He lunged at her, snatching her by her free arm, and pulled her toward him. Lani’s mouth opened wide in a silent scream, her body being pulled upward by the figure and down again by Samheed, who hung on to her hand and arm with all his might, knowing only that his worst fears must be coming true.

Pain tore through Lani’s body as the figure grasped her around the waist and yanked her up and away from Samheed. He stomped on Sam’s foot and kneed the boy in the stomach, but even breathless and racked with pain, Samheed hung on to Lani’s arm. “I’m not letting go!” he screamed, but the words could only be heard in his head. He kicked out wildly, trying to connect with whatever it was that was taking Lani away, but he missed over and over. Sweat slickened his grasp, and with one lurch into the air and a kick from the enemy, Samheed lost his hold and hit the ground hard.

Lani nearly went flying in the other direction, but the figure tightened his grip around her waist as she kicked and pounded at him, and he carried her away, leaving Sam motionless on the stone floor of the cave.

“In a Word Breathe,’” Alex murmured. He looked up at Sky. “It says ‘breathe’!”

Sky looked back at him, her eyes shiny. She nodded. Then she pointed at another picture inside the miniature mansion. Alex turned back to Mr. Today’s tiny office and aimed the magnifying glass on another picture. Sweat poured down his face as he concentrated, then tried not to concentrate too hard. This picture was similar to the first, but the colors of the dots were different, as was the pattern. Alex wiped away the sweat that dripped into his eyes, which made him have to start over. “Crud,” he muttered.

The girl rested her hand on Alex’s arm and gave him a stern look. He took a deep breath and relaxed. “I know,” he said. “I know.” He closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on being calm. Then he started again.

After a few minutes, something wavered before his eyes, and then it turned cloudy. Without warning, Sky pulled the magnifying glass from Alex’s hand and started blowing into the mansion with all her might.

Alex, startled, was mad. “What? I almost had it!” She spoke with her hands furiously fast, even though Alex couldn’t understand what she was saying. Then she jabbed her finger at a black spot on the wall of Mr. Today’s office just below the picture Alex had been focusing on. It was a scorch mark. Alex sniffed and smelled smoke.

“Oh,” he said. “Wow. I almost burned the place down.”

Sky rolled her eyes and pointed down to the roof of the shack.

“Go inside the shack?” Alex guessed.

Sky answered by leading the way down the statue.

Inside, on the floor of the little kitchen, they found an unoccupied niche in which to sit. Once their eyes adjusted to the difference in lighting, Alex tried again. This time it only took a few moments for the dots to start swimming around. Alex strained to hold the connection, and soon enough, letters popped out into space, danced, and then formed another word. This time, the word was “BELIEVE.”

“‘Believe!’” Alex whispered to the girl. She nodded excitedly and prodded him to go to the next one. He did, and a few minutes later, he had deciphered the third: “COMMENCE.”

Alex said the words in his head several times so that he wouldn’t forget, and he said them to Sky as well so that she could memorize them. He chose a new picture and soon he had his fourth word: “IMAGINE.” When he had that one, he glanced at the Silent girl. “Which one haven’t I done?” he asked, his voice pitching high with nerves. He didn’t want to waste any time by doing any of them more than once, but he’d been too shocked and excited at the beginning to keep track of where he’d started.

She pointed to the one in the middle.

Alex grinned. Sky was amazing, he thought. No wonder she’d been to escape from Warbler. “You are the best,” he said.

She nodded.

Alex laughed softly. He loved that she knew she was smart and clever. He turned back to the miniature and trained the glass on the middle picture. He was getting quite good at it now, and within moments the last one jumped to life. “‘WHISPER,’” he whispered.

Alex scanned the other walls of the office to see if there were any more dot pictures. When he was quite certain there weren’t, he said all the words aloud. “Breathe, believe, commence, imagine, whisper.” He pulled Mr. Today’s spell from his pocket once more and read it through silently.

Follow the dots as the traveling sun, Magnify, focus, every one.

Stand enrobed where you first saw me, Utter in order; repeat times three.

With every line, Alex’s heart pounded faster. He’d found the dots, magnified, focused on all of the pictures, he had the robe . . . Now all he had to do was figure out what the sun had to do with the dots, and remember where he first saw Mr. Today, then say the words in order three times, and Artimé would be back.

He looked at Sky. “We’re so close,” he whispered, and he could feel the intensity about to burst through his veins. He stared at the first line. “The traveling sun . . .” He pressed his fingers to his temples. “How does the sun travel?” he asked himself. “Actually, it doesn’t travel,” he mused, having read about it in the library once. “It only appears to.” He shook his head. “No, too technical. This is simpler than that. How does the sun appear to travel? In a line. In the sky.” He mumbled a bit more, thinking aloud. “Wait.” His eyes sprang open. He grabbed the mini mansion and turned it. “This is the way it sat on the property,” he muttered, placing it just so and looking over his shoulder out the window to make sure he had his bearings. “The sun travels from east to west. So that means . . . if Mr. Today’s office stands like this, which it does, or it would if the mansion were here, the first picture if we follow the sun is the one on the east end of the wall. So, that one. ‘Imagine,’ wasn’t it?”