The Wrong Side of Magic by Janette Rallison Page A

first, so yours must be the copy—the nonmagical version.”
    â€œHow do you know your world came first?” He kept his gaze on the trees, watching for anything out of the ordinary—which was hard to do in a world where everything seemed out of the ordinary.
    â€œYou need words to create things, and that’s what Logos is based on. Words.”
    Hudson wasn’t sure he could follow her logic, let alone refute it. How could anything be based on words?
    â€œMy dad thinks that your world was populated by people who were banished from mine. Sort of like the prison colony in Australia. It’s natural for you people to want to copy Logos.”
    â€œWe don’t want to copy your world,” Hudson said. “We don’t even know about it.”
    â€œMost of you don’t,” she agreed. “Can you imagine the people who would pour into Logos if they knew?”
    Knew about what? Hudson wondered. The trolls? The giants? The tyrant king and his evil wizards? Yeah, there’d be a real rush . “So how are we going to find the princess?”
    â€œWe’ll need to ask one of the magical folk to help us, someone who can see through wizard spells.”
    â€œOkay.” Hudson shifted his backpack to make it more comfortable. “Who would know where she is?”
    Bluebirds flew across their path and disappeared into a nearby blue tree, blending in with the leaves. “The Dust Might is an expert on hidden things. He probably knows where she is.”
    â€œThe dust mite?” Hudson repeated. “Aren’t those tiny bugs that get into your mattress and eat dead skin?”
    â€œIn your world they’re tiny,” she said. “In Gigantica they’re really big.”
    Great. The last thing he wanted was to go talk with a huge creepy bug that lived on dead skin.
    â€œThe problem with the Dust Might,” Charlotte went on, “is you never know whether he’ll help you. He might or he might not. He might also decide your skin is dead enough for his tastes and you look really appetizing.”
    â€œI don’t think we should go to Gigantica,” Hudson said. “Isn’t there someone smaller and less violent who could help us? How about the mermaids?”
    Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Guys always want to talk to the mermaids.”
    Hudson shrugged. “It’s just a suggestion.”
    Another eye roll. “Mermaids don’t know anything except how to apply lip gloss. They’re incurable flirts.”
    Incurably flirting mermaids didn’t sound like such a bad thing, but Hudson didn’t say this. Charlotte obviously didn’t like mermaids, and besides, he was here to find the princess and get rid of the mirror, not to socialize with new species.
    Charlotte looked off into the distance, thinking. “The castle courtyard in Grammaria has magical statues that can answer questions, but King Vaygran and his wizards live in Grammaria. What if someone recognizes me?”
    Hudson gestured to her brown curls. “You’re disguised.”
    â€œMy voice is still the same. And besides, wizards have revealing powder. It counteracts disguise paste.”
    Hudson looped his finger through his silver four-leaf-clover necklace. “I thought these protected us from wizard spells.”
    Charlotte shook her head. “Revealing powder isn’t a spell. It’s a magical substance. Our necklaces prevent wizards from turning us to stone, or into beetles, or levitating us so we can’t escape. Things like that.”
    â€œWizards sound like fun guys.”
    A wind blew through the trees, and their leaves shimmered in a rainbow of colors. Pinwheel flowers along the path whirred and spun in the breeze.
    Charlotte paid no attention to them. “Sometimes the king’s wizards sprinkle revealing powder on people who come into the castle courtyard, checking for enemies or criminals.” Her gaze shot to his.