glad to see the dwarves go underground.
    Robert was so pleased, he was very nearly smiling, but he still grumbled to Willa about the stable’s creeping damp. “The nights are autumnal, we’re into October now, and it won’t be long before the cold is unbearable. And then what’s to be done with me, eh?”
    Meanwhile, Willa’s home life was becoming more complicated, and not just because of Mom and Belle. Baz was really starting to act weird. Willa knew she had some catlike elements within her, but in the past she’d kept them under control, except when under the influence of catnip. Now, suddenly, her cat side seemed to be taking over. Baz had started night-prowling , slipping out the back door after dark on who knows what mission. Willa’s parents weren’t aware of these outings, but Willa woke up around midnight once and saw Baz out the window. The portly old lady was in the middle of a parade of neighbourhood cats walking tightrope along the top of a rickety old fence. In the mornings Dad often found a dead mouse or sparrow on the front step, and Willa felt certain that Baz was behind them. Willa begged her to behave, or at least to be more careful on those fences, but Baz’s only response was to narrow her eyes and grin malevolently. At least she spent her days safely napping on the living room couch.
    That wasn’t all. Trouble was also brewing over the bird. The young phoenix was not a temporary visitor but a permanent addition to the family. As soon as she’d emerged from the flames of the house, the bird had been presented to Willa as her pet and her responsibility. This would not have been a problem if the bird had been more like her mother, Fadiyah, the wise old bird who had sacrificed herself to save Willa from the black worm. When Willa gazed into Fadiyah’s eyes she’d felt joy, confidence, and strength. Now Fadiyah was gone, and Willa felt a little lost in the world without her.
    In contrast to her mother, this new bird was young and foolish and crazy and simply refused to listen. She sat quietly for the first few days, probably shell-shocked , but then the squawking and acting up began. Her