The crowd dispersed back to their rows, but Florence kept her hand on Alex’s shoulder as they walked more slowly than the others and stopped halfway. When no one else was within listening distance, she faced him and spoke in a low voice. “You are a true warrior.”
Alex blushed again and looked at the ground.
“I’m going to need two things from you, Alex.”
“Yes?” he said, looking back up.
“A thousand heart attack components’after you supply your test victim first, of course’and your presence at a private magical weapons meeting with Ms. Octavia, Mr. Today, Simber, Ms. Morning, and me. Mr. Today’s office, immediately after this session. Can you make that?”
The excitement inside of Alex grew until it nearly burst forth from his skin. “You got it,” he said. He turned to run back to the line, and then he hesitated.
“Florence?”
“Yes?”
“Can I bring my friends? They’re awfully good at spells too. We help each other a lot, and they have a lot of skills I don’t have.” He bit his lip, hoping he hadn’t asked too much.
Florence narrowed her eyes. “Which ones? You mean the three you are so tight with? Haluki, Burkesh, Ranger, right?”
Alex nodded.
Florence considered it for a moment. And then she said, “I think that’s a very good idea.”
Alex grinned. “Thank you!”
He turned and was running back toward the shore to his spot where all the others waited patiently when something on the water caught his eye. He stopped and squinted, bringing his hand to his forehead to shield the sun. His jaw dropped. “What the . . . ?” It was the strangest thing he’d ever seen. He shouldered past his friends and kept going.
Lani turned in surprise, and then she caught sight of it too. She sprinted after Alex and reached him just as he dove into the sea and swam out to it.
“Call Mr. Today,” Alex shouted when he surfaced. “Hurry!” He reached for it and spun around on his back, kicking his feet and trying to pull the thing toward the shore. “Florence! Anybody! Help!”
Visitors
Samheed and Meghan both came running and helped Alex pull the thing ashore. They’d never seen anything like it, but it didn’t take much to guess its purpose.
It was a makeshift raft of logs and vines. Several logs were missing, as if it had fallen apart along its tenuous journey. But that’s not what the people of Artimé were looking at as they gathered around, for lying on the raft were two young people.
At least they looked somewhat human, but if pressed, one might have to admit to being unsure. A boy of ten or eleven, perhaps, and a girl a few years older, both completely still, eyes closed. Their skin was badly sunburned, and they had very little more than that covering their bones.
But the most ominous feature was this: Each wore a most curious, sinister thing’a thick band made of metal thorns that weaved in and out of the skin around their necks.
Alex, who had cautiously stepped onto the raft and now kneeled between the two, stared at the girl with her parched lips and burned, peeling skin, the choker so embedded into her neck that it seemed part of her. Alex’s stomach twisted at the thought of someone threading it into her skin. He reached out to touch it. “Who are you?” he whispered. But there was no time to puzzle over things.
Lani, who had immediately run to get Mr. Today, now returned at full speed, the old mage in her wake, his robe flying behind him. They had to break through the crowd that had rushed over at Alex’s first frantic shout. Alex and Meghan kneeled around the two bodies as Samheed and a few others barked at everyone to back away and give them space to move.
Mr. Today dropped to his knees at the side of the girl and felt for a pulse.
Alex turned and put his head on the boy’s chest. He held his hand above the boy’s nose and mouth. “I think he’s alive,” he said.
Mr. Today looked up. “The girl is too. Let’s get them inside. Alex, remember the sick wing we created in the mansion where you spent so much time? I need you to re-create that for me immediately. I’m sending you the verbal component’check your pocket. Go!”
Florence ordered the crowd to go back to the lawn and continue with class. Alex had no idea how he was going to create a sick wing, but didn’t hesitate. He sped to the mansion.
“Meghan, please find Ms. Morning and tell her we have sick and injured. She’ll know what to do.”
“Got it,” Meghan said, and she took off.
“Samheed, can you pick up the boy, slowly and carefully please, and follow me?”
» » « «
In the mansion Alex, still dripping wet, wriggled his hand into his pocket and pulled out the sodden note from Mr. Today. He stood between the front entrance and the dining room, read over the words, concentrating, and then took a deep breath to calm himself. He didn’t want to mess this up. He held his shaking hand up to the wall and said, “Extend and heal, size small.”
Nothing happened.
Alex muttered under his breath. And then, louder and more forcefully, “Come on, Stowe.” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and shook his arms out to loosen them. “You can do this. Believe it.” He let out the breath and opened his eyes. Concentrating, he allowed everything around him to fade to a blur and he stared hard at the wall. Then he held up his hand again, feeling the power it contained. He focused another second or two, and said it again, with great purpose and confidence. “Extend and heal, size small.”