The Jumbies: Chapters 23–27

How then could her sister have given it to a child, who wore it so casually around her neck? She cringed at the thought that those boys had tied it around an agouti’s tail and set it free in the forest.

She tried to summon up a smile to show them all that she was fine, that she was strong, but she didn’t feel that way.

The lagahoo lurched forward and came toward Corinne at full gallop, dragging its chains behind.

"Twelve. But I’m a big twelve,” Bouki added when he saw one side of the jumbie’s mouth curl up into a mocking smile.

The wind picked up then and shook the last remnants of the smell of the poui flowers down from the branches.

The jumbie’s face contorted into an angry grimace, and she grabbed up her skirt and moved toward him.

“Where are you going, brother?” Bouki asked. “You don’t want to run into more like that La Diabless, do you?”
Malik nodded solemnly.

She was a soucouyant—a malicious fireball that would suck the lifeblood out of anyone, even a baby.

The soucouyant backed up at first, but then it barreled toward them in a blur of flame. Just as it was about to engulf the boys, an oar smacked it to the ground.

He jabbed the point at the lagahoo while Bouki pummeled the soucouyant with rocks from his slingshot.

When the fire died out, a smoldering pile of ash was all that was left of the two jumbies.

As the figure got closer, Bouki dropped to one knee and pulled the slingshot taut, aiming for the head.

His arm was slashed in places as if he had been mauled by a lagahoo.

In the bright midday light, the remains of the battle were revealed in sharp, horrible detail. The village was in shambles.

Stones, broken pieces of wood, tufts of fur, branches, bricks, burned-out torches, and broken lanterns were strewn along the road, in yards, and around the open market.

Stones, broken pieces of wood, tufts of fur, branches, bricks, burned-out torches, and broken lanterns were strewn along the road, in yards, and around the open market.

In some places, little piles of ash with tiny wisps of smoke still curling above them began to blow away in the breeze.

No one had ever attempted the trek to see the witch in her lair—until now.

No one had ever attempted the trek to see the witch in her lair—until now.

Malik tapped his brother’s shoulder and pointed out a snake curled on a branch overhead. Corinne saw it too. It was barely noticeable, only a slightly paler shade of green than the leaves around it. Then it unfurled and stretched itself toward the water.

“I need to get past the jumbies,” Corinne said.
“Ha!” the witch replied with contempt. “How do you plan on doing that?”

“Only she didn’t tell me exactly what kind of help, so I’m not sure that what I gave her worked the way she wanted it to. And when she didn’t go home, the rest of her jumbie kin must have thought that living among people did her in.”

“My stopping won’t change things. She will get rid of every single creature that stands in her way. And do you know why she’s doing it? It’s partly for losing the sister she loved—and she is capable of love—and partly because she never wanted people on this island in the first place, but mostly it’s because now she knows that she can have an even larger jumbie family. Because someone like you exists. One half-jumbie like me is just a fluke, an accident, but two of us...”

The witch raised one white eyebrow. “Did it ever strike you as strange that her house is the only one that is built so close to the forest? And when the jumbies do venture out at night, they have never visited it, even though it is the closest?”

“I will fight her,” Corinne said.
The white witch nodded. “A noble choice. But you will lose.”