Read The Wrong Side of Magic for Free Online

when you hid from them.
    Proval patted Hudson on the shoulder. “You, my friend, lose the guessing game.”
    Glamora pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “The important thing to know about trolls is that if you meet some, you should give them whatever they want.”
    Hudson considered this advice. “So you’re saying I couldn’t outrun one?”
    Glamora shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen you run.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter,” Proval put in. “We’re almost home.”
    They’d gone over a bend in the road, and a village came into sight. It was smaller than Hudson had expected. Three or four dozen cottages lined circular streets that ringed an open market area. The wooden homes had green, yellow, and pink vines growing up their walls, twisting and stretching over doors and around windows so they looked as if they had been painted with leaves.
    â€œThe plants are so colorful here,” Hudson said, picking up his pace. Glamora and Proval were walking faster now that they were almost home. “Plants are mostly green where I’m from.”
    â€œWhy?” Proval asked.
    â€œIt has to do with chlorophyll.” Hudson had learned about photosynthesis in science class, and he tried to remember the information. “You know, because plants convert light into … themselves.” He wasn’t explaining it right, but Proval and Glamora didn’t seem confused.
    â€œYes,” Glamora said. “And thousands of colors make up the light spectrum, which is why plants are so many different colors.”
    â€œI don’t think that’s how it works,” Hudson said. He didn’t say more. Proval and Glamora were exchanging looks again—the sort that indicated they thought he was an idiot.
    Really, Hudson was going to be much more patient with Charlotte when he got back home. Compared with these two, she was really nice.
    Several people milled around the village streets, all wearing clothes that looked like they came from some brightly colored and completely tasteless period in the Middle Ages. Half the people wore strange, elaborate hats. One had horns like a bull; another had feathered wings that flapped up and down. A woman strolled by sporting a pink turban with a pig snout in the front and a curly tail in the back. She looked like she was wearing a legless pig on her head.
    Apparently, Hudson had come to town on Creepy Hat Day.
    He didn’t comment on the fashion. He just walked beside Glamora and Proval as they made their way down the street. Several trees grew among the houses and shops, but none had the thorns to indicate it was a thorn tree. “Where is the magical exit?” he asked.
    â€œI’m taking you to our father’s store first,” Glamora said. “That way you can buy catflower before you go.”
    Hudson felt his pockets even though he knew he hadn’t brought his wallet. He was hoping to find some forgotten bills. His pockets were empty. “I don’t have any money with me.”
    Glamora shrugged. “You can always trade something.”
    Hudson only had his clothes and shoes. He hoped catflower wasn’t expensive.
    The group passed a man unloading a wagon full of barrels and a woman scolding her children for getting their clothes dirty. None of the villagers paid much attention to Hudson beyond giving him brief, inquisitive looks.
    They came to a shop with round, carved shutters that twirled in on themselves like snail shells. “This is our father’s shop,” Glamora said, and she and Proval strode up to its curved door. They didn’t go in.
    Glamora planted her hands on her hips in frustration. “Where did the doorknob wander off to?”
    Hudson thought she was joking until he saw that the door had no knob. It also didn’t have a hole where one had been. It was just a flat, wooden door.
    â€œIt can’t have gone far,” Proval