He slid down to the floor to sit the night out, and when he did so, his shoe crumpled the very edge of his rolled up doorway drawing.

“Did you hear something?” Samheed asked quietly.

“No.”

“I think I heard something.”

“So go make yourself useful and check it out, then.”

Alex put a hand over his mouth and nose, as if to silence his own breath. He froze, and willed Samheed to think it was nothing.

Samheed was silent a moment, and then he got up and slowly walked through the dusky library. He rounded a row of shelves, and Alex could hear him just on the other side of the row he leaned against. He nearly exploded in fear. No, no, no, he kept repeating in his head. Please, no.

Samheed rounded the corner by the totem pole statue and stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of Alex. His eyes grew wide, scared at first, and then they narrowed. Alex, tensed and ready to run for it, silently pleaded with Samheed. Samheed stood completely still; the two boys’ eyes locked on each other.

“Anything over there?” Will called.

The totem statue behind Samheed yawned in triplicate. And then it cleared its throats.

“Just a statue,” said Samheed. “It’s nothing.” He glared at Alex for another moment, and then he turned and went back to his table.

There’s a Way

Alex’s body ached from sitting so still in one place. He felt like a swarm of bees was trapped inside his head, thoughts going every which way. Will Blair was planning to kill Aaron—not only kill him, but actually become the likeness of Aaron using his theatrical spells—so that no one in Quill would know the difference. How on earth was Alex going to save his brother? He just had to get out of there!

Hours passed, with both Will and Samheed working on different parts of the door frame. Finally Samheed stretched, groaned, and said, “Can we just call it a night? We’re not going to finish.”

“I’m almost done. See? See how the top of the frame is rising up off the table a bit? We just need to get the rest of it perfect.”

“It took us all night just to get that part done! I’m finished with this for today. I’m going to bed.”

“Fine, go,” Will said. “If you say anything about my plan, I will kill you. I’m not even joking.”

“Okay, okay,” Samheed said. His voice sounded hollow. “Relax. I’m with you.”

Will stabbed his pencil into the paper and ripped a tiny hole in it. “Blast it!” he roared. “This is so frustrating!” He stood up and ran his fingers through his hair, and then began pacing around the table.

Alex froze, though he was pretty sure he no longer had control over his cramped lower half.

“All right,” said Will, still pacing, but calming down. “All right. Tomorrow we’re finishing it.”

“Tomorrow. Good,” Samheed said. He glared in the direction of Alex, but Alex could no longer see them.

They rolled the drawing and packed up their art supplies. “Back here tomorrow after lunch. We can skip training.”

“But—”

“Look, Samheed, don’t be an idiot. We need to get this done before the old geezer finds us out. You’re making it really clear why you don’t belong in the Quillitary, with all your blubbering.”

“Shut it,” muttered Samheed.

“What?”

“Nothing! Sheesh.” Samheed fumed in silence. He slammed his chair into the library table and walked out without waiting for Will. A moment later Will followed, snickering to himself.

Alex sat for five more agonizing minutes, then slowly rose to his feet, feeling the blood rushing to his legs as they prickled mercilessly.

“Thank you,” he said quietly to the statue.

The top face opened its eyes and stared at Alex. Then it nodded and went back to sleep.

When he could walk without tripping, Alex grabbed his drawing and hurried down the stairwell, avoiding the tube for fear of getting stopped by Lani. He ran around the mansion to the front entrance, where neither statue was in its usual place, and up the stairs to his room.

Samheed stood in front of Alex’s door, glaring. “What did you hear?” he whispered.

Alex, breathing hard, said, “Nothing. I couldn’t—hear anything. Too far.”

Samheed regarded Alex, almost quivering in anger. “You’re lucky I didn’t tell Will.”

Alex nodded wildly. “I know. I know. Thank you. You really—saved me. Thank you.”

Samheed seemed to relax a little bit. “Nothing’s going on,” he said. “Right?”

“Right!” Alex said. “I mean, what? What are we talking about?” He gave an anxious laugh.

Samheed rolled his eyes and turned away, walked to his room, and disappeared inside.

Realizing that going inside his own room to paste up the door painting would only make Clive start asking questions, and knowing that Samheed was safe in his room, and presumably Will was too, and remembering that Simber and Florence were both out doing other things at the moment rather than standing there to spy on him, Alex looked down at his drawing and realized he knew the perfect place to put it up in secret at this time of night.

He bit his lip, checked his vest for scatterclips, and then walked nonchalantly down the boys’ hallway, leaned over the balcony (still no statues below), and slipped down the secret hallway to Mr. Today’s dark office. The glass shield was down, and all was dark.