Read Online Worldweavers: Cybermage by Alma Alexander - Free Book Online Page A

gentleness. He lifted it up toward his face, and they could see that his blue eyes were full of tears. His lips were moving, but only the faintest of sounds came out—a whisper that might have been, “Please…oh, please…”
    And then he threw his head back and screamed, a cry of inconsolable loss, of devastating pain, of something too deep to be put into words.
    “It’s a pigeon,” Magpie said, staring at the bird cradled between Tesla’s hands. “It’s dead.”
    This time, the scene didn’t fade into a two-dimensional image of itself, as the previous ones had done. It shredded , as though something had clawed through a piece of tissue paper and sent ribbons of it flying into a sudden high wind.
    The wind exploded like a tornado, slamming into the five of them, and they were torn apart by the unexpected force of the gale. They scattered like autumn leaves even as the wind dropped and a solidwhite fog descended on them all—the same impenetrable fog that had been there at the beginning.
    “Where are you guys? Hey? Anybody?” Thea called out after a moment of breathless silence.
    There was no reply. It was as though they were far apart now, too far apart to gather themselves up again as they had done the first time around.
    Suddenly afraid, Thea glanced at her wrist. She had to bring it practically up to her nose before she could see the gadget’s keypad and its tiny screen.
    The professor’s office , she typed in as fast as she could, with a trembling hand. All of us. Back in the office. Right now.
    Something changed in the fog around her. It began to grow damper, more solid, as though she were pushing her way through a substance that was more water than air, and then she was lifted off her feet as if kicked.
    She landed against something hard, and heard her head crack against a solid object. Pain flooded her consciousness; she realized her eyes were closed, and made herself open them.
    Thea was lying against the professor’s bookshelves, with a couple of books scattered on the flooraround her. Mrs. Chen swiftly crossed the room and knelt beside her.
    “Are you all right?” Mrs. Chen demanded, reaching to touch Thea’s temple, slipping her hand to the back of Thea’s head. “I don’t think you broke anything, but you…you flew over here as though you’d been kicked by a horse.”
    “The others?” Thea asked, trying to struggle upright.
    “They’re fine. They’re here. Sit quiet for a moment.”
    “Thea?” Humphrey May, looking very white, came down into a half crouch on Thea’s other side. “What happened? We saw you get inside. And then—you suddenly—you—Are you sure you are all right?”
    “Now you ask,” Mrs. Chen muttered.
    “I’m fine. Really. Where are the rest of them?”
    “Everybody is here,” Humphrey said, mystified. “They’re all—”
    “We’re okay,” Terry called from across the room.
    “I’ve got such a headache ,” Thea said, reaching to rub her temples with both hands.
    “I don’t doubt it,” Mrs. Chen said, eyeing thebookshelf behind her. “You’re lucky you didn’t crack your skull open. Do you need a glass of water?”
    “No. I think…let me sit up.”
    The two adults moved back, allowing her to get into a sitting position; Thea blinked, trying to get her eyes to focus properly.
    “Thea,” Humphrey said, and there was a tone in his voice that was almost pleading.
    “Will you let the child have some air?” Mrs. Chen snapped. “Perhaps you’d better get her that glass of water. And let’s get her to that armchair.”
    “I feel as though it’s all my fault,” Humphrey said, scooping Thea up and carrying her over to the armchair that Mrs. Chen had specified.
    “You don’t say ,” Mrs. Chen muttered.
    The twins came hurrying around the great desk to the armchair in the window; Magpie followed, and Ben brought up the rear. Rafe materialized from somewhere else with a glass of cool water in his hand.
    “Here,” he said, bending over to