On cue Alex entered stage left. Mr. Appleblossom waved his hand and cast a spell on the winged sandals. The white, feathery wings flapped, and slowly Alex rose in the air. He concentrated to keep his balance as the sandals propelled him to center stage, where Lani, in a tremendously large-headed costume, lay, feigning sleep.

Drawing his sword and holding it high, Alex projected his voice in a sinister tone. “Aha! You there, Medusa, your snakes betray you. I come at the bequest of King Polydectus, who has demanded your head on a platter!” Feeling a bit reckless and pent-up, Alex ad-libbed, “I see it shall take several platters to hold it all.”

Lani glared. And with that, Alex shouted, “Have at you!” and brought down the sword upon the top half of Lani’s ornate costumed head, sending the squirming snake portion of the costume rolling across the stage and leaving Lani trembling. Whether she trembled in fear of the sword or as part of her act, Alex wasn’t sure. He grinned wickedly. That felt good.

Mr. Appleblossom stood up on his chair and applauded wildly, a pencil and his well-worn script tucked under his arm. “Bravo, Perseus! Brava, Medusa!” He stopped to scribble something, muttering, “That’s it! Now, a rousing J. P. Sousa.” He cued the brass band.

Lani ripped off what remained of the costume, scrambled to her feet, and glared up at Alex, her hair flying about with static from the near-suffocating Medusa head. Her eyes flashed, and she pointed. “You almost chopped my real head off, Alex! Watch it or I’ll—”

Alex, who was still flying about helplessly as he waited for the distracted Mr. Appleblossom to release the spell on his sandals, glared at Lani and spat back, “Or you’ll what?”

Lani whispered something under her breath.

“Knock it off—,” Alex yelled, but it was too late. She had cast a spell on him as he puttered around in the flying sandals. He felt his body harden into stone and tip sideways, then upside down in the air. The sandals flapped frantically but could not hold his new stone weight, and he plunged to the stage, crashing and breaking into a thousand pieces. The winged sandals flew about the room, still holding Alex’s feet. “Not funny,” Alex’s mouth said from stage right. “Not funny at all.”

Still, everybody but Alex laughed, even as Mr. Appleblossom scurried over to put Alex back together and hand out detentions. Once Mr. Appleblossom had Alex back in one piece again, flesh and bone rather than stone, he patted the boy on the back, chuckling merrily. “You’re good as new, my boy, I’ll have you know. Perhaps I’ll write that bit into the show!”

Alex groaned. Things couldn’t get much worse.

A Big Mistake

The weather in Artimé was rarely gloomy and never too cold, though Mr. Today tossed in an occasional bit of rain or a thrilling thunderstorm to freshen things up and remind them all how much they preferred the pleasant sunshine.

On the day that marked six months of Alex’s time spent in Artimé, a crisp breeze blew, and the leaves on the trees were a brilliant purplish red. Weather like this never occurred in the dry desert land of Quill.

Alex had grown tired of hiding in his room from his friends. He knew he was probably being unreasonable with them, but he just couldn’t seem to deal with them these days. His mind was so occupied with not being in Magical Warrior Training, and the ache of missing his brother was stronger than he cared to admit—which no one else seemed to understand. So he took to wandering the grounds to keep away from everyone. He ventured into the jungle, a little farther each day, hesitantly at first but growing bolder at each attempt. There were many creatures of the jungle, but for the most part they greeted him politely and went about their business gathering nuts and roots and berries, stalking prey, feeding their young. Rarely did he witness anything that proved to be too frightening, though on several occasions he saw a huge gray wolf streaking off to find cover in the brush or resting on warm rocks near the seashore. It was almost as if the wolf were watching Alex, and the boy hoped he wouldn’t become the wolf’s next meal. Yet the animal never approached Alex or threatened him in any way, so Alex felt fairly safe. Today the wolf was nowhere to be seen.

Alex was quite fond of the cool darkness under the thick canopy of trees, and he was pleased to find a sparkling brook running through the jungle. There was one briny river back in Quill that the Necessaries used for transporting equipment to broken-down vehicles stranded around the community, and for delivering milk and eggs to the marketplace on large wooden rafts. But the stream here in Artimé was clear and cold, and Alex could see schools of fish now and then. On this particular boring Saturday he trekked alongside it to see where it led, and found himself, after a good deal of walking, within earshot of the gentle waves lapping the seashore in a sort of lagoon he’d never seen before. As he parted the bushes to make his way out of the jungle and onto the beach, he stopped abruptly, for there, floating in the water, was a large white boat glinting in the sunlight. He’d seen pictures of boats in his art books, but he’d never seen a real one before.

“Wow,” he whispered, looking at the gleaming golden seats and shiny chrome that ran around its perimeter. “You could fit a dozen or fifteen people on that thing.”

If he could have safely ventured out in the water to climb aboard, he would have, but Mr. Today had warned them that, like any large body of water, this sea contained carnivorous creatures like sharks, and so he’d advised the students to swim only in the protected waters of the cove near the mansion.